I'm in Seattle with Comcast using Vista Home Premium...I've had many shows not record over the past few days due to this. Is there any way around this issue?!  

Sima CT-2

JasonT:

Interesting Friends recorded off the W network (W - 12:00-12:30 PM EDT) But it stopped recording at 12:27 pm due to the 'content is prohibited by the content provider' flag. Well, we've established that it isn't just you. -- Jason Tsang - Microsoft MVP

If they were protecting the transmission, why would they do it 27 minutes into it? I think this tells you that you had noise on the line that flipped the two CGMS-A bits to 11, and Vista MCE decided to cancel the recording.

Nobody from Microsoft has responded yet to the concerns about this issue. My wife would kill me if I "upgraded" our DVR to one that randomly loses her recordings.

I'm just reporting what happened to me when I tried to recorded the show.

Other user had the exact same problem recording the same show, from the same
channel, in the same geographical area, from the same cable provider.


--
Jason Tsang - Microsoft MVP

Read my blog for the latest in Media Center topics
(and other topics that interest me)
http://jtsang.blogspot.com

More information by me
http://jtsang.mvps.org
http://www.classicsunveiled.com

Find out about the MS MVP Program -
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx



wrote in message news:177496@10.240.6.244...
> JasonT:Interesting Friends recorded off the W network (W - 12:00-12:30 PM
> EDT) But it stopped recording at 12:27 pm due to the 'content is
> prohibited by the content provider' flag. Well, we've established that it
> isn't just you. -- Jason Tsang - Microsoft MVP
>
> If they were protecting the transmission, why would they do it 27 minutes
> into it? I think this tells you that you had noise on the line that
> flipped the two CGMS-A bits to 11, and Vista MCE decided to cancel the
> recording.
>
> Nobody from Microsoft has responded yet to the concerns about this issue.
> My wife would kill me if I "upgraded" our DVR to one that randomly loses
> her recordings.
>

---

Jason Tsang - Media Center MVP
http://blog.jasontsang.ca

I know it sounds strange but, I really think there's a flag in a commercial. Why else could I get half-way through editing then get shut-down with a dvr notice?

Hey, I have too responded in this thread!

But the way to get bugs investigated and fixed in our product is to report them to Microsoft Support and your OEM. I like to help when I can, but I think everyone knows that this isn't specifically my job, right? I do this for fun. :-)

However, if someone can capture a full stream, I will do everything in my power to get a capture developer to have a look and see if we can tell whether it's noise on the signal or the CGMS-A flag. Honestly, I could believe that either is about as likely.

So if someone can do this, send me a private message and we'll talk about how to get the stream to me.

-Jessica

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This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Jessica,

I very much appreciate your participation on this forum, and I realize it's not part of your job. I didn't mean what I said about "nobody from Microsoft has addressed this" as a jab at you or anybody else really.

I think that the problem with CGMS-A is that there are no clear rules from the FCC or anybody else on what to do with it, and it is an initial roll-out, and the bugs are cropping up. My frustration is that I really want to upgrade to Vista MCE, but it's not a test machine. I have to use it every day as a PVR, and "working" through the bugs is not an option at this time.

My impression is that Vista MCE is not ready for prime-time yet due to this issue alone.

On an aside, since the Hauppauge PVR-150 doesn't do closed captioning (because it ignores VBI), I wonder if it also ignores CGMS-A (after all, those bits are in the VBI). It would be interesting to see if anybody is having these problems with a PVR-150 or not.

austinite:

JasonT:

Interesting Friends recorded off the W network (W - 12:00-12:30 PM EDT) But it stopped recording at 12:27 pm due to the 'content is prohibited by the content provider' flag. Well, we've established that it isn't just you. -- Jason Tsang - Microsoft MVP

If they were protecting the transmission, why would they do it 27 minutes into it? I think this tells you that you had noise on the line that flipped the two CGMS-A bits to 11, and Vista MCE decided to cancel the recording.

Nobody from Microsoft has responded yet to the concerns about this issue. My wife would kill me if I "upgraded" our DVR to one that randomly loses her recordings.

I'm seeing similar things.  Today MCE only recorded 17mins of "Take this house and sell it" on the W network.

It could be noise I guess, cause it seems odd that Rogers would only protect PART of a show.  BUT, I only ahve this problem on this channel, and JasonT also only has this problem on this channel.. Strange.

I had to chime in here with some slightly different info. I had this happen this weekend with "Dice-Undisputed" on MTV. It was a scheduled recording, on my HDHomerun (digital SD broadcast via QAM). I wasn't watching that channel at the time, got a pop-up saying it couldn't record to to blah,blah restrictions. I tuned into the channel and while watching hit the record button, changed channels and it completed recording just fine.

Seeing as this is a completely different scenario than anyone else has described, I would have to guess this is a bug with Vista MCE.

FYI, I am on Armstrong basic cable in Ohio.

if broadcasters are putting these flags in their content, offering their OWN pvr that has no problems with content recording (minus on demand/ppv) we have a serious market-control problem on our hands.

Jessica

With regard to your inquiry re: Hauppauge PVR-150, I'm using one with MCE 2005 on a Star Choice Satellite feed. (Canada). I am receiving an ever increasing number of failed recordings within moments of MCE starting to record.  Regular shows on regular channels (not ppv or hd) . Always with the same message.

“Program” cannot be recorded. Restrictions set by the Broadcaster and/or originator of the content Prohibit recording of this program.

This has only become an issue since Vista was rolled out. I suspect the signal re-broadcasters were seeing their market share of DVR / PVR sales at risk with every new computer being able to record T.V. Why would anyone buy a proprietary PVR when their computer comes with one included.

Having said that, this is becoming a global MCE issue and I would like to see Microsoft address it  or MCE will eventually no longer be able to record T.V. broadcasts. Sad day.

 

Once again I'd like to ask a general question about the technology implimentation...

Does Microsoft really need to stop recording the entire show when a flag shows up?  Could/should it just not record the period of time when it detects the flag? Could the recording be paused until the flag goes away, and finally could the flag just be ignored if it doesn't stay up for a reasonable (maybe one second) period?

I guess what I'm really asking is, does the presence of a flag indicate an entire show isn't reproducable, or does it just mean that the current contect (playing while flag is up) isn't recordable? Is a content provider expect to continously show the flag during the entire program if they don't want it recorded?

---

Eagles may fly, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines (see bio for exception)

Are you using the HDHomerun with Vista MCE? Because....obviously we don't really support that, since we don't support QAM with any other tuner besides OCUR.

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This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

I believe the way this works is that we get the flag and we respect it. It's not a continuous thing, so we have to wait until we get another flag that says something else for us to change our behavior.

So as far as our implementation - if we get a flag for five minutes of a 30-minute broadcast, do we need to only respect no recording of that show for five minutes or the whole show - probably only the five minutes in which the flag was shown, but that would be a horrible user experience. You can argue which is worse - missing five minutes or missing an entire recording - but pretty much both suck, right.

Anyway, with all the activity on this thread I've managed to get quite a few people's attention internally, and I can tell you we're looking deeper into the issue here. I still need a raw capture stream, but I'm working on ways to get it. So where exactly do I need to go in Canada? Toronto is a fun city, I could come visit. :-) (mostly kidding!)

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This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Call it a business trip (i.e. stopping in at Microsoft Canada).
Of course, do it when the weather's nicer (unless you want to go skiing...
but if you wanted to do that, you wouldn't be coming to Toronto anyways).

--
Jason Tsang - Microsoft MVP

Read my blog for the latest in Media Center topics
(and other topics that interest me)
http://jtsang.blogspot.com

More information by me
http://jtsang.mvps.org
http://www.classicsunveiled.com

Find out about the MS MVP Program -
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx



wrote in message news:177804@10.240.6.244...
>I believe the way this works is that we get the flag and we respect it.
>It's not a continuous thing, so we have to wait until we get another flag
>that says something else for us to change our behavior.
>
> So as far as our implementation - if we get a flag for five minutes of a
> 30-minute broadcast, do we need to only respect no recording of that show
> for five minutes or the whole show - probably only the five minutes in
> which the flag was shown, but that would be a horrible user experience.
> You can argue which is worse - missing five minutes or missing an entire
> recording - but pretty much both suck, right.
>
> Anyway, with all the activity on this thread I've managed to get quite a
> few people's attention internally, and I can tell you we're looking deeper
> into the issue here. I still need a raw capture stream, but I'm working on
> ways to get it. So where exactly do I need to go in Canada? Toronto is a
> fun city, I could come visit. :-) (mostly kidding!)
>

---

Jason Tsang - Media Center MVP
http://blog.jasontsang.ca