UPC Digital Signal - without the box

rahenyTV

Hi all
Newbie post.

I have dug around the web and these posts for a while at different times and not got my answer.

On the UPC/NTL cable coming in, my TV with a digital tuner is able to pick up certain stations. There is an EPG available. Some stations are locked and some are open. The numbers are different.

For example, the station for RTE1 is on 068 and it is open. City Chanel is on 4 and is open. The station for RTE2 is not open and, as expected, neither are stations such as Sky Sports etc. All of these signals including the EPG are available on this digital service irrespective of whether I have a UPC box plugged in.

I have got one of the boxes with the card in. The TV I have (SonyW) takes a card that looks like a PC card, while the card in the UPC box takes a credit card sized card with a chip in it.

Then the questions: -
- what is this service - is it the trial service?
- is it possible to get a card that allows the protected ones to be opened?
- is the timing of this being opened more linked to the HD launch in the future?

Any help would be great - unusually, the web is quite silent on this. I would find it very convenient if this could be tuned in and opened up as the TV remotes would be able to select these channels. I should note that I don't mind paying for the service and have a box from UPC with a subscription to Sports and Movies.

Thanks in advance.

Richard

seamus

What you're seeing is a standard digital service. Any digital receiver should be able to receive the EPG and the stations, you don't necessarily need the UPC box to do this. However in order to view the closed stations you will need the standrad card supplied by UPC - the credit-card thingie.

Afaik, UPC will only support that kind of connection, using their own box. They won't assist you in setting up your TV.

The connection on the TV is probably for an engineer to plug in and service it, but it may be possible to buy an add-on card which slots into your TV and which accepts the UPC card for decrypting the channels.

rahenyTV

Hi
Seamus' post makes sense. (thanks for the quick one)
The card slot on the TV is in order to accept cards that will decrypt the signal.
Has anyone seen something that will allow the UPC card to be incorporated into this perhaps?

According to http://support.sony-europe.com/tv/dvbc/dvbc.aspx?site=odw_en_GB&m=KDL-40W4500
All Sony TVs include a Common Interface (CI) slot which allows the TV to provide access to encrypted services (typically those requiring payment to the cable operator). To access these services, customers will need to obtain a Conditional Access Module (CAM) which may be available from your dealer or from the cable operator.

So then - has anyone had any joy getting this to work with the UPC signal?

Richard

seamus

Useful to know. From searching on that basis, I found someone else trying to do the same thing:
http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/591877

It appears as though you can buy a CAM online somewhere, but you will need to programme it so that it "thinks" it's your UPC box. It looks like the CAM (usually the UPC box) and the subscriber card are "paired" meaning that the CAM uses it's own key in conjunction with the key on the subscriber card and to decrypt the signal.

So in order to get the Sony CAM to work, it needs to have the same key as the UPC box, which involves some hacking and fiddling.

I was going to start a new thread asking if it's possible/easy to buy a standard DVR without having to use/pay for UPC's DVR, but you've inadvertantly filled in the gaps for me - it'd be easier to go with UPC's box.

stevenmu

AFAIK UPC only allow you to access the digital signal via their own box. In the US they introduced legislation requiring cable operators to introduce a standard which allowed consumers choose their own box which would work with cable operators standardised cards, but no such legislation was ever brought in here. I think in fact the opposite is true, it's actually illegal to use anything other than the approved cable operator equipment, and not just "against the terms of use" illegal, it's actually a criminal offense.

They really should do something similar to the US here, I really f***ing hate the Pace boxes UPC use.

seamus

stevenmu wrote: »

I think in fact the opposite is true, it's actually illegal to use anything other than the approved cable operator equipment, and not just "against the terms of use" illegal, it's actually a criminal offense.

No, I don't think that's specifically true, but there is legislation which covers the dodgy boxes. It can fall either under theft of service or under legislation which makes it illegal to hack encrypted broadcasts (afair).

Theoretically, using your own CAM could be considered "hacking" the broadcast signal, but I can't see UPC bothering with that.

Though they do periodically scan for hardware which is unauthorised - that may pick up your CAM and they can then disable your card and close your account for breach of the TOS.

watty

Here you can only use the UPC supplied Digital Decoder unless they give you written permission.

Use of UPC/Cable channels without the appropriate subsscription (i.e. Digital ones with an analogue sub) is Theft of Service and illegal.