Verizon to set copy once bit on Premiums effective July 31, 2012

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

Sometimes that is not a feasible option because most TV packages come with some kind of contract and deals... and have early termination fees... Also many times the TV package is tied on to the internet / phone packages.

I wonder if them changing their encryption rules is enough to get out of the contract without a termination fee.

[mistergq]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I wonder if them changing their encryption rules is enough to get out of the contract without a termination fee.

Probably not because you can just use their STB and DVR!

However, in fairness, *knock on wood* as of right now, there is no copy once flag.

[King of Bayonne]

Originally Posted by King of Bayonne

I am in the Albany New York area and received this notice in today's mail. I do not subscribe to, and therefore don't care about the inability to record, any premium channels... if this goes by *my* defininition of "premium" (stuff that I would have to actually pay extra for, e.g. HBO and Cinemax). I will, however, be plenty cheesed off if the definition of "premium" includes things like the YES Network (which I don't pay extra for, but which *some* people might consider "premium" because it is a local sports channel).

I'll report back in August...

Following up... as of this writing I can still record all programs exactly as before. If anything did change on the FiOS end, it hasn't affected me... my STBs have rebooted (once, I think) but I haven't had to do anything with my Sage server.

As I mentioned, I don't subscribe to any for-pay premium channels, but a quick spot-check of HBO, Cinemax, etc using the Ceton diagnostics tools shows that they are all listed as Copy Freely. At least for now.


KoB

[King of Bayonne]

Originally Posted by King of Bayonne

a quick spot-check of HBO, Cinemax, etc using the Ceton diagnostics tools shows that they are all listed as Copy Freely. At least for now.

Correction... I was not spot-checking the correct channel numbers. A quick look at HBO shows that it is indeed now flagged as "One Copy". This will not be an issue for me as I don't subscribe to any for-pay premiums, but it may certainly be an issue for those who do...


KoB

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by mistergq

Probably not because you can just use their STB and DVR!

However, in fairness, *knock on wood* as of right now, there is no copy once flag.

at the least, the argument would be that they should provide the dvr for the same price currently being paid for the cablecard.

[mistergq]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

at the least, the argument would be that they should provide the dvr for the same price currently being paid for the cablecard.

That would be a hell of a deal since my cable card is $2.00 or 3.00 a month. I am not sure what the point of the postcard was except if they wanted people to properly authenticate, which why not just send out a card that says that.

I have fios at work in my office. I have been using the STB more to switch between Olympic channels...it makes me miss Sage when I am at work.

[mistergq]

Originally Posted by King of Bayonne

Correction... I was not spot-checking the correct channel numbers. A quick look at HBO shows that it is indeed now flagged as "One Copy". This will not be an issue for me as I don't subscribe to any for-pay premiums, but it may certainly be an issue for those who do...


KoB

Check back in a week and I bet it will be copy freely. This happens to me all the time. I have switched all the premium channels to HD PVR for this reason.

[macsupergeek]

I too have FIOS and as of last night I still have access to all the premiums on my CETON cards. I have not run the diags yet to see of they are set as copy once or freely, but when I ran the test on the that test channel, 123 or 134 or whatever it was, I of course could not view a copy once channel. So as of this writing they either haven't gotten to me yet or just haven't thrown the switch yet.

[macsupergeek]

FIOS was supposed to lock down the premiums as of 7/31 as copy once. As of today 8/14, it is just HBO and Cinemax that are locked out to my SageTV. After they flipped the switch my CableCards became unassociated and I had to call and re-pair them, once the process was complete, HBO and Cinemax were once again able to be tuned using Windows Media Center, so there is at least hope for my server when the Echo's are available. I had to re-setup one of my cable boxes and HD-PVR to tune in those 2 premium services, whereas Showtime, Starz, and Encore still work through the Ceton cards and SageTV.

* merged *

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by macsupergeek

FIOS was supposed to lock down the premiums as of 7/31 as copy once. As of today 8/14, it is just HBO and Cinemax that are locked out to my SageTV. After they flipped the switch my CableCards became unassociated and I had to call and re-pair them, once the process was complete, HBO and Cinemax were once again able to be tuned using Windows Media Center, so there is at least hope for my server when the Echo's are available. I had to re-setup one of my cable boxes and HD-PVR to tune in those 2 premium services, whereas Showtime, Starz, and Encore still work through the Ceton cards and SageTV.

* merged *

Nextcomwireless.com still lists modified VIP-211 Dish Network boxes for sale for $800 each... :-) I have no real worries of losing any channels for the foreseeable future...

[Ron]

I'm in the Tampa/Sarasota market and just discovered that I can no longer get HBO or Cinemax using HDHR Prime. Those are the only premiums that I can determine are blocked.

How do I check for copy flags?

[King of Bayonne]

Originally Posted by Ron

I'm in the Tampa/Sarasota market and just discovered that I can no longer get HBO or Cinemax using HDHR Prime. Those are the only premiums that I can determine are blocked.

How do I check for copy flags?

Download and install the MCIA Digital Cable Diagnostics Tool, available here. Run it and "Test All Channels". Then you can click on any channel and get the details for that channel, including the copy flag status (CurrentCopyControlInt in the properties list).


KoB

[Ron]

Originally Posted by King of Bayonne

Download and install the MCIA Digital Cable Diagnostics Tool, available here. Run it and "Test All Channels". Then you can click on any channel and get the details for that channel, including the copy flag status (CurrentCopyControlInt in the properties list).


KoB

Thanks, KoB, for the link, however the Tuner Scan is not finding any of my networked HDHR tuners. I'm running it on my Sage server where the HDHR configuration utility is seeing my tuners just fine. Any thoughts as to why this utility can't locate my tuners?

Thanks,
Ron

[King of Bayonne]

Originally Posted by Ron

Thanks, KoB, for the link, however the Tuner Scan is not finding any of my networked HDHR tuners. I'm running it on my Sage server where the HDHR configuration utility is seeing my tuners just fine. Any thoughts as to why this utility can't locate my tuners?

Sorry, but no clue on this one.


KoB

[Ron]

Originally Posted by King of Bayonne

Sorry, but no clue on this one.


KoB

And I've got Net Framework 3.5 turned on, which is a prerequisite per their instructions. Oh well.....

[Boolah]

Originally Posted by Ron

How do I check for copy flags?

You shouldn't need any third party software to check the flags on the channels, the hdhomerun_config.exe file (which is part of the HDHomeRun software) can tell you what you're after.

This is a simple batch script which will run through channels 1-999 and output the channel number, name, auth, cci and cgms. You should change the "devid" variable to the device ID of your HDHomeRun PRIME, and modify the HDHomeRunConfig variable if you installed the HDHomeRun software in a non-standard location. You can also change the "999" in the IF statement if you want to scan channels above 999. Hope it helps!

On a side note, it appears as though VZ has set HBO and Cinemax to copy-once nationwide.

@echo off
set /a i=1
set devid="00000000"
set HDHomeRunConfig="%PROGRAMFILES%\Silicondust\HDHomerun\hdhomerun_config.exe"
:loop
IF %i%==999 GOTO END
%HDHomeRunConfig% %devid% set /tuner0/vchannel %i% >NUL
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO nextchan
ping 127.0.0.1 -n 2 -w 1000 >NUL
%HDHomeRunConfig% %devid% get /tuner0/vstatus
:nextchan
set /a i=%i%+1
GOTO loop
:end
echo done

[crater]

Quick question. Are the MLB channels (which i understand get flipped to NHL during hockey season(if there's a season..)) flagged at all? I've got an HDHome Run on the way now.. looking at my options as to what to use with it.. but my biggest reason for wanting it is to get rid of the free dvr verizon gave me for the first year before it cost 20 a month, but the other big reason is recording hockey. I work till 5 pm localtime(California) and I'm a Red Wings(Detroit) fan, so majority of their games start at 4 or 4:30 localtime.. so my problem is I'd miss the first hour to hour and 1/2 of the game.

I was previously getting NHL via the Game Center live package.. but after numerous problems, blackouts and no games during the playoffs I was furious with ordering from them directly and relying on their system. Really hoping I didn't just invest the money in the HDHR Prime and 200 bucks in Pc parts for a recorder to have to settle for using Windows MediaCenter (Which from my googles does provide DRM, so copy once functions properly).

Thanks

[Ron]

Thanks!! This is exactly what I was looking for.

I ran all my channels and can confirm that HBO and Cinemax are the only ones with Copy Once protection on Verizon in this market.

Ron

[mistergq]

FYI and just an update. I noticed yesterday that SD Channels were resulting in red flags. This morning I rescanned to discover the 95% of the SD channels have been removed from the cable card.

This is not a big deal, except my Mother watches SD channels when she is over. I still the HDPVR hooked up to two STB for HBO and Cinemax so if my mom wants to watch those channels, then it will be HDPVR with those channels.