MLB prohibiting the recording of HD games?

[durl]

I have about a dozen HD RSNs greyed out of my guide. A couple are in my home market including 661-1. I can watch the baseball game on the HD sub-channel but my receiver is "not authorized" to record it. Several calls to Directv gets me the following information:

MLB has begun blocking DVRs from recording HD (and ONLY the HD) feeds of their games. They don't want people making copies of the games. Eventually, this will spread to other RSNs, making it so no HD games can be recorded.

This sounds suspect to me. Does anyone have any information on this?

 

[goaliebob99]

I havent had any issues recording games. It sounds like your not subbed to mlb ei.

 

[talos4]

Same here, I recorded last night Brewers game with an issue on 669. Watched it late last night.

 

[Zellio2008]

I've seen this also happen to some people at dbstalk. Resetting your receiver (red button) seems to help.

 

[durl]

I have the Sports Pack and never had problems recording HD games in my region until a couple of weeks ago.

I can't help but think that the channels being greyed-out has something to do with it. MLB isn't the only sport that airs games on those channels so they can't be causing the grey-out. And I would think that every other Sports Pack customer in my region would be seeing the same recording problems and there would be more discussion about it. Oh, well.

I'm just not counting on getting a different answer from Directv. I'm just not sure how to proceed with the problem.

I've seen this also happen to some people at dbstalk. Resetting your receiver (red button) seems to help.

I've done red-button resets, unplug resets, on-screen resets, re-authorized my services online and via a CSR. I even swapped out BBCs, tried component video instead of HDMI, re-ran satellite and on-screen guide setups...nothing worked.

I've seen where people had a similar problem with new HD channels that came online and a reset fixed the problem. I'm having trouble with a channel that's been available to me for 3 seasons now.

 

[Jimbo]

I have the Sports Pack and never had problems recording HD games in my region until a couple of weeks ago.

I can't help but think that the channels being greyed-out has something to do with it. MLB isn't the only sport that airs games on those channels so they can't be causing the grey-out. And I would think that every other Sports Pack customer in my region would be seeing the same recording problems and there would be more discussion about it. Oh, well.

I'm just not counting on getting a different answer from Directv. I'm just not sure how to proceed with the problem.



I've done red-button resets, unplug resets, on-screen resets, re-authorized my services online and via a CSR. I even swapped out BBCs, tried component video instead of HDMI, re-ran satellite and on-screen guide setups...nothing worked.

I've seen where people had a similar problem with new HD channels that came online and a reset fixed the problem. I'm having trouble with a channel that's been available to me for 3 seasons now.

So you can watch the HD channel, but if you hit the "Record" button, you get a message on the screen ?

 

[durl]

So you can watch the HD channel, but if you hit the "Record" button, you get a message on the screen ?

Yep. And I can record the standard definition channel, just not the HD one.

 

[Jimbo]

Yep. And I can record the standard definition channel, just not the HD one.

This is on an HD RSN or MLB EI package ?

The Red Wings will be on thier FSN the next game, I'll have to check it out.

 

[durl]

It's on an RSN game; I don't subscribe to EI because I don't have to in order to see my favorite team. I want to watch the Reds and, with the Sports Pack, Cincinnati is one of my home markets. I've been recording HD games on 661-1 (FSN Cincinnati) ever since it was lit up a few years ago.

Thanks to everyone for your responses, by the way.

 

[goaliebob99]

You need to have MLB EI to see a team that's out of market for MLB and the appropriate package for other sports. Just because you have the sports package you dont get access to the professional sports on that channel. You need to have the appropreate out of market package for that.

 

[goaliebob99]

It's on an RSN game; I don't subscribe to EI because I don't have to in order to see my favorite team. I want to watch the Reds and, with the Sports Pack, Cincinnati is one of my home markets. I've been recording HD games on 661-1 (FSN Cincinnati) ever since it was lit up a few years ago.

Thanks to everyone for your responses, by the way.

Whats your zip?

 

[durl]

You need to have MLB EI to see a team that's out of market for MLB and the appropriate package for other sports. Just because you have the sports package you dont get access to the professional sports on that channel. You need to have the appropreate out of market package for that.

FSN Cincinnati (a part of FSN Ohio) is in my market and the Reds games are available to me on that channel via Sports Pack. I've watched them for 10 years on FSN Cincinnati.

My concern is the new "not authorized to record" message I get when trying to record HD games on FSN Cincinnati's HD feed channel. I've recorded every game in HD on that channel from the time it was lit up until a couple of weeks ago.

 

[jcrandall]

Again Durl, what is your zip code so we can look into it.

 

[durl]

37075

 

[iceturkee]

i have had the same problem, even called directv and they were clueless. said i shouldn't have any problem since i sub to ei and the sports pak. i find the only way i can record those games is from the ei channel and not directly from the rsn game time only hd channel.

 

[durl]

i have had the same problem, even called directv and they were clueless. said i shouldn't have any problem since i sub to ei and the sports pak. i find the only way i can record those games is from the ei channel and not directly from the rsn game time only hd channel.

Interesting. I know I can view my RSN game on the EI channel but I don't believe I've tried recording it there.

Do you locate it in the guide and click Record or do you set it up some other way?

 

[iceturkee]

i check the directv website each day to see if the reds game will be in hd...if it is, i check to make sure its the cincy feed first, or the visiting team feed and then set that channel to record on my dvr. i haven't had any problems doing it this way although its a pain because the channel changes daily!

i was starting to get a message on the rsn that i might not be able to record the game because i wasn't authorized. that's when i called directv. they reset both my dvr's but that didn't fix the problem.

 

[durl]

Well, I followed your advice, iceturkee, and I was able to record every game this weekend. So, thank you for that! Your workaround much proves that the problem is NOT related to any MLB related prohibition.

Another round of calls to Directv is in order. We'll see what happens.