Originally posted by: MeBeJedi
"*cough* It's called Macrovision *cough*"

The device he's using is designed to circunvent that, and he's seeing it both with and without the device.

Cable-X1, do you see these lines when playing the original tapes?

Yep.....when the problem first happened, I plugged the VCR directly into the TV to see if the copy protect gizmo was causing this....and the line was there. The exact same line has popped up on 3 different tapes. Two of them are Star Wars and Empire from the 95 faces release. The other is a music video that I bought about 4 or 5 years ago, but it was originally released in '87 or '88. I think the tape was manufactured a lot later than that though. Figured I throw this info out there as Davidian talked about copy protection from '79 or '79.

I haven't tried your suggestion yet MBJ, of moving the VCR away from everything cuz I don't think that is what is causing it. I have one tape that played flawlessly already and I tried another and it played okay too, but it is a very old tape that is going bad already. I looked for the line as best as I could and I didn't see it.

Nothing is matching up......the line pops up on several different tapes, on two different machines, with or without the copy protect gizmo. One tape has played perfect. Sounds like a damn riddle.

Any other ideas?

Appreciate the help everyone!!!