Humax 5400IRC options

Jezza

If I turn my dish to 13 degrees east for Hotbirds 1-5, and purchase a Humax 5400IRC with the built-in Irdeto, can I view any football, movies without a card. If not what type of card do I need and can I remote update it.

What about software updates, how can I do that?

I was going to buy one from Astratech £299 and it comes with the Beta Cam, is this is good buy? They recommend I also buy a serial cable to connect to the receiver to my PC to update the software in the receiver.

Sorry for all the questions, but this site seems the best for advice.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

2old4this

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 01-Feb-01 AT 08:27 PM (GMT)[/font][p]Most of the stuff you probably have in mind is actually transmitted at Astra1 (19.2east). There you find the German "Premiere-World" package which includes Cinedom, Superdom/Kick etc.
This and an ATV (Austrian TV) package (which include BBC-Prime) are encrypted in a special variant of Irdeto, called Betacrypt.
So to receive them, you need a betacrypt decoder.

The German/Austrian receivers include betacrypt in the form of an embedded module. The Humax you mention has a similar embedded module, but it is not a Betacrypt version - it is a standard Irdeto version. A firmware patch is available for the Humax which effectively turns the decoder into a module capable of both Irdeto and betacrypt decryption - a so-called "AllCAM". But that still requires a card.

Thre *is* a version of AllCAM which does not require a card - and that is called the FreeCAM. Unfortunately the FreeCAm firmware can only be loaded into a CI CAM (the loose, swappable modules), not an embedded CAM.
What's more, only the first series of Irdeto CI CAMs can be reprogrammed at all - the most recent versions can not (yet). And the older versions are now scarse and very expensive.

Hope this helps you make an informed choice.
2old