PlayReady/DRM Question

[Desparado]

I'm wanting to switch to EPG123 but I have a cablecard and my cable company has almost all my channels DRM protected (even the major networks like NBC, ABC, etc!). I also have countless hours of recorded material that I haven't watched yet. Can anyone confirm that deleting the eHome directory will NOT piss off PlayReady and I'll still be able to watch my already recorded programs.

[Space]

I'm wanting to switch to EPG123 but I have a cablecard and my cable company has almost all my channels DRM protected (even the major networks like NBC, ABC, etc!). I also have countless hours of recorded material that I haven't watched yet. Can anyone confirm that deleting the eHome directory will NOT urine off PlayReady and I'll still be able to watch my already recorded programs.

I believe it is against FCC regulations to DRM protect the broadcast networks. Are you sure they are copy-once? If so, they are in violation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copy_Control_Information

As for your existing DRM protected content, I don't think that the eHome directory contains anything related to PlayReady. The licenses for you DRM protected shows are located in the C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\PlayReady\mspr.hds file.

But I haven't done this myself, so I would wait for confirmation from others before you do anything based on what I say.

In any case, as long as you do a disk image backup before you make any changes, you should be able to restore yourself back to original condition if anything gets messed up.

[Desparado]

Yes, I believe that the cable provider is indeed in violation, but I don't have the energy to fight their incompetence. They also have some subscription premium channels that are not DRM protected (shhhh...) and I'm quite sure that is not correct either. It took my provider 5 days and 7 tech visits just to get the cable card to work. I got to be on a first name basis with Mark in Tier 2 support. Needless to say, I think there is only 1 person that understands their system and he has clearly retired or more likely force-retired).

Anyway, back on topic. I ask this question because I tested EPG123 on a virtual machine to get a feel for how it behaves. I had PlayReady issues after following the procedure. However, I will confess that I had been using this machine to test other solutions as well so it could be entirely unrelated to EPG123.

[Scallica]

Deleting the eHome folder does not break PlayReady or any copy-protected recordings, nor does it break any custom WMC themes or menus.

[DaveInPa]

I can also confirm that deleting eHome directory does not break DRM.

I use Cablecard and have 1 DRM channel and have installed EPG123 by deleting the eHome directory and PlayReady did not break.

I will say that I've been using Schedules Direct with Big Screen EPG for months prior to the release of EPG123, and during that time I installed and re-installed WMC by deleting eHome directory many times as I was experimenting and tweaking things. On one occasion, PlayReady became corrupted and I had to reinstall it. This made all my recordings from the DRM channel un-watchable.

Making a backup is a good idea.