Somehow received digital cable/ppv with only basic cable

I have an odd issue that I'm not complaining about but am wondering if anyone can shed some light on. I have basic cable connected directly into my samsung 5054 plasma and when using the dash button for digital/hdtv somehow I was picking up digital stations and some ppv with basic cable.

Problem is I did a rescan and now can only view basic stations. Even manually entering the channels that I noted before the rescan aren't coming in. Somehow the tv tuned all digital cable in and a number of hd ppv.

Anyone have any ideas why I was able to view these in the first place and what type of scan I would need to do to get them back? The cable company is Armstrong. They couldn't of made any adjustments on there end. I lost them as soon as I did a rescan trying to get more stations. Any input is appreciated.

Well I figured it out. My TV tries to remove the scrambled channels when finished doing a channel scan. I caught it right when it finished and stopped it from removing the extra channels.

Question is if anyone knows how these channels are being picked up. Is it a poor filter from the cable company?

Yeah...the digital basic channels are viewable and show up on info as 480i with dolby digital. That theory about what the neighbors are watching may be it for the ppv. Zombieland and The Blindside in 480 last night but nothing on those stations now. I had Starz in 1080i and caught a bit of Spartacus and now it's no go to. I doubt they were watching all at the same time or maybe it's multiple neighbors on the same node or something.

I'm going to reprogram my channels to take advantage of the 480i and better sound but....

What's really screwed up is my roommate can do the same and he gets the complete basic cable in 480i where my one chunk of my stations seem to come and go saying weak signal. Regardless....35 digital stations...not too shabby.

I was just missing a chunk of the stations so I turned the TV off/on and back they came. So now it's just a matter of narrowing down those special stations. I've never tried to pull any cable shenanigans but is anything wrong with borrowing a friends cable box, plug it in, and see what happens?