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FIOS TV cable card issues with Tivo and multi-room-viewing

mga

In the past 10 days or so, Verizon FiOS has changed something on their end that flags certain channels with content that should not be allowed to be recorded and then copied. I have three TivoHD recorders in my house, each configured with a cable card issued by Verizon, and they are all networked together so Tivo's multi-room-viewing (MRV) feature can transfer a recording from one Tivo to another in my house. But as stated before, Verizon changed something on their end around June 6th or 7th that now flags certain channels as being protected.

When this happens, Tivo honors the copy protection flag, and prevents the recordings from being shared between my Tivo units. This sort of copy protection is usually limited to the premier channels such as HBO and SHOWTIME. But in the past 10 days this was turned on for many other channels, such as CNN, TOON, BRAVO. Some ESPN channels now have this, but not other ESPN channels. The random nature of this and the lack of protection on the HBO and SHOWTIME channels makes this appear to be an error on Verion's part.

Additional info on how Tivo honors the protection flags set at the service providers end.
http://support.tivo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/243 Its called the CCI Byte.

There have been many other Tivo customers who are reporting this problem too. Apparently there was a wide spread cable-card problem around June 6th and 7th that may have accidently changed the copy-protection switches too.

http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=450307

Any help is appreciated as my calls to the FIOS customer service haven't gotten anywhere.

Comments

prisaz

Should you expect Verizon to not wish to cripple a compeditors product on their service, and use DRM as an excuse? I think they should sign a deal with Tivo for product and development support and scrap all of their DVR stuff. But that is just me. They could hire more support personel. DTV went their own way and now have a Tivo option again, once they found out how much of a pain it is to support their own R&D. That would kill two birds with one stone. Bye-bye FYI and hello to a system that works. After all Tivo has been around for much longer.

I would love to see a Tivo with Verizon options like VOD, and widgets. They both have IP options and the merge would be great! I would Beta test it and actually enjoy it. Not like the VZ IP Video beta which I dropped like a ton of bricks. I honestly think Tivo would not let a product out to beta that did not work, locked up the whole box and required a cold boot. Well lets say a product like that should be alpha not beta.

mga

Hello, Verizon. Can any of the employees on here comment on this change?

cwerdna

I'm upset too. I don't care about MRV since I only have 1 active TiVo in my household, however I DO archive some content to DVD +/-R into AVCHD format. For that, I need to download it to my PC, which was all fine until we started getting this ridiculous copy protection that appeared on 6/8. I planned to archive "The Pixar Story" that was on CNBCHD earlier today. But no, I can't because of copy protection. I've had no trouble archiving content from CNBC and CNBCHD in the past since none of our channels had CP.

Calls to VZ support have been useless. I have to explain to them http://www.tivo.com/copyprotection/, CCI byte values, the net effect, etc. each time. An email via the VZ web site has resulted in a useless "I will have to refer you to our FIOS repair department 1-888-553-1555 and we will be able to assist you with matter." 😞 Thanks for nothing. I've already called, multiple times.

I'm one of the participants in a couple of the Tivocommunity threads on this.

http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=7999925#post7999925 has helped confirmed that at least one person outside the areas being transitioned to Frontier still have no copy protection.

We need to get VZ's attention on this. Get your local cable regulatory body involved. If I had some more time, I'd like to pull the press into this too and get someone more notable than just http://hd.engadget.com/2010/06/19/fios-customers-moved-to-frontier-getting-copy-once-drm/. Please help w/the cause.

Verizon, you listening? You/Frontier are going to find a bunch of people dropping your service if this isn't resolved.

spacedebris

This is a user to user board and has no official Verizon presence so you are not likely to get any Verizon response here
Verizon will not support issues with the TIVO. They will simply tell you..."Do you get your picture? Yes? That is all we provide."
Many of the protection systems are added either at the request of the channel or added in the broadcast by the channel itself. Verizon does not provide this info to the front line agents so they are not likely to know what you are even talking about.
They will just refer you to Tivo.

Also I note that both of you are in WA. Verizon no longer has contol there. You are now Frontier. Verizon has no control over Frontier broadcast any longer. Your fight is with Frontier, not Verizon.

mga

1) There are Verizon employees participating in these forums. They clearly have Verizon and ""employee" tags on their profiles.

Jim_Smith http://forums.verizon.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/42341
Bill_Kula http://forums.verizon.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/42367
Bobbi_Henson http://forums.verizon.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/42333

2) Verizon has the power to cripple our Tivo devices, as they have done so, knowingly or not. They have the ability to fix the issue at hand.

3) Exactly. They should be added at the request of the channels. But given what channels are now being protected, it is clear that this is Verizon's doing, and not the channels. It is clear to me that Verizon/Frontier is doing this to make their DVR the better choice. Very unfair business practice in my opinion.

4) Yes, ignore the problem, lose customers.

Wrong. Verizon still has control in Washington; next month it transfers to Frontier. But this violates their agreements that nothing would change. This is a change in our service.

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