DSR-4200V = Brick?

[tester239]

All right, I'm back to playing with my DSR-4200V that I bought a while back for 5 bucks. When I originally hooked it up, I was able to get Music Choice - audio, but no video. I tried the mux that had NWCN and the same thing happened, audio but no video. My searching (then, and just now) seems to indicate that my receiver doesn't have ANY authorization anymore. Since the battery was dead in my box, I decided to replace it hoping this will keep my authorization if I get it again.

A few months later (now) I brought the box out again, and tried getting the NebSat mux. I was able to get a lock according to the diagnostic screens, but it never gets a virtual channel map/table. All I can get is a lock, no audio, no channel data, no video. Also, when I unplug the box and plug it back in, the clock resets. Is this normal for a receiver that has a new battery? Can I ever use this receiver again to view ZK or FP streams? If so, what do I need to do to get it working again?

The only solution I've come up with is to call NebSat and ask for a new authorization to be sent down in the stream for my box. I've read some posts here that say the box will never work again because it lost it's unit ID? In my case - is it bad that the unit ID on the diagnostic menu does not match the one on the sticker on the back of box?

PS: I hate Digicipher II so much.

 

[Stefan]

In my case - is it bad that the unit ID on the diagnostic menu does not match the one on the sticker on the back of box?

Yes. That's bad. Don't call NET. They wouldn't authorize your receiver anyway as it's doubtful they do that for anyone but local affiliates. However, in this case they couldn't even if they wanted to. Therefore you calling them could serve no good and only do harm as they might decide they'd rather not be bugged by unintended viewers like us wanting their receivers authorized and could encrypt to put an end to it. Anyway, it sounds like your battery went dead causing your receiver to lose it's ID. That means it's done for and can't be authorized. Don't worry though because it's not a great loss as dinocipher is well on it's way to extinction and there's getting to be less and less programming a DSR-4200 is useful for anyway. One day it will all be gone and the box would be useless anyway. The encryption system portion of it may survive but it will be used on DVB-S2 or turbo 8psk signals.

 

[Corrado]

Does the unit ID# still display in the setup screen? I would be more concerned about that, rather than matching the sticker. End users like us hobbyists here most likely could never get one of the commercial boxes authorized legitimately.

The best one could hope for is to catch the random FP mode feed with one.

I've noticed the clock on mine will correct the minutes for the time if locked on a DCII stream but the hours are time zones away. I have no idea what mine was originally used for. I also noticed that the C or Ku ports on the back can be used either way as long as the IF freq. is correct. I found that by mistake do to a cable error.

Also a "master reset" is required for new mapping. Others have said NEVER to select the "authorization reset" to the left of it in the setup menu.

 

[tester239]

Yes. That's bad. Don't call NET. They wouldn't authorize your receiver anyway as it's doubtful they do that for anyone but local affiliates. However, in this case they couldn't even if they wanted to. Therefore you calling them could serve no good and only do harm as they might decide they'd rather not be bugged by unintended viewers like us wanting their receivers authorized and could encrypt to put an end to it. Anyway, it sounds like your battery went dead causing your receiver to lose it's ID. That means it's done for and can't be authorized. Don't worry though because it's not a great loss as dinocipher is well on it's way to extinction and there's getting to be less and less programming a DSR-4200 is useful for anyway. One day it will all be gone and the box would be useless anyway. The encryption system portion of it may survive but it will be used on DVB-S2 or turbo 8psk signals.

See, this is where I stop understanding the situation. The battery was already dead when I did my initial testing of the receiver. How does putting a new battery magically make it lose it's unit ID? -- and how did it work initially, but not now? Does the fully-integrated decryption chip generate a random new unit ID when it's initially powered up? Seems like that would create collisions.. There's quite a bit I don't know about Digicipher and they seem to want to keep it that way. Maybe because their dated encryption system is somewhat insecure these days because of it's use of DES? DVB-S2 streams might actually make it easier to break the encryption system because of it's open nature -- previously you've needed custom hardware just to receive the DCII signal, but now you can get all stream information, including OOB streams with standard equipment. This is also similar to Comcast encrypting with DCII on their cable network.

Let's take for instance a Zero Key stream. If the encryption key for the stream was literally all 0's, you'd think that would make it quite simple to determine how it's encrypted in the first place. Unfortunately a lot of this discussion will lead into the 'hack talk' realm, so I will stop here. Any futher information or schooling on the matter of DCII is appreciated however.

Honestly I just want to freaking watch NWCN. What a pain

 

[tester239]

Does the unit ID# still display in the setup screen? I would be more concerned about that, rather than matching the sticker. End users like us hobbyists here most likely could never get one of the commercial boxes authorized legitimately.

The best one could hope for is to catch the random FP mode feed with one.

I've noticed the clock on mine will correct the minutes for the time if locked on a DCII stream but the hours are time zones away. I have no idea what mine was originally used for. I also noticed that the C or Ku ports on the back can be used either way as long as the IF freq. is correct. I found that by mistake do to a cable error.

Also a "master reset" is required for new mapping. Others have said NEVER to select the "authorization reset" to the left of it in the setup menu.

Yeah, when I lock on a DCII stream, i get the correct time for...some place.. maybe GMT? I've done a master reset/auth reset from the install menu before i changed the battery and it was still able to get channel data for various streams. Now when I do it, it gives me garbage. My virtual channel map has channels 100-112,121-126, and 999 (all non working, diagnostics thinks they aren't real channels, and they don't match up with lyngsat)

 

[tester239]

My LNB settings were apparently wrong(?!). Even though I had selected C/Horz., the "Basic Setup" page said I was set for Ku-FSS. I did a factory reset and now I'm back to audio and no video. The best I could have hoped for!


edit: wait a second, if my settings were wrong... how the hell did it lock before?! Oh well, it's fixed.