eHomeUpgrade | Has the “Broadcast Flag” Gone into Effect Early? Both eHome Upgrade and PVRblog have posts out right now regarding a rumor that viewers were not able to pause or fastforward HD versions of the Fox hit show 24 this week. Personally I find these reports extremely unbelievable and it would really surprise me (and others are skeptical of these reports as well) to find this kind of technology disabled. The PVRblog post also references a post on the subject at GadgetMadness.com
The affected issue seems to so far be restricted to Comcast PVRs. Although I don’t watch the show 24 or own a Comcast HDTV box, I’m going to be sure and record 24 next week on my HDTV DirecTV TiVo and will report back on my own experience. Hopefully this is not true.
There may be something to this or this may be an example of a PR stunt or an inept end user (hey sometimes those pause and fast forward buttons can be really difficult to operate after a 12 pack of Mickey’s Big Mouth). If anyone else has any input on this feel free to chime in. It would be great to see someone from Fox confirm or deny this report.