Error: video is copyprotected. aborting conversion

General Support / Questions
1

I am getting a “Convert to MP4 Error → ERROR: VIDEO IS COPYPROTECTED. ABORTING CONVERSION” on every show I record on NBC. This is new as of last night. I have recorded NBC shows (Law and Order, etc) for years.

I got the same result when using my second computer which also uses a separate installation of MCEBuddy. And I have been recording, as a test every NBC show today. Every show fails with ERROR: VIDEO IS COPYPROTECTED. ABORTING CONVERSION” error. I have only seen this error in the past when MCEBuddy tries to convert a HBO show, which is indeed a copyprotected show.

Every show attempted shows conversion shows CopyProtected: True. How does this happen? And how can I fix this. Thanks for any help.

Chris

My setup on both computers: cable signal into HDHomerun cable card to Windows 8.1 pc. Both computers record, and process MCEBuddy, on same computer (no networking).

A small snippet of MCEBuddy log:

WARNING> 2024-10-18T13:25:45 MCEBuddy.MetaData.VideoMetaData → IMDBApi failed

2024-10-18T13:25:45 MCEBuddy.MetaData.VideoMetaData → Updated Video Tags extracted after downloading details →

Title: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

SubTitle: s26e03 Divide and Conquer

Description: A couple’s dinner party ends with a violent home invasion and assault by masked men; Rollins suspects the crime is linked to her Intelligence investigation of an international gang of thieves.

Network: KING-DT (National Broadcasting Company)

Network Affiliate: National Broadcasting Company

Parental Rating: TV-14

Media Credits: Mariska Hargitay/Ice-T/Kelli Giddish/Peter Scanavino/Octavio Pisano;Martha Mitchell;;Aimé Donna Kelly/John Clarence Stewart/Jerry D. O’Donnell/Robbie Williams/David Gazzo/Pearl Sun/Quentin Nguyen-Duy/Michael Mastro/Emily Jackson/Adam Aalderks/John Hemphill/Ben Jeffrey/Kate Abbruzzese/Pawel Szajda/Roman Mitichyan/Luis Moco/David Garelik

Genres: Action,Mystery,Drama,Thriller,Crime Drama,Series

Season: 0

Episode: 0

Banner: C:\Program Files\MCEBuddy2x\cache\Law & Order Special Victims Unit.jpg

Banner URL:

IMDB Id:

MovieDB Id:

TVDB Id:

Is Movie: False

Is Sports: False

OriginalBroadcastDateTime: 2024-10-18T00:00:00

RecordedDateTime: 2024-10-18T02:37:03

SeriesPremiereDate: 1900-01-01T00:00:00

CopyProtected: True

SageTV FileID:

SageTV MediaFileID:

WARNING> 2024-10-18T13:25:45 MCEBuddy.MetaData.VideoMetaData → ERROR: VIDEO IS COPYPROTECTED. CONVERSION WILL FAIL

ERROR> 2024-10-18T13:25:45 MCEBuddy.Engine.ConversionJob → ERROR: VIDEO IS COPYPROTECTED. ABORTING CONVERSION

INFORMATION> 2024-10-18T13:25:45 MCEBuddy.Engine.ConversionJob →

→ Performance Metrics for the Current Conversion

2

It’s reading the metadata stored in the file (currently only WTV, MP4 and MKV files have support for this tag). Can you upload the original video recording so we can analyze to see what’s stored in the metadata and why it’s reading as copy protected?

3

3 of the 4 broadcast stations in my area that are broadcasting ATSC 3.0 have added DRM. I haven’t been able to convert them due to this. And can’t even capture them most of the time. I’m not sure if that is the issue you are experiencing or not but might explain it.

4

Thanks for the WTV sample. Had a look at it and we didn’t see any copyprotected tags anywhere in the file, infact it converted just fine. However in the logs you shared for the same file it was showing as copyprotected.

I think you may have an issue with the media filters installed on your system. For some reason they’re reporting the file as copy protected which then causes your issues. That would also explain why it’s intermittent for the same recordings.

There’s no easy way to fix your WTV media filters as they are provided by Microsoft, other than to do a fresh windows installation, but there’s an easy workaround within MCEBuddy. You’re not alone in having this issue where windows incorrectly reports WTV recordings to be copy protected when they are not in fact. You can configure MCEBuddy to ignore the copy protected flags in the Conversion task → Expert settings → Ignore copy protection page as shown below. MCEBuddy will log a warning in the logs file but continue the conversion like any other. If you truly have a copy protected recording in the mix, the result would be a static garbled video at the end of the conversion, all other false positive results should be converted just fine.

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5

Thank you so much for taking your time to review this, Goose. I do not know anything about filters- so I did not knowing change anything.

I am currently traveling- I will be home Sunday afternoon. I will make the changes as you thoroughly explained- and report back this thread by mid-week.

Thanks again
Chris

6

Hi Goose-

Back to this issue after a brief, wonderful trip to sunny (and very warm) Palm Springs.

Copy Protected issue contains on NBC show (but not all shows). You asked me to Conversion task → Expert settings → Ignore copy protection page as shown below

I know I have been on that page in the past- but for some reason (old age perhaps) I cannot figure out how to get to the EXPERT page. I try using Settings->General->System. But I see no option to EXPERT page.

What am I forgetting???

Thanks

Chris

7

Advanced settings → Expert settings

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8

GOOD NEWS!! The Ignore Copy Protection on both my computers was UNCHECKED. I placed a check mark in box- and, BINGO, all shows, including NBC, are now being succesfuylly converted.

Also, my trouble in reaching the proper EXPERT page was because I did not realize that simply checking the Conversion Task would bring up the proper screens.

Once again, thank you Goose for all your help over the years. It works so well that I rarely have toi actually open the MCEBuddy app.

Chris

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