CableCard FIOS and HBO

[rede2go]

Hello,
5 or more years ago i was using a cablecard with a 3 tuner HDhomerun with Win7 Media Center and it was working well.
But the wife was never a big fan and went back to using the whole home DVR instead. So here we are today and my wife
has been out of work due to covid for almost a year and between that and the rising cost we are trying to cut back expenses.
My question is I had read that using WMC7 along with a cablecard CANNOT be used with HBO?
Not having any of the "pay channels" when i ran this setup before. So before i waste time and any money can anyone tell me if
it is true or was this not true or related to some other type of problem?
Thank you and hope to hear back soon.

[stuartm]

This is not true at all. WMC7 with cable card works fine with HBO. The restriction is that if HBO is copy once (which it almost certainly is) then the recorded content can only be viewed by the PC that recorded it or an extender connected to that PC. i.e. can't be shared to another device other than an extender (e.g. Ceton Echo or Xbox360).

[rede2go]

Thats is good to know! So does that mean that if i use a Win7 computer with media center on it and save the recordings on a shared folder that the other Win7 media center machines cannot view the recored HBO content from the shared drive?
Thank you and look forward to replys.

[stuartm]

That is exactly what it means. no sharing videos out to other PC's only to extenders. Note that you can store them elsewhere if you want but they will only play on the original machine.

[DavidinCT]

Thats is good to know! So does that mean that if i use a Win7 computer with media center on it and save the recordings on a shared folder that the other Win7 media center machines cannot view the recored HBO content from the shared drive?
Thank you and look forward to replys.

Just to clarify things. With type of shows they are, you can not do what your looking for (sharing folders for other Windows 7 machines to be able to view). You would need an EXTENDER. This would like a Xbox 360 or a Windows 7 compatible Media Center Extender (a few 3rd parties made them and they can be had fairly cheap).

[rede2go]

Strange thing i setup a test WMC box and recorded a bunch of programs some HBO some non pay channels and they ALL played fine off of the shared folder.
I am not sure why it did work but i tried it on my laptop my cell phone and a couple of tablets and they all played fine. So not sure why it worked for me but i am
very happy that it works. Thank you all for the replys.

[stuartm]

Well that implies that your HBO is not copy-once protected. That is surprising but good luck for you. What you are doing should work fine for any non copy-once channels. You have a very lenient cable provider apparently.

[Space]

You can tell which recordings are copy protected (copy once) by looking at the "synopsis" screen for a recording, it will have "Copy protected" at the bottom (you may have to scroll down to see it). Here is a thread that describes copy protection (with a picture of the "synopsis" screen of a copy protected recording).

What is your cable company? FiOS is one of the more lenient providers for copy protection, it only copy protects HBO, Cinemax, and Fox cable channels. All others (including other premium channels) are not copy protected.

[mwpeterson]

Also, if you have a HDHomerun Prime you can tell which channels are copy protected by going to my.hdhomerun.com and looking at your channels.
For me my SD HBO channels are copy protected and the HD HBO channels are not with the exception of HBO West.

[airfoxone]

Just installed Tivo, with FIOS Cable Card and after a long chat session with Tech Support, they were able to activate the card and I'm receiving some channels...
I'm able to receive several of the premium channels, but not HBO or Cinemax.
Has anyone else had this issue?

[Space]

I know this is an old post, but I just happened to have to activate a new CableCard on my HDHomerun Prime with FiOS due to the old one dying, so I thought I would answer it in case anyone else has this issue (as I assume the OP has already solved theirs by now).

You need to make sure that the new card is not only "activated" but also "validated". These are apparently two separate processes that need to be done by Verizon.

I tried to activate using their automated system but it failed, so I had to call them and fortunately got someone who has been working there for 12 years and knew about CableCards (although he admitted that he gets very few requests for this). Even though he seemed to know a bit about this, I still had to work with him to get both activation AND validation working.

Note that I have very old firmware on my Prime (20150826), so this description is about this version, but I assume later versions are similar. I also assume TiVo has similar displays.

Both "activation" and "validation" require the three data values (CableCARD ID, Host ID, Data (ID)) from your Prime to be entered in to their system (apparently manually and separately). Note that these values appear on the HDHomerun Prime's home page when you connect to it in your browser when the CableCard is not activated, however once the card is activated they no longer appear on this page. This may be a problem when the CSR asks you for them again (when he/she then has to do the "validation" step). Don't worry, because these values are still there, you just have to go to a different place: CableCARD Menu -> CableCARD(tm) Pairing.

So you have to ask the CSR to both activate and "manually validate" for your CableCard to work fully with copy protected channels. If they only activate it, but not validate it, then you will get most channels, but not the copy protected ones such as HBO, Cinemax, and the Fox cable networks.

Note that after my CableCard was activated, the home screen of the Prime showed this:

Code: Select all

Card Authentication	success
Card OOB Lock	        success
Card Validation	        none

After they did a "manual validation", it showed this:

Code: Select all

Card Authentication	success
Card OOB Lock	        success
Card Validation	        success

So the solution is to get someone at Verizon who knows about CableCards (which may be the most difficult part), then ask them to "manually activate" your CableCard, and then after that is working, to "manually validate" your CableCard. As I said, they apparently are required to enter those three numbers for both of these processes separately, and unless they write them down when you give the numbers to them, you will have to give the numbers to them twice.

Note that if you continue to have problems, I believe you can get access to a more knowledgeable tech at Verizon by making a post in the following forum (at least this is what I have done in the past with success): https://www.dslreports.com/forum/vzdirect

Note that when you make a "New Topic" in the "Verizon Direct" forum, it is only seen by Verizon technicians (except for the subject), no other people can see your post and only a Verizon tech can reply. You can click on the other topics in this form and see that you are not allowed to view them (other than the subject).