[JeffB]

I recently bought a Sony RDR-VX555 combo VCR/DVD Recorder.
I was trying to record a movie that was being broadcast on cable television and it said I did not have permission to record such content.
I was able to record it on the VCR, but not on the DVD.

I was unaware that things had gotten to this point.
There is nothing on the outside of the box to indicate this.
I am tempted to take it back, but it is outside the 30-day return policy of the store.
It seems like there should be some exceptional clause though about selling a product for a particular purpose and then it not fullfilling that purpose.

Sony needs figure out that if they don't want people copying their movies, then they might as well not make recorders.

On the other hand, this is only one of two recorders on the market with an infrared blaster.  The other is a Samsung.
The lack of infrared blasters is big pet peave of mine.

[jqp]

This would not be a Sony DVR issue but a premium channel/cable provider issue. In my area Time Warner Cable "flipped the switch" at some point last year, so that I can't record anything from HBO onto DVD, even using the VR mode on DVD-RW discs (see your Sony manual). So I can record from cable, except for HBO. It is a setting in the signal from the cable company.

Formerly HBO signals were "copy-once", then became "copy-never". At the same time DVDs of all the HBO shows were produced for sale\rent. And of course these shows and movies are what everyone wants to record with a DVD-recorder, so you feel like you have been ripped off since the DVRs have programmable recording similar to VCRs. The supreme court ruled that fair use allows recording from TV to VCR, but the companies have cut us off for even analog HBO.

To get around it you have to use a PC and some software. I think I posted something about it in the past.