SA 8300 HD Question

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

"Milo" <notreal@localnet.com> wrote in message
news:SVHNe.33938$EX.22085@twister.nyroc.rr.com...
>I am no expert and was hoping someone could help me. I currently have Time
>Warner Digital Cable which uses the Scientific Atlanta 8300 HD on one TV in
>the house. I think Time Warner charges me about $8/month to rent this box.
>
> Now my question - if I buy another SA 8300HD (i.e. there are currently
> several on sale on Ebay) - will it work if I put in on an additional TV in
> the house? I am not looking to steal digital cable or anything like
> that - simply to have digital cable on another set in the house by owning
> (and not renting) a 2nd box. In other words - can you buy these boxes
> yourself or must you always rent them from Time Warner?
>
> All help appreciated.

I'd doubt it. The whole point of cable company wanting customers to go
digital is so that the cable company can charge you for each TV, just like
satellite. The digital content on the cable is encrypted and you need to get
a decoder (a box or a card) to decode it. As I understand it, you can only
get a decoder from the cable company and it's illegal for anyone else to
sell such decoder.

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

In article <6CINe.4269$ja7.3663@tornado.ohiordc.rr.com>,
"XYZ ABC" <XYZ@abc.com> wrote:

> As I understand it, you can only
> get a decoder from the cable company and it's illegal for anyone else to
> sell such decoder.

That's not quite true.

Anyone can sell the box; it won't be useful, though, unless and until
the cable company authorizes it.

If all he's trying to do is avoid rental on the box, that should be
quite doable. Just call the cable company and have them authorize it,
and pay whatever charges they have for the additional service (if any).
Just don't pay any rental on the box.

I use my own cable modem. The cable company authorizes it. No big deal.

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

FYI, Time-Warner Austin charges $7.95 a month "equipment charge" to rent an
8300 HD box. If you provided your own, they would have to allow it, then
there would be the matter of how much less they would charge. Presumably,
$7.95, since they ALSO charge $6.95 / month for "HD/DVR Service" -- but I
don't know that.

Interesting. They are charging $8 rent for the equipment and $7 for using
the equipment. Kind of like charging you $1000 rent for your house and
another grand for letting you live there. But we pay it.

There is the matter of whether or not you would get firmware upgrades for
the box when TW sends them down the line. And, of course, you would want to
upgrade your box at some point --- I would think within a year or two, at
the most.

mack
austin


"XYZ ABC" <XYZ@abc.com> wrote in message
news:4XKNe.4576$ja7.3121@tornado.ohiordc.rr.com...
>> That's not quite true.
>>
>> Anyone can sell the box; it won't be useful, though, unless and until
>> the cable company authorizes it.
>>
>> If all he's trying to do is avoid rental on the box, that should be
>> quite doable. Just call the cable company and have them authorize it,
>> and pay whatever charges they have for the additional service (if any).
>> Just don't pay any rental on the box.
>>
>> I use my own cable modem. The cable company authorizes it. No big deal.
>>
>
> The point is you need to pay monthly fee for each box, no matter you get
> it from the cable company or somewhere else. You may be able to pay less
> if you provide your own equipment. But the difference is so little that it
> make little sense to get your own. I think it's $1 each month for cable
> modem. if you paid $60 for the cable modem, you'll need 5 years to recoup
> the cost, not counting interests. In 5 years, everything has changed.
>
>

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

On Sat, 20 Aug 2005 15:23:30 GMT, "Milo" <notreal@localnet.com> wrote:

>Now my question - if I buy another SA 8300HD (i.e. there are currently
>several on sale on Ebay) - will it work if I put in on an additional TV in
>the house? I am not looking to steal digital cable or anything like that -
>simply to have digital cable on another set in the house by owning (and not
>renting) a 2nd box. In other words - can you buy these boxes yourself or
>must you always rent them from Time Warner?

In the USA, the Scientific Atlanta DVRs are NEVER sold to the public.
They're only sold in bulk directly to cable companies so the ones you
see on Ebay are either stolen, bought from Canada, or have otherwise
not been turned in to the cable company that actually owns it.

I have conversed with several Ebay bidders and buyers and also
read posts on the SA8000/8300 mailing list and various DVR forums
on AVSForum.com and so far not a single person has been able to get
an Ebay DVR working with their cable system. Not one. I asked my
local TWC office about this and they said their DVRs are keyed to
work only on our network.

Randy