If the content provider and/or the cable company want to prevent the recording of a show, there is very little that the average viewer can do about it. There may be other options if you were willing to capture the program to a computer and had the knowledge/software to edit the program, but most folks aren't going to go to that much trouble over a tv show and they know that. Last year I ruined several DVDs trying to record a football game on the Big Ten Network before I learned that they use copy-protection. Advertisers will do everything they can to keep the audience captive and the content providers will cooperate to keep them happy and keep the ad dollars rolling in.

Well it does record after all. The show was 3 hrs live but on demand said it was 97 minutes. I called tech and asked about time difference and he said I could not record it. Than I tried it, and it worked.

To the best of my knowledge, Comcast has not utilized ACP (analog copy protection) on the video outputs of STBs, other than in some limited trial tests.

DVD recorders do not need to be affected by ACP waveform directly, but instead simply use detection circuitry to detect the ACP signal on the analog signal, or flagged within the MPEG bit stream if they accept a MPEG transport stream, and then inhibit recording.

Again, though, I'm not aware of any current ACP use by Comcast.

Ooops!

Something I thought of at 3:00 am this morning while tossing and turning - and thinking about everything else! - was that Comcast may be utilizing CGMS-A (Copy Generation Management System - Analog).

These are bits set in a digital code that exists on line 20 of the analog video within the VBI (vertical blanking interval).

The two bits are within a 7 bit word that indicate: 00 freely copy, 01 copy no more (bits that are rolled when you make your first authorized copy), 10 copy once (as authorized that then roll to 01), and 11 copy never.

DVD recorders are designed to read these bits and act accordingly.

Either way, if it's ACP or CGMS-A, the DVD recorder will usually display a "copying not permitted" type of message.

The unit is a Philips dvdr 3475. I tried to record avatar on FX and I got an error message and no go. Only movie I have had issues with.