Which DVD recorders are protected? My friend got a Sony and cannot even record FX, AMC and other popular stations.
The other option is record the show you cannot record on DVD Recorder on tape and transfer it back onto DVD. Of course, the tape in SP mode.
Your friend's problem, and that of others including some TiVo owners, is due to the cable or FiOS company flagging the content as protected causing the DVD recorder to possibly not record it. These flags can also be set to allow for recording ONCE but disallow any transfer and other options. Fortunately a Federal court struck down the FCC's plan to require these flags in local broadcasting OTA's stating that congress erred in assigning the enforcement to the FCC as such enforcement is beyond the scope of the FCC. That was YEARS ago and this issue for OTA's flagging content has not been revived. However, cable, sat, etc., can, more or less, do anything they want (because the are NOT broadcasters, whose licenses are owned by the people of the USA), and may invoke these flags, usually as a requirement from the content owners.
It has been reported on other tech forums that several cable companies and very recently Verizon FiOS, are flagging more and more content and frustration is now building, sometimes because a cable co. is
incorrectly flagging content with the wrong limitations, and it seems they contiure to flag more programming with each passing week. So, we can look to this being coming to Uverse and sat some time soon, on a greater scale, I mean.
However, the DVD recorders do NOT, by themselves, invoke in copy protection for recordings from external boxes such as cable or sat boxes, unless the content is flagged by the provider. I have been able to record FX and AMC via Dish on my DVD recorders. Has this changed in the last few months?
