Windows 7 Media Center "Copying Prohibited" WTV on Another PC
Posted by: david on 09/18/2011 - 04:18 PM
So I just finished setting up the Ceton InfiniTV cablecard tuner with my Windows 7 Media Center PC and did some recordings. I shared the "Recorded TV" folder and tried to play the .WTV files from another Windows 7 PC in the house and got the error message:"Copying Prohibited"
WTF??? Doing a research on Bing and Google showed that this is a common widespread problem. Of the several shows I recorded so far only ESPN Sportscenter didn't have DRM copy protection and was playable on another PC. At your Recorded TV folder you can actually right click on the file heading bar (Name, Date modified, Type, Size, etc) and add a new column called "Protected" so see which WTV files are DRM restricted or not. See screenshot below:
When I used a XBOX 360 as a Windows Media Center extender I was able to watch the protected shows no problem. Total garbage and THUMBS DOWN for Microsoft I must say because this defeated one of the main purposes for me even buying the Ceton InfiniTV to setup a centralized Media Center in the first place. But I'm not about to go and buy more XBOX consoles or other Media Center Extenders (MCE) when I have PCs that can do the same.
This is ridiculous and mind-boggling and certainly not in the consumers' best interests. I wonder if the FCC knows about this issue. Hopefully someone can come up with a total media center solution for the home that works without any of this DRM crap!