My buddy wants one and says that it will work with any cable system.  Its nonaddressable and has "technology" to make it nondetectable.  My other buddy thinks its a bad idea and that the cable company will detect you sooner or later. Something about them sending signals to your box.  Also he says some systmens have a filter that will not allow a descrambler to work. So who is correct.  I think its not a good idea either way.  Not worth the legal hassles if you get pinched.

I would not get it, too risky and it is a felony. Felony = no more gun ownership!  One of the cable companies had a problem with people stealing cable and during a pay-per-view fight, Tyson vs Some soon to be ass kicked guy, they put up a promotional offer to all the pay-per-view people for a free jacket. Well, a lot of the dumbasses who were using cable descrambler boxes called in for their free jacket. They also got a free felony to go with it!!

[beer]

Dont lose your gun rights over a damn illegal cable box!!

Thats what I told him.  Its not worth it, not to mention that NO CCW if you get a felony!

Not just no CCW, No guns at all!! A felon is not permitted to own firearms at all, NONE.

[beer]

There are several different types of methods used to scramble signals, so it's hard to be precise without knowing exactly what equipment the cable company is using on your friends system.

The "universal" nonaddressable descramblers are mainly used on suppressed sync type systems (which are most of them these days), and are based around "Boss" boards that actually reconstruct the video signal on the fly.  Here's some examples:

http://[url]http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1306365761[/url]
http://[url]http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1306383880[/url]

If you have a General Instruments system, the RFT Gold works very well:

http://[url]http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1307278860[/url]

When it comes to "getting caught" they can't tell from the outside because all boxes and cubes are filtered to block TDR (Time Domain Reflectometry) signals.  The only way things can go bad if someone is stupid enough to voluntarily let a cable co. rep into your house to inspect your equipment.

And if you think this is illegal, don't worry, because they couldn't sell it on ebay if it was.  [:D]

Disclaimer: I have no first-hand knowledge of this cable stuff - just what I read on the internet. [:P]

Like SteelRat said, there's no way anyone willever knw what is inside your home unless you're dumb enough to let them in to look (snoop) around...

A few months ago, my stupid ass cable company hung a notice on my doorknob, stating that they needed to gain access to the inside of my home because they detected "signal leakage", and needed to "inspect my connections"...
WHAT A CROCK OF SHIT !!!
The notice also said my service "could" be interrupted if I did not schedule an appointment for them to inspect...
I immediately called them, and asked for a technical explanation of what a "signal leakage" was, and how they could detect a "signal leakage" inside my home...
The first girl I spoke to had no idea what I was talking about, and immediately connected me to a
manager, who knew what I was talking about, but had no adequate explanation for me...She offered to connect me to a Technician, but they were "unavailable" at the moment...

Funny thing is, I NEVER allowed anyone inside my home, nor did I schedule an appointment, and my cable service continued uninterrupted...

I eventually cancelled my cable service because of this B.S., and the $42.00 a month I was paying for "basic" service...
That's $500 a year just to watch the tube !!!

I don't watch TV that much anyway, so my "rabbit ears" have been doing just fine...    

Keep in mind, I had nothing to hide from the cable company, I just had a bug up my ass about strangers wandering through my house...

Lots of people just splice into their neighbors cable from the junction box...doesn't work for the HBO channels, but basic cable will come through...

They probably realized you were a paying customer and updated thier records and left you alone. They cannot detect leakage inside your home but they can sense it at the pole or can and at the side of your house usually due to the crappy connectorization job people do with the radio shack connectors and lack of a crimp tool creating loss and dropping signal levels beyond that point promting interference complaints down the line, usually they will cut off the drop to the residence at the pole or can and put on tamper proof terminators to prevent unauthorized hook ups as well as recording the instance most times that is teh end of it unless whomever keeps trying to hook back up one of the things they will do is run a "bullet" or high powered RF pulse down the line frying cable boxes, vcrs, and TV tuners and stereos if using the cable line as an antenna. If the hookups continue most states allow for a complaint to be opened and after 3 documented attemps by the cable thief to hook up the police or sheriff will get involved the charges and fines are hefty and can result in a felony conviction usually that is a last resort for the cable co though if the "offender' dosent take the hint the first few times they cut him off. Better off to get a DSS and get an "open" card out of canada but you might have to get a new card once in a while when they sweep the system or change codes on the system.

All that, seems like a lot of trouble...
I have rabbit ears on top of my TV, and get one channel...
Channel 3 out of Philly...

AND IT'S FREE !!!

Guess I'm old fashioned... [:)]
(Cheap too)

My brother inlaw got busted for this . They went pretty easy on him ( I don't know if a deal was cut ). He had to pay some hefty fines and the kicker was he had to pay for cable for at least 1 year .

Here's the bottom line:  [b][i]If[/b][/i] you get caught, you're a fucking [b]IDIOT[/b]!

I'm sorry but, the people that call the on-screen phone numbers for free T-Shirts before fights are souring the gene pool.  If your wife/girlfriend calls the cable company because your "black box" stopped working for a little while, well then maybe its time to trade her in for something a little brighter.  Anybody truly afraid of having the Cable Police break down their door some night while they're watching a little Playboy Channel needs to add another layer of tinfoil to their hat.

If I pay someone to bring an electronic signal to an outlet in my castle, what I do with it is my business and my business alone.  The scumbag cable company will be told to go and fuck themselves if they ever dream of knocking on my door.[-!-]

There is no such thing as an illegal cable box in this country. [moon]

Again, I have no first-hand knowledge regarding this mysterious process, I'm just echoing sentiment garnered from various internet sources.[beer]

Ask O.J.

Hheehehehehe

Are you referring to the FBI's Operation X which a few days ago rounded up a bunch of people and arrested them on charges of money laundering, selling Ecstasy, and stealing equipment used to pirate satellite channels?

According to the FBI the charges of satellite-signal theft came up only as a sidelight to the investigation's main thrust, which was drugs and money laundering.

O.J.'s Lawyer said that his client's name came up in Operation X wiretaps.  The gov't felt like that was a green light to go and harass the Juice to help make up for their gross incompetence in his recent road rage case.  So they bum rushed his house at 6 in the A.M., and what'd they find?  I obviously don't need to tell you anything 'bout that since your obviously so goddamn smart, but the federal agents didn't find jack shit.

So Jim Beam, exactly what question regarding cable-descrambler boxes would you have me ask Mr. O.J. Simpson?

[url]http://www.cableboxoutlet.com[/url]
I've been using one for years.  First of all it is legal to own one.  Second it is legal to use one.  
It is illegal to use it to watch channels you don't subscribe to.  This sounds real stupid, but the principal is that if you subscribe to HBO etc. you're entitled to own a second box for the bedroom or to not have to pay the rental fee for the first.  But it's up to you, on your honor, to contact your cable company and pay for the channels you are going to view, as well as pay per views.
The signal your friend referrred to is called a bullet.  What it does is fry equipment your supposedly not suppose to have.  The boxes in the link block it, or you can buy or build a component to do that.
Non Addressable also means the cable company can't see it though their line, not that it's any of their business.  There should be an FAQ in the link I gave you that will explain all the gritty detals.  And even if they find one in your home, what can they do when you can legally own it.
I will make this disclaimer.  I carefully worded this post as I did not encourage anyone to do anything illegal.

dragracerart & offctr

Cable companies can definitely detect RF signal leakage in your homes, Brick, wood, multiunit it is done everynight. They can also detect it from the street infront of your house and from the pole or ped you are served off.
Agree though it is easy to steal but is saving a $40 a month cable bill worth risking a felony conviction only for a few late night nude movies and a few great sports games?
Not for me.

For some it is the priciple of the issue. The Cable companies all have a monopoly, which is wrong in any industry. Additionally telivision and radiao are supposed to be "free" in that advertising revenue pays for the shows. We "pay" for TV & Radio when we buy the products we see/hear advertised on TV & Radio.

I dont like "paying" for anthing twice and I wont support a monopoly.

Even if they did detect a RF signal.  How would they know it wasnt one of their boxes?  This is all very interesting and this is one of the reasons I love this board. Lots of experience, know how and disagreements!

[b]O[/b]ne of their techniques back in the day, and there still might be companies that use it, is for the cable company to install 88MHz filters inside their boxes.  They would then pump a tone down along with the cable signal.  The tone would be broadcast on a 88Mhz FM carrier which is easily picked up on a radio receiver.  If your box didn't have that filter, you were broadcasting that tone, then Joe Smeghead cable tech might one day walk around your house with a sniffer antenna.

So then they get a tone, what do they do?  Well, there's not a hell of a lot they can do except to try and trick all the fucking rubes out there to turn themselves in - apparently there is enough out there to keep the big lie alive.  The lie being of course that there's any danger involved in doing this.

Anyway, that's what I heard...

several yrs ago i buy a house. the previous owner tells me he has two cables running through the house. one was for cable, the other was for an antenna. he advised me that he cut his cable off the month before we signed. well when i move in i hook up one of the two cables coming from the wall, it seems that the cable was never cut off. i have no box, just a cable ready tv. is this my fault or is it the cable companys?

If you have ever noticed the cable company van with no ladders on top but a flat square antenna that looks like its made out of thin PVC pipe that is a sniffer antenna. They drive around the cable system and check for stray RF signals and leakage and if they find some either check it out further on foot or dispatch repair service to investigate.Allof teh components,amplifiers,taps,splices etc all have a known loss in Db if that increases for a given leg or signal level drops it is fairly easy to find the offending drop and remove it.Usually the taps at the pole or can(ped)have all unused ports filled with dummy teminators to prevent loss and interference egress into the system. Most times people hooking up use substandard hardware or technique in putting on the connectors and leave shorts from the braid to the center conductor or loose connectors which allow RF to literally pour out. People even misunderstand the nature of coax and strip and twist the conductors and tape em up. Most of the people stealing cable signal just dont get the message when they get cut off and go out and re hook the drop at the pole.
Cable Co's dont have a monopoly they just act like they do --and charge like they do - even digital cable for what you pay is a rip off. In the past 5 years the cable industry has lost more than 50% of thier customers to satellite instead of lowering prices and improving service they did just the opposite.For the bandwidth available the offering is paltry at best for what you can get off DSS for the same price. My cable modem goes out at least once a week despite the weather the DSS only goes out in really really bad weather and then has only gone out for a few minuites at a time. If you have ever been in a cable TV co's "head end" you would thank god they dont carry your phone line most are technical abortions for lack of a better term with ,jumpers, modulators,recievers etc all over the place.One of the systems I used to maintain under contract for a colarado co at a 3 apartment complex's in Atlanta had  one of its head ends in a sears aluminium storage "barn" setting on pallets next to the satellite dishes (we did not build it just maintained it for the co that owned it) It was a trash heap the AC did not work and the crappy mod's they used toasted themselves in the summertime left and right. We didnt even cut off the ones not paying or tapped in ilegally but fixed the connections they did becuase we felt sorry for the people who had to live with this crappy system as thier only entertainment.

The whole "RF leakage" issue, believe it or not, is legitimate.  Sort of.

Because they're not broadcasting over the air, cable TV can use frequences on the cable that would interfere with other services, like aircraft.  The FCC has allowable limits for RF leakage, and the cable company can get fined or shut down for violating it.  But as others have stated, it turns out that a lot of leakage is caused by people hooking up their own boxes, switches, splitters, etc.  And this "legitimate" issue makes a great excuse to try and talk their way into someone's home to search for bootleg descramblers.

And it's very effective!  Especially when they show up at the door at 11:00am with an Official Cable Co. Truck in Official Cable Co. Uniforms holding Official Cable Co. Paperwork explaining that they're merely trying to fix a problem and improve the customer's reception by stopping "leakage."  Many an uninformed housewife have let the nice cable techs in, only to find out that they're now in hot water for the bootleg box hubby bought off ebay so he could watch the Spice Channel for free.

Some friends in Los Angeles sent me some newspaper clippings about program that CVI Cable started.  Apparently not enough customers were letting the tech into their houses unannounced, so they put together a "goon squad" of off duty cops, bikers, and other large, intimidating types to bully their way into people's homes so they could perform these searches.  It happened to a friend of mine - he was in his bedroom when he heard some noises in his living room and found two large, scruffy males pulling on the cables behind his TV set.  The front door was open, but the screen was locked, but they just gave it a sharp yank and broke it open.  Luckily for my friend he had no bootleg equipment.  And luckily for the cable goons my friend isn't a gun owner, 'cuz if that happened to me there would have been lead flying!  It finally got so bad that the local media started writing stories about the program and CVI was forced to abandon their Goon Squad.

Just so you know - under no circumstances are you obligated to let any cable co. employee into your home at any time.  Granted, they may claim you're "leaking" excessive RF and can disconnect you at the pole, but they still cannot come in your home without your express permission.  If you get an unexpected visit, just tell them that you're busy, but please call to arrange an appointment and you'll gladly make time for them at a later date.

The laws are changing. Eventually they will come knock on your door and you will have to let them in,,, or end up like Waco. And then you'll end up burning to death in your house with all your family because you wanted to get on some high-horse about free cable.

And you guys can whine till you are blue in the face but cable theft IS illegal and unethical. You can rationalize it any way you want but you are still wrong.

Sure they do. There is only one cable TV service provider in any given area. In my area it is Cox cable. It's not like I can call Dimension Cable and get a better deal.

The fact that there are alternate services such as Sattalite TV doesnt mean there is no [b]cable[/b] monopoly.

I pay for my cable. It's lovely. Especially considering that the bill has gone up 4.50 in the last year, in unannounced increments, to bring us 'better service upgrades.' Mainly high-speed internet and digital cable, neither of which I subscribe to.

I'm glad that I can now pay for everyone else's cable usage. Yay, Cox Communications.

Personally, I don't find it ethically wrong to steal cable. And I don't find it ehtically wrong to steal phone service, or long distance. either.

Do you honestly think it costs the cable company anywhere near an extra $40 to send you a signal that's going by your house anyway? I seriously doubt it.

That being said, I don't steal cable. I pay for it, mainly because I don't ever think to buy a box when I have a spare $200 lying around. I end up buying ammo instead.

The cable company doesn't seem to mind all the RF leakage from my crappy twist-on Wally World splitters to provide service in every room, nor the crappy, hand-twisted splices I use to fix the coax everytime the lawn service chews it up with the mower.

They even shrug, and say, "Oh, okay," when they come beating on the door looking for cable thivery here. Just show them my shitty patch jobs in the coax that's strung out all over my grass next to the house, and they go away happy, without even offering to financially rape me to fix it properly.

Dolomite what's your problem.  Yes I was referring to OJ Simpson.  I thought the charges were rather assuming.  I have never seen the national news report a raid on someone's house for stealing cable or DSS.  I also thought the combination of selling drugs and stealing cable were pretty funny sort of like arresting someone for murder and littering.

In response to your comment asking if I think I am so smart, Yes I do.  You must have ESP to determine my state of mind from such a short post.  Can you tell me what I am thinking now?

Summary:

1-They are legal to own.
2- they are illegal to use with channels you are not paying for
3- Almost all new ones are bullet -proof ie they can not be zapped by the cable company
4- Just make sure that whoever will be living with you to NEVER let the cable co in your house.
5-if it does ever go out- check a TV that is not hooked up to the box to make sure it is the cable not the box that went out before you call.

** I do not endorse using thses as they are illegal

well, we pay alot for cable....we have the internet connection and that was the motivator, and we don't have a home phone now (SBC Ameritech can kiss my @$$). We opted for the "premium pack" for difital service along with the internet connection. we get every channel they offer except 9 (8 movie channels and one disney channel). About $100 month total for everything.
I ran all our lines, I ran the line in the basement rom the back of the house, through the splitter for the cable modem, and into the "distributor box" in the living room. neat little thing, takes multiple inputs and can send them to multiple outputs. I used good cable, good connections, and haven't had a problem. When the cable company did show up for install, I had a PVC pipe run outside the house with a junction box, pipe going up 8 feet for them to run the cable down (didn't want the dog chewing the line) and the other pipe going from the junction box through the wall into the basement near where I had the grounding block for them to attafch the line to.  So, although I have no plan to steal cable, I'm sure I could and get away with it. "Signal loss" as a reason to come in the house??? nope, try next door.

No_Expert

Ok, I know a little about this stuff, though no technical details. My sister-in-law and my next door neighbors wife along with one of my wife's friends all work for the local cable company.

The local company recently switched to digital cable and is working on a cable internet service and I know for a fact that they can detect what channels are being descrambled on the user end of the line. I don't know the technicalities/legalities of this, but I know it can be and is done. If somebody is stealing cable they CAN find out. The cable boxes communicate back to the main facility through the cable line much like the way the internet passes through cable. I'm sure there are ways out there to trick the box or only having it send info that you want sent, but that is out of my realm. I'm just a electronics engineering wrench, not a programmer.

Now, I also have a few friends that get 900 free channels of satalite tv. They have card coders that they use to write data to the little chips implanted on the receiver cards. They also installed some type of "spike" protection in their receivers to keep the cards from getting fried as the cable companies sometimes do to the people stealing satalite tv. The thing about this is that it is supposedly completely legal for the end user to descramble these channels since they are basically using transmission waves that the satellite companies are sending into their home. All of the stuff they use was bought over the internet along with all of the associated programs they use to write to the cards. Again, no real technical details here. My friends don't really know how it works, they just did the stuff that they read on the net and since I actually pay for my cable I really don't care enough to waste my time looking it up on the net and studying it myself.

That's all I have to say about tha-yat....

Hey Steel Rat, Which of the boxes have the best reviews? You know, that you have read on the internet?

Some of the ads on Ebay say the Cleartron models are just cheap knockoffs of the their units. Seems like a big pissin contest on there to me. I don't mind paying for quality, I just want to really get quality.

thanks,

-elliott

Sorry, I can't give you any details because I don't have any of these boxes.  You're reading the same stuff that I am.  I can tell you from what I've read, the best quality seems to come from using the cable company's box with a "cube" like the RFT.




My guess is that these are all pretty much the same.  You just gots to pay your money and takes your chances.  [:D]  One thing I would suggest before buying anything off ebay is look at the seller's feedback.  Then I look at the bidding history of the buyers leaving feedback to see if they look legit.  If sellers are scamming people or selling junk, it will show up pretty quickly in feedback.  (This applies to everything, not just cable equipment.)

Good luck!

So are you suggesting that stealing is OK if it's from a monopoly?  Or just that you won't use the service if there's no competition?

I used to work for Cox Communications and the ONLY way you can get "busted" for viewing unpaid signals is
1) It is discovered in your house by a technician
2) Someone tells on you
3) You open your mouth
We were instructed not to confront the suspected person and to turn it into cable security( yes they do have a actual Security/investigation team)... and you can't tell from the tap or from the side of the house.
I didn't care much for the TV and cable part as I was hired for HSD (cable modem tech).  Lot's of people would always ask me if I knew where to get black boxes and I would reply "Those are illegal and you can goto jail" and then they would stop asking me.  So if you are doing it...
The only measurements that can be made along the co-axial cable is on a digital meter that measures forward and reverse carrier frequencies and their relative strength in dbmv's.  Also leakage of certain frequencies can be measured off the co-axial cable to determine compliance with federal law( if a cable company has lots of leakage in their system they can be fined by the FCC) Also leakage out.. or worse yet leakage in from competing local frequencies from nearby television transmitters (known as ingress) can affect an entire node or region of a cable system (the ghosts and wavy lines and hum-bars that scroll up the screen).  From my understanding on analog (and digital systems) the forward carrier frequency is the same in the entire system.  In other words everyone is getting all the (same)channels and the only difference between you and your neighbors is that your (legit) box is programmed to "let you get" the premiums and his box is programmed to block out that particular frequency (but in reality it is there)...so...
everyone is ALWAYS getting ALL the channels!
In no way was this meant to encourage the illegal theft of unpaid cable channels.
Have fun and buy a satallite dish!

when the cable guy came to install the cable modem he made some comment about crappy radio shack splitters when he saw the one I had to run cbale into my room. well the one he installed was made in china, and mine was made in the USA, and the picture quality looks the same through both

Look, all this talk about stealing cable is just flat out wrong. Calling them a monopoly to justify the theft is just rationalizing. You are still taking something that belongs to someone else without their permission, no matter how little you think it impacts them. You don't have to watch TV. It's not like they are in the air or water business. You can live without it. You could always go with DirecTV or Dish anyway (unless a view is obstructed).

And if you think that you own ethical rights to it just cause it is beamed into you yard then you are either an idiot or have achieved all new levels of self-centered rationalizing.

Go ahead and steal whatever you think that you can get away with but bragging about it on here or telling others to do it is subject to expression/condemnation of me. [:D]

[soapbox]

[img]http://www.netsnapshot.com/users/1340/images/PA4q0cCoBQIAAA6G6Nc_1340_29.pjpeg[/img]


Yes Mother.

Dolomite, well at least I tried. I guess everyone is still sleeping in this morning.

But who could have influenced you to say that? Hmmm, could it have been President Bush, no no no, could it have been,,,, SATAN!!!!????

Well isn't that special. [:D]

Nice photo.

If that *was* the implication (that it's OK to steal from a monopoly), I think it was pretty sad coming from someone who claims to be a law enforcement officer.  That would certainly qualify as one of life's little ironies...