Virgin media possibly getting serious on dodgy boxes?

[Ben B]

It could also be that maybe this card change is required for the IPTV to be implemented all we can do is speculate until more info or something happening appears

[Oatie]

Originally Posted by Ben B

It could also be that maybe this card change is required for the IPTV to be implemented all we can do is speculate until more info or something happening appears

Hmmm.....good point. But, (and I'm speaking with the benefit of a bottle of decent red inside me here.....anythings better than the X bloody factor and Celeb insect munching), IPTV, in my humble opinion would require a new 'box'. IPTV is totally different tech to how your current t.v. piccie is delivered, (or at least it used to be)? I know a bloke who knows everything there is to know about IP TV, (even if he does work for a competitor of Cisco, he does know his *****), and will ask him. Sure that a card change cant 'IP enable' the current set top boxes, (he says ready to be shot down)?

[Felim_Doyle]

Originally Posted by Turkey Machine

That's going to be a given, they can't give separate TV and phone packages otherwise.

I'm not sure what the 'phone has to do with it. That comes down the twisted pair copper wires attached to the side of the co-ax to form the siamese twin cable as it's known. I'd have thought that the bandwidth for broadband and IPTV could be shared on the co-ax rather than using distinct frequencies for each IP stream but it is probably not likely given that one will be handled by the cable modem/router and the other by the STB.

---------- Post added at 14:01 ---------- Previous post was at 13:54 ----------

Originally Posted by TheDon

You've underlined a lot of nice words, but missed out the a couple of important ones ...

I didn't intentionally underline anything, they were links in the original text when I copied and pasted it. No emphasis intended. I was just trying to make the distinction between 'the internet', as most people understand it, and 'an internet protocol network' regardless of it's open or closed status or LAN, PAN, WAN etc. nature.

---------- Post added at 14:43 ---------- Previous post was at 14:01 ----------

Originally Posted by Oatie

Something about Hull and telecoms, (cant remember or be bothered to look up), but the telecom provider up that neck of the woods doesnt have to conform to national regulations in some way or other?

Kingston-Upon-Hull is an autonomous republic enclave within the UK. I'm not even sure it's part of the EU.

Originally Posted by Oatie

Was proper VoD, (delivered over DSL), but was pretty much telly via IP. Clever stuff at the time. Lost touch with it all now mind.

Excusing any inaccuracies, AFIK, BT developed ADSL in the 80s/90s at their Ipswich research centre purely for VoD. Public access to the internet was relatively new then and nobody saw a need for broadband given that dial-up modem speeds were rapidly reaching 9600 baud and beyond. Unfortunately for them, before deregulation, BT's licence did not allow them to compete in the TV or VoD markets and so the technology was shelved until the need for broadband eventually became a reallity.

Originally Posted by Oatie

Going back to the original topic ...

My question is won't conditional access controls still be needed for IPTV? There will still have to be something that decides what the viewer is entitled to watch.

[Turkey Machine]

Depends if Virgin deploy any conditional access for the IPTV they watch. The advantage is that you can give a certain line from the headend a certain range of "channels" to view, but cheats will always get around it one way or another.

[Felim_Doyle]

Originally Posted by Turkey Machine

Depends if Virgin deploy any conditional access for the IPTV they watch. The advantage is that you can give a certain line from the headend a certain range of "channels" to view, but cheats will always get around it one way or another.

Huh?

Scenarios ...

So I have a cable running up to my house but I don't have a VM subscription. I should get nothing, not even the terrestrial five basic 'public service' channels.
I have a basic VM package which anyone with a VM subscription is entitled to view. This should be available to anyone with a suitable STB.
I have a better package (e.g. XL) and possibly some additional packages (e.g. sports, movies). The network needs to control what my STB is allowed to show.

How's it going to work under IPTV? Will there be subscription cards in the box? Will it be controlled from the 'server' end rather than the 'client'? Is it more complicated if I have more than one STB on the same cable?

[Kymmy]

Last post about new smart cards moved to

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/11...l-changes.html

[TheDon]

Originally Posted by Felim_Doyle

How's it going to work under IPTV? Will there be subscription cards in the box? Will it be controlled from the 'server' end rather than the 'client'? Is it more complicated if I have more than one STB on the same cable?

You'll still have a smartcard in the STB.

[Ben B]

Originally Posted by Ben B

It could also be that maybe this card change is required for the IPTV to be implemented all we can do is speculate until more info or something happening appears

Originally Posted by Oatie

Hmmm.....good point. But, (and I'm speaking with the benefit of a bottle of decent red inside me here.....anythings better than the X bloody factor and Celeb insect munching), IPTV, in my humble opinion would require a new 'box'. IPTV is totally different tech to how your current t.v. piccie is delivered, (or at least it used to be)? I know a bloke who knows everything there is to know about IP TV, (even if he does work for a competitor of Cisco, he does know his *****), and will ask him. Sure that a card change cant 'IP enable' the current set top boxes, (he says ready to be shot down)?

I can (kind of) confirm my speculations about the card change being required from IPTV. Info taken from Help & Info on my STB.

Originally Posted by V+ Help & Info

Q: Why are you sending me a new card?
A: We're about to upgrade the technology of your Virgin TV set top box so you can benefit from the good stuff fibre optic technology brings

This suggests my speculations are true to me.

[Horace]

Originally Posted by Ben B

I can (kind of) confirm my speculations about the card change being required from IPTV. Info taken from Help & Info on my STB.



This suggests my speculations are true to me.

That 'help and info' answer is vague to say the least.

[SB_07]

Some guy on his Twitter has said he's using a chipped box, doubt anything can be done about it right??

"Smokin G-13, originally grown by the CIA. 1 of my favourite strains. Sippin rose. Watchin "Hitman" on a chipped up Virgin box. Life is good."

http://twitter.com/UpNorthMillz

[Tony.]

Originally Posted by SB_07

Some guy on his Twitter has said he's using a chipped box, doubt anything can be done about it right??

"Smokin G-13, originally grown by the CIA. 1 of my favourite strains. Sippin rose. Watchin "Hitman" on a chipped up Virgin box. Life is good."

http://twitter.com/UpNorthMillz

He won't be watching it much longer lol

Location OLDHAM, UK

but he will still be smoking his G-13 so he most likely wont care to much lol

[musicbravo]

Looks like smart card change may move to Derby soon. Got home to find box set to 999, which suggests it has had a software update

[sniper007]

Interesting thread. So basically Nagra 3 rollout involves new smart cards which will stop cable pirates in their tracks? I don't understand how pirates get hold of their dodgey STBs. Is it usually originally down to a breach internally with Virgin employees selling STBs? Or on the black market are there STBs that mimic a virgin box? Also, how many pirates are out there? Are we talking say 100,000 in the UK?

---------- Post added at 17:13 ---------- Previous post was at 16:58 ----------

Wow. I'm shocked. I just did some googling and came accross "another forum" shall we say. It's like the people there think that Virgin (they refer to them as "Vermin") owe them something for nothing. It absolutely fills me with rage. They talk in " txt spk innit m8 " and there is a guy on there that was/is actually contemplating moving from Leeds to Manchester in an attempt to keep recieiving "free tv". Another person on there back in December complained publically that he had just bought LCD flat screens for his kids (one each) for Xmas and that they wouldn't be happy.
Absolute scum on there. Why should we all pay for services they receive free? Does this really spell the end for them and when will the whole country be on the new cards as I have not got a letter about it yet at all.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by sniper007

Interesting thread. So basically Nagra 3 rollout involves new smart cards which will stop cable pirates in their tracks? I don't understand how pirates get hold of their dodgey STBs. Is it usually originally down to a breach internally with Virgin employees selling STBs? Or on the black market are there STBs that mimic a virgin box? Also, how many pirates are out there? Are we talking say 100,000 in the UK?

It's down to two things:

1) Dodgy boxes. These don't necessarily come from VM employees (although some do). They sometimes come customers who, having had the service legitimately, stop it for some reason. They *should* send the box back, but VM can be a little lax in enforcing this, so a lot of boxes end up on ebay.

2) There are boxes out there that are designed to emulate virgin boxes. We do not allow discussion of specifics about these boxes (such as where/how to get them).

I don't know how many people pirate digital TV. but I do know that it is enought that it caused On Digital to think their PPV football service was far more profitable than it actually was, and caused them to bid far more than they could afford for the premiership footy rights, which ultimately caused them to fold.

Wow. I'm shocked. I just did some googling and came accross "another forum" shall we say. It's like the people there think that Virgin (they refer to them as "Vermin") owe them something for nothing. It absolutely fills me with rage. They talk in " txt spk innit m8 " and there is a guy on there that was/is actually contemplating moving from Leeds to Manchester in an attempt to keep recieiving "free tv". Another person on there back in December complained publically that he had just bought LCD flat screens for his kids (one each) for Xmas and that they wouldn't be happy.
Absolute scum on there. Why should we all pay for services they receive free? Does this really spell the end for them and when will the whole country be on the new cards as I have not got a letter about it yet at all.

I think I know the forum you are referring to. It's not a nice place.