[mythtv-users] UK Sky via DVB-S + CAM

Allan Stirling Dibblahmythml0015 at pendor.org
Tue Jun 14 20:26:01 UTC 2005


Simon Kenyon wrote:
> On Monday 13 June 2005 19:37, Neil Davidson wrote:
> 
>>Completely correct (much to many peoples disappointment)
>>
>>The encryption mechanism Sky use is proprietary (amongst other things too
>>probably) so until they open it all up we'll have to live with analogue
>>capture.

It's not proprietary at all. Many other companies use it. It's just not 
compromised yet.
It's NDS Videoguard. And I hold a CAM for it in my hand now.

> 
> 
> an NDS cam does exist (if my googling is correct)
> so what is to be disappointed about?
> 
> oh and by the way before people start mentioning hacking
> i have a completely legit sky card - it costs me a fortune each month
> 

Yes, it does work.

Avoid Twinhan DTV Sat-CI cards. They are about £50 cheaper than a proper 
card, but the power supply to the LNB *SUCKS*. Looking at it with a 
scope, with *any* load on the LNB output (a finger, even), there is a 2 
volt peak-peak variance in the supply (at about 22khz - No, the 
switching tone is off). I'm looking to see if I can get a good solution 
to this without returning the hardware.

Also, the method used to access the CAM is different to that which is 
supported by Myth, at the moment. If I do get a solution to the hardware 
issues, I'll see if I can do support for the CAM in Myth.

So I have the CAM working in Windows at the moment, but the signal is 
very poor, so I'm seeing issues (this happens with OTA channels without 
the CAM installed, so it's not the CAM's fault).

Be aware when you buy a Dragon CAM, they come blank. They require 
programming - Which either needs done by your supplier, or you also need 
a Fun7 (Galaxy 5) card and a programmer. I use a Dynamite, which works 
well. You need Windows available for programming. Don't buy the newer 
Dragon CAMs - All they have extra is a slot for their own card - Which 
is for a channel that's not available on 19.2E.

Total cost so far is:
£51.50 - CAM
£39.00 - Dynamite Programmer
£12.00 - FunCard 7

Not recommended:
£69.00 - Twinhan Vision DTV Sat-CI 1030A


Cheers,

Allan.


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