[mythtv-users] CI / CI+ / CAM

[Jos Hoekstra]

Op 13-4-2012 22:20, Andre Hasekamp schreef:
> 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.

AFAICT you're from the Netherlands like me where using hardware CAM is 
allowed by broadcasters. You say you're using free-to-air now, is that 
via DVB-T? Or analog cable?
I know that for DVB-T(or digitenne) you need a CONAX-cam which you can 
rent from KPN, with that it is allowed to use all the channels you're 
subscribed to.
In general (AFAIK, I got fiber without any encryption) a tuner with CI 
combined with cam just provides an unencrypted stream to mythtv via it's 
interface. The only thing the card needs to be is supported under linux 
including CI.
For that I'd like to refer you to: 
http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/DVB-T_Devices (more cards might be 
supported than mentioned on this page) and also to the mailinglist of 
them to ask if it is supported, if it is, generally mythtv will work 
with it.

The tricky part of this subject is that it often strays into grey areas 
and the devs(a lot of them based in the us) don't want to hand a stick 
to whatever media-organization to be beaten with,

Best regards,

Jos
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