T-Rex / Predator / Topfield / ??

[Dogmatix]

Hello all,

I'm new to this forum and new to the world of T-Rex CAM (ex-Dragon, right?), so please excuse any silly or oft-answered question here.

I don't actually have a T-Rex CAM (yet), but I am considering getting one with the latest version of Predator already on board. I have a Topfield 5500 which has two CI slots, a Viaccess CAM for my BBC Prime subscription card, and a SECA CAM for my Cyfra+ subscription card. I also have a Sky Digibox with what use to be called a Solus FTV card.

The idea here is to get a T-Rex with Predator (which, if I understand correctly, when fed with any one of the three above-mentioned cards will decode the appropriate channels correctly) and use a suitable cutting tool to cut one of the cards down to SIM-size, and thus to be able to use all three cards in my Topfield (there's no room for the Digibox, and I only use it for Channel 4 and Five anyway).

Thus my questions: a) will a T-Rex with Predator decode Viaccess, SECA and Videoguard straight out of the box without further programming, and is it actually possible to cut a normally-sized card to SIM size without ill-effect?

As far as the Solus card is concerned, I am aware that the card has to go back into the Digibox every month to receive a "stay alive" signal (so that would not be the card to cut down to SIM size).


Thanks for any advice you can give.

 

[cjgall]

The latest version of predator will decode SECA and Videoguard with the apropriate smart card, not sure about viaaccess but I suspect that it will work. You are right about the card not updating the keys on the cards. I have a dragon with a sky card and need to place the sky card in a real digibox from time to time to keep it active. I also have a canal digitaal card which is in the "first" CI slot on my topfield 4000pvr, putting it in the second slot causes problems sometimes as the dragon/t-rex likes to hog the receiver. The seca card card works fine in the dragon.

I can tell you that cutting the chip out of one of your smart cards and placing it in the second mature content slot on the dragon/t-rex will not work, it will only decode the mature content. I know this because I destroyed a perfectly good canaldigitaal card trying. !

 

[Dogmatix]

I can tell you that cutting the chip out of one of your smart cards and placing it in the second mature content slot on the dragon/t-rex will not work, it will only decode the mature content.

Oh dear. Well, that messes up my plans a bit. I thought the whole point of the second card slot on the T-Rex was to allow two scrambling systems to be used without having to switch cards & CAMs all the time. With so many systems around already, and Astra's plans to scramble anything that moves for viewers in Germany, there is going to be some demand for receivers with three or four CI slots or proper multi-system double-decker CAMs like I thought the T-Rex to be. There is also an Alphacrypt CAM, but that doesn't decode anything useful anyway. I know that some Aston receivers have Viaccess and SECA and two CI's to boot, but they fall down on other features.

Any road, many thankings for the advice, cjgall. Much appreciated.