[mythtv-users] DVB and DirecTV

Ben Bucksch linux.news at bucksch.org
Mon Jul 7 10:52:22 EDT 2003


I just found this interesting statement on Hauppauge's website 
<http://www.hauppauge.com/html/dvb_s.htm>:

> Note: though DVB-s is the transmission specification for satellite 
> pay-TV services in North America, such as Direct-TV, neither the 
> WinTV-Nexus nor the WinTV-DVB cannot receive these broadcasts due to 
> proprietary encryption schemes used.

I infer from that DirecTV actually *is* DVB-S and that if you can get 
the decryption ("Common Interface" stuff) working, you can use DVB-S 
cards with DirecTV, removing any need for the settop boxes (incl. the 
decoding, analog S-Video and encoding involved) and instead getting a 
raw MPEG2 stream from the satellite. This confirms what at least one 
person suggested so far.

Unfortunately, their statement also suggests that it's impossible to 
commercially (legally) get CI modules to decode the stream, like you can 
for other providers, e.g. the subscription-based TV network Premiere in 
Germany. I hear there are "software-based" decoders, essentially 
crackers, but they may be illegal to use, publish or provide help with. 
It most likely is illegal (by now, with the new EU copyright laws :-( ) 
for *me* to provide you any help or hints with that, so please don't 
even ask. If you got this to work (ideally fully legally) and it's legal 
in your country to help others with this, please set up a webpage and 
post the link.



More information about the mythtv-users mailing list