TheGreenButton - Windows Media Center Forums

Hi,

I was an O2 broadband customer and have just switched to Sky fibre optic with Sky TV which is being activated in 2 weeks.

My main living room HTPC is running Win8 MCE and I have a hauppage DVB-S2 card (single tuner) with an old USB DVB-T dual tuner. Can someone please either point me to or explain the latest/easiest/cheapest way to integrate MCE and Sky?

What I've read so far has described using a CAM such as Technotrend, Dreambox, Omnikey etc...

What's the best CAM to use ?

Ideally I don't want to spend too much money. Also I've read of the sky card being deactivated if not used in the sky box after a period of time? Is this the case and is there a way round this?

Thanks in advance, Will

Bad news, as part of your contract Sky expect your box to be connected to a phoneline for 12 months which they use to check up on the box status (under the pretence of allowing Box Office orders to be placed). They'll know if your card hasn't been in the box for a while and follow up. You can opt out by paying £40 up front on day of install to remove this requirement by claiming you have no phone line, but sounds like your all-in with Sky so assume they supply your line. If you don't opt out, you'll need to come back in 12 months.

Having said all that, the easiest and cheapest method is to buy DVBLogic TVSource and use Acamd with Oscam and an Omnicard reader for your sky card. For reliability I run Oscam on a Raspberry pi but you can run it on Windows also.

Thanks mrphil

I've just bought an omnikey 3121 off eBay for £6 and was thinking of using this tutorial: http://www.avforums.com/forums/windows/ ... setup.html

Is there any way i can use Oscam and Acamd (or any other plugins) without purchasing DVBlogic and TVSource?

I'd like to do this as cheaply as possible.

Thanks, Will

There isn't a other way of using a softCAM in MCE without TVSource that I've ever come across. Other dvr software like Mediaportal can do it, but not MCE.

Ok, thanks for your help. I'll try using DVBLogic TVSource, Oscam, Acamd and Omnikey

Look out for posts by tony_park - I think he may have gone back to using a dreambox type setup after seeing entitlement issues (or something similar) with the omnikey?

edit

I've got everything working with DVBLogic, Omnikey 3121, Oscam and ACMAD. So far no problems!

Can I get all the Sky logos from the My Channel Logos software? or is there somewhere I can download all the logos?

Cheers,
Will

there are some issues with oscam and entitlements http://www.avforums.com/forums/windows/ ... st19278720

the most reliable way of it working is through a dreambox, i've been using this setup for 4+ years now. i have a full set of sky logos at home which i will try to remember to post back here for you. but i'm off to the pub now so may need reminding

Your Dreambox won't save you unfortunately. Anyone who has working Oscam or Dreambox setup with entitlement updating should be fine in the short term as long as the Sky card doesn't ever get put in a real Sky box. Once in a Sky box the encryption method is updated and Oscam/Dreambox will no longer decrypt HD and movies/sports using that card. There was a workaround of using an old Thompson Sky box to get your card reactivated, Sky have now emailed customers with these boxes to say they will no longer receive HD channels.

Sadly the net is closing in so enjoy it whilst it lasts.

my point was, why would you put your card back in the original sky box if the dreambox is updating the entitlements? i've never had any issues, only with the omnikey

bobbob wrote:my point was, why would you put your card back in the original sky box if the dreambox is updating the entitlements? i've never had any issues, only with the omnikey

Once you put your viewing card back in your STB, $ky will then update the encryption to require a receiver id, which OSCAM doesn't provide (yet). These are the changes that $ky are introducing to combat card sharing servers, apparently. Without this, no premium channels will be able to be displayed, including HD channels like Sky1 HD etc.

Shortly, it'll be encrypted SD channels only, or back to using the STB.

My entitlements are still showing 22nd July, they've usually updated some weeks back, based on previous history.


Tony

holidayboy wrote:Look out for posts by tony_park - I think he may have gone back to using a dreambox type setup after seeing entitlement issues (or something similar) with the omnikey?

Been using the dreambox approach for about 4 years now... the 3121 didn't work stability wise for me, so that approach lasted about a week, before the evil eye got me to change back!

bobbob wrote:there are some issues with oscam and entitlements http://www.avforums.com/forums/windows/ ... st19278720

the most reliable way of it working is through a dreambox, i've been using this setup for 4+ years now. i have a full set of sky logos at home which i will try to remember to post back here for you. but i'm off to the pub now so may need reminding

Reminder

tony_park wrote:
My entitlements are still showing 22nd July, they've usually updated some weeks back, based on previous history.

Tony

I've got 25th Aug in Oscam currently.

My entitlements say 9th August, or maybe that's 8th September.

I have no complains using oscam and acmad so far. We'll see whether or not it updates the entitlement though.

Please can you upload the full sky logos? Thanks

Up until now, my entitlements have usually been updated about 45 days in advance, but we're now running out, and I've not changed anything on the setup. Oh well, if its SD channels only, then its still better than going to the Sky STB!

the only problem i've encountered with omnikey 3121 and oscam is that occasionally, but not always, the card reader won't read the card properly when it wakes up. Oscam is saying something like error initilising card but it does detect the card. When i take the card out and put it back in everything starts working again.

As i said, this isn't everytime the htpc sleeps/wakes, only occassionally. But still it's very annoying and not good for scheduled recordings.

In terms of HD channels, I can view the HD channels i'm subscribed to. That's not many though, mainly channels like channel 5 HD and More4 HD and obviously BBC, ITV etc. We only have the entertainment extra+ package which we got for free for 12 months.

Yes, the error initialising card is what made me run oscam on a raspberry pi as its way more stable on Linux and I never need worry about the wife rebooting the htpc and it coming back up not finding the card.

Sorry, can you explain your set up? You've got oscam installed on a raspberry pi and how is that connected to your HTPC?

Also, is the sleep/wake problem with the omnikey card reader or OSCAM software? I'm still testing this out but I find 8 or 9 out of 10 times it wakes and works out. I think the 1 or 2 times occur in the morning, so i'm wondering if I have to eject and put the card in every morning. Still testing it out and will report back soon...

bobob, please can you post the Sky logos? or please point me to where you found them....Thanks