[mythtv-users] Comcast and Cablecard CGMS copy-once problem

[Peter Bennett (cats22)]

On 11/29/2014 01:14 PM, Gary Buhrmaster wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 27, 2014 at 4:06 PM, Peter Bennett (cats22)
> <cats22 at comcast.net> wrote:
>> I posted a message in the Comcast forums
> I would claim this was not an optimum approach.
> Regardless of the claims of the CSR that may
> be responding, they are not the people you need
> to get to.  The forums are not the path you should
> take.  That is why I previously posted that one
> should call.  You need to be able to escalate
> (and the forums have no real provision for that).
> Every Comcast employee on the forums seem
> to try to help.  Some even have a handle on the
> minutia, but they are not the people you need
> to talk to, and I do mean talk.
>
>> The settings in our cable headend have been verified and are accurate as
>> Copy Freely."
> And this is likely true.  And totally not addressing
> the issue you should have been raising which has
> nothing to do with channels being set to
> CCI=Copy_Freely.  The issue is that the latest Cisco
> CableCARD Firmware converts CCI=Copy_Freely
> to CCI=not_specified (there is no such flag state,
> it means that there is no CCI present in the stream),
> which means CGMS must be respected.  Flagging
> channels as CCI=Copy_Freely at the HE was,
> unfortunately, a distraction.  If you mentioned it, it
> likely led the CSR down the wrong path.  That would
> be an error on your part (the CSR tried to help, and
> believed he did, if you said the channels were not
> properly marked, and they are).
>
> I will again suggest you need to (by phone) contact
> Comcast, and continue to escalate.  You will be
> spending hours and hours (and hours) on the phone,
> probably over multiple sessions.  But only a phone
> call cannot be dismissed with the imprecise answer
> that you got on the forums (and where you get to
> start all over again).
>
> But before you make that call, I would suggest you
> be able to reference the (change of) CableCARD
> specification by reference number.  And (ideally)
> the reference in the Cisco Firmware release notes
> (although that seems impossible these days since
> Cisco (appear to) no longer publish them).  That
> may require many hours of research on your part.
>
> Good luck.

I did post details in the forum that it was a CGMS flag issue and
related to a cablecard firmware upgrade, but that seems to have been
forgotten or misunderstood.

I don't think I have the knowledge or perseverance to do as you
describe. I have not had luck trying to escalate at Comcast before. This
would likely have to be during business hours and I cannot really take
hours off work for this.

Maybe my approach will be to let the USA Network, Syfy channel and
others know that they are losing a viewer and likely will lose more if
this upgrade is propagated to other areas. It may be that they are the
ones setting the CGMS flags or else they may have more influence on
Comcast than I do.

Peter