Confusing new install with ceton infinititv6 (1 Viewer)

[Pctravel]

Just installed the Comcast tuner card and have it tuning in all my channels except for HBO? Media center does tune in HBO channels and my dvr but they don't tune inside mediaportal? Any idea why this might be?

 

[mm1352000]

Hello and welcome Pctravel

Any idea why this might be?

Yep. HBO (and all other premium channels - Showtime et. al.) are almost certainly protected with "copy-once" copy protection.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copy_Control_Information

MediaPortal can't access such channels because we haven't implemented copy protection support.

Why?

1. We don't have developers available to do it.
2. We don't really want to implement support for things that will restrict your ability to do what you want with MediaPortal.
3. Certification for copy protection compliance is very expensive. Way more than we - an open source organisation, surviving on donations - can afford.

Even if we had developers available, wanted to implement copy protection support, and somehow found the money to apply for certification... it is very unlikely that MediaPortal could be certified, simply because it is open source software. Open source means that MP's source code is available to everyone to download, build modify... do whatever they want with it. That being the case, people could remove or disable any restrictions we put in place. The certifiers would know that, and therefore would not certify MP unless we closed access to our source code... which is not going to happen. That's completely against the founding principles of Team MediaPortal.

We're not the only software/people in this position. MythTV, N-PVR, Kodi/XBMC, ARGUS, PLEX... all in a similar position. As far as I know WMC is still the only PC software which enables you to watch and record "copy-once" channels. Unfortunately I can't see that changing any time soon, if ever.

Regards,
mm

 

[Pctravel]

Makes sense. So can media center and media portal both record without conflicting? I can use media center for HBO recordings then.

 

[mm1352000]

So can media center and media portal both record without conflicting? I can use media center for HBO recordings then.

I can't speak for Media Center, but MediaPortal shouldn't have a problem sharing tuners.
Note that in practical terms "copy once" means that any HBO recordings you make with WMC can only be played in WMC on the PC that created the recordings (or with WMC extenders connected to that PC). Those recordings will be rendered unplayable if you should ever need to reload Windows, though they may survive Windows upgrades.

 

[aswede]

I had the same issue when I tried the Centon card, so I returned it and reverted to using a separate decoder box with HDMI output that I run to a Hauppauge HDPVR and then to the computer using a USB cable.