Smart Card

[Skyscanner]

Could someone help me out? I have a Viewsat VS 2000 Ultra. According to the instruction booklet, it has a built-in smart card reader. Is there a way to pay to get a card to enable Fox News, and who would I pay, where would the card come from? Would I have to contact someone at Fox or E* or D*? Has anyone had any experience with this?
Thanks in advance
Sky

 

[eurosport]

The only way I know of to do this, is to sub to D*or E* using their equipment, or a package on C-band, if you have it. As far as I know, the US providers won't authorize 3rd party equipment.

 

[Mr Tony]

the card reader is used for other programming providers that are on KU Band like the TAN TV mux on 101

Globecast wont authorize anything but their receiver but other providers might (excluding Dish/Direct/Bell)

 

[andyb2]

I would have to open my ultra up but I don't think it has the card reader in it.It's just a slot for an optional card reader.On second thought I think that may be my project this afternoon lol.

 

[Anole]

sample card reader:

Didn't a lot of Coolsats have an optional card reader?
I never cared, 'cause it wasn't really useful.

As pointed out above, none of the big broadcasters will authorize other than their own receivers:
DirecTV, Dish Network, BEV, StarChoice, Globecast

Here's a top view inside the Visionsat IV-200
The card reader is in the lower right of the picture.
It has firmware support for some cards, but none of the above-mentioned networks.

 

[meinename]

Didn't a lot of Coolsats have an optional card reader?
I never cared, 'cause it wasn't really useful.

As pointed out above, none of the big broadcasters will authorize other than their own receivers:
DirecTV, Dish Network, BEV, StarChoice, Globecast

Here's a top view inside the Visionsat IV-200
The card reader is in the lower right of the picture.
It has firmware support for some cards, but none of the above-mentioned networks.

From what I could get my hands on the Coolsat only had a Conditional Access Module (CAM) for XCrypt which were only used in Korea and Europe. Any other CAM's had to be written in to the firmware (read: hacked) and run as a SoftCAM in software only since there is no Common Interface (CI) for the CAM to be plugged into. Older "eye-patch" firmware could use the card-reader but I don't know if it worked for anything but XCrypt and Nagravision (hehem)

As far as my Geosatpro DVR-1100c goes, the manual says supports Viaccess and Irdeto but fails to mention what versions. Also has no CI or CAM insight inside despite the Card reader.

Need to go so I'll post later on the CI-equipped STB I found for North America

 

[SatelliteAV]

We worked with the IV-200 engineers last year and updated the firmware to add Viaccess 1/2 and IRDETO 1/2 with valid subscription cards through CAS.

The GEOSATpro DSR100c and DVR1100c supports valid subscription Viaccess 1/2 and IRDETO 1/2 through the multi-CAS card reader. Firmware updates can enable future versions or additional decryption methods. There are no plans to add a CI slot.

 

[meinename]

Looking over my notes from way back, I was searching for PowerVu CAM's and kept running into Technotrend products that had CI.
Not that Technotrend does PowerVu...

We worked with the IV-200 engineers last year and updated the firmware to add Viaccess 1/2 and IRDETO 1/2 with valid subscription cards through CAS.

The GEOSATpro DSR100c and DVR1100c supports valid subscription Viaccess 1/2 and IRDETO 1/2 through the multi-CAS card reader. Firmware updates can enable future versions or additional decryption methods. There are no plans to add a CI slot.

Thank you for an answer about SoftCAM versions, it's been bugging me... :up

I wouldn't expect you to add to an existing model, more like sell an add-on kit or make one with the addon *-CI
But if there is the processing power to do Multiple SoftCAM's I'm all for it!
I like the idea of flexiblity of swappable CAM's but when you just need a smartcard and software automatically takes care of the CAS types, that takes the cake.

Back to being ON TOPIC:
Checking Lyngsat, Fox News is on C-band at 91°W, 95°W, and Fox News HD is on 133°W

 SAT Freq Pol SR   FEC Type CAS
 91°W 3820 V 30000 5/6 DVB PowerVu+
 95°W 3840 H 19510 3/4 DC2
133°W 3780 V 30000 5/6 DVB Compel

Looks like a BUD and a 4DTV with sub is the way to go
TV - Fox News Channel - LyngSat Address
Galaxy 17 at 91.0°W - LyngSat
Galaxy 3C at 95.0°W - LyngSat
Galaxy 15 at 133.0°W - LyngSat

 

[Anole]

We worked with the IV-200 engineers last year and updated the firmware to add Viaccess 1/2 and IRDETO 1/2 with valid subscription cards through CAS.

Just as a curiosity, what besides the TAN TV uses any of those in North America?
It doesn't come up often in discussions, and I can never remember.

I've seen mention of other card support claimed on some boxes, but don't think those cards are used in North America, either.

 

[SatPhreak]

The Ultra's have an X Crypt card reader in them, but I don't think anything in North America uses that type of card.

 

[rocket69]

some on east cost can have axx to euro birds and sub. so far in socal 166e is as far as we can get ok picture from