i don't think so. the advc-110 has a trick to circumvent macrovision, but even if that wasn't working it detects macrovision and flashes a status light at you if it's there, which didn't happen. also, on the one that plays, the quality isn't SO bad that i'd think it was macrovision, it just seems like the tape is in rough shape. almost like a constant tracking issue.

for the ones that won't even play, i think it's some kind of physical issue. the tape starts to play, for maybe a second, and then the vcr stops it dead and pops up that error code. i'm wondering if maybe the tape is getting jammed or something and the vcr is stopping it to prevent catastrophic failure. the weird thing is, it rewinds and fast-forwards ok, so maybe it's just that the vcr THINKS it's jammed. sigh.