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

"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

"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

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

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

"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

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.

"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.

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

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.