# Broadcast flag prohibiting use



## cwoody222 (Nov 13, 1999)

I have a 2-tuner Premiere, Time Warner Cable and a new TiVo Stream.

I'm aware that Time Warner's overreaching broadcast flag makes it impossible for me to COPY anything but local broadcast stations either within or outside of my home network.

But I'm finding that I can't even STREAM non-local shows outside of my home network.

Is this correct?

I can download only local shows either in or outside of my home. I can stream everything inside my home. I can only stream local shows outside my home.

So I can't do anything but stream inside my home for non-local shows?

STREAMING outside my home should be allowed? Is TiVo making a copy? If not, Time Warner is overstepping their bounds (again).

Anyone have luck setting up a VPN so I can connect my iPad/iPhone to my home network that way? I just want the ability to stream all my recordings outside of my home.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

Copy protected shows are intentionally prohibited by TiVo iOS App software from OOH streaming. This is by design from TiVo. There was no good explanation from TiVo why this is the case, especially since in home streaming of those same shows is permitted. I suspect it's just TiVo being overly cautious from a legal perspective (or less likely perhaps complying with some onerous CableLabs requirement).

EDIT: FYI Slingbox circumvents any/all DRM issues by exploiting the "analog hole", so that is a solution available to you today for both in and out of home viewing.


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## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

cwoody222 said:


> I have a 2-tuner Premiere, Time Warner Cable and a new TiVo Stream.
> 
> I'm aware that Time Warner's overreaching broadcast flag makes it impossible for me to COPY anything but local broadcast stations either within or outside of my home network.
> 
> ...


Yep, that's what TWC has done to screw over it's victims, errr users. It's stories like this that have me worshiping at the Verizon FiOS altar


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## PCurry57 (Feb 27, 2012)

Before I pulled the cable cards out of my TiVo's and returned the tuning adapters to TWC I streamed (android) non-local content (some) while away from home with the TWC TV app. It does require that you have both a DIGITAL TV SERVICE and BROADBAND both from TWC.

I would love to have had a stream, until there is android support....


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

Just to be perfectly nitpicky, what cable companies do is the CCI bit:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copy_Control_Information

which they are physically capable of inflicting on you even in the absence of The Broadcast Flag:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcast_flag

and since the FCC officially eliminated the broadcast flag regulations in 2011, it is in exactly that absence that the cable companies do inflict the CCI bit on us.

Supposedly they're not supposed to be able to do it on the broadcast channels they re-transmit, just on the cable-only ones.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

Whole point of the thread though is that copy protected shows CAN BE STREAMED. So MRS works within the home as does iPad App streaming. So it's curious why TiVo disabled streaming of copy protected shows only out of home.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

unitron said:


> Just to be perfectly nitpicky, what cable companies do is the CCI bit:


Well if you're gonna nit pick it's actually 2 bytes, not a bit.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

moyekj said:


> Whole point of the thread though is that copy protected shows CAN BE STREAMED. So MRS works within the home as does iPad App streaming. So it's curious why TiVo disabled streaming of copy protected shows only out of home.


Inside the home streaming had precedent from the cable companies own equipment. OOH streaming has no precedent. So it could be that they are erroring on the side of caution, or it could be this is a temporary limitation while they wait for some sort of approval from Cable Labs. I hope it's the later.


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## Wil (Sep 27, 2002)

The executive summary of the text below is: the stuff is all out there. There are no secrets, there is no security. You can, if your conscience allows, watch what you want to watch, when and where you want to watch it. Read no further.

That said, two wrongs don't make a right.

But there are 17 things, flags & bytes included, wrong with the current video distribution system so maybe one wrong at the consumer end of the chain is not totally inappropriate. Viewers can take control. Use the resources. Do what's fair, overall, put their money into the system, but watch what they want to watch, when and where they want to watch it; life is too short. To the extent that's it's been made reasonable and practical, pay for viewing rights to every specific video. 

We're all, in aggregate, pumping all the money that's reasonable and fair into the video "food chain," hoping a few dollars trickle through to the creative people responsible for the video product. By the time in history the new video technologies are all sorted out fairly, we'll all be dead. Meanwhile, a person can be an extra-legal viewer of _some_ programming, or rather be victim to an over-complicated, ridiculous, corrupt distribution system and deny him/herself.

I've been on both sides of this issue at different points in time. Right now I pay a very big monthly bill but if somebody's fracking around with something specific I want to watch, I watch it.


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## Tiresius (Mar 22, 2004)

Wil said:


> I've been on both sides of this issue at different points in time. Right now I pay a very big monthly bill but if somebody's fracking around with something specific I want to watch, I watch it.


I agree, but I just bought a fricking Romio Plus so I could watch my damned shows while I travel WITHOUT having to download them from tvtorrents.

Well, that plan is out the window, just went on my first trip and discovered that because Cox flags EVERYTHING but broadcast channels, I STILL can't watch the vast majority of the shows I pay $100 plus a month to be able to watch.

This is total BS, now I'm still spending a bunch of time downloading from tvtorrents all the content sitting on my Tivo 20 feet away so I can watch in in the hotel/plane on my next trip.

I can see why some just say "screw it", cancel cable and steal it ALL.


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

Tiresius said:


> I agree, but I just bought a fricking Romio Plus so I could watch my damned shows while I travel WITHOUT having to download them from tvtorrents.
> 
> Well, that plan is out the window, just went on my first trip and discovered that because Cox flags EVERYTHING but broadcast channels, I STILL can't watch the vast majority of the shows I pay $100 plus a month to be able to watch.
> 
> ...


You can use the analog component outputs on the Roamio Plus with some kind of video capture device and convert it to digital files. Or you could get a slingbox and hook it up to the component outputs for OOH streaming.


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## Tiresius (Mar 22, 2004)

tarheelblue32 said:


> You can use the analog component outputs on the Roamio Plus with some kind of video capture device and convert it to digital files. Or you could get a slingbox and hook it up to the component outputs for OOH streaming.


I appreciate the offered technical solution. Actually what I'm doing now is much faster than capturing and transcoding off some additional device I have to purchase. That would take close to an hour for a 1 hour show depending on re-encode speed and my efficiency.

It takes about 60 seconds to download a full one-hour show in mp4 format from tvtorrrents, then another minute or two to find and download the captions from subscene. Then I use subler(on Mac) to apply the captions and full episode data/artwork to perfectly tag it for iTunes, then sync it to iPad so I can watch on the plane. It's a much more efficient workflow than any of the legal options the idiots who control content are offering me to do the SAME damned thing.
Total work time for a 1-hour show, maybe 10 minutes, faster if I'm doing several shows at once.

Or Cox could stop flagging EVERYTHING but over the air channels as copy protect.
OR TiVO could just enable out of home streaming and/or download to iPad regardless of Cox's overzealous flagging.
Or I could bag Cox/TiVo and switch to Dish whose hopper & app don't have draconian restrictions on downloading content to iPad.
OR I could dump all providers completely and just STEAL the content outright like so many are being driven to do. Right now I'm paying for it AND stealing it.

Point is, right now I have to technically STEAL the shows I pay over $100 a month to have access to, and have recorded on my TiVo, when it could easily be a single(legal) click as promised in all the ads.


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