Comments on: The end of DIRECTV piracy?

The end of DIRECTV piracy?

johnnydark — Thu, 15 Apr 2004 05:52:08 -0800

The sky is falling! [some links require reg] The years of hacking DIRECTV's signal and pirating its program offerings seem to be coming to an end.

By: Smart Dalek

Smart Dalek — Thu, 15 Apr 2004 06:05:13 -0800

~~Oh, crap! What am I gonna do with all these HU-cards??~~ I suppose it was about time this happened. Great links, johnnydark!

By: smackfu

smackfu — Thu, 15 Apr 2004 06:19:25 -0800

The main link isn't resolving, and the other ones don't seem to be generic DirectTV hacking links. What's the story?

By: thomcatspike

thomcatspike — Thu, 15 Apr 2004 06:25:48 -0800

What's the story? At this time, no free satellite through Direct. The best part was having all the local channels as in NY, LA & ect... You could watch a program on a local station hours before or after your regular scheduled time. Found myself having more free time because of it. Plus no cost for pay per view.

By: shoepal

shoepal — Thu, 15 Apr 2004 06:36:25 -0800

Nice link(s), johnnydark. Sad day indeed.

By: geoff.

geoff. — Thu, 15 Apr 2004 07:08:38 -0800

What's the story? Well I never got around to setting up one of those fancy emulation things (I've always had cable), but from what I can tell in order to combat piracy DTV issues cards. There are a variety of cards like H,HU etc. This gives tells the DTV receiver that you are authorized to view such and such channels (remember nothing is two way with satellite, unlike cable). From what I gathered (I am not an expert, I tried figuring out how to do emulation once but the amount of things I had to buy plus not knowing exactly what to do convinced me not to do it -- so feel free to correct me), the most popular emulation involved putting a card in the card slot of the DTV. Then running this to a computer's com port. The computer emulated the card and sent anything it could emulate from a real card attached to the computer (this part confused me the most, was this card hacked?). The advantage of this was to prevent DTV from sending packets down that would corrupt and destroy hacked cards. The computer emulation was like a firewall of sorts. So this type of card being emulated is being phased out and there's a new card on the market. I don't know what the big deal is, it seems anything can be hacked given time. The only obstacle is I'm sure they've actually put a ton of countermeasures in this card and it will just take a while for the DTV hacking community to adjust. Things like this always interested me because of the unavailability of the subject matter. I like having to figure out how to do things from obscure references and text documents. But it does get really annoying when you can't put the last piece of the puzzle together. I think the only way really to setup a hacked DTV system is to see what someoen else did or at least talk to someone who's done it. It'll get past the whole "u dont understand lol newbie" atmosphere. Anyway, I've never done this as it is not common at all in my area and I had no one to teach me. I'll stick to legally paying the illegal cable monopoly thank you very much.

By: thomcatspike

thomcatspike — Thu, 15 Apr 2004 08:28:51 -0800

the most popular emulation involved putting a card in the card slot of the DTV. Then running this to a computer's com port.. Several years ago while they were zapping all the cards, the legal ones too, this was a common setup. Currently the users are just reprogramming the card with a new script when it is zapped. Finding a script that lasted a good amount of time was the current problem with this. Dish Network has a haX so you may see people switching to them. In the past Direct offered more channels than Dish so that is why I thought people haXed them first.

By: Qubit

Qubit — Thu, 15 Apr 2004 09:14:39 -0800

What, so people can't get free DirectTV anymore? Oh, my heart bleeds for them....not.

By: insulglass

insulglass — Thu, 15 Apr 2004 09:34:48 -0800

Dangit, quit linking every other word!!!! :-) Seriously, that makes it difficult to detemine where you REALLY want to go with this post. Might I suggest a follow up post with additional links?

By: thomcatspike

thomcatspike — Thu, 15 Apr 2004 13:17:38 -0800

zapped, meaning the stream is gone.

By: kremb

kremb — Thu, 15 Apr 2004 16:05:46 -0800

if man can make it. man can break it.

By: shepd

shepd — Thu, 15 Apr 2004 19:47:03 -0800

LOL! P4 hack out in 3...2...1... DirecTV, et al. will NEVER win until they make their systems two way. Too much money in hacking popular satellite TV. *WAY* too much. Read the article and see what I mean. And it's only gotten BIGGER over time. thomcatspike, DirecTV is hacked more because: - All "good" programming on one satellite. - *EASY* to hack. - Hacked for far longer. - More "dealer" hacks, fewer "homebrew" hacks (means much more money for people in the business of piracy). - Requires special hardware (again, meaning most users bring their cards to dealers to get them programmed, and the dealer gets a monthly income). - More receivers means more supply, and more stealth when hiding in numbers. - DirecTV doesn't damage receivers, just cards. Dishnetwork's ECMs can ruin the OS on your receiver -- No soldering required with DirecTV.

By: Keyser Soze

Keyser Soze — Thu, 15 Apr 2004 23:42:35 -0800

It is silly to say that hacking something will become impossible.