Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Windows Vista HTPC

Does anyone here use Vista as a Home Theater PC O/S?

My wife just got a message saying that the broadcaster does not allow recording of a specific show??? Has anyone heard of this?

Which show and broadcaster?

Americas Next Top Model & the broadcaster I believe is ABC

Its weird...

I can't remember if you run a digital/satelite box as well or you have the tuner in the PC. I have heard of some issues with the digital boxes not allowing recording from them to anything.

Hmm. I just finished reading a 2005 MS whitepaper. DRM has policy capabilities built in such that the content owner can decide what you can and can't do. This was all to do with the DRM chain between player and the display. Depending on the policy, certain outputs on your display card may actually be turned off.

Don't know if or how this applies to recording stuff, but it sure sounds like it does.

Fred

It's your Wife recording that show????
Ya right.......

Seriously though, I'm not sure how DRM works on TV we are not using it for our broadcasts but you can be sure that if there is any form of DRM code known to man, it has been built into Vista.

It's called a broadcast flag.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcast_flag

TV companies started tinkering with this a few years ago, but I didn't think that it was actually operational yet due to the controversy surrounding it.

The point is exactly as you've discovered, to limit the recording of certain material. The last I've read about is that it's sort of in limbo, and that neither Tivo nor other DVR's pay attention to the flag yet, or that cable/satellite companies weren't broadcasting it.

However, it seems that you've discovered that your cable company and/or Vista might just be using it. You're the first person I've ever run into that's actually experienced content being locked down by this flag.

It's possible that it's a bug too. Is the first time recording the show? I know I remember reading about a similar incident on a Tivo forum once, and the cause was traced to be a mistake by a broadcaster. Or perhaps it was a Tivo software bug. Either way, the problem was just an error on someone's part and was quickly corrected.

My only advice would be to ask the great Google and see if you can find others complaining about it. If it's a legit block, I'd bet you can find a forum where it's being discussed.

I thought it wasn't allowed yet. How odd.

Or alternatively, its called: "another reason to cancel cable and wait for a reasonable way to recieve content that fits into your schedule and your lifestyle".

That would be known as waiting for the DVD to come out or downloadable content, but then you are not seeing it on or near the original release date, which for me is not a big deal.