A smart card is a small card that is used to process information. It
is inside the receiver of your satellite tv system and is made to
be easily taken out. The radio waves from the satellite provider via
satellite communicate with the smart card and can even cause your
receiver to phone your satellite provider to send billing information.
It is also through the smart card that your service is activated when
you phone for activation. The smart card has a chip that is used to
de-scramble the encrypted signal in order to unlock your particular
programming package and also the provider can make necessary adjustments
to its decoding programs.
Certain smart card satellite tv enthusiasts seek to circumvent the
smart card conditional access systems to gain unconditional full time
full channel reception. The Federal statues in the USA and Canada
require that a household maintain a valid subscription for direct
to home satellite channels and the large percentage of people do comply.
Satellite providers do send signals known as electronic counter measure
(ECM) to disrupt illegal de-scramblers by illegal users so that they
can no longer use their illegal de scramblers. However, because of
the changeable nature of satellite signals through software illegal
users continually try to stay ahead of ECMs by getting the latest
de scrambler updates. This kind of free use age is certainly not free
because on the time, money and hassle of having to get a couple of
updates every year which costs between $300 and $400 plus a subscription
fee to stay more closely towards being legal.
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