The pirates of Shamshuipo's Apliu Street have defeated Cable TV by introducing a more sophisticated TV decoder in a new round of the code-cracking war.
Cable TV seems to have temporarily given up the fight, as it has not changed its broadcasting frequency since New Year's Day, according to a TV decoder user.
A new calculator-like coding device with buttons marked from 0 to 9 and A to F is available at some electronics shops in Apliu Street for television viewers who want to avoid paying the monthly Cable TV subscription fee of $298.
The coding device and a smart card can be purchased for $480. Buyers then call a hotline or log onto a website to find out the latest broadcasting signal, which Cable TV has been changing daily until recently to block viewing by non-subscribers. Each smart card can handle 100 code changes.
Users can then press the buttons on the device to load the latest code into the smart card which, when inserted into the television's decoder box, allows the viewer to watch Cable TV's transmissions without paying.
The older model of TV decoder - priced between $885 and $1,200, depending on whether the customer wanted to pay extra for a home installation service - also contained a smart card that hacked into the signals. But customers had to take the card back to Apliu Street and pay $100 for a new one whenever Cable TV changed its frequencies.
With the new system, users update the code themselves at home.