I need Eastern Standard time but my box is set at GMT and no other options is available. Is this possible to change or need to reprogram again?
Thanks in advance,
Dave
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-MABLE LEAF-U lie like a rug..."U USELESS THING".
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Check out this guide devoted to demystifying the Time Zone and Zip Code field on all types of CAMs.
Nagra Time Preface At any given moment, the time shown in the guide is correct, at least on a properly subscribed system. Ever wonder why that is, what with Daylight Savings Time, etc.? This document helps to explain how that works.
Time Zone Byte There is a field on all subscriber CAMs, that specifies the Time Zone. As you can guess, to ensure smooth operation, this field is also emulated in non-legit cards. Now, there is some correlation between the Time Zone Byte, and the "GMT Offset", but I'll save that for a different time. Here is the table:
Timezone Standard Time Daylight Savings Time Hawaii D8 DC Alaska DC E0 Newfoundland (NST/NDT) F6 F2 Pacific (PST/PDT) E0 E4 Mountain (MST/MDT) E4 E8 Atlantic (AST/ADT) F0 F4 Central (CST/CDT) E8 EC Eastern (EST/EDT) EC F0
Zip Code Bytes Along with that, is a Zip Code field. This field, for a customer in the United States, is simply the Zip Code of the customer, converted to Hex. Then, when everyone rolls their clocks ahead (or back) to change to Daylight Savings Time, or back to Standard Time, Dish sends a command to your CAM, basically checking if the Zip Code is in a certain range, and if it is, modifying the Time Zone Byte accordingly. So, if you want to ensure that your IRD time is correct, put in a Zip Code from your Time Zone, case closed.
With (Bell ExpressVU), this is not so clear-cut. Being that they use the same Nagra CAMs as their American counterparts, it seems logical that they would have both the Time Zone and Zip Code field. It turns out that the Time Zone field functions exactly as it does with Dish Network. Hopefully you've recognized that Canada doesn't have Zip Codes associated with addresses, instead there is an alpha-numeric "Postal Code". Instead of trying to cram each possibly Postal Code into the allocated area, Bell opted for an easier method. Certain ranges of "pseudo zip-codes" are allocated to the different regions of Canada. You will see here a table, captured from two specific datastream logs, namely from when Daylight Savings Time took effect, and when it was revoked.
Some of the data is not filled in, if anyone would like to submit the missing data, it would be appreciated! Still, this paints a fairly accurate picture of how assigns Zip Codes, and should help you pick a Zip Code that will ensure your IRD always displays the proper date.
I'll go through a quick example here. Say you're in a region of Canada where normally its "Mountain Time" (MST), but during Daylight Savings Time it turns to "Mountain Daylight Time" (MDT). We'd look up our Standard Time Byte (E4) and our Daylight Byte (E in the top table. Then we look in the bottom table, for a row in which the "ST" column contains E4, and the DST column contains E8. Here is one such row:
Zip Start Zip End DST ST 5984 6006 E8 E4
So any Zip Code from the range of 5984 to 6006 should give you the proper IRD time. Remember these are decimal values, depending on what type of Smart Card you are programming, you may need to convert it to Hex first.
Note about the ATMega The ATMega deals with the Time Zone/Zip Code in a special way, so I'll mention that here. It uses the Zip Code first. When sends down a "Time Zone Update" command, it will change the Time Zone byte stored on the ATMega. That is why those of you who set the Zip Code to 0 (zero), get bumped to Newfoundland Time after a while: 0 is a pseudo-zip-code for NST/NDT! So, you can either a) put in the proper zip code, or b) set the zip code to 99999, therefore locking the Time Zone to the one programmed onto the card. Note option b) will mean you have to reprogram your card whenever Daylight Savings Time takes affect, or turns back.
Conclusion I hope this has taught you all you need to know about the Time system used by Nagra CAMs.
Sorry for the late reply. Just been busy. Thank you for the information and that was very informative. By the way, I look up GMT online and compare different time zones. As for me, since I am located in NJ and it's says -4 or -5 compare to GMT time zone. I went into time zone and adjust the GMT setting to -4 to reflect my current position and it was able to work. Therefore, my tv guide is sync to current time. Still new at this satellite stuff. It's too bad I can't get all the channels I would want like Cinemax, etc.... Anyway, thanks again.