franken@bbncca.ARPA (Ed Frankenberry) (08/15/84)
I have a different question about tiered cable services. Some relatives recently decided to cancel the "premium" service from their local cable company and opt for basic service instead. The cable company made an appointment to remove the remote control converter/descrambler box later that month. Shortly thereafter, the subscription channels on the tiers were blanked out (although HBO could still be received). This occurred before the craftsperson came to the premises. How is it possible to selectively disable reception of tiered services? Are the individual converter boxes remotely addressable from the cable head end? (The community is wired for one-way cable service and uses the "Octogon" scrambling system).
ron@brl-tgr.ARPA (Ron Natalie <ron>) (08/15/84)
In our cable system SHOWTIME is mundane scrambled (you can get it by replacing a jumper in your converter box). PLAYBOY has some more complicated method (all I get is white and black marks on the screen and a bleedle noise in the audio) which probably requires some more complicated decoder. HBO seems to be patched in out in this little box where the cable is distributed to our apartment building. The installer opened it up twiddled the wires inside the distribution panel, I wasn't watching too closely. -Ron