i was trying to tape some anime off of comcast indemand. and when i went to view it there were lines across the screen the entire time. i thought it might be the tape so i taped off regular tv and there were no lines. no matter how many times i tried to tape of the comcast indemand, there would still be lines, and anyone please help me solve this problem thanks

Hi Smike 13
Welcome to Answerpool
I don't know much about recording programmes by this method
How are you saving these, to a computer Hard Drive, or a dedicated DVR player?
If its the former then I suspect the timing is out of sync or have a peek inside the casing and see if its secure in the drive bay 4 X crosshead screws any vibration might show up as interference when you are viewing the Programme Otherwise check that any other cables (especially the thick ribbon cable) are not draped over the hard drive casing transmitting vibrations from elsewhere.
Tie a cable tie if you can? to keep this clear of the casing.
I also found this thread on the Cnet forums which might have an answer within it

im actually just taping it with my vcr but i m watching programs that are saved on to my cable box. i made sure all the cables were plugged in right and tight thoug. and gave it a whirl, still didnt work. but like i said it tapes fine when i have it hooked up the same way but am taping shows not saved to the box. is it possible that they are trying to block me from tapeing it or something.

I'd be doing the same experiment as youself if I couldn't afford the full set up cost.
I suspect its something to do with the timing of the signal that is the issue here (need a geek) Its a bit like you downloading off the Web. When the raw data arrives the computer buffers it up into a packet (using the RAM and Virtual Drive cache) and compiles it in a locked location on the Hard drive .When the download is finished, the location is opened when the Checksum numbers tallies then it is usable But... depending on your connection speed (I have 1024 MB Broadband) suggest minimum of 512 MB
If its too slow parts of the program can get counted but not used so it skips .Maybe a driver flagged as being out of date or conflicting?

I'll submit this as half answered to Admin (who will add it to the unanswered question section)then somebody else can check this out

I believe what you are experiencing is signal scrambling. The digital signal of ON Demand movies is scrambled to prevent transfer to conventional recording devices like a VCR. I believe that regular shows on free television do not have this signal scramble. I did some searching but couldn't find anything specifically discussing this. I did find numerous articles saying that with the numerous movies that are now available that companies are scrambling the signal so that it will corrupt when put through a transfer device.

If you have premium channels, I suggest you try to record a program on a premium channel to see if the same lines appear on the tape. It's probable that the pay channels incorporate the same type of scrambling as the pay per view features.

I concur with the last Poster Here in the Uk some Satellite TV Programmes have various forms of messing up if unauthorised taping and even if paid up they are of inferior quality to the original I have some movies taped and they are fizzy to view and the volume has to be turned up high to hear the voices (echos of the old Moon Shot TV pictures !) And they were taped off a legal service
PS Most domestic VCRs have a circuit built in to delibrately degrade the copies if you are copying tape to tape ... Making a 2nd? copy of a copy gets almost unviewable