I do realize this has been discussed on many other forums. But, it is almost 2019…and I’m up for a focused request to add DRM channel support to the DVR / Live TV feature set.
Like many others, to get all the channels we want to watch in our area, we are forced to go with a provider that encrypts everything (practically). As a result, we have to still use Windows Media Center (and currently 3 XBox 360s). Plex is such a nice and updated replacement, i’d Love to switch over to using it 100%, but can’t without DRM support.
I am already a lifetime Plex Pass user, but, would be willing to pay more to enable DRM support.
Please, reconsider the current stance, and let more of us make the full switch to Plex.
HDHomerun has support for DRM channels. Their Live TV / DVR service doesn’t have a traditional grid guide though so it’s a no-go in my house. Fortunately only a few of our channels are DRM encoded, and none of the wife’s deal-breakers. We use either Plex or the Channels DVR app (nice UI and features, but monthly subscription vs. Plex being ‘free’ with lifetime pass). Still deciding which to go with long term.
You can use the HDHomeRuns via Android TV and Live Channels and get a traditional guide and DRM channels. LiveChannels is super fast and tunes to channels very fast. Everything direct plays, supports CC, and allows, play, pause, trick modes if enabled (even DVR). It’s a simple cable box replacement that integrates your HDHomeRun tuners and also IPTV sources including Pluto (which have a few worthy channels).
But back to DRM and Plex. Never going to happen, end of story due to the software stack which can’t get approved.
There are other threads on this forum that cover many of the major issues involved. It’s really just not possible to do.
What I’d suggest is to try and find alternatives to your CURRENT cable company to get away from the DRM. Do you have a different cable provider in your area?
How is the OTA broadcasts in your area? If you have good/decent coverage where you live and get atleast the basics OTA like ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, PBS then you could go OTA for those stations and subscribe to Silicon Dust’s Premium TV service which gives you 45 of the more popular cable channels. Run them through an SD Quattro and you can watch/record any 4 channels from OTA or PTV with no DRM issues for $35 a month.
There are other ways to get around DRM but are much harder. For example get a cable box that supports analog outputs and get a capture board with IR channel changer. You would need 1 capture board and one cable box per channel you want to record. This is the way many of us used to have to record everything. I had about a 1/2 dozen of these setup at one time.
But for the cost/rental of the cable boxes and the cost of the capture boards this is a “dumb” solution these days as the rental fees are a lot higher then subscribing to SD’s Premium TV which gives you 45 cable channels DRM free and of course the major networks over OTA also DRM free.
You could have this up and running in a couple of hours if you had the Quattro and OTA antenna in hand and chances are this would lower your current cable costs.
I’m Late to this party. I just got a Prime on ebay for cheap and setup my cable service with it. i am finding this thread because i was wondering why some channels aren’t showing up. i finally got the card paired properly only to find out that some channels are DRM protected. never heard of this before today. my issue with this is that it seems hypocritical. the non-HD version of the channel are DRM protected but the SD channel variant of the channels are not. if they want to protect their content why dont they protect both versions. also, i dont see why an engineer can’t somehow get the encryption to work in plex. if SiliconDust can get the app to work in windows, why can’t plex get the media player to work? doesn’t make sense to me but i am not a software engineer. it seems that is only disney channels i can’t get like ESPNHD, etc. any update or workaround other than the HDhomeRun app would be appreciated.
