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

Hello,

I am moving, and about to setup digital cable for the first time.

I notice that you can lease the "high definition cable" box from Comcast at $9.00 a month... but I would much rather buy my own, and make sure that it is a good one. I hate the ones that Comcast uses.

Is this something I can do??? Or does comcast make you use theirs???

If Comcast will let me do this, can any of you recommend REALLY GOOD ones, preferably with some sort of Tivo/DVR built in???

Some must have features of this theoretical box are:

* Solid, well laid out, uncluttered remote, with fast response time
* Ability to offload TIVO/DVR content to external hard drive or computer
* Fast menu navigation
* Excellent SD and HD image quality
* DVI or HDMI

Any thoughts?

Thanks