dtivo purchase

[dss4menow]

Where can I,if at all, purchase a series 1 direct tivo? - I already know how to hack a hu card and am eager to use a digital recored with a direct tv tuner to recieve channels. - if one is not available, what are my other choices? Thanks

[Ego]

Quite honestly, unless you're willing to pay almost 300$ or more, the best place is EBay. I have been bidding on Series 1 DTivos for a few weeks now (I won't spend more than 150$, so I haven't won one yet. ). But most of them end at about 200-250$, which is a pretty good price compared to the online retail merchants, who are generally selling refurbished units anyways.

There are tons of these things listed on e-bay every week too. I've probably bid on about 30 of them in the past 3 weeks alone. I see Hughes, Sony, and Philips all auctioned consistently by people with high feedback ratings.

[BubbleLamp]

I thought people were saying you could still get S1 boxes for ~$199 from Tivo, or maybe it was Am Sat.

Be careful buying on eBay. A lot of folks there seem to be dumping their screwed up boxes. YMMV

[AlphaWolf]

speaking of new receivers, anybody seen any cheap RCA DTC-100 units? I don't want to spend more than $200 for one, because I heard you can get them cheaper than that even.

[zabs]

American Satellite has the dsr6000's for $250 and Sat T-60's for $300 for existing customers.

If you are going to be a new customer you can't beat their $200 deal for A dsr6000, another standard receiver, dual lnb dish, multiswitch, and professional install....1yr contract...yada yada. (Shameless promotion of AmSat, yes, but I have been very impressed with their customer service etc.)

I also just picked up a Sat T-60 for $200 from that link that was floating around on this forum....existing customers can enter in DVRO as a purchase code right on the DirecTV website.

[Ego]

Yeah, I was also very impressed with AMSat's package deals with Sony T60's. Only problem was, I didn't find out about them until about 2 weeks after I had signed up for DirecTV. I wish I had done more research, as I'd really like to dump my two Sony standalones with directv receivers attached for one, nice neat package (directivo receiver), and pump the drive space up as much as I can. I have about 160gig total in each of the standalones, but I never fully use all the space. So I think even one directivo would suffice in replacing both standalones.

I'm hoping that prices on series 1 Dtivos will come down drastically (both retail and ebay) once the series 2 dtivos are out and about in full force. a lot of the people who will want a new DTivo won't know the value of their series 1, and sell it for whatever they can get, I'm guessing. Sure, a lot of people out there know the hacking value of the series 1's, but a lot don't.

[chinhster]

FWIW, I sold my series 1 SA with its original drives several months ago for around $275. You should be able to get a decent amount for yours especially since they're Sonys (mine was a Philips).

[Ego]

I am well aware how much both of my units will go for on EBay, especially since they both have lifetime subs. However, they're valuable to a lot of people on EBay, they're also very valuable to me. I won't get rid of them until I get a really good deal on 1 or 2 DTivos. I'm not that eager to switch, since my current setup is working just fine for me. Sure, the picture quality will be better, but since I haven't SEEN the picture quality straight on a DTiVo, I don't know what I'm missing.

So, since I'm not real gung-ho about switching anyways, I figured I'd wait until I got a great deal. I always set my max bid at 150$ on DTivos on EBay, and if I get outbid, I don't re-bid. One of these days I'll win one for that price.

[superzap]

Good Guys in Calif is selling the Sony T60 for $299. I just picked up an open box for $209 and if you go into a GG store you should be able to get one for $249 if you bargain with the sales person. These are brand new, the one I got was manuf. in Oct 2002 and no DirecTV contract is required. If you're not in Calif., since they don't sell these on their web site, you might be able to call a store and convince them to ship it to you, at least I've heard that some where successful with this approach.

[AlphaWolf]

so nobody knows where I can find cheap HDTV irds?

[superzap]

Originally posted by AlphaWolf
so nobody knows where I can find cheap HDTV irds?

I'm not sure if you have GG in your area but if you do, go in and try to find a Hughes E86 demo. I found one for $385. Much better than the RCA and half the price of the Sony HD200.