I was wondering if it is possible to use a receiver strictly for the purpose of watching stuff on my EHD. I was thinking of putting the receiver in my camper and taking my EHD when camping but I did not plan to hook the receiver up to a Dish.
Does receiver have to be active to use EHD?
- Thread starter mfoster711
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Nope. Your receiver needs to be authorized from the satellite data stream before it will show you the EHD. 
You must be active and connected to a dish. After some varying period of time, your receiver will cease working after it has had no satellite signal and has been unable to "phone home."
Navychop, we have seen reports of people watching stuff recorded internally on 501 recievers for years after they disconnected the dish. Is this something that has a different answer for VIP receivers?
I have a couple of 508's that I can still watch recorded programs on and they have been off for years.....when I shut off service for a a few months with my 722k's I could still access my internal recordings and any free preview channels that were showing, but I did not have external drive hooked up at that time....heck I could record shows that were previews even though my service was suspended...
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Gary, I was responding to this comment by Navychop:
I was gently questioning this statement by mentioning that this was NOT true about the 501, and asked whether it was true of the 722. The mack responded that playback of the internal disk on both his 508 and 722k was possible for months or years when the receiver is no longer authorized.
We all agree that the EHD cannot be used when the receiver can't "see" whether it's authorized on your account. I was just trying to offer the OP an alternative (playback from the internal disk) when he takes his receiver camping.
I was gently questioning this statement by mentioning that this was NOT true about the 501, and asked whether it was true of the 722. The mack responded that playback of the internal disk on both his 508 and 722k was possible for months or years when the receiver is no longer authorized.
We all agree that the EHD cannot be used when the receiver can't "see" whether it's authorized on your account. I was just trying to offer the OP an alternative (playback from the internal disk) when he takes his receiver camping.
That's the way I roll. If we're going to move next day I often don't bother putting up the Dish unless I want news.
I took the context to be ViP. Yes, the 500s were different. IIRC the 721et you play built in games on it for years after deactivation, but not play anything on the internal drive.
I think the activation is actually stored in the card. The old blue ones never expired, I think either the yellow or purple ones introduced the feature where if it's not exposed to an activation signal periodically it somehow times out and deactivates itself.
It has been several years since this was discussed when the feature first came out, so I might not be remembering accurately. No surprise there.
It has been several years since this was discussed when the feature first came out, so I might not be remembering accurately. No surprise there.
Regarding VIP receivers - if it has been deactivated by DISH, Account cancelled, or been unplugged/without signal (for 3-7 days aka losing its authorization) you will not be able to watch EHD content.
I don't think a clock matters because DISH uses a 2 key encryption system. One key is yours and is stored on the smartcard when you first activate the receiver. The other is the transmission key and it is the one being updated frequently, I just don't know HOW frequently. I don't know how often it checks for a new key and under what conditions it will lose its authorization (unplugged for a week and rebooting without an antenna attached will definitely do it).
I don't think a clock matters because DISH uses a 2 key encryption system. One key is yours and is stored on the smartcard when you first activate the receiver. The other is the transmission key and it is the one being updated frequently, I just don't know HOW frequently. I don't know how often it checks for a new key and under what conditions it will lose its authorization (unplugged for a week and rebooting without an antenna attached will definitely do it).
I know you answered the OP but we have wandered into asking about the DVR contents. That's where the clock question came up for me.
...If the receiver is unplugged and NO DISH is connected is there a mechinism that will stop a VIP receiver from allowing its owners watching what is recorded on the INTERNAL DRIVE (even after an indefinate period of time) when it is plugged in and turned on (without a dish connection)?
In other words if my camping VIP612 is off and in storage for 6 months when I go camping and plug it in and turn it on what will stop me from watching my programs? I have been doing this for years but it's most likely never been more than 6 or so months between receiver activations. Standard for me is to call Dish and activate it and usually put up a dish to watch the news for at least part of the trip and while it's setup I'll download or just view some shows from one of my ehds.
I have a vip211 with ext HD that I use for camping. Everytime I get ready to use it I have to set it up and call Dish and get it reactivated. Also, the ext HD does not work until it is reactivated.
Yup. We established that somewhere in the 50+ posts on this subject over the recent months.
Don't you know you are required to set aside two hours a day to read EVERY POST on the forum and take notes.
BTW did you vote in the "Reasons why I won't get a Hopper pole?" I can't say much in this thread but: Hopper = noVIP. If you haven't already, check it out.
