Copy protected data and virtual machines

[robbro]

Ok, this is a repost from Ars technica.com. They thought I may get more information here...

http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic. ... &t=1253145

"Disclaimer, I have never used VM's myself, so this may be a silly question... but here goes...

I use WIndows 7 media center to distribute tv and dvr recordings throughout my home to media center extenders. I use a HD Home Run Prime with cable card to get my cable recordings. I really like this setup so much more than the cable boxes I used to have, I can expand my storage, and easily manage everything... however I am locked into one PC and one OS as far as I can tell for as long as I want to run this setup (well I can upgrade PC, but would have to re-record shows).

I'm wondering if I could set up a virtual machine to run windows 7 and media center, then in the future should I upgrade pc or operating systems, just move the virtual machine over, keep it running and maintain my library and functionality? Or is it nowhere near that simple? "

[RyC]

Unfortunately not, VMs still pass through the CPU information, which will change with the physical host.

[SoNic67]

I think the biggest offender would be the VM video card. That is not "Play Ready" capable.

However, you can see the shows after you upgrade the PC, except the ones with copy-once flag. Like HBO, or other premium channels. It depends what cable provider you have.

[robbro]

Ah, ok thats what I was wanting to know, about the cpu change messing up my VM DRM setup. That shoots the whole deal in the foot.

I dont really care about viewing video ON the pc or VM, as I use extenders exclusively for content consumption. But if this setup will not let me be "portable" with my DRM, I see no reason in persuing it. Man, I got really locked into one setup with this deal. GUess when the time comes I will retire this and leave it running in a corner for media center functionality only. Fortunately that is several years off and both the hardware and software should serve me well for years to come... barring any failures...

[SoNic67]

Is not ALL the content. Just the one flagged as I said.
I did upgrade the memory and CPU, used DRM Reset tool from MS and didn't lost any shows, except a couple HBO ones.

[oakley516]

Ah, ok thats what I was wanting to know, about the cpu change messing up my VM DRM setup. That shoots the whole deal in the foot.

I dont really care about viewing video ON the PC or VM, as I use extenders exclusively for content consumption. But if this setup will not let me be "portable" with my DRM, I see no reason in persuing it. Man, I got really locked into one setup with this deal. GUess when the time comes I will retire this and leave it running in a corner for media center functionality only. Fortunately that is several years off and both the hardware and software should serve me well for years to come... barring any failures...

You won't really have an issue with the DRM, you can still watch everything you record using the extenders. When the time comes to move on to the next-gen technology, just stop recording on the Media Center box, start recording on your new device, watch whatever you have left on MC box, and then be done with it.

You're not locked into anything.

[robbro]

Its not that simple, to just start recording on new then switch over. There are things on there I would like to preserve, things that may not be available again for a long time if ever (some movies/shows that rarely air that I want to hold on to, one of my daughters on the news for turning 2, etc...). And btw, I'm on TWC, which I believe encodes everything with copy once. But at any rate, it would be the same deal with a cable tv box, change providers or have the box die and you lose your collection.

[dotbatman]

An exploit to playready is the only way you'd free these up to get at the original bitsream. Barnabas1969 was looking into how to get his copy-once shows into a format that was preservable, but it looks like it's pretty complicated and I don't know how far he got with the idea.