[mythtv-users] CI / CI+ / CAM

[Andre Hasekamp]

Please help me with the following concerning CI (Common Interface) / CI+ / CAM (Conditional Access Module).

First of all my compliments for the MythTV program. Really impressive.

The same goes for the Wiki documentation. Except for one point: CI / CI+ /CAM. However I searched on this subject, I could not find any documentation in the Wiki. Not in the user manual, not in the Wish List, not in the FAQ, not in the HOWTO. Did I overlook something? If the issue was clear to me, I would be glad to contribute some documentation on it, because I really think this subject deserves documentation. Also, until there is documentation on the MythTV CI / CAM support, people will keep coming back on it.

In this post I'm only talking about hardware CI and hardware CAM. No software emulation.

Then there is the mailing list "MythTV-users". That's where I got confused. Let me explain.

- At first sight, in 2004 the world was simple. Someone asked the question "Does MythTV support a CAM module inserted in my DVB card's CI slot?" and got the straightforward answer: "Yes". But: no MythTV software, no drivers required? Not clear from this answer.

Then, in posts between 2004 and 2011, things start to get more complicated. Without itemizing different posts, here is my overall impression.

- In the posts, now a distinction is made among DVB-C, DVB-S and DVB-T (necessary?).

- In the posts, now a distinction among TV signals from different broadcasters (still being DVB-C, DVB-S or DVB-T) is made (necessary?).

- In the posts, now a distinction is made among CA systems (necessary?).

- Someone remarks: "they (MythTV developers) want nothing to do with CAM" (no problem if the first statement above from 2004 remains unconditionally true).

- It gets tricky when people start mentioning specific combinations of TV cards and CI / CAM and tell us the CAM is not recognized by MythTV (but of course these people could have made mistakes which are not related to CAM).

- And then, in 2011, someone mentions a kernel patch to make CI / CAM work. Alternatively, we have to wait until kernel 3.2 (as of yet unreleased) until this patch is included in the kernel. True, false? Hard for me to judge.

- Questions on CI / CAM are often not answered.

So, wouldn't it be useful to have some documentation on when and how CI / CAM is supported or not supported by MythTV?

At the moment I use the English language version of MythTV with an old TV card (only Free-To-Air TV channels). It is time to acquire a more recent card, but with (maybe only hardware) support for decrypting channels.

While looking for DVB-T cards, in the MythTV WiKi, I found 2 cards where it is mentioned that you can add an optional CAM module. Fortunately, one of these cards is available for sale in my environment. However, rather I would like to understand the CI / CAM issue and then select a recent DVB-T card on the basis of MythTV supported TV-chipsets and TV-tuners and finally maybe gamble a little with the MythTV support of the selected card, while the card is available from different (internet) shops.

Any reply will be welcome. If the issue remains unclear to me, I will have to resort to that single DVB-T card I have found so far in the Wiki documentation, which would support CI / CAM, while I must hope it will decrypt my DVB-T signal.

Regards,
Andre.

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