Update: It’s been admitted it was a hoax, but that’s not reflected everywhere yet. If you saw it elsewhere, now you know for sure.
There’s a bit of a flurry going on about a DTV converter box that supposedly has a camera and microphone hidden inside it. The usual conspiracy theories have come up, which probably should come up if a camera is found in something like this — but a hot truth injection should quiet things down. Like if, for instance, the camera isn’t a camera and the mic isn’t a mic.
Here’s the video:
First, let’s give a hand to the cameraman. Nice and blurry. No stills. He doesn’t attempt to investigate the “camera” at all, so aside from its resemblance to spy cameras (round piece of plastic) we’ve got nothing to go on. Secondly, the “microphone” looks like a capacitor. It is, after all, a PCB in there. Third, even if we grant that there is a camera, what is it connected to? Where is the signal going? How is it powered? Remember, this box is connected to rabbit ears, which last I checked weren’t capable of transmitting a live video stream.
A forum member found a picture of the PCB on another forum, and here it is:
There is a capacitor where the microphone is, and the PCB layout doesn’t seem to allow for a spy camera to be installed there.
Now let’s be clear: if someone had legit photos and video of this sort of thing, we’d be jumping on it and demanding answers. But this looks like a confused consumer mistaking components for spy gear.