Question for anybody with knowledge of copyright law

[TheKrell]

Why does Dish bother to encrypt OTA channel recordings when moved to an EHD? They're all unencrypted to begin with.

And could a mod correct my thread title spelling? TIA!

 

[Jim5506]

It is more complicated, requires more computer coding, to single out specific channels than to just encrypt the whole thing.

My experience with my old 722k was that moving programs back to the internal drive removed the encryption (at least I could copy and play them on my PC).

I have heard that that might not be true anymore, but since I have a Hopper system, I have no way to test it..

 

[Mochuf]

Why does Dish bother to encrypt OTA channel recordings when moved to an EHD? They're all unencrypted to begin with.

And could a mod correct my thread title spelling? TIA!

Why are any dvr recordings encrypted? Tivo and WMC recordings can be moved around and converted to other formats without loss of HD pq (as long as the record-once byte isn't implemented on that channel), so there really can't be legal or technical reasons pay-tv providers encrypt their recorded material. I think it has more to do with "You have to stay with us if you want to keep that stuff!"

 

[Tampa8]

Could be, but I have a reasonable answer. TIVO has no carriage agreements, they do have the law that says we can record programs, and that OTA is free.

DISH and the others do have a carriage agreement and we may never know, but in it may be a provision that anything they transmit/passes through their box must be encrypted. I also agree, another reason is the complication of singling out every single local channel, tracking their changes etc... to make them not encrypted.

 

[ncted]

Why are any dvr recordings encrypted? Tivo and WMC recordings can be moved around and converted to other formats without loss of HD pq (as long as the record-once byte isn't implemented on that channel), so there really can't be legal or technical reasons pay-tv providers encrypt their recorded material. I think it has more to do with "You have to stay with us if you want to keep that stuff!"

Not sure if the newer boxes are this way, but older Dish/Directv DVRs copied the encrypted stream from the satellite directly to the HDD and only unencrypted on playback, just because it is easier to do that way. The reasons why the signals are encrypted are well known.

 

[Teehar]

Really good question,I tend to lean towards Tampa's answer,but Dish is the only one with the definitive answer.

 

[KE4EST]

And could a mod correct my thread title spelling? TIA!

Done!

 

[Mochuf]

Could be, but I have a reasonable answer. TIVO has no carriage agreements, they do have the law that says we can record programs, and that OTA is free.

DISH and the others do have a carriage agreement and we may never know, but in it may be a provision that anything they transmit/passes through their box must be encrypted. I also agree, another reason is the complication of singling out every single local channel, tracking their changes etc... to make them not encrypted.

Tivos and WMC also work with cable networks and not just ota. And Tivo and WMC only work with cable because the cablecos ok their hardware/software via Cable Labs. I can't believe that network contracts with providers wouldn't take 3rd party hardware into account. No, I firmly believe that dvr encryption is there because it's best for the providers interests and not because of the networks. How many times have you read on these forums that people are reluctant to leave Dish because of all the recordings they have on their EHD's?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I am told that the encryption is required by most of the program providers and its in their contracts now.

I was also told that the reason it took DISH do long to get Hopper Transfers to Android Devices was because a few programmers didn't feel the Android platform was secure enough and wanted to test to make sure their programming couldn't be easily moved or shared with others.

Again this is what I was told... is it true? That's anyone guess.

 

[Jim S.]

I am told that the encryption is required by most of the program providers and its in their contracts now.

So then everyone should just refuse to carry them and let them starve.

 

[Mochuf]

I am told that the encryption is required by most of the program providers and its in their contracts now.

I was also told that the reason it took DISH do long to get Hopper Transfers to Android Devices was because a few programmers didn't feel the Android platform was secure enough and wanted to test to make sure their programming couldn't be easily moved or shared with others.

Again this is what I was told... is it true? That's anyone guess.

Who told you this, someone from Dish or someone from a cable network?

 

[TheKrell]

Not sure if the newer boxes are this way, but older Dish/Directv DVRs copied the encrypted stream from the satellite directly to the HDD and only unencrypted on playback...

Sorry ncted, but I know that to be false except for a few channels, such as HBO/Cinemax. But in a recent uplink thread, I read a post saying more channels were getting DRM imposed on them, even on the internal disk.

And oh by the way, I'm of the opinion that it's pure laziness on Dish firmware developers' part for encrypting these by-law unencrypted programs. In the interest of full disclosure, I wasn't just asking an academic question. I was hoping that we could get OTA recordings layed down on the EHD so we could reverse-engineer the disk format and put our own unencrypted programs on our own EHDs. The file system itself is plain-vanilla ext3.

 

[mike123abc]

Actually TiVo works because cable companies cannot copy protect local channels. Dish could probably get by not encrypting them too, but it is probably too much effort for a very small possible gain. What are they supposed to do have a separate EHD program just for locals? TiVo will just refuse to send a protected channel's content to a PC. Dish will allow all their channels go to EHD. It is a trade off.