easysat
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- My Satellite Setup
- Dreambox 7000S + motorised 80cm dish, Amstrad DRX550 Digibox + fixed dish
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- pj::
I saw this on another forum where someone (presumably in the know) is talking about different versions of the Digibox:
"... the original PCB (A2/A3) used the ST20TP2 microprocessor, which itself is a dedicated processor for the reception of DVB MPEG-2, and they also used a dedicated conditional access chip call "ICAM" to decode Videoguard ... subsequent revisions (A4-A7) used a chip which integrated these functions in the ST20TP3"
What is interesting is that the writer says that early versions of the Digibox had a separate chip (integrated circuit) to do the Videoguard decoding. I had thought that this function had always been fully integrated into the ST Microelectronics decoder chip. I don't know which brand of Digibox has this separate chip (it must have been one of the first models on the market) but I am going to have a look at my old secondhand Amstrad DRX100's.
If this is true, it proves that it is easy to build a separate Videoguard decoder. Secondly it might be feasible for someone with enough technical knowledge to recover the "ICAM" chip and use it to build their own Videoguard CAM (which could then be used in any CI receiver). Thirdly it might not be so hot for the security of Videoguard to have boxes knocking around with an old, possibly less secure chip (especially if it is in the form of a programmable logic device rather than a custom chip).
"... the original PCB (A2/A3) used the ST20TP2 microprocessor, which itself is a dedicated processor for the reception of DVB MPEG-2, and they also used a dedicated conditional access chip call "ICAM" to decode Videoguard ... subsequent revisions (A4-A7) used a chip which integrated these functions in the ST20TP3"
What is interesting is that the writer says that early versions of the Digibox had a separate chip (integrated circuit) to do the Videoguard decoding. I had thought that this function had always been fully integrated into the ST Microelectronics decoder chip. I don't know which brand of Digibox has this separate chip (it must have been one of the first models on the market) but I am going to have a look at my old secondhand Amstrad DRX100's.
If this is true, it proves that it is easy to build a separate Videoguard decoder. Secondly it might be feasible for someone with enough technical knowledge to recover the "ICAM" chip and use it to build their own Videoguard CAM (which could then be used in any CI receiver). Thirdly it might not be so hot for the security of Videoguard to have boxes knocking around with an old, possibly less secure chip (especially if it is in the form of a programmable logic device rather than a custom chip).