DRM restrictions

#1

I'm curious about the current DRM being implemented. When Cable DVRs first came onto the scene, the channels that were using DRM had a "copy once" flag on them so they could be recorded to the DVR. The flag only prevented those recordings from being copied to another device (such as via firewire capture) or edited (commercial marking, etc). It didn't prevent being able to time shift them for viewing as often as desired from the original location.

Is that how DRM is being implemented once again? Some of the services carrying these channels are continuing to provide time-shift capabilities, so it seems the only way to save them to our own storage for private use (which I'm pretty sure has been defended in court numerous times) would be to screen record them with something like Bandicam and then manually attach metadata to them. Is there any way Channels could automate such a process for their subscribers and remain compliant with current private use court rulings?

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DRM rolling out on ATSC 3.0 stations - will Channels be usable on these?
#2

Record via Play On using the Channels integration. That dose exactly what you are asking for.

#3

I'm not sure I understand. What you mean is using PlayOn TV to make recordings and having them saved to a folder that Channels imports, correct? Or is it a tighter integration than that - such as having Channels schedule the recordings to be made hands-free via the PlayOn TV interface?

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#4

You have to set up the recordings yourself in PlayOn Cloud.

What Channels does is check your Play On Cloud account every 2 hours to see if there are any new recordings. If so, it downloads them to your server to be used like any other recordings in Channels.

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#5

Thanks for the clarification. I'll keep that in mind as I move in the direction of cord-cutting. Isn't DRM likely to impact PlayOn the same way it impacts Channels?

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#6

Not likely.
As long as it's possible to watch on demand streaming services (Netflix, Hulu, etc ) in a browser, PlayOn should continue working.

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#7

I've recorded some of these shows in a browser using Bandicam that if not captured properly would result in a video with audio but a blank picture. It was due to an overlay being used that Bandicam had "get through" to record what my eye was seeing. I don't know how many capturing programs had that ability and wasn't sure if PlayOn did.