Comments on: Subscription TV

By: Tom W.

Tom W. — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 03:54:59 +0000

I’m old enough to remember when every movie theater in town had the words “Stop Pay TV” on the marquee. Not particularly apropos of this article. Just wanted to mention it.

By: George

George — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:50:09 +0000

I think that was the Zenith Phonevision system. It initially used a phone line to trigger the decoder, but when it was tested in the 60’s on channel 18 in Hartford, CT, it didn’t.

If I recall, they put the descrambler code setting in the TV listings and if you put the code into the box by 3 or 4 dials on the front, it would make the show viewable, and print the code on a paper tape inside the box. Originally they came to the house and collected the tape monthly for billing, but eventually instructed subscribers on how to remove it themselves and mail it in with the check.

We used to watch the Celtics by turning up the AGC so the negative picture turned positive (it was still slatted and hard to watch), and listen to the game on the radio for the sound. The system didn’t make it, if for no other reason that it didn’t do color.

By: Toronto

Toronto — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 04:51:27 +0000

Charlie – there’s a wire or set of wires, but it might just be used to pass a switched LC network back to a circuit in the TV or something – not necessarily a video signal. I can’t imagine cramming a tuner and an RF modulator into the box June Cleaver is holding, using 1953 gear and considering the other circuitry the ‘decoding’ would require.

By: hwertz

hwertz — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 03:48:22 +0000

They did this (a little bit) on the umm… what was it LMDS or something? Some like 1.5ghz or so band, back in the 1980s… that’s somewhere around 1.5ghz or so.

If this had caught on, I wonder how long it REALLY would have stayed ad-free? Keep in mind, cable pays Viacom etc. per-person-per-channel as well, look how ad-free that is? *smirk*

By: fluffy

fluffy — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:57:41 +0000

ATSC (the OTA DTV standard) does allow pay-to-view content now. I don’t know of a single device which actually supports it though (which is why I’m always so surprised when I come across a pay-to-view channel with my computer’s DTV tuner).

By: Charlie

Charlie — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:36:37 +0000

Toronto: There is a cable from the decoder box to the tv.

By: Toronto

Toronto — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:46:47 +0000

It’s over-air, not cable. Even in central California, cable was about 15 years in the future.

But is that a Holerith card used to hold the ‘key’?

By: Casandro

Casandro — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 07:37:41 +0000

Couldn’t you just lay a cable from your box to your neighbour and share the costs?