Maplin's Freesat Box
 

I have an existing small Sky contract and an old decoder box.

I am looking to upgrade to allow for HDTV but would prefer to avoid the
Sky boxes if possible.

I was looking at a Maplin's product http://tinyurl.com/5rpsz6 and note
that it has 2 CI slots for pay satellites. Would this take my current
Sky card.

Also, it mentions USB PVR function - plug in an external hard drive to
record digital satellite TV in SD or HD, does anyone know if this allows
'pause real time TV'.

Geoff Lane

Maplin's Freesat Box
 

"Geoff Lane" wrote in message
...
I have an existing small Sky contract and an old decoder box.

I am looking to upgrade to allow for HDTV but would prefer to avoid the
Sky boxes if possible.

I was looking at a Maplin's product http://tinyurl.com/5rpsz6 and note
that it has 2 CI slots for pay satellites. Would this take my current Sky
card.

Also, it mentions USB PVR function - plug in an external hard drive to
record digital satellite TV in SD or HD, does anyone know if this allows
'pause real time TV'.

Geoff Lane



If you want a PVR to record UK satellite programmes do remember that
anything without the Freesat Logo may well not be able to read the Freesat
EPG, and therefore scheduling recordings will be more difficult.

The Humax Freesat PVR is due next month. (£300?) It has CI slot(?s) so it
might work with a Dragon Cam and a Sky card. Come Christmas someone will no
doubt have found out how well this works. Sky encrypted channels won't be in
the Freesat PG.



--
Michael Chare

Maplin's Freesat Box
 

"Geoff Lane" wrote in message
...
I have an existing small Sky contract and an old decoder box.

I am looking to upgrade to allow for HDTV but would prefer to avoid the
Sky boxes if possible.

I was looking at a Maplin's product http://tinyurl.com/5rpsz6 and note
that it has 2 CI slots for pay satellites. Would this take my current Sky
card.

You need a Conditional Access Module.

$ky won't sell them, and insist you have their proprietary box.


Also, it mentions USB PVR function - plug in an external hard drive to
record digital satellite TV in SD or HD, does anyone know if this allows
'pause real time TV'.

Geoff Lane

Maplin's Freesat Box
 

R. Mark Clayton wrote:

You need a Conditional Access Module.

$ky won't sell them, and insist you have their proprietary box.

Like computers though whenever someone says 'You can't do this', someone
else finds a way round it.

I was only curious, displaying Sky programs is not essential as I have a
Sky box.

Geoff Lane

Maplin's Freesat Box
 

Michael Chare wrote:

If you want a PVR to record UK satellite programmes do remember that
anything without the Freesat Logo may well not be able to read the
Freesat EPG, and therefore scheduling recordings will be more difficult.

I have a Philips PVR that can record from an auxiliary input, I can
already record Sky programs via this box.

I was just curious as to how the USB record facilities worked.

Geoff Lane

Maplin's Freesat Box
 

"Geoff Lane" wrote in message
...
R. Mark Clayton wrote:

You need a Conditional Access Module.

$ky won't sell them, and insist you have their proprietary box.

Like computers though whenever someone says 'You can't do this', someone
else finds a way round it.

$ky's analog broadcasts using VideoCrypt were systematically hacked, and
indeed this was part of the reason for $ky's early adoption of digital.

AFAAK Videoguard has never been successfully hacked, although there are some
card sharing devices, and possibly CAM emulators.


I was only curious, displaying Sky programs is not essential as I have a
Sky box.

Geoff Lane

Watching B$kyB encrypted video streams on the PC
 

On Sun, 26 Oct 2008 18:50:52 +0000, mr deo wrote:

It's been a little while since I have been watching this, but it is
possible to have a sky signal received on a DVB-S/S2 pc card..

Apparently with the use of a T.Rex (formerly Dragon) CAM it has been
possible to view B$kyB encrypted video streams on a PC with a
DVB-s, and now DVB-s/s2 PCI card.

There is a thread devoted to the topic at

http://www.avforums.COM/forums/windo...enter-edition-
mce/319927-howto-sky-through-dvb-s-card-within-mce.html

now, with over 1950 posts, but the first post is the one that
people should read for the setup details.

Maplin's Freesat Box
 

"Geoff Lane" wrote in message
...
R. Mark Clayton wrote:

You need a Conditional Access Module.

$ky won't sell them, and insist you have their proprietary box.

Like computers though whenever someone says 'You can't do this', someone
else finds a way round it.

I was only curious, displaying Sky programs is not essential as I have a
Sky box.

Geoff Lane

It's been a little while since I have been watching this, but it is possible
to have a sky signal received on a DVB-S/S2 pc card..
The catch however is that you will still require the old (or a cloned)
viewing card, and it gets updated regularly through the STB, you will find
that you need to have the STB and swap the cards around to let it update
from time to time, so it MIGHT be possible that we'll see such complete
boxes but I doubt it.

Maplin's Freesat Box
 

R. Mark Clayton wrote:

AFAAK Videoguard has never been successfully hacked, although there are some
card sharing devices, and possibly CAM emulators.

I assume the box actually does the decrypting, what is it that is stored
on the Sky card that permits it.

Out of principle I don't want to use a Sky HD box, all I want is to
receive the free to view HD channels and still receive the Sky channels
I pay for.

I suppose if I want to run a freesat box and keep my Sky box I need a
multi LNB on my dish.

Geoff Lane

Maplin's Freesat Box
 

Geoff Lane wrote:
: I assume the box actually does the decrypting, what is it that is stored
: on the Sky card that permits it.

The Sky STBs are DVB standard compliant. This means that the hardware decoding
done by the STB itself will be the same as *ALL* other DVB receivers.
However DVB decoding needs "seed values" for a pseudo-random number generator
every few seconds. These numbers are requested from the smartcard. It is
primed with these values by digitally-signed and encoded packets sent to it
as part of the Videoguard protocol.

: Out of principle I don't want to use a Sky HD box, all I want is to
: receive the free to view HD channels and still receive the Sky channels
: I pay for.

That is just about possible now. There are no guarantees for the future - and
it will be more expensive!

: I suppose if I want to run a freesat box and keep my Sky box I need a
: multi LNB on my dish.

Yes.

Maplin's Freesat Box
 

"Geoff Lane" wrote in message
...
R. Mark Clayton wrote:

AFAAK Videoguard has never been successfully hacked, although there are
some card sharing devices, and possibly CAM emulators.

I assume the box actually does the decrypting, what is it that is stored
on the Sky card that permits it.

Out of principle I don't want to use a Sky HD box,

hear hear!

all I want is to receive the free to view HD channels and still receive
the Sky channels I pay for.

I suppose if I want to run a freesat box and keep my Sky box I need a
multi LNB on my dish.

You could buy a FTA box with loop through or a priority switch.


Geoff Lane

Maplin's Freesat Box
 

R. Mark Clayton wrote:

Out of principle I don't want to use a Sky HD box,

hear hear!

all I want is to receive the free to view HD channels and still receive
the Sky channels I pay for.

I suppose if I want to run a freesat box and keep my Sky box I need a
multi LNB on my dish.

You could buy a FTA box with loop through or a priority switch.

I think the Maplin's Fortek model has a LNB pass through.

Geoff Lane

Maplin's Freesat Box
 

Geoff Lane wrote:

R. Mark Clayton wrote:

Out of principle I don't want to use a Sky HD box,

hear hear!

all I want is to receive the free to view HD channels and still receive
the Sky channels I pay for.

I suppose if I want to run a freesat box and keep my Sky box I need a
multi LNB on my dish.

You could buy a FTA box with loop through or a priority switch.

I think the Maplin's Fortek model has a LNB pass through.

Only one quarter of the channels will be available to the secondary
decoder box due to the way that the LNB will have been mode-switched by
the decoder box that has control of the LNB.

--
Dave Farrance

Maplin's Freesat Box
 

Dave Farrance wrote:

I think the Maplin's Fortek model has a LNB pass through.

Only one quarter of the channels will be available to the secondary
decoder box due to the way that the LNB will have been mode-switched by
the decoder box that has control of the LNB.

How does that work then, which quarter will be available.

Geoff Lane

Maplin's Freesat Box
 

"Dave Farrance" wrote in message
...
Only one quarter of the channels will be available to the secondary
decoder box due to the way that the LNB will have been mode-switched by
the decoder box that has control of the LNB.

Half surely.
Those that have the same polarization.

--

Brian Gregory. (In the UK)

To email me remove the letter vee.

Maplin's Freesat Box
 

"Geoff Lane" wrote in message
...
I think the Maplin's Fortek model has a LNB pass through.

Only one quarter of the channels will be available to the secondary
decoder box due to the way that the LNB will have been mode-switched by
the decoder box that has control of the LNB.

How does that work then, which quarter will be available.

I think it's half rather than a quarter. Though this is what I learnt back
when analogue was the norm for satellite TV. Massive oversimplification
follows: A normal LNB on a normal dish designed to connect to a single
receiver box is switched by the receiver box into two different modes
called, horizontal polarization (H) and vertical polarization (V). Some
channels are transmitted with H some with V and the dish needs to be set to
match the transmission. This is used to reduce interference between multiple
signals coming from the satellite on nearby frequencies.

Maybe it's all different for digital.
If I'm wrong PLEASE go ahead and correct me.

--

Brian Gregory. (In the UK)

To email me remove the letter vee.

Maplin's Freesat Box
 

On Tue, 4 Nov 2008 22:40:13 -0000, Brian Gregory [UK] wrote:

How does that work then, which quarter will be available.

I think it's half rather than a quarter.

You think wrong then.

This is used to reduce interference between multiple
signals coming from the satellite on nearby frequencies.

No, it's so you can use the frequencies twice.

If I'm wrong PLEASE go ahead and correct me.

High band and low band is the other set of options. Combine these with H
and V and you get 4 possibilities.

Maplin's Freesat Box
 

Brian Gregory [UK] wrote:
"Dave Farrance" wrote in message
...
Only one quarter of the channels will be available to the secondary
decoder box due to the way that the LNB will have been mode-switched by
the decoder box that has control of the LNB.

Half surely.
Those that have the same polarization.

Nope, you forgot about high and low band. There's four possible modes
for an LNB to be in - High-Horiz, Low-Horiz, High-Vert, Low-Vert.

--
Angus G Rae Science & Engineering Support Team
Computing Services
University of Edinburgh
The above opinions are mine, and Edinburgh University can't have them

Maplin's Freesat Box
 

Dave Farrance wrote:

You could buy a FTA box with loop through or a priority switch.
I think the Maplin's Fortek model has a LNB pass through.

Only one quarter of the channels will be available to the secondary
decoder box due to the way that the LNB will have been mode-switched by
the decoder box that has control of the LNB.

I assume there must be a switch of some description then that allows the
satellite signal to be rerouted rather than passed through.

The system I am considering, any second satellite box would sit
alongside my old sky box, both feeding the same TV but the newer box for
receiving HD broadcasts.

Geoff Lane