I have a Motorola VIP1216 whole house DVR provided by Surewest. It has something called "Support for secure Digital Rights Management (DRM) with integrated Secure Processor."
The usb ports are de-activated but I can (re)record content from the DVR via S-Video, composite and/or optical outs direct to my Panasonic PV-D4744 VHS/DVD Recorder. My problem is that everything I have tried to (re)record to save for posterity comes out scrambled (the picture fades in and out). There are a bunch of NFL Network airings of America's Game stuff I would love to have to help me survive the off season.
I'm sure this has been battered about endlessly but I'm confused. Is this a result of an encryption chip in the DVR? Is it that the NFL Network has some proprietary claim to football? Is there any successful method of copying this content off the DVR?
I just don't want to go out and spend all kinds of $$ only to figure out that I'll never get these shows off the DVR ... which, btw, loses all its recorded programs if the power goes out.
There is a listing on eBay right now that tells how to upgrade from a 250GB drive to a 500GB drive without loosing your recordings or additional recording space.