Firewire & Comcast digital cable boxes - Page 2

sorry to hear that my manual recordings have worked without a hitch thankfully :-)
I work nights.

Hi everyone. If anyone could give me some advice, I would really appreciate it.

I can't use the workaround to transfer HD footage stored on my DVR.
However, I can use it on standard footage.

Has anyone captured HD footage off the DVR since the firmware update?
If so, how did you accomplish this task?

I have an iMac. I use AVCVideoCap to transfer files.
My DVR is a DCT3416 I.

(In addition, I can grab live footage, but not footage that I am recording to the DVR at the same time.)

I have captured 2 full games off my DVR in HD using the workaround I provided above.

Workaround YOU provided eh
I am glad the trick works on PC too though, so at least we can continue recording off of our Comcast DVRs.

As for the "does it work" question, it works on my DCT6412 box. Perhaps this is the common thread between Hardcore and myself? Maybe the 3XXX series boxes can't use the workaround? That is my suspicion.

hi all:
I m new to this stuff. I have some kids episodes that recorded in the DCH 3416. how do I pull it to my PC?

Thanks

Is there a particular firmware version that firewire is broken on? Is it to specific models (ie, DCT firmware 16.xx family, or DCH firmware 18.xx family)? Is it not related to firmware but a glitch in a particular I-Guide version?

I still have no issues with firewire on F/W 16.35 / I-Guide 74.54-4003. However, I am looking forward to the latest update that my area plans to push out shortly after the Olympics. The reason I'm looking very forward to the latest version is the hope that DVR UI performance will improve. The command queuing / delay / slow UI on a DCT-6412p2 f/w 16.35 is horrendous.

Also, for the few channels that you can't record due to 5C.... did you all notice that the Firewire is still outputting a data stream? It just appears as if it's garbage data. Does anyone know if this is a legitimate, although scrambled data stream, or is it random garbage data generated by the box to deter analyzing? If the stream simply comes out of the firewire encrypted, perhaps someone someday will reverse engineer a 5C data stream so that it can also be read.

Thank you Raj and Hardcore. I fiddled with the box again. I tried capturing autoracing, NASCAR Now, and a HD movie from the DVR. No go.

I have firmware 16.53 -- just updated this month.
Yes, this problem is probably specific to my model 3416.

Sigh.

When I attempt to run the file through MPEG Streamclip, an error message states that I have no video or audio files. I am unaware of MPEG error detection and repair software for the Mac. Therefore, I am at a loss.

I can record HD directly to my Mac. However I cannot record HD directly to my Mac concurrently with a DVR recording of the same show. Why was I doing this, you may ask? I was hedging my bets, hoping to get the show on the Mac and in the DVR if the Mac transmission failed. Well, technically both failed, since I have nothing on the Mac and a recording on the DVR that cannot be transferred.

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say it was 'my' work around. I just meant to say that the step-by-step I posted is working for me.

It does not work as you originally stated because pushing play does not allow me to watch it as I record to the PC.

Does VLC Player work for Macs? If so, trying putting the file in there. If it plays, you will know that the audio/video is there, it just lacks the proper PIDs. You will need to find a similar program to MPEG2Repair for the Mac to repair the PIDs.

Thank you for the advice, Hardcore.

Yes, I have VLC. When I try to play my files, nothing is there. The play marker arrow skips blithely to the end -- bing, bang, nothing.

M2t files captured before the firmware update play in VLC.

Alas.

Yeah, then you recorded nothing. If VLC can't even recognize it, then it's probably garbage data.

I'd suggest unplugging the box, letting it boot up and trying to steps 1 by 1, in order, again.

I tested my live captures this morning to ascertain whether I could continue to use my iMac to capture NASCAR races. (This is what I have been doing. Seriously. It's a long story. It has to do with a mother's love. You may or may not understand.)

Anyway, the answer is no. Certain HD and standard channels, and their resulting DVR files, are now blocked on my DCT3416.

These channels are: 1) espn (standard and HD), 2) espn2 (standard and HD), 3) htv (HD), 4) uhd (HD), 5) yes (HD), and 6) tbs (HD).

Also, premium channels are also presumably blocked. I do not currently have premium channels, but I did once. A movie broadcast by HBO and and still resident on the DVR will not come off, just as my races taped weeks ago from ESPN are not transferrable.

Please feel free to draw your own conclusions from my test.

I did not power down my box as Hardcore suggested. I probably should have, but after I ran through most of the HD channels it became clear that certain things are now blocked and therefore nothing is wrong with my box. In fact, some would argue it is working correctly now.

The most humorous facet of the affair is this: When my husband saw how much work goes into transferring these files and burning the DVDs he told me I was nuts. "Go buy a DVD recorder for the tv," he said.

And another lesson hits home. But, a few questions first: Can ESPN/Comcast block a recording to DVD of a live program transmitted through a cable box/DVR? Can I copy my stored but now blocked DVR races to DVD in this manner as well?

Stupid questions, no? But I don't know the answers. Humor me with a response if you do. Otherwise I'm out 200 bucks.

ESPN could if they turned on the Broadcast flag. Motorola settops are one of the devices that will respect the Broadcast flag. Motorola sets this as Copy Once.

The other thing is if Comcast is inserting their own CCI settings onto these channels.

This doesn't seem to be the case though, since people were previously able to record before they received a firmware update.

Any update from Comcast/Motorola on a fix?

I believe the broadcast flags are "turned on" by the cable or satellite provider, not the distributing network. The networks can request the flags be turned on, but the provider has to flip that switch.

From what I can guess, it is in fact legitimate data that is. I can't imagine that it would truly be garbage to deter analysis. From my early tests, it seemed that the amount of data captured dropped to zero when I paused, and shot back up when I hit play, i.e. it is capturing some form of the program you are playing. The bitrate was correct too from what I recall. Sending out pseudorandom data seems like WAY more trouble.

As for decryption, I imagine that it would not be difficult, given that many other consumer DRM technologies using encryption have been thwarted by analyzing poor implementations (CSS and AACS). I myself have looked into the 5C encryption techniques, but have come up with very little about the encryption and format used. It seems though that no one is actively looking at cracking 5C because there is such a small niche market of users who even bother to interface with their cable boxes in this way.

True, but if it was ever defeated, you could capture everything from the box. Then you could write media center plugins to integrate it with Vista Media Center, XP Media Center, BeyondTV, MythTV, etc...

Anymore updates on this?

Where is Comcast George?

The flag can be turned on by either actually. Check out the Windows American Gladiators Broadcast flag issue. NBC turned on the flag globally.

It's been almost a month with no word. I wonder what happened.

Hello Everyone,

I apologize if I was unclear.

I have updated my original post on September 5th '08.

At this time, Motorola has been able to duplicate the issue.

We do not have any ETR on any fixes, updates, patches or other firmeware releases that would correct this at this time.

I will continue to update my original thread as I receive updates.

Please feel free to contact me directly at anytime with any questions.

Hope this gets fixed soon, the workaround doesn't seem to work for me, MPEG2REPAIR doesn't like the file I get & can't fix it.

I noticed the same problem couple days ago.
Metro Detroit area. DCT-3416. PC (CapDVHS).

I am still in contact with Motorola and our engineers. They are still working on a fix for this issue.

I guess I should correct myself, after I posted I was able to record a show from the DVR off of Mojo, no workaround required at all. Was unable to copy off an SD channel, maybe I'll have to play with the 480p overrride settings to see if that makes a difference.

Just found this thread, thanks to the people for posting this, I was starting to think that I was going crazy.
I noticed the problem when I returned from my vacation Aug 24, 2008.
Chicago Comcast, DCT-3416, PC (CapDVHS)
I can capture Live (non 5C) HD channels (Sci-Fi) (11 wttwd)
Can not capture anything that was saved to the DVR.

I was trying different ways to get it to work. Found out last month that
if I start to play the DVR program, then press pause on DVR, open CapDVHS on PC, press record on CapDVHS, press play (to undo pause) on DVR. The picture will be frozen on TV, but the information is still transferring to the PC. (with audio). File turns out ok, just can't watch on TV while transferring.

If the DVR is playing and I press the record button on CapDVHS, (the way I used to) the picture will be frozen on the TV, but the end file:
will not open in videoredo plus,
will not open with VLC player
Mpeg2 repair shows no PIDs for audio
HDTV2MPEG shows error- no channel found

Hopefully Comcast and Motorola can fix this problem in the near future.

i have joined the club. Waiting for an update. Luckily i can still record onto my blackmagic intensity but dont like using so much disk space and conversation to smaller space never gets me as good of quality size for size as the Transport Stream

Edit:
George,
I want to add something that may help with the debug slightly. There is one other functional change in the DVR that was affected by this latest FW. At the end of watching a recording, the old FW used to go right to asking you to delete the recordd file. With the new FW, at the end of the recorded file, it actually goes into "pause" mode and does not ask you to delete the file.

Thanks
Russell

glad to hear the fix is in the works george, your making a good name for comcast
and they need all the good pr they can get.

i just joined your "club" on monday night. i was actually watching tv when my box suddenly shut off and downloaded the firmware update. since then, i get exactly the same behavior everyone else described. i'm recording right now, with the screen frozen (didn't see the workaround before i started the latest one). i'll try the proposed workarounds on my next attempts. i too though comcast was shutting down the recording option on the boxes. i hope George has an update soon!

Can someone post a bad (no audio) stream to some file hosting site? I can check to see if it's possible to write a fix-up program.

Ron