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How do the Zgemma S2 boxes actually work?

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Portreath

Newbie
Hi,

I've been looking into getting a Zgemma S2 box and am a little confused. I am an electronic engineer by trade, so not trying to ask any stupid questions, just want to know the basic concept.

I understand that if I connect the box to my TV and connect my the 2 coax cables from my original sat dish, put the latest sucmnsee firmware on it and set it up, I should be able to watch any FTA channels.

What I don't understand is how to watch the pay per view services, movies, documentarys and sports.

There is a lot of talk about 'lines'. Am I right in thinking I need to connect the box to my home network and get an active 'line' so the pay per view channels are streamed via the Internet? Or does it get the channels via the dish and use the 'line' to descrambler the channels?

Thanks in advance
 
No mate the line is a line of code that you add to the box to open the paid channels up this connects to a server which has all the paid channels open.
 
The line (gift) is a code which enables you to watch the channels it is not streamed The code is of someone else card the internet is needed to read the card Please do not get your line off ebay or buy box with it as they tend to do a runner after a few months Get 1 from the site and test a few
 
You are correct sir.
You get channels via the dish and the line will descramble
The signal when your box is connected to the Internet.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Portreath said:
There is a lot of talk about 'lines'. Am I right in thinking I need to connect the box to my home network and get an active 'line' so the pay per view channels are streamed via the Internet? Or does it get the channels via the dish and use the 'line' to descrambler the channels?

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

The 'line' is bit of configuration that tells the box where on the internet it can get a sky or cable de-crypt key, effectively the same function as a sky viewing card does. This is the reason for internet connection so only low bandwidth is required, not for streaming the actual channel though some boxes can run Kodi which does allow internet streaming. Note that in main you will not get UK sky HD channels via sat, only on cable or via internet streaming

As mentioned, line suppliers do go tits-up, either because they get caught or they do a runner with your money or for any number of reasons but there is a thread where you can ask for recommendations.
 
Thanks for the information. I see there are a lot of free cline servers when I search in Google, how reliable are they and would I have to keep changing the cline every few days?

Also I see that you can have multiple clines in your config file. Does this stop any interruption of TV watching if one of the servers is down?
 
They are crap they get glitching all the time and you would be changing every few hours get a paid 1 they are not expensive


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Portreath said:
Thanks for the information. I see there are a lot of free cline servers when I search in Google, how reliable are they and would I have to keep changing the cline every few days?

Also I see that you can have multiple clines in your config file. Does this stop any interruption of TV watching if one of the servers is down?
Click to expand...

Good luck getting a free one to work more than a few hours a decent line will be about £40-60 a year that's not a lot considering when what you are getting you would pay that for a month of Sky
 
Portreath said:
£40-60 a year ain't too bad. Why don't the Sky HD channels work, why only SD?
Click to expand...

From my understanding, HD channels use a different form of encryption that hasn't been cracked. However for sky to employ the same encryption on SD channels, they would need for all the old SD sky boxes to be replaced with ones compatible with new encryption. I guess as some point in the future there will be few enough of SD only boxes left that sky will pay for them to be replaced and upgrade encryption of all channels.

Alternative if you are in a cable area is to use the combo box with a cable key
 
Last edited:
For a line i went onto a cardsharing forum, type in google. You want to see evidence of someone who has been around a while and has good feedback. The guy i am with has now stopped taking on people now but there are plenty of people to choose from on the site. I paid £15 for the year but before anyone says that means it will be rubbish or oversubscribed i have had it for a few months and line i think has froze twice for a few seconds each time. I would advise getting a receiver that has a DBV-C tuner as if you have cable (tv or internet) you can get cable lines as well as sat lines, they are a little more expensive but you get HD. I am currently looking for a receiver for this as i have a bog standard openbox. With regards boxes, you need to ask yourself what u want... there are plenty of low mid high end boxes about depending what ££'s you want to spend. World of satellite as the majority of boxes out there and they all pretty much have 2 year warranty
 
Right, everything has just clicked!

So the system works like this then...?

The receiver (ZGemma S2 for example) takes the two coax plugs from my old dish.
Once setup, all FTA channels can be viewed
If I want to watch pay TV, I connect the receiver to the internet and with the correct cline in the config file, I am sharing someones fully subscribed card

So when I select a pay channel on the receiver, it gets the descramble code via the server specified in the 'line' in the config file and you can watch the channel?

Is that basically how it works?


I have just a couple of more questions:

If I use a Zgemma box which has 1 USB on the back and 1 on the front, can I use the rear socket for the external hard drive and also for the config file so I don't have to have a USB stick hanging out the front?

Also, the server used to hold the encryption that is being shared is presumably someones home computer or NAS drive, if for some reason there internet connection goes down, does this mean that my box will not decrypt the channels, or do most people have a couple of separate sharing servers?

Although the Sky HD pay channels cannot be decrypted, do the normal FTA HD channels still work?

I'm looking at sucmnsee's backup image to run on my box, is this a good one to use? I've seen a lot of people on youTube using it and I like the way it looks.


Thanks again
 
Portreath said:
If I use a Zgemma box which has 1 USB on the back and 1 on the front, can I use the rear socket for the external hard drive and also for the config file so I don't have to have a USB stick hanging out the front?

Also, the server used to hold the encryption that is being shared is presumably someones home computer or NAS drive, if for some reason there internet connection goes down, does this mean that my box will not decrypt the channels, or do most people have a couple of separate sharing servers?

Although the Sky HD pay channels cannot be decrypted, do the normal FTA HD channels still work?

I'm looking at sucmnsee's backup image to run on my box, is this a good one to use? I've seen a lot of people on youTube using it and I like the way it looks.


Thanks again
Click to expand...

Yes you can use the rear socket for an external hard drive once you have uploaded the fireware. In fact it is recommended to have a USB memory stick or hard drive for the swap file, EPG information and for use while using pause function. it will also use external storage for when you are recording.

Most key sharing does not happen from domestic connection, the key server will most be distributed across multiple data centers with the card sharer uploading the key to them for sharing. This way they can support several hundred users. If their service fails or is patchy then encryted channels will freeze (glitch). However FTA will continue to work.

I use sucmesee image, took less than 30 minutes to do basic setup.
 
Portreath I just use a HDD in the back thats it everything Recordings epg ect are all on it your line is not kept on it its placed in folders on the box If you run into probs just pm me
 
Got the Zgemma H.2S box a couple of weeks ago. Flashed it with sucmnsee's Vix backup and formatted a USB powered 500GB hard drive placed in the rear USB socket. Wasn't too difficult with a little help from Tich and Sucmnsee.

I have to say that the system works amazingly well and seems way quicker than my old Sly box. Also, the ability to download plugins for YouTube etc. is great.

Very happy indeed.
 
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