I have digital cable at home and one digital cable "box." I bought another box at a yard sale, same brand and model as the one supplied by the cable company. Can the new box be programmed with my current channel line-up by me or by someone smarter than me? This IS NOT an attempt to steal anything from the cable company. I'm already paying for digital service, I just want to add another room where I can set the parental control so the kids don't wind up watching something inapropriate on the spare TV. If, in the process, I'm able to use the "on demand" feature of HBO then...

If this better handled via email, my address is:

marty @ public-finance . com (don't forget the dash "-" in the URL)

Thanks.

00camper

you don't need another cable box. i would run a spliter from the input to either your tv or your vcr, wherever the digital cable is hooked into after it leaves the box.

at the input to either your tv or vcr you are already downstream from the cable box so you will have digital at both leads and the line loss shouldn't be much of a problem.

each tv will be capable of it's own channels and it's own blocks since both tv's are receiving the same signal and the controls are at the tv itself.

I believe that all of the newer digital cable boxes are addressable boxes that need to be activated by the cable company. Your local cable company will probably not activate your "private" box for you. If they do they will probably still charge you a monthly fee (the same as they would if you received the box from them) to have your box connected to their system. I believe that you are in the same neck of the woods as I am (e.g. directly south of the Ohio). I know that is what “our” cable service does.

my local cable company also have "Addressable" boxes and I have tried this. It does not work 😞

if you find the fix let me know. I have an extra box as well now

Buckwheat

Schmitty22

have you tried my scheme?

RICKAMAVEN,

We're talking about digital cable. The signal coming to the house is digital and analog. I have analog cable all over the house. Digital is another matter. With digital cable the box is your tuner, volume control, etc. Splitting the signal won't work unless you want to watch the same thing on two different TV sets.

Thanks guys.

On another note, where "south of the Ohio" are you Buckwheat?

Your splitter idea won't accomplish what OO is looking for. Actually, the analog signal is still transmitted with the digital cable signal through the cable. To get the basic analog channels (no premiums accept the basic 16, 17, 18 HBO & Showtime channels and I think the 78 Starz – your channels maybe different according to the cable co.) up to cable channel 99. This can be accomplished by using a simple splitter at the headend and running cable to each TV. The TV will control the channels. For any of the digital channels you need to have a digital cable box at each TV, period (or you will watch the same channels on all TV's hooked up after the box). In this case the Cable box controls the channels. I could go into it further but I’m tired and I have to go.

OO I'm on my way out the door. E-mail me at [email protected] and I'll give you my info. Thanks

U cannot beat addressable boxes.

Charlie

OPP

i have analog cable and dish satellite. so i presumed and i presumed incorrectly.

the other box needs to be "staged", (a program to load the channel mapping, and lineup into the box), and refresh it. this action is done in the headend, or near a network with a dac setup.

when the box was removed from the service, it more than likely was shut down. it needs to be re-staged now, and is now a missing piece of equip. most dct's cost the sub around $200 if not returned, and are property of the cable co. from which it was removed.

without the proper program, its useless, and is again, the property of a cable co. somewhere.

Thanks for the input. Sounds like the box is useless. It only cost me $1 at the yard sale, so I'm not out anything I can't afford to lose.