[opendtv] Re: HDMI issues
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2006 15:23:29 -0500
John Shutt wrote:
> Really? This is news to me! Has anybody else ever
> seen Macrovision transmitted? With the tricks it
> plays with sync, I didn't think that Macrovision was
> FCC legal.
The symptom is clear as can be: the LED display on the DVDR says: "COPY
PROT," soon after the recording session begins.
It looks like the recorder is recording, i.e. the big red light is on
and the recorder is powered up, but you see no time countdown display.
Just COPY PROT on the LED panel.
With NBC, this became 100 percent predictable. Shows such as ER would
record for usually less than 1 minute, then shut off. You'd see a
recording time of a few seconds on the menu, when trying to play back.
Always. After I contacted them, they seem to have resolved the problem.
Because it's been fine ever since (fingers crossed).
CBS, which had previously been perfectly well behaved, started doing
this the same day they announced their shows for sale on the Internet.
Luckily, they stopped this practice soon after.
I've noticed Fox also protecting, maybe not deliberately, shows like
"House." Sometimes only minutes come through, sometimes maybe 30
minutes. If you see about 30 minutes on the menu, it is *always* the
last half hour or so that came though correctly, the first half hour got
botched. Other times, from Fox, no problem.
It could all be a coincidence, caused by some sort of fluke that looked
like Macrovision but was not intended to. It seems to occur on the
analog channel. Again, it ain't just my recorder, and the symptoms are
very obvious.
Whatever the actual cause, I don't think the recording devices should
even be vulnerable to this. There is absolutely no reason why shows
transmitted OTA should be copy protected against time shifting, at least
in this country. So the players should be as forgiving as possible of
any Macrovision or Macrovision-like anomalies in the OTA program stream.
I can see Macrovision protection for DVD-to-DVD copying, perhaps, but
not for shows arriving via the NTSC (or eventual ATSC) receiver. I have
no idea why Philips allows this vulnerability to exist.
Bert
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