NextPVR 5 Not Finding Premium Cable Channels

[jbhall56]

I finally bit the bullet and got two SiliconDust HD HomeRun 3 channel tuners to replace my Ceton board so that I could upgrade to NextPVR 5 on Windows 10 Pro 20H2.

The problem now is that when I go to configure NextPVR it only sees the non-premium channels (i.e., those with DRM enabled such as HBO, Showtime, Smithsonian, etc.).

The HD HomeRun configuration utility sees everything as does their HomeRun client, so it is configured and ready to go.

What do I need to do to get NextPVR to see the premium channels?
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[pkscout]

The premium channels (and, depending on your area likely everything except the locals) probably have a CCI byte (the thing that tells the cable card what level of DRM to enforce) set to something other than COPY FREELY (like COPY ONCE or COPY NEVER). NextPVR can only record or show live channels set to COPY NEVER. As I said, with most cable systems that includes only the local stations. So basically with NextPVR and the HDHR Prime3, you are going to be restricted to just locals.

To get anything else you'd need an encoder that could take a signal from the cable box and convert it (along with an IR channel changer), and that can be tricky to setup and maintain. The other option I'm testing is to using ChannelsDVR to get many (but not all) of my cable channels via TV Everywhere and then get them into NextPVR via the IPTV option. Again, a tad tricky, and Channels is $80 a year.

[mvallevand]

You can only play DRM content with WMC or the HD Homerun app not NextPVR.

Martin

[jbhall56]

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Wish I had known this back when, I wouldn't have converted.  I would have kept the Ceton and stayed on NextPVR v4.

Windows Media Center is no longer an option as Microsoft killed it off.  So unless you already have it running, you can no longer create a Windows 7 or 8 system with it as it will no longer install.  Found that out the hard way when I had to rebuild my Windows 8.1 system and WMC will NOT install even with a valid key.  Microsoft informed me that they have invalidated all of the WMC keys so a rebuild/reinstall is no longer possible.

Seems really silly that if the CableCARD is allowing the channel to be discovered that you cannot play it because of some bit/byte being set.  That also tells me that there is a way to play those channels because if SiliconDust can do it, then any software solution should be able to do it.

[mvallevand]

Several users are using their Ceton's with NextPVR v5. You also can't play DRM content in v4.

It isn't one bit. NextPVR could record the file but it would still be encrypted. Same thing with WMC if you create a WTV file you can only play that file on the same Windows PC that recorded it.

Martin

[sub]

Wish I had known this back when, I wouldn't have converted.  I would have kept the Ceton and stayed on NextPVR v4.

I wouldn't have expected the channels to be any different on HDHR Prime vs Ceton. They both had the same requirements placed on them by CableLabs. Third party applications, like NextPVR (and pretty much everything else), should only have had access to copy-freely channels. Thankfully for a lot of cable companies, this is most channels.

Seems really silly that if the CableCARD is allowing the channel to be discovered that you cannot play it because of some bit/byte being set.  That also tells me that there is a way to play those channels because if SiliconDust can do it, then any software solution should be able to do it.

FYI, there is a very expensive licensing and certification process that applications can go through to be able to get keys for decrypting this type of content. It costs like $250k, and has all sorts of requirements, like applications will only allow protected content to be watched over hdcp protected hdmi links, recordings will be encrypted on disk and not playable in other applications etc. Also, every version of the application needs to go through recertification, which is like $20k. Obviously this is not something the NextPVR project can do. The only PC applications that have ever been through this are WMC and HDHR application. No other applications can view Copy-Once or Copy-Never content.

In theory your Ceton behaved exactly the same way. Are you sure your cable company hasn't changed the CCI flags on some of your channels recently? (we surprisingly often see coincidences like this, like when people swear things just started when they installed a new version, or replaced a tuner...only to later find it was something else)

[BrettB]

In theory your Ceton behaved exactly the same way. Are you sure your cable company hasn't changed the CCI flags on some of your channels recently? (we surprisingly often see coincidences like this, like when people swear things just started when they installed a new version, or replaced a tuner...only to later find it was something else)

I believe from his posts that he was previously using WMC with Windows 7. And WMC with the Ceton (or an HDHR?) would have (probably) allowed him to record and playback (on the same machine) the CCI/DRMed channels.

[sub]

True.