Problem Recording/Pio 420

[cie3]

If someone could offer some advice or an explanation of the below I'd be grateful.

Tuesday night, I recorded Gilmore Girls to the HDD of my Pio 420. GG airs in LA on KTLA (WB channel 5) from 8p-9p. I have successfully recorded this program and others for the last several weeks. (I bought the unit from Costco in Feb.)

When I turned on the DVD recorder last night to watch the program, there was an error message of sorts (ie. this is a copy protected program). I don't remember the specifics. Bits of scenes were missing as if I had edited out portions like a commercial.

I thought that I would be able to view the program in its entirety. I have always been able to w/out issue. Is this a case of CPRM and/or a Broadcast Flag? Are the two things the same/related?

I am guessing that this is what happened. If anyone can advise otherwise, this would help.

Also, I thought that the Broadcast Flag only applied to cable telecasts vs. broadcast programs. I don't have cable so I was very surprised that this happened. I was also surprised that I had only attempted to view the program once vs. recording it onto a disc. Doesn't this CPRM or Flag thing let you view the program at least one time?

Could I have done something to the remote to have enabled these missing bits?

Can this be avoided in the future?

I don't always save shows I do watch to disc but I do want to view them w/out portions missing.

Could there be an issue w/my Hard Drive??

Thanks for the advice/answer in advance.

[seb]

I don't think this sounds like an issue with your hard drive, especially if you've not noticed problems with other recordings you've made.

I was about to make a similar post myself. I also have a Pioneer 420 and am in the UK. I made a several hour recording one evening from the internal tuner (analogue) of a terrestrial television station (ITV1). The programme content included a football match.

When I got home that evening, I also had a message on screen saying something about portions of the programme being copy protected. I didn't notice any missing parts, although I didn't try to watch the football match.

Like you, I assumed that this would only be a problem if I tried to make a copy of material on a DVD. I will be interested to see if more programmes are going to be broadcast with these flags set, and what the limitations will be in practice.

[cie3]

I can't believe that I was not able to at least view the program once in its entirety.. Am going to use my VCR next week and the recorder so as to avoid missing the season finale. Will advise if this happens again.

[seb]

Ok a bit more feedback. This has happened to me several times now. Only on recordings made via built in tuner (analogue terrestrial) of the ITV1 channel (Pioneer 420, recording to the hard-disk, I am in the UK).

A message appears on the screen regarding Copy Protection. Portions of the recorded programme are indeed missing - chapter marks are made at the missing points. Looks like some copy-protect flag (like CGMS? is being enabled for parts of the broadcast programme.

Programmes which have had portions fail to record include the News! I haven't contacted ITV yet to enquire what is going on, but wondered whether anyone else in the UK has had similar experiences?

[sync]

I've never run into CPRM but I find it odd that some portions were available and others were missing. Is that how CPRM works? I thought it would affect the whole program and not just portions of it.

I doubt that KTLA is inserting CPRM and I know WB isn't using it.

[Frobozz]

I'm not in the UK so I don't have a way to compare your experience.

CPRM is "copy once" so it allows for the program to be recorded but not copied. That isn't what is happening here.

The Pioneer recorder somehow is sensing that the source is copy protected (not CPRM). Here is what the Pioneer manual says about this:
"If copy-protected material is encountered during a recording, recording will pause automatically and an error message will be displayed on-screen."