New Copy Protected channels on Frontier/Fios

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Starting Thursday, the following channels' programs are showing up copy protected on Frontier (previously Verizon Fios) in the Dallas area:

550 - USA (NBCU)
552 - TBS (Time Warner)
568 - WGN (Tribune)
680 - SyFy (NBCU)
685 - Bravo (NBCU)
689 - BBC America (AMC)
690 - Comedy Central (Viacom)
699 - Freeform (Disney)
715 - MTV Live (Viacom)
734 - IFC (AMC)

Previously the only channels protected were FX and some other Fox properties. The list above is probably incomplete, I only listed channels for which I have recordings.

I was wondering if others are seeing this on Frontier or Verizon in Dallas or other cities?

The most troubling thing about this is (as you can see from the list) there isn't just one company being blocked, this look like an almost blanket block of basic & extended tier channels. But some channels still show unprotected (Discovery, Cartoon Network, TruTV).

 

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Well, this is all really bad news! Guess it's time to take a serious look at cutting the cord. I'm not going to make analog copies or resort to downloading for my own copies. So I might as well look at streaming options and OTA. Might even save some money.

Frontier is really shooting themselves in the foot here.

 

Now all shows recorded since midnight today are not copy protected - shows that were copy protected before then are still copy protected, though.

I hope they stay non-cp, but not holding my breath...

 

I only know of one way - it's not easy. Go to Tivo Box Diagnostics (under Account and System Info) and each tuner will be listed along with the channel it is tuned to. Look for the CCI Byte, if it is 0x00, the channel can be copied, anything else is restricted (0x02 is typical for channels that can't be copied).

This is on a Roamio Pro.