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extra comcast digital box
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Posted by: SRD

a friend of mine moved into a new house 6 or so months ago and has Direct Tv. I was over this weekend helping him hook up a reciever to about 5 other things and noticed he had a motorola comcast digital cable box in the closet. I asked him where it came from and he said that it was in the house when he moved in the previous owners or comcast never called and asked for it or anything so he just left it in the closet because he didnt know what to do with it. I have regular analog comcast and was curious what it would do if i hooked it up at my house. well it pretty much does nothing, i'm not sure what i was expecting but... It just shows the digital menu over my regular analog channels with some type of "no info avail" message in the guide for each channel. I asked him if he wants it back and he said no he dosent really have any use for it. So i am wondering is this thing good for anything? could i ebay it and just say as-is? would anyone be able to use it for anything? the number on the bottom of it is DCT2224/1662/ACDEGL

Posted by: csyria

You should return it to Comcrap to prevent some Karmatic Retribution, but you could sell it.

Posted by: SRD

i know that i should return it but ive had so many problems with comcast & billing problems that i'd fell like a dope going out of my way to return there box. id rather smash it and mentally think of us as even.

Posted by: csyria

Well, if they don't find out it was you or try to bill your friend then I say go for it.

Posted by: csyria

Have they started scrambling your analog channels yet? Maybe it'll work on those when they do.

Also, is that CableCard ready? Maybe you should keep it.

Posted by: dcorsi

the box needs to be authorized by comcast to show your channels... so needless to say unless you subscribe it is useless.

Posted by: csyria

Unless it CableCARD ready. Then it could be used now, because aren't they required to provide cards?

Posted by: SRD

it has a slot in the back that says "tv pass card" is that the same as cable card and what is cablecard

Posted by: GoodSpike

ItS their property and whoever has it connected to their system could be in trouble--especially if the ID of the box can be determined from outside the house.

Posted by: classicsat

The TVPass card is not CableCard. TVPasscard is a Motorola/DCII specific security enhancement for Motorola/DCII boxes, should the security be compromised.

Posted by: TivoGeezer

I would guess it has a sticker on it somewhere that says "Property of Comcast". Drop it off there and tell them where it came from.

Posted by: DLSith

Just sell the stupid thing on ebay. These things are sold everyday there, you can make a little extra scratch you didnt have before and buy yourself dinner.

Posted by: dirtypacman

Only suggestion I could make is to order digital cable from them and then use the box in another location with out having to pay for it.

Thats seems like the only thing that may work to your benefit.

Posted by: Moebius

quote:
Originally posted by dirtypacman
Only suggestion I could make is to order digital cable from them and then use the box in another location with out having to pay for it.

Thats seems like the only thing that may work to your benefit.

The ID of the box would still not match the system, so that's not going to work. You'd have to put something inline to only allow downstream and block upstream transmissions, and at that the box would only decode what it was last instructed to.

Personally, I'd either toss it in the garbage, or run it down to the office and be done with it.

Posted by: ZeoTiVo

you are just asking for trouble if you try to use it to get Comcasr service without letting them know you are. That is crossing the line to outright stealing.

If you sold it or smashed it , then since you did not hide it from Comcast since they never looked for it, I would be "comfortable" with that line but it still is a line past the any-form-of-stealing line. so Don't do the crime if you can't do the time"

Putting it back in the house it came from would be alright and not crossing any line, of course you would just be handing it back off on your friend as useless and that is somewhat lame.

Dropping it off at some Comcast office, whether anonymously or not, is the right thing to do and the only way to keep Comcrap from rubbing off on you. If you do not like them then do not be like them.

for fun you can imagine the office trying to unsnarl where it came from and what to do with it.