Jan set top box update

[hellzbellz666]

I have been told that new firmware will be updated to all vermin set top boxes in January this will apparently render some, early, version unusable and they will have to be replaced by vermin. Also this should make all unauthorised boxes unusable.
vermin know of the huge problems this would create for themselves and are apparently gearing up for the onslaught.
Anyone heard of this

[Bandit1.3]

Hi no must be getting the money to do this from all the staff they are going get rid of in near future .

[Numbnuts]

There's an interesting thread on the Kryptview forum about this particular issue. Sorry, can't post the link so will have to repeat the message in full.

Its dated 2 Dec 2008 and is entitled: any Truth in this? VM to go to Nagra 3

I have just read this on another site,how true it is,your guess is as good as mine,but here goes

The information in this message is not hearsay, speculation, or rumour, but comes direct from the heart of Virgin Media technical operations at Hook, passed on by a contact who is informed, reliable and will remain strictly confidential (his/her job depends on it)

This week we have all experienced a sudden change in the way Virgin encrypts its premium channels. This post explains some facts and what's to come very very soon. It probably won't cheer you up. Sorry :-(

Remember when Virgin pulled Sky channels off their feed? That was a tough choice for Virgin. It hurt Virgin and it hurt Sky. The reduced ability to convert Sky customers over to Virgin and loss of advertising audience meant that both companies wanted to renegotiate terms. Ulimately Virgin wanted to get Sky channels back for the Christmas period but this was not straight forward because Sky was concerned about the high number of non-paying customers able to view Sky channels via the Virgin network. To be fair Virgin have also been concerned, but Sky forced them via the Terms and Conditions of supply to implement a comprehensive encryption system to lock out all non-paying customers before Christmas.

Hence many months ago was born 'Project Santa'!! An internal Virgin project to provide to its customers Sky channels with enhanced encryption before Christmas. The project has several important phases. Firstly there is new advertising, which you may have seen, warning customers about the illegality of certain pieces of equipment. Then there is direct mail warning some customers directly to disconnect equipment and coupled with telephone hotline to report offenders.

The next phase was to get Sky back on the feed. This was turned on in November successfully and has put Virgin in a much better position to recruit new customers in readiness for their Christmas programming. The final phase is to address encryption and security. This is more complicated because they want to secure the network but with little or no impact on paying customers. What you have all witnessed in the last week is the first step of the program with an interim Nagravision software upgrade which will soon move the whole Virgin tv network over to Nagravision version 3. Enabling rolling daily code changes is merely an early side effect of this implementation. Virgin knew that it would be circumvented quickly, but it was designed to de-stabalise the illicit set-top-box market before Christmas and wipe out a proportion of the existing usage for non-paying customers who do not have the expertise to remedy.

What you have not seen yet is the final step and cutover to full Nagravision V3 encoding. This requires all paying customers to be issued with a new card for their set-top-box and in some cases a firmware upgrade. This is no small operation. New cards are already in manufacture and a special Royal Mail contract for guaranteed delivery before Christmas has been signed. The recent software change has enabled very limited testing of N3 to be started in about 1000 individually selected customer endpoints. So an exact date for cutover is not decided as yet and will be determined by the recarding and testing work in progress. The deadline should be before Christmas. Although contingency is in place in the event of unforseen problems.

The bottom line is that N3 will go onto the Virgin TV network very soon and this will render all non-paying cutomers set-top-boxes useless for probably quite a long while. N3 is currently in use in several european tv networks and has not been circumvented to date. Whilst nothing is unbreakable, it will be measured in months rather than weeks and may require bespoke hardware rather than just a software fix.

I have every expectation that this post will be heavily flamed and rubbished. But have in mind, many of the readers / posters here make a living from selling set-top-boxes and they are hoping for a busy December as people ready themselves for a rich Christmas programming selection on cable tv. The last thing they want is for potential customers to hear what Virgin have planned for what will become a very expensive freeview box. Utimately time will tell.

More disinformation from the Ministry of Propaganda methinks?

[stevenpc]

this was posted on this forum a few weeks ago it may happen one day thats the chance you take with these boxes but when it does happen i expect V will lose a lot of customers those that do sub in order to use these boxes may cancel there sub and sub to sky for the hd chans.
It was also posted supposedly from inside info that V wher going to send a virus down the cable to disable these boxes.
I would expect that if it is true V would send letters to those that sub about the impending changes informing them that there may be temp interuption while these changes are implemented along with new cards for there boxes
and dates to as and when to expect the older boxes to be changed over.

[hellzbellz666]

Cheers numb nuts just about the tallys up with what I was told.
Sky here I come

[AndyWolves]

Cant say i'll be too upset if this happens. I bought my Eurovox for about a 100 quid just over a year ago, so i'm quids in. Having this 'box has proved how little i watch Pay TV. I've never watched a film on the Sly movie channels. When Sly One et al returned i was quite chuffed, but since it's been on, I've not watched a thing on it 'cos its crap!! When Lost comes back I'll just download it off the interweb which is great cos there's no ads! About the only thing i'll miss is Sly Sports, but if there's any decent games its a good excuse to nip to the pub. So to sum up, if this thing is rendered useless, I'll save my pennies for a Freesat HD with PVR box & sod Virmin & Sly

[iggy1983]

Its scare tactics by SKY who in turn have told V to do this to flush out the freebies.

[percy34]

makes me laugh how people just post things theyve heard about wot vm are and arent gonna do on this and other forums.

it wont be long before something big does happen and it will be probably due to all the ideas people are giving them when they read these forums

it may last even longer if people werent so open about what may or may not be done it just creates unneccesary worry.enjoy it while it lasts

[cipher]

As with every firmware update, the objective is ALWAYS to play on the ignorance of people who own such boxes. They know boxes are often acquired down the pub over a pink, ie; the people who own them don't have the knowledge to subsequently update them - they either leave it as it is, panic, or think 'f*ck it' and end up taking out a proper subscription. For VM, the proportion of people who'll leave in such engineered 'wastage' makes it worthwhile doing.

The cost of new hardware aligned with a completely new encryption system really would be the final - and extremely unlikely - option. It is far cheaper to do what they are doing: change the firmware, spread disinformation to cause panic, and launch a mass scare-mongering campaign. Again, it's a play on the ignorance of those who have the boxes: justified by people sh!tting themselves about seeing the 'This is an illegal box' channel. VM know full well that - for some - that'll be more than enough to switch off their box and get rid as soon as.

[bigsteve1911]

Well if I'm expecting my new card for my V+ box, they've only got 5 delivery days before christmas to get it to me!

If I don't receive it I might ring to complain - tell em I heard on Techwatch that I'm supposed to be getting a new card to make my EV box useless!