CAM's and cards - which budget one does the job and works on a receiver with CI slot!

[godzillafan]

Hi Guys

Most likely a silly question, but had to ask what the CI and other slots in the receivers actually do.

Reading the CAM site and some thread mention CAM are old tech and dont work!

Planned a setup and some great advice from you guys.

Went with 8 lnb's - also had to make sure that new receiver had channel memory.

Noticed the receivers came with CI slots and other slots.

Confused if cams dont work - how do you program CI cards to put into these slots.

Maybe I read too many posts and starting to get confused.

Bascially thought great ideal - and will bound to get some channels that are blocked and a card might help to open them. I understand some will and some wont - its all try and error.

I have a laptop about 2 months old.
mainly USB's so what budget cam programmer and CI card can you use on a laptop?

cheers vik
ps cas 3 interface and Diablo Light v2.3 is mentioned alot

 

[Mickha]

Forget Cams, and cards, unless you're planning on subscribing to a package, these are old technology.
In the early days, a long, long, time ago, receivers couldn't really be updated to handle subscription cards, so we used dedicated cams, Conax Cam, Nagra Cam, etc., these would fit in the receivers CI slot and the card would go into the cam.
Then came multi cams, capable of reading cards with different encryptions, so no need for a lot of cams instead just use one multi cam.
Then we had pirate cams, and cards, that could open packages, just by adding the keys or programming them using a card/cam programmer.
Those days are almost over, as most packages are now secure.
Now we have newer receivers that can be updated to read cards, without the need of a Cam, and have keys entered into the software.
Obviously I've only given a very brief history of the satellite hobby, but if you check the forum you can find a lot more information, if you're interested.
You can buy a decent receiver for the price of a Cas 3 programmer and Diablo 2 Cam, capable of doing a lot more, and opening more channels.

 

[A nonymous]

You don't need to program a cam slot. All you need to do is tell the receiver to use it.

The CAM (Conditional Access Module) will have all the software required to read which ever card you insert into it if its a multicam, like a Diablo, T-Rex, Matrix etc etc. If you buy a Conax cam you have to use a card that uses Conax encryption, An Aston cam has to use a Seca card, a Nagravision Cam uses a Nagravision card and so on.

If you intend to go down the CAM route i can tell you now there isn't much open at the moment. I know Bulsatcom on 39e was open a few months back, although i'm not 100% sure if that is still the case.

You can also go down the Pirate card route.

There is the likes of the Bluedragon card which opens Digiturk (cryptoworks) and Nova (Irdeto), although you won't get any of the files here that are needed to open the channels.

There is also the likes of Mediatech on 4w, Rai on 13e and ORF Ausrtia (19.2e) that can be opened with either the old Funcard 4 or Gold card

Nano

 

[godzillafan]

cheers guys
I guess I kinda read the old tech bit correctly

I had set my sights on a Technomate TM-5400 CI+ Super
will this do any of the new stuff you are talking about.

Bascially my other thread got me into a 8lnbs setup and know that of the millions of channels that will pop up (hopefully), there will be some blocked one and reading around CAM info was everywhere.

So these CI slots - do you actually need them (unless for paid cards).

Which of the technomates can you 'play' with to update software.

I not too sure I want to go down the piratecardroute as that will be time consuming.

Any pointers of some receivers as a benchmark - that will help alot. I can then add a couple of £ to the budget instead of buying the cas3 as thats about 60 on its own.

cheers guys

vik