Tivo with Direct TV (2 boxes)

pesto_sauce · 04-20-2006, 04:18 PM

In advance, if this is a often repeated subject, my apologies (just direct me to where I can get this info please).

I finally got sick enough of my cable to give sat TV another shot. Several years ago, I had a Sony DirecTV/Tivo combo box. Liked a lot of things about it, but for various reasons (mainly due to the DirecTV part of the system), I canceled and went back to cable (Adelphia, bleh!).

Anyway, the Adelphia service has been getting worse and worse, so I looked at going back to DirecTV.

Couple of questions that maybe you can answer, as DirecTV couldn't:

1. Can I reactivate my Sony combo box, and start using it again, or is it a paperweight?
2. Apparently, I discovered that I cannot get TiVO in a DirecTV box. Is there any workaround to this?
3. I assume I can get a DirecTV receiver and add a separate TiVo box. If so, how well will this work; i.e., will it be as as good and function as seamlessly as my old Sony combo box did?

Thanks much

JFriday · 04-20-2006, 04:28 PM

Call Directv and ask for a DVR with Tivo, I just replaced one of my units that the hard drive died and they sent me a R10.

TWood · 04-20-2006, 04:30 PM

1. Don't know.

2. You can still get Series 2 DirecTivos from www.weaknees.com and from Ebay. DirecTV will activate them and support them.

3. The major disadvantage of using an SA Tivo with a DirecTV receiver is you won't have dual tuners. That is, you can't record two different channels simultaneously. Or record on one channel, and watch live TV on another simultaneously.

vigfoot · 04-20-2006, 05:44 PM

1- yes.

2-also check valueelectronics .

3-not only does the tivo stand alone box have a single tuner, but the fee is ~ $12/month, or twice that of a directtv/tivo. however, you will get a few more capabilites w/ the tivo stand alone.

pesto_sauce · 04-21-2006, 12:03 PM

Thanks. I called DirecTV (twice!), and was told both times that I cannot buy a box that is a combo DirecTV receiver and DVR running the TiVO software. This was after I'd heard Leo Laporte talking about DirecTV renewing their agreements with TiVO.

I also looked all over the DirecTV website, and could not find any mention of their DVR's running TiVO.

Boston Fan · 04-21-2006, 12:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vigfoot

3-not only does the tivo stand alone box have a single tuner, but the fee is ~ $12/month, or twice that of a directtv/tivo. however, you will get a few more capabilites w/ the tivo stand alone.

And more if you have more than one box. Tivo will also charge you $6.95 for each additional box, whereas the $5.99/mo D* DVR fee covers every DVR on the account (Tivo and non-Tivo), making it an exceptional bargain.

JimSpence · 04-21-2006, 12:33 PM

DirecTV renewing their relationship with TiVo has nothing to do with the production of DirecTV DVRs with TiVo. At least not right now. It just means that DirecTV will continue to support those TiVos already out there. They may also be seeing the light that their non-TiVo boxes are turning into white elephants.

For now, you need to visit one of the forum sponsors to find a TiVo based DirecTV DVR.

tbeckner · 04-21-2006, 03:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pesto_sauce

1. Can I reactivate my Sony combo box, and start using it again, or is it a paperweight?

It is very likely that you can reactivate it, since I assume it is a T60. Depending upon how long it has been out of service you might have to buy a new access card.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pesto_sauce

2. Apparently, I discovered that I cannot get TiVO in a DirecTV box. Is there any workaround to this?

You can still buy DirecTiVos, see the posts by vigfoot and TWood. It is very unlikely that you can purchase a DirecTiVo box from DirecTV today. I would go some of the DirecTiVo dealers to purchase a box or as a last ditch option eBay.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pesto_sauce

3. I assume I can get a DirecTV receiver and add a separate TiVo box. If so, how well will this work; i.e., will it be as as good and function as seamlessly as my old Sony combo box did?

I would stay with a DirecTiVo mainly for the dual tuners, and because a Standalone with a receiver is not as seamless, even if you use a serial connection. The monthly cost of running a single Standalone box is more than twice that of a DirecTiVo.

Monthly cost examples using rounded amounts:

1 SA TiVo and DirecTV Receiver $13
1 DirecTiVo $6 (-$7)

2 SA TiVos and DirecTV Receivers $13+$7+$5 = $25
2 DirecTiVos $6+$5 = $11 (-$14)

3 SA TiVos and DirecTV Receivers $13+$7+$7+$5+5 = $37
3 DirecTiVos $6+$5+$5 = $16 (-$21)

grecorj · 04-21-2006, 04:05 PM

FWIW, Weaknees has both the R10 (+ expanded versions) as well as a limited stock of DSR7000s (with and without stock harddrive) for sale.

Also, I was in Wal-Mart the other night and they had four R10s in their TV/Electronics department for $99 each. These are 80hr units I believe. Was tempted to buy one.

goony · 04-21-2006, 06:20 PM

A DTivo is also preferable because the playback is identical to the original quality (well, what DTV uplinked anyway) because it simply stores the MPEG2 compressed program onto the hard drive - DirecTVs hardware at the uplink site does a better job (more space-efficient) than a SA Tivo compression even when it is set to the "highest" quality.