decoder box prices

J

jasonandnicky99

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hello all thanks for the informative posts,

Can anyone tell me what the going price on a itv decoder box is? I don't need a smartcard.

I've tried locally but no boxes without subscriptions. I've noticed that most on ebay go for around £120 - Is this reasonable? Can anyone suggest a cheaper place to find one?

Also is one box better than another? ie nolia/panasonic/blah/blah/blah,

All information would be greatly appreciated.

-jason
 

rolfw

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That price seems about par for the course Jason, with regard to the boxes, everyone has their favourites and for different reasons.

Rolf
 
J

jspr57

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In my Area, Argos are doing them at the moment with 12 months suscription for £99.00

There are a few forums that are also selling them for around £75.00
 

rolfw

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[updated:LAST EDITED ON 31-08-01 AT 08:10 PM (GMT)]I think that Jason is probably looking for a free of tie box, ie one that doesn't need a subscription. )>
Rolf
 

englishman64

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Just a thought.
A lot of people seem to be wanting to buy there own boxes.
However, the going rate is £120.
For £6.99 a month you can in effect hire a box from Ondig.
It will take 17 months before you lose out.
But
Who knows what the situation will be in 17 months.
Ondig may have cracked the codes.
I reckon you are better of hiring the box and Ondig get £6.99 a month off you so it all helps to keep them afloat
What do the rest of you think
 
P

phoenix37

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Hi
I bought a philips 6370 box off an ebayer for a mate, paid £143 inc. P+P

IT DIDN`T WORK, no welcome screen generated,no fta channels, just a green screen

I agree with the englishman pay £6.99.... and get a Pioneer box!

Semi honesty is the best policy

Cheers
phoenix
 

rolfw

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"Semi honesty is the best policy" :D

That's going down as my quote of the week Phoenix. LOL

Rolf
 
T

Twisted PR

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Sorry to hear about the box pheonix 37. Did you get your money back or do you suspect a ripper?

In my experience, as far as makes of box goes the Nokia is the most resistent to ECMs and the Phillips the least. The Nokia is the slowest to use, whilst the Pace is pretty quick and fairly ECM resistent.

The prices being quoted for a second hand box are there or there abouts. Alternatively there is another way of getting a new box and not registering it. This applies to pre-paid only. Provided you remain cool, then you avoid the pitfalls of a second hand box.

Obviously I don't condone this sort of thing, but there have been reports of people going into the retailers and giving them a false name and another address with matching postcode. By paying in cash these people are then untraceable. Some places are wising up to this and asking for ID. The way around this is to say that you are thinking of buying ITVD and asking what ID they require, then saying it has been left at home. The only call the retailer makes is to check the coverage. This too can be avoided by checking against the false address in advance and telling the retailer that you have spoken to ITVD and that you are on Menu blah.

As far as the 6.99 v outright purchase argument goes you also need to take into account the cost of a card (and possibly programmer). It is true that we don't know what will happen in the future, but even if the cards are wiped out you still get the FTA stuff in digital. Due to the system's employed by ITVD, any real improvement in security would involve a major and costly update to the existing system and user equipment.

There will always be people out there trying to crack the system, although no-one has yet found a way around SKY or NTL digital. Personally, for a few squid, I would take the risk.
 

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I sense a movement away from "semi-honesty is the best policy" towards something like "honesty is the second-best policy".
:)
 
T

Twisted PR

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LOL 2old4this :7 Like I said I don't condone such behaviour, just merely reporting the ways people have found around the system ;)
 

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I would seriously reconsider hiring the box. It would put you in danger of the following

1) You would be on the OD database, thereby allowing them to bombard you with mail and unwelcome phone calls, especially when you refuse to take up their outstanding offers on subscription rates

2) The database is sent to other companies , who will do as 1)

3) Ignoring part of the contract, which expressly forbids the use of unauthorised objects placed in the unit for the purpose of programme reception by non-official subscription in the UK.

4) The box being able to log all that is used (ALA Sky digiboxes), the number of times you switch on, change channels - including which channels, when you access the parental lock for code entry etc etc.

5) removal of cash from your bank account when,

a combination of 4), your blatant disregard for 3) further combined with a law suit when ;

a) it is collected by OD at the end of use, or

:cool: when sent in for the certain repair it will need to the front panel due to items ala 3) put into it,

allowing OD to verify you have been using the box persuant to the restriction of 3), equalling or exceeding the amounts you would have been paying had you adhered to 3)and paid all the services during the period of use.

7) Plus court and legal costs

6) Plus a criminal record

Not worth it methinks
 

englishman64

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That's an interesting point.
Can ondig tell what channels you have watched if they take the box away (for whatever reason)
I'm sure many on this forum would like that confirmed or denied.
 

rolfw

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[updated:LAST EDITED ON 06-09-01 AT 10:09 PM (GMT)]I'm sure that it's possible, whether it's feasible is another matter. Any receiver that utilises a computer processor has the possible capability of logging usage patterns and information, it would however be commercially questionable for someone like ITV Digital if it were discovered doing it, even if innocently to safeguard against card abuses. Also due to the fact that the box is not paired to a card, there is nothing to prevent the user saying that he was using his mate's card.

Because of the tracability of the box the information recovered by the interrogation would be covered by the privacy of information rules, I would guess that they would require some kind of warrant to recover the information if they intended to use it for a prosecution.

Rolf

PS C.H., someone's stolen your Gif... :D
 
P

phoenix37

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Ref: usage memory.

I`ll find out soon because my mum just sent her box back :'(

Semi honesty etc

Phoenix
 

s*t*a*r*m*a*n

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I stole your gif :)
hehehehe

Good question about the storage of data in the box, i was wondering this myself. I take it that having the box plugged into the phone socket is a bad idea then :)
This is ofcourse unnessasery for the box to update as when itv digital introduced there brand name etc.

ps how do you spell necessarry?
 

rolfw

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Like you did in your question, but with only one R. :)

Rolf
 
D

dank

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Our local auction rooms have used boxes in the TV/electronics section - that's a real auction, not one of these virtual ones. Most towns have a public auction centre, look in Yellow Pages.

You have a pretty good chance of getting one that someone has discarded because they got Sky instead, although it may be broken. You can't be sure that they work, but I suspect that they are sold very cheaply - much less than ebay. Our sale room lets you try equipment the day before a sale. Take along a viewing card and a scart and you may be able to make progress. Otherwise just buy a couple and hope that one works.

Rgds

Dank
 
M

Matteo

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How much onboard memory would the box need to have to log all that stuff? From what I've heard, the one and only way that ITV can log illegal useage of the boxes is if you plug them into the phone line, which is unecessary anyway (they could also discover you ripping them off if you invited them into your domicile to inspect your setup, I suppose, but I'm reckoning no one's stupid enough to do that ;))
 

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A very small amount of memory I think

Simple logic to determine

Start of logging

1) Channel number
2) Duration of viewing (time on and time off)
3) Authorisation (card toggle)
4) channel change
back to 1)

repeat until box is collected and memory wiped

if you look at the info contained in your Internet Cache (fat.db normally), this is a small file but contains normally every website address and time you have visited.
 
M

master_73

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I bought a reciver about 1 year ago with a card for friend and we paid £100 its a philips and works fine mind u made sure before we handed the money over that it worked.

Thing is now that the word has got out and more people are buying their own programmers people can charge any price they want for old recivers as people dont want I*V to know they have them ???
 
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