An addressable cable box is one that can be controlled by the local cable company. Addressability is the process by which (optionally encrypted) messages are sent from the cable provider for a particular cable box via the cable signal. The cable company can "address" a particular customer's cable box to command it to activate or deactivate the descrambling of selected premium or pay-per view channels. The system can also send messages. This function affords the cable company the ability to add or delete descrambling on the channels that come in through the coaxial cable line. It also allows them to remotely disable the box, for reasons such as non-payment of the cable bill or theft of the unit itself. Such commands are referred to as bullets and are a transmitted message which affects the cable box program effectively disabling or "killing" it. "Bullets" do not affect the electronics inside converters or descramblers, only the programming. Non-addressable boxes are "bulletproof", as they are unable to detect such messages.
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Famous quotes containing the words cable and/or box:
“To be where little cable cars climb halfway to the stars.”
—Douglass Cross (b. 1920)
“It all ended with the circuslike whump of a monstrous box on the ear with which I knocked down the traitress who rolled up in a ball where she had collapsed, her eyes glistening at me through her spread fingers—all in all quite flattered, I think. Automatically, I searched for something to throw at her, saw the china sugar bowl I had given her for Easter, took the thing under my arm and went out, slamming the door.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)