Chris Lanier's Blog

I ran into this problem.  Tried to record Season 2 of American Gladiators.  Media center said it could not record and changed the recording from the HD channel to the SD equivalent.  Needless to say i was pissed!

Check the EFF web site;

w2.eff.org/.../broadcastflag

A little light reading:

hraunfoss.fcc.gov/.../FCC-04-193A1.pdf

www.ala.org/.../broadcastflag.cfm

Note: This order and the rules promulgated thereunder were struck down by the U.S. Court of Appeals of the DC Circuit because the FCC overstep there authority in enforcing the rules.  The Supreme Court denied cert.

The FCC link in my original post is wrong.  Here is the correct one from the ALA page:

hraunfoss.fcc.gov/.../FCC-03-273A1.pdf

I think the broadcast flag can restrict any number of rights (record, share, etc).  I know HBO uses it to lock recordings to a single machine.  I've heard it can prevent recordings outright as well (obviously NBC has proven this).

Chris,

I find it kinda amusing that you bash the EFF which actively protects bloggers like you and the rights of many online folks.

The broadcast flag is dead, hardware manfacturers are not required to enforce it, the problems most VMC (and TiVo) owners are having are on cable channels, and alrough it's fun to blame it on a broadcast flag, it isn't affecting broadcast TV(over-the-air).

I've been having significant problems recording programs. Today "Meet the Press" did not record (NBC) and I am also unable to record Gray's Anatomy on ABC. I have a "play by the rules" VMC Cable card system which was expensive, and I'm angry that I am not able to perform many of the time-shifting, fair use functions. I'm not looking to pirate anything.

I would appreciate a not-overly-technical discussion of what is going on here.

Thanks, Kirk Klemme

It's a bug that's been a "feature" since 2005 then.  HBO has periodically caused similar problems.

Disregard my post.  It had been waiting for submit for the past several days and apparently has been covered.  Still, I believe the handlng to be the same as CGMS-A.  Meaning that you can set bits to not record, as much as you can to limited recording.

Chris,

Microsoft voluntarily decided to include copy prevention methods in Media Center. They were not legally required to, yet they still included them.

Put that in your article as well.

I am very disappointed that Chris has not addressed what is going on with the cablecard tuners and people being unable to record TV. It is not clear to me if this is a broadcast flag issue or not. (I'm sure you are aware of the threads on The Green Button struggling with this.)

Chris, you're our lifeline. Please help.

Is it a coincidence that on May 18, Microsoft came out with a statement supporting broadcast flags? The problem is more widespread than a couple shows on NBC.

Thanks, Kirk Klemme

Apparently, Chris knows where his bread is buttered, and can not portray Microsoft in a negative aspect on his site. Without Microsoft and their Media Center product, the relevance of this site would be minimal.

I appreciate all the concern about broadcast flags, DRM etc.

However, I believe that none of this has anything to do with the widespread problem that cablecard users are having. I think it is coincidence with the flag issue.

If Chris can shed any light on what is going on with the cablecard tuners, it would be most appreciated. I'm going to try to call ATI today, but I'm not optimistic that they will be helpful.

Here's the link to the thread that all the cablecard users are posting to:

thegreenbutton.com/.../ShowThread.aspx

thanks...like I said, the message people are receiving is that recording is prohibited by the content provider (NBC, ABC, TNTHD, HDNet); I think it's a problem with the tuner, but no one seems to know.

Chris - I'm sorry you feel that way about EFF. If you can point to any factual errors on our site, I'd be happy to fix them.

We've got <a href="www.ncta.com/Filings.aspx page of Broadcast Flag filings</a> on the NCTA website.  You'll note we don't seem to have filed since 2004.