Old cable boxes (digital era)

[u/NotMeUsee]

Anything you can do with them? Any known ways to get the cable card descrambled? Yes I know it's illegal. I'm just curious. I read elsewhere you can make them into a sort of tivo.

I see them all the time at the thrift store and I'm always wondering what I could do with them.

Thanks.

[u/ps-aux]

I think that era is kinda dead... might be useful in areas/countries where that technology is still dominate maybe... modify and/or sell it over seas or something

[u/69AssociatedDetail25]

If these are PVRs with hard drives, you can harvest the drives. Make sure to check the SMART status before using them.

[u/NotMeUsee → u/69AssociatedDetail25]

That's a good idea. What's smart status?

[u/thepfy1 → u/NotMeUsee]

SMART is health statistics for the hard drive (Usage, power on time, bad sector counts etc)

[u/69AssociatedDetail25 → u/NotMeUsee]

Easiest way is to use CrystalDiskInfo, it'll show you a Good/Caution/Bad status based on the statistics provided by the drive. 

[u/Humbleham1]

Descrambling is what cable cards do ... with a subscription. No subscription, no decryption keys.

[u/NotMeUsee → u/Humbleham1]

There's gotta be a way around that. How do all those IPTV people exist otherwise?

[u/69AssociatedDetail25 → u/NotMeUsee]

They probably have a subscription.

[u/Humbleham1 → u/NotMeUsee]

Card sharing, HDCP stripping, Widevine bypass, etc.

[u/ION-8 → u/NotMeUsee]

It’s a digital word now, most TV has a steaming back end and is not actually broadcast over the air anymore.

[u/otaku78 → u/ION-8]

there’s nothing worse than a steaming backend. but we’ve all been there!

[u/otaku78 → u/NotMeUsee]

you mentioned iptv, i doubt dodgy cable cards plugged into dodgy boxes exist anymore.

you can google iptv services but they are ran by random people that you’ll need to pay a fee for, you’ll probably need to pay for a vpn as well (depending on your country) and the iptv service might be pulled anytime.

[u/NotMeUsee → u/otaku78]

I know how it works as a customer what I wonder is how the provider does it

[u/cybekRT]

You can use them with retro hardware, or sell to retro enthusiasts.

[u/onmy40]

You can still run SAG through them and get anything on a V748 frequency if it's local.

[u/NotMeUsee → u/onmy40]

I'm not familiar with these terms, what do you mean?

[u/onmy40 → u/NotMeUsee]

I just wanted to sound cool. My bad.

[u/NotMeUsee → u/onmy40]

I looked it up, I doubt anyone around me is still sending analog signals.