I hope someone can help me out here, i dont know much about these things, but heres my story.
I had a normal terestrial signal and I had a Thomson top up tv recordable box with setanta via a top up tv card.
Anyway my signal got so bad as new windmills were installed near me EDF energy paid for a new Freesat+ satellite system with a Humax Foxsat recordable box, I was obviously happy with this as its a great system.
The only problem i now have is theres only a CI slot and not a card slot as per my old thomson box, but ive also read that freesat+ doesnt support setanta???
Im quite confused, is it as simple as that i just cant get setanta no matter what or do i have options available to me?
Thanks for any replies

You might be able to receive it in non Freesat mode.

However, the card slot on the Humax isn't a card slot but a cam slot so you'd have to purchase a CAM and they aren't cheap, and thats assuming you can get it.

Have you tried a search in non Freesat mode (including subscription channels) to see if Setanta shows as listed? - NB this will wipe out any timers you have set in Freesat mode - known bug.

In europe some stations are broadcast in several encryption
types at the same time on the same frequency, seca, nagra etc.
It should not be a problem to broadcast setanta on the freesat + .and it should make them more money that can't be bad.

You will need to exchange your present Freeview/Top up TV viewing card/subscription for a satellite one. Your present card will NOT work in any form on satellite transmissions of Setanta. You will also need a CAM (Dragon, TRex or Diablo) which has a card reader to access a subscription card. You will also need a cheap but working Sky digibox to put the viewing card in overnight every 4 weeks or so - this is because the encryption system and viewing card require the card to receive a "keep alive" signal and the CAMs (Conditional Access Modules) listed above do NOT allow this signal (broadcast over the satellite) to get through to the card and update it. Unless Setanta can supply you a suitable card to work in a Sky digibox ( do not confuse them by saying you will be using it in a Freesat+ box) you will also need to purchase a FreesatFromSky card (just under £20 from Sky) which will also give you access to Five USA, Fiver, Sky 3 and Setanta Sports News - these are the FTV (Free To View) channels. To be honest you could also just get a Sky digibox and use that alongside the freesat+ box for Setanta and the FTV channels.

Not a very cheap or easy process BUT freesat is just that Free TV and is not designed to easily work with pay TV.
Last edited by davemurgatroyd : 01-03-2009 at 12:35

Setanta will NOT show in non freesat mode unless you scan with the correct mode set for the search - not FTA but all channels AFAIK

There are major problems involved with Setanta broadcasting on freesat
1 There are no official NDS CAMs available for non Sky boxes - the only CAMs available are unofficial ones (Dragon, TRex and Diablo) and there are problems associated with using NDS cards in them that mean you also need a Sky digibox as well. NDS are extremely unlikely to ever sell seperate CAMs as they say such sale would mean the CAM could be connected to a PC and make it easier for their encryption to be hacked.
2 NDS would almost certainly NOT allow dual encryption of any channel using their encryption at the same time as another form of encryption. NDS say this is to avoid the possibility of their own encryption being hacked - a point proven they say by the fact that their system has not been hacked in over 10 years it has been used. Any change to another system would mean all present subscribers using Sky boxes would then have to puchase new boxes something that would lose Setanta a heck of a lot of their subscribers.

thanks for all the replies folks, kinda confirmed what i already thought. i think il just go down the route of trying to get a sky digibox just for the FTV and setanta. If i do this will my existing setanta card slot in the digibox or will i need to get a sky card? thanks for replies again.

you will need a sky card, as detailed above mate.

Of course simualcrypting is allowed alongside NDS, many providers do it, non other than Premiere, cable kiosk.

and bollocks, Simualcrypting involves multi ECM/EMM streams that can only be decoded by the cards these are targeting, these are mutually exclusive and do not help to hack each others systems. Only the final DVB CSA control word is identical, The DVB CSA scrambler and random number generator sends it's control word to all the Scrambling systems to be used, that number along with the various entitlements then scrambled into 2 or more systems like Irdeto or NDS in seperate ECM streams that only the correct system and viewing card can decode.

In Fact each NDS series of viewing card is treated as a separate encryption system, and each has it's own ECM's and CAID's.