TNTSAT: card expired

[Clair]

For those who own a French TNTSAT decoder (used to receive French TV channels by satellite without a subscription):

I have just found out that the TNTSAT card which is used in the decoder in the gite has expired.

Looking at THIS PAGE, it appears that  "To

preserve the rights holders of TNTSAT programs , the

validity of the card was set at four years after its initialisation, that is to

say the first insertion into the TNTSAT decoder."

It goes on to say that messages would have appeared on the screen 3 months before expiration of the card. As the decoder has been unplugged in the gite for the last 6 months, we wouldn't have known about this anyway...

A new card can be ordered on THIS PAGE for the sum of 15€.

[Martin963]

I'm surprised yours has gone quite so early Clair (without doubting of course the veracity of what you say!).

TNTsat was launched experimentally (as far as sales of receivers was concerned) only in Alsace/Lorraine etc in July 2007 (as TNT UHF reception was particularly limited there due to ongoing problems co-ordinating channel use with the Germans) and the receivers generally weren't on sale (as far as I'm aware) much in the rest of France until autumn 2007.    We searched and searched for one in October 2007 (to take back to Devon for the winter) but they weren't to be had.

There has been a crop of card "failures" due to long periods hors service like yours,   and unless your card actually says "rights activated July 2007,  expire July 2011" I'd be inclined to think it's more likely to be that.   But of course without checking in person I may well be wrong. 

This may or may not be similar to your problem

http://www.tvnt.net/forum/pb-de-droits-pour-acceder-aux-programmes-t27992.html

but undoubtedly your box will have missed a software mise-a-jour which (if possible) you should try and update.

Either way,  it's good to flag up the fact that cards *will* begin to expire fairly soon - our two will stop in April 2012.

[Clair]

Thank you, Martin.

The problem described on the page you linked to is exactly the same as ours. All but 2 or 3 channels are blacked out with a banner above, reading ""vous n'avez pas pas les droits pour accéder à ce programme" (you are not allowed to access this program).

At first, I thought it was down to some restricted parental access which would have been reset after the box had been unplugged for a long time, so I did a factory reset, which of course, did not change anything.

I am now updating the software. Let's hope this does the trick...

[Martin963]

Let us know how you get on.   When (if) you do get it working you should be able to see what date parameters are attached to the card.

You might need to leave it plugged in (not necessarily on) with the card in place overnight or longer.   If you can tell me which model you've got it ought to be possible to check which software version it should have if there's any doubt after you've updated.

[Clair]

Hi Martin,

The box is a NEO-SB100.

The update on transponder 12604 has not made any change; in fact, the box stopped responding and I had to pull the plug.

Before that, I noticed that all channels were black, without even the banner which was visible before...

The EPG still lists all the channels I expect to see, but there is nothing on the preview screen either.

I have left the box switched on overnight and I'll let you know if there is any change tomorrow.

Update: No change at 9 am. I have done a factory reset, a search and an update. I've left it on while I go out this morning...

[Martin963]

That doesn't sound too hopeful.     Occasionally the boxes do simply get in a muddle during a software update,   and if possible it's best not to pull the plug,  although I'm told that it's only in the last "storing" process on the flash memory that you can do any lasting damage,   and I doubt you got that far.    Certainly one of my boxes recovered after a failed update.

I've got to go out but I'll see if I can find anything later in the day.   In the meantime leave it on as you have.   You could also trawl that forum for that particular make....

[Clair]

The update bar had not moved one iota when I checked on my return and the box had stopped responding again, so I had to pull the plug again.

After the reboot, some channels have reappeared, although TF1, FR2, FR4 and several others are scrambled and the banner has come back to tell me I have no access to those channels.

I can watch the news on Canal though...

I have also been able to watch Mont Blanc, a channel from the Rhone-Alpes region. It's nice to have news from back home! [:P]

I have now left the box to do its thing.

I ordered a new card yesterday and I will have to use it if the problem does not get resolved by the time it arrives.

Thanks for your help, Martin.

Please, do let me know if you can think of something else... [:)]

[Martin963]

cyberfred95 here

http://www.tvnt.net/forum/vous-n-avez-pas-les-droits-t27972-15.html

seems to have had the same problem as you (at least superficially).    Can you tell if that transponder is coming in OK?

If the worst comes to the worst you'd better bring the box over to us and we'll try and get it to update on our dish,   or try someone else's Astra 1 dish nearer to you?

I doubt you've yet sustained lasting damage,   and there does seem to be a recent problem of some sort here with other people as well.   Mine are unplugged at the moment,  I expect they'll misbehave in due course.

We'll keep at it Clair until we either break it properly or get it working again!

[Clair]

Thanks Martin.

The problem we're having re the update is exactly as described by the poster named aroisset.

When I update the transponder, it goes through the progress bar, but the banner at the end says there is no update found.

Having read about a poor signal quality causing a problem that ours is 50%, which may be the cause of the failure to update.

I'll have to send Mr Clair on the roof to try to improve on that. If that fails, I'll ply the paying guests with wine and DVDs for their kiddies!

[Danny]

Clair, remember to get him to check the rotation or skew (contre-polarisation) of the LNB in its holder for maximum signal quality. This can make a huge difference. The actual twist away from vertical depends on your location. It is probably not too different to ours here.

For Astra 1satellite, the cable should be pointing down from the LNB probably somewhere between 7 o'clock and six o'clock (vertical) if that helps. Just rotate it a little at a time and tighten up the lock screw to fix the LNB in the position with the strongest signal.

Danny

[Martin963]

Certainly worth optimising (unless Clair has one of those square dishes that are mentioned in the thread!),   although the skew is less marked than for Astra 2.

I must say that the performance of some of those high frequency transponders on Astra 1 can be less spectacular - I've had a lot of trouble with one LNB for the frequency that carries all the German radio channels,   its quality is right down compared to many of the other transponders.   I'm not entirely clear why either - cable losses at 1800 MHz (intermediate frequency) upwards perhaps.....

If the dish is working OK for the TNTsat channels themselves you might save some bother by "borrowing" a neighbour's dish for a few minutes to try and do the update....

[Clair]

Martin

Mr Clair went on the roof and after much swearing, huffing and puffing,

decided to bring his Workmate on the terrace and clamp an unused 80cm

dish on it.

A length of cable later, the update is downloaded and installed, the box has rebooted and all the channels are visible again!

Splendid!

Many thanks for pointing me to these threads. I wouldn't have known where to start if I hadn't read them.

I'll save you a couple of these bottles of wine I was going to ply the paying guests with! [:P]

You can get them whenever you come over for that visit you keep threatening me with! [:D]

Danny, Thanks for the suggestion.

The small rectangular dish supplied with the decoder is absolute crap. It is impossible to get a signal quality over 50%. With the 80cm dish, the quality went up to 88% without Mr Clair trying any adjustment.

It is almost invisible on the roof, but clearly, it does not do as well as it should.

I think Mr Clair's next trip on the roof will be to exchange it for a bigger, more traditional one, regardless of the aesthetics...

[Martin963]

Well we'll come and have a cup of tea!   A votre service...... (but thank you,  the wine is a nice idea!)

Glad it's all sorted,  these boxes are a pain if they get too far behind;   I imagine the software upgrades are mainly happening as Canalsat fight an ongoing battle with the pirates by tweaking certain of the finer points of Viaccess 3 whilst waiting for the card swap out (only just begun) to be completed.   Until it is they can't move to the (secure at present) Viaccess 4 system and so are trying to patch up the holes in V 3.

That's just my guess,  TPS tried much the same thing ten years ago when in fact the only permanent solution would have been a complete card swap out.