[mythtv-users] can I buy my own digital cable box for use with Time warner digital cable?

[Brad Templeton]

On Tue, Mar 03, 2009 at 09:16:48PM -0800, Deyan wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 8:14 PM, freedenizen <freedenizen at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Josh White wrote:
> >>
> >> This question may have been asked, but I couldn't find anything in my searches...can I buy an HD digital cable box and get a card from time warner...one that would work better with myth, such as having control capabilities via usb/firewire, etc?  Has anyone in mythtv-land tried this?
> >
> > In theory there should be cablecard STBs out there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CableCARD
> >
> > In reality I don't know anyone that is using one.
> 
> The Motorola DCH-3200 (and possibly others) has a CableCard -
> http://www.motorola.com/business/US-EN/DCH3200_US-EN.do?vgnextoid=bbec9e3eeed46110VgnVCM1000008406b00aRCRD
> 
> I have it and it came with the CableCard pre-installed.


Comcast told me at first that I could not buy one.   Then they said yes, you can buy
one (if you can find one, there are some on ebay from time to time) but this is
only useful to you as a 2nd box, since now they upped their prices and made
rental of the first box "free."

If you want a 2nd box (to record a 2nd show I guess as myth users don't need
more boxes for more tvs) it might make sense to buy rather than rent after
a long enough period.