I (perhaps niavely) purchased a digital cable box locally , and cannot get it programmed to pick up anything but analog, I only want to get it to pick up what I am paying for. Adelphia seems to think that owning your own box is not allowed so have not called them on this issue. Does anyone have a clue as to what I need to do to get this thing up and running??

 

You need a cable card in order to get the data. All of the digital cable boxes run off of the cable card which is "permissioned" based on what you subscribe to. Having the cable box w/o the cable card is useless as you're finding out.

The only way to get a cable card is through your cable company... so your options are either to:

A) Find an illegal card that works (Good luck. Since the cable system is 2-way the box talks to the cable company and the odds are the card would be rejected since it will not match up with what they have on file).
B) Sell the box and try to get some of your money back
C) Call the cable company to get a cable card permissioned based on your account

 

I see people on ebay buying these digital boxes everyday. I still don't know why they do it. I haven't seen a digital box yet so why buy one? The cable co won't activate a box they don't own.

 

I thought Cable Card was for people who don't want a set top box (STB).

You will have to contact Adelphia if you want your box activated. Whether they will do it or not is something you'll have to ask them. Even when they come out to install an STB,, they have to call in to activate it. Each unit has it's own unique MAC address which they track to verify what services you are paying for and allowed to receive.

I say give Adelphia a call. The worst they can do is say no and you'll be in the same place you are now. Then you can try selling the box to someone else.

Just curious... where do people get these boxes from? Steal them? Not return them when moving?

 

It can be for that too.

If your TV supports Cable Card then you can just order the card through your cable company and insert it into your TV. With this setup you don't need a STB.

If your TV does NOT have a Cable Card slot, then you get a STB with a cable card.

Basically you'll have a cable card either way. Whether it's inserted into your TV or a STB depends on what your TV supports and what type of config you want. Honestly even if my TV supported it I would get the STB since running the cards through the TV is quirky at best...

.

 

thanks everybody. I did call Adephia and they said no way. I really do not feel right in selling this to some other fool, and my rating on Ebay will go down if I rip somebody else off. Maybe I can off it at the flea market. My only alternative is to tell the seller that I will report her to "authorities", since I have her address, and know full well (now) that this unit was stolen from Adelphia

 

Take it back to the seller and tell them it's stolen. If you pass it on to someone else you are no better than the lady who sold it to you.