intelligence for Cable TV

[Roedy Green]

This is flagrantly off topic. If you were charitable, you could
stretch things since Java started as a set top box language for TVs.

My puzzle is this. How do cable TV companies regulate which channels
you get if you don't install some sort of descrambler box they
manufacture?

Is there some sort of universal descrambler built into TVs or VCRs?

Just how smart is this thing?

I thought perhaps it was they sent N channels unscrambled, and you
required a box to get beyond that. However, when I discontinued TV
cable I discovered there were still two cable channels, so that shoots
that theory.

 

[Boudewijn Dijkstra]

This is flagrantly off topic. If you were charitable, you could
stretch things since Java started as a set top box language for TVs.

My puzzle is this. How do cable TV companies regulate which channels
you get if you don't install some sort of descrambler box they
manufacture?

By not scrambling these channels? Maybe by providing scrambled and
non-scrambled versions.

Is there some sort of universal descrambler built into TVs or VCRs?

Considering the possibility of very old TVs and VCRs still being in use, I
don't think this option is very realistic.

Just how smart is this thing?

I thought perhaps it was they sent N channels unscrambled, and you
required a box to get beyond that. However, when I discontinued TV
cable I discovered there were still two cable channels, so that shoots
that theory.

What do you mean by discontinued? Does the government in your region require
cable companies to provide a number of unscrambled channels for emergency
purposes?

 

[Roedy Green]

What do you mean by discontinued? Does the government in your region require
cable companies to provide a number of unscrambled channels for emergency
purposes?

I cancelled my TV cable service but kept my Internet cable service.
Even when I did so, two cable channels continued to function.

I had cable service before, with perhaps 50 channels without any sort
of descrambler box. They were trying to sell me a premium service
that did require a box.

I was previously under the delusion the basic channels were not
scrambled, and once you were hooked up you got the basic set. To get
the premium stuff you would need a descrambler. But it appears that
is not so. They have some way of turning off and on even the basic
channels to individual subscribers.

Perhaps the cable system is not a passive distributor of a generic
content. Perhaps my VCR or TV has a descrambler I don't know about.

I don't have any practical need for this information. It is just a
curiosity itch how it works.

The question is related to my general interest in delivering content
on demand, movies, home-made radio shows, music, computer programs,
data in massive bulk.

The cable companies deal with the problem of distributing generic
content while giving only specific access. I think we need to
generalise that notion to the net to allow bulk caching.

 

[MikL]

Down here in Australia, the cable internet/TV supplier that I use doesn't
encrypt TV channels. I assume they just download an "unlock" message to the
set-top box when I subscribe to more channels.

I'm told (by some who claim to have done it) that it is possible to access
unsubscribed channels by running appropriate software on the PC directly
attached to the cable modem, and then play those channels on the PC. The
cable TV company is, of course, less than enthusiastic about such creative
hacking

On the other hand, the satellite channels down here are scrambled; the set
top boxes for these use a plug-in decoder chip about the size of an SD RAM
card. There is a flourishing black market in magic decoder cards that
decode all satellite channels.

Sometimes I think about getting the extra channels; other times I just
remember the immortal Pink Floyd words "I've got thirteen channels of s***
on the TV to choose from...".

 

[Andrew Thompson]

..Sometimes I think about getting the extra channels; other times I just
remember the immortal Pink Floyd words "I've got thirteen channels of s***
on the TV to choose from...".

...hmm. I have only around 100 Pink Floyd tracks, so
I missed that one in my travels.. 'Nobody Home'?

Now I'll have to hear it. If only for the line
"I've got wild staring eyes, and I got a strong
urge to fly"

What? Java? ...ok.

 

[MikL]

....but I got nowhere to fly to (fly to, fly to, fly to)

Side 3 of the 2 LP set; some of the best crafted music ever, I reckon.