forgotten_aria

I believe that pretty much every cable provider is moving towards all-digital. In fact, I think Comcast may have done it in this area before RCN did. So I don't think switching providers is going to help you at all.

All-digital doesn't necessarily mean that you need a cablebox; if you have a device which takes a CableCard (or two) then that device can act as the cable box. For instance, I have an HD TiVo and RCN service but I don't have an RCN cable box. Instead of renting a cablebox from RCN, I rent two CableCards from them, and they plug into my TiVo, which then serves the purpose of the cable box -- no need for an IR connection between the TiVo and a cable box, which never worked right anyway.

If your DVR supports CableCards, then you're fine, switch to that. If not, then switching to another provider is unlikely to help. I believe that your options are to rent the provider's DVR or get your own DVR that supports CableCards.