Channel 5 blocked on FTV card

eire1

Hey I'm new, just wondering if anyone has any ideas or advice. I got a FTA card about a year ago, it plays all the BBC and ITV channels but now it won't play Five, Five US and Five Life. It says I must contact the broadcaster for a subscription or something. The channels used to play fine. Any help please!

Thanks

DMC

Has the card been out of the box for any length of time?

eire1

Yeah, a couple of weeks. It's just the Five channels, the ones i watched the most.
I've just realised it should be called a FTV card.

L1011

Leave it in the box, box powered on for 2 to 3 days and it has a high chance of coming "alive" again.

eire1

Ok, I'll try that cheers.

jhegarty

MYOB wrote:

Leave it in the box, box powered on for 2 to 3 days and it has a high chance of coming "alive" again.

quicker if you leave it on sky news (or so I hear)....

eire1

Hey I left my card in overnight (on sky news) and the channels were back this morning so THANK YOU for the info!!!!

Ulsterman 1690

How often do these FTV channels change their encryption keys (and why)

Its fairly obvious why subscription channels would need to do it fairly regularly but why would Channels 4 or 5 be too bothered ?

And why Sky news better for key updates than any other channel ?

L1011

The card doesn't store the keys indefinately, they time out after about 3 weeks since the last update. Notably MTV2 and Fox News have in the past been stuck on CCW (same exact key) for ages and ages - you could pull the card and they'd still decode, but cards still timed out.

Ulsterman 1690

When you say the card times out do you mean the chip on the card itself includes a microprocessor and clock or is it just some memory which contains serial numbers and datestamped encryption keys ?

Or is this some dark secret known only to the Murdoch Intelligence Agency ?

L1011

The card contains a processor, yes. Hence its called a "smart card" as opposed to a memory card. No idea if it has an RTC or relies on the processor for timings.

yellabelly

My FTV card was left out the box for a while and now gives the message "This card is not authorised …" on CH4 and CH5. Unfortunately it will not come alive. My understanding is that this message means it has been killed indefinitely.

watty

The card has no clock. It has memory and CPU. The keys are stored till updated, but become invalid for the decoder (CAM in other systems) as live required keys change, if the receiver is not receiving (standby is fine) with card in slot, then the card misses new keys. They don't have to ever kill a card, just stop sending it new new keys.

@yellabelly
If it is a pre-darkblue/yellow house, it simply doesn't work.

Try a software update on the receiver without the card. (hold "backup" on box, not remote while connecting power till all the LEDs come on, TV ount only on SCART, not RF during this).

Then leave card in on Sky news for 2 days.

denis1501

yellabelly wrote:

My FTV card was left out the box for a while and now gives the message "This card is not authorised …" on CH4 and CH5. Unfortunately it will not come alive. My understanding is that this message means it has been killed indefinitely.

Yes, this card is dead. Don't waste your time trying to reactivate it.
regards
D.

yellabelly

Thanks for the replies. I have already tried all the suggested methods of resuscitation to no avail - it is still as dead as a dodo.
No sure if I will bother to get another one for channel 4 and 5. I already have one card but just need to swap it from Digibox to Dreambox when recording Ch4/Ch5.
Maybe these channels will go free to air.

radiofoot

"if the receiver is not receiving (standby is fine) with card in slot, then the card misses new keys. They don't have to ever kill a card, just stop sending it new new keys."

Hi All,

Does this mean that a digibox with a freeview card should never be plugged out? I am in the habit of turning off the power to the TV and digibox every night.

Thanks.

watty

Sky Digibox not meant to be unplugged. Will miss keys and SW updates.

I only unplug if not using it for a while, and then it can need up to a day to work.

biologikal

Does this only work with UK cards? Also, does the digibox and card have to be hooked up through a Sky dish and LNB or will it work with any dish/LNB as long as it's looking at 28.2E?

My brother let his Ireland Sky sub lapse, and I can see a lot of the FTA channels through the digibox and housecard, but no C4 or fives, although I see the newish Virgin on the EPG. If the digibox is left on, can I expect the card to "come alive" and start showing the FTV channels?

Also, the EPG is only showing about 6 hours worth of schedules. An upgrade was performed (seemingly successfully) a few weeks ago, even though the box is probably about 5-6 years old. Could the age of the box be causing problems for the upgrade?

byte

Digibox will work on any dish and universal LNB, provided it is at 28.2/28.5E.

The card will not "come alive" by magic, and will never show FTV channels, being an Irish ex-subscription card. UK FTV channels require a UK card.

Not sure why the EPG is only showing 6 hours of programming.

L1011

If the default transponder has been changed to one of the Astra 2A South ones it often only shows 6 hours programming - this could be it.

watty

The FTV channels are mainly C4, Five, Five Live, Five US.

Sky 3 may work too and may even work on a lapsed Irish sub

The last time I looked there are no others. Everything else is either pay TV or free (=FTA = no card needed).

biologikal

watty wrote: »

Sky 3 may work too and may even work on a lapsed Irish sub

Sky3 doesn't work on the lapsed Irish sub here.

As for the EPG, some channels were showing longer programming than others (maybe up to 20 hours), at the end of the others, it showed "searching for listings...", maybe if I left it on the the EPG page, it would eventually download the rest, but I thought it was something that the Digibox did in the background, and didn't really take all that long. Anyway, I'm not that bothered about it, it's only there as a backup, and besides, trying to watch other channels, even when they've been programmed in, is a real pain, have to press about 15 buttons just to watch ITV3!

Hagar

If you get yourself a third party remote control like the One4All Chameleon you can memorize a sequence of buttons presses and assign them to a single button.