FEEDBACK TO THE FCC: FireWire Problems with Cable STB's - Page 4

Maybe the FCC would like to give testimony to congressional oversight committees on how much money they waste by not enforcing their own regulations and by going to court to avoid enforcing their own regulations!

Here's a couple problems I have with 5c. I have Comcast cable in the SF Bay Area, using a Motorola 3412 HD-DVR model.

1. Channel 705, our local CBS station (HD), is not recordable at all. The SD channel, 05, is recordable. Neither reports having 5c, but the HD version just will not record.

2. A lot of our local sports games (baseball, basketball, hockey) are shown on "FSN". The SD channel (40) is not 5c protected, but when the games are shown in HD they use channel 720 which is normally "INHD" which is always 5c protected - BUT they do not turn off the 5c when showing local sports games, so they can not be recorded.

The only possible violation you listed was that CBS is not copy freely - yet you say 5c isnt turned on - thus it sounds like just another IEEE 1394 problem.

The Fox Sports Network do not have to be in the clear.

Is the Jack Valenti Gestapo back in town?

Not sure if I should post here (also posted in the Chicago HDTV area):

I used today the Comcast web site to subscribe to HD service. On the end you chat with someone. A rough experience. Took me a while to talk to someone who was understanding what Firewire is. They told me that all STB boxes have now the enabled Firewire port. Is this true?

Update: called again. I was told I get a DCT5100. Do they have an enabled Firewire port?

As far as I know the Dct5100 not only does not have a firewire 1394 port, it also does not have a harddrive for dvr purposes.....Get a 6208 atleast which has a 80G hd or a 6412 with a 120g HD.

metropole,
PM Kipp Jones
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/member.php?userid=3841
Need help with firewire/1394 or a local Chicago purchase? PM me. Member #3861

Any update to this, maybe a snail mail address since email complaints sometimes carry little weight. Which people in congress have a friendly ear for this sort of thing, or have oversight?

I have FIOS QIP6416-2 connected to JVC 40K through Firewire and can record prerecorded premium HD content from DVR to D-VHS without any audio or video glitches. I find that if there is going to be an audio dropout, it's apparent when watching the content through the JVC 40K (I-1) prior to recording. Simple resetting the JVC 40K by unplugging and replugging seems to resolve the problem.

This doesn't have to do with a STB, but it does have to do with a 1394 device so I though I would give it a shot in this thread:

I have a situation with a Samsung DLP and an external 1394 HDD.
1. Network prime time programming can not be played back on a AV-HDD recorded off the 1394 port of a Samsung 'S' series DLP (NO CC). The AV-HDD is a RCA 2160.
2. The same programming can be played back using the OTA tuner.
3. BUT , morning programming (the Today show for example) can be played back off the same cable feed.

Now, what I have noticed is:
1. The name of the program and station call letters are not shown in the window of the AV-HDD/ I-Link screen, either under the 'rec. list' or while the recording is in progress when recording off cable.
2. The program name and station name IS showing when recorded off the OTA tuner. This applies to AM or PM programming.
3. These four networks on TW cable, they are not re-mapped to another channel. They show on the actual cable channel.

On another set with 1394 ports and both 8VSB & QAM tuners that same programming is playable through cable though the name of the program and station call letters don't show when on cable. They do show using OTA as the Samsung. To me it appears to be a copyright issue and for some reason the Samsung is treating that programming as 'copy never'.

Please note; all of this is ID'ed as 'Copy Free' in the recording screen. I have even tried playing back that program on the other set and nothing. I assume it is the PSID (hope that's what it is called) that has information missing that the stations call letters and program name isn't passed along. But, I have no idea why that should matter regarding copyright protection. I do know that some devices will record material that has that damn flag even when you won't be allowed play it back.

I have a 6412 and a new JVC -5U. The 5U reports error 300(cannot decode) if you sneeze on any digital channels, premium and HD channels. The only cure is to cycle power on both boxes with the cable box second. If you try to replay a locally recorded HD tape, it loses Firewire permissions except for analog channels. Don't know what's behind the curtain on this behaviour.
The recordings were from the MOT DVR replay HD mode. Now after only 5 hours of use the JVC won't replay its own HD tapes. Black screen. When it was happy, the pictures were superb. Any clues?

My experience with the firewire port has revealed the interface to be flakey... not ready for the general masses. I cannot say that it is the cable box or the cable system that is at fault because the drivers and software I use on the PC could be as much to blame.

Atlanta, Comcast, Mot. 6412

I have the DCT 6200/1000 HDTV box from Charter Communications. About a year ago, I was able to record everything I wanted via firewire, even some channels that were supposedly 5C protected. I didn't record anything for a long time, then went back one day to find out that the firewire port on the back of my box had been completly disabled. The computer won't even acknowledge it's there.

Charter Cable, Mankato, MN. Motorola DCT6200/1000

I have read in other fora that not only does 5C need to equal zero for recording to occur, but CCI also needs to equal zero. I have read this setting can be found in the D6 diagnostics screen on Motorola DVRs. CCI=0 means "copy always" and CCI=2 means "copy once." Copy once sounds like plenty, until you realize they are referring to the number of times you can copy to a licensed DVHS unit. I don't know if the CCI setting is chosen by the cable company or the original source of the video feed.

It's the same here. 5C Implementation set to 1, Active 1394 ports at 0.
TimeWarnerCable, Arcadia, CA. Motorola 6416 Phase III.

Many of us who could record from our firewire equiped cable boxes can no longer do so. A firmware upgrade has been unknowingly placed on our cable boxes, and has effectively crippled the firewire.

I filed my complaint with the FCC http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/complaints.html , and sugget you all do the same. If we consolidate we have a better chance of solving this problem. Here is an excerpt from mine:

...Recently, and this is my second complaint in this letter, firmware updates by cable
ops or box manufacturers, or both, in a conspiracy, have made recording
to PCs from cable boxes via firewire inoperative. Don't know if this was done
accidentaly or on purpose by cable ops. If on purpose, do they have
the right to block us from recording to our PCs? If so, why? Anyone
can buy a $50 USB tuner for their laptop and record OTA at will. What
is the difference? If accidental, what rights do I have to restore box to
the way it was? Recent post from attached thread shows that the
practice of sending out firmware upgrades that disable firewire is
widespread( ie it is being done by the two big cable box
manufactureres-Motorola, and Scientific Atlanta. So ultimately Time
Warner, Comcast Cable, and the like would be liable?

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/archi...3695-p-15.html

Again, what recorse do we have ???...

To my understanding, cable companies are OK blocking local and other channels from a cable box to a PC over firewire because PCs are not DCHP complaint. if an individual goes to the trouble and expense of setting up his/her own antenna and supplying an ATSC tuner card to capture HD reception, that's not their business. It's also OK to feed a coax cable into a tuner card without a box being in between. In other words, the STB is the sole domain of the cable company and we are at their discretion (having rented/leased the box). Some companies and regions allow it, others don't. It's somewhat puzzling because the FCC mandated IEEE1394 ports to be open for local OTA feeds. I'm thinking as long as an end user is off-loading to a non-compliant device, they are within their rights to block the transmissions. Otherwise, it will take a whole lotta people writing the FCC to get a response.

I have an HDCP compliant video card in my PC. Still doesn't work for me. I can play HD-DVD videos via the same PC. Something has changed.

I have Comcast in the DC area, using Motorla DCT-6200 cable box. I was able to record the shows with CapDVHS with the 5c=0 and copy freely channels for sometime now. Recently Comcast upgraded the firmware to 16.35 has cause a lot of un-explainable problem. First all channel shows 5c=0 and copy freely including OTA and premium channels such as Discovery and HBO, etc. But I am not able to record CBS and Fox shows except the commercials. I am able to record Discovery but not HBO even though diagnostic shows the same settings.

I just want to be able to capture OTA channels like I user to be able.

Anyone experience the same problem??

I posted this on the 1394 thread as far as I can tell all of my channels are still recordable.

Well they hit me this morning around 2am with FW: 16.35 on my diagnostics it also says 1394: Enabled Yes, Active No but I can still watch TV through VLC and record HBO @Max 2,4,7 on my PC, On Demand is still a no go here in LA.

When I saw the box DL I thought okay the funs over because I knew they were going to wipe my 8.14 FW and I thought for sure I was screwed and would be canceling everything except my basic cable.

But to my surprise nothing has changed as far recording everything is still the same, so I guess I won't be canceling after all.

STB: DCT 6200 New FW: 16.35 Thurs April 19, 2007 2:00 AM

I have 8 DVR's full of recordings and can't ransfer them because my 1394 ports are disabled. we need a blu ray home recorder like they have in Japan

with component or HDMI INPUTS

Not sure where this question should be posted but im hoping its here.
I have been capping from HI DEF LOCALS from my TIME WARNER CABLE PVR for a few years now with no problems.
The receivers tho are really slow on tv guide navigation etc etc.
So i called TW up and they arrived with a new PVR but this time it was a HDMI one rather than the older DVI ones i currently have.
They replaced 3 of them and everything seemed to be fine until i tried to cap from them.
They do work but when i cap from the box and stop i then have to power down the box because the pvr fast forward or rewind will not function.
Now this happens on all 3 boxes.
Also something weird happens.
When its stuck in the wont rewind or f foward mode and i try and cap from any show while the show is playing i have sound but once i use cap dvhs the sound goes from the broadcast.
The only way to get this to work is to reset each time i cap which of course makes me lose the tv guide each time i do this.
Does anyone have any idea why this might be happening.
I have reinstalled all the software on my pc.
Im using 3 different laptops and its doing it on all 3 pvrs.
I never once had this issue with the DVI PVRS.

Has anyone tried the VCR pilot function on the Scientific Atlanta STBs to record HD content on D-VHSs; does it work?

I called Comcast technical support, and, after going down 9 levels of tree, reached an "expert".

I told her that my Comcast DVR was downsampling the recorded video from a PBS HD broadcast, as seen on the firewire output connector; and that I wanted to know how to prevent it from doing that, so that I could copy it, at full HD resolution, to a digital video tape.

She said "you have fireworks coming out of your cable box?"

(Cambridge, MA Comcast; the box is a moto 3416/2305 phase I)

That's cute and better than the second tier TimeWarner Supervisor who told me "There must be a firewall preventing you from outputting the video stream."

ok, I tried a recording to DVHS JVC HMS5U from SCi ATL 8300HD thru firewire, SD channels live works fine, analog channels do not and HD live does not work at all

I tried DVR recordings HD and Regular and they work decent, the only thing is that they hiccup audio and video quite a bit, any comments? Is this comcast or is this the HMS5U messing up the signal?
Comcast in Northern VA

new update, I get occasional audio dropouts, audio sync issues and some pixelization. Also I have seen the 5U just shut down and give error messages stating that I can't record from source use set top box. And I have seen the 5U turn off and power back up in the middle of the recording and keep going. Are these copy protection things? Is using HDMI out to the TV causing this? Should I be using component video instead?

Did the FCC do anything?

I have set up the IEEE1394 on my Motorola 6200 box and can record some channels, however, CBS (704) and FOX (702) are encrypted. I emailed Cox (Middle Ga) about the situation and they state that the port is open but not supported. Do I contact the local CBS and FOX affiliate about the encryption?

Tks,

smb56