All Chipped Cable Boxes Going Down

Originally Posted by ozsat

Don't shoot the messager - but VM have a freephone number to report known cases of VM fraud - 0800 096 7800.

Perhaps if they offered a reward of free V+ install and subs for 3/6 months?

Perhaps if they took back their discontinued boxes and had a clamp down inside the organisation this topic would not come up.

would make only a small difference as the better boxes at the job have never been owned by VM NTL or any of their subsidaries

Originally Posted by Saaf_laandon_mo

To be honest I didnt feel threatened by the hardtarget or any other poster and I get exactly what he means. My point in running a "grass them up" campaign was based on the Benefit fraud adverts that are running on TV. I am sure if virgin ran a similar advert, rather than employing Uma and Samuel L and a lot of money, simply saying "Cable Stealers, We're Onto You - Report A Cable Stealer, 6 months subs paid for" a lot of people wouldn't turn to the dark side.
Whether you knick your cable of not, I don't care. I mean I download movies, I rip off music, I have bought a laptop of a dodgy mate etc etc, so it would be hypocritical of me to shop you.

My idea was simply a respoonse to the question of what can virgin do to stop this.

Ofcourse, why not?

Then we can start a " shop your local mp for maxing out their expense accounts at the detriment to genuine claimants "

I dont condone what the hackers are doing but there is a market for everything and there are many reasons.

---------- Post added at 22:44 ---------- Previous post was at 22:42 ----------

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

would make only a small difference as the better boxes at the job have never been owned by VM NTL or any of their subsidaries

Is it known what ratio is being spoken of here?

IE; unowned boxes to owned?

---------- Post added at 22:47 ---------- Previous post was at 22:44 ----------

Originally Posted by PeteTheMusicGuy

I'm sure if VM did start a grass them up for free subs thing there would be a fair few people who would

Ofcourse providing that would be grasses have never sampled NTL/VM with all its issues

---------- Post added at 22:52 ---------- Previous post was at 22:47 ----------

Originally Posted by Saaf_laandon_mo

Nor did I..... Virgin dont have to advertise how easy it is to steal cable, quite a few have already done it here for them lol

Its akin to when we were not talking to the ira under maggie thatcher, remember gerry adams on the news with a dubbed over voice? that was pathetic too, but hey we have moved on now and the world is a far safer place

---------- Post added at 22:58 ---------- Previous post was at 22:52 ----------

Originally Posted by mentalis

I thought about chipping my box - but then thought it looked nicer without the scratches.

Think how many cans of Mr Sheen you could buy with the saved subs

---------- Post added at 23:20 ---------- Previous post was at 22:58 ----------

Originally Posted by Losttheplot

That makes no sense! You'd be cold if you smashed the window.

AH, but if you left your door open with your key in the ignition, much the same as VM leaving discontinued boxes that can be used again without subs.

Originally Posted by arcamalpha2004

Is it known what ratio is being spoken of here?

IE; unowned boxes to owned?

.

any statistics I could possibly give would be like any other. 88 % of all statistics are made up on the spot

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

any statistics I could possibly give would be like any other. 88 % of all statistics are made up on the spot

Understood Zing

But then if the percentage of unowned boxes increase vm's problems do too.

I still say they need to put more effort into taking back their boxes.

I agree they just get in the way lol

[harryboy22002]

Originally Posted by cableview

as i predicted all cable boxes will be going down ha ha time for all you robbers to buy a subscription....have a nice day !

is that really all you have to discuss??

[frogstamper]

Originally Posted by harryboy22002

is that really all you have to discuss??

Take your pick harryboy, there's 100s of other threads if this one doesn't float your boat

Just thought I'd ask what the situation was? Are the boxes back up and running now?

[boroboi]

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

Not mentioning anything else but the proper boxes are a small problem compared to other options unfortunatly. My step brother knows a vm installer not sure if its a contractor or what but he apparently offers cloned modems and modified vm boxes . I am not the cleanest knife in the draw but I do not agree with theft of cable services and it does put a strain on the already over subscribed system but I could not get any more information

I dont see how thats the case with oversubscription with TV. The signal is still sent to the wall socket anyway whether you have a box or not, so having a box decode the signal is hardly going to change the amount of bandwidth being used.

[MovedGoalPosts]

The signal for the standard range of channels is being carried. However with VOD, whether or not it's PPV, there will be extra traffic. Marginal maybe for the upstream, "I want to see this one" type commands, but cumulatively significant on the headend servers that issue the media stream, and the bandwidth over the network. Remember that with VOD everyone is seeing things at different timeframes. If even only some of the dodgy boxes do operate with VOD, that's a significant financial, and networking incentive for VM to try and reduce the problem.

VM try and close a door, the "hackers" will try and reopen it. It's the same as internet spammers and virus writers. Inevitably this is all a game of cat and mouse. The real disssapointment is tha occasionally those who don't have legitimately subscribed services feel they are justified in complaining, and later gloating when VM do something about the problem.

[iglu]

Originally Posted by Enuff

Just thought I'd ask what the situation was? Are the boxes back up and running now?

Most boxes now auto-update the keys with some new code....so they are up and running...

[CableBloke]

Forget VideoGuard, It's an NDS company and we don't want to give them any more money. The best option VM could go for is PowerVU which was developed by Scientific Atlanta. All of the Scientific Atlanta boxes VM use already are PowerVU compatible with an OTA software update. PowerVU does not use a card as all key information is in the box. PowerVU has not been hacked and all VM has to do is simulcrypt PowerVU and Nagravision until all the old non Scientific Atlanta boxes break and have been replaced with Scientific Atlanta ones then switch off Nagravision thus knocking out all piracy. Job Done.

More info here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerVu

Originally Posted by CableBloke

Forget VideoGuard, It's an NDS company and we don't want to give them any more money. The best option VM could go for is PowerVU which was developed by Scientific Atlanta. All of the Scientific Atlanta boxes VM use already are PowerVU compatible with an OTA software update. PowerVU does not use a card as all key information is in the box. PowerVU has not been hacked and all VM has to do is simulcrypt PowerVU and Nagravision until all the old non Scientific Atlanta boxes break and have been replaced with Scientific Atlanta ones then switch off Nagravision thus knocking out all piracy. Job Done.

More info here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerVu

Not quite. PowerVu is not DVB compatible. So it can't be used for Simulcrypting.

Also PowerVu is used only for distribution to cable headends and such like, its not suitable for use as a 'to the home service'. Each IRD's Identity is held on a database, and enabled for each service. It would need a PowerVu system per service, or at best per transport stream. It wouldn't be suitable for distributing to around 2million STB's.

[CableBloke]

AFN use PowerVu on their DTH satellite service. My friend is in the forces and he's got two installed at his place in Germany.