Alternatives to renting Comcast HD Boxes?

[PVJAG]

I live in a condominium building and cable is included in my association fees through Comcast. But, in order to get HDTV I must rent an HD box from Comcast. Considering I need 3 of them I'd rather just bite the bullet and buy a couple boxes rather than deal with the recurring monthly fee.

What are my options? I've never really researched this before. To be clear I have full cable access but am just not using any kind of box/receiver at the moment. Thanks for any help..

[Moefiz]

Originally Posted by PVJAG

I live in a condominium building and cable is included in my association fees through Comcast. But, in order to get HDTV I must rent an HD box from Comcast. Considering I need 3 of them I'd rather just bite the bullet and buy a couple boxes rather than deal with the recurring monthly fee.

What are my options? I've never really researched this before. To be clear I have full cable access but am just not using any kind of box/receiver at the moment. Thanks for any help..

I think it maybe cheaper for you to get Direct TV, try and see if you can get out of paying the Comcast fee and go with direct TV, you can get some great deals right now for being a new customer.

[meckel]

TivoHD DVR box.

You would still need a cable card from Comcast for each TivoHD and you will need to pay a monthly service fee to Tivo (there is a one time lifetime option per box). If you don't want a DVR I'm not sure what options are out there other then Dish network or DirectTV if you Condo allows a sat. dish

[PVJAG]

Originally Posted by meckel

TivoHD DVR box.

You would still need a cable card from Comcast for each TivoHD and you will need to pay a monthly service fee to Tivo (there is a one time lifetime option per box). If you don't want a DVR I'm not sure what options are out there other then Dish network or DirectTV if you Condo allows a sat. dish

The association cut a deal with Comcast so my cable bill is relatively cheap fro everything I'm getting (HBO, Sports Package, etc.). So I just assume stick with Cable than paying more for satellite.

If I bought the Tivo box would I have to pay extra to Comcast for anything? I'm trying to completely avoid any kind of monthly Comcast bill.

Thanks for the responses!

[fatediesel]

Originally Posted by PVJAG

The association cut a deal with Comcast so my cable bill is relatively cheap fro everything I'm getting (HBO, Sports Package, etc.). So I just assume stick with Cable than paying more for satellite.

If I bought the Tivo box would I have to pay extra to Comcast for anything? I'm trying to completely avoid any kind of monthly Comcast bill.

Thanks for the responses!

You would have to rent a cable card from Comcast even if you got Tivo. For my cable company that is $5 per card per month. I don't think there's a way to get around paying something to Comcast if you want HD.

[VinnAY]

Paying a useage or rental fee for each box is far better than buying one when they run (as best I know) ~$300. If you factor in each time the thing goes unstable and goes tits up, you can walk in and out with a replacement for no cost, it's quite a deal depending on how you look at it. Think about if you owned the box and it shot craps one @ 15 months, you'd be out buying a new one (quite possibly) or dealing with warranty repair and not having a STB while it's in the shop. When you could have walked into the local Comcast and swapped a replacement in an hour.

There are severe advantages to not owning one of those things, IMHO. Even at $5/mth for each of my boxes its worth it and I'd have to keep the thing for like 5 years before those charges balanced out.