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Hi everyone. I've been using WMC for about a month now as my DVR and haven't had any issues. But last week this error message popped up when a show on a series schedule was about to record:
RECORDING CANCELED. "<insert program>" cannot be recorded. Restrictions set by the broadcaster and/or originator of the content prohibit recording of this program.
I know from doing some research that this seems to be an issue that pops up from time to time. I even found the post on this site about it from a couple of years ago. But when I'm trying to create this set up that my wife already is skeptical about and her Dr. Phil isn't recording this can turn into a big issue. Like I said, it hadn't been happening at all then it suddenly started I believe last Thursday. It happened with just about every show that was set to record on a bunch of different channels. Some ended up recording, some didn't. I have all series set to start 2 minutes before and sometimes it would record for those 2 minutes then stop. I have the SD HD Homerun tuner. The only two changes that I've made recently is I found the article on here about getting WMC to auto start in Live TV using Valve, and I updated the setup software for my tuner. I don't remember specifically which night I updated the software for my tuner, but I do remember that this started the night after I installed Valve. Now I'm not saying it was that, but I ended up uninstalling it anyway just to make sure and we still got the message today. I also noticed that people on SD's forums are talking about this happening to them as well.
Has anyone had this happen in the last week? Anyone know a fix? I found a post on another forum from a couple of years ago that said he fixed it by re-setting up his tuners in WMC. I haven't tried that yet, though. Thanks!
There are a couple of ways you can get this message:
1. The program is sent with a copy never CCI code of 0x3. This happens with video on demand such as HBO on demand and pay per view sporting events. You are unlikely to get this with a cableCARD tuner but the codes exist for this reason. There are times when this code can be send in error. This is a digital code and most likely would occur on premium channels.
2. You can also get this error if for some reason a CGMS-A code (from the analog days, remember?) that is copy never gets included in a digital stream. This is different than the CCI code and is in the MPEG stream. CableCARD tuners are required to honor this flag if it appears as part of the cableCARD spec. This happend about two weeks ago on ABC at the very end of Subugatroy and the begining of Modern Family. This code originated at ABC and wound up killing recordings on cableCARD tuners on many cable systems but not all. Some cable systems re-compress content and strip the codes out, clear QAM tuners don't even see this stuff and so don't pass it on to WMC.
What can you do? Complain. If it's a cable system error, complain to them (in writing), make a complaint on the FCC website with date and time of the error and the cable system, channel, program, etc.
If it happens on a broadcast channel on a network show, it's just wrong. It isn't allowed and you should make a complaint to your local station, Network (I'd suggest the Vice President of Engineering--get the name off the internet) and for good measure file a complaint with the FCC.
I think in the case of ABC on Modern Family it was a mistake--heaven only knows what caused it, someone could have thrown a switch, a bad edit, something riding on the overlay video at the begining of the show, etc.
But in short, if it is either a CCI 0x3 or CGMS-A, don't waste your time with your tuners, the fault isn't on your machine or tuners, its inbound.
John