FOX Turning on CCI Flags

[Telecore]

It appears that national FOX networks like FX, FXX, Fox Sports 1 & 2 have set their CCI flags to something other than copy freely on Verizon FIOS. None of those channels are coming in on my SageTV system as of Monday. I have to watch them on WMC7. I found this:

http://www.gossamer-threads.com/list...v/users/588230

Has anyone else noticed this?

I just ordered a set top box and will dust off my HD-PVR/HD-PVR 2 equipment.

[mistergq]

Wow...I just checked and I am having this issue as well with FIOS. My computer is messed up with firewire and I think I need to reformat to make it work. I don't want to reformat, so I think I'm going to have to set up a USB UIRT again for the one set top box and HD HR.

[reggie14]

It still works where I am... Hopefully it stays that way.

[tvmaster2]

Cox Comm via a cable card in a Tivo still shows programs on FX, FXX and FS1 as free and open for copying, so it's not the network enforcing it I don't think...at least not here. On the other hand, Cox is going full digital on either Aug/Sept 1, so things may change then

[Telecore]

On the MythTV forum one individual received this from Verizon

From Verizon Direct:
> Sorry for the inconvenience, after doing some digging around we
> found that the copy-once was implemented on those national services
> at provider request.

In the past, I have observed occasional channel outages due to temporarily mis-marked CCI flags, but in this case it is most of the channels associated with the same (FOX) network - I think that it is deliberate and is here to stay.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by Telecore

On the MythTV forum one individual received this from Verizon

From Verizon Direct:
> Sorry for the inconvenience, after doing some digging around we
> found that the copy-once was implemented on those national services
> at provider request.

In the past, I have observed occasional channel outages due to temporarily mis-marked CCI flags, but in this case it is most of the channels associated with the same (FOX) network - I think that it is deliberate and is here to stay.

Where are the Chinese hackers at. Maybe they can ransom the flags away by crashing the Fox servers a few hundred times over a 2-3 month period.

[reggie14]

I don't really care about FX, FXX, Fox Sports 1 & 2, but I record Fox enough that would be very annoying. If they really do this I'll have to think about whether it would be worth it to me to switch to Comcast.

Before anyone says the obvious, an antenna isn't really a good option for me. I'd need to mount an antenna in my attic or roof and find a way to run the wire into the right part of my basement where my server is (since I don't have either in the house, either).

[KryptoNyte]

Reggie, just a wild guess here, but I think he is only referring to the sports stations, not the local Fox affiliate.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Reggie, just a wild guess here, but I think he is only referring to the sports stations, not the local Fox affiliate.

Indeed. I missed that.

Unfortunately, this is worse than I initially thought. This is going to hit all Fox channels, which includes:

• Big Ten Network (probably-unconfirmed)
• Fox Business Network
• Fox College Sports
• Fox News Channel
• Fox Soccer Plus
• Fox Sports 1
• Fox Sports 2
• Fox Sports Networks
• FX
• FXX
• FX Movie Channel
• National Geographic Channel
• Nat Geo Mundo
• Nat Geo Wild

I really hope other TV networks don't follow suit... What could have happened for Fox to suddenly care about this?

[KryptoNyte]

Sports. They believe that sports broadcasts are golden. I'm not so sure about the copy flags on the news channels. You folks will have to report in on what happens with those.

[SHS]

Originally Posted by reggie14

Indeed. I missed that.

Unfortunately, this is worse than I initially thought. This is going to hit all Fox channels, which includes:

• Big Ten Network (probably-unconfirmed)
• Fox Business Network
• Fox College Sports
• Fox News Channel
• Fox Soccer Plus
• Fox Sports 1
• Fox Sports 2
• Fox Sports Networks
• FX
• FXX
• FX Movie Channel
• National Geographic Channel
• Nat Geo Mundo
• Nat Geo Wild

I really hope other TV networks don't follow suit... What could have happened for Fox to suddenly care about this?

That the problem there ready following suit and who do have to d for this those idiot at FCC and DRM law.

[reggie14]

I haven't gone a ton of testing, but I do know FX, Fox Sports, Fox News and National Geographic are all hit by this.

Update:
Is there a good way to detect all the channels that are DRMed without doing it manually? For example, if I were to hit "Detect Channels" on the HDHR Prime webadmin page, would that impact my Sage system in any way? I don't want to do anything that would force me to reconfigure my channel lineups.

Also, I called to complain to FiOS. If they're going to do that then the least they can do is give me a discount. They gave me an incredibly hard sell on a 2yr contract, which I wouldn't agree to. We'll see how much longer I keep cable. There only needs to be slightly better streaming services (and purchasing options) for it to make sense for me to just drop down to basic cable or OTA (except that I'd need to figure out an antenna for the latter).

[mistergq]

Big Ten Network is the problem for me. Also now that USGA is on FoxSports, that is also a problem. I ordered a USB UIRT because I couldn't find my old one. My firewire is screwed up and I think a reformat is the only way to get it to work again. I don't have the energy to reformat and if I did, it would be to a 64 bit operating system so that wouldn't help here. I think once STB (which I need anyways because of my subscription) and HDHR will do the trick for this.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by reggie14

I haven't gone a ton of testing, but I do know FX, Fox Sports, Fox News and National Geographic are all hit by this.

Update:
Is there a good way to detect all the channels that are DRMed without doing it manually? For example, if I were to hit "Detect Channels" on the HDHR Prime webadmin page, would that impact my Sage system in any way? I don't want to do anything that would force me to reconfigure my channel lineups.

Also, I called to complain to FiOS. If they're going to do that then the least they can do is give me a discount. They gave me an incredibly hard sell on a 2yr contract, which I wouldn't agree to. We'll see how much longer I keep cable. There only needs to be slightly better streaming services (and purchasing options) for it to make sense for me to just drop down to basic cable or OTA (except that I'd need to figure out an antenna for the latter).

You can run the detect channels on the prime, and it will scan everything, and show what is DRM and what is not. The only impact this has is it uses up all the tuners to do this, so you will not be able to record from sage while the scan is running (can take some time).

[KryptoNyte]

So ... what are you folks finding for [new] DRM stations on FIOS with the scanning that Fuzzy mentioned?

[reggie14]

All the Fox-owned channels are copy-once, except for the local Fox affiliate.

Just looking at the HD channels, for me that's:

• FX HD (EAST)
• Fox Sports 1 HD
• BTN HD
• Fox Business Ne
• Fox News HD
• National Geo HD
• Nat Geo Wild HD
• FXX HD

[mikejaner]

Originally Posted by reggie14

All the Fox-owned channels are copy-once, except for the local Fox affiliate.

Just looking at the HD channels, for me that's:

• FX HD (EAST)
• Fox Sports 1 HD
• BTN HD
• Fox Business Ne
• Fox News HD
• National Geo HD
• Nat Geo Wild HD
• FXX HD

Yup, my FIOS channels are now blocked too. I have no problem with finding the shows elsewhere when I am paying for them. Luckily, I don't watch anything on these networks.

[dlapp]

I don't know if this will help those on Verizon or not since I am on Wide Open West, but up until about 6 months ago I was never able to record channels like FS1 HD and National Geographic HD because my Ceton card said they were marked Copy Once. Then I noticed this post

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/...hp?f=68&t=8352

and installed the Ceton beta firmware mentioned. Ever since then I have been able to use Sage (with SageDCT) to record all the HD channels in my cable package. According to the post the beta firmware removed support for legacy copy protection methods.

It might be worth a try before you give up and switch to Media Center.

[Telecore]

Thanks - I am aware of that Beta release - there may be a memory leak problem associated with it. I don't want to update the firmware unless I have to.

In the case of Verizon, based on my discussion with tech support and other things that I have read on the internet, I am fairly certain that FOX requested CCI=copy once on their national channels, so removing legacy copy protection won't help.

I am not switching to media center - I got two set top boxes and HD-PVRs now along with my cablecard (Ceton InfiniTV 6 PCIe).

Although I do have a Ceton InfinitV 4 PCIe based Win7 Media Center PC with Xbox extenders, (my backup DVR), I prefer my SageTV PC with HD300s for several reasons.