Skippa manual

[nis200sx]

I'm sorry Judy but you are just making excuses to make yourself feel better for choosing to battle on with an old SD toppy while the rest of us look forward to using our new Skippa.

Hi Judy, I just realised that you have ordered a Skippa.

I'll pay you those (although I don't really know what IceTV smart recording is )  But I am willing to bet that TEDS was smarter    As for HD (except for some offerings on the HD channels - very few, as it happens-) I am not that bothered.  I record those with Windows MC

TED started off as a free alternative to IceTV to get a 7 day TV guide onto the 5k toppies. Then TEDS appeared to add TiVo like recording features to 5k toppies. By it's end TEDS had a lot of options and some clever tricks - like a 5 star rating system to decide which shows to drop when there's a conflict.

If you use IceTV with your Windows Media Center and let IceTV manage your series recordings on it then you are already using IceTV smart recording.

[csutak40]

TED started off as a free alternative to IceTV to get a 7 day TV guide onto the 5k toppies. Then TEDS appeared to add TiVo like recording features to 5k toppies. By it's end TEDS had a lot of options and some clever tricks - like a 5 star rating system to decide which shows to drop when there's a conflict.

Yes, it certainly does have some clever tricks - and I don't understand why Heinz decided to ignore all the suggestions to employ some of those.

If you use IceTV with your Windows Media Center and let IceTV manage your series recordings on it then you are already using IceTV smart recording.

You mean the fact that it can ignore repeats?  Because, AFAIK, all other PVRs can record series etc., no? 
TBH, I haven't been keeping up with what the various PVRs can or can't do.  I have been holding my breath for the Skippa, hoping that it will be a great replacement for Toppy 5k with all the TAPs (like PBK, JustEPG and last but not least TEDS  )  Seems the Skippa won't be replacing any of those TAPs

[Paul55]

Because, AFAIK, all other PVRs can record series etc., no? 

No. AFAIK, apart from IceTV PVRs, only Foxtel and some Freeview PVRs can do proper series recording and avoid repeats.
Foxtel and Freeview are locked down systems with no skipping.

[IanL-S]

Because, AFAIK, all other PVRs can record series etc., no? 

No. AFAIK, apart from IceTV PVRs, only Foxtel and some Freeview PVRs can do proper series recording and avoid repeats.
Foxtel and Freeview are locked down systems with no skipping.

While the SmartEPG TMS TAP for Topfield PVRs cannot do first run only, it builds a data base and you can configure it so that it does not record programs that you have previously recorded. That is rather neat feature.

Ian

[bodogbodog]

No idea what changes are included in version 1.2 of the SKIPPA manual which is now available @ https://www.icetv.com.au/support/SKIPPA_manual.pdf

[csutak40]

No idea what changes are included in version 1.2 of the SKIPPA manual which is now available @ https://www.icetv.com.au/support/SKIPPA_manual.pdf

Thanks for that

[SkippaBeat]

Mainly cosmetic, changes to IP and Copyright, slight differences in rear photos, and change to Skip function on remote.

[Carljh]

Noticed that the manual has been updated again.  Still version 1.2 but having just a quick browse, see that they are now suggesting 5 minutes padding for Auto Skip instead of 10 and are including a WI-Fi antenna now.

[peteru]

I had a read of the online manual as at 25 Sep 2015 and am concerned by this statement on page 62:

Hacking of the conditional access system or facilitating anyone else doing so is STRICTLY PROHIBITED. Failure to adhere to this prohibition is a criminal offence.

Does that mean that the Skippa encrypts recordings or somehow applies DRM to the content? Skippa clearly doesn't have any slots for CI / CAM or other conventional hardware module based CA, so what is this referring to? What kind of conditional access system does the Skippa use and why? We are talking about free to air TV here, so the content being received is not encumbered with any conditional access.

[IanL-S]

I had a read of the online manual as at 25 Sep 2015 and am concerned by this statement on page 62:

Hacking of the conditional access system or facilitating anyone else doing so is STRICTLY PROHIBITED. Failure to adhere to this prohibition is a criminal offence.

Does that mean that the Skippa encrypts recordings or somehow applies DRM to the content? Skippa clearly doesn't have any slots for CI / CAM or other conventional hardware module based CA, so what is this referring to? What kind of conditional access system does the Skippa use and why? We are talking about free to air TV here, so the content being received is not encumbered with any conditional access.

My understanding is that the recordings are not encrypted. I suspepect the statement relates back to the prior paragraph: "IceTV own the intellectual property specifically associated with the SKIPPA functionality and IceTV guide."

Ian

PS Something weird with their versioning of the Manual; the printed manual (how unusual) that came with my SKipp is version 1.2 AND that information is on p 69; the current online version is also 1.2 and it is on p.61 /////

[Dave at IceTV]

PS Something weird with their versioning of the Manual; the printed manual (how unusual) that came with my SKipp is version 1.2 AND that information is on p 69; the current online version is also 1.2 and it is on p.61 /////
[/quote]

The hard copy versions of the manual have some extra blank pages inserted in places so that the contents or index pages etc are not on the left hand side.

[IanL-S]

PS Something weird with their versioning of the Manual; the printed manual (how unusual) that came with my SKipp is version 1.2 AND that information is on p 69; the current online version is also 1.2 and it is on p.61 /////

The hard copy versions of the manual have some extra blank pages inserted in places so that the contents or index pages etc are not on the left hand side.
[/quote]

Thanks for the clarification Dave.

[Dave at IceTV]

I had a read of the online manual as at 25 Sep 2015 and am concerned by this statement on page 62:

Hacking of the conditional access system or facilitating anyone else doing so is STRICTLY PROHIBITED. Failure to adhere to this prohibition is a criminal offence.

Does that mean that the Skippa encrypts recordings or somehow applies DRM to the content? Skippa clearly doesn't have any slots for CI / CAM or other conventional hardware module based CA, so what is this referring to? What kind of conditional access system does the Skippa use and why? We are talking about free to air TV here, so the content being received is not encumbered with any conditional access.

That text is probably left over from the raw manual source document which was possibly based on a satellite or pay TV box's manual and missed by the proof readers. There is a blanked out CAM / CI card slot behind the door that hides the 7 front panel but there's no CAM / CI slot hardware behind it.

As far as I know the Skippa does not encrypt free to air recordings or apply DRM to the recorded files. I can copy the free to air recordings to a USB drive or via the .ts file's UPnP url or stream them to non-DRM apps.

[Leon K]

I had a read of the online manual as at 25 Sep 2015 and am concerned by this statement on page 62:

Hacking of the conditional access system or facilitating anyone else doing so is STRICTLY PROHIBITED. Failure to adhere to this prohibition is a criminal offence.

Does that mean that the Skippa encrypts recordings or somehow applies DRM to the content? Skippa clearly doesn't have any slots for CI / CAM or other conventional hardware module based CA, so what is this referring to? What kind of conditional access system does the Skippa use and why? We are talking about free to air TV here, so the content being received is not encumbered with any conditional access.

Hey guys,

This statement in the manual refers specifically to the IceTV login and related subscription detection on SKIPPA (account and AutoSkip), and prohibits hacking / decompiling of the firmware in any way - particularly in terms of this subscription detection mentioned above.

[peteru]

This statement in the manual refers specifically to the IceTV login and related subscription detection on SKIPPA (account and AutoSkip), and prohibits hacking / decompiling of the firmware in any way - particularly in terms of this subscription detection mentioned above.

First of all, the term "conditional access" has a very specific meaning in the STB/PVR industry, so the choice of that terminology is a bit unfortunate. You may wish to revise it.

However, moving onto a more important matter, I think you may have a few issues here...

As far as I can tell from all the info on the forums, the box is based on a Broadcom STB reference design. That means it's running a Linux kernel, which is licensed under the GPL. It's impractical (actually close to impossible) to build a modern Broadcom STB/PVR (especially one that can run Opera), without GPL, LGPL and other Open Source components. That means that not only is it perfectly OK for anyone to take apart the firmware and see how it works, but it also means that you have to provide the source code to the GPL and LGPL components, including any modifications you have made. On top of that, the LGPL also requires you to ship the code in such a way that anyone can replace the LGPL components with whatever alternative version they choose and still be able to rebuild a fully working firmware. That means that your code must be supplied in a format that is readily usable by anyone wishing to modify the firmware. Most commonly this is done by shipping proprietary code as a set of shared libraries with corresponding header files that provide a public API.

Of course, your intellectual property is still protected by your copyrights, but you can not restrict the rights that the end users have as a result of you choosing to use GPL, LGPL or other Open Source code to build the product.

The GPL and LGPL licenses (and probably other licenses, such as the JPEG library code) also require you to publish the licensing terms in your manuals. Even the most permissive licenses, such as 3-clause BSD License, require you to publish the license terms. You should probably talk to your OEM about third party and Open Source licensing compliance and get them to furnish you with the required licenses and corresponding code.