Sage won't decrypt my sky channels

[John@TunerUK]

For the past couple of months or so, I can't get sage to decrypt any paid for sky channels. It plays the free channels without a problem, but no matter how long I leave the card in the sky box to update it just won't play the decrypted channels in sage. I get the 'No Signal' message instead. I've tried another CAM, but got the same result.
I haven't tried viewing them through the actual sky box, because this would be a real ballache (TV Sunk into wall).

It did seem to coincide with installing DVB Viewer, although this could just be a coincidence. I know that if I've tried to view stuff in DVB Viewer sage will no longer decrypt channels, but a reboot usually fixed this.

Is there any way to tell where the problem lies? CI, CAM, Card?

Here's hoping it's something obvious I've overlooked!

Cheers

John

[Conejo]

Hi John,

Just mark me an idiot from across the pond, but I didn't think Sage could authenticate or decrypt Video Signals... you had to first authenticate Viewing Card in a separate Sky Box, then move the Viewing Card to the CAM (Conditional Access Module) with an attached Card Reader, then set up your DVB Card to use it. That would set the programs in-the-clear for SageTV to record. I would think you *somehow* need to verify that your Viewing Card is still readable and active (authenticated).

Sky Movies Via DVB-S Card

This seems to be an ongoing issue for you:
Sage stops decrypting sky card when in service mode

Originally Posted by John@TunerUK

06-02-2008 01:19 PM
I have a rather annoying problem with sage that only shows up when in service mode.
Every couple of days it'll stop showing encrypted channels until I stop the service, then restart the service again. Once this is done everything works perfectly for another day or so.
It doesn't happen when in the normal "none service" mode, which I can have running happily for weeks (Until the sky card needs re-inserting into the sky box).
I was using 6.3.10, and have tried the beta 6.4 to see if the problem went away, but it hasn't.
Anyone experiencing the same thing, or have any suggestions as to how it might be fixed?

Obviously I can use the normal mode, but I have also started experiencing a slow GUI when browsing SageTV Recordings for any length of time (When tidying up a few recordings for example), and closing then re-starting the GUI in service mode keeps any recordings in progress intact.

OK, found your thread history... Sky via DVB S cards directly - any advice?

Originally Posted by bartley9

I see quite a few posts from people going to DVB-S with sky but I have not seen any explanation as to how they are solving the card update problem.

Do people just keep going until it times out i.e. they get recording failures or do you just put the card back in every 4 weeks or so to keep it up to date? If you put it in the sky box abritrarily do you have a problem with the DVB-S card not recording any shows?

There seems to be a window with both scenarios where you will fail to record. I just can't understand how you manage this.

Anyone got an explanation

Originally Posted by Alfiegerner

I haven't tried this yet myself but my understanding is that once every 4 - 6 weeks you leave the card in your STB overnight to update its keys. Then it is ready to go back in your DVB-S card for another 4 - 6 weeks. Not ideal but not so much hassle that that it would stop me considering doing this.

Originally Posted by Lucas

I either leave the card in the SageTV PC until I am no longer able to open encrypted channels, then I move the card into the digibox overnight and move it back to the PC the next day.

or every 4-5 weeks, move the card to the digibox preventively.

It works just fine.

Ah... having to move the authenticated "Viewing Card" back and forth between the Sky box and your HTPC must be a pain.



This message was edited, then edited again, and... sorry about the tons of edits.

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by John@TunerUK

For the past couple of months or so, I can't get sage to decrypt any paid for sky channels. It plays the free channels without a problem, but no matter how long I leave the card in the sky box to update it just won't play the decrypted channels in sage. I get the 'No Signal' message instead. I've tried another CAM, but got the same result.

John

Now you got me thinking. I have the same setup, S3200.

I also noticed that over the last 2 months or so I could not decrypt the Sky channels. (Just goes to show how much TV I watched.....).

I thought it was something local to me but never bothered to chase it.

It looks like it maybe a SageTV issue that popped in during the last beta cycle.....

Time to contact Qian to see what's going on....

[John@TunerUK]

Yeah Conejo, the technotrend has never updated the card. For that I have to move it back over to the sky box. It is a pain, but you gotta do what you gotta do.
The issue is once the sky card has been updated you'd usually get a good 4 weeks of viewing, but no matter what I try my decrypted channels just aren't getting decrypted.

Have you had any joy Lucas? There are several people on here with the same card, but I can't find any other threads about it. I am using the very latest beta though.
I'll submit a support ticket and see if it's anything they know about.

[Whitey]

Originally Posted by John@TunerUK

Yeah Conejo, the technotrend has never updated the card. For that I have to move it back over to the sky box. It is a pain, but you gotta do what you gotta do.
The issue is once the sky card has been updated you'd usually get a good 4 weeks of viewing, but no matter what I try my decrypted channels just aren't getting decrypted.

Have you had any joy Lucas? There are several people on here with the same card, but I can't find any other threads about it. I am using the very latest beta though.
I'll submit a support ticket and see if it's anything they know about.

I have a very stable set-up with sky HD but using a fireDTV and the dvbviewer network encoder. I had dvbviewer set-up anyway so it didn't need much extra work. I would recommend trying to get dvbviewer working first without sage since you can see if the CAM is decrypting, channels ar tuning etc.

Whitey

[John@TunerUK]

I have DVB Viewer, I got it with the intention of using the network encoder for sage, but have never been able to get it to decrypt channels.
I've just tried it and the only channels I can view are the BBC one's, it won't even play the free sky channels anymore.
I can see I'm going to have to remove my TV from its mount and try the normal sky box, just to make sure there isn't a problem with my sky card.

[John@TunerUK]

Well, after all that it's a problem with sky! They've had to resend the activation signal to my box so that I can view my subscribed channels. Got to wait for the box to get the signal before I can try again.

[John@TunerUK]

Well, my sky bx is now showing all my channels correctly, but again, Sage shows no signal, and DVB Viewer is the same. ut then DVB Viewer has never shown decrypted channels for me.

I'm just going to try a channel scan to see if the channel numbers have just been moved around.... again!


EDIT:
Yep, a rescan has sorted out the channels in sage.
I was under the understanding that DVB Viewer didn't need you to constantly rescan though, so I have no idea what's up with it.