Problems transferring to PC probably cablecard

[maturgeek]

Here's my situation, I had a series 2 with Tivo Desktop software and a TW cable box, I had no problems transferring to PC. I recently replaced Series 2 with a Premier, no cable box, no problem transferring to PC. Once I put in a cablecard, all the new recordings on my TIVO are marked as COPY PROTECTED (the ones that were there prior to the cablecard are accessible).

The cablecard functions, I get all the channels I should, including HD. I understand some channels (HD especially) may be undownloadable, but the channels I could always transfer in the past are all marked protected.

I can't believe TW in my area suddenly flipped the switch in the few days that passed between using the cable box and the cablecard.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

[moyekj]

Because with Series 2 you are recording analog output from TW cable box (TiVo was encoding analog output to mpeg2). With Premiere you are recording the digital streams directly which are copy protected. i.e. There was no switch suddenly flipped, digital streams have been copy protected all along but you never new or cared with Series 2 recording analog output. TWC is known to be over-zealous in setting all digital channels as copy protected in most of their markets. There are still plenty of markets mostly with other cable companies that only copy protect premium channels and in the case of FIOS don't copy protect any digital channel.

[maturgeek]

Because with Series 2 you are recording analog output from TW cable box (TiVo was encoding analog output to mpeg2). With Premiere you are recording the digital streams directly which are copy protected. i.e. There was no switch suddenly flipped, digital streams have been copy protected all along but you never new or cared with Series 2 recording analog output. TWC is known to be over-zealous in setting all digital channels as copy protected in most of their markets. There are still plenty of markets mostly with other cable companies that only copy protect premium channels and in the case of FIOS don't copy protect any digital channel.

I appreciate the response and the explanation. Strange thing is, after everything coming out copy protected for the last 24 hours, two network shows just finished recording to the TIVO and all of a sudden they are not protected, hopefully this will be true of my other shows as well.

[wmcbrine]

Broadcast channels are prohibited from being flagged. It sounds like your system flags everything else.

Some systems use "analog/digital simulcast", where digital channels are mapped over their analog equivalents, if (and only if) you have a CableCard. You didn't specifically mention if any of the recordings that were unflagged before adding the card were from channels that were flagged afterwards, but if they were, that would be why.

[Phantom Gremlin]

There's an existing copy protection tracking thread (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=451107) that discusses this topic.