Question about making own mpeg2 stream to play on old 2006 SKY Decoder

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kiwibloke09

24 posts

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#318506 24-Jan-2025 22:18

As i have previously said in a forum i made a couple days ago i have bought a 2006 sky decoder and learn't that i can not watch any tv channels on it. But i am wondering if there is anyway to make my own mpeg2 stream and have it play on the old sky decoder as if it was live TV. and also for the programmes in the stream to appear in the EPG. Is there anything i could buy to make this possible. Maybe like a product where you can transfer a mpeg2 video to it and then connect it to the sky decoder very coaxial and have it trick the SKY Decoder into thinking its a channel. I know this sound a bit crazy but if this is possible could you please write down the instructions on how to make this possible and the product/s i need to purchase.

Cheers

1 | 2

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#3335474 25-Jan-2025 08:02

Here is a DVB-S modulator in order to simulate the satellite signal post LNB. You feed the mpeg2 into it. You might find one on eBay. Best to make contact with a broadcast engineer in some way, not sure if any on geekzone.

https://umt-tv.com/dvb-s-s2-modulator-v-2-1

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kiwibloke09

24 posts

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#3335482 25-Jan-2025 08:23

Thanks a lot, does it allow me to feed multiple mpeg2's into it to act as different channels and do the programs in the mpeg2 show in the EPG

Thanks a lot

Handle9

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#3335483 25-Jan-2025 08:25

Honestly an old sky decoder is Ewaste.

just move on.

kiwibloke09

24 posts

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#3335485 25-Jan-2025 08:26

It's just for fun mate

Spyware

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#3335490 25-Jan-2025 08:47

kiwibloke09:

Thanks a lot, does it allow me to feed multiple mpeg2's into it to act as different channels and do the programs in the mpeg2 show in the EPG

Thanks a lot

If you know how yes with other addons. It probably isn't a cheap project. You'll have a small satellite broadcast centre (no dish required) using 1990's modulation and codecs when you are finished.

Spyware

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#3335492 25-Jan-2025 08:48

kiwibloke09:

It's just for fun mate

If that's the case, and given you won't have the slightest clue what you are doing, I would stop now.

RunningMan

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#3335497 25-Jan-2025 09:20

Spyware:

Here is a DVB-S modulator in order to simulate the satellite signal post LNB. You feed the mpeg2 into it. You might find one on eBay. Best to make contact with a broadcast engineer in some way, not sure if any on geekzone.

https://umt-tv.com/dvb-s-s2-modulator-v-2-1

A satellite dish and LNB pointed at 160E will currently give you multiple DVB-S MPEG2 streams for free. i.e. Freeview up until about April when they will hopefully transition to DVB-S2.

The (current) issue is not feeding an MPEG2 video stream in, but configuring the decoder to receive it. Presumably they are set up to receive an OTA configuration that will no longer be transmitted. Configuring which transponder and stream to select is the issue for the OP at the moment.

In a few months time, the above modulator would probably then be required, but Lyngsat will know what DVB-S/MPEG2/FTA combo is available on another sat.

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richms

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#3335587 25-Jan-2025 12:47

The sky box gets its config data from sky and the only config you can put into thru the menu are basic settings, it is the minimum to get it locked on a satellite, everything else is then provisioned from data sky send with channel list, PIDs, things for the EPG configuration. I am not aware of anyone bothering to reverse engineer the provisioning side of the broadcasts as they were all generally more interested in accessing the protected content.

I guess you could look at what channels are in the list already stored on the box and modulate with the same VID and PID and carrier and see if it works into the existing channel list, but TBH when a fully configerable DVB-S box with S2 and HD outputs etc is available on aliex for $40 free shipping, and that will for sure work with any DVB-S and DVB-S2 signals you make to send to it, that would be a better place to start playing compared to a locked down box that technically you do not own.

I have not seen any work done on making a DVB-S stream on SDRs, but the amature radio community have things they run on 1.2GHz using the DVB modulations for amature TV, but I think they use DVB-T - I would start looking at the hack-tv project and then move onto looking at the radio amatures and their TV stuff with a narrow DVB carrier on the ham radio bands for a starting point on getting this working.

At the end of it there is probably weeks of messing around, 100s of hardware and all you end up doing is making a pretty crap quality STB output your video signals in analog SD.

Richard rich.ms

kiwibloke09

24 posts

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#3335661 25-Jan-2025 15:04

I tried asking chatgpt just to see what it would say, could you guys please tell me if this is correct or if its wrong. (i know, its a lot to read)

I will need to package my mpeg2 files into a valid transport stream (TS) which holds both audio, video and other data such as PID Info. I can use software like ffmpeg os tsMuxeR to create the transport streams. No i need to simulate a broadcast channel with the necessary parameters like frequency, PID and program number. the epg data associated with this channel need to be customized. I'll need a XML File that matches SKY's epg structure and assign time slots to them.

Does this look like SKY's epg structure?

XML Structure:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<tv>
<channel id="custom_channel">
<display-name lang="en">Custom Channel</display-name>
</channel>

<programme start="20250125000000 +0000" stop="20250125003000 +0000" channel="custom_channel">
<title lang="en">Program 1</title>
<desc lang="en">Description of the program</desc>
<category lang="en">Entertainment</category>
</programme>

<programme start="20250125003000 +0000" stop="20250125006000 +0000" channel="custom_channel">
<title lang="en">Program 2</title>
<desc lang="en">Description of the next program</desc>
<category lang="en">Entertainment</category>
</programme>
</tv>

now i need to inject the TS & EPG into the decoder i need to use a multiplexer to inject the ts file and the epg data onto a specific frequency. Tools to use: DVB-S2 Modulator that can inject transport stream into satellite broadcast signal and multiplexer software like muxlab or DVBstreamer can take the TS stream and epg data and package in into a full DVB broadcast signal.

Thanks for all the help everyone

RunningMan

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#3335668 25-Jan-2025 16:00

It's generically correct, but as I posted above, that's exactly what is already being broadcast for Freeview. MPEG2 video in a TS format stream from a DVB-S transponder. You're already getting all that done for you as it's the standard way of satellite broadcast for the last 25ish years.

Again, it's already been posted above but the problem you have is configuring the decoder to select the right (or any) video stream. Sky configured the boxes with settings sent OTA, but not any more because they don't use those STBs. They would also be looking for Sky's encrypted channels, not the FTA ones. Unless you can figure a way of getting the right settings into the box, you'll never receive anything from it.

Think of it like have an old radio but someone has removed the tuning knob. It still works, but there is no way of telling what to tune in to.