upgrading tuner to dvr and avoiding upsell/lies

[saltlaker23]

I recently had a Tivo unit die. It's an old Tivo that isn't being sold any more but it's fine for me and I wasn't looking to upgrade to HD - I just wanted my Tivo back working, so I bought a used unit thinking I could swap the power supply and bring it back to life (as I'd done before) however in this case, the motherboard was bad, and when I swapped MPUs, the unit would not come up or say I had an active card.

I called DirecTV customer service and they told me I was SOL and I had to buy their newer systems to make things work. I had a working DirecTV Tivo unit they would not authorize and said there's no way it would work. I ended up doing a full erase/reset and the unit did work. It's obvious their reps are telling lies to upsell their customers on more expensive services. The end result is I can't trust what I hear from DTV reps (who would not refer me to their supervisors or other tech people even though I asked multiple times - they insisted they knew what would and wouldn't work -- which was a lie).

So now I am at a point where I want to put a Tivo DVR on my other cable box which is just a regular one. I thought I could take my valid access card and put it in the Tivo unit like I did with my other one, and erase and restart the system but it isn't working. Is there something I can say to the DTV reps to send the signal to make my card work with the new receiver? I am not trying to steal any services - I've been a loyal customer for 10+ years. I just want to use an older DVR instead of their tuner -- I know it's compatible because I have another unit that I rebuilt... perhaps the problem is I have to get a Tivo subscription for this second unit? I don't mind doing that - I just need to make sure I know what to say to the rep so they don't BS me again and try to tell me it can't be done when I know it can. Any advice?

 

[texasbrit]

If your TiVo is one of the older ones without receiver ID then it definitely CANNOT be activated on your account, this applies not just to TiVo but to all DirecTV receivers without an RID.

 

[Jimbo]

So with what Tex told you, the reps were NOT BS'ing you to make an upsell.

I gotta think that the old TIVO was also MPEG2 where the rest of the D* recvrs, since the went to D* branded units are all (or most of them) MPEG 4 units, therefore you would probably find that your current TIVO was NOT getting everything you were paying for.

Back in the day when they made the switch, they generally offered subs a deal to upgrade to the then NEW technology, those who passed on the opportunity are finding that they are getting messages on thier recvrs about loss of channels.

Fwiw, it's been quite awhile since that happened.

 

[raoul5788]

All non Directv Tivos will only get sd channels, no hd.

 

[Jimbo]

All non Directv Tivos will only get sd channels, no hd.

I think he has D* Tivo ...

 

[raoul5788]

I don't see that in his post Jimbo.

 

[saltlaker23]

It's a Hughes HDVR2 unit.

I was told without the ID it would not work, BUT I put the card in an entirely different unit and erased and reset the device and it worked. (or I should say, I moved the hard drive over to the new unit, then erased and reset it) - I originally thought the power supply was bad, but it was the motherboard.

 

[raoul5788]

Was that recently?

 

[saltlaker23]

All this happened in the last six months.

I was told if my Hughes HDVR2 unit was dead, I could not put my card in another unit and make it work. I pulled the hard drive out of my old unit. Put it into a HDVR2 I got off eBay, then erased and reset everything, went through setup, and it worked. It's been working for many months now, perfectly.

So I was thinking could I get another HDVR2 and take a card from my standard ancient non-HD tuner and convert it to a Tivo as well? I'm willing to pay the Tivo subscription fee - somehow the box did marry with the card when I did a reset on the other one...

 

[raoul5788]

It sounds like the swap of the hard drive is the key here. Apparently the information that links the card to the box is stored on the hard drive. Perhaps you can swap the drive again. If not you are SOL. AFAIK the only Tivo that Directv supports is the hd model.

 

[texasbrit]

If he has a DirecTV TiVo, it's definitely only SD because the only HD TiVo, the Hr10-250, is as you say only MPEG-2 and will not receive HD.
But the SD TiVos are MPEG-2, which is fine since SD channels are still MPEG-2.

 

[saltlaker23]

No that can't be it, because the hard drive I swapped was one I replaced in an older unit. It is not the stock 40g drive that the HDVR2's came with. And it's pretty well known you can change out the hard drive and increase the capacity of these units.

My feeling is there's some kind of "reset signal" they can send at DTV that will make these older units marry. There's probably something you have to say to get them to send the signal, or part of the diagnostic process. But last time I called, they just wanted to upsell me to their newer units and told me I couldn't do anything otherwise. They were not telling the truth.

 

[raoul5788]

Well I have no idea then how you got it to work with the card swap. Cards are married to the unit and normally can't be swapped to a different receiver/dvr. That's how they have done it for years. Believe what you will, they aren't trying to sell you anything you don't need, if you really have to have the Tivo.

 

[Jimbo]

Personally, I would drop the TIVO and move to the 21st century and get an HD DVR.
1st you would move to HD, second you would get updated equipment and be able to access ALL the programming available now.

 

[raoul5788]

Some people are very attached to their Tivos Jimbo. I've never used one so I don't understand the attraction.

 

[RLDreams]

I suppose there must be some people out there that are attached to their Betamax vcr as well

 

[raoul5788]

I suppose there must be some people out there that are attached to their Betamax vcr as well

Perhaps those that know that a Betamax provides a better picture than VHS? Of course, that boat sailed a long time ago!

 

[Jimbo]

Perhaps those that know that a Betamax provides a better picture than VHS? Of course, that boat sailed a long time ago!

As has Tivo for the most part.

 

[RLDreams]

Perhaps those that know that a Betamax provides a better picture than VHS? Of course, that boat sailed a long time ago!

Yes Beta is far better than VHS, but it is still 1990s technology and can't compare with Blu-ray and DVD.

I intentionally chose Beta because in their day they were arguably the best, but that was 20 years ago.

 

[raoul5788]

Yes Beta is far better than VHS, but it is still 1990s technology and can't compare with Blu-ray and DVD.

I intentionally chose Beta because in their day they were arguably the best, but that was 20 years ago.

That's the boat I was referring to.