DigiTV Licensing and Activation
From DigiTV eHub Help
Contents |
The Demonstration Version
The DigiTV v4 application has been made provided in trial form as a freely available download from the Nebula Media website. Please try out the fully-fuctional demonstration version before buying the full unrestricted version licence.
The trial version offers full TV/PVR/eHub functionality for 10 minutes at a time and requires that the user makes a channel change each time the period expires to continue using the system. In this way the full functionality of DigiTV can be explored and users are encouraged to try it out before buying a license.
As well as natively supporting Nebula Media's own digital TV hardware, DigiTV will support a wide range of 3rd party digital tuners via the BDA (Broadcast Driver Architecture) system. This architecture was designed by Microsoft to allow hardware from different manufacturers to work with software that supports the BDA way of doing things. However, since the reality of BDA falls somewhat short of the ideal, users of 3rd party hardware must first check that DigiTV will work with their own tuners before purchasing simply by downloading and running the trial.
Activating the Software
Once you have decided that you would like to continue using DigiTV but without the 10 minute interruptions, you will need to buy a license to activate the softare.
Software Activation Licenses are available from the Nebula Media Shop and come in two types:
1 - A Full license for users that have never run DigiTV on their target system before
2 - An Upgrade license for users that wish to upgrade from a previous DigiTV v3 installation.
Choose the type of license that applies to you and follow the instructions given in the shop web pages to buy it.
Once your order is accepted, your license will be activated for 72 hours and you'll be able to use the email address that you supplied with your order to activate your downloaded copy of DigiTV v4 simply by running the program and following the Activation instructions. If you paid using Paypal, use your paypal login email address when prompted.
Since payment processing is not immediate, DigiTV will periodically contact the Nebula Media license server to see if your payment was processed without error, so it is important keep an internet connection open for a short while after activation to allow DigiTV to check. If all is well, your license will be transformed into a permenant one and no more communication with the Nebula License Server will take place. If there is a problem, then we'll contact you to let you know via email. All of this usually takes place within 12 hours of purchase and is completely transparent in operation, and because the temporary license is issued immediately you can start using DigiTV without delay after you place the order.
Number of Activations
DigiTV v4 licensing is designed to allow you to use DigiTV v4 on a single computer, called a 'seat'. If you wish to use it on more than one computer, then additional seat licenses must be purchased.
However, it is recognised that sometimes it will be necessary to re-build your system due to hardware and/or software upgrades. To allow for this, your purchased license will allow you up to 3 activations which you may use at any time. If however, you regularly upgrade your system and reinstall software as a matter of course, then the 3 activations will be used up quite quickly.
To cater for the 'regular rebuild' case, if you need more than 3 activations then DigiTV will ask you for more details about your original license order to confirm that you are indeed the correct owner of the license and once this is given will request that the Nebula License server resets your activation count so that you can reactivate DigiTV without any problems.
To guard against abuse and to protect your security, the number and timing of re-activation resets is closely monitored and we may contact you to confirm legitimacy.
Licence Types
There are currently 4 licences that are implemented within DigiTV. When a DigiTV runtime licence is purchased, all 4 are enabled:
Network Licence
This allows a PC with tuner hardware installed to act as a Network TV server. The number of clients shown is the total number of client PCs running DigiTV in client mode that can attach to the server at any one time.
IPTV Licence
IPTV in this sense refers to the ability of DigiTV to stream TV/Radio over the internet rather than the more general use of IPTV such as BBC's iPlayer. In order to use this internet streaming function, this licence must be enabled. BBC iPlayer is not licence controlled.
H.262/AAC Licence
Most High Definition TV programming in Europe is made using H.264 (MPEG4 AVC) video compression and AAC Audio compression. These compression methods are different to the standard MPEG2 Video and Audio that is conventionally used for Standard Definition TV and therefore this licence is included to cover the new decompression methods.
BDA Licence
The BDA (Broadcast Driver Architecture) Licence will allow DigiTV to work with a broad range of 3rd-party tuner hardware as well as Nebula Media's own DigiTV-branded hardware. The number of devices specified after the licence shows how many tuners may be connected on a PC at any one time.
FAQ
I use the networking feature of DigiTV, do each of the network clients running DigiTV v4 need licences too?
No they don't. A DigiTV v4 licence is only needed by the server, ie the PC with tuner hardware attached. Any networked PCs can run DigiTV v4 in client mode without needing a licence.
How many tuners can I have attached to my PC with a single licence?
The licence will cover up to 10 attached tuners.
Why do I keep getting 'Cannot contact Activation Server' when attempting to activate my software?
The Activation Server will occasionally be taken down for routine maintenance, but this is usually timed so that it impacts as few users as possible. By far the most common cause of this error is if your firewall is preventing DigiTV from accessing the internet. Make sure that the firewall isn't blocking DigiTV and activation will probably go without a hitch.
What does the Licence Dialog box show?
The licence dialog box (accessible from the main menu: Help - Licences) shows which licences have been enabled for your installation. Generally, it can show three states:
Demonstration Licence: No licences are enabled except the Network client licence. This will allow DigiTV to function normally for 10 minutes at a time if tuner hardware is connected (ie in Demonstration Mode), or fully (ie without functionality timeouts) if used as a network client for a DigiTV-based server.
Licences enabled with expiry dates: Your order for a DigiTV licence has been received and a temporary licence has been issued. DigiTV will run normally and have full functionality with no timeouts until the expiry date shown. This licence is issued while Nebula Media servers process your order and once the OK is given, your licences will be updated to 'No Expiry' completely transparently to the user. It is important to make sure that your computer is connected to the internet during this time so that DigiTV can contact the Nebula Server periodically for the full licence. The full licence is usually issued within 24 hours of receiving the order.
Full Licences: All licences are enabled with no expiry and DigiTV will function fully without timeouts indicating that your order has been processed without problems.
