DVB - PC Cards DVB-C PCI Advise needed

[Daz_Ultra]

Hi,

After messing about with Dreambox/DBox for the last 18 months, Ive decided I want to bite the bullet and go for a integrated HTPC setup. Having read the stickys and the majority of this forum, Ive decided on the following: -

FloppyDTV-C - there seems to better results getting this to work in MCE 05 v other (Technotrend) PCI cards. Please correct me if Im wrong

I will need a CAM, but am unsure as to which, any suggestions/feedback would be appreciated.

Do I need a Fun card?

Do I need a CAS programmer?

Does anybody anywhere in the UK that sell FloppyDTV etc?

Many thanks in advance for any help/advice etc.

 

[cafe.racer]

FloppyDTV-C - there seems to better results getting this to work in MCE 05 v other (Technotrend) PCI cards. Please correct me if Im wrong

I've never tried anything other than the FloppyDTV, but I chose that because I'd reaqd "it just works" posts, mainly from Garlicbred.

I will need a CAM, but am unsure as to which, any suggestions/feedback would be appreciated.

I have a Diablo Light, works well although it's pricier that other options. Garlicbred's sticky talks about the Dragon CAM IIRC. I have had a few PM's/emails from people that are wanting to swap from other CAMs to the Diablo - there has to be a reason why...

Do I need a Fun card?

I don't have one, or a subs card. The Diablo with the Stealth software on it has an emulation mode. I've posted a guide on downloads > cable > guides

Do I need a CAS programmer?

You would need to get the Stealth software onto a Diablo CAM, and to set the Nagra Keys etc. To do that yourself, you'd need a CAS, or you'd just need to find someone with one.

Does anybody anywhere in the UK that sell FloppyDTV etc?

I got mine from firedtv.co.uk a few weeks before they shut up shop, which p*ssed me off a little. I'm sure digital-everywhere.com would ship over here.

 

[Daz_Ultra]

Thanks for a very comprehensive reply cafe.racer.

Just one last question, what cas programmer did you get and also I have heard that some cam's can be programmed using the PCMCIA slot on laptops, is the Diablo Light one of these?

Regards

Daz.Ultra

 

[garlicbred]

The difference between CAM's.......
Diablo etc - these cams work just fine with nagra even without a card but when the keys roll you are going to be manually updating them - fine if the keys dont roll every day. This can also be done using the XCAM premium and a pcmcia slot

Neotion CAM's - work with a AU fun programmed with matching boxkey, will auto update come keyroll time so its just plug in and forget.

I'm pretty sure you could use a funcard with the diablos though - never used one myself so I can't comment on this!!

As for the decoding quality......... they both decode nagra, thats all they're there for!! lol

In my opinion the only difference is price

 

[cafe.racer]

I just bit the bullet and got a CA3+. I'm a noob to all this and I was getting a bit fed up of finding out through trial and error that I needed one more thing... I had hoped to flash the Diabloin my Laptop, but couldn't find any drivers anywhere, and I only found one post on the subject and that said it couldn't be done.

Keys on cable haven't rolled since I've been fiddling - well over a month I guess. This is on Pure NT*L

I decided that I would get it all working, then if rolling keys became an issue, I'd read up on AU Funcards.

 

[neathdrew]

setting up a fun card for a cam is pretty easy. i use a blocked img which are freely available, u just change the boxkey and dates (expirery, mod, begin etc) using nagra edit to match ur cam bk using a suitable programmer. u change this .bin file to a hex use this as the external eeprom, get the flash loader and the internal eeprom and use programmer to flash ur card. i got 2 running no probs therefore an icecrypt and funcard could cost less than £20 (if the icecrypts are still under £15). u need a cas 2 or 3 to alter the cams firmware, a cas 3+ would be recommended as u can use this as your programmer as well....i think, plz check this out before commiting to buy one....i use a cas 2+ and a inf usb programmer as i already had a inf usb b4 i started all this.

my funs been running for 6 months, maintenance free, before i was using a mosc but this does need some card maintenance in terms of using ciorrect tiers, updating dates etc. using a blocked img is not recommended for these because they can be zapped by the cc if they look suspicious to any killer emms sent down the cable.

cheers.