Forum Discussion

abush8's avatar
abush8
New Contributor
4 years ago

DRM preventing viewing of most channels in Las Vegas market

I have a cablecard that I use with HDHomeRun, and within the past couple of months, I lost about 90% of my channels.  I finally had time to troubleshoot, and it now appears that COX has implemented DRM on most channels apart from those available OTA/Local.

There was a thread with others experiencing the same problem in several other markets early this year, and it appears their problems were eventually resolved by some action on COX's end.

https://forums.cox.com/forum_home/tv_forum/f/tv-forum/27991/new-drm-in-cox-oc-land

I'm hoping the problem can also be resolved for the Las Vegas market - otherwise my channel package is pretty much useless and I'd might as well cancel.

I went through the steps in that thread to check if re-scanning my lineup would resolve the issue, but that had no affect.

Here's a screenshot from my HDHomeRun Lineup showing how most of the channels are DRM locked.  Obviously, I don't expect HBO and some other channels to be available, but out of 611 channels received, I can only actually view somewhere around 30 currently, and a good number of those are duplicates.  Definitely was getting far more a few months ago.

https://imgur.com/a/6mEHe0a

  • martinh's avatar
    martinh
    New Contributor III
    4 years ago

    Tiffany R is posting the same canned repose  on all queries regarding  Cox's decision  to impose DRM on all channels..  As far as I can tell, there is no  legal requirement that they do so,.  This appears to be a policy decision by cox to freeze out a certain  group of its customers.. 

  • CoxOCcustomer's avatar
    CoxOCcustomer
    New Contributor III
    4 years ago

    That was my post from January.  They DRM'd all the non-local channels for a couple days, then reverted back to where DRM was only an issue for the premium channels.  I've since moved on to streaming, but have been following the ongoing DRM issues with Cox since, and it looks like Cox has made a corporate decision to effectively shut out most of the cablecard users by turning up the DRM on all but local channels.  I think Orange County has since gone dark for old cablecard users like me who were using a HDHomerun Prime (or like device).  I suspect the cost of supporting the few cablecard users is more than whatever income that group brings in, so Cox is forcing you to either rent their equipment, or go elsewhere.

    If you're still using a device with a cablecard to receive tv from Cox, and they haven't already applied more restrictive DRM labels to all your channels, you should feel lucky - and you should also start looking for alternatives for when your day comes.  We switched to streaming (YoutubeTV in our case) and it's been quite a bit better than we thought it would be, such that we're not ever looking to go back to cable.

    • pmr's avatar
      pmr
      New Contributor
      4 years ago

      I noticed this a couple of days ago; I can't transfer shows between my Tivo units (my secondary is connected to Ethernet in another room that doesn't have a cable drop. I'd transfer a show (usually Formula One) to my workout room so I could watch while biking.) When I tried today, I discovered that everything since mid-August has CCI 0x2 flagged. So I can't utilize equipment that I own to shift programs between my machines anymore.

  • debbie_heinen's avatar
    debbie_heinen
    New Contributor II
    4 years ago

    Unfortunately, Windows Media Center appears to be the last option for HdHomerun users besides SiliconDust's apps. 3rd Party apps like Plex, Emby, VLC, etc. are no longer useable due to the DRM. 

    Personally, I'd strongly recommend you to not use Windows Media Center unless you do it through Windows 8.1, which is the last supported OS for it. Some users got WMC to work on Windows 10, but it is missing crucial functionality for CableCards.