Cable tv??, dvr question?? Options

[nics]

I was browsing on ebay and i found a scientific atlanta 8300 dvr box. Its the same brand for the regular box that we use and its the same model at my parents house but they are subcribed to Time Warner Cable. We are currently subscribed to Cox cable and im just wondering if it would work just fine (record, play, schedule etc.) WITHOUT having to get the DVR service

Does the cable company tweak something in the cable signal for that DVR service for it to work on a DVR box or it should work with just the equipment???

I am really confused

and I am really skeptical about that dvr service if its just an additional cost and would work fine as long as you have dvr equipment

[yarik83]

There are 3 factors that affect your bill cost.
#1 service provider. It is always best to shop first and review contracts and services that are offered
#2 look for a promotion such as 6 months, 12 months of discounted service to save you costs.
#3 no matter how much you crave do not order services outside of package such as ppv events or things like hbo etc

Let me elaborate. Paying 9-10 dollars per month to your cable company puts you into 120 dollars per year into a box that works. You can always walk into their office and replace it if it starts to bug out. Consequently every single company is looking for ways to get you to sign up for their service. What that means is that you can find a deal like 99 dollars per month to get phone, tv and internet for a whole year, then switch to another company that offers similar deal, then to another and then finally have someone else sign up for it (ie your wife, girlfriend, husband, brother etc) I have been doing exactly that since 1999 signing up for best option package. Finally there are traps that can lure you into paying more. For example if you get hbo on demand for $15 per month, you will also be getting stars and showtime or cinemax. They rotate movies from on demand pool at a rate of once every once in forever. You will get pissed at that service and end up paying like 180 bucks for nothing. Do yourself a favor. Figure out what channels you need to watch, sign up for a service that offers what you want and sign up for netflix to get yourself some movies. That alone saves me hundreds of dollars every year. I used to pay 3-5 dollars at blockbuster for each movie and then when they started offering unlimited rentals for a flat fee I ended up paying more for gas being stuck in traffic trying to get to and from the rental shop.
Overall I have dvr service, golden package, internet and 4 at a time rental service from netflix and my monthly bill is $110.00+31.00=141