[mythtv-users] HDHomeRun Prime and use of CCI

[Gary Buhrmaster]

On Sun, Feb 16, 2014 at 4:51 PM, Will Dormann <wdormann at gmail.com> wrote:
....
> The concern that I have is with CCI. In particular, that some of the
> stations I watch may set the "Copy Once" flag.  And given that
> MythTV/Linux aren't DRM approved, "Copy Once" really means "You can't
> watch this."   Is this correct?

Correct.

> Can anybody set me in the right direction here?

While every franchise is slightly different, it is Comcast corporate
policy to mark everything other than the "premiums" as copy
freely.  For simple values, the premiums means HBO, ShowTime,
Starz, and the like.  If you want to record one of those, you
will need to either use a DRM enabled platform (WMC and/or
TiVo and/or Comcast's DVR solutions), or use the analogue
hole (the HD-PVR).

There are special issues.  Occasionally the local franchise
will improperly mark a channel being added/moved in their
lineup.  There was an issue in South Florida with Comcast
and bad firmware for Cisco M-Cards (that has since been
understood, and mostly resolved) that did not set CCI at all,
which resulted in fallback to (incorrectly set) CGMS values.
If you encounter one of the special issues, it can take some
time to "fix", since none of the CSRs are going to understand
anything to do with CCI, and one needs to be persistent to
escalate.  That all said, the special issues are rare, so I
would not not use a OCUR device on Comcast because of
an occasional issue (it would be like not flying because
occasionally O'Hare is shutdown due to a tornado watch).

There are some people who chose to have both a HD-PVR
for the premiums, and an OCUR device for everything else,
allowing some of the best of both worlds.

Gary