Can you watch saved programs after cancelling Tivo?

As far as I know, with DirecTV, it's considered DVR service. You can have an R15 and your old DirecTivo, and be able to use both.

But, to answer your question, yes, you can still watch your previously recorded programs without being a current subscriber.

I have an R15 and 2 DTivos
All are working fine.

I only have a single LNB, so I won't be needing to use the DirecTivo service anylonger.

I recently got the R15 and had shows recorded on my DirecTiVo. When I activated my R15 and deactivated my DirecTiVo, I could still view the old recordings however, for the first ten minutes of every program I wanted to watch, there was a blue message bar at the bottom of the screen that said I needed to insert a valid access card into the receiver. It had a valid card when the DirecTiVo was active but apparently it isn't valid once it was deactivated. So, when you go and try to record those older programs, you will get the blue bar showing that the card is invalid for 10 minutes of every recorded show.

anonymuse said:

I only have a single LNB, so I won't be needing to use the DirecTivo service anylonger.

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Sorry, but this statement makes no sense. The TiVo service doesn't know about your dish's LNB, just that you receive DirecTV service. (BTW, your single LNB probably has dual outputs.) Regardless if you have a DirecTV DVR with TiVo or an R15, you still need two lines from your dish to enable the dual tuners. To use both DVRs, all you need to do is add a 2x4 multiswitch to the outputs from the dish to get the four needed.

anonymuse said:

I'm debating switching over to the R15 which means I would no longer have the Tivo service.

I'm not into hacking so I don't want to get into the whole transferring of the old programs to the new recorder.

Instead, I want to be able to make permanent copies of the stuff I want to save to my DVD recorder.

My question is this: Will I still be able to access my saved programs once my Tivo service is cancelled so I can continue transferring them to DVD? Or do I need to accomplish all of the transfers prior to cancelling the service?

Thanks in advance.

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Technicly you dont have tivo service unless you have a standalone. If you cancel the standalone tivo service you can watch your shows till the cows come home. The standalone tivo service is only for recording and guide info. If you have a directivo you never had tivo service. Only service from Directv. In which case you dont cancel anything. Your dvr fee covers all dvrs on the account tivo and r15.

innersanctum said:

I recently got the R15 and had shows recorded on my DirecTiVo. When I activated my R15 and deactivated my DirecTiVo, I could still view the old recordings however, for the first ten minutes of every program I wanted to watch, there was a blue message bar at the bottom of the screen that said I needed to insert a valid access card into the receiver. It had a valid card when the DirecTiVo was active but apparently it isn't valid once it was deactivated. So, when you go and try to record those older programs, you will get the blue bar showing that the card is invalid for 10 minutes of every recorded show.

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Thats odd, I had 5 directivos at one time on my account. After i upgraded one to 447 hours i disconnected 4 of them.. I only get nag messages to activate the dvr service. Nothing was on the recorded shows. Just messages in messages and setup.

Edit: I havent looked at these machines(the 4 disconnected) In about 2 .5 months. I just turned them on and no blue bar on recorded shows a dsr 704 2 708,s and 1 r10. All recorded shows are perfect. Btw I have not been paying the mirror fee for the 2 1/2 months. There is no guide info on any of them but everything else works. Shi*loads of nag messages though. But No blue bar.

Won't the clear button remove that bar?

JimSpence said:

Won't the clear button remove that bar?

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If not I seem to recall reading that using Save To VCR to watch the program will suppress the bar.

I'm in the same boat. So if I want to get a new R10 to replace my old series 1 I can just plug the old DirecTivo into the from composit jacks to watch the already recorded programs even though it will be disconnected from the sat dish?

Ace Deprave said:

But, to answer your question, yes, you can still watch your previously recorded programs without being a current subscriber.

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I'm currently trying to watch shows I've recorded on my Directivo that I've disconnected from the dish but it keeps looking for the satellite connection and I can't get into the Playlist area. Restarting the unit brings me back into the same spot. Any suggestions on how to get out of the setup area that I'm stuck in. Thanks.

Note: I should have also mentioned that the Directv and List buttons don't help. The unit just makes that sound like you're pushing a button that can't be used in that area.

Unless it changes after time, I'm watching the older stuff on my old, inactive, DirecTivo with no antenna connected.

Don't know if it makes a difference, but it both antenna connections were disconnected before I deactivated it with DirecTV. I'd actually been having problems with it (lots of reboots ) that stopped once I disconnected it from the antenna. I've been watching and archiving shows off of it for a couple weeks now. I want the hard drive in it for upgrading the new (refurb) unit that replaced it so I'll probably dump everything off of it in the next couple weeks.

It still has an access card in it, not connected to phones or antenna so as far as it knows it's still an active unit. I wouldn't be surprised if it were to change it's behavior once it connected via either the phone or via the satellite.

BrianK16 said:

I'm currently trying to watch shows I've recorded on my Directivo that I've disconnected from the dish but it keeps looking for the satellite connection and I can't get into the Playlist area. Restarting the unit brings me back into the same spot. Any suggestions on how to get out of the setup area that I'm stuck in. Thanks.

Note: I should have also mentioned that the Directv and List buttons don't help. The unit just makes that sound like you're pushing a button that can't be used in that area.

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even if you dont subscribe to d* anymore you can still get a signal and get past that screen. Just hook up to the dish and run 1 line. The preview channel will come on and you can acess your shows. If you cant hook up to a dish im not sure what the workaround is.

Even without a connection to a dish, you can still watch previously recorded shows. WHen you see the acquiring satellite screen, just push the DirecTV/TiVo button on the remote to go to DirecTV Central, then press it again to go to Now Playing.

A DirectTiVo (before the R10) can always be used with other TiVos for MRV, even in "Boat Anchor" mode.

One caveat - yes you can watch anything recorded on a deactivated D* TiVo based DVR, however should you ever deactivate a R15 it will literally be a boat anchor and you will lose everything and will not be able to watch anything on the hard drive. :down: :down: :down:

LarryInAz said:

should you ever deactivate a R15 it will literally be a boat anchor and you will lose everything and will not be able to watch anything on the hard drive. :down: :down: :down:

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Murdoch's box is absolutely _awesome_! We are so well rid of that inferior Tivo technology.