'encoded with Macrovision AntiCopy process'

Most DVDs are, although few advertise it. It's one of the copy protection standards that was first introduced, and is supposed to be at least as common as region coding.

That's right 'manly' - Pirate those movies! Deprive hard working people of their income! Watch as the retail industry goes to hell in a handbasket and millions of people lose their jobs! Stick it to the man!

That's right 'manly' - Pirate those movies! Deprive hard working people of their income! Watch as the retail industry goes to hell in a handbasket and millions of people lose their jobs! Stick it to the man!

Macrovision as I understand it keeps the video from being recorded on a VCR. When I hooked up my DVD player, at first I thought it was defective. After tinkering for about 20 minutes, I finally read the troubleshooting section in the manual and figured out that the problem was the video signal can't go through the VCR because of the Macrovision encoding.

No problem, just route the video directly to the TV and the sound through the VCR (because the VCR audio out goes to stereo) and we only have to press 5 buttons on the universal remote to switch from the DVD player to satellite and vice versa. I don't mind really, since I know that Macrovision keeps me from setting up a bootleg operation in my living room. If it wasn't there, I know I would not be able to resist the temptation!

Macrovision is also handy for parents of small children, who obviously want their children handling the delicate DVD disks instead of the more durable VHS tapes. Otherwise, parents would run the risk of copying their Disney movies to tape. That would be bad of course, since Disney would lose out on all the revenue of parents having to buy new copies of movies they already own when the discs are scratched up beyond playability.

AFAIK, the DVD rippers that are available today have options for removing the Macrovision signal. If you rip a DVD to your hard drive and have a video card with a video out you can plug into a VCR, I'm guessing it will probably record ok. I don't know, never tried it before.

That's right 'manly' - Pirate those movies! Deprive hard working people of their income! Watch as the retail industry goes to hell in a handbasket and millions of people lose their jobs! Stick it to the man!

One DVD I won't be buying. Especially when the make it a selling point that it is copy protected.

That's not a new thing. Macrovision is an ancient copy-protection system. I remember seeing those on videocassettes as far back as 1991, and they were advertising it long before the current copy-protection hullaballoo.

According to the website...

'encoded with Macrovision AntiCopy process'

One DVD I won't be buying. Especially when the make it a selling point that it is copy protected.

Maybe there is a special 'switch' code in the DVD (and not the fact that the disk is encrypted) that controls the macrovision output? Anyone with more technical knowledge of DVD's can answer this?

I believe the Macrovision signal is an extra signal in the bandwidth of the VCR output that does not affect the video or sound playback. (ie. There's some signal "off the screen" that tells the player that Macrovision is active.) This was suggested to me by someone who found that the cheap coax cable booster he bought at Radio Shack disabled Macrovision with no apparant loss of picture and sound quality. I think that it's a reasonable suggestion, especially since I've seen a couple non-encrypted (Region 0) disks that have the Macrovision logo on the DVD case.

The article was a bit skimpy about detailing the new scenes added to the movie. Can anyone give an overview of the changes between the release movie and this version?

[Just my speculation] Network TV (ABC, I think) ran an extended version of ST:TWOK about a decade or so ago. The main pieces added in (that I remember) was more dialogue with the young engineering cadet, Peter Preston. In the novel we find out he's Scotty's nephew, not sure it that was made clear in the extended version. If it gets the same treatment as TMP, we may see some new effects for the battle scenes and maybe the Genesis Wave. Just my thoughts, I'm sure we'll get more details as August gets closer.

If it gets the same treatment as TMP, we may see some new effects for the battle scenes and maybe the Genesis Wave.

I hope they didn't touch the Genesis Wave. It's a part of the history of computer graphics. Arguably, the first true 3d scene used in a movie. (I say arguably cause their are some stuff like the vector graphics used in Star Wars for the death star charts that could qualify but it's not really the same)

I agree totally. I want to see the movie I love and remember from years ago, not a fiddled-with version with graphics that are totally out of sync with the time the movie was made.

I hope they give us an opportunity to watch / purchase the original cut on DVD. In my opinion, STII is nearly perfect as a Trek / sci-fi action movie. There have been too many DVDs with "added scenes" lately (The Phantom Menace, for example) that I could have done without.

The original cut has been available longer than the first film. All Star Trek films are now out on DVD, and the original crew films were released in reverse numerical order. They can be purchased individually, in an "original crew" six movie box set, or in a "complete" nine film set with the three Next Generation pics released so far. (The fourth Next Gen, Nemesis, just finished filming and should be released around American Thanksgiving.)

The original cut has been available longer than the first film.

Most of the reviews I've read regarding the original DVD releases are that they suck. Sound is bad, digital transfer is poor, and no features at all (maybe the trailer). In my book, not what I want to spend my money on.

Of Note: you can view the original, untouched scenes for TMP (on the supplimental DVD). That kept the purists happy.