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Its not a copyright issue, its a channel ID issue on the network.
Channel 4 recently regionalised its HD service to target advertising. The same has now hapened to Channel 4 AD. This means there are now several different regions of this channel on the network & you only get the one targetted at your area. All these versions have to have different channel IDs. As a result if the box sees the old version as not exisitng on the network it will block plaback of any recordings using that ID.
@vittj wrote:We found that we could playback the recorded programs later on. Frankly, it reinforced my view that I was being given the run-around. I have no idea why a recording saved to a hard drive should be identified as anything other than a file to be replayed by the software built into the box, however since such IDing is only done for the benefit of Virgin and/or their suppliers, it is incumbent upon Virgin to keep on top of such things. Thankfully, the problem was fixed and we have been able to access our backlog of Countdown episodes – Rachel Riley is not to be missed!
You rent the box. Also the recordings on it are only licenced for time shift purposes. If you cease to subscribe to a channel you also lose the right to view recordings from that channel. These rules are set by the broadcasters, not Virgin.
The channel IDs is a technical issue & is directly related to the way the digital TV platform works. All the regional variants are pumped through the core network. These all have to have seperate IDs so that the regional headends know which version to extract & insert onto the local networks us customers use. There is no way round this, so the box sees recordings from the former national channel as a no longer subscribed service.
