Automatic deactivation

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tech_enthu

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I was a witness to this bizarre incident yesterday. My friend says this happened earlier also.He has a mega pack subscription for Tata Sky, and the subscription is valid upto May 2013. When he switched on the stb and tv after a gap of nearly three months, only ch100, the promotion channel was displayed. All other channels showed this message "you are not subscribed to this channel. Contact . . ." The help desk executive advised him to keep the stb on for activation. The box downloaded software upgrade and initialised - still no channel was displayed. Another call to help desk and a second activation solved the problem. The executive could not give any satisfactory explanation except repeating 'it happens'.My friend said that he had faced the same earlier when he was away for about two months. He is convinced that TS deactivates the connection if one does not watch tv for extended periods and keeps the stb off without power.This is a standard stb without internet connectivity. I refuse to buy his explanation that TS knows whether we are using the stb or not. Explanations welcome.
 
The activation keys are generally sent (broadcast) to all Subscribers periodically (Monthly/Weekly/etc). These keys contains information related to Subscriber ID, package subscribed, etc details. All STBs receive these keys and depending on their own identity (Card Number/Subscriber number) keys are accepted and stored. This is how account remains active. Keys are also sent when there is change is account information, or change in Package. These key data is used to decrypt the channels which are subscribed. If STB is power off for long time, then there is possibility that keys are not received by STB. So when next time if STB is powered ON after long time, it wont have latest keys, so it would not be able to decrypt channel hence it would display message that channel is not subscribed.In this case Customer Care again broadcasts activation information (if subscriber contacts CC) which is received by STB, and STB gets latest keys and starts displaying subscribed channels.
 
Thanks. I was under the impression that keys or commands were sent only when necessary - messages, subscription over, change of package or account balance.

The activation keys are generally sent (broadcast) to all Subscribers periodically (Monthly/Weekly/etc). These keys contains information related to Subscriber ID, package subscribed, etc details. All STBs receive these keys and depending on their own identity (Card Number/Subscriber number) keys are accepted and stored. This is how account remains active. Keys are also sent when there is change is account information, or change in Package. These key data is used to decrypt the channels which are subscribed.

If STB is power off for long time, then there is possibility that keys are not received by STB. So when next time if STB is powered ON after long time, it wont have latest keys, so it would not be able to decrypt channel hence it would display message that channel is not subscribed.

In this case Customer Care again broadcasts activation information (if subscriber contacts CC) which is received by STB, and STB gets latest keys and starts displaying subscribed channels.
 
Thanks. I was under the impression that keys or commands were sent only when necessary - messages, subscription over, change of package or account balance.
Usually to avoid hacking, encryption keys for all channels are changed frequently. And accordingly updated key are broadcast to subscribers, so their STB can pick these keys and use to decrypt the encrypted channels.

While testing of STB, I had came across similar issue when STB was not picking up new keys (which was a defect), so I came to know about these behavior.
 

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