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This guide was written to educate interested parties on Cable Television
descrambling, descramblers and some of the various methods used to defeat scrambling methods on
premium cable or pay cable television stations. The author of this guide
is simply exercising every Americans First Amendment right, Freedom of
Speech. The intent of this writing is not to defraud or promote the
theft of cable services. This guide should not be interpreted as legal
advice, if you have legal questions contact a lawyer or your local
authorities. Be warned that stealing cable services is illegal, and
there are severe penalties for anyone caught doing so.
If you have determined that your cable company uses an addressable
converter, then it will be a descrambler that you want to purchase.
There are several different descramblers, but the two most predominant
types are one-piece and two-piece units. The first part of this chapter
will explain one-piece units.
One-Piece units, or combination units, as they are commonly called, come
in two different varieties: Factory equipment, and after-market brands.
A descrambler that is the original factory equipment is a converter that
is exactly the same as, or very similar to, the converter that your
cable company uses. It is made by the same manufacturer, and has the
same, or a very similar model number. The only difference is that an
after-market device has been installed that allows the box to stay open
for every channel. (This device, commonly referred to as a chip, or a
test kit will be discussed in more detail in chapter eight.) This device
turns an addressable converter into a non-addressable converter that is
open for every channel. Since the converter is no longer addressable, it
cannot receive any instructions from the cable company to turn itself
off. The converter, in its non-chipped state, has the descrambler
circuitry inside, it just needs instructions from the cable company to
turn it on. The chip injects instructions into the converters
microprocessor to turn the box on for all channels, and to ignore any
instructions from the cable company to turn off the channels. The only
problem with factory equipment one-piece units is that they usually
cannot be purchased new. The companies that manufacture the boxes, such
as General Instrument Corp., Scientific Atlanta, and Pioneer, only sell
their equipment to cable companies, or distributors that supply cable
systems. They will not release equipment to anyone else. What this means
is that factory one-piece units are usually harder to come by and are
more expensive, as compared to two-piece units.
Factory equipment one-piece units find their way to the marketplace
through several means. Sometimes distributors (who are supposed to sell
only to cable companies) release converters to other companies,
companies in the business of selling descramblers. This is less than
ethical, but the converters
bring a higher price in the descrambler market and can lead to higher
returns for the distributor. There are rumors about individuals working
for cable companies ordering hundreds of converters, off the record,
only to turn around and sell the boxes to the companies that make/sell
descramblers. Thus, forming smaller cable companies allowing themselves
authorization to purchase boxes from distributors.
After-market one-piece units are also available to replace addressable
converters that are used by the cable companies. These one-piece units
are essentially non-addressable converters with descramblers built
inside which acts like the descrambler portion of the factory box. They
are available for some models only such as Jerrold and Scientific
Atlanta.
Two-piece descrambler units consist of a basic non-addressable converter
and an add-on descrambler. The add-on descrambler is often referred to
as a pan, which is short for pancake. Pancake meaning the descrambler is
usually enclosed in a flat metal box, and because of it's flatness, they
call it a pancake, or pan for short. There is no shortage of
generic, non-addressable converters. Anyone can buy them. The same holds
true for pans. Pans are manufactured overseas, usually in Taiwan. They
are produced by the thousands and imported into this country by a few
key distributors. Pans are made to simulate the descrambling circuitry
of the original factory converters, and when used in conjunction with a
non-addressable converter, the two-piece unit acts in much the same way
as the factory unit. Pans are available to replace many, but not all,
brands of addressable converters supplied by the cable companies. The
advantage of a two-piece unit would be if you moved to an area where the
cable company uses a different type of converter, chances are that all
you have to do is buy a new pan. Hook-up of the two-piece unit is
straightforward. The cable from your wall goes into the input of the
converter. The output from the converter goes to the input of the
descrambler. Finally, the output of the descrambler goes to the input of
the TV or the VCR. Two-Piece units are typically much less expensive
than one-piece units, but are not always as reliable. In most cases,
they work well. Although sometimes it takes a couple different pans
before you find the exact one that works best in your area.
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