Macrovision

Credits

Editions by
mr3urious and Muzzarino

Video captures courtesy of
DudeThatLogo and retro VHS trailers

Background

Macrovision is the titular copy-protection system from the company Macrovision Corporation, first used on the 1985 VHS/Betamax/LaserDisc of The Cotton Club. In 2009, the company changed its name to Rovi. On September 8, 2016, Rovi acquired TiVo and changed its name to the latter. Until 1997, Macrovision didn't use an animated logo, just warning screens.

(1997-2007)

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Nicknames: "Gold CP/Macrovision", "The Desert"

Logo: On a black background, we see a pink metallic triangle with "cp" on it (which stands for "copy protected" or "copy protection"), which zooms out and rotates from the bottom left to the center. Some clouds and sandy dunes are reflected onto the triangle, which shines, causing it to turn gold. Then a flash appears on the center to swallow the triangle up in-order to serve room for the logo, and "MACROVISION QUALITY PROTECTION" zooms out, with a smaller triangle next to it. An upside-down triangle replaces the V in "MACROVISION", and after it zooms out, the triangle shines with a "ping" and the text "QUALITY PROTECTION" starts to glow. In the background of the triangle and "MACROVISION", there is what appears to be a background of a desert and a cloudy sky (and if you watch closely, a watery oasis near the bottom of the desert as the text zooms out).

Variants:

• A French version exists where it fades in on the finished logo with the triangle stuck on the light and the text and the quality protection text fades in and is replaced by Protection de la qualite, which can be seen on the VHS release of The Eighth Day.
• On some DVDs, the logo is out of sync with the music.

FX/SFX: The shining, the triangle changing colors, and the zoom out.

Music/Sounds: A mellow synth tune.

Availability: Pretty common.

• Seen at the end of Universal DVD releases from 2000-2007 as well as a few VHS releases from 2000-2006, and at the beginning of PolyGram Video and USA Home Entertainment VHS and DVD releases from 1997-2002, as well as the beginning of HBO Home Video VHS releases from 2000-2001. For Barney's Great Adventure, the logo was absent from the retail VHS, but appears at the beginning of demo VHS tapes and DVDs (including reprints). It has also been spotted on Popular Mechanics for Kids and Mommy and Me DVDs, and even at the end of certain prints of Maisy Makes Music (which even has an MPAA "G" rating screen before it, despite being a TV show!). A few BBC Video UK VHS releases from 1999-2000 also use this logo at the beginning, such as My Friend Angelmouse, Only Fools & Horses: Mother Nature's Son, Tweenies: Animal Friends, and Gary Larson's Tales from the Far Side. It was also seen at the beginning of the 2004 DVD of Fangoria Blood Drive: Volume 1 from Koch Vision, the beginning of the Canadian Alliance Atlantis DVDs of Bowling for Columbine, Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows, Men with Brooms, and Intermission, the beginning of UK DVDs from Carlton Video, such as Oliver Twist (1948), In Which We Serve and Capricorn One. It unexpectedly appeared at the end of a December 2001 ABC Family (now Freeform) airing of Must Be Santa (1999).

Editor's Note: This is a very soothing logo with some nice CGI that has held up considerably well over the years.