I'm heading home for my college's winter break and I would like to take my HD cable box with me. I have time warner and so do my parents, but the thing is that they have an HD big screen in the basement that they don't really use and it doesn't have an HD box to it. Hence, I'd like to watch my HD stuff on their tv while home. The question is, will my box work there? Is it "smart" enough to know it's not at the same location, and if so, prevent itself from working?

I called support and they said "No, it won't work because it's assigned to your account." I don't exactly understand how cable works, but my thinking was that the cable box just gets a "dumb" signal with every channel on it, and the box decrypts it and determines whether you're authorized to view those channels based on the unique ID address of the box, which theoretically should work independent of the box's physical location. So was support just feeding me a line to keep me from moving the box, or was she correct in that it won't work at another person's house? Thanks.

Well, if "heading home from college" is only across the street, it should work fine. If you're going to another city, Tech Support was correct.

Even if the same company serves both areas, most locations have unique databases and channel lineups, so the box would be a bit "confused" at a different city.:confused: :)

That HD box's serial number was put on your account to get authorized, when you opened your account. If you shut off your account, then your box gets deactivated as well, until you activate your account again. If your account is shut off, then the box's serial number would need to be added to your parents account to get authorized again.

As far as relocating the box, you need to know if the Time Warner system at your parents house uses the same boxes that your Time Warner system uses. If not, then the box you're using may not be compatible with the cable system that your parents live in.

- Cable Tech

You should be able to turn in your cable box at a TWC office near your college and pick up another identical box at an office near your parents home. You'd probably have to pay another rental fee, but it shouldn't be much if any more than what you or whoever was paying at the college.

Perhaps I misread the question, but I assumed this was just a temporary move of the box while the OP was on break.

Thanks for the input guys. I didn't bother bringing it home because my roommate might be back for a few days during break and I didn't want to piss him off if he came back and it was gone. It would have gone from Columbus to Cleveland. But I guess the consensus is that it "might" work depending on if the systems accept the same cable boxes? Good to know if I come back again and want to try it out.

*edit: To clarify, I still have Time Warner cable and my HD DVR from them, it's just that I won't be using it for 3 weeks while away from my apartment so I wanted to bring it home. It's still an active account, etc...

It wouldn't have worked anyways.

Yeah Columbus to Cleaveland is too far.

Simple test to see if it may work:

If the location you are moving the box to has the same exact identical channel lineup from 2 through 999, from the same company using the same branded set top boxes, then yes it should work. But a system with the same lineup is usually the size of a county or two, not much more.

Yeah Columbus to Cleaveland is too far.

Simple test to see if it may work:

If the location you are moving the box to has the same exact identical channel lineup from 2 through 999, from the same company using the same branded set top boxes, then yes it should work. But a system with the same lineup is usually the size of a county or two, not much more.

And even then chances are about 50/50.

True...

I've done it, but it was only a block away.

Friend got a new HDTV and was unsure if he wanted to pay extra for the HD box. So I brought mine down and demonstrated it. I sold him the idea of HD. The next day he went to the local office and got an HD box.