Copy protection on Sky HD

[wizzid]

As of today MySky HDi seems to have a flag that refuses to allow SD content from Hd broadcasts to be backed up to DVD. i.e. SD Sky sport can be recorded to dvd but even TV3 HD cannot. Even old HD Sky Greats movies that have been on the drive for weeks can't be output to DVD. I can understand pay per view stuff being protected, but free to air stuff, odd.

[wizzid]

As noted above the recording is disallowed by the DVD recorder CPRM and fails using either the SVideo output on MySky or the Video Recorder Output Scart port. I guess it was implemented on the last MySky sotware update on 20 May.

[Apsattv]

Is it just macrovision?

I think you can bypass it.

[wizzid]

Is it just macrovision?

I think you can bypass it.

Sorry Squire, I don't know, I know only that my dvd recorder won't record TV3 News from Sky now (amongst Sky others). The recorder Manual says CPRM is the culprit, seems odd for FTA material from Sky, I guess I could pick it off Freeview HD (which actually looks sharper than Sky perhaps cos it's mp4)or analogue instead. Bummer really. Sky was convenient, previously.

[kiwisteve]

Unlikely to be Macrovision prob an digital CP like BluRay

[wizzid]

Being optomistic maybe it's a NZ cockup. From UK experiencence, maybe this is just deja vue of a software cockup there 5 months back:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/dec/04/television-sky-programme-backups

in short Sky admitted:

"Sky's only official statement on the issue is: "Following a recent system upgrade, there was an unforeseen issue with some Sky+ boxes relating to their copy function ... we isolated the cause of the problem ... and we fully resolved [it] a week later after testing a solution.We'd like to apologise for any disruption this unforeseen problem caused."

The company insists that it has not changed its home copying policy, which only uses CGMS-A/Macrovision to protect Sky Box Office pay-per-view programmes - these are automatically deleted from the Sky+ hard drive and can't be copied from the PVR.

That will be a relief to many Sky+ users. But the episode is a stark reminder that if broadcasters want to stop (or at the very least, disrupt) viewers recording their programmes, the technology to let them do it is already in place."

I ask:Wot about NZ?

[wizzid]

This is not a very active forum it seems, nonetheless:

in the light of the fact that the NZ Sky decoder and Sky HDi has, as a selling point, an outlet labelled "recorder" on the back but it's now only been very recently changed to be recognized as not available for casual use except for non-conventional recording hardware/software.

Geeks are okay 'cos we can understand what's been implemented (copy once, now), but for the previous regular users of the facility (to whom -RW VR mode as a new variant means nothing): that must be a frustration.

I mean, good heavens, no region 4 person (loser) is surely going to distribute a TV3 show (now copy once protected) or movie that has been around for much more than a year or two in region 1 already. Who'd want a copy with NZ sky vision logo vision embedded? Ukraine? Region 5 or 6? Potential piracy? Desperate?

The NZ law has only been implemented, as I understand it, in commonsense previously for REAL crims like the local guy that pirated a version of the local great NZ's "Siones' Wedding" before it was distributed, a really bad thing to do, despicable for all. That conviction was a very good thing. Convicted. Pirates hung and quartered. A good deterrant.

My opinion, as I've paid the SKY subscription for the services from which the copyright owners earn their income pro rata after Cinema and DVD and PPV royalties (currently about 50% each [cinema and DVD] on year of release) in US. I can time shift as I've done since the US Sony court decision 25 or more years back. The NZ INTERPRETATION of the law seems agree with the commonsence intent rather than the letter of the law of old. Thank God. Crims go to jail, time-shifters enjoy their favourite, just later!