79
Probably my first piracy experience (it was great)
(lemmy.today)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2024
79 points (97.6% liked)
Piracy
11 readers
6 users here now
Welcome to /c/piracy
No netflix or streaming services landlubbers allowed, this is pirates territory.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
So I've heard of this a bit before but never really got it. Is the idea that the cable could access all of the channels, but the box had some sort of DRM on it that prevented it from actually tuning into those channels?
You could tune in to any channel you wanted, but the ones you weren't subscribed to would be scrambled. These boxes would unscramble the signal letting you watch paid content for free.
Goes to show that security through obscurity is no security at all.
I remember before scrambling they just put blocks that prevented you from going to certain channels. I somehow figured out if you ran the cable box through the VCR first and put it on channel 2 while the TV was still on 3, it would shift all the channels down one. Cinemax was channel 14, which our box just would not go to. But it would go to 13, so doing my little trick teenage me got to watch a lot of skinamax.