Hey, Ceton--WOW Cable needs your help

[adam1991]

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r294340 ... DRM-issues

So I just wanted to update with some more info I've discovered (and I sent this info to Dan via a PM).

It would appear that HDHR Prime users seemed to resolve their problem with the latest firmware for the prime. Ceton users have not been as lucky.

I got in touch with my friend who first made me aware of this issue. He had previous said that the firmware got his CCI flags back on his HDHR Prime. However, I did some more debugging with him, and that was incorrect. The CCI flags are still missing. However, it seems the latest HDHR Prime firmware now ignores the CGMS flags. So while the issue isn't exactly fixed, the symptoms have disappeared from his perspective. Not so for Ceton users.

In doing a bit more digging, I discovered the following:
»www.silicondust.com/forum2/viewt···p=104672

In a nutshell, CableLabs made a change to the CableCARD spec. Whereas previously, the cablecard was required to report whatever CCI flags were present, it is now allowed to report there are no CCI flags even when the CCI 0x00 Copy Freely flag is present. When that's the case, that makes the CCI Copy Freely flag effectively useless, and prevents the cable provider from making the content freely available when the channel broadcaster chooses to embed CGMS protection flags in the stream.

It would seem that Cisco implemented this change in their latest cablecard firmware. That new firmware was rolled out to both WOW and Comcast users about a month ago. However, the Comcast users in that thread reported that Comcast has worked around the issue by rolling back their firmware to a previous version.

I think WOW now needs to do the same thing. I've asked Dan to pass this info along to the video engineering department.

Later in that thread WOW Dan (very nice guy, VERY efficient and effective) said:

I have talked with one of the video engineering managers, and he was able to locate a technical contact at Ceton. So far he hasn't been able to make any contact with them unfortunately. I would suggest those having issue to also contact Ceton if possible to push them to help with this issue. We will do what we can to work with them on coming to a solution.

[erkotz]

Hmm, I asked around the office and no one has heard from WOW. I just reached out to WOW_Dan with my contact info. I have some theories on what is going on here, but need to get more info to prove it.

[adam1991]

Superb. Thanks.

And for the record, it's not happening to me on my old PCIe4 with nowhere near current firmware. (Well, except for FXX showing their Simpsons marathon all copy-protected.) But then, I may have a Moto card. I'll have to look.

[kd6icz]

Everything except broadcast is copy protected on TWC here in SoCal. Is that not the way it's supposed to be?

[adam1991]

I guess there's no "supposed to be". It's up to the content owner.

But if you can determine that the content owner does not want to copy protect his content, but the transmission middleman--TWC--takes it upon himself to insert such copy protection, then you could complain.

[blueiedgod]

Everything except broadcast is copy protected on TWC here in SoCal. Is that not the way it's supposed to be?

Same here, TWC has every single cable channel copy protected. Verizon FiOS does not, for the same channels. Only premium channels are copy protected on FiOS.

[kd6icz]

Same here, TWC has every single cable channel copy protected. Verizon FiOS does not, for the same channels. Only premium channels are copy protected on FiOS.

Yeah.... FiOS was awesome. Going from FiOS to TWC is like going from a driving a Porsche to driving a taco truck.

I could transfer whatever I wanted between my TiVo units or even to my PC. Not with TWC.

[adam1991]

yeah, you're stuck using the extender model--either WMC or Tivo.

And hey, at least a taco truck makes you money. It's worth the drive. TWC is more like driving a Lada to the monthly Party meeting.