I just bought a new HDTV. Why am I getting HBO?

April 11, 2007 5:57 AM

I just bought a new HDTV. Why am I getting HBO?

I bought an Olevia 232v with an integrated tuner. I have it hooked up to basic cable, which is provided by Time Warner along with my cable modem service.

When I hooked it up and did the auto-channel search it found about 46 analog channels along with about 400 digital channels, which seemed odd. I get all of the channels I used to with my old SDTV (Fox, CBS, ABC etc) both as digital signals in the 1.x range and as analog channels in the 2-50 range. About 85% of the digital channels are completely blank. I'm assuming those are for tiers of programming that are not part of my cable package. If I move way up the band however, I start to see some weird stuff, like HBO and Cinemax, as well as the usual end of the dial stuff like the OTB channel and Korean/Japanese/Chinese broadcasts

Here's the thing though: the premium channels are super flaky. They'll tune in and out, and the signal will pause at times only to resume some time later at the same point with no loss in between, exactly like you'd see if you were watching someone operating their DVR. They also fast forward. Also, the programming can slide down the channel. For instance, I've seen a program slip from .5 to .4 to .3.

My question isn't "how can I better view this stuff I'm not paying for;" I'm just looking for an explanation of what is going on because my curiosity is all-consuming. Am I watching someone else's On Demand streams and seeing them manipulate the playback? Is my television subject to a strange voodoo curse? What's the deal?

posted by mmcg to technology (7 comments total)

You are seeing what your neighbors are watching on "On Demand" or whatever your provider is calling it.
posted by Ferrari328 at 6:11 AM on April 11, 2007

It's worth noting that this past weekend was an HBO Free Preview period (April 6-10 as I recall) so that would explain why you were able to get that channel and its many alternate channels. As to the other stuff, I could not say.
posted by BigLankyBastard at 6:21 AM on April 11, 2007

Which could give you some interesting insights into your neighbors.
posted by flabdablet at 6:22 AM on April 11, 2007

Technical explanation: Your TV has an integrated QAM256 tuner. This allows it to pick up non-encrypted digital channels that are broadcast by your cable company.

The black channels are ones that are encrypted.

The channels that move around are the on-demand channels. Some cable companies have realized they need to encrypted their on-demand channels and have. It looks like TW has not. So you will get a chance to see what folks on your node (neighborhood, anywhere from 100 to 150 residences) are watching. I've seen everything from softcore porn to HBO and movies on demand. You have to deal with your neighbor controlling the stream though - if they pause or stop watching it, then you're SOL.
posted by SirOmega at 7:32 AM on April 11, 2007

Yep, I just read about this on slashdot a little while ago. Some guy even showed his cable rep that he was able to tune to one of his neighbors on-demand feeds. FWIW, this was comcast.

I think this has a lot to do with the kind of tuner in HDTVs.
posted by damn dirty ape at 7:39 AM on April 11, 2007

The same thing happens to my friends who live in an apartment complex, have a fancy HDTV, and have Comcast digital cable. Sometimes they get their neighbors' On Demand porn.
posted by tastybrains at 7:42 AM on April 11, 2007

I've got the exact same thing (although my tv is not HD), and at first it confused the hell out of me. After seeing somebody fast-foward and rewind, though, I pieced together what was happening.

From time to time, I run into some behavior that is somewhat baffling, though. I once noticed that the opening theme and first minute of a Sopranos episode was playing, rewinding, playing and rewinding. I wasn't really watching, so I muted it and went on with my business, and it kept happening for an hour or so. Weird.

But it can be kind of a fascinating addition to your cable line-up, if you've the right temperament for it. You have to deal with watching most of a movie and then having it freeze right before the end, the fact that Talledega Nights is on pretty much constantly (at least in my neighborhood), but it is funny to flip through and see hard-core porn get replaced by Blue's Clues. I always think, "Ah, looks like the kids came home."
posted by averyoldworld at 8:40 AM on April 11, 2007