[mythtv-users] The Coax Straightjacket: Stopping Cable Copy-Protection Abuse

Joe Borne joe.borne at gmail.com
Fri Oct 19 13:05:00 UTC 2007


> Steven Adeff wrote:
> > On 10/12/07, R. G. Newbury <newbury at mandamus.org> wrote:
> >> This link: http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000310.html
> >>
> >> is an interesting article about cableco's changing the 'do not copy
> byte'.
> >>
> >> Does anyone know of any programs which would allow a user to find the
> >> CCI byte in a digital stream?


<snipped for brevity>

Well  I have not seen any decisions which inpinge on the BetaMax fair
> use doctrine. The DMCA and cases coming from it have focussed on the
> 'circumvention' aspects or on the 'making available' contravention..
>
> Geoff


On an unexpectedly related note...  Apparently, this is the cause of the
problems many MythTV users have been having with tuning in channels on their
set top boxes connected via firewire.

As some of you might know. I am currently working with Insight Digital Cable
in Northern Kentucky to resolve an issue where some of my HD channels that
once worked will now not "tune in" via my firewire connection to my Motorola
DCT 61xx box. I've been contacted by two other users in the area who have
the exact same problem.

Josh at insight has been extremely cooperative. If his attitude is
reflective of the corporation as a whole, it indicates they lean towards
consumer rights versus draconian DRM restrictions (which, if you understand
the FCC regulations, are largely illegal).

Root cause analysis has revealed the following about our situation:

1. We all lost the same channels at the same time.
2. Insight did a channel frequency listings change/update at that time.
3. HD/SD is not a factor.
4. Whether the channel is a "premium" channel (TNTHD, ESPNHD etc) or a
channel that is free OTA (ABC, NBC, CBS etc) is not a factor. I have
examples of both being blocked.
5. The CCI bit on every channel that is blocked is set to 0x02, and on every
channel that works it's set to 0x00.

Josh has confirmed my findings on several pieces of equipment in their labs.
he is going to request the fix this situation. He is in contact with a
technician at the head office and has promised to get back to me in the next
day or two with their response concerning this.
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