Sharing a sub & receivers

[GeekDad]

A couple of us at work are talking about sharing a sub, but have a couple of questions..

1> One of the guys wants to have 2 receivers at his house, but only wants to have a single sub. Can he take the card and move it between the two receivers or are the cards and ird's married like Dish?

2> Reason we want to do this is the NFL package. Will the NFL package be active on all cards?

3> Only the primary account holder will have a single ird hooked into the phone line so that he can get ppv's. How, if at all, will this effect the rest of us since we won't be hooked up to the phone?

4> We all live near the PA/NY border. 2 of us live in NY and are in the Bills / Giants market. The primary account holder lives across the border in PA. Now although our local stations are all the same as we're only 15 miles from each other, will his market be different from ours? Will his be the Steelers / Eagles...

5> Since he is in PA, will his locals be different from ours eventhough we are all so close?

6> 1 of us has brand new ird's while the other 2 have older grear. Will we need to purchase new equipment or will DTV provide the primary account with p5's?

Those are a bit tough to ask DirecTV outright, so I figured I'd ask here ;)

[DTVismybitch]

No you cannot switch cards with receivers with DTV, if it was DISH or BEV you could by switching TSOPS to the same as the subbed receiver, but Dish does not offer NFL package and BEV is Canadian TV channels but does offer NFL package. It costs money to "mirror" each receiver to the original subbed receiver, but you should be able to do it just like a normal sub channel. If your not hooked up to the phoneline you can't get PPV, nothing else. DTV should provide the primary account with P5's, as long as your receivers that are used do not owe money or were known to be a hacked account back in the Hu days then it should be fine. THey may try to make you buy new stuff, it all depends on who you call, some companies you call can sub you to DTV but they want you to buy their equipment cause that is how they make money, if you call DTV though they will sub you most likely without making you have to buy new equipment besides the cards.

[GeekDad]

Damn.. Can't use the cards on other ird's? That would have been perfect. I thought that could be done with DTV -- maybe back in the H / HU days?

[Mr. HQ]

The extra receiver only costs $4.99 a month. Just mirror it and be done with it.

[GeekDad]

We're trying to keep costs to a minimum. Why pay the $5/mo extra if you're only going to watch a single tv? One of the guys has a camp he wants to use it at so if he can just bring the card back and forth as opposed to the entire IRD, that would be best for him.

[vmod32]

Well, it could be done, some model DTV receivers can be jtaged and the id's changed. I did it a no 745 mod to one of mine. But it's a huge pain in the ass, much harder than doing a dish receiver, all and all I'd say your buddy is better off lugging the IRD around... just my 2 cents

[GeekDad]

Yea, sounds like you're right. For some reason I thought it could be done...

[rurso]

A couple of us at work are talking about sharing a sub, but have a couple of questions..

1> One of the guys wants to have 2 receivers at his house, but only wants to have a single sub. Can he take the card and move it between the two receivers or are the cards and ird's married like Dish?

2> Reason we want to do this is the NFL package. Will the NFL package be active on all cards?

3> Only the primary account holder will have a single ird hooked into the phone line so that he can get ppv's. How, if at all, will this effect the rest of us since we won't be hooked up to the phone?

4> We all live near the PA/NY border. 2 of us live in NY and are in the Bills / Giants market. The primary account holder lives across the border in PA. Now although our local stations are all the same as we're only 15 miles from each other, will his market be different from ours? Will his be the Steelers / Eagles...

5> Since he is in PA, will his locals be different from ours eventhough we are all so close?

6> 1 of us has brand new ird's while the other 2 have older grear. Will we need to purchase new equipment or will DTV provide the primary account with p5's?

Those are a bit tough to ask DirecTV outright, so I figured I'd ask here ;)I really don't know if there is a limit to receivers you can add(they advertize 4)-I have 4.The NFL package and anything the original subscriber has will be on all cards.The cards marry to the receiver and at this time,that I know of,no way to unmarry.The phone line is used for ppv billing when you order.The local market will be the same as his-the primary subber.You will only get his locals.As far as the IRDs go DTV will work on almost all,I have a 420re subbed.To add another sub they need the IRD# and card#-if you don't have a card they will send one to you.Doesn't matter where the IRD is but when you activate it by phone they will ask you if its working.

[DTVismybitch]

The reason why you were able to swap cards in the H/HU days is because the cards were exploited to the point that you could change the card info on them. 3M's would work on any receiver, activation clones would have to be unmarried usually in order to swap receivers. Your buddy is best to get one of those really small Samsung IRD's, they are smaller than the older Playstation 1's and very good boxes. Atleast then it is smaller and you can buy one cheap on Ebay no problem now.

[skippy98]

If you can jtag a dish ird then cloning a dtv ird is not much different. You just edit the eeprom in 2 places with the ird# you subbed to. Then you can switch the card between irds all you like. Just make sure you backup the original eeprom before you make any changes to it.

[wdiddy]

I read the dtv website info and it says that all ird's must be connected to the same phone line and that it is verified. Is this no true or just a one time thing at setup. Is this how people are offering dtv sub at low costs and making money?

[niknak]

Some SONY B50 IRD's can change their s/n using the IRD's serial port.

So if one knows what the serial number of the original IRD is, MAYBE, one can change the SONY B50 to that s/n and the card will work in both IRD's. Some older IRD's had a secret combo of switch presses that allowed the IRD to reveal it's IRD's S/N. I don't think the new ones can do this. I would think, if you have the IRD S/N and also have a SONY B50 for the alternate IRD, this should allow two or more IRD's to use the same card.

I put away all my hacking toys long, long ago and just started reading this board again today. Not to step on any ones toes here, just adding "stuff" to this thread.

Not all SONY B50's allow serial port reprogramming .... only some.

niknak

[skippy98]

Some SONY B50 IRD's can change their s/n using the IRD's serial port.

So if one knows what the serial number of the original IRD is, MAYBE, one can change the SONY B50 to that s/n and the card will work in both IRD's. Some older IRD's had a secret combo of switch presses that allowed the IRD to reveal it's IRD's S/N. I don't think the new ones can do this. I would think, if you have the IRD S/N and also have a SONY B50 for the alternate IRD, this should allow two or more IRD's to use the same card.

I put away all my hacking toys long, long ago and just started reading this board again today. Not to step on any ones toes here, just adding "stuff" to this thread.

Not all SONY B50's allow serial port reprogramming .... only some.

niknak



Not sure about the Sony IRD's, but with the RCA's if you press the info and left arrow button it brings up the test screen. From that screen you can run a system diagnostic that will show you the IRD# in Hex. That is the number that you edit in the eeprom in another ird to clone it. If you can't bring up that screen but can jtag the Sony IRD and read the eeprom you can get the IRD# from that. I don't have the location with me now but if you search it over at ID there are some threads talking about the 2 areas where it is located in the eeprom. Both locations need to be edited (for the rca's at least).

[niknak]

It's much easier using the special Sony B50.
Connect a serial cable between your computer and Sony B50 serial port. Use direct available commands that Sony understands to output or change the S/N using standard serial communication software. It doesn't get much easier then that. I have the Sony serial commands, if anyone wants them.

It's not quite that easy programming an EPROM on those RCA's. Isn't unsoldering the eprom required or a need to make a special clip on cable?

Problem is ..... not all Sony B50's can do this.

Anyone try this yet? That is, have two IRD's working with one P5 card?
I think it's very possiblle to do but it's easier (as someone else said) to spend the $5-10/mo. and add one or more IRD's to your paid for sub.

niknak

[skippy98]

It's not quite that easy programming an EPROM on those RCA's. Isn't unsoldering the eprom required or a need to make a special clip on cable?

Problem is ..... not all Sony B50's can do this.

Anyone try this yet? That is, have two IRD's working with one P5 card?
I think it's very possiblle to do but it's easier (as someone else said) to spend the $5-10/mo. and add one or more IRD's to your paid for sub.

niknak


I have an RCA435 and 2 420RE's all sharing the same D1.

In regards to the eeprom there is no unsoldering of the chip. You hook up your jtag the same way you do when programming the tsop. In Jkeys you read and save the eeprom and you manually edit it in a hex editor and write it back with Jkeys.

[wdiddy]

Hey how come no one has replied to my question? I see that you can clone the ird and then you can get 1 card to work in 2 ird's, but how does that help you to sell subscriptions to other people? You can't clone the card so what's up. Cmon somebody must have the answer.