I have an opportunity to purchase a Motorola DCT6416 DVR. These units are only rented out by my cable company (Time Warner) and are never sold. I currently have digital cable with HBO and Showtime. If I buy this unit, which was previously hooked to up Time Warner cable in my area, will it work or will it need to be "activated" by my cable company (which they won't be willing to do obviously). Any help would be appreciated.
I'm an installation tech for a large cable company and I believe I can offer some suggestions that may help.
The answer to your question may have two answers. If the box was killed by the cable company remotely due to some type of non-payment, cancellation of service, or other risk, the box will not work until reactivated by a CSR.
If the box was disconnected before cancellation of service, non-payment disconnect, or other it will still work for about 3-6 months or so until the computer recognizes that the box is no longer registered in the system. And then will die and will require reactivation.
Any cable box cannot be transferred from one subscriber to another... But they can be transferred from one account to another and one address to another.
Dont know if this helps, or even if it's too late, but I figured I would share some knowledge anyways.
