New Smart card areas channel changes

[shugg mcglummfer]

What happens if you are away on holiday and the card arrives when not here? Will I lose all my channels because I haven't changed the card. This wouldn't be good, as nothing would be recorded.

[BenMcr]

For Leeds it was about a month between the last cards going out and the channels dropping

[ntl.wotcha]

Scratch that. Sorted.

[BenMcr]

Yes you do

[jem]

I'd been having the on-screen message for a few days now, and the new card arrived yesterday. I'm in Bexley in SE London and I'm fairly sure I'm on the Seven Kings headend (ex-ntl). Popped the card in this morning and had all of the channels back within a few minutes. If it's still ok tonight-and I have no reason to expect otherwise-I'll bin the old card.

One thing I was curious about, do the new cards only decrypt the N3 stream, in which case my area must already be sending the channels using both the new and old encryption streams or are the cards 'backwards compatible' and can be used before the N3 stream is active?

Originally Posted by jem

I'd been having the on-screen message for a few days now, and the new card arrived yesterday. I'm in Bexley in SE London and I'm fairly sure I'm on the Seven Kings headend (ex-ntl). Popped the card in this morning and had all of the channels back within a few minutes. If it's still ok tonight-and I have no reason to expect otherwise-I'll bin the old card.

One thing I was curious about, do the new cards only decrypt the N3 stream, in which case my area must already be sending the channels using both the new and old encryption streams or are the cards 'backwards compatible' and can be used before the N3 stream is active?

The cards only process the relevant CA system. i.e the new cards only process the N3 ECM's. So yes your area is on the NGTV platform.

[TheDon]

Originally Posted by The-Darkside

The cards only process the relevant CA system. i.e the new cards only process the N3 ECM's. So yes your area is on the NGTV platform.

Just to make this clearer.

Encryption on digital tv is a two part process.

The video is actually scrambled using CSA (Common Scrambling Algorithm) every DVB system uses this same algorithm. This has nothing to do with the encryption used on the platform.

CSA scrambles the video, and descrambles it using a codeword.

That codeword is broadcast to subscribers in an ECM (entitlement control message) which gives the STB the codeword to descramble the video, doing that in plaintext is obviously stupid, so the ECMs are encrypted. This is where the different encryption systems come in.

You can broadcast as many different ECMs on the network as you want, in as many different encryption schemes as you want, the STB will ignore all but the ones meant for it, so what's happening now is the ECMs are being sent encrypted in both n3 and n1, they both have exactly the same information in them, but n3 cards decode the n3 ones, n1 the n1.

So it's not that they're "sending the channels using both", just the messages that tell your STB how to decode them.

They'll start to stop the n1 ECMs on some channels (as ECMs are channel specific) and then eventually turn off the n1 ECMs altogether.

[calmpitbull]

I keep getting asked about when the dodgy boxes will go off, almost every house I go in. This just shows you how bad the problem is, some people don't even have the decency to remove it before I call.

Anyway I always say, don't worry it will become a decorative hi tech doorstop before you know it!!! this leads me to think of other alternative uses for these boxes. A paperweight perhaps!

[Ben B]

Originally Posted by calmpitbull

I keep getting asked about when the dodgy boxes will go off, almost every house I go in. This just shows you how bad the problem is, some people don't even have the decency to remove it before I call.

Anyway I always say, don't worry it will become a decorative hi tech doorstop before you know it!!! this leads me to think of other alternative uses for these boxes. A paperweight perhaps!

Some people are in denial about it saying "well I heard that they didn't have enough money to fund the change so they're gonna stay chipped" Yeah right

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by calmpitbull

I keep getting asked about when the dodgy boxes will go off, almost every house I go in. This just shows you how bad the problem is, some people don't even have the decency to remove it before I call.

Anyway I always say, don't worry it will become a decorative hi tech doorstop before you know it!!! this leads me to think of other alternative uses for these boxes. A paperweight perhaps!

Don't tell them. Its funny watching the thieving gits panic

---------- Post added at 19:05 ---------- Previous post was at 19:03 ----------

Originally Posted by Ben B

Some people are in denial about it saying "well I heard that they didn't have enough money to fund the change so they're gonna stay chipped" Yeah right

They will find out VERY soon how wrong that is

[martyh]

Originally Posted by calmpitbull

this leads me to think of other alternative uses for these boxes. A paperweight perhaps!

take the fan out and use it to keep the sweat away as you worry about missing the footy

[joglynne]

Originally Posted by Sirius

Don't tell them. Its funny watching the thieving gits panic

---------- Post added at 19:05 ---------- Previous post was at 19:03 ----------



They will find out VERY soon how wrong that is

I love how every few days someone on the dark side will post that someone they met in the pub has a friend who knows a guy whose brother-in-law met some one at a Mongolian Flea Market who's sister cracked N3 and is just testing to make sure it works OK. Honest.

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by joglynne

I love how every few days someone on the dark side will post that someone they met in the pub has a friend who knows a guy whose brother-in-law met some one at a Mongolian Flea Market who's sister cracked N3 and is just testing to make sure it works OK. Honest.

There has been a few windups on the OTHER forums from that exact person

Originally Posted by joglynne

I love how every few days someone on the dark side will post that someone they met in the pub has a friend who knows a guy whose brother-in-law met some one at a Mongolian Flea Market who's sister cracked N3 and is just testing to make sure it works OK. Honest.

Theres more than one dark side.

[martyh]

Originally Posted by Sirius

There has been a few windups on the OTHER forums from that exact person

this bloke ?