# Tivo Desktop Copyright Restrictions??



## Kjbalto (Dec 29, 2008)

I'm new with Tivo, I just hooked it up and started playing around. I just installed the Tivo Desktop and when I go to transfer my recordings, everything is flagged as "Copy Protected" and I can't transfer anything. What's the point of Tivo Desktop if everything is Copy Protected? These were all regular tv shows like CSI. I hope there's a fix for this. Can somebody please help me? My service is Time Warner. I'm going crazy. Thanks for your help.


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## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

Your cable provider is setting the broadcast flag, which the TiVo is obeying. Here in the St. Pete area, all of the analog channels are fine, but the digitial tier (100+) is all marked the same way.

See here for more details:

http://www.tivo.com/setupandsupport...features/Questions_About_Copy_Protection.html


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## Yoav (Jan 13, 2007)

IF the CSI shows are from the off-air channels (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, etc) then they are not allowed to be marked as copy-protected.

It's possible the tivo is confused. Reboot it, and see if things improve. If not, then you should contact your cable company to complain.

If the CSI is off a channel like TNT or whatnot, then it's up to your cable provider.


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## Kjbalto (Dec 29, 2008)

I thought this was the whole benefit of Tivo? Being able to transfer shows to your pc or ipods? Without that, I might as well return the Tivo and get Time Warner DVR, so I don't have to pay for a Tivo box. I'm so ticked off right now. I really like the Tivo, but this is crazy. Everything I recorded is copy protected. Are there any hacks around to get around this?


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## Yoav (Jan 13, 2007)

Your anger is misguided. It is not tivo's fault. It is a requirement of the cable providers. If you want to be angry at anyone, complain to Time Warner or whatever station it is (you still haven't said if this is one of the off-air or not).

Here in San Diego, I have Time Warner, and I can tape CSI in HD on CBS and offload it to my iPhone fine. So if rebooting doesn't fix it, you should call your cable company and get them to stop marking CBS as copyrighted (they are not allowed to by law).

As for a 'workaround'. I am not aware of one. You may want to ask on the Tivo Underground forum although I suspect nobody has a useful answer for you. Alternatively, download the episodes via bittorrent.

If you really purchased your tivo only to be able to put shows like CSI on your iphone, then yeah: Return it, and pay $50 on itunes for the shows instead. Most people like the tivo for all the other features it offers too.


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## Kjbalto (Dec 29, 2008)

Thanks for your answers. Yes, I recorded CSI on Spike TV. I bought the Tivo to be able to transfer my recordings to my pc. Otherwise, what's the benefit of Tivo vs Time Warner DVR? Paying $300 for a Tivo DVR that won't let me transfer any of my recordings, makes no sense. I'm assuming that most people aren't having this problem, or why would anybody buy a Tivo instead of just using the cable provider's DVR? When I reboot my Tivo, it comes up with the screen saying that the number of cable cards installed has changed, and it wants to go through the setup. When I go through the setup (which took 30+ minutes) it still gives me that message. The guide doesn't show what's playing on any of my HD channels, and it won't let me record. Sorry if I'm taking my aggravation out here, I was just on the phone with a Tivo help guy for an hour and nothing was resolved. So I'm just aggravated. I'm hoping somebody has had these problems and can give me answers. It's better to get help from people who are familiar with Tivo, instead of the help desk guy on the phone who's reading a script in front of him and has no clue of what's going on.


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## Yoav (Jan 13, 2007)

Sounds like several problems and one question:

1) First find out if you can record something off a network and transfer it. If you can, then spike is marked copyrighted. You can try begging Time Warner to undo that, but it probably won't do much. Sorry. Return the tivo if that's really all you wanted it for.

2) If you can't even transfer shows on NBC or whatnot, then the cable company is mistakenly marking everything copyrighted. You should get in touch with them and they should fix it.

3) As for the constant reboots.. that's a totally different issue. Don't have any clue what's going on...

Now to answer your question about the tivo:
The tivo does a LOT more than just let you tape shows to transfer to your PC. It can download netflix and amazon shows. It can view youtube. It has a VERY nice user interface for recording and viewing shows. It lets you skip commercials using 30s skip. It lets you transfer shows to your PC, and from the PC. It can recommend shows you might like, and lets you view photos and music on your TV. And it does tons of other stuff...

So anyways, if none of those features matter to you, return the tivo. Just use bittorrent to pirate the shows instead. Nothing you'll be able to do to get Spike to be copyable. On the other hand, new shows of CSI come on CBS, not spike. And CBS should be downloadable fine.

As to your assumption: My tivo can't transfer shows from spike either. It would be nice if it did, but oh well. In my opinion, tivo is still MUCH better than any Scientific Atlanta DVR time warner offers.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

If you happen to live in Verizon Fios territory, that's what you want -- you can copy from all channels.


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## berkshires (Feb 22, 2007)

Kjbalto said:


> I thought this was the whole benefit of Tivo?


... And now the benefit of the digital world is that the cable company was given all the power to choose the setting of the flag, except for OTA channels.

TW is especially agressive in using this power to flag virtually all their digital channels.


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## Kjbalto (Dec 29, 2008)

Verizon Fios is available in my building, I just called and confirmed it. If I were to switch to Fios, are there any other surprises that I will run into? This flagging was a total shock to me. I don't want to switch to Fios and run into more problems. Is there anything else you guys can think of, that I will have problems with if I switch to Fios? Thanks again.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

Oh, sure, there are problems with Fios. Just not this one.  See the several existing Fios threads -- but take them with a grain of salt, remembering that only people with problems post. Personally, I've had no issues since shortly after 11.0 rolled out. (At the time, I thought 11.0 might be the problem, but I now think it was coincidence.)

There is no guarantee that Fios will always remain unflagged. Flagging is part of the CableCard system, unfortunately, and you need to be prepared for it. But it hasn't happened yet -- at least not in the two years I've been a subscriber -- so it's not looking likely.


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