Scrambling News Log : December 28, 1995

Canadians Accept DirecTV


The Canadian government announced its decision on December 20 that it would award
new direct to home satellite broadcast licenses to Expressvu Inc., and Power DirecTV.
An application by Homestar, led by Shaw Communications was rejected.

Expressvu Inc is owned 33 percent by each of BCE Inc and Tee-Comm Electronics
Inc and 19 percent by Canadian Satellite Communications Inc (Cancom) and 14 percent
by WIC Western International Communications Ltd. Expressvu had already received
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) authority to start
broadcasting in September 1995, but the federal cabinet issued an order requiring that all
providers must be licensed, so permission was granted a second time.

The second licence went to Power DirecTv Inc., which is 80 percent owned by Power
Corp of Canada. The other 20 percent is owned by Hughes Aircraft Co of Canada, a
unit of General Motors Corp's GM Hughes Electronics Corp, which owns
satellite broadcaster DirecTv Inc of Los Angeles.

The third would-be entrant into DTH was a Shaw-led consortium called Homestar. Other
participants in Homestar included Groupe Videotron Ltee., Cogeco Cable Inc., Delta
Cablevision, Fundy Cable Ltd . and Cable Atlantic. The commission commented that it
rejected the Homestar proposal because they did not believe it could be implemented as
proposed in view of uncertainty relating to the availablility of authorized U.S. services via
the Primestar satellite.

Expressvu and Power DirecTV are obligated to maintain a predominance of Canadian
broadcasting in their program packages. Rates will not be regulated. The commission
felt that competition between the two services would keep prices down.

Hughes has its Best Year Ever



1995 has become Hughes Space and Communications best year ever, and it has a backlog
of $6 billion in satellite orders to start 1996 with.HSC started the commercial
communications-satellite business 30 years ago, when Early Bird was launched on April 6,
1965, for what is now INTELSAT, the International Communications Satellite
Organization. To date, Hughes satellites have logged more than 750 years of on-orbit
service while maintaining a satellite reliability record of 99 percent.

Sports Bars Order Oak Orion Decoders



Sports bars are finding that Oak decoders, which are plentiful and cheap ,fill a need for
sports programming since they work on a 24 hour sports channel. They also receive
many hockey games in addition to networks and movie channels.

Two relatively new channels available with Oak are the Phillipino and Chinese channels.
Reception of these channels requires a different clone ID. The clone ID of the Philipino
channel was recently changed. Some Canadian companies are still selling Oaks loaded
with the old ID so they do not work. A major reliable U.S. supplier is Triangle Products.

VCII PLUS Fix Update



In our last update a VCII PLUS for the 029 board was being offered to the public. There is
such a fix. It is a clone. We said that there were only ever a handful of 029 seed keys. We
have now learned that some of the existing sets have now been shut off. We also said the
suppliers of this fix offered the same product in the same magazine in 1991. The suppliers
have been running scams in this magazine for years and were always "unmasked" well after
the fact.

We have now learned that this company is shipping video-only chips. They are not shipping
an audio/video fix which works on all channels. The release of that fix depends on
developments which are occurring now. We will update you in the January newsletter.

There was only ever one major developer of VCII products. When the VCRS was introduced
he stated that it would cost $1 million in cash to develop a fix for the system and it might be
shut off the next day. That is why there has never been a fix for the VCRS. Recently though, after
much effort, the code in the 27256 has been disassembled. We will discuss the siginificance of this
in the January newsletter.

DirecTV to Swap Out Smartcards



Individuals close to the situation say that DirecTV is definitely producing a second generation
smartcard. They say it uses two micros. The current card uses one. The current card does not
have enough PROM space to permit the encryption algorithm to be changed over-air. The
second generation card does have enough PROM to allow the encrypting algorithm to be
changed over-air.

We have also heard that an ECM (electronic countermeasures) program to harass the
paddleboard fix may have been developed. Certainly the master ID's of the clones would
be targeted. The pirates say that there are only 25 paddleboards per clone master.

There is some speculation that DirecTV may find a way to get DSS owners to pay for the
card upgrade themselves. In an article in Satellite Retailer in 1994 a spokesman said that a
card swap would cost the company from $5-25 times one million.

We will discuss the effects of a card swap on piracy next time. Will it end DSS piracy? No.
For more information on the paddleboard fix see the previous news log. It contains the
documentation on their paddleboard fix. It may save you a call to Trinidad. Sources of
more information are included.

Entire contents  © Scrambling News 1995