[mythtv-users] Comcast encrypting World Series on FoxHD

[Ronald Frazier]

On Sat, Nov 1, 2014 at 3:55 PM, Bob Shanteau <rmshant at gmail.com> wrote:

>  Oops, sorry. I thought I had told you that I was not able to record
> World Series games on my local (Salinas, CA, USA) FoxHD channel with either
> a Motorola DCH3200 using firewire or an HDHomerun Prime using ethernet.
>

Oops...premature post via keyboard shortcut on that last message :-(

Anyway, I'll add an additional thought to this (regarding the prime...I
don;t know much about firewire DRM). Cable companies usually don't flip CCI
flags on individual programs. They usually do it per channel and it never
changes unless someone goes in and reconfigures. So most likely the DRM is
coming from the analog CGMS flags. The fact that the CGMS flag comes into
play means one of two things

1) Comcast has not applied any CCI flags to that channel, so you are victim
to whatever CGMS flags are applied by the broadcaster of that station (or
possibly even flags from the source content itself). The solution to this
is to ask Comcast to fix it (Comcast is generally cooperative with this
once you get in touch with the right person). If it were currently mid
2013, this would (I think) be the only explanation for this situation,
however....

2) There has been a new development in the last year or so. The cablecard
specification was changed by CableLabs, and Cisco has implemented this
change in their latest firmware (my cable company rolled it out a few
months ago, but I think I saw a few Comcast people posting about it last
December). Previous to this change, a CCI flag of "Copy Freely" (or any CCI
flag, for that matter) would override any CGMS flag (even if the CGMS was
more restrictive). This new specification says that, when a channel is
marked "Copy Freely", the cablecard can (or must??? im not clear on that
part) report that there are no CCI flags at all. So whereas previously,
CGMS only mattered if there were no CCI flags, now it also matters if the
CCI flag is "Copy Freely". With this change, the only 2 conditions under
which mythtv can record are both hampered by CGMS flags when present.

This last situation has been discussed in a few other threads. The current
solutions are

1) If your HDHR prime is running firmware older than the 20140604 vesion,
then upgrade it to that version (it has a bug that disregards the CGMS
flags). However, DO NOT upgrade it...EVER...to any version newer than
20140604, because once you do, that bug has been fixed, you will be subject
to CGMS flags, and you will NOT be able to downgrade back to 20140604 EVER.

2) If you've already upgraded past 20140604, you could try to find another
device that isn't. Not sure what version new models are currently running
off the shelf. You could also try to get a used one off ebay (ask the
seller before bidding)

3) With my cable provider (WOW) they can set a flag on their system that
will lock your cablecard firmware to a version before this new
specification change was implemented. You can see if comcast will do the
same thing for you. Then (assuming your comcast flags it as CCI: Copy
Freely) you should be set...at least for as long as you can stay on that
firmware. My cable company said it should not be a problem long term, as
they rarely upgrade firmware, and that last version had been in use for a
few years, so they probably aren't likely to implement anything soon that
would break the old firmware and force me to upgrade. If they ever do, then
you are currently stuck with options 1 or 2. I've got a HDHR Prime running
20140604 which I don't use, but which I am holding onto for that exact
reason...just in case.


-- 
Ron Frazier
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