You can make Pay TV work with MythTV, providing you have a subscription, of course.

To make that work, you need a DVB-S TV card and a phoenix smart card reader.

In Australia the encryption systems used are NDS (aka Videoguard) and Irdeto 2.

Depending on which system your provider is using, you'll need to setup your card reader on a different way:

• Phoenix 6 Mhz for Irdeto 2
• Phoenix 3.58 Mhz for NDS

Smart card readers normally connect to a serial port, even though there are USB ones.

I tested my system using a Jaycar smart card reader and an Infinity USB phoenix. Both worked perfectly.

The Jaycar one is cheap, but you have to assemble it yourself. As long as you have patience and know how to solder you're fine.

Once you have your card reader installed, you'll need a card reader software that is able to "talk" to the card. I tested newcs and radegast. Newcs v1.20 RC13 didn't work ok for me, it kept giving me errors, but radegast 4.2R6 did.

You'll have to google around for those applications or newer versions since they don't last long on the same server...

You can download two configuration files that you can use as a starting point: radegast.cfg and radegast.users.

In the radegast.cfg there is a line called user database =

Just put on that line the full path to your your radegast.users file.

When you try to start the radegast binary (rdgd) it gives the following error:

error while loading shared libraries: libcrypto.so.0.9.8: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

To solve this problem just create a symbolic link:

#ln -s /lib/libcrypto.so.0.9.8b /lib/libcrypto.so.0.9.8

To start the radegast daemon do the following:

#/path_to_radegast_daemon/rdgd -c /path_to_config/radegast.cfg

Most of these applications have been developed for the Dreambox, but since the Dreambox has Linux as its operating system, most of its software can be used in MythTV.

The last piece of the puzzle that you need to make it work, is something that is called a softcam. A softcam emulates hardware cams that are normally made with proprietary algorithms.

There is a softcam that can be virtually used for any Linux TV application, including MythTV, it is called sasc-ng. sasc-ng talks to the card reader software (radegast or any other) and uses that information to decode the stream.

Sasc-ng creates a virtual video adapter with decoded output.

To download the latest version of sasc-ng do:

$svn co http://OpenSVN.csie.org/sascng sasc-ng

This will create a directory called sasc-ng, then you will need to compile the sasc-ng binary and the dvbloopback.ko module:

$cd sasc-ng
$make
$make module

Load the module:

#/sbin/insmod ./dvbloopback.ko

To start the binary, type the following command:

#./sasc-ng -j 1:2

sasc creates a virtual video card. In this case the real card is 1 and the virtual one is 2.

If you have several cards, you can use:

#./sasc-ng -j 0:2 -j 1:3

That will create two virtual cards (2 and 3) from the real ones (0 and 1)

Note about keys: key files should be located in the directory sc_files

The only file I'm putting there is cardclient.conf that has the configuration
to connect to the newcamd server (radegast) that controls the smartcard.

When you configure Mythtv and select the tuners, you will be able to see the real and the virtual one. You have to select the virtual one to get the decoded stream.

Once you have all these pieces of the puzzle talking to each other, you'll get a real digital picture on your TV!

There is a discussion in the AusTech forums about sasc-ng on this url: http://www.austech.info/other-linux-based-receivers/6050-mythtv-sasc-ng.html

This forum mentions that there is a new repository for sasc-ng here:

$svn co http://svn.assembla.com/svn/open-sasc-ng/fixes/

or development

$svn co http://svn.assembla.com/svn/open-sasc-ng/trunk/

It also says that you have to add the --cam-budget option when starting sasc with this new version. I haven't tested this new information at all, so you're on your own.

The switch (in or out) is used for changing between a reader or programmer device. With the switch in (Normal mode), you should be able to read the details off the card. It also needs to be in to program the EEPROM of a blank card.

With the switch out, you are in PIC programmer mode and you can program the PIC (equivalent of an operating system) on the card.

The Phoenix mode is governed by the JP1 configuration. When you look at Fig.2 in the Kit instructions, the black cover should be aligned with pins 1 and 2 of JP1. Pin 3 should be the odd one out. This will put the MkII into Phoenix mode.

JP2 governs the clock speed. Some software prefer 6mhz (Irdeto 2) and others prefer 3.57mhz (NDS). Depending on which crystal (x1 or x2) you have the black bit on JP2 closer to, will govern what clock speed you have your MkII set up for. The main thing is to make sure that the software you use is set at the same clock speed as you select on JP2.