End Of Illegal Cable Boxes

[cableview]

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 !

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by cableview

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 !

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.

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

[BenMcr]

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

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

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

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

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.


From another site

Once again the notorious "hackers" have reversed engineered the method to crack down the encryption which is ran by the multi billion dollar companies such as Bell ExpressVu and Dishnetwork. Few years back Nagra 1 which was the encryption used on Bell and Dishnetwork to recieve the signal was cracked down by a bunch of engineers to stop from paying for satellite television, it was the black market undergoing some serious $$$$$. With the Nagra 1 and its offerings for up to 1,100 channels of programming for the north american continent it was pretty much unstoppable. But after a few years like most providers, they tend to upgrade, change, and modify theyr changes on their network. Dishnet decided to swap all the cards from all their existing customer because they were planning on going to a new encryption. But sure enough only after 6 months when the Nagra 2 encryption came out....The hackers once again reversed engineered the code and now soon to be, theyrs going to be free tv again. I guess technology is so advanced that no one can stop it.

So the next version is already hacked

[BenMcr]

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?

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

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?

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.

[Nikesh]

Originally Posted by cableview

<Snip>

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

[cableview]

wait and see.

[BenMcr]

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)

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.

[punky]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

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?

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.

[ntluser]

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.

[WHISTLED]

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 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.

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

Originally Posted by ntluser

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.

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