Page 1 of DVD-Recorders are not compatible with Telewest Digital TV?

Just had Telewest digital tv upgraded from analogue and have been told that our DVD Recorder (Panasonic DMR E50) will not work due to chip conflicts?. Any ideas if/ how to get around this?
Cheers

when you say will not work, do you mean it simply refuses to accept a signal from the ntl box ? as this does not seem probable, or does ntl maybe use a type of copy protection for all it`s channels including sky 1 etc, a friend of mine has ntl digital and a panny dmr-e30 (same as mine) and he does not seem to have any probs ? can you let us know the exact nature of the incompatability, ie totaly dead/distorted pic etc.

This item was edited on Monday, 9th February 2004, 21:07

According to my wife, who met the engineer, Telewest uses a type of copy protection for all of its channels. When i tried to record, after an inital statement saying it was not possible, all I got was static. The engineer suggested that some people have got round this by changing the code- i assumed this was a type of dvd hack. I`m confused!

it`s scandalous if they are using copy protection on all chanells in fact i`d get rid of it and get sky (which incidentally i have and it`s much better anyway) righto, i just rang my mate and he still has no problems so maybe it`s only regional at the moment ? the only way around it would be a macro/etc disable scart lead, i have never used one but sonel seems to get regular mentions http://www.sonel.com
anyone else know about ntl doing this kind of thing ?

Quote:
According to my wife, who met the engineer, Telewest uses a type of copy protection for all of its channels.

Thats incredible, and I believe, an infringement to your rights as a customer, as you are allowed to record TV programmes for "time shift" viewing at a later date.

Clayts...you wanna try and dig up some legal info on this one, `cause thats a bit of a bender for Telewest customers if it`s true!
(although, it`s an analogue output...I don`t understand the total signal failure myself for recording....defies logic)

Jimbo : oÞ

Just got off the phone to Telewest National advice centre. The woman i spoke to said that this facility has not been enabled yet as it is a new system. She also suggested that this would apply to videos too- which i can`t believe. Either way- what a shocking system or badly trained staff. We are stuck with them as we have no bt phone line or aerial but i`m totally disgusted with their shodiness.

if it`s one of the newer protection`s, then most video recorders will be ok, however if i try to copy something on my dmr-e30 without first disabling the protection i get a short message about copy protection then static (this is on dvd`s) and the panny simply refuses to record and shut`s down. but to implement this on standard chanels is stupid, i mean it`s almost as if ntl want people to go over to sky (or even sky + ) i mean if sky did this then sky + would be redundant overnight !! also i may be wrong but is`nt it your legel right to be able to archive broadcast tv for upto 14 days ? (could be wrong here but i seem to remember this from year`s ago) :/

also you are not stuck with it, as you can still have ntl phone without taking other services, for instance i have sky for tv, bt for my landline and ntl for my broadband, and from past experience i would not touch ntl for either the tv or the phone.

This item was edited on Monday, 9th February 2004, 21:27

I have had Telewest Digital for some time now and purchased a Panasonic DMR E50 just before Christmas.
I simply replaced the old VCR using the same connections and voila it was up and running. I can record any cable channel. The digital cable set-top box is a Pace and unless Telewest have changed this ( or the specifications ) then I cannot see why you are having any problems. I have a Technical Guide booklet received on installation but unfortunately a model or reference number for the box is not mentioned nor is there one on the box itself. There is however a page listing specifications.

Also I am confused as to why a lot of replies to you mention nfl rather than Telewest.

This item was edited on Thursday, 12th February 2004, 16:02

As a fellow Teleworst customer (not NTL), and having checked around all the places that TW customers hang out to moan about things, I`m convinced that the engineer was talking out of an orifice other than his mouth.

Telewest DO use copy protection (good old Macrovision) on their PAY channels (such as Front Row), and this can be overridden by certain leads and dongles which I personally can`t talk about.

However Teleworst boxes CAN`T be controlled by external boxes because the damn things talk a completely different infra-red protocol, meaning you can`t use a VCR satellite/cable channel changing facility.

Wire up your Panny to your TW box the same as before - TW TV SCART to the PANNY INPUT/DECODER SCART, and PANNY TV SCART to the TV input SCART. If that doesn`t work, then you`re doing something else wrong. ;)

Happy discing.

J Mark Oates

This item was edited on Thursday, 12th February 2004, 17:15

I have read a thread on Digitalspy Telewest use a Cable Box, Sa4000 that has copy protection built in , you must ask them to change your box to a Pace unit that does not have this problem. gerry

Below is copied from this site , (check cable, then broadband telewest forum)

Copy Protection still added by SA4000 box
The SA4000 software has been upgraded in Edinburgh this week but the box still adds CGMS (Digital) copy protection!

This means that recording BBC1 to a digital recorder (DVDR/HDD) is restricted.
(See thread <dvdr and tw> for background.)

Telewest have acknowledged that the SA4000 adds copy protection to it`s output (which I suspect must be CGMS).
Telewest have said it is not their policy to copy protect the standard channels that they broadcast, so this is seen as an error with the SA4000 and they are looking into a fix...


Three points are of concern to me:




As more people purchase DVD recorders this will become a bigger issue.

I don`t understand how Telewest managed to source the new SA4000 box without anyone realising it added Copy Protection! Maybe their unstated policy is to add Copy Protection in the future.

As the new firmware hasn`t switched off the Copy Protection I suspect this may be a hardware issue! Can any experts out there confirm if CGMS is added via a discrete chip in the SA4000 that would have to be bypassed?


I`ll chase Telewest for their latest statement on this issue...

In the meantime the solution is to swap for a Pace box, or get yourself one of these cables http://www.sonel.com/.


14-11-2003 09:30 Link to this post ¦ ¦



mikeharrison
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Re: Copy Protection still added by SA4000 box

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This item was edited on Monday, 16th February 2004, 02:22