Digital Cable Tuner - Can I buy and use my own??

Chadnliz - Most electronics like that come with a 3 year manufacturer warranty or something.

True, but still getting a new Satelite box could get expensive.

I use an OTA HDTV tuner which includes a digital cable/ HDTV section (I'm a reg. cable subscriber, but not digital cable)& I get some, but not all, of the "non-scrambled" HDTV cable content. (My cable company recently started scrambling thier sdtv premium content.)This is only "relevant" to your issue, in that, cable systems are not necesarily "compliant" to universal standards in the delivery of these signals & the cable box you buy from someone else "may" not function properly with your cable system (ymmv) In my situation I recieved hdtv abc,cbs & pbs, but fox & nbc (which were higher channel numbers)were very unstable & routinely dropped out to "no signal" like I was viewing OTA with a weak station. Supposedly, FCC rules state that the "networks" hdtv feeds on cable are supposed to be recievable with my type of reciever (Quam?)Don't know if "atlanta-scientific" cable boxes are availble to "the public" or not, but my experience raises questions about the "standards" & cable systems adherence to those standards...