Phone Lines and new Series2 DirectTiVo's

[rbiro]

I am so tempted to drop cable and move to DirectTV - there recent pricing offers are unbelievable.
I can get a DirectTiVo and several regular receivers for a nice amount. (The extra receivers are key - my 2 SA1 lifetime subscriptions are thrown away, they can slave off of the extra regular receivers.

Now for the big question that the good people at DirectTV can't answer....

Do I really ever need a land-line for DirectTV? All I have is a cell-phone and I like it that way.

Question 1: For the DirectTiVo, is the USB-to-Ethernet officially supported? In other words, is USB-to-Ethernet an option available during the 1st guided setup - like #,411 for a SA1?
(Since I've only owned Series 1 TiVo's, I might wait a few days to soak in DirectTiVo before I void my warranty and begin the hacking process)
Or for the initial setup, do I need to take my DirectTiVo to somebody else who has a phone line. (Do I need a satellite signal for guided setup? Would I need to find a friend with DirectTV and a land line?)

Question 2: For the regular DIrectTV units, is a phone line ever really needed? (I don't care about Pay-per-view)

If this has been answered before, I'm sorry.

[captain_video]

The USB ports on a DTivo are dormant and it doesn't look like DTV plans on activating them anytime soon, if ever. You don't need a phone line for the guide data download since it comes from the satellites for the DTivos. You will have to endure the nag messages unless you are able to hack it to get rid of them. Right now this is not possible with the new R10 models unless you physically remove the EEPROM and reflash it. You will need a phone connection for the initial setup but after that you should be fine.

[rbiro]

The USB ports on a DTivo are dormant and it doesn't look like DTV plans on activating them anytime soon, if ever.

Sorry - I'm a touch confused now.
Lots of people here talk about tivoweb, tytool, etc on Hacked Series2 DirectTiVo's.

For example:
Tips for 4.0 on your S2 DTivo (http://dealdatabase.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29020)

I hope I'm just mis-reading your post that USB connectivity is not a 'blessed' feature on DirectTiVo's but available to the determined hacker.

[fixn278]

Sorry - I'm a touch confused now.
I hope I'm just mis-reading your post that USB connectivity is not a 'blessed' feature on DirectTiVo's but available to the determined hacker.

You are not mis-reading anything. USB ports can only be used for networking on SA units by default. To use them on DTivo's, you have to hack which is not 'blessed' by DTV. Anything other than stock hardware/software configs is not 'blessed' by anyone. Tivoweb, Tytool, etc are all non-official programs.

[rbiro]

you have to hack which is not 'blessed' by DTV.

Thanks.

Naturally, I'd be hacking the box. I just wanted to make sure there wasn't anything purely DirectTV (independent of the TiVo portion) that actually required the phone line.

[classicsat]

Remote ordered PPV requires the phone line to report back, as that can only be done with the stock TiV Modem (and yes, it is the same modem).

[ace ventura]

So there is no way to make a direct tivo series 1 or 2 dial out to direct tv(to get rid of the 733 deal) through ethernet?

[classicsat]

Nope, the call to DirecTV is strictly through the built in modem, made over phone line to DirecTV's modem pool, which is not a TCP/IP connection.