Does a new InfiniTV4 break DRM on prior recordings?

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FrankAZ

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Does a new InfiniTV4 break DRM on prior recordings?

#1

Post by FrankAZ » Mon Sep 10, 2012 10:22 pm

Hello,

I am beginning to suspect that my PCIe InfiniTV4 which dates from late summer 2010 is beginning to fail. The symptoms are new and don't fit the pattern of a bad cable which I've experienced before. Some channels are giving me blocking/drop-outs. Signal levels reported by each of the tuners are very variable +/- 2 dBmV, wrt the average figure, for successive diagnostic page reloads, and tuners 1 & 2 consistently report levels which average 2-3dBmV lower than tuners 3 & 4. My overall reported signals range from +2 to -12dBmV for frequencies from 150MHz to 800MHz, which never used to roll-off that much. My Cable Guy came out and checked my signal to the Ceton dongle and reported the signal good enough quality, ~+4dBmV, and almost uniform across the spectrum. The TiVo S3 on another equal output of the same drop-amp is working nicely. I've to do a few more tests and experiments using no drop amp and a fresh cable temporarily laid across the ground floor of the house, but I'm beginning to resign myself to needing a new InfiniTV4. I think something has gone wrong with the RF front-end. We have been having a lot of storms recently.

So that I can better prepare Mrs FrankAZ, is anything going to break the playback of copy-protected recordings made with the original InfiniTV4? No other system components will change and I do not propose to reinstall the Windows 7 operating system.
  • Would content play back as normal even if I remove the old InfiniTV4 and replace it with a new InfiniTV4, after pairing it with the original CableCard? Does a tuner substitution affect the machine signature enough to break DRM?
  • Would I need to keep the old InfiniTV4 in the system until we've watched the library of older copy-protected recordings? If I did I'd prefer to remove the CableCard because (after jumping through the hoop with my Cable Co, Cox) I'd fit it to the new card. Would not having a CableCard fitted to the original InfiniTV4 satisfy the DRM need? I'd not even have a coax brought to the old InfiniTV4 and would have no expectation of recording - I'd just be keeping it in the original PCIe slot to satisfy DRM criteria.
Has anyone had to do this yet and have first hand proven experience to share?

Frank.
i3-540 | DH57DD | 4GB DDR3-1333 | InfiniTV4 \ 2250 | Intel SSD \ WD 1TB | Silverstone GD05

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makryger

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#2

Post by makryger » Mon Sep 10, 2012 11:04 pm

I'm pretty sure copy-protection for already recorded shows is not tuner-dependent... I've moved from an ATI DCT to a Ceton InfiniTV and it didn't screw up my past recordings... this is basically the same thing.
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richard1980

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#3

Post by richard1980 » Mon Sep 10, 2012 11:25 pm

I don't have any first-hand experience, but I'm sure if changing tuners breaks DRM, we would have heard about it by now.

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FrankAZ

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#4

Post by FrankAZ » Mon Sep 10, 2012 11:39 pm

Thanks for the quick replies. They both make sense. I'll approach a new tuner with less trepidation if my direct-hook to the street gives the same or similar signal variability result, as I expect.

Frank.
i3-540 | DH57DD | 4GB DDR3-1333 | InfiniTV4 \ 2250 | Intel SSD \ WD 1TB | Silverstone GD05

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WhatHappend

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#5

Post by WhatHappend » Tue Sep 11, 2012 5:00 am

I have changed InfinitTV4 tuners many times now and changing tuner has no affect on playing back a protected recording recorded with previously installed InfiniTV.

I put a script file in this thread to easily gather your levels based on frequency for you: http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 163#p27163

I see about 17dB of tilt from lowest to highest frequency (chart at link above), but that is constant across all tuners I have tried.
(Update: I take that back. The HDHR Prime is showing tilt of 11dB, that is a lot better than the 17dB. Not sure whether any of these tuner provided measurements mean much.)
HDHR Prime
Ch812 Freq 153MHz
SNR 37.6 dB
Level 5.3 dBmV

CH107 Freq 759MHz
SNR 34.3 dB
Level -5.4 dBmV

erkotz

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#6

Post by erkotz » Tue Sep 11, 2012 2:53 pm

Changing (or removing) just an InfiniTV should not break DRM. However, the DRM calculation does give a high weight to network cards (which includes the InfiniTV), so if you change other things at the same time, you may run into difficulty.
Quality Assurance Manager, Ceton Corporation

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