what's changed recently re Direct TV and copyright issues?

[sarainelkins]

(I am NOT a sophisticated technological person, so I will appreciate it if your reply to me considers that most things you know are WAY above my head!) We've got the DirectTV DVR Model R15-300 TV receiver and have for over a year now. I normally watch some recordings alone, but sometimes I want the family to see shows together, so I have been moving them from the receiver to a DVD disc or a VHS tape. After viewing them together I just erase the disc or tape and re-use it. It never leaves our house and isn't ever shared or sold, etc. so I don't think I'm violating the fair use restrictions. Just recently I have been blocked by the receiver when I try to record ANY of the shows to disc or tape? Why? Has something changed re copyright? I called tech support mgt team at DirectTV and they say nothing has changed, no new software was released for our model receiver. I searched their website's forum for info on this without result. Do you know what is happening? And, how do I fix it??? It doesn't matter if it's an old movie from the 40s or a modern movie or a tv show. And it's consistent in the message that says "copyright issue prevents recording" or some word to that effect. I appreciate your help in solving this family dilemma.

[SmokieStover]

Perhaps it's your recording device. Try a stand alone VHS or S-VHS VCR.

[jagabo]

The hardware and firmware to support the broadcast flag has been in most video devices for a few years now. The industry has started transmitting the flag. The only way around this is to get a recorder that ignores the flag.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcast_flag

Techically, the broadcast flag is for digital transmission. But the copy protection status is propagated to the analog signal via CGMS-A on line 20 or line 21 of the NTSC analog signal:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CGMS-A

Others are having the same problem:

https://forum.videohelp.com/topic353625.html

[sarainelkins]

Thanks to you who sent possible reasons for not being able to move TV shows to disc or tape. Well, it turns out that Direct TV actually did release some software updates, even though the lady on the phone said they hadn't. The folks in tech support said they are now re-setting the software to eliminate this glitch and we'll soon be back to the way it was.