Using DVR from one cable company with another

[johnnysc]

I am a college student so I'm at school 8 months out of the year. Back home i have comcast cable which offers a DVR for like 10 bucks a month. While i'm home i use it constantly. However, at school, i have D&E cable company which does not offer DVR's. Would i be able to use my DVR (comcast cable) from home up at school with D&E cable.

[glockjs]

call em up and find out, there's really no way to tell whats compatible on one system to the other....

[johnnysc]

well i brought the dvr from comcast and tried using it up here. The menu and guide dont work and wont update with the current programs. It will let me watch tv on regular channels but if i try going to digital cannels 'typically 100 and above' it just says 'this channel will be available in a moment' but stays like that forever. I wouldnt be too upset except the whole dvr function is lost. Apparently you have to have the guide to record. When i push guide everything just says "to be announced" I called D&E and asked if i gave the serial for the dvr if they could register it. They told me at this time their system is not capable of adding customer owned boxes. Whether it be a dvr or even a regular digital box.
If anyone has any suggestions on what i can do id appreciate it. Thanks.

[olie04]

Hey johnny,
I am a comcast tech, and just to let you know, the box will not work in another cable system (you found thatout already) The problem is, the box that you have, is registered and burned to your system back at home, and only that system. If you had comcast at your college it COULD, or WON'T work. The main reason for that is the channel line up would mess everything up (different signal sources, etc.) As far as I know too, you better not lose that box, or hope no one steals it from your place at college LOL. If you have the comcast service, I would be very surprised if you bought it from them, you are probably just renting it for 5 dollars a month or something. Cause those boxes cost 600 dollars or so... Just to let you know, be careful. Comcast are nazi's about that sorta thing!.

Cheers!

[hsugawar]

johnny,

I am working for a company that makes DVRs for the cable. Unlike stand-alone DVRs like the (non DirecTV version of) TiVo and the Replay-TV, cable-ready DVRs are pretty much under cable companies' control. It's not just a matter of in-band EPG signals but usually also of a lot tighter communication between the cable company's head-end and the DVR. The head-end may control not only which channels you can watch but also which channels you can record, which show you can record, which features of your DVR you can use, and even how much disk space you can use out of the physical disk capacity, i.e. almost everything. So it is no surprise that you cannot use your parents' DVR in your college dorm with a different cable company. Even if you had Comcast there, it would be quite possible you get a negative response from Comcast like "Sorry, that service is not available in your area" because cable TV is a very regional service.

I agree with olie04 that you should be careful about the DVR because your parents are renting it from Comcast and it may be against their contract to move the DVR out of your parents' premises. If your parents fail to return it to Comcast at the end of a contract, you parents may be billed $800 or so.

hiro