2 house private setup (noob)

[altura]

Hi - apologies for yet another noob question, but I did try to google this as far as I could.

My setup:

2 Vu+ with blackhole and wifi
Astra and hotbird via 90cm dish
Legal Sky+HD card and box
Laptop (with terratec s7 usb S2 tuner) and router
Omnikey 3121

I have 2 houses (with broadband) and want to watch sky in both without lugging the sky receiver around. No third parties will ever access the card.

Q1 - If I plug the sky card into the Omnikey, set up OScam, and have the 2 Vu+ receivers (in 2 separate locations) as clients ... how do entitlements work? After a month, how will the card 'know' it's still active - does that process happen at decoder level?

Q2 - If I wanted to save power and not use a laptop as a server, could one of the Vu+ decoders be server and the other client?

Q3 - I also have another (foreign language) payTV card that is not linked to any decoder - I presume I need a second Omnikey reader, but are there options in the Vu+ box to handle two 'servers', one for each (empty) CAM?

Cheers!

 

[A nonymous]

Sky are in the middle of tightening up their encryption to stop this sort of thing from happening. Even if you do get it to work it will only be a matter of time before Sky stop people from using their cards in third party boxes.

The one Vu+ Duo can be used as a server and the other Vu+ can be used as a client.

Use OSCam in the server and cccam in the client box. You don't need to use an omnikey just use the Vu+ internal readers. As for the other card it all depends on what it is as to whether or not it will work.

As per forum rules i can only give you very brief answers as this is classed as card sharing which is a very grey area indeed. I can give you pointers but thats about it.

Nano

 

[altura]

Thanks nano - presumably these changes by Sky wouldn't impact existing boxes? Or are they planning another 'operation white card'? Any links to rumours or expected timeframes? This would be a major bummer as I've dropped a ton of cash on linux boxes I wouldn't have otherwise bought!

So Vu box #1 keeps both cards and 'uploads' to server (laptop) running OScam and Vu box #2 downloads from server running cccam?

 

[A nonymous]

They are updating the software in the box so it uses a new pairing sequence. This basically makes it impossible to get the boxkey needed to open the premium and hd channels.

The older SD boxes will be swapped out over the summer from what i have read.

So Vu box #1 keeps both cards and 'uploads' to server (laptop) running OScam and Vu box #2 downloads from server running cccam?

You don't need to use the Laptop. The Vu+ Duo is more than capable of running as a client and server box. If your only sharing between your own boxes just use OSCam/DVBapi in the server. OScam can talk fine to other CCCam clients and servers.

OSCam doesn't need the boxkey and makes an excellent card reader. If you really want to use cccam just run them both on the box at the same time with OSCam passing the ecms to CCCam.

Nano

 

[Huevos]

The older SD boxes will be swapped out over the summer from what i have read.

6.5 million SD subscribers, and many with multiple receivers. That's going to be a major logistics exercise, replacing equipment that has taken more than a decade to install in a 3 month period.

 

[Piltdownpaul]

Yeah but we're dealing with Superm**doch the all conquering media dominatrix.

 

[Analoguesat]

6.5 million SD subscribers, and many with multiple receivers. That's going to be a major logistics exercise, replacing equipment that has taken more than a decade to install in a 3 month period.

Its already started - think the Thomos are being withdrawn first - and from what Ive read the installers are under orders to remove the old boxes, so they dont end up back in circulaton via ebay.

No way is any Sky installer going anywhere NEAR my satellite system.

It makes sense getting the old boxes out of circulation - then Sky can switch over to DVB-S2, drop some of their transponders and save a fortune every month.

 

[Huevos]

from what Ive read the installers are under orders to remove the old boxes, so they dont end up back in circulaton via ebay.

For that to happen they would have to be there in the first place.

 

[Lazarus]

Surely the boxes are the property of the punter after a certain period?

 

[Analoguesat]

Obviously they aint going to get all of them, but the older boxes will just stop working for pay channels when the encryption changes or completely if the transmission mode changes.

A few hundred thousand left in service on change day is more manageable than a few million.

 

[Analoguesat]

Surely the boxes are the property of the punter after a certain period?

The box is yours from day one, but most folks aint going to want to hold onto a scaffy old satellite box which isnt going to work much longer.

I will though if ours is slated for retrieval!!

 

[davemurgtroyd]

Surely the boxes are the property of the punter after a certain period?

You own the box from day 1 - however this is an exchange scheme, a new box for your old one.

 

[A nonymous]

Basically if you don't have the new box from Sky you won't be able to watch anything. From what i've been told by a Sky "ahem" Engineer yesterday they are swapping out all the older Thomson HD boxes first, and then the older SD boxes.

Basically they are offering you a free HD box in exchange for your older SD or Thomson HD box, basically any box that won't accept the new updated firmware will be swapped out. As a way of tempting you they are offering a free one month HD trial. I will only accept a new box from them if it comes with no strings attached. I will then cancel it and sell the box on ebay.

I would much rather use my VM Cable Tivo box than any offering that Sky could give me.

Nano

 

[Huevos]

Basically if you don't have the new box from Sky you won't be able to watch anything. From what i've been told by a Sky "ahem" Engineer yesterday they are swapping out all the older Thomson HD boxes first, and then the older SD boxes.

Nano, have you got first hand experience with a card that has received this update. TBH, I think this is only a premium channels problem.

 

[A nonymous]

Yes Huevos i do have personal experience with a card that has been paired with the new pairing method. Certain HD channels are no longer working, meaning they are under the new boxkey pairing sequence.

Certain HD channels are included under the new pairing sequence, along with the Movies and Sports in both SD and HD.

If they are going to the trouble of swapping out all the older boxes, I think there stands a very good chance that once the swap out is complete they will put all the channels under the pairing system in the same way that Total TV & Dolce did a few years ago. That is just my personal thoughts and not a concrete fact.

 

[Huevos]

Nano, what I am getting at is you said "if you don't have the new box from Sky you won't be able to watch anything". In that context does the "anything" mean anything premium? or am I missing something? I had a hands-on today with a card that has been back in a Sky HD+ receiver for a couple of weeks and now won't play any premium channels in other receivers, but will play everything else. Or is this a different problem?

 

[PaulR]

I can't see how a new card would mean that you can't watch anything as the Freesat channels will not be changing any of their parameters to make themselves unreceivable in the near future. So you could continue to watch these FTA channels as per before.

One nasty thought that occurs to me is that $ly could easily send out a firmware "uograde" that would brick every early box still running. Imagine the uproar but there would be literally no comeback on $ly as they have nothing to lose.

 

[timo_w2s]

One nasty thought that occurs to me is that $ly could easily send out a firmware "uograde" that would brick every early box still running. Imagine the uproar but there would be literally no comeback on $ly as they have nothing to lose.

I thought maybe they'll just switch off the SD EPG data (and use a new system for the HD boxes, if they aren't already). After all, it wouldn't be needed if everyone was using an HD box and would render the SD boxes useless...

 

[Huevos]

Bricking boxes or switching off SD EPG data, no way. Even if they force SD users to upgrade to an HD minibox there will still be millions of SD subscribers that don't want to pay extra for HD channels. So either they make HD subscription free, (3.5 million subs x 10GBP = 35 million GBP/month loss), or allow SD subscribers to continue with the package they already have, but using an HD mini box. Also, once everyone has an HD receiver it would be a lot easier to get them to upgrade.

I think, over time, they will start lowering the bitrate of SD channels to encourage people to upgrade.

 

[timo_w2s]

Bricking boxes or switching off SD EPG data, no way. Even if they force SD users to upgrade to an HD minibox there will still be millions of SD subscribers that don't want to pay extra for HD channels. So either they make HD subscription free, (3.5 million subs x 10GBP = 35 million GBP/month loss), or allow SD subscribers to continue with the package they already have, but using an HD mini box. Also, once everyone has an HD receiver it would be a lot easier to get them to upgrade.

I think, over time, they will start lowering the bitrate of SD channels to encourage people to upgrade.

My point was, if this HD box swap out is going ahead and an HD box with the new software (not HD subscription) is required to decrypt the SD channels too then there will be no Sky SD box users out there for Sky to care about.