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1. 'The Common Interface (CI) is the slot on a digital television receiver into which a conditional access module (CAM) may be inserted for satellite television. Receivers normally have two common interfaces. A receiver with a common interface allows the user to access encrypted television broadcasts as opposed to free-to-air (FTA) channels.'
2. Samsung Ps43E450 Online-Anleitung: Connecting To A Common Interface Slot (Your Tv Viewing Card Slot), Changing The Input Source. To Watch Paid Channels, The 'Ci Or Ci Card' Must Be Inserted. If You Do Not Insert The 'Ci Or Ci Card', Some Channels Will Display The Message 'Scrambled.

Question

I have a TV that has a Common Interface slot. I am wondering if I can get Sky Sports with a card or do I need to purchase some sort of box?

Submitted by Elaine

Our Answer

Most new TV sets come with a CI (Common Interface) slot. These require what’s known as a CAM (Conditional Access Module) to work. A CAM accepts a TV subscription card.

Here’s a picture of a CAM being slid into a TV set’s CI slot:

With a subscription card inserted into a CAM, that’s then inserted into a TV set, you are able to watch encrypted TV channels.

At time of writing, TV sets with a CI Slot can only be used to decode one TV channel, and that’s ESPN, the sports channel.

How do I get ESPN?

If you want to use your TV set’s CI socket for ESPN, you can get a viewing card and a CAM from Top Up TV.

What about Sky Sports?

At the moment, you can’t get Sky Sports 1 or Sky Sports 2 using a CI slot, CAM and subscription card. This is because Sky does not believe that the Cam/ CI technology is secure enough, and accordingly, for Sky Sports, you’ll need a set-top box.

That having been said, at the end of 2010, the UK regulator OfCom upheld a complaint from Top Up TV, and it looks like Sky will be required to support a CAM in the future. It’s expected that older CI slots may not work though, and you’d need a TV that has a CI+ slot. At the time of writing, it’s still not possible to use a CI slot for Sky Sports, and we’ll update this article as soon as a solution is offered.

How to get Sky Sports on Freeview

As we explain above, you can use a CI slot for ESPN, but not for Sky (yet). To get Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2, you need a set-top box with a suitable card slot, and a subscription card.

Top Up TV is offering two boxes:

You can order a set-top box and get a subscription card direct from Top Up TV: Visit www.topuptv.com/skysports

Alternatives

As an alternative to a Top Up TV set-top box, you can get Sky Sports from Sky (using satellite), Virgin Media (using its cable TV service), or online using Sky Go.

Related Questions

Note:

This command will tune the satellite DVB-S2 transponder 12303MHz 27500H on Eutelsat 36B satellite. This transponder broadcasts encrypted content for largest Russian satellite TV operator “Tricolor TV”. I’m using Neotion DRE Pro CAM and smart card officially ordered from Tricolor TV. If everything is ok you should see decrypted content in the out.ts file. Here is the correct output for the above mentioned command:

Common Interface Slots Definition

Common Interface Slots App

9 MHz * 8 bit = 72 Mbit/sec

Common Interface Slot