Motorola DCX 3400 HD/DVR

[Mingomya]

Hi Newbie here.

My cable provider is finally offering Digital Cable way up north here in Canada. They are offering a
Motorola DCX3400 HD/DVR for $475.00 with a 3-year warranty.

They are also offering a REFURBISHED
Motorola DCT 6412 HD for $249 with a 6-month warranty.

My questions are:
Is this a fair price?
Can I find it cheaper?
If I did purhace it elsewhere, does it have to be programmed by my cable provider to work?

I have no idea about this hardware.

Any feed back would be appreciated. Thanks

[MilesAhead]

I would contact your cable company to see what the policy is afa outside purchase of equipment and how it's programmed. You may find out that certain outputs are disabled or not supported etc..

Best to know if they are going to blow you off if you have a technical problem later. Is there an option to rent the equipment? I don't know how it goes up there but down here often you can rent a modem or dvr to go with a service for $5/month or so and can just return it if you decide to make a purchase. You're not locked in. If at all possible I'd try before you buy.

[doctorhardware]

I know that some of the Motorola cable boxes have access card like satellite receivers do. So there may be different cards for the different providers of cable. So that would be another question to ask also.