Smart Card Migration

[JSheridan]

... FWIW, came across data sheets confirming use in the past of Digicipher by DirecTV.

Where? I was a beta tester for General Instrument and Motorola for Digicipher and 4DTV and have been a DirecTV dealer from the very beginning and I don't ever remember DirecTV using DigiCipher.

Like bobvick said, Primestar used DigiCipher and DirecTV bought Primestar, so maybe that's where you're getting the connection.

 

[bobvick]

I can PROMISE you DTV never used DigiCipher II or DigiCipher I. DC was created by General Instrument, not to mention the fact that like DTV SD it is not fully MPEG2 compliant and it is not card based, it is and always has been built into the receiver. Also, it has never been compromised. GI never sold anything to DirecTV, to Primestar, yes, DTV no.
4DTV received DCII channels from C/Ku band, but we had to wait until 1997 for. GI to come out with a consumer version of that. There was no consumer DCII equipment even available until 1997, as a matter of fact GI was still testing DCII in 1994 when DirecTV launched. The ONLY consumer service that EVER used DC1 was Primestar. GI never licensed either version of DigiCipher to RCA, Sony, etc.. that made DirecTV/DSS equipment. Not exactly sure if you were around when DSS first came out, but I was and was a TVRO owner at the time and had been for years, used to listen to various talk shows about satellite on audio subcarriers at the time. DSS was quite the topic at the time of its launch, so was DigiCipher as we were waiting for GI to release it. The two (DSS and DC) never converged.

 

[satgirl51]

Unlike dish directv's NDS based videoguard encryption itself has never been publicly hacked. What was hacked were actual vulnerabilities in the access cards themselves (like putting an expensive unpickable lock on a thin easily kicked in door), so once a secure card(heavy duty door)was produced hacking it became very very difficult. Dish's nagravision and nagravision 2 were fully compromised, so much so you didn't even need the card at all.(not only had the keys to the front door but the backdoor too)