Maltz
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Re: Wichita KS CableCard now has DRM
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.0Views1like1CommentRe: Wichita KS CableCard now has DRM
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.5Views1like3CommentsRe: Wichita KS CableCard now has DRM
Add NW Arkansas to the list, please, if we're not already included in the KS region. And thanks for following up! See my other post below about the "Copy Flag" which is really the issue here, and might get the problem to the right people better than asking about generic "DRM". My discussions with Cox employees in the past is that the Copy Flag was intentionally set as Copy Freely, which is always has been until last week here, but it's something that is often mis-configured because few people at Cox know what it is and few customers (just cable card users) would notice.0Views0likes7CommentsRe: Wichita KS CableCard now has DRM
To be clear, "DRM" is the wrong terminology to be using. Obviously, DRM has always and will always be used for cable cards - it's the whole point of the cable card. What we are really asking about is the Copy Flag being set to something other than Copy Freely, which is what it has always been in my market for all channels, and was intentionally set that way, according to interactions I've had with one of the VERY few Cox employees who had a clue what this even was. If this is an intentional, permanent change, this will also be a deal-breaker for me as well. en.wikipedia.org/.../Copy_Control_Information7Views1like0Comments