Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site pucc-i
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!harpo!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!CS-Mordred!Pucc-H:Pucc-I:ags
From: ags@pucc-i (Seaman)
Newsgroups: net.tv,net.video
Subject: Re: cable ready TV/VCR (Showtime on VCR)
Message-ID: <183@pucc-i>
Date: Mon, 6-Feb-84 10:00:13 EST
Article-I.D.: pucc-i.183
Posted: Mon Feb  6 10:00:13 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 9-Feb-84 13:40:09 EST
References: <202@hou2b.UUCP>, <176@pucc-i> <203@hou2b.UUCP>
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center
Lines: 56

There seems to be some confusion about what "scrambling" means.

---------------------------------------------------------------
>    1) They had ordinary cable service - no premium channels -
>       and did not receive any such channels.
>  
>    2) They bought and installed their VCR.
>  
>    3) They now can get Showtime (but only through their VCR).
>  
>  It seems clear to me that the VCR must be having SOME effect!!!
------------------------------------------------------------------

I agree that the VCR is doing something, but it is not DESCRAMBLING.
Try this simple test:

     (a) Tune in Showtime on the VCR.

     (b) Note what channel the VCR is tuned to.

     (c) Tune to the same channel on the TV.  What do you see?

Most likely, you cannot do (c) at all.  You may not be able to do (b)
either, but that is another story. If you cannot do (c), this simply
means that the VCR picks up more channels than the TV does (very likely,
the VCR is cable-ready and the TV is not).  This has nothing to do with
scrambling.

In our area, Showtime is on superband channel 24 (not UHF channel 24 -- this
channel is located in the gap between channels 13 (VHF) and 14 (UHF) and can 
be picked up only on cable-ready TV sets and VCR's).  If you tune it in 
directly, without going through a cable box, you will see:

	(1) The picture appears to be out of adjustment, as if someone
	    had done something strange to the "horizontal hold" control.

	(2) The picture cannot be corrected by the controls on the set.

	(3) As you watch, the picture occasionally flip-flops.  Parts of
	    the picture are sometimes plainly visible, but distorted.

	(4) The sound is normal.

These are the symptoms of scrambling.  In order to see Showtime normally, you
must get a converter/descrambler from the cable company.

If you browse the back pages of electronics magazines, you may find ads
for descrambling devices.  It is not legal to own these devices.  Needless
to say, no TV or VCR contains a built-in descrambling device.
-- 

Dave Seaman
..!pur-ee!pucc-i:ags

"Against people who give vent to their loquacity 
by extraneous bombastic circumlocution."