I just picked up a HD Homerun, so this is my first shot at attempting to use the Live TV / DVR feature.
My bigger concern (as I don’t see a way to view Live TV from the Android app) is that numerous channels say “Protected” to the right. What I don’t understand is why, as we have two TiVO systems that can view these channels perfectly fine. Right now I am missing about 90 channels because of this.
So my question is what is the reason that some channels say “protected”, and what is the root symptom of it being protected - the HDHomeRun, Plex, Cable Provider, etc?
I’m guessing you are using a HDHomeRun Prime with a Cable Card installed. The “protected” channels have DRM on them, which only some devices are able to decode. TiVo, with Cable Card, can decode these channels. Silicon Dust can with their HDHomeRun View application. Unfortunately, Plex doesn’t have DRM support yet. Not sure if we’ll ever see it as it requires a lot of restrictions on what the code can and can not do with the data stream,.
Agreed. And I believe SiliconDust can only view protected channels but not record (although I could be wrong).
Someone else had this same issue a few days ago, and I suggested that they activate their CC as I think I had this same problem years ago as I was only able to view a handful of channels. This person then called their provider and activated the card and it was then fine. But some providers mark all channels with DRM (which is disturbing), in which case you would be out of luck.
@savantali there are a few possible things that could be going on with your hdhomerun box that I have encountered, check the version of the hdhomrun software and make sure its the lastest version there is another thread about problem with protected channels I posted where a specific version of the hdhomerun software total screwed up channels marking them as protected but worked with any other version but that one.
Another possiblity are you using a cable card? have you gone thru the setups and verify that your cable provider has that card setup properly and its provisioned with them I ran into that also .
I have worked with verizon fios and Frontier fios and 99% of their channels work fine and are not DRM (protected) . Some tv providers DRM (protect) channels so you can’t record them.
Now if you use the HDHOMRUN dvr software you can record and watch those DRM channels using their software and/or Windows Media center (unfortunately thats the only software packages that has DRM access built in.) there is a play from source option that the HDHomerun device uses that only allow the unit that recorded it to play it back . Its a pain in the… Media center has been dropped by Microsoft so it will not work with windows 10 or greater.
Another trick that is possible on some “capture cards/software” is if your recording thru composite,svideo or “rca” jacks that DRM can’t be transmitted thru them so you could record the item if its being sent via those connections. IF your using HDMI or direct video to disk the DRM is being passed and you will get garbled video at best or total failure to record.
Plex doesn’t have DRM decryption or bypass logic built in.
I don’t understand why this is not supported. I have TBS 5990 CI DVBS Tuner. I have installed my subscription card in to CI slot and I can watch and record all channels with bunch of other DVB-S applications. All of them are well known pretty old respected commercial DVB applications like DVBViewer, DVBLogic, ProgDVB etc. or even the cards own software can do this.
Could any Plex Employee explain the legal aspect about the issue in here? I don’t know about US but in EU region there is nothing wrong with this.
