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View Full Version : Problems recordiing HD content from BHN PACE 550


tnc9999
09-13-2003, 06:57 PM
Hi Eveyone,

I emailed jaymer about this problem offline and he suggested I post it here to see if anyone can help me figure it out.

I am a BHN subscriber and I recently upgraded to the PACE 550 box.

I have a panasonic DMR E80H DVD Recorder in my home theater setup which I mostly like to use for recording off the air shows to the built in Hard Drive. The problem is, when I attempt to record anything from any of the HD channels (ie: 600 and up) I get the 'Recording of this Material is Not Allowed' message from the recorder. I am well aware of the Copy Protection controls built into this recorder but I was told by the BHN folks that they are NOT transmitting any CPRM (Copy Protection) signals with any of their broadcasts - including HD channels. I have tried to take the PACE box out of <PASS> mode and force all the other resolutions (including 480i) but no matter what I do, the Panny recorder simply WILL NOT let me record the HD channels. All the other chnnels record just fine. For example: I can record a move on HBO channel 201 but if try to record that SAME movie on HBOHD channel 700 it won't let me.

WHY???? Has anybody had any experience with this. Jamyer tells me their is a BHN tech that monitors these forums and I was wondering if he/she might be able to shed some light on this.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Tom

PS: I loved all the stories about the clueless BHN installers that come out to your house to set up the PACE box. I had the identical experience. I was told that a Tech HAD to come out to set up the box (ie I could not come in and just pick it up myself) and when he finally came, I ended up showing HIM how to set it up. He had absolutely no clue about the Digital Audio outputs - in fact he told me you couldn't use them! The best part though was when he hooked up 2 sets of analog audio cables - one into my home theater Receiver and the other set into my Hitachi TV audio inputs. I told him that I didn't even use the speakers in my Hitachi TV but he insisted that they had to be there anyway! After he was finished hooking it up HIS way, I calmly disconnected his audio cables and replaced them with one Toslink Optical cable. He was amazed....

He still did not believe me, however, when I told him it was the ONLY way you could actually receive Dolby 5.1 surround sound.

Just thought I would add my experience to the pot of BHN stories...

I will say this, however in BHN's defense: they did not charge me a penny for the installation.

CANDY76MAN
09-13-2003, 07:26 PM
1-Are you trying to record the downconverted (to 480i) hd channels from the composite or svideo outputs or ]
2-are you trying to record full 1080i hd from the component outputs??

The first option should work as long as there is no copy protection embedded but if it is giving you that error I would assume the downconverted hd still has the copy protection which is probly why you can't record it....I don't follow all the copy protection crap very closely.

the second option won't work because there are no blue laser dvd recorders on the market in America so I doubt you have one (although I think one company has one in production but it was very expensive and in another country)...a regular dvd recorder can't record hd....well, not unless the recorder were designed to accept and output 1080i and I'm not aware of any dvd recorders that can do that....such a dvd recorder could only record maybe a half hour of 1080i on 4.7 gb dvd anyway and would eat up a harddrive in no time...I believe hd requires about 10 gbs per hour of video.

tnc9999
09-13-2003, 08:36 PM
I'm definately just trying to record the downconverted 480i signal into the SVIDEO Input on my recorder. I'm actually taking the SVIDEO OUT directly from my PACE 550 and feeding it directly into one of the SVIDEO inputs on the recorder (in other words, I'm not even passing it through my A/V receiver. I guess the PACE Box is outputting some sort of Copy Protect signal. As I'm sure you know, the PACE box is fully compliant and capable of outputting the CPRM signals so I guess that is what is happening.

It's not a big deal now because pretty much anything that is being transmitted in HD on BHN is also being transmitted simultaneously in SD on a lower channel. It just pisses me off that I can't do it.

Thanks for your reply...

Tom

CANDY76MAN
09-13-2003, 10:21 PM
have you tried the composite output?

Maybe there is some way to disable your Panasonics copy protection detection?

jaymer
09-13-2003, 11:23 PM
i can't find any hacks for the E80H, but there IS this device - the 2nd one listed on this page:
http://www.threedoubleyou.com/videocopier.htm

it would use the composite video plug (yuck!) out from the PACE box and into your E80H.

ralarcon
09-22-2003, 01:29 PM
That is why I switched to D* (satellite)

teampozer
09-22-2003, 05:15 PM
The installer story reminds me of those times in a basic setup when they install the VCR in the coax line after the cable box. This forces you to have the cable box tuned to the channel you want to record with the VCR. I've never figured that one out since the way I've always used a VCR was to record something while I watch something else. Of course, if the station is scrambled I understand. Bottom line is, these guys don't understand the technology they're installing. Kinda like the guys at Best Buy and Circuit City... that don't know the technology they're selling. Thank God for sites like this and tech geeks like us.