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Windows Media Center Restricts Cable TV
Posted by
kdawson
on Mon May 21, 2007 04:37 AM
from the no-HBO-for-you dept.
from the no-HBO-for-you dept.
PrescriptionWarning writes "With the latest Media Center Edition update from Microsoft, I and many others are finding that content available on television is now completely unwatchable from Media Center. The message states: 'Restricted Content: Restrictions set by the broadcaster and/or originator of the content prohibit playback of the program on this computer.' A simple search on the subject reveals that HBO programming and, in my case, Braveheart on AMC are among the many selections now restricted for playback or recording by Windows Media Center Edition. What's next, restricting every piece of programming on television?"
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Try myself (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Try myself (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:Try myself (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Try myself (Score:5, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CGMS-A [wikipedia.org]
Best ways I've found to avoid these problems:
1) Turn OFF Windows Update, and/or use a disk imaging system to make sure you can roll back any unwelcome changes like this;
2) Use different software for recording cable content (MediaPortal, or the scheduling app that comes with most tuner cards, etc.)
3) Don't pay for HBO; get those shows through alternative providers that have higher-quality, DRM-free, digital copies
Parent
It's not the content that's being restricted (Score:5, Insightful)
Why invite Microsoft into your living room when you can set up MythTV? DRM opponents have been telling you all for how long... and you people still buy Microsoft products and then complain when they behave as expected?
Pfft!
Re:It's not the content that's being restricted (Score:5, Funny)
That's the thing, exactly! Who'd think things coming from Microsoft would behave as expected!
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:It's not the content that's being restricted (Score:5, Funny)
MythTV is better cause it'll only punch you once in the gut, right at the very beginning, as opposed to WMC which will punch you in the gut at a later date.
Maybe I don't want to be punched in the gut.
--Jimmy
Parent
Re:It's not the content that's being restricted (Score:5, Informative)
Please tell me where I can buy cablecard ready tuner cards for MythTV. Comcast here has new boxes that DELETE the firewire port, it's not even an option. Therefore recording is limited to Standard Def only.
Until someone hacks and then cracks cablecard, or get's off their butts and get s the hdmi or dvi capture cards working MythTV is not an option for recording CableTV HDTV.
if you want to record from Cable and get any of the channels to record that are not encrypted, you have to have microsoft.
Parent
Re:It's not the content that's being restricted (Score:5, Informative)
As for CableCard - good luck. This little device was supposed to help us to get away from STBs. Unfortunatly you cannot just buy one and plug it in. Oh no, it must be plugged in and "activated" by the head end using a crypto handshake after the installer ensures that the box it's plugged into is "certified". So first you must figure out how to get your paws on one and then you must figure out a way to activate it. This isn't so unlike the old cards for activating SAT service I'd imagine except that it's possible these guys have learned from that experience - they appear to be using a 2-way handshake at the very least. Done right you might never see a working hacked cablecard under Myth. Nice huh?
Personally I see two HUGE problems with MythTV. The biggest is of course cablecard, eventually STBs will go away and we'll be left with these or some other nasty competitor (supposedly one exists, I've heard little about it however). You can bet that no one will ever "bless" Myth working with cablecard unless maybe they provide a closed source binary blob driver that no one finds pallatable and violates who knows what licenses. The second issue I see with Myth is the PITA factor. Myth tries to support so many damned pieces of weirdo' hardware that it's a hassle to setup and strango' things just happen. There have been some "standard" platform suggestions made in the past for Myth but no one seems to really follow them and support remains splintered. It would be nice if someone could take a page out of the TIVO, Apple, and XBMC playbook and choose a seriously solid set of hardware and then refine the hell out of the support. The aTV box could be such a thing maybe although 720P max rez would turn people off and everyone seems to be working on making the Apple software better - the platform is cheap at least. If this were to happen you'd end up with something that "just works" like XBMC only far more powerful - more like TIVO. Good luck with that, even Knoppmyth is a hassle but it was the closest thing to an Easy button I've tried for Myth yet. LinuxMCE sounds like a good idea but it's early yet and again not built for a standard platform.
I still use a hacked DTIVO despite it's not being HD and XBMC on an old XBOX because nothing I've tried has been so good I had to have it - including MCE. Too bad the S3 TIVO cannot do extraction or I'd have one and bite the bullet on cablecard. The 360 is going to be getting the ability to record and playback IPTV streams it looks like, when that happens I'm sure it will be DRM hell but maybe it will "just work". MythTV sure didn't seem to
Parent
Re:It's not the content that's being restricted (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re:It's not the content that's being restricted (Score:4, Informative)
FCC mandate Title 47, Chapter 1, Subchapter C, Part 76, Subpart K requires that all cable operators that have not received an explicit exemption from the FCC offer any customer who requests it a high-definition cable box with an operational firewire port.
It's actually the law that there has to be an HD box option that includes Firewire.
Parent
Re:You mean HD channels? (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:You mean HD channels? (Score:5, Funny)
Sincerely,
Time Warner Support
Parent
Re:It's not the content that's being restricted (Score:5, Funny)
Don't you feel enabled?
Parent
Re:It's not the content that's being restricted (Score:4, Interesting)
Either your particular card is somehow faulty, or you're trying to run it on a blender. There's no reason for it to crash even once. My old roommate had one as well and he never had a crash that I noticed, ever (his was the one hooked up to the primary TV in the apartment, so I would have noticed it).
Parent
It's almost as if... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It's almost as if... (Score:5, Insightful)
Fine with me.
Parent
Re:It's almost as if... (Score:5, Insightful)
They've driven me from my fortress of legalitude back into P2P because they won't give me what they have that would make them better than P2P - exclusive live tracks (for a brief period I would have it better than P2Pers in one respect), or at least approaching 60% of the stuff I search for? Because ALL of the P2P apps give me whatever I search for, immediately. I know the RIAA can do better, but they don't understand why it would become infuriating to depend on them to deliver the content I want.
I will download music. I stopped and tried to go the legal route, and as far as I can tell they want to siphon off every dollar I have that way. This is no different. The faulty business models must be crushed - do your part. Download stuff.
Parent
Re:It's almost as if... (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Old news???? (Score:5, Informative)
Second google link: Posted February 14th, 2006
Third google link: Last Review : August 17, 2006
Fourth google link: Friday, January 28, 2005 1:00 AM PST
Fifth google link: June 2nd, 2006
You get the idea....
TV? (Score:5, Insightful)
Record it from TV? Oh yea, I'm gonna wait until some station decides to air it and then record it with advertising...
There is nothing which interests me on television anyway which I can't find somewhere else. And the rest? Game shows, reality shows,
With these kind of restrictions it seems like television stations are going the **AA way... Desperately trying to hold on to an outdated concept, which has made them alot of money in the past. Too blind and stuck in their old patterns to find new ways of making money...
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
TV is an outdated concept
Well, it maybe for you but for many others it's not. What is an increasingly outdated concept is the delivery method. Various timeshifting methods - I personally use Sky+ - allow the consumer to watch in their own schedule and to edit out the ads where appropriate.
As for there being nothing on worth watching - Yesterday I watched 'To have and have not', got up to date with Heroes, watched Saturday's Dr Who, and finished off with a fascinating documentary about Jimi Hendrix. Ok, none of it was earth shatte
Re:TV? (Score:5, Interesting)
Here's the thing: The Brits actually have good TV, because it's publically funded. It used to mean that the BBC produced series that were cheap - look at the production values of a classic Dr. Who episode compared to a classic Star Trek episode of the same time frame, but as the private networks in the U.S. have found that they can make more money by producing nothing but super-cheap TV shows and cancelling anything that doesn't get a hell of an audience immediately, now it is the British, who care about providing good value for the tax revenue rather than stuffing pockets, that produces superior television shows.
I mean, I saw the BBC Casanova miniseries, and can you imagine an American show going that far, production wise, for a three-episode mini series?
Additionally, all the good news channels - CBC, BBC, CNN International - aren't available in America on any of the different ways to get television here. HDNet has Dan Rather, but I don't have an HDTV and even if I did I don't have a local provider for it either.
So when you hear people complain about there being nothing good on TV which to record - yeah, I can see that. I don't know when I last turned on the television here but I don't think it even has the rabbit ears hooked up!
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Almost by definition, peer-to-peer networks contain what the users want. Shows no-one is interested in are left out.
Incidentally, watching anything I want whenever I want is exactly the service I'd be willing to pay for. Go figure.
Re:TV? (Score:5, Insightful)
What keeps people from going the legal way is the terms of service. First of all, the hassle is not less, it's more. Incompatible DRM with this or that player, installing licenses, and finally hoping that what they got can actually be watched, if not, more try and error with DRM... And of course the fear that, as soon as their computer dies, all the content is digital junk because DRM thinks you're a different person.
I know that a lot of people, if not the overwhelming majority, is very willing to pay for content that simply works, hassle-free and without problems and tinkering. But currently, with DRM in place, it's anything but that. More often than not, you buy something only to find out that it would have been less hassle to simply search for a
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Your downloads sounds interesting and I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Never heard of the Long Tail [wikipedia.org], I guess. Hint: it's the reason why companies like Amazon and Netflix are successful. Another hint: it's not because they only carry the top 5% of products that 80% of the world is interested in. It's because they carry the other 95%.
The fact that I can't get those shows "no-one is interested in" on p2p is precisely why it is not very useful to me, or a lot of o
Re:TV? (Score:4, Interesting)
I recall reading an article which discussed how people are moving away from movies and towards TV, because TV shows come in smaller chunks with more plot and character development.Your interests are just that. Yours.
Millions of people are watching these shows and those eyeballs draw billions in advertising revenue.Blind and stuck in their old patterns...
TV shows on DVD, they're doing that.
TV on the internet? They're doing that.
It's easy to criticize what you perceive as the status quo, so tell us:
What's your alternative.
Parent
Re:TV? (Score:5, Insightful)
I would love to be able to buy TV show on a per-season basis, with no DRM and the ability to re-download (I don't want to bother having to archive them myself), or for less if I don't have the re-download ability (for stuff I'm likely to only want to watch once).
TV viewership is dropping as it has to compete with more convenient forms of entertainment. Expect the status quo to change when enough people have broadband that the studios can sell more by selling to the viewers than to the distributors.
Parent
Re:TV? (Score:4, Insightful)
A big problem I see with the different distribution methods out there is how to fund the production of the good shows. Honestly, if the TV distribution method is going to change, and advertisements change as well, a better way for these shows to generate money will be needed, and the possibilities are scary. Will we have running advertisements along the bottom and/or top of the screen as we watch? Will the users be required to pay to view the content without advertisements? If we are given a choice(pay and get no advertisements, or get it for free with advertisements), the peer to peer downloads will hurt the chances for good shows to be renewed.
Remember, money is the reason we get ANYTHING on TV in the first place. If the production studios don't make money on the development of the shows/movies, they will NOT continue to make the shows we care about. So, how do we make sure that the good shows continue while the crap is dropped?
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
If I throw out the TV, I miss my primary source of news: it's more convenient than looking up the news online. I also miss some of the fun programs that I watch now which I never would bother to download. Ther
Microsoft once again demonstrates... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Microsoft once again demonstrates... (Score:4, Funny)
DRM is your friend! If Microsoft didn't include it in Windows, the big media corporations would quickly sue the pants off of them, making it impossible to sell Windows. Why, that would be a disaster for the consumer! This way, we can at least still enjoy some forms of copyrighted content.
Parent
Heading in the right direction (Score:3, Funny)
What's next... (Score:5, Funny)
Yes. Didn't you get the memo?
This is what DRM *is*... (Score:5, Insightful)
Its sole purpose is to keep you from using the media you would otherwise have rightful access to in any way other than what the copyright holder explicitly wants.
In short, its sole purpose is, ultimately, to make you pay every time you make use of the media, and to control the flow of information.
DRM is how the media megacorporations intend to rein in the internet. For instance, you can't prove that the media broadcast a story when the story can't be recorded.
DRM is how the big corporations intend to remove your right to read [gnu.org].
This is just the first shot across the bow. It's going to get worse. A lot worse. Read all you can about "trusted computing" [wikipedia.org] to see where this is going. All they have to do is to remove your ability to boot an unsigned bootloader, and the game is over (with you as the loser).
If you think this is paranoid ranting, well, so did people who thought habeus corpus would never be removed. That doesn't make what I say right, but since the same people are ultimately involved, you shouldn't dismiss the above as paranoid ranting on the basis of incredulity alone.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
You want to pay for you music every time you listen to it? Why don't you just get a service like Rhapsody wher
Re:This is what DRM *is*... (Score:4, Insightful)
Do you really think it would be hard to block your access to foreign news broadcasts via DRM?
The mere existence of this broadcast flag threatens your ability to record the present and document the past. It drives a nail through some of the more basic requirements for a democracy, which is the right and need to be and stay well informed.
After all, we've always been at war with Eastasia.
Parent
Well, Microsoft think it's a bug... (Score:5, Informative)
Cockup rather than conspiracy?
Re:Well, Microsoft think it's a bug... (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Wasn't this a driver problem? (Score:5, Informative)
http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/176207.as
Re:Wasn't this a driver problem? (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
the tale of two neighbors (Score:5, Interesting)
For a while Joe Sixbit was laughed at by Joe Sixpack because while he was working on his ugly PC, Joe Sixpack's MSMCE-PC was already working and indeed looked more professional.
Then, after some time, Joe Sixpack started to face some problems: failed updates, unsupported codecs, and every time he had to call a number where someone gave the same not working answers. Joe Sixbit's system, instead, was working better and better: not only it supported every media it was thrown at, but it was also possible upgrading it to new media without waiting for a single software house approval. It could show weather forecasts and web pages, but also it run games, voip phonecalls, videoconferencing and other tasks it wasn't designed to thanks to an active community.
After some months Joe Sixbit still enjoys his self made media center and has learned a lot working on it, which pays he back of the time he spent, while Joe Sixpack only learned he has to reinstall the Windows MCE every now and then to make it work again after a software install screws the system, and still there are tasks he cannot perform and media he cannot play, which pays he back much less for the time and money he spent.
The moral is.. HECK! you still need a moral to stop using proprietary software after it's so clear how it's screwing you?
Joe Wiseman (Score:4, Insightful)
He uses the extra time and money saved to read books.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
There, fixed that for you. You see, the idea is that TV has always been "free" for the viewer, and the intent of these things is to leverage that content to reduce the regular outlay of cash associated with paying for every instance of a recording. If you don't understand that economy (spending time to save money), then you are detached from most o
old news (Score:5, Informative)
1. This is an old problem
2. This was a driver issue that only affected people who had changed hardware components.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
DRM is the way of artificial shortage (Score:4, Insightful)
Pieces of art, paintings of old masters, are nice to look at, but by no means necessary for survival. Even more, it's something to look at, not something to consume. You can look at the Mona Lisa, take the experience with you and go on with your life. Still, it's invaluable. It's a one-of-a-kind.
And let's not even get to Magic the Gathering cards or rare stamps.
All those things have a high value because they're rare. Not because people need them. They are valuable because people want them and only a selected few can have them. That's what makes their price tag to up.
Content, now, is by its very definition not scarce. Reproducing content is easy and has been cheap from the beginning of the printing press. With computers and digitalized content, the cost for reproduction has been brought very close to zero. In other words, unrestricted content has no value in our world because it is anything but scarce. Everyone can have it.
DRM now imposes an artificial shortage onto something that is available in abundance, with the sole goal to make the value (or rather, the price) of information go up. Disney understood this concept from early on, making its movies only available every few years for a short time, so people don't even ponder twice before buying. Either you get it now or you can't get it for a long, long time. So they pay, any price.
DRM should now make the same possible for every kind of digital content. The content industry dictates when and at what terms you may get it. The goal is, amongst others, that by creating an artificial shortage of a movie, the movie becomes a hot seller again, no matter how old it is. Think of, say, Casablanca. A good movie, but we've all seen it for
People would buy more. They would buy it THEN, not put it back 'til they want to see it again, they will buy then because of the fear that you can't get it for a long time anymore afterwards.
And, of course, you won't be able to watch it forever. You will watch it for as long as the content industry lets you.
This also creates a nice way of restricting the access to movies that ain't so much in sync with political views anymore. When was the last time you saw Rambo III [wikipedia.org] on a TV network? And how many copies that you can still buy contain the words "This movie is dedicated to the gallant people of Afghanistan" in the closing credits?
Could you see a few people who'd want this movie to disappear once and for all, as if it never existed? Or at least alter a few things?
It's not like movie altering isn't done already. But you can easily remove all existing copies of the "original" version with DRM. Movies have a best before date with it. Who could claim that Han shot first anymore without looking stupid to people who ain't old enough to remember?
Tastes a bit of Orwell, ain't it?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)