Verizon FiOS TV → Re: CableLabs Changes OCUR Spec Expanding Copy-Freely Content !

Nice! While this doesn't impact FiOS subscribers, it could still potentially help a lot of people.

I wonder if TiVo will jump on this as well. I'd be nice to know how many channels on TWC are truly copy protected vs falling back to the older standards.

Everything on TWC is copy protected.

I have an HDHomeRun Prime and I asked one of the SiliconDust guys about the change. It only affects Comcast, Charter, WoW and other providers who use Cisco CableCards with the latest firmware version and have the channels marked as unprotected, or who transmit channels in clear QAM. There are some threads on the other forums on here for the problems that should be fixed with the updates:
»[Cable Card] Cablecard Update Breaks HDHomeRun/Ceton Tuners - FYI
»WOW Cable Card DRM issues
»How to get a CableCard firmware downgraded?

They are all CCI 0x02 flagged. The only thing that will fix it is someone hacking a custom firmware to the CableCARD tuners that ignores CCI flags too. Sadly, no one has accomplished such a feat and released it publicly.

It's literally a few lines of code in the software for the device that is telling the device to make your recordings useless. It's frustrating because I consider it like a virus packaged in with the firmware that needs to be removed.

Or a function intended to enforce (legal) DRM...

So in other words, a virus.

A virus is not a legal piece of code.

That depends on the country.

And legality has nothing to do with it.

A computer virus is code that causes your computer to perform unwanted behavior.

The code that tells the tuner to wrap your recordings in a bunch of bullshit definitely qualifies as unwanted behavior.

Well for me (and others I suspect) legality has everything to do with it. From Wikipedia: "A computer virus is a malware program that, when executed, replicates by inserting copies of itself (possibly modified) into other computer programs, data files, or the boot sector of the hard drive; when this replication succeeds, the affected areas are then said to be "infected". Viruses often perform some type of harmful activity on infected hosts, such as stealing hard disk space or CPU time, accessing private information, corrupting data, displaying political or humorous messages on the user's screen, spamming their contacts, or logging their keystrokes. However, not all viruses carry a destructive payload or attempt to hide themselves%u2014the defining characteristic of viruses is that they are self-replicating computer programs which install themselves without the user's consent."
A tuner only works with implementing software when running on the host machine. You may not want the behavior of the code, but it's there so that the product is compliant with DRM requirements. Like it or not (and you clearly do not like it) that's the way the software is designed.

I clearly understand where you're coming from. It is not a place where I am at. This is my last post on this topic.