Most of the time an extra fee is involved for the extra smartcards, both in purchase as in subscription (per month). In most cases it's limited to three smartcards per subscription. For all providers of digital television there's a limited number of smartcards available per subscription. When you want to watch on multiple tv's digital television, then often extra digital receivers (or internal tuner in the tv) and smartcards are required.
Some providers, like Canal Digital or TV Flanders, offer the possibility to re-activate the smartcard as well by text message. In most cases this van be done online or by a specific telephone number of the tv provider. When the smartcard for instance isn't used for a while, then it will be 'deactivated' and needs to be activated again. Periodically a reactivation signal is send by the tv providers to keep the 'watching rights' of the subscriber up-to-date. The tv providers send activation codes out to activate the smartcards of the (paying) subscribers. Per smartcard is stored which subscriber is involved and which channels may be viewed. On the smartcard the type of channel package you may watch (as part of your subscription), just as your 'user id', is stored.Įach smartcard is unique and has it's own number. The smartcard is placed into the card reader or CAM module.
The decoding of the signal is done by the digital receiver ('decoder') or tv in combination with an internal card reader and/or CAM module. However as mentioned, the encrypted signal needs to be converted to an uncoded signal to be able to watch a program. Most of the time the smartcards of the different providers are not interchangeable.Ī digital signal is transferred encrypted and is -basically- available for everybody. The smartcard is required for decoding the digital television signal of the involved provider. The providers of digital television encrypt or code the tv signal all in such a way that it's (almost) impossible to watch without a smartcard. To watch the free channels, Free-to-air channels, a smartcard isn't necessary these are available for free. This applies to digital tv by cable (DVB-C), satellite (DVB-S) or terrestial (DVB-T). To watch digital television, mainly the commercial channels or pay tv, a so called smartcard is necessary.
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