the ati macrovision disable patch works on removing
macrovision into the computer, not out, something like VLC
can circumvent macrovision if you output to a tv via a vcr.
ati macro disable worked with 3.2's i stuck with them for
quite sometime with my 8500dv. i've moved up to 3.8's they
work as well. 3.10's gave crap 2d desktop interface and no
open gl so sticking with 3.8's also current omegas gave same
2d crapyness and no open gl. if the version 4 flavours sound
good i may try'em, but the system is running sweet now so no
rush.

it is a 8KB zip
DisableATIMacrovisionDetection.zip

google will find it. try dvd sites ironically

slippery

Thanks Slippery - I had actually tried that one before and *thought* it
didn't work...turns out I had done something silly...and now I've tried it
again and it works fine!

Just for the record, b4 I realised my mistake I also tried the Plutonium XP
8.1 drivers, which are supposed to diable Macrovision. (Had to do a Google
to find them b/c I couldn't access the download from www.driverheaven.net.)
But unfortunately the Multimedia Center wouldn't even run for me with those
drivers installed - even tried going back to an earlier version of MMC but
still no luck - so in the end I reinstalled ATI's latest (bog-standard)
driver, reapplied "DisableATIMacrovisionDetection.zip"...and hey presto, it
works fine.

Thanks to all for your help!