Reinstalling WMC and saved recordings

[lupi]

How much trouble will it to restore ownership of protected once recordings after rebuilding my htpc and reinstalling wmc? Luckily everything but the disney star wars series are copy freely, but not sure what to do about those.

 

[bradly1101]

After reinstalling mine I was not able to access my recorded HBO shows, and I had no hardware changes. I did an in place install on another box and those worked.

 

[Aikouka]

To my knowledge, you cannot access the files anymore. The files are locked using a key generated off your hardware profile. That might make you think that it should be immutable as long as your hardware stays the same, but unfortunately, that isn't the case. You can also reset your DRM key... but I think that requires Windows Media Player 11 or lower. I actually had to do that once as something happened with it, and I couldn't watch any protected TV channels. So, I either had to sacrifice all of my protected recordings or never be able to watch more again. :\

...anyone tell me why we really want to keep this software?

 

[lupi]

because it's better than paying 30-60 a month to the cable company.

 

[Binky]

Your files will be lost.

It's not Microsoft's fault that they are forced to respect the copyright holders desire to add DRM, which accomplishes nothing in my mind since the people really copying and distributing the programs have no problems getting the content anyway. It only frustrates normal users.