End Of Illegal Cable Boxes
 

my brother works for a uk cable network and told me in confidence about the new plans for illegal cable boxes.....a new system which operates a pin only view will be put in place starting from march all subscribers will be sent new cards on feb. all paying channels will operate on demand with only the free to air left on. the new cards will require pin start up.this leaves all boxes like <Edit Rob: deleted - please don't name unauthorised STBs>, etc useless unless someone can bypass the network pin and create on demand functions for all boxes.....NO CHANCE !

Re: End Of Illegal Cable Boxes
 

And of course he was told this in confidence by the a friend of the Cleaners cat of the cleaner who cleans the Offices at Hook. :rolleyes:

Sorry but if and i mean IF that was true it would be one of the closest secrets that VM would have until the day before it is to happen. Sorry but these Rumours prop up from time to time. I NEVER believe them until they happen.

Finally if they do introduce pins on all channels then off to sky i go. There is no way in hell i would be imputing a pin every time i want to watch Virgin 1.

I have some friends in Networks for VM will ask them if they have heard anything, One of them works in the headend so if anyone knows he will ?.Problem is even if they say its true i would not be daft enough to post it on here for all the **** bags to read who steal cable :rolleyes:

Re: End Of Illegal Cable Boxes
 

Even if/when Virgin introduce new smartcards, there is no way they would be able to get away with PIN protection of all channels.

Though now that Virgin basically have a common EPG version across the whole company, it would be foolish not to think that some that includes measures to stop illegal boxes working.

It will a big enough logistical nightmare for the swap itself. Are the current STBs firmware upgradeable to accept new smartcards or would all customers have to have a box swap?

From what I can remember, Sky Digital managed to swap out all smartcards for new versions fairly painlessly

Re: End Of Illegal Cable Boxes
 

across 3 million customers a box swap man I would hate to have to arrange that.

They need to sort something out but it wont get done as vm dont know how to and as for a pin system for all channels I doubt that very much its too much hassle for the company and customers

Re: End Of Illegal Cable Boxes
 

Problem is that SKY own there own Encryption system. VM have a system that had been cracked a whole year before they even used it and that the new version of it has been cracked for about 6 months now. :rolleyes:


From another site

So the next version is already hacked :(

Re: End Of Illegal Cable Boxes
 

I thought they were up to Nagra 3 now?

The only upside I can think of is now that alot of the content on Virgin is on VOD, is that not easier to block, even from an illegal card?

Re: End Of Illegal Cable Boxes
 

Nagra 3 has been hacked as well.

Its takes on average 6 to 8 months to totally crack each generation of the encryption. If VM are to beat the **** bags then they need to be looking at a different technology. Nagra is so full of holes.:rolleyes:

Re: End Of Illegal Cable Boxes
 

:welcome: to the forum. I really don't think that will happen. :dozey:

Re: End Of Illegal Cable Boxes
 

wait and see.

Re: End Of Illegal Cable Boxes
 

Again though, even if new smartcards is true, wont they require new headend and network equipment as well?

I can't see that being in place by March (well not March of this year anyway)

Re: End Of Illegal Cable Boxes
 

Indeed. While I understand the sceptics, we have dismissed rumours before that turned out to be true. Wait and see is always the best option. :)

Re: End Of Illegal Cable Boxes
 

I was thinking before, when they were blocking cloned modems about how they could theoretically block hacked STBs. I don't know of anyone that's hacked VM return path, so the possibly surefire way of doing it would to treat every channel as on-demand. I.e. that instead of broadcasting every channel and letting the STB decypher it, to allow the return path to request the channel, with a ID/key pair that is stored on the card and the customer's account, and can be changed if compromised (same id/key pair used in two parts of the country)

I don't even know if VM's headends & network can hack that many extra on demand requests and video streams floating around, but it would make changing channel hideously slow. At least 5 extra seconds, i'd guess.

Re: End Of Illegal Cable Boxes
 

Maybe there will be a new system like Microsoft's which verifies that you have a genuine box in the same way that they verify that you have a genuine copy of Windows.

Re: End Of Illegal Cable Boxes
 

There is also one other cable provider, the OP doesnt mention VM anywhere and has no location to give direction.

All points raised valid, making channels on demand would seem to fix the problems, the pin wouldnt work as it would drive people mad especially channel hoppers like me.

I have no idea on this stuff I struggle turning the TV on, but suspect it would not unless this was planed when originally developing VOD.

Wouldn't ths actually free up masses of capacity/bandwidth too?

In actual fact I havent heard anything about this and I would have thought I would, especially if cards were being sent out in Feb

Re: End Of Illegal Cable Boxes
 

And that would be hacked in 24hrs like it was when ms did it lol

Re: End Of Illegal Cable Boxes
 

LOL!

And if your not Genuine you lack features such as Virgin Aero for the TV Guide, and more adverts get placed!

:D

Re: End Of Illegal Cable Boxes
 

They must be planning something as it would appear its quite wide spread. In the last month a know at least 6 people that have got a chipped box for the tv service. As staff I feel obliged to report this, which i have but nothing seems to have been done about it. Even the people that don't activly subscribe to any services to VM, At the very least you would have thought they would have sent a tech out to cut the feed on the people that don't subscribe.

But saying this I wouldn't imagine VM making public any plans on what they were doing till it went live. Mind you I do remember reading on one of those chat things they do on the intranet about the Next Gen Tv platform that they will be developing and that they would have to send out new smart cards to all the customers. Maybe this is when they will impliment any changes.

Re: End Of Illegal Cable Boxes
 

not if you helped write it ;)(just a thought).

the source is usually inside, weather it be chipped vm boxes or illegal coppies of windows ets.

thought id just add,before i get loads of the old, "wheres your proof of this " type remarks that this is just my recconing.

Re: End Of Illegal Cable Boxes
 

What a load of tosh.

They are putting a new encryption system in for the tv network as they have with BB/modems, but its nothing like what you have claimed.

Re: End Of Illegal Cable Boxes
 

Do you work for Virgin or something? You know a heck of a lot.

Either that or I hope you dont get a C&D letter on your doorstop :P

Re: End Of Illegal Cable Boxes
 

I don't think any encryption has ever actually been cracked. What has happened is that backdoors have been found into some smartcards which have then allowed the 'crackers' to pick and pick until finally they have access to the Master key. Once they have got that far into the system then even a key change is un-effective as they can see the new keys.

The innermost workings of the encryption itself are still intact, its just the workings of some cards which has been opened up.

An employee IIRC released details on the Canal Plus system (the one used for On Digital) which allowed people to open that system up.

Re: End Of Illegal Cable Boxes
 

The real issue is Virgin have no incentive to resolve the issues with their encryption technology.

If I remember right, Sky pay around £5 a month per subscriber to third parties (which will include UKTV/Virgin). Virgin pay for Sky Premiums per (legal) subscriber who take that option meaning profit to Virgin is minimal, and around £2-2.50 per XL subscriber to Setanta leaving a minimal extent to which TV is profitable, especially when you consider how TV XL is bundled with other services.

3 for £30 with XL probably makes less for Virgin than 2 for £20 BB/Phone.

It may even be possible that if Virgin resolved these issues it'd push away phone/BB subscribers to "better value" triple play services like Tiscali or Sky.

When one considers the cost of replacing the firmware on boxes, cards and potentially some of the boxes it isn't worth the risk especially in the absence of a clear choice of encryption provider to move to.