If you’re thinking of building a new Media Center HTPC, you may want to take inventory of your existing Recorded TV library and find out just how many of your current Recorded TV files are copy protected. You won’t be able to watch shows sporting the Copy Once flag on any device but the Media Center PC you used for recording, so you’ll either need to watch them before retiring your old box or forfeit them.
Here’s a quick way to find out which of your Recorded TV files are protected.
Instructions
Open Your Recorded TV library in Windows Explorer. This library may include files from multiple locations if you’ve added folders to your TV library through Media Center. Display the files in Detail view. Right-click any column heading, and then click More on the shortcut menu.
In the pop-up window, scroll through the list of file details and select Protected. Click OK to apply the change.
You may need to scroll to the right to see the Protected flag, which appears as a column of Yes/No values. Click the column heading to sort by the Protected flag and see all your protected shows together.
With all the protected shows sorted together, it should be easy to select and copy the unprotected shows to your new HTPC. Now clear your calendar to watch all of those copy protected shows before completely retiring your old Media Center.
Awesome tip!