I currently have Time Warner Cable and rather than pay Time Warner a small fortune to lease one of their HDTV/DVR cable boxes, I was wondering if it was possible to buy my own and have it work w/ my cable. This will be my second cable box in my home. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Can you purchace your own cable box and use it w/ your cable?
- Thread starter tom@sterling-technology.c
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Supposedly very shortly you will be able to purchase your own cable box. Click below for thread on it here
http://www.satelliteguys.us/cable-t...ums/98501-now-you-can-own-your-cable-box.html
http://www.satelliteguys.us/cable-t...ums/98501-now-you-can-own-your-cable-box.html
Yes but you pay twc 9/month (or less) a new DVR will cost near 300, so it will take about 2.5years for give or take for it to pay for itself. Renting the box you are not responsible for anything that breaks. So if the Harddrive dies or whatever you get a new one. I see it as insurance.
I work for a tv station and we just did a story about this a couple of days ago. This area is served by Time-Warner and while they have no problem with consumers owning a box, they'll still have to pay T-W a monthly fee for the cable card that has to plug into it. I think they said either $3.00 or $3.95, so after that, I can't see much advantage in spending $300 for each box.
In addition, T-W will not sell the boxes themselves and the reporter who did the story couldn't find any stores that planned on selling them and the included Best Buy and Circuit City.
I'm certainly not a fan of cable (I switched to satellite in 1999), but I just think it's one of those things that looks good on paper, but just isn't worth the cost of a box and all the trouble just to save a couple of bucks a month.
In addition, T-W will not sell the boxes themselves and the reporter who did the story couldn't find any stores that planned on selling them and the included Best Buy and Circuit City.
I'm certainly not a fan of cable (I switched to satellite in 1999), but I just think it's one of those things that looks good on paper, but just isn't worth the cost of a box and all the trouble just to save a couple of bucks a month.
There are some cablecard ready TVs.
Just like TVs with digital tuners, and costs go down more and more TVs made in the near future will be cablecard ready.
Just like TVs with digital tuners, and costs go down more and more TVs made in the near future will be cablecard ready.
Other than the Tivo Series 3, I don't think there are any other cablecard STBs currently available. The new FCC rules should (hopefully) create a market for affordable cablecard STBs and DVRs. It's hard to believe that in 2007 you can't buy your own Sony, Panasonic, JVC, etc. set-top-box from the local Best Buy, Circuit City, Wal-Mart, etc. I think a lot of people of tired of having to lease the horrible Motorola and Scientific-Atlanta boxes from their local cable provider.
As mentioned, some tv's have a cable card slot, and also I believe there are some cable card slots for computers. For normal users I can't see this being a big thing, but there will be SOME people that have a need for this.
While it's true that the prices of the boxes will come down as more are sold I think that the average cable customer (not the folks who are savvy and go on boards like this) will not go to the trouble or expense of buying them. I think the idea of paying a few bucks extra a month to lease them and having the peace of mind that if they break the cable company will give them another one is very appealing to them.
