Weird cable question

[Entity]

Since my replay died, I unplugged the coax (standard basic cable) from it and plugged it into my TV (Sony 42A10). I ran the Sony through a channel autodetect, and it picked up a whole ton of channels. I was flipping near some of the HD channels that it picked up (seems to have picked up Comcast's local HD channels), and stumbled across a few movies (newer movies, like Crash, Robots, etc.) being played.

It also seems like occasionally, I can pick up on a program that someone else is watching, as I'll see it fast forward or pause, as though someone else is controlling it.

I'm guessing this is something with the way that Comcast runs their On Demand or their Digital services? Anyone know what I'm talking about?

Rob

 

[funkymatt]

stop stealing your neighbor's cable. OR they're stealing yours :laugh:

 

[Zim Hosein]

Originally posted by: Entity
Since my replay died, I unplugged the coax (standard basic cable) from it and plugged it into my TV (Sony 42A10). I ran the Sony through a channel autodetect, and it picked up a whole ton of channels. I was flipping near some of the HD channels that it picked up (seems to have picked up Comcast's local HD channels), and stumbled across a few movies (newer movies, like Crash, Robots, etc.) being played.

It also seems like occasionally, I can pick up on a program that someone else is watching, as I'll see it fast forward or pause, as though someone else is controlling it.

I'm guessing this is something with the way that Comcast runs their On Demand or their Digital services? Anyone know what I'm talking about?

Rob

On-Demand FTW, too bad you don't have the remote Entity!

 

[Entity]

Originally posted by: Zim Hosein

Originally posted by: Entity
Since my replay died, I unplugged the coax (standard basic cable) from it and plugged it into my TV (Sony 42A10). I ran the Sony through a channel autodetect, and it picked up a whole ton of channels. I was flipping near some of the HD channels that it picked up (seems to have picked up Comcast's local HD channels), and stumbled across a few movies (newer movies, like Crash, Robots, etc.) being played.

It also seems like occasionally, I can pick up on a program that someone else is watching, as I'll see it fast forward or pause, as though someone else is controlling it.

I'm guessing this is something with the way that Comcast runs their On Demand or their Digital services? Anyone know what I'm talking about?

Rob

On-Demand FTW, too bad you don't have the remote Entity!

So how does on-demand work in such a way that I get some of these channels? A lot of the channels will just be blank for a while then a program/movie will come on, but I get all of the music channels (big whoop). It's just really odd. I'm planning on upgrading to digital+HD anyway, but it really made me curious about how their programs are distributed over their networks such that a random person can see what other people are watching.

Rob

 

[Zim Hosein]

Originally posted by: Entity

Originally posted by: Zim Hosein

Originally posted by: Entity
Since my replay died, I unplugged the coax (standard basic cable) from it and plugged it into my TV (Sony 42A10). I ran the Sony through a channel autodetect, and it picked up a whole ton of channels. I was flipping near some of the HD channels that it picked up (seems to have picked up Comcast's local HD channels), and stumbled across a few movies (newer movies, like Crash, Robots, etc.) being played.

It also seems like occasionally, I can pick up on a program that someone else is watching, as I'll see it fast forward or pause, as though someone else is controlling it.

I'm guessing this is something with the way that Comcast runs their On Demand or their Digital services? Anyone know what I'm talking about?

Rob

On-Demand FTW, too bad you don't have the remote Entity!

So how does on-demand work in such a way that I get some of these channels? A lot of the channels will just be blank for a while then a program/movie will come on, but I get all of the music channels (big whoop). It's just really odd. I'm planning on upgrading to digital+HD anyway, but it really made me curious about how their programs are distributed over their networks such that a random person can see what other people are watching.

Rob

Sounds like their network is F'ed up Entity, the On-Demand stuff is supposed to be a "secure" way of delivering pay-per-view content to ones' home w/ "Tivo-like" functionality. You should contact a website like The Register and make a name for yourself, it wouldn't be the first time an AT member did this!

 

[Zenmervolt]

This happened to a former co-worker of mine when they bought a TV with a built-in digital HD tuner. It seems as though right now some of the cable companies are relying on their proprietary boxes to lock out the channels and just hoping the the customer doesn't have a TV that can decode HD signals on its own.

ZV