On Friday 16 July 2004 14:02, you wrote: > Hold on. The DVB-C/S set-top box provided by the TV company isn't > customized for NDS, is it?
Yes it is, it is a licensed technology from NDS and the CAM is built into the mother board and can't be removed, you can put any smart card in ( it will fit) but it won't work, I would not try it. If you wonder why to use DVB-S/C card instead of the regular TV card or TV card+MPEG encoder. The ability to save MPEG 2 directly from the Cable without A/D and D/A conversions in the way, also no CPU power needed, HOT and YES are transmitting MPEG2. > Since it's a smart card with the encryption > logic on-board, No, from what I understand the decryption is done in the CAM, the smart card hold the keys. The interface to a smart card is much too slow to do video decryption anyway and the smartcard computer is much too weak ( even in the best smart cards we are talking about 8086 style CPU power). > I don't understand why you'd need a special adapter as > well. It's as-if a Creative sound card requires a "Creative PCI slot", > instead of just any "PCI slot". Other Cable and SAT boxes ( anything but NDS ) have a pcmcia slot, into this slot you fit the CAM and into the cam you put your smart card, it looks like a smart card to pcmcia adapter but it does much more. http://www.pulsat.com/satellite/site/results.php?cat_id=3 > > As I understand, a Common Interface (CI) slot should accept any CI card > (= smart card, like the NDS one). The communication protocol between the > device (e.g. set-top box) and the smart card is based on PCMCIA (so, > esentially, your NDS card is a PCMCIA card, though not in a PCMCIA > shape). The encrypted DVB channel is passed thru the smartcard to get a > clear channel. No the CI interface is probably connected with some built-in CAM which is common in Germany. The CAM can also be built on the motherboard, but most people with their own SAT equipment preffer it to be a PCMCIA card so they can switch providers and boxes more easily. The only people who insist on selling you "Trusted Computing" boxes are the NDS bunch. > > For example, the Dreambox set-top box specs don't mention any smart-card > vendor requirements. It also does not mention NDS licensed technology, since NDS does not sell CAMs, you should make sure the Dreambox has an NDS CAM on it's mother board, or some way to do NDS decryption in software ( I very much doubt it ). I sent an E-mail to the Dreambox people but got no answer. I think the target market is Germany, NDS is used by SKY in the UK, all over Israel, Direct TV in the US and some company in Italy. The EU regulations demand from the companies to sell CAMS, but NDS CAM was seen only in a site in Sweden written in Swedish, I do not know if it's on sale, or even if it will work. http://www.satellitproffsen.com/detailes/detailes.asp?art_nr=144321 Maybe the Sweden government have more power over it's market. From my correspondence with DVB shop ( also in Germany) I understand that you need to buy a DVB-S or C ( SAT/Cable ) , an adapter to connect the CAM to the card, A CAM ( everything but NDS) and your smartcard supplied by the Cable/SAT company. Gal ================================================================To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
