[linux-dvb] Re: DVB in North America?

[Vito Miliano <vito_linuxtv@perilith.com>]

On Monday, November 05, 2001, 12:51:19 PM, Marc wrote:

ML> Would it be possible to use a Common Interface Module to get
ML> access to the encrypted services?
ML> http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/html/dvb_cim.htm

Ooh, I can answer this one.  :)

The problem is that North America DVB is practically totally
non-standard.  DirecTV uses a butchered, proprietary hackery of the
DVB specification, based on an early spec, and while Adaptec's
satellite division (now Broadlogic) once announced a PCI receiver card
with built-in CAM (the ABA-1030) for DirecTV, it never made it into
production.

Dish Network (as I understand it) follows the DVB spec properly, but
its encryption is a proprietary Nagravision variant.  As Bill
Mrozinski explained to me early last month, each receiver has a unique
"seed" number (separate from the serial number), that is used to
complete the Nagravision decoding.  A card and Nagravision CAM would
need to have a Dish receiver's seed number provided to it as well, for
it to even theoretically work, and apparently this requires careful
hacking of a receiver's hardware to even find it out.  I do have a
spare receiver I can afford to break, though, so I'll probably attempt
this at some point, once I have a PC freed up.  :)

For Dish, there's one other, possibly even more improbable option for
you.  Broadlogic actually did produce a limited quantity of Satellite
Express ABA-1020 PCI satellite receiver cards.  They were used for
demonstration units in stores, and in a few Gateway Destination
big-screen PCs.  Broadlogic has no stock of them remaining (and
indeed, is hesitant to even discuss them), Dish Network doesn't like
to talk about them, Broadlogic's distributors haven't been able to
find any old stock of them, and in the past two years, I've only found
one used model, and I haven't been able to acquire it myself yet.
Broadlogic has stated they'd consider doing a private run if the
quantities were high enough (think tens of thousands), but that's not
likely to happen.

Hope this helps!

Thanks,
--Vito



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