[mythtvnz] Extracting EPG from sky

[Steve Hodge]

On 2/3/06, Wade Maxfield <mythtvnz@hotblack.co.nz> wrote:
> Well having a self sufficient EPG source is the main reason I got my
> Technisat card.

Likewise, though an extra recorder for TV1+2 is handy and the quality
improvement on those two channels is noticable.

>  As far as Sky encrypting the EPG, I guess that's a
> possibility, but it wouldn't be the easiest thing to implement,
> considering the size of the installed user base of old decoders.  It
> may be something they could do with a firmware update but still a
> little bit of a mission.

I doubt they could do it well without replacing the decoders. The
problem is that the CPU in those decoders is slow - just try using
their EPG to get an idea how bad it is. Decoding 500K of data is going
to be a major burden if the encryption scheme is at all CPU intensive.

> But even if they do encrypt it, it should
> be possible to decrypt it (in theory) since the data is small enough
> and doesn't have to be done in real time, unlike having to decrypt a
> sky digital video stream.

Yeah. I think that Sky are far more likely to go after people
redistributing this data via legal threats than to attempt to encrypt
the EPG data.

Steve