Direct DVR-40

[steeleno12]

I have an opportunity to buy a refurbishd Direct DVR-40 from an acquaintance and since I am not familiar with them, I wanted to know what pit falls to watch out for.

Are they good units? Do I need to sign up under the Direct lease program or is this mine to keep?

[CrashHD]

Make sure it works, and check on the RID # with directv to make sure it is not
1) still subscribed
2) balance owed on it
3) lease unit (unlikely, but possible)

[codespy]

I and members of my family still have a couple of these. Follow Crash's advice, and for what its worth, they are great units after several years of operation.

[Dkerr24]

I've got a RCA DVR-40 and it's been in constant use since 2004. Not a single problem with it at all.

[steeleno12]

Thanks to all for their opinions, sounds like a winner to me!

[CrashHD]

While checking if it works, keep in mind that even it if has problems, it may still be worth while to get. Most problems are caused by aging hard disks, which are easily replaced at trivial cost, with the added bonus of extra storage space (who would buy another 40GB when 250GB can be found for ~$50)

[dcstager]

For standard definition, the DVR40 or 80 units were the peak of the technology for Directv Tivo powered systems. If they made something like this that supports the new Mpeg-4 birds, that would be ideal. I'd love to see a directv HD series 3 Tivo or this type. For now, you have the last best thing.

[steeleno12]

Once again, thanks to everyone for their replies. I have another question about this DVR.

I am thinking about upgrading my DirecTV D10 receiver in my motorhome to the DirecTV DVR TiVo D40.

Is there any reason why a DVR would not work with an existing Direct system in my motorhome?

Do I have to have the DVR attached to a phone landline
in order to get programming information or can the satellite hook-up
take care of that? Or is a landline only needed for the initial setup?

BTW, I am not planning on purchasing Pay-per-view movies DirecTV.

[durst]

Hey man, first off, you can't go wrong with these units. I have two, my mom has one, and my inlaws have one. All picked out by me (I do all of their electronics...period), all have been upgraded to hard drives from 160-250 gig hard drives, and all of them are are about six years old and still kickin it without a beat. Even the in laws got theirs for their motorhome. So I set it up real nice in there. After upgrading all of these drives, I have had two go out on me. Good excuse to upgrade the space when this happens, so no big deal. Its easy to get back up and drives are cheap if found right.

now to answer your questions- There will be only two things you will need to think about before making that move. First- If you are like me and have to be able to switch to the other tunner to see what its palying/recording Or if you want to change the probailities that you will miss season pass that didint record because only had one cable hooked up. The Directv units have two recorders in them that are always recording two shows from different channels. You have to have both calbe lines connected to a sattelite that will accept both of them. Then it will work properly. Without doing this though, you just lose out on some features on the DTIVO, but one channel will still be recording, so it's like a "light" model- and it works well!

ok, Ill speed this up for ya...

Is there any reason why a DVR would not work with an existing Direct system in my motorhome? :up:your good to go. no issues:up:

Do I have to have the DVR attached to a phone landline
in order to get programming information or can the satellite hook-up
take care of that? Or is a landline only needed for the initial setup? :up:you need to hoop up for the initial time. After that its every month, or really whatever long it takes till the nagging screen about making a call gets on your nerves. You can go for as long as you like. As long as the dish is pointing straigt to the dish in the sky, you are golden. All of the updates will just come straight to your dish and updte the Tivo. :up:


BTW, I am not planning on purchasing Pay-per-view movies DirecTV. Pay for view movies are convienient at times, but so you know, although you don't need to have a phone line, if an update to the software is released, your tivo will need to be plugged in but just for that. Also, if you decide you do ever want to purchase a movie, go to their website log in with your email address, and you can make any changes to you viewing there. If you order the movie, it will appear become unlocked on all of the Tivos on that account. I like this for when we wan't to finish the movie in the bedroom. I set up to record on both sets and keep the movie on both. But pretty much everything else is transacted between your dish and theirs.

I love mine. I just came back tonight to look around for the best ideas of networking my two to the internet using Cat5

good luck with the unit. Youll be happy. Just put in a massive hd in it:up:

[steeleno12]

Thank you, thank you to all of you who have responded. I am off to grab that D40 refurb that was offered to me right now! :D