Forum Discussion

CoxOCcustomer's avatar
CoxOCcustomer
New Contributor III
4 years ago

New DRM in Cox OC land?

It would appear that as of today (1/7) Cox seems to now tagging all their non-local channels as DRM in the OC?  Can anyone else confirm this?  Those of us using a HDHomerunPrime are certainly not going to be happy with this decision as it limits the use of the HDHomerun to live tv viewing only and no DVR functionality.  Please tell me they don't plan on keeping this permanently (as forcing people to reevaluate their tv options is not conducive to keeping existing customers around).  Judging by the forums, its a case of 'welcome to the club' and 'good luck with streaming'.

  • coxuqer's avatar
    coxuqer
    4 years ago

    Running the channel scan now. Looks like DRM is no longer on all the non local channels. I’ll test it out once the scan is completed. 

  • CoxOCcustomer's avatar
    CoxOCcustomer
    4 years ago

    Just did a rescan of channels in OC and it looks like the DRM has been removed from the non-premium channels (so back to the way it was before).  Looks like either the DRM change was a mistake or they changed their minds, but either way, credit to Cox for making it right.

  • coxuqer's avatar
    coxuqer
    New Contributor
    4 years ago

    Running the channel scan now. Looks like DRM is no longer on all the non local channels. I’ll test it out once the scan is completed. 

    • brent20's avatar
      brent20
      New Contributor III
      4 years ago

      Running a scan now after seeing this. Can confirm in the Omaha market, I’m seeing the DRM tag also remove from the channels as it scans through, very promising, but won’t hold my breath until I hear back on my escalation from the CableCARD team. 

      • brent20's avatar
        brent20
        New Contributor III
        4 years ago

        rmalbers beerman  see above, start a channel scan and see if the DRM tag starts to clear out and report back here

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

      Just did a rescan of channels in OC and it looks like the DRM has been removed from the non-premium channels (so back to the way it was before).  Looks like either the DRM change was a mistake or they changed their minds, but either way, credit to Cox for making it right.

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

      In Tulsa it's still DRM for all non-local channels!  Any other markets still having this issue?

      • volfan6415's avatar
        volfan6415
        New Contributor
        4 years ago

        The New Orleans market had this issue crop up this weekend. Initially all channels had drm flag added.  Now this morning on a scan it looks like the flag is being removed has channels are going back to not having the flag.  Something happened with an upgrade the goofed something up real bad.

  • theguru's avatar
    theguru
    New Contributor
    4 years ago

    Oh my gosh!  In Omaha I got hit with this this morning.  Almost all the non-local stations are now marked as DRM enabled.  Pretty much all my Plex and watching from my Windows PCs now are broken.

    That **.

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

      Yeah my HDHomeRun stopped too.  Does anyone know if this is becauseCox Switched to ATSC3.0?

      siliconDust sells a new ATSC3.0 tuner for 199.00 if they did.

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

        and for you guys who are not familiar with ATSC3.0, it will allow have 4k and 8k pictures, HDR, wide color gamut, and all of the high end audio formats.  Crosses fingers thats why the old legacy stuff is being decommissioned...

    • brent20's avatar
      brent20
      New Contributor III
      4 years ago

      Also in Omaha and also using Plex and SD HDHRP. 

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

    Hitting the Tulsa, OK market as well!  Suddenly all non-local channels are DRM!  Please fix this COX!

    • SharonL's avatar
      SharonL
      Former Moderator
      4 years ago
      Hello, thank you for reaching out to the Social Media Team. If this issue has not been resolved please let us know. This appears as if you may need someone to investigate your account personally. We would be able to assist you with this. Please reach us on Twitter at @CoxHelp, visit us on Facebook, or email us at cox.help@cox.com. Provide us the name on the account with the complete service address with a link to this thread so we can get started. Thank you.

      Sharon
      Cox Support Forum Moderator
  • rmalbers's avatar
    rmalbers
    New Contributor II
    4 years ago

    I'm in Omaha and have the same issue, can only view cox channels on my windows media center pc.   Looks like COX has set the DRM: 'copy once' flag.  Because it's happening in multiple markets I assume it's on purpose but it would be nice to get a confirmation.    If it does not get set back I WILL be dropping cable.

    • brent20's avatar
      brent20
      New Contributor III
      4 years ago

      Same. I fired up my old Windows Media Center computer and confirmed. The CopyOnce flags as set will only work with TiVo and WMC. This needs to be fixed and reverted back ASAP. You would think Cox would want to retain us as customers...

    • SharonL's avatar
      SharonL
      Former Moderator
      4 years ago
      Hello,

      This appears as if you may need someone to investigate your account personally. We would be able to assist you with this. Please reach us on Twitter at @CoxHelp, visit us on Facebook, or email us at cox.help@cox.com. Provide us the name on the account with the complete service address with a link to this thread so we can get started.

      Thank you.

      Sharon
      Cox Support Forum Moderator
  • Allan's avatar
    Allan
    Moderator
    4 years ago
    Hello. I am not aware of any DRM changes. Are you having any issues viewing the channels? -Allan, Cox Support Forums Moderator.
    • CoxOCcustomer's avatar
      CoxOCcustomer
      New Contributor III
      4 years ago

      We (in Orange County) previously received a notice that "Effective on or after 12/3/2020, we're making it easier to watch the channels you love.  We are removing the duplicate HD channels on 1000-1950.  You can still enjoy the programming previously on these channels by tuning into the lower 2 or 3-digit corresponding channel number."

      So while my tuner is detecting the new 2 and 3-digit channels (in addition to the 1000+ channels that still appear to be there), all of them, except for locals, are now DRM'd (where they weren't before).  Please on behalf of those of us who are attempting to keep our costs down by running third-party tuners, un-DRM them (at least the 'basic' cable channels). Thank you.

      • brent20's avatar
        brent20
        New Contributor III
        4 years ago

        My 10xx channels haven’t been removed from my lineup yet, but I’m having the same issue with all non-local broadcast channels being marked with the CCI protection CopyOnce byte.


        Now all of my channels have the same DRM tag in the Silicon Dust HDHomeRun Prime channel line up after running a new scan. I  watched the DRM tag appear one by one as it scanned for channels... something appears to have changed at the headend in the Omaha market as well.

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

      Allan, it looks like this problem has been verified by several Cox users, and now it appears that it has been resolved.

      Is there any way that you could give us some actual verified-by-Cox information about what they did and why?  This kind of thing costs each of us users many, many hours of troubleshooting and talking to Cox representatives that, frankly, don't know much.  Even the level 2 and level 3 support people didn't have a clue what was going on.

      Even if us customers are kept in the dark, it would be useful to educate your support staff.  Imagine how much time could have been saved if THEY actually had a clue as to what was going on.

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

        Things are back to normal for me too.  welp tfjield, they did send out that email in December.  So you should have been preparing this whole time. 

  • coxuqer's avatar
    coxuqer
    New Contributor
    4 years ago

    I am having the same issue with DRM in the OC as of 1/7

  • brent20's avatar
    brent20
    New Contributor III
    4 years ago

    Oh my gosh x2! I am also in the Omaha area and I am seeing this as well! I have been working with CableCARD support all day (amazing people) after I noticed that certain channels stopped working in Plex, but I started to notice the CCI byte flag on all of my non broadcast channels as well and asked to have this escalated. 

    Also using the HDHomeRun Prime, I’m going to email this forum post to the tech that I have been working with who is escalating this on Monday.

    Thank you for posting this! Glad I’m not alone!

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

      I'm in the same boat. No one at Cox (4 different calls to techs  in 2 days) knew anything about what I was talking about. The last tech (very patient and helpful) told me I knew more than he and other techs did about cable cards.

      So now I can only record locals and nothing else. I sure hope this isn't a  money grab so that Cox is hoping we'll get more services and extenders because I already have phone, internet, Contour TV and 2 cable cards and I'm not buying anything else.  In fact, I just may cut the chord completely and go to streaming. 
      Finally, weeks ago I got an email discussing checking to see if my cable card devices support mpeg-4 (no longer have the email so I'm going on memory) but nothing was mentioned that I would lose recording capabilities.  C'mon Cox, make this right.  It's been working for many, many years and this is simply wrong!

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

        "

        We’re back to remind you about our service update that could impact your access to all your favorite shows.

        If you are using a CableCard in your laptop, PC, or Tivo you may be impacted.
        Here's what we need you to do:
        • Tune into channel 1987
          • If you can see the program, great news, you’re good to go.
          • If you can’t see the program, don't worry you have two options:

            1) Check your device’s owner’s manual to see if an update to MPEG4 is supported. If so, just update.

            2) Request a Contour box be shipped to you free. Or just pick one up from your nearest Cox Solutions Store—it’s totally free the first twelve months. After that, it’s just $8.50 to $10.00/month depending on which box you choose.
        If you’ve done this already, you’re all set.

        Channel Impact Schedule
        If you don't update your device or pick up a Contour box, you won’t be able to access any channels as early as mid-December and no later than mid-January."
    • CoxOCcustomer's avatar
      CoxOCcustomer
      New Contributor III
      4 years ago

      Please share whether you have any success.  It looks like Cox changing more channels to DRM has been a thing in the past in other markets and it doesn't really sound like the customers ended up happy.  Hopefully there's more than the canned response "as part of our agreements with the content providers..."

  • GuessImSavingMo's avatar
    GuessImSavingMo
    New Contributor
    4 years ago

    I'm in the same boat. 3 hdhomerun primes and 3 cable cards streaming to all my tv's via emby live tv for years. With this change it's all broke now and cox tv is worthless to me. I'm testing out youtube.tv right now and it seems it's going to work for my needs. Going to cancel my tv service from cox first thing Monday morning. In the end, I'll end up saving about $70/month. Probably should have done this sooner. Thanks for showing me the light cox. 

    • BenS1's avatar
      BenS1
      Former Moderator
      4 years ago
      Hi @ GuessImSavingMoney,

      We definitely don't want you to leave us. Billing issues that require the sharing of personal information aren't suited for a public forum. For further assistance, please email us at cox.help@cox.com with your full name and address.

      Ben S.
      Cox Support Forums Moderator
  • tfjield's avatar
    tfjield
    New Contributor II
    4 years ago

    I've been in the same boat here in Mission Viejo.  Several support calls, and a technician came out and worked with me for 3 1/2 hours to no avail.  I have a Ceton InfiniTV 6, and I was seeing CCI 2 on all the non-local channels, starting on 1/7.

    I figured it was gone forever, but glad I checked this forum!  It's now back to the way it was for me, too!!

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

    Ok, I'm in Omaha, NE and I have rescanned and it's working again.  What I need to know is if this was just a screwup by some COX employee/s or if this was intentional and will get reverted back to DRM!