Wichita KS CableCard now has DRM

Thanks, becky -- I'm also seeing the same issue in the Wichita area, and am anxious to be able to access subscribed channels again!  Please keep us posted!

Have you contacted cox.help@cox.com?  If you receive a response, you will know it came from someone at Cox and it will provide documentation of Cox's policy position, in case Becky forgets to follow-up as promised.

I basically got the same impression from a phone call I just had with someone from Cox.  He asked what equipment I'm using (HDHomerun Prime with Plex for live and DVR).  Then he asked if they were DRM compatible which suggests to me that DRM wasn't a mistake and isn't going to be removed. 

I wasn't sure of the answer to that at the time but after looking it up I have discovered that the HDHomerun Prime tuner is compatible with DRM using their native apps for live viewing (and I confirmed that I can watch all the channels live that I could before with their app) but DRM is not supported with the Plex Media Server live or DVR.  Interestingly the HDHomerun DVR is not DRM compatible either.

Without being able to use the Plex DVR, the CableCards and thus Cox are of no use to me any longer.  Guess I'm cutting the cord.

Jonathan: Likewise- if Cox decides to remove DRM on CableCard, please let me know and I'll happily become a TV customer again. I've already cancelled and turn in my equipment.

ICT123: I read the same about the HDHomerun apps, but quick testing on a couple of my Android devices, I still get a DRM and failure to play the DRM channels.  It's probably something to do with my devices, but I couldn't get them to work.

WiderMouthOpen: I believe I talked with a support/moderator and someone from the TV department.  They called from a Georgia phone number (corporate Cox?). They were nice and we had a frank conversation - I may not agree with DRM being added, but I didn't get the impression throwing a big fuss would do any good.  We rarely watch TV these days (enjoying time outside and busy with other tasks) and what we do watch we can get over-the air fairly easily. So for us, even if we could get CableCard to work with DRM or even if we could "fight" long enough and DRM would be removed, it's just not worth the energy/effort for us. 

I've had a feeling for the past few years that CableCard was on it's "last leg", but was optimistic that the "test" channel showed my service would still work thru the advertised changes -  Cox probably should have put DRM on the test channel to tip us off that it would be a problem, but whatever. I do wish anyone luck that fights to get it removed.  Let me know if you get anywhere. :-)

-Joel

Just saw this thread, I have same problem in Holiday Island, non local channels have audio and no video.   I have had similar problems before but usually somehow corrected in a couple days.  Cox support via txt seemed to stay away from the tagging of the content, but agreed to pass the issue up ???  Again tried to sell us on Contour.

You've misunderstood the issue.  It's not that DRM prevents these devices from functioning, though the people with HDHomeRun cards may not realize that.  DRM is the whole point of the cable card in the first place, and these devices should work with that DRM in place.  There is no analog or non-DRM digital content anymore and hasn't been for several years, so older Hauppage cards won't get anything at all.

The root problem is that the Copy Flag is not set to Copy Freely, as it always has been in the past.  (At least for non-premium channels. I've never had any premium channels, so I can't say about those.)  See my link above to the Copy Flag info from Wikipedia.

I think you may be getting bogged down in semantics here. Users of the HDHomerun (of which I was one) would run a channel scan and receive a list of channels received, with some being flagged with a DRM identifier. Those flagged with the DRM flag would no longer work with their external DVR. Cox's change meant that most/all non local channels would now have this flag and subsequently no longer effectively be viewable. DRM in this case is a broad term that those in this group are using in the more specific case referring to the copy-xxx definition you're citing. So whatever change Cox is making is generating the DRM identifier, hence the use of that term in identifying the problem here.

On the issue of older Hauppauge products, the 2650 was one of the only cablecard units available and with Media Center was still able to receive and record these "DRM'd" channels, regardless of Cox's shenanigans with channel labels (at least it continued to work until we left Cox 2 months ago)

It is semantics, yes.  But given the dearth of people who have ever even heard of the copy flag, on the customer side or Cox's side, I feel like the precise terminology is important if the issue is going to get past Cox's customer service's response of "All of our channels have DRM and have for many years.  That's why you have a cable card - to decrypt the channels."  But decrypting channels isn't the problem, and hardly anyone at Cox will understand that.  (And many customers won't either.)  Throwing a term at them they've never heard of ("Copy Flag") might tip them off that they don't understand the issue like they thought they did and need to pass it off to someone who does know what the term means.  It's a tactic I've used many times with first-tier tech support who is missing the point.

BTW, the reason your Hauppauge 2650 worked is because it used a cable card and you were using the Media Center software it came with, which was certified that it honored the Copy Flag.  So it was able to record while maintaining the "copy once" DRM through to the recorded file.  If you had been trying to use a third-party app or tried to export content from that app, it would also not have worked for channels with the copy flag set.

Like I said, my TiVo continues to work fine for recording, just like your Hauppauge.  Its space-shifting features, though, where I can download video to watch on other devices, is completely disabled.  I'll miss that if this is indeed intended and permanent.

I can agree with everything you've said, although throwing additional terminology in may only make it harder for a customer to identify the problem they're having, especially if the only thing they see is 'DRM' next to the channels that they are now unable to access, and they're searching these forums for other 'DRM' problems.

The sad fact is that the days of being able to use a cablecard in order to lower the cost of accessing cable tv are likely nearing their end.  My setup had been working for over a decade, but finally switched to streaming to avoid these regular issues (as well as the cost/fee increases) and haven't looked back.