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Last week was recording off cable on TCM for those Edgar Kennedy 2 reel comedies they ran 4/26.
I do know all the RKO shorts from the 20s, 30s and 40s are public domain so was going to make a DVD for my personal home use.

I was unable to transfer from the DVR to disc---copy guarded signal. I had noticed this on
certain other cable channels lately but never on TCM. Called the cable company and they say that certain channel providers have the option to copy-guard their signal. Turned out the quality was not very good on them anyway, so I probably wouldn't have wanted a DVD after all.


Anyone else running into this? Not sure if TCM does it for all their programming.
Back in the late 1970s during the VCR revolution, the US Courts ruled recording from home TV and cable was legal for home use only.

For SD video I connect to my capture device via analog S-VHS video cable and RCA-type audio cables, which works fine (I just tested it to record a clip from TCM). If you're recording standard definition via non-digital cabling you shouldn't have any problem.

Digital HDMI cables will pass along (enforce) copy protection; using the correct HDMI signal splitter will strip the copy guard and enable recording the HD signal via HDMI. Apparently video gamers use that technique to capture their game play. There's a wealth of information at http://www.videohelp.com/

The irony is that this type of copy protection at the consumer level, interfering with making fair use copies for oneself, wouldn't stop any third-world-country pirates.

I still use trusty ol' VCRs to record off TCM, then transfer material to digital tape. Ultimately it becomes a DVD for my library.

So there.

I go from my DVR box to my DVD recorder via RCA cables. I was able to record on the the DVD hard drive but could not copy onto DVD. So next time I want to keep something on DVD I will go through my macrobuster and then into the DVD hard drive. I noticed it on the Kennedy shorts for the first time, too. But when I realized they were all 16mm dupes I was not at all upset.

Ray Faiola wrote:I go from my DVR box to my DVD recorder via RCA cables. I was able to record on the the DVD hard drive but could not copy onto DVD. So next time I want to keep something on DVD I will go through my macrobuster and then into the DVD hard drive. I noticed it on the Kennedy shorts for the first time, too. But when I realized they were all 16mm dupes I was not at all upset.

Ray, I wonder if TCM contracted with an outside vendor for those EK shorts and part of the deal was the signal must be
copy-guarded.

The video quality was not very good on them--sure looked like dupes or light TV prints. Not sure if LOC has any 35mm material on the RKO shorts or not....after RKO went bust in the late 50s, only the features got renewed by their successors, or so I'm told.

I have Verizon Fios for my TV so different systems may have different types of copyguards. In my case, when I recorded a movie from TCM on DVR, I later wanted to burn a DVD-R from it. It began recording OK then about 45 minutes into the movie, the recording process stopped and a message was displayed saying as much. Hmnn.

I wondered what would happen if I recorded only in 30 minute segments? It worked w/o interruption so I burn the 85-minute film on to three discs @ 30 minutes each. Then I uploaded to my Windows Live Movie Maker and linked the three parts together. Voila! But there's got to be an easier way to do this.

I keep certain VCRs in storage, so that I can maintain my system into my dotage.

Marr&Colton wrote: Ray, I wonder if TCM contracted with an outside vendor for those EK shorts and part of the deal was the signal must be
copy-guarded.

The video quality was not very good on them--sure looked like dupes or light TV prints. Not sure if LOC has any 35mm material on the RKO shorts or not....after RKO went bust in the late 50s, only the features got renewed by their successors, or so I'm told.

Well, they were all released on Alpha. Who knows if they provided guarded copies. Yes - all 16mm dupes. There has been lots of discussion over various boards about the RKO shorts and their trajectory (RKO to C&C to Guild to Mr. X to unsuccessful sublicense to Worldvision...). I actually spoke with the fellow who bought them back in the 80's - I was trying to acquire a couple of prints. He had no clue what to do with them and now his son doesn't even know if the family still owns them. It's a real mess.

I have about 40 Guild FIlms prints of the RKO shorts and most of them are sparkling (including a rare original print of HARRIS IN THE SPRING).

It would sure be nice if this library could be sorted out once and for all.

Marr&Colton wrote:Last week was recording off cable on TCM for those Edgar Kennedy 2 reel comedies they ran 4/26.
I do know all the RKO shorts from the 20s, 30s and 40s are public domain so was going to make a DVD for my personal home use.

I was unable to transfer from the DVR to disc---copy guarded signal. I had noticed this on
certain other cable channels lately but never on TCM. Called the cable company and they say that certain channel providers have the option to copy-guard their signal. Turned out the quality was not very good on them anyway, so I probably wouldn't have wanted a DVD after all.


Anyone else running into this? Not sure if TCM does it for all their programming.
Back in the late 1970s during the VCR revolution, the US Courts ruled recording from home TV and cable was legal for home use only.

Which cable company is this?

My local Ohio Cablevision. Per other posts here, others noticed the copy guard too, so it was probably on TCM's
satellite feed.

As mentioned, not sure if this is a constant thing for all programming at this time.