What is a CAM

[bandk56]

and what do they do,in simple terms?

I can get my head around inserting a card, say a sky card into a receiver to get the sky channels. But why do you need to plug a 'gizmo' into the box containing a card as well?

So thats the question. Now for the follow up If I have to buy one which would be the best to go for, inasmuch as covering the most bases so to speak.

 

[Analoguesat]

Its a box of electronics which reads subscription cards. Many are type specific for one particular encryption (Seca / Viaccess / Irdeto etc) This means one receiver can have various cams plugged into it to decrypt different channels in different countries.

Some newer ones are "multicrypt" - they can read cards of more than one encryption. However sometimes they have problems writing the monthly authorisation codes to the cards - so the screen goes black!

Which is "the best one" depends on what type of card(s) you want to put into it.

 

[PaulR]

CAM stand for Conditional Access Module. It contains the electronics and firmware to understand a specific type (or types) of encryption such as Nagravision, Viaccess etc.

A CAM can be a separate card, in which case it slides into a CI (Common Interface) slot, or embedded. All of $ly's boxes have embedded CAMs and there are no official external CAMs that support Videoguard. There were some unofficial CAMs that used to but they have been rendered obsolete by the recent $ly card change.

Note that you need a valid inserted into CAM in order to decrypt programmes.

 

[bandk56]

Right I understand now. I thought it was as simple as say shoving a nagravision card into the slot on the box, same as you do with sky. So each card needs a 'dedicated' cam. Unless of course there is a multi-reader cam that covers the cards you want.

 

[Analoguesat]

Right I understand now. I thought it was as simple as say shoving a nagravision card into the slot on the box, same as you do with sky. So each card needs a 'dedicated' cam. Unless of course there is a multi-reader cam that covers the cards you want.

Basically yes. Many cards will read successfully in a multicam, Ask if you want to know if any particular card will work, someone wil know. (ATM Sky UK cards dont - since the card swapout)