A bunch of Noobie questions

[MonsieurEd]

Damn ... I feel like a virgin again. I'm a longtime SA/cable TiVo user but am about to switch to DTV/DirecTiVo .... please bear with my naivety ...

All questions below refer to a DirecTiVo and not a SA

#1) Other then the $5/mon extra TiVo fee DTV charges does TiVo still charge me $13/month ? I thought not but I see some folks mentioning lifetime subs it makes me wonder. I want to keep my SA but hate to have to pay that $13 twice.

#2) Should I NOT get a Series II (that's what all the dealers have, and for $99 with 3 receivers, dish and install I hate to pay big bucks for a used series 1

#3) On a SERIES 2, will a USB network card adapter work to put my DirecTivo on my network (I have TiVoNet in my SA)

#4) When I purchase and sub my 3 receivers DO I NEED A PHONE LINE. I've had 7 different answers to this. How about AFTER I SUB ? Does DTV use caller-ID to verify you ?

#5) Can I share my legit sub with a friend or neighbor ? ie. If I have a sub and (assuming no phone line is necessary) can my friend buy a dish and a receiver and use my service under my contract ? This obvioulsy wouldn't work if a phone line is required and if they use caller-ID but if phone is not required ????? Works fine with DishNetwork. :)

Sorry if any of these questions are improper, but I will be new to DTV & TiVo .... currenly using SA TiVo with all the nice guy hacks from the other board with DishNetworkAND Comcast cable. 300 channels and nothing to watch. :)

[mrblack51]

1) if you are running dtivos, there is a flat $5 fee for the tivo service for all the dtivos on your account. the $5 mirroring fee per receiver still applies

2) series 2 units are harder to hack, and we are still working towards 100% hackability. most hacks work, but there are still some issues with stuff like tystudio. if you are a n00b, i would highly suggest you fork over the cash for an s1 dtivo. also, prices on those are stable, so you should be able to re-sell it for the same price that you paid if you later want to get an s2.

3) yes, you can use a usb adapter to allow network connectivity. however, you must hack the unit to use it, since the s2 dtivos don't have ethernet enabled.

4) since its an 800 (or 877, 866) number, they know what phone number your units dialed from. when you have multiple units on the same account, they want you to have them dial in from the same phone number to keep you from splitting your dtv with your neighbor. in general, if you are willing to do your ppv ordering via the dtv website, you can disable the phone line. the subscription on all units running 3.1 or higher is based on the access card, so you still need to pay dtv the $5. most of the time, dtv won't turn off your accnt if you don't let units dial in.

5) if your friend doesnt share the house/apartment with you, then you would nolonger be a truely legit sub. this is mostly answered above. basically, they can descide to cut off your extra cards if they think you are doing that, and only turn them back on if your units dial in. it doesnt always happen, but it can.

[MonsieurEd]

Thanks for your reply .... the one thing I'm not clear on (with the telephone dialin thing) how does that effect a NON-TIVO receiver ? Are they (non-TiVo DTV boxes) required to call in by phone ?

PPV via web isn't a problem.

[fixn278]

Non-tivo's are required to dial in (as per DTV), but they generally don't follow up.

I have had boxes not dial up for >1 year with no issue.

You will not be able to order PPV via the remote though. You will need to do it via the website.