Hacking a weird TV censoring device

Here is the complete list of words I extracted: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
And the original video from @TechnologyConnections: • This TV gadget censors...
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Timestamps:
0:00 - What is the TV Guardian
0:50 - Circuit board analysis
3:15 - Removing and connecting to the ROM
6:10 - Extracting data from the ROM
14:22 - Analyzing the contents of the ROM
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Special thanks to these supporters for making this video possible:
Adrien Friggeri, Aleksey Smolenchuk, Alex, Alex Black, Andrew Van Gerpen, anula, Ben, Ben Cochran, Ben Kamens, Ben Williams, Bill Cooksey, Binh Tran, Богдан Федоров, Bradley Stach, Burt Humburg, Carl Fooks, Carsten Schwender, Chai, Chaitanya Bhatt, Chris Lajoie, Chris Sachs, criis, Daniel Jeppsson, Daniel Pink, Daniel Tang, Dave Burley, Dave Walter, David Clark, David Cox, David Dawkins, David House, David Sastre Medina, David Turner, Dean Bevan, Dean Winger, Deep Kalra, Dennis Henderson, Dennis Schubert, Dilip Gowda, Dušan Dželebdžić, Dustin Campbell, Dzevad Trumic, Emilio Mendoza, Eric Dynowski, Erik Broeders, Erik Granlund, Ethan Sifferman, Eugene Bulkin, Evan Thayer, Eveli László, Evin Dunn, Florian Rian, fxshlein, George Miroshnykov, ghostdunk, GusGold, Humberto Bruni, Ingo Eble, Isaac Parker, Jacob Ford, Jakob Dannesboe, James Beldock, James Capuder, Jared Dziedzic, Jason Bowen, Jason DeStefano, Jason Dew, JavaXP, Jaxon Ketterman, jemmons, Jeremy, Jeremy Cole, Jesse Miller, Jim Kelly, Jim Knowler, Joe Beda, Joe Pregracke, Joe Rork, Joel Miller, John Hamberger jn., John Henning, John Meade, John Phelan, Jon Dugan, Jonn Miller, Joseph Portaro, Jurģis Brigmanis, Justin Graziani, Kai Wells, Kefen, Kenneth Christensen, Kyle Kellogg, Lambda GPU Workstations, Larry, László Bácsi, Leo K, Lithou, Lukasz Pacholik, Marcos Fujisawa, Marcus Classon, Mark Day, Martin Noble, Mats Fredriksson, Matthäus Pawelczyk, melvin2001, Michael Koreshkov, MICHAEL SLASS, Michael Tedder, Michael Timbrook, Michael Weitman, Miguel Ríos, mikebad, Mikel Lindsaar, Miles Macchiaroli, Muqeet Mujahid, Nate Welch, Nicholas Counts, Nicholas Moresco, Nick Chapman, Oli Homer, Ori Shamir, Örn Arnarson, Paul Heller, Paul Pluzhnikov, Pete Dietl, Phil Dennis, Philip Hofstetter, Porus, ProgrammerDor, Ralph Irons, Randal Masutani, Randy True, raoulvp, real_huitz, ReJ aka Renaldas Zioma, Ric King, Rick Hennigan, Robert Diaz, Robey Pointer, Sagnik Bhattacharya, Scott Gorlick, Scott Holmes, Sean Patrick O’Brien, Sergey Kruk, solderspot, SonOfSofaman, Spencer Ruport, Splashtwist, Stefan Nesinger, Stefanus Du Toit, Stephen Kovalcik, Stephen Riley, Steve Jones, TheWebMachine, Thomas Eriksen, Tim Oriol, Tim Walkowski, Tim Wheeler, Tom, Tom Knowles, Tom Smith, Tyler Latham, Vincent Bernat, Walter Montalvo, Warren Miller, Wim Coekaerts, Wraithan McCarroll, xisente, Yee Lam Wan

[@TechnologyConnections]

Well, this is ' delightful! A triumph for science. Thank you!

[@Honzecki]

Unexpected interaction 👀

[@davidgarcia2016]

This is the crossover I didn't know I wanted

[@wcvp]

Lol I was going to send this video to you, glad I checked the comments first

[@electronash]

Technology Connections - did you get chance to read any of the twitter threads by foone yet? They did a full disassembly of the TV Guardian code. ;) EDIT: I may have been wrong about the full "disassembly", but I haven't looked at it in-depth again for a while. They also just bought one of the newer devices two weeks ago, and dumped the ROM from that. A very interesting device, and also hilarious.

[@Dragon-xd9em]

Ay you are here!

[@messyhair42]

Ah, yes, my favorite classic film actor, Jerk van Gay

[@kreuner11]

Clbuttic!

[@ohasis8331]

almost as good as Penus van Lesbian

[@SGresponse]

"It's the >bleep< van >bleep< show, starring >bleep< van >bleep

[@IceMetalPunk]

@@ohasis8331 #WhoseLine!

[@davidgillies620]

His Jerkney accent in Mary Poppins was terrible, though.

[@ogami1972]

First Im like "oh, cool, this guy likes Technology Connections, he must be smart and cool". Then I'm impressed by your knowledge and soldering skills. Then I'm intimidated by your programming skills. Finally I am humbled by your other-worldly spreadsheet mastery. You're some sort of Nerd God.

[@superintendent1152]

he is the final boss

[@morganfreeman8208]

Frfr I’m shitting and crying rn

[@ddcddc_]

Wait until you see the breadboards

[@CalebFuel]

@@morganfreeman8208 This video literally made me go take a shit in consternation as i was just trying to fathom wtf he just did in excel....Did he invent Excel?

[@Imperial_Squid]

​@@CalebFuelgo watch him make a graphics card on a breadboard, it's incredibly humbling stuff and fucking *_fascinating_* to see him build it from the ground up

[@idkstudios3768]

I wanna see the TV attacker. It just replaces every third word with obscenities.

[@bj_]

13:04 I don't know what I was expecting, but I've never seen a chip respond with such hostility to being probed

[@csours]

Reminds me a story: Many years ago, as a joke, my high school programming teacher had a program spit out "DONT TOUCH ME THERE" when a certain button was clicked. It made it to a non-technical user who freaked out. I'd love to put "DONT TOUCH ME THERE" on a ROM

[@Valkhiya]

I was laughing to myself the whole time it built up to that imagining him running the program and the console just saying "Fuck"

[@BobHolowenko]

Underrated comment. I HOWLED with laughter at this. I have never seen such an angry chip :P

[@ohasis8331]

Huh, imagine how a person feels after being beamed aboard, tagged and released.😀

[@IvnSoft]

@@csours UuuUuUu. Ive put ominous short msgs in the remaining bytes of a rom. Fun 🙃

[@Eliasdbr]

Is anyone gonna mention the amount of skill this man has with spreadsheet functions?

[@khatharrmalkavian3306]

I decided a long time ago that he's omniscient.

[@asteroidrules]

Given everything we know about his programming ability, I'm not surprised in the slightest.

[@chriskaprys]

No bit is safe from Ben's fingertips.

[@JosephDavies]

I imagine Matt Parker would be quite pleased with this demonstration.

[@yoced]

Im astounded

[@lordchiopet1630]

This feels like i asked a wizard a question and now I've been listening to them talk about things beyond mortal comprehension. Also huge props to maintaining the pacing of the video. This is slow stuff and keeping it snappy is really cool

[@phillyphakename1255]

I'm at the "I know what all of those words mean, individually" stage. Sure, I've used microcontrollers, I've played around with doing digital read/write operations on an Arduino. I've seen LM358s and 393s, I've done spreadsheet formulas. But putting them all together in a cohesive hackable format to make a high quality video? Never done before in the real world.

[@aqdrobert]

Stargate O'Neill: Carter. Use little words. OK?

[@jamiekent1970]

You got it… straight over my head 😂

[@jembawls]

Ben just casually talking Computer Science with all those words on the screen was too funny 😂

[@yellowticket9673]

Can you imagine the guy who built and sold the TV Guardian, seeing a sudden jump in sales 30 years later...

[@blackbird1234100]

@@nsa3967 yep. 3 dots on the comment -> report -> spam

[@tingtang9302]

ebay sales? cmon man think

[@yellowticket9673]

@@tingtang9302 No shit Sherlock. Isn't it funnier to think that the guy who created the device is in control of all sales of his device, and sees 2 random sales of The Guardian in 2022, and it makes him scratch his head? C'mon man, imagine!

[@thall146]

@@yellowticket9673 MEGA FUNNY HAHA

[@Nerfyy]

He'd Say... "HOLY BEEEEEEEEP"

[@jonathankorman4031]

It's hilarious to me that in the effort to keep (arbitrarily) naughty words out of one's home, you could buy a device that sat quietly in your home, secretly filled with profanities and blasphemy, whispering them to itself every cycle

[@nepdisc3722]

the FUCKSHITPISS machine in the corner

[@Nitidus]

Ultra Christian household having their secretly heretical little tool sitting by their TV... slowly infiltrating. Of course they're in strict mode, and when watching their favorite televangelist hold another one of their hypocritical sermons, suddenly every mention of Christ gets censored. Lol.

[@foxsicle]

😂🤭

[@TheDavidlloydjones]

Jonathan, That's the internal part of human progress. The external part is that at the wavelength of television, Earth is a bright star. To the rest of the galaxy we are the proud proclaimers of Hitler opening the Olympic Games, followed by a generation of "I Love lucy."

[@foxsicle]

@@TheDavidlloydjones Guhhee.. *attempts what little he recalls of that anxious collar tug-jerk reaction lucy does?*

[@MadMathMike]

I grew up in a strict, religious household, and we had one of these for a while. My siblings and I frequently found the word replacements pretty funny, and sometimes completely nonsensical. Of course, the whole concept of this device is nonsensical to me now. 😂 Any way, it is super cool to see under the hood of this contraption decades later. Thanks for posting this! 👍😊

[@thedmiynV9ll]

bc 2/10

[@krozareq]

I'm assuming since live programming has such delayed closed captioning that the audio censoring wouldn't activate at the right time (or wrong time, depending on how you see it). Was that the case?

[@kurtnowak8895]

Came here for this question! Cc does not always follow the audio. How does it know when to replace the naughty word? Then, how did it “play” the word? Was there a voice synthesizer?

[@krozareq]

@@kurtnowak8895 It just cut off audio for the duration of the CC prompt output that contained one or more of the filtered terms and removed or replaced it in the CC output. Voice synthesizers in the 1980s would've needed beefy hardware and even then it would've sounded like Stephen Hawking.

[@shawnsustrich7981]

@@williampotter3369 Using Mariachi is like "This is what happens when you find a stranger in the alps"

[@GordonChil]

This was amazing to watch. I do only a little programming in C every now and then. And watching how you do bit manipulation with ease is very satisfying.

[@Llohr]

This was a really elaborate way to slap a whole bunch of "bad words" in a youtube video. Nice work.

[@MichaelRogersJesusrules]

Imagine being one in said board room and coming across this decades later~~~backk to the future~~and sad how far we have come in not caring about those words ,i use to get belted if i used most of them lol.

[@jtbrownful]

@@MichaelRogersJesusrulesI was the same as a kid. Eventually my parents just said as I got older that there is a time and place. I barely swear now unless I’m pain lol

[@ctlaurin]

He's reacting to the bad words in the medium of spreadsheet.

[@cre8iveone699]

I'm more interested in seeing this thing work?

[@pawef9049]

My friends from IT put even more effort to attach some tits into scientific publication XD

[@maurofoti526]

In Technology Connection's video (at time 7:07), you can see that the Guardian removes articles attached to the foul word (in that cases it censores "What the fuck is that?" into "What is that?"). The whitelisted words are all articles (the, that, those) that would have to be removed to maintain the sense of the phrase. Probably for the microcontroller firmware, the fact that the word is whitelisted and has a substition bit (0x1) flags it as "if encountered before a foul work, also remove that article"

[@JdeBP]

No. As I mentioned in another comment, "the fuck" is explicitly detected and replaced. There's no grammar analysis going on.

[@inothome]

You may be on to something there!

[@jort93z]

@@inothome Nah, the solution is obvious. Its for dick and woody(the two words with a 01 after them). If they have any of these words in front of them, they are blocked, if not, they are used as names and not blocked.

[@CommodoreGreg]

@@jort93z Up vote. This is the reasonable conclusion.

[@TJStellmach]

@@jort93z ... which suggests that "Dick Van" needs to be explicitly whitelisted only to handle cases like "The Dick Van Dyke Show."

[@albac0re]

This is the first one of your videos I have watched. Your absolute step by step is so entertaining to watch. Thank you for being so thorough!

[@MrMegaManFan]

I’m a big fan of Technology Connections so even seeing this video 8 months after you made it, I still appreciate that you picked up on what he talked about and ran with it. Thank you!

[@kedo]

Now that we know how this works, it wouldn't be too hard to rewrite the EEPROM to basically make a reversal device that would take G-rated words and replace them with unsavory ones. Run your old tapes of Barney the dinosaur through that version and never sleep well again. I suppose if you did that and then twitch streamed it, you could make some good money.

[@Klabbity_Kloots]

But, then we would have more outputs than inputs. Breaking the first rule of functions, my man.

[@thefreedomguyuk]

​@@Klabbity_Kloots Not necessarily. Select SOME words, not ALL words. You're forgetting were ALL geeks on here 🤣👍

[@Klabbity_Kloots]

@@thefreedomguyuk Damn, you got me. How 'bout we have a randomizer for the rest. For example, if "MF" and "CS" both go to "jerk", in T.V. Reality, the latter can go to either of the former. Sort of like a logarithmic function, but less controlled.

[@Klabbity_Kloots]

@@thefreedomguyuk Or just omit all but one output for each euphemism like an actual logarithmic function.

[@JJ-qo7th]

Just watch the video where The Count from Sesame Street is singing about how much he loves *counting* things, where *count* is bleeped. I'd post the link, but y'all have a search bar. You shouldn't trust links from internet strangers.

[@dundermifflinity]

Jerk van Gay made me laugh far more than it should have. Great video. Hats off to you, sir.

[@dan8t669]

this might move into my daily vocabulary

[@ajlakanen]

That was hilarious :D:D

[@chaz720]

Background: I had seen the Technology Connections video back when it came out; I'm a BSEE/MSEE with 20 years in industry who (for some reason) only stumbled upon Ben Eater's channel this evening. I had trouble explaining to my wife just now why I was laughing so hard... "No, because when they were testing it, it would have turned Dick Van Dyke's name into Jerk Van Gay and they would have seen that and said a bunch of things they'd need to censor." It's the kind of ridiculous secondary problem you only truly appreciate as an engineer, and it rises above foul language.

[@Carhill]

Likewise. It was so unexpected.

[@cetyl2626]

@@chaz720 And it made me wonder, did they catch this in testing- "let's test against wholesome shows our customer probably watches in case it produces false positives" and Dick Van Dyke is what came to mind or did they get customer complaints (from customers watching wholesome shows like Dick Van Dyke) or when the engineer added d*ck their mind led them to think, "gee... that, you knoelw, could be a valid name.... like Dick Van Dyke.... oh geez!". Ben is right, that is a hilarious rabbit hole the engineer had to deal with.

[@nevermindmeijustinjectedaw9988]

holy cow this is incredibly sophisticated for the 80s okay, maybe not the software and the library itself, but the fact that you got closed captions on your tv as a default and it put the two together live in front of you, making all of this even possible in the first place...i grew up in a non-english speaking country so defo had none of this going on even in the early '00s which is when i quit watching tv for good. i'm impressed and now once again wished i was born earlier, eventhough i know it's better to be born later for many more important reasons.

[@phillyphakename1255]

Old fashioned TV is almost magical to me. The NTSC protocol, live editing of video/audio with very simple chips, all of it.

[@nevermindmeijustinjectedaw9988]

@@phillyphakename1255 it really is. fun fact: early pro gamers continued using giant crt monitors instead of early lcd bc of the noticable delay the liquid crystals used to have. if you move your mouse rapidly left and right, you'll notice how the pointer on screen lags behind the mouse in your hand. crt monitors never had this problem bc they were working with the literal speed of light. well, unless your computer was just too slow to calculate the mouse movements, that is. and let's be real, everyone had all kinds of malware and bloatware everywhere. god windows 2000 sucked. and i've used the constantly crashing windows 95, too. 98 reigned supreme till xp, the real g that never let me down unlike literally every other windows version out there.

[@gawkthimm6030]

@@nevermindmeijustinjectedaw9988 I had a competitive gamer friend like that

[@stpedro-ht9ng]

@@nevermindmeijustinjectedaw9988 CRT displays are still preferred for Super Smash Bros tournaments.

[@nevermindmeijustinjectedaw9988]

@@stpedro-ht9ng why? the time of sub-4ms lag on non-crt displays has long come

[@Valiante1982]

This video was randomly recommended to me by KZbin's algorithm, and I'm beyond delighted that it did - this was easily my favourite video for a very long time. What a fantastic process to witness.

[@stephen3164]

Watched the original video on how it works. I think for “the”, if it is before a “naughty word”, it will eliminate it. So “what the f” just becomes “what”. But if no naughty word follows, then “the” is allowed. Possibly the 01 and 02 could indicate searching for a naughty word after or before the regular word. Hence “F you” would return blank, instead of “you”. Now, with that said, if you enable write on the chip, you could create a reverse device that takes pg rated dialogue and spices it up a bit! What does the other chip do?

[@helloimbrettgreen]

this is what i was hoping "hacking" it entailed when i clicked on the video

[@gavmansworkshop5624]

@@helloimbrettgreen yea imagine spongebob 🤣

[@solarflyspeedruns7585]

@@gavmansworkshop5624 what the f### are you doing Patrick? Oh Im fu##### the dog

[@EebstertheGreat]

If you check out the spreadsheet, "the fuck" is already explicitly listed. It seems like if they had a general method for removing particles before censored words, they wouldn't need that entry.

[@Cypher10110]

@EebstertheGreat maybe "the fuck" warranted a specific substitution but others like "the shit" or "the hell" benefited from more general substitutions. If we saw the code, I'm sure there would be a priority order of operations, where it looks to make substitutions in a certain order. Was kinda hoping he was going to tinker with the substitution list haha.

[@soobasis]

you are the only one who breaks down technology every bit by bit, just to let us understand. Thank you man, you are the best teacher.

[@ArmiaKhairy]

quite literally

[@parp]

@@ArmiaKhairy I get it!

[@whannabi]

Pun intended

[@Kyuhll]

Byte by byte ;]

[@monhi64]

Hey now, not the only one. Technology connections goes just as in depth. Theres definitely a reason he featured him at the beginning of this video

[@Enderbro3300]

I'm working with a lot of serial at my job recently and it feels so fucking cool to actually keep pace and understand COMPLETELY what you're doing.

[@DobieTanpaw]

And yet again, KZbin's algorithm finds me another channel to subscribe to. That was some great work there, and I love that you decided to, basically, build your own EEPROM reader.

[@stanweaver]

With a friends help, I was able to get the word and phrase list off of my old TV Guardian years ago. It became obsolete once RCA cables were not in use anymore). My friend was able to "bake" the chip off the board and download the code. When he got the list of offensive words and phrases, he told me to come to his desk because there was NO WAY he was sending it in an email. We laughed at a lot of the phrases because we honestly did no know what some of the 400+ words and phrases were.

[@cbhiii]

I just love your video content and the methodical way you present them. I can imagine they’re quite time consuming to make, but would love to see more. Thanks.

[@rajveersingh2056]

Why 4.99, That's a pricing strategy, used malls to make it seem not $5... So it feels cheaper... What's your reasoning.

[@rajveersingh2056]

@cbhiii

[@markanderson2904]

@@rajveersingh2056 You're right. It's just a cliche. Marketers have "normalized" pricing to that some people don't even think of even-dollar prices anymore. Just look at gasoline: 2.919 so it doesn't look like 2.92.

[@Podracer1000]

Who cares? ​@@rajveersingh2056

[@ikkuranus]

So, do you have any plans to modify the word list and make a follow-up video? I think it would be funny to have a TV guardian which replaces common words with profanity

[@ETXAlienRobot201]

market it as the tv defiler or something :P

[@jayare1933]

I support this! I mean what is a simple ground wire between pins right?

[@Dasepho]

This would be a perfect conclusion to the story. Here it might be a way into deciphering the exact replacement scheme, or if Technology Connections wants to colab it also fits the discussion of wider social impact

[@dimitarnikolov3527]

And then use a text to speech software to dub over the video. Then you can automate the entire process and have a device that automatically generates youtube videos for you. The uploading to youtube can also be automated. But of course you'll get a ton of copyright strikes and be demonetized for containing swear words. It still will be fun tho

[@DcMag]

Hahahaha thats the best option.

[@wayne_logan]

I started watching your videos about three years ago and my reaction was usually, "what sorcery is this!" I am now finishing my second year in electrical and electronics engineering (you can guess who is partly to blame for this decision 😂) and for the first time, I can say that I understood everything you did. You are such an inspiration. A role model too while at it. You sort of make embedded systems accessible en masse. Like an adult explaining a math problem to you, but it involves ICs and bitwise operations. lol ❤

[@SpaghettiEnterprises]

I remember those days. Thankfully there is so much to learn that even two years after graduating there are still many tricks you can pick up

[@MadScientist267]

Where was this channel in the 80s when I'd have really been using most of it... Oh right.. 🤣

[@MadScientist267]

@@SpaghettiEnterprises Schools don't cover real life.

[@florkgagga]

@@MadScientist267 I beg to differ Mr. Mad S. there definitely are ways to learn something in school that you can use in real life! Oh, I'm in Europe, maybe there's no point... but seriously, back then, I was a teen in the 80s, in high school (I guess, we call it middle school, age 14-18) i was studying to be an electronics technician. Didn't make much of it, after all it was in a slightly underdeveloped country where the proliferation of tech progress was sort of tied to political affiliations so the teachers were not super motivated to invest into really getting us up to spot. But, there were ways to get past that, for example if i only knew how important the proper instruments were, including soldering stations with all the gadgets, we could have organized so every one in class gets what we can and organize sharing equipment that was too expensive to get individually. And go on with sourcing chips and other stuff that goes on a pcb from throwaway stuff. Even in Yugoslavia it was not impossible to get microprocessors from the 70s, if I only knew how important that was, alas I saw most of it as a chore to chew through, ofc lamenting that we had to study so much other stuff, like history and biology and whatnot. I was envious of the american school system, at least what we saw in movies, they seem much more project oriented as opposed to pronounced "ex cathedra" teaching that I experienced, but there were ways to hack oneself to proper education. I think even today it helps if a kid that's bright but not too fond of school (like my 11yo) focuses on the 2-4 teachers and their subjects that they like and treats the others like assistants. And there you have real life, figuring out how to talk to teachers is much like later talking to colleagues and superiors.

[@MadScientist267]

@@florkgagga Schools teach principles. Not real world. I'm sorry but it's just how it is. I'm not negating their place in the mix... But attempts to blow smoke up my ass aren't going to work, when I've seen time after time after time where it failed to meet expectations in the real world. As an old boss put it more than once, "take the paperwork into the bathroom, it'll serve better there". His point was you can't teach critical thinking, and all the school in the world can't make up the difference. People either got it or they don't, and the information alone is useless. Without the critical thinking, watching someone try to apply the knowledge would be much funnier if it wasn't so sad. People pigeon hole themselves into positions they can't handle all the time... I've seen enough of it that I don't even care to work anymore until the educational systems are reformed. Passionate usually wins over educated in my experience. The difference is in what the drive is for... One is seeking to expand their universe and make a difference in ours in the process, the other just saw the numbers and wanted the check.

[@JC-yy5nf]

Extremely educational video! Thank you for taking the time making this video

[@rohandat]

dude I love your chanel, thank you for posting!

[@PElder78]

At a glance, I would say the 0x2 is telling it to look at the prior word, to sensor both. Which is why 'Balls' has a 0x2, to sensor, say, 'Hairy Balls' or whatever. However 'Tennis B' is explicitly whitelisted as an exemption. 0x01 probably does the same but for the word after, so 'Dick' would block 'Dick Head', which explains the exemption for 'Dick van'.

[@EebstertheGreat]

You would need to whitelist those anyway, because "tennis balls" would match the filtered word "balls," muting the audio and turning it into "tennis tail." Same with "jerk van." 01 only marks "dick" and "woody," which are also names. I wonder if there is a connection there. For instance, it might check if the word is capitalized, in which case it's probably a name. I can't see a connection for 02 words. I don't think it censors words that come before them. In your example, "hairy tail" is totally acceptable, and it wouldn't make sense for "Now you're pissing me off" to be replaced by "Now teeing me off," for instance.

[@greenaum]

@@EebstertheGreat "I've just teed myself. My pants are soaked in tee." "Dick Van Door-to-Door Dildo supplies ltd" would be another nice one to slip past. "Our lesbian orgy is due to start in 5 minutes and everyone forgot to bring toys!" "Time to call... the dick van dyke!"

[@DustyyBoi]

​@@EebstertheGreatWoody from toy story 1 got censored

[@MrWolfSnack]

woody back when this was made was a slang word for penis. See the Sega game - "Wild Woody". I am sure the swear jargon this was programmed to is dated in and of itself. @@DustyyBoi

[@intron9]

Yes but the replacement word that this version assigns is "notion" , a different one than what people recall.@@DustyyBoi

[@PerfectionHunter]

Mad props to you for... 1: Not having a stupid and LOUD intro. 2: Immediately getting to the point. 3: Giving all the creds to Technology Connections and rerouting traffic to his channel. People in general despise those who just keep surfing on others work.

[@stsam63]

This is why Ben Eater is great, definitely check out his other stuff, or if you are curious about his background check out the Ben, Ben, and Blue podcast which is also amazing

[@petomni]

You have found perfection

[@thisaccountisntreal107]

He loses a point for cutting towards his hands with that razor blade

[@markanderson2904]

@@thisaccountisntreal107 You can safely cut toward your hand if the thing being cut is soft enough (i.e., the cutting force is low enough) that there is little risk of explosive cut-through.

[@MartynDerg]

that's such an adorable piece of tech, and really clever! looked like loads of fun to pick it apart and analyse the data inside

[@connorupton4200]

This video has been one of the best I’ve seen for simply showing how chips work. A+ effort thank you!

[@JeffGeerling]

16:36 - some good r/nocontext material here

[@Wander4P]

oh hi Jeff 👋

[@burnstick1380]

can someone explain?

[@kaioo1312]

I was thinking that you three definitely need to collaborate on something and here you in the comments! Definitely a trio to look out for!

[@stevenpaul9307]

Hi Jeff

[@SonOfSofaman]

I got a kick out of Technology Connections' coverage of this device and was thrilled to see it examined further here. What a nostalgic surprise to learn a PIC is at its heart. The reverse circuit engineering reminds me of the work Big Clive does on his channel. I wonder if we can get him to puzzle out the purpose of the comparator? Imagine that: my three favorite YT channels all dissecting the same device! A nerd's dream, come true.

[@ceneblock]

I doubt he'd do it since he's in a PAL region. If there was a PAL version, then maybe..

[@mikedrop4421]

Can I second this?

[@MrMediator24]

@@ceneblock it probably can be imported (or sent by fans) and TVs for a long time work with basically any widespread signal standard

[@brianlance]

I was thinking about Clive while watching this too.

[@dashxdr]

I couldn't stand Big Clive once he started posting too much about alcohol consumption, the sound of him smacking his lips and such. Keep it in the bar dude

[@baslifico]

I've enjoyed both your channels for years. Glad to see the reference

[@ytphillipsbros]

I’ve never even heard of you before, this randomly appeared on my recommended - absolutely loved it!

[@nicholascary6859]

I work in the closed captioning industry developing hardware and its really cool to see how things were handled then vs now with relatively simple hardware!

[@jayd1687a]

CC is an example of an disability assistive service that has had a massive benefit to all of society. Thank you for fostering the value CC gives all of us.

[@voidex136]

What is the point of this device if it only removes captions, but audio stays the same

[@Michael-kp4bd]

@@voidex136 I’d have to go back through the whole video again, but I think the device has the ability to silence the audio when it detects a “bad word” I’m suspicious of this because I don’t think the audio and closed captioning would be perfectly synced as to bleep words right when they’re happening…. It would instead have to block a whole section of rendered CC, or take really difficult to calculate guess as to when that particular word was said. I don’t think CC is encoded with enough granularity to pull it off… I’m sure a few things i said here are incorrect so i hope someone can give you a better answer. (It’ll probably help us both to just go watch Technology Connection’s video because he apparently showcased exactly what this device does!)

[@voidex136]

@@Michael-kp4bd that makes sense, thank you

[@Michael-kp4bd]

@@voidex136 just got to watching the referenced video - and indeed, if there’s ever a detected bad word in a rendered “chunk” of closed captioning, it mutes the ENTIRE duration corresponding that chunk. So yeah, it generally mutes when there’s a bad word detected. But its granularity is limited to the entire “chunk” of Closed Captioning rendered to the screen at once (often a whole sentence), so… it mutes large gaps. But of course, it gives you some very inoffensive text to read during that time 😆 and that’s what it set out to achieve

[@JohnJones-oy3md]

The PIC microcontroller used only has 2K of program memory. Besides doing the word substitution, it also interfaces with the CC decoder IC, on screen display IC, and mutes the audio. All in 2K. That's some neat and tight coding.

[@somejoe7777]

Would love to see a dump of the PIC code that's analyzed. I imagine that certain things like the plural forms of many of the words can be accounted for in the code rather than have to have separate entries in the ROM.

[@JohnJones-oy3md]

@@somejoe7777 You're in luck! Ben Eater just dumped the EEPROM contents in his video 'Hacking a weird TV censoring device'.

[@mrb5217]

@@JohnJones-oy3md um....

[@redbinary]

@@mrb5217 "He's standing right behind me, isn't he?"

[@Smidge204]

If you think that's tight coding, it might only be because modern code is so bloated. I'm willing to bet the Arduino code featured in this video compiled to over 2K, but could be hand written in AVR assembly in under 200 bytes... programmers these days take GUIs and smart compilers for granted!

[@TheUnofficialMaker]

You're amazing! Love how you broke down the code with the data sheet.

[@jfly609]

I absolutely love watching you code arduinos. Every time I do sie I learn a ton of useful tricks and different points of view, which really helps me with my projects.

[@Cookieglue]

It's so funny seeing someone as chill as ben talk casually as there's such violent profanity in the background 😂

[@MrOttman001]

Also hilarious that a device for censorship device leads to this casual display of profanity.

[@roseCatcher_]

I am sad because it didn't contain my favorite words.

[@KaiHenningsen]

"violent profanity" for this stuff ... only Americans.

[@HandFromCoffin]

It is.. it's one of those thing you realize words are just data.. it's the intent that is offensive.

[@president8]

@@roseCatcher_ what are your fav words?😁😁

[@superspak]

This video was amazing. All praise nerd sniping, I've been a TC subscriber for years. He really does answer the questions of history and modern tech in a wholesome humorous way. Don't forget to turn on CC he writes himself "ridiculously smooth jazz playing"

[@skleptic1621]

Absolutely beautiful video! Amazing content and a delight to watch as a computer scientist!

[@SipuliSankari]

Now that you have that eeprom out of the board you can reprogram the word lists so that it will make any perfectly normal text as naughty as possible. Then put back the chip and see how well it works and complain how useless the device is. :D

[@markrussell5587]

lol i'd like to try that next time I watch a Studio Ghibli film with my 5-year-old son, who can't quite read yet...

[@brandonjob2202]

that is a whole nother level of nerd troll and I love it. imagine how shocked some grandma would be back in the early 90's if her guardian only made things worse

[@prettymuchabandonedaccount9141]

@@brandonjob2202 *late 90s The original version of the TVGuardian was first released in 1998 and was most likely sold well into the early 00s. In the early 1990s, the PIC microcontroller line had only just released (in 1993 to be exact) Most of the datasheets for the PIC16C622A microcontroller in this specific unit have dates ranging from 1995 to 1998. The manufacture date on the PIC in this unit is between February 7 and 13 of 2000. And the EEPROM, despite being covered with some sort of blue paint, I can make out the manufacture of the EEPROM was between November 29 to December 5, 1999. So, this unit was definitely made in January or February 2000. Don't judge me, I just like correcting people. Bonus: my dad used to have this cable TV hacking device in the late 90s/early 00s generically called the "Quick Board" and used a very similar PIC microcontroller (the PIC16C56-RC/P), which has a manufacture date of August 14 - 20, 1995 (33rd week of 1995). If I still had some of the original cable equipment, I would have been able to test the circuit board based on a chip that's a few days older than Windows 95. Because I can't find anything on Google, I am going to assume that the Quick Board was in limited production (

[@markrussell5587]

Thinking for a second, It would be real easy to do a search and replace for words in the .srt file (the subtitle file)

[@mattcraig3811]

@@prettymuchabandonedaccount9141 I was just about to comment that the PIC came out in '93 so no way this box is from the 80's. Then you go and drop a full research paper.

[@thejesuschrist]

I found this absolutely fascinating!

[@markgreco1962]

Hey, someone has a birthday coming up.

[@kalinmir]

for pete's sake!

[@nomenmasi8964]

Yes, but only in Strict Mode.

[@shrikedecil]

... You were shadowbanned man!

[@XstonedmonkeyzX]

@@markgreco1962 Bruh, I read this in a voice and tone that made me DIE laughing 🤣🤣🤦...

[@JohnVance]

I’d watch a lifetime of this type of video. Entertaining and actually kinda inspiring!

[@sgmeta]

Eres muy chingón bro. Me quedé sin palabras viendo todo lo que sabes de código y electrónica. Excelente video

[@TrasherBiner]

loved how you explained it thoroughly and easily. It's refreshing to see someone trying to honestly educate being informative without being pretentious or arrogant. Good video man helped me think of a couple of projects for my arduino, thanks.

[@Repstar00]

@David Tate Sr you would need a separate drive just to work with the word doc of blacklisted words.

[@andreibaciu4477]

The reverse engineering we never knew we needed :)) great video! This has the potential of a series, no doubt about that

[@johnsullivan2376]

Such a good video Eater! I love technology connections and it was super cool to see this video pop up on my feed. Hope you’re doing well! It’s been forever.

[@intruder1300]

Great to watch how you analyse all of this. Really interesting.

[@sean26057]

Love the stuff Ben! "They make sure 'Dick Van Dyke' doesn't turn into 'Jerk Van.... Gay'" - 20:01

[@Toon444]

I love that your videos go in detail and explain everything that you're doing. There are a lot of videos that would just say "I did some testing and coding and here are the results". I learned a lot from this video!

[@pilkjaer]

Thank you so much for an interesting video! I don't know what impressed me most: your engineering skills, your programming skills or your spreadsheet coding skills. It's probably spreadsheets :)

[@chauvinemmons]

I am so envious of how he can just type out a search line of code without any pause just like a little machine gun.

[@hglbrg]

if he filmed all the hundreds, if not thousands, of times it took to get there, we'd have a pretty long video. You get to enjoy the result of a lot of practice and hard work. Important to remember.

[@abritabroadinthephilippines]

@@hglbrg I don't think so m8 this guy knows what he's doing.

[@ivansciacca7810]

@@abritabroadinthephilippines I think he was referring to the idea that probably he already has done this MANY times for work/hobby already, so he is Experienced and we get to see the result of that experience, not talking about the video being multiple edits.

[@DoctorX17]

It helps that he’s an android, he it only takes a tiny fraction of a second for his positronic brain to retrieve the relevant information

[@abritabroadinthephilippines]

@@ivansciacca7810 ok my bad.

[@drewpaschal9294]

In your data dump, near the credits for The Guardian, it showed version 1.05, which is what was printed on the other chip. 👍

[@Big74Mike2012]

Not gonna lie.... not once in my life, since I've been doodling with electronics, have I ever opened up a device and been able to identify every IC that was attached to the PCB! Not only that, but even if I could read the imprints and/or figure out what it is, only about 20% of the time am I able to find a datasheet for it. Must be nice! Lots of times a Google search of a chip will only lead to one link that directs you to a Chinese website that describes a gadget of some sort that contains the same chip, but those rarely tell you what it is/what it does either!

[@dass1333]

"Not going to lie" because I lie a lot to most people. For you in this case I will give you some truth.

[@frinkemon]

Yeah there are lots of weird Chinese clone chips around, plenty of datasheets that need google translate, and a load that just don't seem to have any available data. It's a pain for reverse engineering things but you can often work out what these things are by looking at what it seems to be doing.

[@nottjohn9418]

I literally have no idea what any of that means and didn't expect to see this but I watched it from start to finish. Thanks!

[@kylemulkey9659]

I am so glad you mentioned Technology Connections. When I saw the title of this video I immediately thought of that video.

[@LukeNAndo]

I’m studying engineering and we just learned about interfacing and communicating with PIC microcontrollers, and it was so cool to see you doing so much of the stuff we learned about. I must have written a program very similar to yours about 100 times this semester! 😂

[@M0UAW_IO83]

Y'know, I kind of like the idea of reversing the operation of the device... Just for Gits n Shiggles of course.

[@gregormackenzie80]

+1... TV evil parrot

[@1globe]

Great episode!

[@MrUnknownuser164]

This was a godsend. I personally hold an AAS in electrical engineering technology from my local community college, so I could follow along with the material presented (part sheets, desoldering, the Arduino code, and so on). I thought it was great that the material was presented in such a careful, formal manner that it was on par with (if not exceedingly with) the higher education classes for my Associate's degree. And after the initial presentation, which was on par with college education, the end result was just a list of bad words. I don't know if it was genuine poetic irony or just my own personal immaturity, but that contrast was the best thing that I've ever seen in an electronics video. I loved it.

[@electronash]

Somebody probably already mentioned this, but "foone" on Twitter (and others) did a full disassembly of the ROM from the original TV Guardian. I believe foone also bought one of the newer devices only two weeks ago, and dumped the ROM from that as well. Their twitter threads always make for an interesting read. Lots of nerdy tech details.

[@rhysbaker2595]

"59 seconds ago" wow, I'm here early

[@a_commenter]

their* twitter threads

[@SianaGearz]

Disassembly? Can't see it. I can see the same exact analysis as here from the dictionary dump.

[@electronash]

@@SianaGearz I could have *sworn* foone said they'd done a full disassem, or somebody else did. You might have to look at the recent tweets to find it. It's possible I was mistaken, and they only extracted the dictionary so far. Or maybe the disassem just isn't public atm?

[@MGsyd]

Mate you code at the speed of light. You are one of those people who can ACTUALLY CODE and kill everybody else's self-esteem. Good job

[@conkerconk3]

He probably already had an idea of how to write the code and recorded him writing it in. Or just experiences enough, because I had to sit and think what "data

[@JohnSmith-gs4lw]

Regardless. Still pretty amazing. My head exploded when he started moving the blocks of code around, making subroutines out of it and manipulating the bits and bytes at the speed of light. Yes, I know it was sped up in places. But still. And if that wasn’t enough, he then had to shame all of us by just destroying that spreadsheet. Massive geek-fu.

[@nankinink]

Sometimes I wonder if his videos are pre-recorded videos with a voice-over. Then for the 3829492th time, "oh its real time". I've been watching him for years and even knowing that everything is real-time, this question still comes up in my mind. It's so funny

[@NFITC1]

This isn't his first time doing this. He's programmed his Arduino plenty of times.

[@Caffeine_Addict_2020]

@@conkerconk3 I dont think so - he explicitly left the part in where he got a compiler error because he coded in the wrong return for his read function, including the classic "oh... Wtf" noise he made. He was doing it in real time, my man's a wizard

[@trevorseals6588]

I can’t believe this course is free on KZbin. Thank you so much. Can’t wait to learn more

[@Ange1ofD4rkness]

Thanks to Arduinos I have slowly been teaching myself basic electrical engineering. But seeing stuff like this, I feel I got a lot to improve on (then again that was a good datasheet they offered, a lot easier to read then usually what I try to learn off)

[@SameAsAnyOtherStranger]

I love the range of what Technology Connections considers "tech." From juke box mechanical song selection memory to kerosene hurricane lanterns to the product mentioned on this video. A nice reminder that some things in their day were "cutting edge."

[@MrBroady02]

One of my favorite technologies he covered was good old reflectors.

[@nhiko999]

the unidentified bits could be a way to produce a "grammar accurate output" by combining words, adding a, that etc to the replacement. I lost it when you got that 1st 100 bytes :D

[@kargandarr]

For those of you not familiar with any of the integrated circuits that have HC on them, those are CMOS chips and are very easily fried if they are touched. Always wear a grounding strap coonected to metal when you are working with these or any other CMOS technology. The TTL technology is a little more resistant to the electrostatic discharges but can still be taken out as well under the wrong conditions.

[@breezyjr]

This is the first video of yours I’ve seen. I know nothing about computer programming and such, but this was really interesting. I had no idea you could “hack” a chip like this to figure out what’s inside.

[@4QBUD]

I absolutely LOVE this. I haven't seen anyone do this sort of this since the old Amiga days when people were making stuff to sell at shows. I am very happy that you did this. You brought back some memories of friends I had in the 1980s and the fun every day brought to inquisitive minds. You made my day.

[@RNMSC]

As to the comparator, it wouldn't surprise me if it's taking the output of the re-write chip and only replacing it in the video blanking window if one of the switches on the back is at the position that requests it. The idea being that if you are watching TV with Little Joe, and Grandpa Joe, if Little Joe can't read, and Grandpa Joe can't hear, he can at least read the original dialog, but little Joe doesn't get either.

[@Acaykath]

The only viable use for this I can think of is for waiting rooms where there is a TV to distract waiting people, but its on mute to prevent the TV from interfereing with the secretary's work. The chip would keep things mostly G-rated.

[@pivot9965]

Very nice video, i enjoy learning about this TV Guardian.

[@michaelcox436]

Suddenly rhere are about ten videos about this device, but this is the interesting one. Thank you.

[@MrKyltpzyxm]

I wish I could like this video twice. This is such a nice, condensed collection of knowledge and skills combined with a practical demonstration of their use. I feel like you could develop a whole curriculum just based on this video. Not a Masterclass, but an inspiration for designing a class or, more likely, set of classes that result in the ability to perform the tasks in this video. (This is all from the perspective of someone who has spent decades watching, listening, and reading about other people doing interesting things, but never learning them myself. I feel worried that anyone with expertise is rolling their eyes at this effusive praise, but this video just clicked for me in a way that made me feel like there is a path that I can still follow to get there too. Sorry for dumping my insecurities out. Unfortunate habit of mine. But the venting helps. Writing long, rambly, meandering KZbin comments is mostly harmless and feels like free therapy sometimes.)

[@jessy1982]

I am finishing off a computer engineering degree and the concepts in here were covered this year, such as what a PIC is, an SPI, a breadboard, reading input/output/clock, timing diagrams, reading datasheets, seeing the data in a table of hex and ascii in the format he showed, microcontrollers, shifting, binary addresses, etc. Seeing it applied so practically is insane to me and I wish this was used as a consistent example throughout our studies to make it more meaningful than the confusing projects we got.

[@newq]

What's wild is how much he got done using just a damn spreadsheet. I switched careers from information technology and went back to college for a science degree. I barely touched Excel working in IT, but doing science things, we use it constantly. I guess you bring it full circle when you start doing computer science!

[@ezracramer1370]

true, I was fiddling with arduino for some time based on theoretical practices&examples, this thing totally blew my mind

[@Nathriel]

19:56 the comment about the company going out of their way not to censor Dick van Dyke had me cracking up...

[@revenevan11]

Thank you so much for doing this from "first principles" as you say, using an Arduino. I've learned so much from watching you code this little project!!!

[@TheNextFiles288]

Videos like this is why i really didnt feel like going to college. Didnt have full internet @ gradation 2003, But self taught through books, encyclopedias, (1970s edition to 90s) So thank you very much, i get knowledge and experience that is vital from people like you. And who are not dumb Liked and subscribed

[@GwonkReefkeeping]

As an owner of the TV Guardian, and a tech guy, this was a delightful deep dive. I will be rewatching this video several times. Thank you.👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾

[@williamcampbell9859]

why do you own this? are you a snowflake?

[@phoneaccount6907]

What this device do? It replaces words in running string in tv signal? For what it was used?

[@GwonkReefkeeping]

@@phoneaccount6907 It mutes the sound when profanity is used, and places a closed caption replacement statement on the screen without the profanity.

[@CTimmerman]

@@GwonkReefkeeping It might be possible to generate real time audio using the same voices now.

[@settlece]

poo bum bet your TV Guardian did not get that one. 💌

[@logan5689]

This is the coolest thing I’ve seen in awhile! As a student working with electronics it’s super neat to see the reverse engineering, and the fact that things we learn are actually used in the real world haha

[@squirrelsyrup1921]

Can confirm I am now using all of those words in day-to-day conversations.

[@Mykyta_Palamarchuk]

This video is just an ultimate brain flex and I love everything about it. Thank you, that was beautiful. Never have I subscribed this fast to anyone.

[@charliechimp6917]

The way you explain things promotes motivation to learn these things thanks

[@danielthompson9503]

Absolutely amazing! Thank you. your understanding of patterns is something to be envious of.

[@TheOneWhoIsTheTwo]

I've been watching through your old videos, particularly the 6502 series. It brings me so much joy to see that you're still making videos. Keep it up, amazing work!

[@marekmatousek9990]

Ben you are simply Rocco Siffredi of digital world! Thank you for your effort. It is really admirable.

[@AwesomeGames56]

And here I was thinking I was a master at spreadsheets with my budget making skills. You are on a whole other level.

[@pretoasted]

So happy to have come across your channel; Way too many channels are very light on the technical stuff.... but as someone very familiar with the technical end due to years in R&D; This is really refreshing and has been very enjoyable to find and watch. Keep up the great work!

[@TwistedForHire]

Please do more things like this. I love it. I also love seeing how products were programmed.

[@5iFTYHFaviation_addict]

Man this guy knows his stuff. Subscribed.

[@kermitinmountain6371]

I was choked up with laughter when it mentioned that the word: Tennis is a vulgar. I can't remember a IC chip clamp with wires that can be connected without taking the IC chip out. It would be more easier. However with the reverse engineering from the product decades ago, what you did really blew me away. I had no ideas on how you did it. Good job Sir and thank you!

[@PC_YouTube_Channel]

The most unlikely crossover. But also the best crossover.

[@lozD83]

Thanks for this. I've been putting viewing of this video off for a couple weeks as didn't want to distract myself while working on other things. Finally sat down and watched. Thoroughly enjoyed it! Seeing the process one would go through in a nutshell like this is highly valuable to educating newbies from school age and up. Great stuff!

[@cubeflinger]

I learnt so much more from this than I ever expected.

[@jakewastaken]

This is a perfect video for all of the reasons that other people have already pointed out. Bravo!

[@fzigunov]

It would be great to see a follow up on how it reads the closed caption data and sends the mute signal / injects the cleaned up strings. This was really cool to see though! You're awesome!

[@briandonaldson518]

Just reprogram the eeprom to sub in ghetto language

[@PLAYCOREE]

As someone who doesnt find enough motivation to learn programming i really appreciate the pseudo Code explanation to make it understandable for everyone. Really enjoyed that Video!

[@volvo09]

Yeah, this makes me wish I got into programming as a teen... This man can FLY through the commands!

[@briandonaldson518]

@@volvo09 I have a 35 year hole between BASIC/FORTRAN and C (arduino simplified) I'm working to fill. I feel your pain.

[@theknownkill]

dude you just melted my brain and i love it