Set top Box, Protection and Media Centre

I have a new Dell installed with Media Centre 2005 with all the updates on
it, I have as a TV Tuner a Win TV PVR 150 connected to a set top box that I
use for viewing and recording freeview TV.

My problem is that every program that I record will not allow me to record
to DVD so that I can watch it on a DVD player. it says that the content is
protected.

When I look at the details of the program / film in "recorded TV" it always
shows as being not protected??? I am at a loss as to why this is refusing to
allow me to burn the disks to a DVD.
Is it because it is using a Scart lead / Coax setup or is it something I am
just not doing right - is there some way I can get round this problem - I
mean the software is great and I can understand the whole protection thing -
but come on it seems to be a bit keen

 

You don't state what country you are in but references to Freeview & SACRT lead
me to deduce that you are in the UK. In which case there is no Protected Content
so it cannot be that the broadcaster has set it but it must be that the
recording software is mistakenly seeing it as such. Is your region & location
set to UK? Are you trying to record to DVD from within the MCE interface with
the inbuilt sonicencoders? If so I would suggest re-installing. The built-in DVD
burning is rudimentary & slow so you may want to take a look one of the many
other DVD authoring packages around that support import of MCE's DVR-MS recorded
TV files. They all have time limited trials. take a look at Nero Vision Express,
Sonic MyDVD, ArcSoft ShowBiz, Cyberlink Power Director for starters.

BTW Why are you using an External STB feeding an analogue capture card for DVB-T
(Freeview)? You will achieve far superior picture quality & reliability of
channel changing by replacing the WinTV PVR150 with a Hauppauge WinTV Nova-T
native DVB-T card.

 

Yes I am in the UK.

why the PVR150 - a bad choice on my part but one I am now stuck with.

If it meant to work from within MCE then I am happy to use it even if it
slow - however at the moment it isn't working,

I have re-checked the regional settings and yes these are on UK.

I will try some of the free trials - I have a Sonic DVD v4 lying around I
will try that, although when I used it on my old "redundent" MCE system it
just burnt 4 seconds of film before stopping - due to the same error as I am
now getting....

In the mean time any other ideas??? I will post back more info when I have
tried Sonic.

 

I really, really recommend that you the swap out WinTV PVR150 for a digital
card. PC World were selling the Nova-T for 40 pounds so you are hardly stuck
with the analogue card. You can probably sell it on Ebay for 40 pounds

 

Just to let you know - I have installed mydvd and it still wont record - any
more help would be appreciated??

I tried a mew recording and tried recording it from both mce and from sonic
- niether will doo it - MCE complainsd off - "This file is license protected
and cannot be added to the CD/DVD" as we have already said this is unlikley
to be the case and that MCE is incorrectly deciding it is protected - my
question - How do I stop it from doing this

 

Try the latest drivers for your TV Tuner..

The latest beta driver as of today are available here
http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/downloads/Forum/PVR150/PVR150_24073_BETA.zip

The latest WHQL'ed driver as of today are available here
http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/downloads/Forum/PVR150/PVR150_24054_WHQL.zip

 

I have fixed the problem, having tried many of the suggestions on this page,
I finally came to the conclusion it wasn't anything that I was doing wrong
and that it was something else.

So I tried another set top box, and bingo - no Protection. seems as though
Media centre is finding something in the way my Freeview box is sending the
signal to make it think that the content is protected.

I have now replaced the freeview box and all is working as it now should.

as for replacing the tv tuner - yes it would be the best option but it
really isn't one I can do - long story.....

Thanks all for your help - I am very pleased and happy.

Michael