What is blocking Vista users from recording NBC shows?

Update at 7:10 a.m. Wed., May 14: A correction was made to this story. See details below.

Some users of Windows Vista Media Center say they were blocked from recording the NBC Universal TV shows American Gladiator and Medium on Monday night.

"Restrictions set by the broadcaster and/or originator prohibit recording of this program," the error message read.

At Thegreenbutton.com a message board popular with DVR enthusiasts, those affected tried to figure out what was causing the block. When this kind of thing happens, people immediately question whether TV and cable networks are trying to thwart time-shifting technologies and force people to watch commercials again. Even though it's rarely done, content providers do have the ability to communicate with some time-shifting hardware to block the recording of shows or broadcasts.

"This is indicative of why the current DRM schemes are flawed," said Marcel Good, an IT director in Northern California and one of the people prevented from recording the NBC shows. "It affects people who intend to legally consume content. They have no intention of stealing the content. The people who want to steal already have ways around DRM."

On Tuesday, the cause for the block of the NBC Universal shows was still unclear. Representatives from both the network and Microsoft said they would need time to look into the matter.

Until they do, here are the few available clues. Most of those who posted at Thegreenbutton were Vista users recording digital cable with ATI cablecard tuners.

A TiVo spokeswoman said the DVR company received no customer complaints about being blocked from recording.

This isn't the first time a Vista Media Center user has complained about being barred from recording. A person identified as Alex from Canada wrote 14 months ago at Thegreenbutton: "Often a small number of my shows fail to record, and in the Windows event log I see errors about 'copy protection set by the broadcaster.'"

The shows Alex tried to record came from the Toronto-based W Network. Alex was running Windows Vista Ultimate 32bit and when attempting to record the show Friends: Trial by Jury received this message in Media Center's event logs: "Friends was not recorded. Recording of this content is prohibited by the content provider."

Jessica Zahn, a program manager in Microsoft's Media Center TV group, who according to Thegreenbutton has volunteered to answer questions at the site, apparently responded to Alex (a Microsoft spokeswoman said she could not confirm the message came from Zahn). The person who responded under the username JessZahn said the problem had either one of two causes.

"The broadcaster is setting the 'Copy Never' flag and Media Center's behavior is expected or Media Center is misinterpreting data it receives," and someone at Microsoft would need to study the stream of the show to know for sure.

What remains unclear, however, is whether those who posted complaints at Thegreenbutton shared the same cable provider.

I'll update this story as soon as I get more information.

Correction: This story erred in stating when Alex in Canada posted to Thegreenbutton.com. The post was from March 2007.

[MaLvaDo39]

I found the problem! I looked deep inside each system that was acting up and found the issue on the hard drive. It turns out they were all loaded with Windows!!!

[krosavcheg]

Why are air conditioners like computers? They both work fine until you open windows.

[humanssssss]

That's why I encourage the use of Ubuntu 8.02 instead of Microsoft Vista or Mac OSX. Microsoft and Apple get pay to do this by broadcaster to control the media. What you see and hear is what you know to react on. The alternative will die out. Ubuntu 8.02 is good for my own use. For those who aren't tech savvy stick with what you know, for those who like to have an adventure and seek freedom even if it takes you a bit more time, effort, and frustration, Ubuntu 8.02 is calling your name.

[awelbel]

OK another reason not to switch to Vista. This DRM controlled OS is still not ready for public use. I have not had this issue with any Win Xp Machine, Ubuntu Linux or OS X. Remember SAVE XP!

[Mr. Salty]

"A person identifying themselves as Alex from Canada" Copy editing note: You're mixing singular and plural. It should be "A person identifying himself as Alex from Canada ... "

[edub617]

It definitely was not limited to a single cable provider. I was effected by it as well and I don't have cable. I have two ATSC tuners in a Vista Premium machine and I had that message on the screen when I got home after failing to record American Gladiators. Luckily Hulu has that episode online already. One of my tuners is ATI and the other is Hauppauge, but I have no way of knowing which tuner was attempting to record the episode.

[AppleSuxLeo]

HD looks the best over-the-air with my HDTV Wonder...built BEFORE the "broadcast-flag" went into effect And XP has been rock solid for over five years !

[timdg]

I just have over the air antenna - I've had this happen before too.. So far it has only happened on Raymond reruns on the local FOX channel... I'll check NBC with Law and Order tomorrow... I have two tuners - ATI HDTV Wonder and Hauppauge HVR-950... No cable, no digital cable tuners, nothing like that...

[delf76]

I've recorded a ton of shows on my Vista DVR, and I have never seen this. I'm really curious about this.

[superswiss]

The reason none of the other OSes have these kinds of issues is because they don't have DVR technology that allows the recording of premium HD content (all the encrypted channels like HBO etc.) DRM was forced on Microsoft by the studios and cable providers. The only games in town to record premium HD content is Vista Media Center, HD Tivo and Tivo Series 3. Tivo users have had these same issues in the past. It's not clear why they weren't affected yesterday. Apple is affected by this, too. They haven't ventured into the DVR space yet, but AppleTV only gives you 24hrs to finish a movie once you started viewing it for example. A restriction forced onto Apple by Hollywood. Vista is ahead of the curve in this space. Let's talk about this again when the other OSes have actually caught up to Vista in this space and see who does a better job. BTW, Ubuntu will probably never support this kind of stuff, because it requires an expensive certification process forced onto the vendors by CableLabs.