In the past there was no way around renting TW boxes… Just recently you can buy any box that uses a cablecard, but you still need to rent the cablecard from TW…
8300hd’s are 90 hours SD 20 hours HD, 8300hd’s can be expanded, i’m not sure if buffalo TW has that disabled or not… Maybe Ryan knows.
ex
http://www.weaknees.com/maxtor-quickview-expander-qvx.php