What the heck do those "cable filters" do, anyway?

They must sell like crazy... but why?

[jsinger]

"The cable filterz will allow you to receive all the channels that you order with your remote control" (sometimes bizarrely worded, "remove control")

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Like everyone, over many years I've received hundreds of emails promoting low cost cable "filters."

I suspect that most buyers assume the devices are some way of receiving free pay-for-view cable channels. But the the emails don't quite say that. The tiny devices look more like cheap ferrite filters to remove RF interference and clean up the picture a bit in rare cases. Totally legal and offering no TV improvement generally.

What's the story?

[bcolflesh]

In the old days, you could just manually remove the block on your line (sometimes involved climbing the pole), then some areas moved to client-side descrambler boxes. That's when the descrambling filters started appearing - everything is headend now, so any type of local filter is useless for "unlocking" purposes.