Access
Card DirecTV’s means of providing certain
programming to Dish Network HU Cards Loaders Unloopers certain households, depending on what is paid for.
The access card has memory on it, which means it can store data. The
card is known as a "Conditional Access Module," or CAM. Each card
has a unique identification number (called the CAM ID) which is how
DirecTV can add or remove programming from each and every individual
card. The cards are very similar to standard smart cards, but they
implore advanced security measures to ensure that the card cannot be
tampered with using a standard smart card reader/writer. In the span
of DIRECTV, there have been 3 different generations, or versions of
the Access Cards, and they are named according to the letter that
precedes the identification number. In chronological order, these
cards were the F, the H, and the HU. If you buy a DIRECTV system
today, it comes with a HU, because the first two generations of
cards were susceptible Dish Network HU Cards Loaders Unloopers to security hacks- people found ways of
breaking the cards security, and adding their own programming info.
DirecTV's access cards follow an industry standard in smartcards,
known as ISO7816. Hence, any standard ISO7816 smartcard programmer
can read and write these cards with the proper software.
CAM ID A unique
identification number present on the memory of each and every
DIRECTV Access Card, and also explicitly printed on the back of the
card. IRD The common term for satellite receiver. Receiver’s
also have unique identification numbers.
Marrying When an
access card that has just come hot from the factory (ie brand new,
or "virgin") is activated for programming by DirecTV, the card
writes down the receiver’s identification number into its memory.
The card then uses this number to prevent it's being moved to
different receivers. In essence, the card and receiver have
"married" each other. If you then remove the card and place it into
another receiver, you will get an error message, because the access
card is married to the first receiver is was activated inside.
Datastream (aka Stream, Signal, Satellite Signal) The datastream is
just that- a stream of data. Dish Network HU Cards Loaders Unloopers It is specifically the waves of
encrypted (scrambled) data that are sent down from DirecTV’s
satellites up in space. When you tune to a channel, it is encrypted.
The access card then computes the datastream, and if the card says
the channel is authorized, it descrambles the signal for the
television.
Programmer
An ISO7816 smartcard reader/writer that plugs into
your computer’s serial port and permits a hacker to read and write
to any ISO7816 smartcard, such as the access cards.
Update (aka USW) A
change in the code on the access card, usually done to destroy cards
with hacks on them, or to add some fuctionality (such as interactive
TV) to the access card. USW stands for Update Status Word, and
simply counts the number of times the card has been updated. A card
with a USW of 5 has been updated 5 times, for example.
H-Cards do not
currently get updated anymore...code changes are done through
something that is a little different, called a dynamic update.For a
more detailed explanation of a dynamic update, see "Dynamic Update"
below in this dictionary.
Now that I've revealed my opinion on the content of modern television, let me add to my list of grievances that I could never
grasp the justification for paying for anything twice. Yet, only in the strange world of mass media are consumers expected to pay
for the exact same product over and over and over are not only paid when they originally
perform a role in a movie or television show, they also receive residuals each time a that their performance is rerun, a
percentage of the sales. The same kind of perpetual payment
system exists in the music and print media Dish Network HU Cards. If I'm not mistaken, I believe that actors and recording artists also divvy up
a piece of the profits from recording device and media sales such as and blank