Need tv channels for a foreign wife - Polish

[aidan]

HELLO,

I'm new, and therefore don't have a clue. I work in IT but when it comes to certain things I'm useless.

I have recently installed a Polish system pointing at Hotbird... good signal and quality, and can find all the channels we are supposed to, however, when I select a channel it says "decoder locked, please contact service provider". My 'wife' bought the system a couple of weeks ago and signed up for the subscription and all that but I don't know what the problem is here.

any insight would be greatly appreciated

thanks

A

Edited to change title slightly

[BGonaSTICK]

Hi Aidan.

I split your post off from the other thread to make it easier to answer

Welcome to the forum

Could you please give us some more details about your system?

Receiver make and model, subscription type, any CAMs, cards etc. and which channels are giving you the messages.

Hopefully we can help you out.

STICK

[aidan]

ok thanks for the reply.

i'm at 'work' now but will reply with as much info as i can and the rest later.

make and model: echostar something
subscription: Cyfrowy Polsat, basic package, main polish channels, plus a load of free ones
CAMs: whats a CAM?
card: cyfrowy polsat

all channels are giving the message even the free to air ones.

i'll post again later when i find out the rest of the info, and apologies for not knowing what a CAM is.

another thing... when my wife was buying the equipment she overheard someone in the shop with the same problem, and the reply was that it would come on in 2 hours and just leave it on a certain channel. i've tried that, and it's been on now for a day and a half but i havent seen it today, and wont for a while yet.

thanks for the help

i'll post again soon

A

[Analoguesat]

Get on to your supplier. If you arent even getting the free channels theres something wrong somewhere.One thing to try in the meantime switch the box off, take the card out and turn it on again. If everything is still blocked then theres a problem with the receiver.

[aidan]

was thinking that alright...

if i switch it off, take out the card, switch it back on again without the card, should i receive the FTA channels if it is working properly?

[Analoguesat]

Yes - and theres a dozen or so Polish channels on Hotbird in the clear - some of them fairly low budget but if it keeps the wife happy until you can get fully sorted....

[aidan]

excellent, thanks for the swift reply.

so, if i still get "decoder locked...blah blah blah" without the card, when viewing FTA channels, then its a problem with the decoder...correct?

i'm off home now...so i should have more questions later

thanks again

A

[Analoguesat]

Yes I would have said so - at which time you need to talk to your supplier.

[aidan]

right well, i'm back at 'work'

too busy to get on last night....

tried taking out the card and still get the message "decoder locked, please contact your supplier", so herself or someone will be on to the supplier today.

the decoder is an Echostar DSB-717, and i still dont know what a CAM is

[BGonaSTICK]

CAM - Conditional Access Module

A CAM is a small electronic device which looks rather like a PCMCIA card and fits into a similar slot on a satellite receiver.

It allows a receiver to be able to decode different types of encryption, as opposed to embedding the hardware and software into the receiver itself.

There are numerous types of encoding, and providing the functionality on a removable device has obvious advantages in terms of flexibility and cost.

Hope this helps.

STICK