...I know close to zip re: teevee, VCRs and DVDs...once in a while when playing a DVD(I own some which seem OK, borrowed ones seem the problematic ones) the brightness level shifts on a cyclic basis...I did some surfin' and discovered, almost by accident, that my problem isn't with the disc OR the player, it's due to my hook-up...

Now, this ain't home theater(which I hate for what it has done to plain ol' stereo), it's simply an older 20in. Philips/Magnavox teevee, a slightly older Sony Hi-Fi stereo VCR and a fairly-recent JVC single-disc DVDP worth around a hunnert bucks...

I did a search for "DVD brightness shift" and wound up at a site which referred me to a link to Apple(hence "accident")...it was at the Apple site I was made aware that this was not a "trouble" per se, but it was due to the fact that the encoding on the disc was triggering Macrovision copy protection in the VCR...a follow-up search to a video FAQ site gave me more details, and among the solutions were the two I find to be somewhat viable ones.

The first(which I will try when I can) is to bypass the VCR, which I am currently using as a switching center to feed the output of the DVDP, since my teevee only has one set of a/v inputs. This will not be a permanent fix(if it works) since I don't like the idea of playing switchboard operator every time I want to change sources. A video source switch is a possible answer, but being the lazy summnab!tch that I is and having all the remotes I do, the prospect of even pressing another button is anathema to me...soooo...

This bring us to the second choice, getting a...err...video enhancer, stabilizer...aaa...you know copyguard defeater...Now I don't copy stuff, in fact I've gotten into dialogs with some here at this site re: the morality of doing so...so all I wanna' do is do a "plug'n'play" routine...set it and forget it...

Obviously, the decision is mine...the price diff tain't all that much, so here comes the question:

Has anyone used either of these two devices...pro's...con's...any alternative ideas my tiny, little mind has yet to devise or otherwise stumble across? BTW, I'm not keen on usin' an RF thingie and the channel choice cr@p, so that's way down there.

Thanx in advance for any and all input...

jimHJJ(...please help me with my output!...)