I always record Medium on Channel 1041 (OTA)... The last episode gave me the Broadcast Flag error.  I assumed it was an issue where a restart of VMC or reboot would provide a solution.  Nope.  Then I read this...

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/15/0312256&from=rss

I hope this was a mistake.  Super Lame.

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Niveus Rainier 500HD Media Center PC
4 tuners (2 CC, 2 OTA)
64" Pioneer Elite (PRO-720HD)
Marantz, Parasound, Mirage, Definitive Audio Equipment
Logitech 890 Pro Remote
Linksys DMA-2100 Extender
HP MediaSmart WHS
3 Xbox 360s
Zune
Sonos

It's interesting because I have had issues with Cable Cards and OTA content in general.. but there is plenty of content within VMC - Showtime, MovieLink, now Netflix, etc... that I find myself using when the traditional content is unavailable.  I can see a day where I cancel cable all together and live in a Video on Demand world... and OTA.  The only hole is sports.

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Niveus Rainier 500HD Media Center PC
4 tuners (2 CC, 2 OTA)
64" Pioneer Elite (PRO-720HD)
Marantz, Parasound, Mirage, Definitive Audio Equipment
Logitech 890 Pro Remote
Linksys DMA-2100 Extender
HP MediaSmart WHS
3 Xbox 360s
Zune
Sonos

sjulty:

dstrack:

It's interesting because I have had issues with Cable Cards and OTA content in general.. but there is plenty of content within VMC - Showtime, MovieLink, now Netflix, etc... that I find myself using when the traditional content is unavailable.  I can see a day where I cancel cable all together and live in a Video on Demand world... and OTA.  The only hole is sports.

 

I agree, as I'm actually contemplating dropping my "broadcast basic" cable service altogether

(approx $14 per month) & going OTA especially since I can view other television content via

computer through Veoh, Joost, etc.

 

Sure I know that those sources won't give me access to everything, but in my opinion, since

television is such a vast wasteland consisting primarily of inane "reality shows" and crappy

sit-com re-runs, the only thing I'm really missing is a ridiculously steep monthly bill from

Cablevision (currently $49.95 - $92.95)

 

Just my .02!

My thoughts Exactly!  My cable bill is much higher because in addition to 2 Cable Cards for my VMC we also have all other TVs backed up with HD DVRs (so that when my network is down my wife doesn't get shut out - happens cuz I'm always making modifications, beta-testing, etc...).

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Niveus Rainier 500HD Media Center PC
4 tuners (2 CC, 2 OTA)
64" Pioneer Elite (PRO-720HD)
Marantz, Parasound, Mirage, Definitive Audio Equipment
Logitech 890 Pro Remote
Linksys DMA-2100 Extender
HP MediaSmart WHS
3 Xbox 360s
Zune
Sonos

The following link below is another thread about Restricted Content messages popping up all of a sudden after the MS update.  The error message is paraphrased as:  Restricted Content:  restrictions set by the broadcaster and/or originator prohit the viewing of this program.

Reference:   http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/262704.aspx

Maybe the problem is a greater issue with the update affecting many areas of the HDCP portion of the ATI DCT....

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Jon
Carrollton, TX

Dell XPS420, 2.4GHz Quad Core
3GB 800MHz RAM, 320GB 7200rpm HD
NVidia 9600GT 1GB w/Display Port
BD Drive + DVD-RW, ATI DCT
Dell 3008 WFP 30" 2560x1600 Monitor/TV

sjulty:

...And so the battle to "lock down" digital content continues on...

 

Somebody posted a similar complaint about last week's American

Gladiators.

 

This is an outrage & seems to me like a breach of our rights to

time shift television content for later viewing. 

 

If we can't even record commercial television content, (not premium

or PPV) then Media Center will lose much of its appeal and value to

many users 

 

Perhaps there's an attorney somewhere who would be willing to take this

matter to court on behalf of the entire television watching public, citing previous

precedents such as Sony v Universal.

 

My .02!

 

-Steve

We don't have a "right" to time shift television viewing, we have a court ruling granting a defense against copyright infringement; the court determined home recordings fit the definition of a fair use of copyrighted material. Content owners can't sue you for recording at home for personal use, but they don't have to make it easy for you to do.

The blame for letting NBC and the cable operators butt pound their customers lies squarely with Microsoft for voluntarily adhering to the broadcast flag.

I have had this problem with american gladiators recently. Even though i still use sd tuners that have the signal coming in from stb via svideo and am still running on mce 05. But i have never seen this problem before and haven't heard much of these kinds of problems on xp.

For those of you on cable:  first talk to your local cable co.
For those who had failures of OTA broadcasts:  contact your local station.  Either may have had temporary problems.

If you can't get a decent answer or resolution (or, if you think that you're getting the runaround), contact the FCC.  OTA broadcasts should never be flagged Copy-Never - FCC's rules, and they do not like it when a broadcaster breaks them.

That said, there are a few threads around here concerning this problem (please ignore the Canada-specific problems), which do have possible fixes for problems isolated to your particular machine.
However, if several people in the same area have the same problem (or, the person who had both MC and his hardware DVR fail to record the same program), then it's most definitely a broadcaster breaking the rules.

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~Chris
'nearly every day of my life is some kind of computer hell'

Desktop: Shuttle SN41 (AthlonXP 2700+), AIW, T550, PVR-USB2, HDHR; server: Intel E6400 on I965P mobo, 2GB RAM, 2x 500GB WD, PVR500, NV DualTV, Saber2020, 2xHDHR; Xbox MCX, Xbox360

netscan02:

sjulty:

...And so the battle to "lock down" digital content continues on...

 

Somebody posted a similar complaint about last week's American

Gladiators.

 

This is an outrage & seems to me like a breach of our rights to

time shift television content for later viewing. 

 

If we can't even record commercial television content, (not premium

or PPV) then Media Center will lose much of its appeal and value to

many users 

 

Perhaps there's an attorney somewhere who would be willing to take this

matter to court on behalf of the entire television watching public, citing previous

precedents such as Sony v Universal.

 

My .02!

 

-Steve

We don't have a "right" to time shift television viewing, we have a court ruling granting a defense against copyright infringement; the court determined home recordings fit the definition of a fair use of copyrighted material. Content owners can't sue you for recording at home for personal use, but they don't have to make it easy for you to do.

The blame for letting NBC and the cable operators butt pound their customers lies squarely with Microsoft for voluntarily adhering to the broadcast flag.

sjulty:

OK, I stand corrected.

So if the ruling only spells out indemnity against prosecution for time shft recording but doesn't specify any "rights" to do it or not, then we should be able to do what ever it takes to enable our recording devices to time shift record. And if I'm not mistaken, it all should be perfectly legal as long as we are not making copies for distribution to other people (whether for profit or not)

I bring this up because of a discovery I made quite some time ago which was if I use one of those boxes designed to strip out Macrovision from protected VHS tapes, I can remove the copy protection from my MCE recordings

And yes, as far as I'm concerned Microsoft is without question at least partially responsible for this whole mess. Of course the fact that both the broadcast and cable industries are so greedy plays a large part in this problem as well

All of this is pushing me closer to abandoning WMC all together & embracing MythTV. I'm currently in the process of setting up an old Dell server to run MythBuntu

I'm hoping that maybe there's someone here in TGB community who is more familiar with Myth and would care to share some knowledge about it with me and any other interested parties who are fed up with the Draconian practices put forth by Microsoft, the broadcast industry and the cable companies.

Microsoft is fully responsible for bowing to their new masters, the RIAA and MPAA. Used to be a time when the customer's opinion of your product mattered, but with the advent of the mega corp, a loss of a couple hundred thousand customers wouldn't even scratch the bottom line (number pulled out of my butt, meant to represent the enthusiast market which is a small percentage of the total market).

Rather than build out a whole new system (Myth, Sage etc.), just download your media instead of recording it. Pirates are the ones catering to the demand, no commercials, no DRM, and in HD(!) - something that Microsoft doesn't think is important to you unless you prove to them your worthy by running the gauntlet of cable cards and the cable co..

I feel for those who purposely built VMC setups to integrate into their home theaters, they're the ones who are really taking it where the sun don't shine. I just use mine as a second TV in the bedroom, PC already had Vista on it, I just added a tuner, it's a PC first TV second. I'm not really out a large sum of money, man I would be pissed if I dropped the dime on a cable card system just to deal with this nonsense.

Bottom line: VMC == Fail. Get yourself an eye patch and a parrot and come on over to the dark side, weather's great : ) 

Interesting anecdote: my Sony receiver strips macrovision and these nonsense broadcast flags too.

I thought i would let people know that this week i was able to record american gladiators with no problems. The only difference was that i recorded it from the sd chanel vs. the hd channel which was where i had the problems last week.

Recorded in HD for me without any issues.  No issues since the one fateful day.

I noticed the other day that my vmc setup with ati tuner refused to correct the reruns of the sopranos on aetv hd. Content is restricted from recording bla bla.  This is really pissing me off.