Looks like some DirecTV subscribers are going to be scrambling over the next few months to watch their shows. HDCP copy protection technology seems to be the culprit. Over the last few days, denizens of the direct broadcast satellite Dbstalk forum have been venting their frustration at getting access to their favorite HBO programs.

"No problem until today trying to watch HBO," a standard definition TV owner with an HR 20 DVR noted on Saturday. "Get message that the program is content protected. I can view every other channel except HBO. This wasn't the case last week. Something new?"

Ditto declared another poster a few hours later: "Noticed something strange this week also regarding HBO. Although my Sony is connected via HDMI I get the message that my 'set is not compatible with..... ' displayed too briefly to read in its entirety. It is displayed when changing between HBO channels. Same TV, same HR20 for nearly six years, never a problem prior to this."

Other forum participants offered friendly advice. Check your connections, they counseled. Unplug and reconnect your HDMI cable. Trying rebooting your DVR.

But on Sunday, more reports such as these were coming in.

"As of today, I can no longer watch HBO over HDMI to my television," another consumer disclosed. "I get an error message that says 'HDMI connection not permitted. Press SELECT for more information.' (And pressing Select does nothing.)."

Here's the story

By Tuesday, digital media blogs like Zatz Not Funny had picked up on the development. We decided to contact DirecTV ourselves and ask what was going on.

"Here's the story," DirecTV spokesperson Robert Mercer told us. The direct broadcast satellite service has recently integrated an HDCP copy protection feature, "which owners of premium services like HBO, Starz, and Showtime require all pay TV distributors to activate on all premium channels."

"This initiative may impact a small group of customers who have older model TVs that don't support HDCP through HDMI," Mercer advised. "These customers should replace their HDMI cable with a component video cable (E.G. Red, Green, Blue) and a separate audio cable."

DirecTV enabled the feature on all HBO-owned channels last week, "and will continue rolling out to other premium services in the coming weeks," we were informed.

Just to be safe

HDCP, or High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection is an Intel-developed technology for protecting digital data as it travels along HDMI or DVI interfaces. HDCP is used to block the copying of content over the links between systems. If an HDCP source like a Blu-ray set-top box can't detect HDCP-protection, it won't transmit images and sounds to your TV.

Some HBO Game of Thrones and True Blood fans with older home theater gear are clearly discovering this the hard way—suddenly unable to access the premium programs for which they have already paid. To be fair, it is not like the industry kept this development a secret.

"Movie studios that fear that high-definition versions of their movies will be pirated, are expected to use HDCP when releasing high-definition versions of their movies," notes the HDMI learning center, "though some may choose to release some titles without HDCP. To be safe, consumers who want to be able to play high-definition content should ensure that their HDTVs and other HD devices are able to decode HDCP-encrypted content."

But once again, some consumers are being forced to pay what amounts to a tax in time, trouble, and money so that content providers can feel more secure.

We're also wondering about DirecTV's workaround for the problem: connecting RGB component video lines to the consumer's HDTV. These analog-based connections may be susceptible to blocking if the pay TV companies choose to deploy selectable output control for early run movies—that is, only streaming the movie in digital, rather than analog mode. Component video is also restricted to 540p

The Federal Communications Commission granted the pay TV companies the right to deploy SOC about two years ago. We recently did a survey to see who was taking advantage of this waiver. There didn't seem to be much interest among the operators, except for one.

"Our first run movies we offer are done this way," DirecTV told us.