My new setup

[jsr]

Hi There,

I am in the process of subscribing to multichoice in south africa. My current TV setup is a mess and I want to clean it up. I do not want to have an extra unit sitting on my tv stand. What I want to do is enable my HTPC to do the decoding for me via a tv tuner. From what I can pick up on the forum, all I need is a TV Tuner that can interface with a CI ether via USB or an Integrated CI. What I do then is buy a CAM like Diablo 2 or Dragon 2. The CAM gets inserted into the CI which then in turn takes the smartcard that I get with my multichoice subscription. I also need extra hardware to update the firmware on my CAM. Does that sound correct? Also, if I get a Dragon or Diablo cam I should be able to get some free channels aswell like Digi TV? I see on LyngSat that there arnt much FTA channels avaible in south africa _http://www.lyngsat.com/freetv/South-Africa.html.

Is that all I can access in south Africa or can I do some tricksy stuff with my dish to get other channels. I mean if I can access Intelsat 7 I should be able to pickup and decrypt all channels that goes through that satellite?

[Moderation] Unparsed live link

 

[Topper]

Hello


Welcome to the forum jsr

1st you must realise a few things, there are not many beams whose footprint covers South Africa, not many at all.
2nd combinations of equipment that are untried may not work as they are not specifically designed to work with each other.
For example some cams would not works in certain stbs
3rd You have not mentioned your dish size
4th Digi TV is due to encrypt soon, so why design a system around it assuming you had a big enough dish
5th The days of key and patch access are gone
6th Intelsat 7 transmissions i.e. Multivision use Irdeto 2 and Vivid uses nagravision (unknown version) what makes you think they are cracked and viewable for free?

These days if you want guaranteed viewing you need a subscription which is what you say you are doing but that does not open up channels using a different encryption system

 

[jsr]

Hi Topper,

Thanks for the reply. My main goal is to use my HTPC to view dstv(multichoice). I was hopeing that if I just get a different or beter CAM that I would be able to get more channels but your reply debunked that theory. Sorry if my post came across as a potensial piracy post. I dont want to crack subscription channels and watch them for free. I have very limited to no knowledge of satellite tv so I just wanted to know if it is possible that there are encrypted channels available to South Africa that you do not need a subscription to view but need a CAM that can decrypt it. If this does not exist then that changes my setup totally. Then I would rather get a TechniSat SkyStar 2 tv tuner and try to get the software emulator for Irdeto2. Would that work? And what do I need to read the smartcard? Any other comments or ideas around the hardware I should get will be greatly appreciated

 

[Topper]

No apology necessary, I just did not want you spending money only to find that what you were hoping for does not work at all.
Generally the whole satellite scene has tightened up in the last three years and unless you go down the route of a Linux based stb that can run card sharing software there is very little else to enjoy apart from free to air programming, especially in your location. Cams of the correct flavour of encryption to suit the card you have of course will work but beyond that I have little or no knowledge of the equipment you propose in your setup. I will move this whole thread to the PC Tuner cards section of the forum where I think will find more response and indeed more to read if you have not already done so

 

[jsr]

Thanks Topper,

I did some research and it looks like the Technotrend Budget T-1500 incl. CI-Interface+TT-Viewer will work. Then all I need is a irdeto 2 CAM. Apparently it is beter to get a hardware CAM rather than a software CAM as this reduces the CPU processing required. Can anyone point me in the direction of software cams available to decrypt Irdeto2 and what smartcard reader I need to use said software? I want to research the softcam path to see if it is viable.