I have a basic question and I am new to all this DVR and HD stuff.

I am wondering if I have to use their cable boxes that they give us or can I purchase one on my own and not pay a montly fee to Comcast for this.

I have Comcast in Jersey if that makes a difference I am not sure.



I know we can use our own modems for the internet stuff so I would assume the cable boxes would be the same idea but any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Travis

I have a basic question and I am new to all this DVR and HD stuff.

I am wondering if I have to use their cable boxes that they give us or can I purchase one on my own and not pay a montly fee to Comcast for this.

I have Comcast in Jersey if that makes a difference I am not sure.

You could buy a TiVo HD ($299 from TiVo, may be able to get better prices by shopping around), Moxi CableCARD box ($799), or buy or build a Windows Media Center system with UDCR tuners (varies, but expect to spend somewhere in the neighborhood of $1000+ for a whole new system). Those are currently your only purchasable options. With each of them, you'd still have to rent one or more CableCARDs from your cable provider, and in the case of the TiVo, either (a) buy lifetime service ($399 for new customers, though some people will buy it for you on their account and charge you the cost plus a service fee; this is common on eBay, and usually runs around $330), or (b) get yearly or monthly service with TiVo. Keep in mind that Video on Demand and impulse pay-per-view services don't work with any of these options, so you'd still have to rent a box from the cableco for those services. This may change when tru2way deployment finally happens nationwide; when that'll happen is anyone's guess right now.

You cannot buy whatever box they offer on eBay or another auction site. Those boxes are stolen from cable providers, and Comcast WILL NOT, repeat, WILL NOT activate them. If you buy one, you will have bought a paperweight. If you then call them up and try to get it activated, the person on the phone will either not understand what you're talking about, or may just laugh at you outright. Activation of said box will not happen. I say this having seen hundreds of threads from people who did just this, only to find that their cableco will not, under any circumstances, activate said box. So... fair warning.

I know we can use our own modems for the internet stuff so I would assume the cable boxes would be the same idea but any help would be greatly appreciated!

Unfortunately it's not the same situation.