Well here we are the second month of the new year and the test device market is as clear as Mississippi mud. I've lost count of the number of devices out or trying to come out in the last 3 months. It seems some are the same with different names and others are said to be clones or knock off.
I want to clarify my position on my testing of any devices. First of all I will test any device submitted to me but I do not have the resources to go and purchase ever new device that comes out. And I do not give special compensation to anyone or any device. I DO NOT get paid for my time tracking down stories, phone bills, internet connections and anything connected to these reports. I try to furnish a service because I enjoy doing this and enjoy the majority of the people I have meet while doing this. If someone offered me a kick back to say something about their product I would refuse it and report the offer in my articles. I test the items submitted to the best of my ability for their performance. I am not here to sort through who copied or cloned what from who or who is working together. I will report on all devices submitted to me, price of the device and where to get the device. The only input I have on support for the devices comes when we have a ECM. At that point I will report how the devices are supported or how they fair in the ECM. But until the ECM occurs there is no way to test someone's claim of their device being "bullet proof" or ECM proof.
If any of our readers is looking for a device to receive TV for free forever you are obviously green to this test device business and need to take your money somewhere else. None of the test devices will last forever and the testing can get expensive. I do not encourage any one to break the law by receiving TV for free it is up to each individual to conform to the laws in their county, state, district or province. I will listen to what a person has to say about issues between different design groups but I will not use my articles to report these types of stories. I only report my own first hand information from my dealings with different groups. I will not be party to spreading stories about a friend of a friends cousin by marriage said so and so or did something to someone else. This is not the type of rumor mill, yellow journalism I want to be associated with. I hope this clarifies my position on how I conduct business and I hope I don't have to bring this up again. Now for the News, the IRC areas are again back in one channel. The following are the locations for the servers for the channels. 1) irc.welinkit.com 2) irc.cmeonline.com 3) irc.wholesystems.com 4) irc.exiled.net 5) irc.tv-fix.com All are at port 6666. This is a combination of the #dss, #satellite, #satellite4, #emulator, #activator, and #vc2 channels all on one IRC sever again. There are other satellite related channels on this IRC server such as the creation of a channel to give updates for the DISH system it is #dishnet. Remember that if you still have the big satellite and need codes for your VCII you can get them at the #vc2 channel, stop by and see BigBear1 and see what is new in VCII. There is a rule in some of the satellite channel that you are not allowed to advertise, quote price or ask for price or where to get items in open channel. These type of questions should be handled in private chat. If you are in the IRC please follow this rule to DCC Chat someone. You request a DCC Chat in open channel or with the message command. The message command is /msg (nick of person message is going to) (message content), example /msg SWNRocky please dcc chat . The request in open channel is viewed by everyone, the message command is only viewed by the person with the selected nick. From experience it is hard to carry on multiple conversations in multiple windows so be patient if someone is in another chat or in a deep discussion in the open channel. Some of the people will not private chat and only discuss items in the open channel please respect this.
And now for audio news. The DB1 radio show is carried live most weeks on one of two servers the first is http://www.lmao.com/db1live.ram or http://www.compusmart.ab.ca/discsat/db1live.ram.
The first is furnished by ZoRaQ of Whole Systems and the second is furnished by Discount Satellite. It depends on the night which connection works best from my site. And on some nights problems beyond my control make the show only available in playback mode. The DB1 Radio show is available from 2 sites in playback mode they are the Discount Satellite site at http://www-.compusmart.ab.ca/discsat/db1old.ra (also try db1live.ra or ram) and the WOKIE site at http://www-.ionet.net/~angelar/db1.ram. I am working on getting a page that will allow for down load of the file so you can play it from your hard drive.
The BOSS card was submitted for testing, the version I received is your standard green card with a ISO socket on it. There is a Atmel chip, 1 Harris chip and 5 resistors. The version I received had to have a plastic card with a subscription to function. The plastic is plugged into the ISO slot and the green card into your receiver. I personally feel that cards that require a small subscription are the hardest to turn off. Since the Boss card processes the data and then sends it to the plastic it doesn't actually write to the card. There is to be a release of the BOSS that will work with a virgin card but was not available at press time, it does write to the card. The unit worked very nice. I was instructed to be on a PPV channel 5 or 10 minutes before a movie started to avoid having a nag screen on the lower portion of the screen. The nag screen says "press display for ordering instructions", this goes away when you are on the channel for approximately 5 minutes. For example if you tune to the channel 2 minutes before the movie starts the nag screen will be there for the first 3 minutes of the movie. Even with the nag screen there it really didn't interfere with the movie. Also at about 4 minutes into a movie there is a freeze frame or black screen for about 3 or 4 seconds, I was told that this is when the actual order packet is processed and that this is standard with this type of card. When doing channel surfing there is a pause before the video appears on some channels, this pause is from 2 seconds to 7 seconds at the worst. There did not seem to be any sports blackouts with this unit but I was told the way to avoid sports blackouts is to not subscribe to any of the sports packages. I was told the unit had some remote control update capability but that this was for minor ECMs and that with some ECMs all you would have to do would be to pull the card and reinsert for reset. It has been reported that most if not all of the add-on cards are based on the same whole in the security system. If this is true the BOSS card is the best bang for the buck at press time based on the performance of the card. At press time the BOSS is selling for $199.00 and $149.00. The $149.00 price is if you have a Bat or L card to trade in for the $50.00 rebate. You can see the BOSS card at the following web pages: http://www.freeyellow.com/members2/bosscards/ and http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/5770/ or you can order via e-mail from Al Lewis at asteven1@bellsouth.net or voice at (615) 791-4906. Al is offering a special on the BOSS card to our readers of $99.00. This offer was made before the ECM occurred but is still valid.
Well the ECM has occurred!! On January 15 as was reported at length in other articles here in the Satellite Watch magazine. This ECM has been listed as the largest write to the cards in the history of the DSS system. The reports that I have received indicate that there were 18 updates or nano codes made to the plastic cards. AXA released a program on the net called P2UPD8.EXE, that when used with a “PMK” style card reader would tell if the plastic had taken these updates.
The theory of the people on the net is that this is a two or three fold ECM. This could be setting the table for one or two more changes to the data stream and or cards. At the time we are going to press, January 22, 1998, there has been no public release of any upgrades for any of the green cards. There will be a follow up on this in the March issue. I was testing the BOSS card during the ECM and the plastic was unaffected but I did lose all non-subscribed channels but the plastic was not 99’ed.
When tested with AXA's software it showed that my plastic had taken the modifications. I did receive a test chip from Al and the BOSS group on Wednesday before going to press. This shows that there is work being done on the ECM. The chip I received is not a final release version, there is hope that the final release version would be ready by the end of January. The test version furnished to me required the use of a virgin plastic card. After replacing the Atmel chip and putting the BOSS card back in the receiver the unit was able to test all channels including the PPV channels.
The new chip made the BOSS card work the same as the original chip with one exception, the virgin plastic is not married to one receiver. This allows the unit to be moved to other receivers. I have been told the final version of the chip will allow for the use of the subscribed cards, but if the virgin card has to be used they will be furnished at cost. The current cost of virgin plastic cards is $50 to $60 dollars but this can fluctuate with supply and demand. Further up dates and developments will be covered next month as they occur.
Well until next month
HAPPY TESTING.