UK Channels 4 & 5 without S*yBox

me-smith

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I'm in the south of France. I currently use an FTA box for ASTRA 2. Are there receivers capable of getting channels 4 & 5, assuming I have a card from S*y, that are not sourced from S*y? All help appreciated. Is this a grey area legally? I think the S*y stranglehold on hardware is absurd.
 

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Yes - its called a sky digibox! :D :-lmao



If your receiver has CI slots then a dragon cam will give you C4, C5 & Sky3, but a digibox is also required to get the "stay alive" signals required for the cardonce a month or so........
 

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A dreambox will do it with the current cards, but a sky digibox is the cheaper option..
 

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a dragon cam will not work for BskyB channels, its gone off! this was due to sky taking legal action, also the cam would not turn on cards.

best way is to buy a second hand box of ebay that comes with a card. (freesat card) cost £20 from sky/freesat
 

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When did it go off, I haven't heard any news to that effect, it would need more than Sky taking legal action, as these are internet available updates to the Dragon.
 

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Will the Dreambox keep the card alive? I find most S*y type boxes to be too structured and lacking in the ability to organize things the way I want. Just too restrictive. Also, on a moral/legal level Channels 4 & 5 should NOT be encrypted. They are readily available to millions without encryption and I just don't see the point.
 

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me-smith said:
Will the Dreambox keep the card alive? I find most S*y type boxes to be too structured and lacking in the ability to organize things the way I want. Just too restrictive. Also, on a moral/legal level Channels 4 & 5 should NOT be encrypted. They are readily available to millions without encryption and I just don't see the point.


User reports here on the forum suggest DB do not pass the stay alive signals along to the card.

C4 & C5 have long term encryption contracts in place. C4 will probably go fta in 2008 when these expire. C5 likely to stay encoded - ISTR they are on record somewhere as not being particularly interested in fta.
 

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I think you'll find that the dreambox does pass the stay alive code with certain EMUs, couple of threads in the DB section discussing this.

As for the moral/legal argument about the c4/c5 encryption, they are available free to anyone in the UK with an analogue set or Freeview box (subject to coverage. For those without coverage (very few with none at all), they can get a feesat card for a one of £20. There is in my opinion, no moral or legal argument why they should be received in France or Europe FTA.
 

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dreambox has no trouble whatsoever to pass the updates to the card, keeping them alive. In fact, my dreambox is updating 2 Sky cards, one Irish Family Pack and one UK FTV card.
it's just the card activation that's impossible on a dreambox.
also : there's talk of a card swap at Sky, so things might change in the (near) future !
 

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Ok - I stand corrected on my previous comment. :)
 

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Analoguesat said:
Ok - I stand corrected on my previous comment. :)

And so you should, can't have inaccuracy here, that's my job. ;) :-lmao:-rofl2
 

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Okay, forget morals and legalities. At the end of the day advertsing makes all the content possible. Advertisers don't want to be "protected" by encryption. Therefore, it's just a matter of time. They want their message viewed by as many as possible, and several million Brits living within the ASTRA 2 footprint spend lots of money in the UK. It will happen as soon as possible.
 

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Can't disagree with that. ;)
 

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can anyone tell me if the dragon cam is back on working?
my understanding is that it has gone off.
has anyone got one that is working on BskyB

update: yes its back working feb06
 

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Although I don't use one, have just checked and still working with version 3.30. As far as I know nothing has changed.
 

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Does anyone know if the Dragon CAM also passes on the keep-alive signal? Also, is it true that with a DreamBox you don't need the Dragon at all (it sort of has one built in already)?
 

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No, the Dragon CAM does not pass on the stay alive signal I'm afraid, as per the posts above.

The Dreambox is a Linix based receiver and has the ability to upload a variety softcams, so you are correct in saying that you do not need a Dragon CAM with it. :)
 

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rolfw said:
No, the Dragon CAM does not pass on the stay alive signal I'm afraid, as per the posts above.

Are you sure about that M8? I am using my subscription card in a dragon cam on Humax since begining of dec 2005 and i only had to use the registered skybox only once back in jan to get the update...the card hasn't gone off since then!!
 

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Always open to new information, have you changed the Dragon software since the last time you needed to update?
 

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rolfw said:
Always open to new information, have you changed the Dragon software since the last time you needed to update?

Yes M8...I believe i did...I am running Predator 3.25 at the moment because i couldnt get my card to work on the latest verison...so i reverted back to 3.25.
I have had similar fed back from other users also that Predator 3.32 had problems with NDS..since i only use it for my skycard & not bothered by 3.32's other abilities i am happy to use 3.25..
 
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