Some channels don't play

[marvison]

Certain channels don't give any video or audio (though audio isn't working for any at the moment). If I enable CC I get some CC but it's kind of broken up and mostly unintelligible.. I think it may be because the channels are write protected or something? Just want to verify that this is likely the case before I switch back to WMC. The basic channels like 1-12 or so work for video. I think audio is just a matter of setting up decoders but I'm not worried about it if video is only going to work for 12 channels.


I'm currently testing this new set up on an older Dell with Windows 7 Pro 64-bit. I have a Ceton InfiniTV 6 Eth that feeds through a Cisco Tuning Adapter.

Hopefully this is enough information to provide an answer. This is my first post and I only briefly skimmed the sticky. I did at least attach a log file.

[sub]

It could be the channels are copy protected. Trying looking on the Ceton webpages while watching/recording one of the problem channels. It says the copy protection state.

Less likely, but also a possibility, the channels could be the new H.264 channels. The check for this, try doing a recording, then try playing the recording. If it's H.264 you might not be able to see it in live tv (without making a small change), but you will be able to see a recording.

[marvison]

Shortly after making this thread I saw you recommend this in another thread and it looks like that is my problem. It shows up as "Copy Control Information: "One Copy" (0x02)". Which I'm guessing means Copy Once which means as suspected Time Warner Cable sucks and I should not have bought a Ceton.

Thinking I might go for a SiliconDust HDHomeRun PRIME Cable HDTV. Maybe I can find someone to trade me for my Ceton. Really wish Ceton would tell us their plan, I'm pretty sure at this point it's just ride it out till it dies.

I told my fiance this was all to save money. What a pipe dream that was! Just don't tell her that...


Thanks for the quick response BTW!!

[sub]

Keep in mind, an HDHomeRun Prime will be exactly the same for these channels. ie, the problem is Time Warner Cable deciding to encrypt these channels. From what I've read, they sound like one of the worst cable companies for this.

[BrettB]

Shortly after making this thread I saw you recommend this in another thread and it looks like that is my problem. It shows up as "Copy Control Information: "One Copy" (0x02)". Which I'm guessing means Copy Once which means as suspected Time Warner Cable sucks and I should not have bought a Ceton.

Thinking I might go for a SiliconDust HDHomeRun PRIME Cable HDTV. Maybe I can find someone to trade me for my Ceton. Really wish Ceton would tell us their plan, I'm pretty sure at this point it's just ride it out till it dies.

FYI: You would have the same problem with HDHomeRun PRIME. It is required to comply with the Cable Labs DRM restrictions just like the Centon InfiniTV.

[marvison]

Yeah TWC seems to be pretty bad. I thought the HDHR Prime had it's own answer to WMC that allowed you to watch copy protected channels? Not necessarily NPVR, though I wish I could use it it seems like a great program.

I find it amazing there are no solutions besides WMC out there. I realize the market isn't huge but there has to be some money to be made. I can't imagine the legal hurdle's that would need to be cleared before you could make money though.

The worst part is all of the information about this sort of stuff is spread out over many forum's and they all approach the topic from a different angle.

Thanks again for the responses.

[BrettB]

I thought the HDHR Prime had it's own answer to WMC that allowed you to watch copy protected channels? Not necessarily NPVR, though I wish I could use it it seems like a great program.

SD is developing a system which is supposed to support DRM protected content on SOME client platforms at SOME point in the future. But at the present it does not support any DRM protected channels, so it is equivalent to NextPVR in what channels it can record and playback right now. (As a paid supporter and sometime user of the SD solution, I can also say that the user interface and feature set is rather primitive especially when compared to NextPVR.)

[sub]

Yeah TWC seems to be pretty bad. I thought the HDHR Prime had it's own answer to WMC that allowed you to watch copy protected channels? Not necessarily NPVR, though I wish I could use it it seems like a great program.

Ah, right. Yes, they're not quite there on the copy-protected channels side of their DVR serivce yet, but actively working on it.

I find it amazing there are no solutions besides WMC out there. I realize the market isn't huge but there has to be some money to be made. I can't imagine the legal hurdle's that would need to be cleared before you could make money though.

They've set the bar pretty high, with high licensing fees and legal costs, and the restrictions are pretty serious for these channel so would really limit a lot of the cool features you'd normally get from NextPVR (like encrypting recordings on disk, only allowing output over HDMI HDCP connection, no streaming to Kodi/Emby etc).

I have considered it though, and haven't ruled it out, but I'm not sure I could cover my costs and make a profit.

[marvison]

I've only delved into this world as far as needed to make my set-up work but from what I've seen everyone is waiting with baited breath to see what comes after WMC. If ever there was a time to seriously consider going for profit I image it's not going to get better than this. Though I'm sure you've already considered it as you seem to be a fairly smart person.

If you decided to do something that would offer support to a variety of tuners and would work with DRM I know I would certainly back it. My problem with some of the kickstarters I've seen are they are hardware specific. I don't think a hardware specific approach would work. Not with the community I've seen. Then again I'm crazy knew to the scene so what do I know!

Totally off topic and out of the scope of this forum in general but do you know if WMCserver works with copy protected channels?

[sub]

If you decided to do something that would offer support to a variety of tuners and would work with DRM I know I would certainly back it. My problem with some of the kickstarters I've seen are they are hardware specific. I don't think a hardware specific approach would work. Not with the community I've seen. Then again I'm crazy knew to the scene so what do I know!

There is only really two bits of hardware - the Ceton device or the HDHomeRun device (Hauppauge deviceis a rebranded HDHomeRun Device). Unfortunately they both need different technologies, and different money invested to get them working with copy protected content (and it's not entirely clear it's possible for the Ceton in Win10 or above).

Totally off topic and out of the scope of this forum in general but do you know if WMCserver works with copy protected channels?

Are you talking about Windows Media Center (or ServerWMC addon for emby/kodi)? Windows Media Center can watch/record the protected channels. ServerWMC addon for emby/kodi can only do copy-freely content like NextPVR.