Questions about copy protection

Analog Signal Copy Protection for Series2, Series3, Premiere, and Premiere XL boxes

Digital Signal Copy Protection Policies for Series3 and Premiere series boxes

Analog signal issues that may cause false copy protection

Multi-Room Viewing and TiVoToGo

Copy Protection Issues for Australian Customers

---

Like many other consumer electronics companies, TiVo observes various forms of copy protection as required by several industry authorities. These requirements are different for analog and digital content.

Program providers decide which programs within limited categories will have copy protection. If you believe that you are getting copy protection messages incorrectly, please call us and let us know. Questions regarding the use of copy protection on Pay-Per-View, Video on Demand, DVD or VHS content would be more effectively directed to the copyright holders themselves, not TiVo Customer Support.

When a program is protected by Macrovision, a red flag will appear next the program in the Now Playing List. This flag indicates that the program will be deleted under a schedule defined by the copyright-holder.

---

Analog Signal Copy Protection for TiVo® Series2, Series3, Premiere, and Premiere XL

Like most television reception equipment, TiVo® boxes recognize Macrovision copy protection technology applied by program providers. This copy protection may be applied to certain limited categories of analog programming (such as Pay Per View, Video On Demand, DVD or VHS sources) and requires TiVo to respond in a pre-defined manner. Macrovision™ copy protection rules include:

Copy Never - This content is not allowed to be recorded by a TiVo box.

7 Day Unlimited - These programs can be recorded and viewed as many times as you like within 7 days of their original recording date

7 Day / 24 Hours - These programs can be stored for up to 7 days but once you begin watching the show, you must complete viewing within 24 hours.

---

Digital Signal Copy Protection Policies for TiVo Series3 and Premiere series boxes

TiVo Series3 and Premiere series boxes are compliant Digital Cable Receiver (DCR) devices which use CableCARDs™ to receive high quality digital cable content in its native format. Since the Series3 and Premiere series boxes are DCR devices, in addition to the Macrovision rules for analog content, they must also comply with the content protection policies for Digital Cable content. These copy protection rules vary by content type, and in general, premium and pay channels will have more restrictive rules.

CableCARDs display copy protection for the current channel(s) as CCI bytes. The following CCI byte values affect only digital content:

0x00 - Copy freely - Content is not copy protected. This is the only CCI value that allows content to be transferred via multi-room viewing (MRV) or TiVoToGo™ transfers.

0x01 - Copy No More - Internally, TiVo boxes treat this same as 0x02

0x02 - Copy Once - The box can make a recording, but can't transfer it via MRV or TiVotoGo transfers.

0x03 - Copy Never - the content can be recorded and viewed for 90 minutes after transmission, and is not transferrable. Content disappears from the Now Playing list after 90 minutes.

Additional CCI values put restrictions on both digital and analog content:

0x04 - Content is Copy Once for digital output, but would have Macrovision 7 Day Unlimited restriction applied on the analog outputs. This affects content viewed either on an HDTV with component cabling or on a standard definition TV. It also affects content saved to VCR or DVD when the recorder is connected to an analog output on the TiVo box.

0x07 - Content is Copy Never for digital content (deleted after 90 minutes) and Macrovision 7 day/24 hour for content recorded from analog channels. Content cannot be transferred via TiVoToGo transfers or MRV, and cannot be saved to VCR or DVD.

To view the CCI byte value for a channel:

1. Tune to the channel in Live TV.

2. Press the TiVo button to go to the TiVo Central® screen and then select Messages & Settings, then Account and System Information, and then Diagnostics.

3. Check the Channel value for Tuner 1, which is on the first page of the Diagnostics screen. If you do not see the one you want, use the CHANNEL DOWN button to scroll to the information for Tuner 2.

4. Once you find the channel number, look below it for the CCI byte setting. If the CCI Byte setting is N/A, the channel is analog.

WARNING: Your cable provider must pair (bind) the CableCARD to its slot in the TiVo box before you can view content with any CCI value other than 0x00.

---

Analog signal issues that may cause false copy protection

1. If an analog signal is weak or noisy, it may cause the TiVo box to incorrectly flag a program as copy protected. To determine whether a program is being flagged appropriately, remove any splitters or RF modulators (which weaken the signal strength) between the wall cable connection and the box.

2. If the program is still being flagged as copy protected, connect the cable directly from the wall cable connection to a VCR. If the program is still being copy protected, the broadcaster is marking the program as copy protected.

3. If the signal is too weak, placing a line amplifier between the wall cable outlet and the box may improve the signal enough to allow the box to accurately determine whether copy protection should be applied.

4. Finally, the signal can be over-amplified or too noisy. If you have one or more line amplifiers between the wall cable outlet and the box, you may want to remove one to see if the box stops flagging content as copy protected.

---

Multi-Room Viewing and TiVoToGo

Not all programs may be transferred using the Multi-Room Viewing or TiVoToGo features due to the use of copy protection mechanisms permitted under the FCC’s encoding rules. Some shows cannot be transferred due to the copy protection assigned them by the program provider. These shows usually are marked with a red circle-slash icon. (47 C.F.R. 76.1904)

For more information about Multi-Room viewing issues, please see Multi-Room Viewing troubleshooting.