Can I watch one cable TV channel and record another?

[Graham]

Many satellite services using DVB support the use of a card to enable decryption. Typically these cards are sloted into an STB. The computer equivalent is described ...

http://www.hyperlinkx.com/pmwiki/pmwiki....s.MultiDec

Cablecard seems to be uniquely US and is described ...

http://gizmodo.com/5356007/normal-people...dows-7-pcs
http://ati.amd.com/products/tvwonderdigital/index.html

The "magic" will soon be Windows 7. I dunno if other apps (e.g. GBPVR) will have access to the cablecard devices.

Is satellite an option? Do US satellite providers use "off the shelf" technology that already works with GBPVR?

[soccerdad]

Is satellite an option? Do US satellite providers use "off the shelf" technology that already works with GBPVR?

DVB-S capture cards in the US is no longer really an option since they have now changed encryption technolgy. You can do some card sharing using plugins and softcams but at this point, I think it is more trouble than it is worth. Also, the HD channels on sat need a very expensive setup that I don't think is GBPVR usable.

[Reddwarf]

As stated in the Wikipedia: A Cablecard is commonly known as a CAM (or CA module) in the rest of the world . This is the device that reads the smartcard (which is the key to decrypting), and (again in the rest of the world) this CAM connects to the capturecard (which is the tuner/receiver for tv-signals) via a CI-module. So, you plug the capture card into your mainboard in the PC, plug the CI module into the capturecard and plug the CAM into the CI-module and finally you insert the smartcard into the CAM. Now you can receive encrypted pay-tv. That's the hardware setup.

An alternative is to just insert the capturecard into the pc, buy a USB-smartcard reader and connect it to the pc's usb port and put the smartcard into the cardreader. Then you install the application (like gbpvr or something else) and install a piece of software called a Softcam. The softcam reads the smartcard and use pure software to decrypt the tv-signal that the capturecard har tuned into. Now you watch or record pay-tv.

Now, there are lots of encryption systems, and they all need a specific CAM to work in the hardware solution (Conax, Irdeto etc..). Today there exists softcams for all of these systems (the latest to be added I think is Conax which is used in western Europe and Asia). So unless Comcast has developed a brand new system for cable encryption (which I strongly doubt), it should present no unsolvable problem to use the softcam solution in the us as well.

Anoter thing, in the hardware solution (including STB's) you'll need one smartcard for each device, while the softcam solution can share one smartcard. This may be a consideration as some providers make you pay an annual fee for each smartcard they hand out to you.

[Reddwarf]

After submitting my previous post I did some more reading about CableCard, and I seem to have missed something. It appares NOT to be a CAM but rather a "CAM with a built-in smartcard", and if that is true it makes things a bit different. Still, it should be possible to have a multichannel setup on a pc, as the newest cablecards can decrypt up yo six channels at a time.

[Innocence]

Huh? sub once told me that GBPVR didn't support Common Interfaces (CI), and thus no Ci => no CAM => no smarcard => no encrypted channels.

When did GBPVR start supporting this!??!

[EDIT@self: Guess I should have noticed the new version. First line in the change log: "- added CI support for watching DVB pay TV channels outside of north america" ]

Care to tell us about your SoftCAM setup RedDwarf? I tried getting a setup running with Smargo Smartreader+NewCS+ACAMD+MDAPI+legal provider smartcard on MediaPortal but frankly couldn't get it working. I then got saved by the bell since my cable-provider has decided to remove encrytion on all channels However if I subscribe to extra channels (ie. movies) those are still encrypted, which is why I'm still interested in getting it working down the line.

[Reddwarf]

Officially MP does NOT support multidec plugins, and it is a real PITA to set up in all other means. Have you tried NewCS+Acamd+Mdapi with gbpvr? What encryption system does your provider use?

[El Cid]

Graham, Reddwarf, and soccerdad --

Thanks very much for the detailed information you have all provided. I'm going to print out this whole thread and use it as we explore our alternatives.

Are things expected to change in any significant way with the introduction of Windows 7? :eek:

Much appreciated!

[Innocence]

Have you tried NewCS+Acamd+Mdapi with gbpvr? What encryption system does your provider use?

No, actually I just returned to GBPVR yesterday when I realized it now supports DVB subtitles

My cable provider is using Irdeto2 as encryption. I first tried getting ACAMD working with the cardreader+card, but failed. I then started looking at NewCS (for a NewCS+ACAMD solution), but before getting very far I was discouraged by the message from the developers that they no longer support Windows as a platform

I then prayed to God and through his divine actions the cable company removed encryption on the common channels, making the issue less urgent (until the familiy demands some of the coded services of course ).

[Reddwarf]

Your problem may be with the cardreader, I tried a very expensive reader that could emulate almost anything, but it did not read the Conax card correctly. So I bought a cheap Phoenix USB-cradreader (from AD-Teknik in Sweden) and it works much better. Try loking at NewCS window when it starts up (right click on the tray icon and select SHOW). If it says "Card ready" your reader is probably ok and the problem is somewhere in Acamd setup.

[OrakelJos]

Reddwarf:
at present I am using 2x HVR-2200 in my WHS/GBPVR server so 4 tuners in total. I want to switch over to DVB-C, also with multiple tuners. Ziggo, my cable company, is using Irdeto2 on all channels except 2.
What are the possibilities to get this running in GBPVR? What hardware and software is required?
Any help is appreciated.