[MD Tivo Guy]

I know this is one of those "it never hurts to call customer service" questions, but you folks are usually very helpful and I can avoid being put on hold to get an answer.

Anyway, Is it possible to transfer (switch) a lifetime subscription and a monthly subscription on two S2 Tivos? I want to sell one of my Tivos, but the one I want to sell has the lifetime attached to it. Am I stuck selling the Tivo I like (and hacked)?

TIA

 

[demon]

The monthly subscription (or a multi-year prepaid subscription) can be transferred between units - you may be able to call in, though the easiest way by far is to go onto the TiVo web site, log in, and change the TSN associated with the subscription. It's quick and simple to do.

Lifetime subscriptions, however, are bound to the box they're bought for - as I understand, unless you are having it replaced under warranty or something (or get a paid transfer onto a new Series3 or something - which I guess you can't really do anymore), the lifetime subscription stays with that unit forever. If the old unit is no good, or to be retired, you might just be out of luck. Sorry.

 

[mick66]

no

 

[MD Tivo Guy]

I kinda knew what the answer was gonna be, but didn't hurt to ask.

Thanks guys

 

[s2kdave]

you might wanna ask tivo customer service because any answer that anyone has on this board is all just speculation. Most likely it's a no, but you never know. Maybe a nicely crafted excuse might get them to do it. CS has the ability to do it, it's just a question of whether they will. I swapped an S3 for exchange that had lifetime and they moved it to the new box.

 

[pldoolittle]

I know this is one of those "it never hurts to call customer service" questions, but you folks are usually very helpful and I can avoid being put on hold to get an answer.

Anyway, Is it possible to transfer (switch) a lifetime subscription and a monthly subscription on two S2 Tivos? I want to sell one of my Tivos, but the one I want to sell has the lifetime attached to it. Am I stuck selling the Tivo I like (and hacked)?

Lifetime goes with the TSN. If they are both S2's and same service rev, why not just swap the HDDs? Your lifetime is now hacked and your monthly is now for sale.

 

[mick66]

Lifetime goes with the TSN. If they are both S2's and same service rev, why not just swap the HDDs? Your lifetime is now hacked and your monthly is now for sale.

Why not? because that's not at all how it works. The TSN is on the motherboard not the hdd. Swapping hard drives would accomplish nothing as far as the lifetime sub is concerned.

 

[Gene S]

The monthly subscription (or a multi-year prepaid subscription) can be transferred between units - you may be able to call in, though the easiest way by far is to go onto the TiVo web site, log in, and change the TSN associated with the subscription. It's quick and simple to do.

Is the following possible..
Go to a retail store and purchase TivoHD.
Once home, goto Manage my account (skip the Activation part) and change the TSN from an existing S2 (MSD $6.95/month) to the newly purchased Tivo.
In doing this, I won't have to sign up for a multi-year contract to keep the $6.95 MSD rate?

 

[mick66]

Is the following possible..
Go to a retail store and purchase TivoHD.
Once home, goto Manage my account (skip the Activation part) and change the TSN from an existing S2 (MSD $6.95/month) to the newly purchased Tivo.
In doing this, I won't have to sign up for a multi-year contract to keep the $6.95 MSD rate?

Yes.

 

[renkablue]

Is the following possible..
Go to a retail store and purchase TivoHD.
Once home, goto Manage my account (skip the Activation part) and change the TSN from an existing S2 (MSD $6.95/month) to the newly purchased Tivo.
In doing this, I won't have to sign up for a multi-year contract to keep the $6.95 MSD rate?

In the meantime what happens to the existing S2? - Can't it be used for something other than (the threads indicate) a door stop?

 

[RoyK]

In the meantime what happens to the existing S2? - Can't it be used for something other than (the threads indicate) a door stop?

It will continue to work for a while before becoming a door stop. You can. however, use it to watch live tv with the 30 minute buffer and pause, etc. even in door stop mode.

 

[ZeoTiVo]

you might wanna ask tivo customer service because any answer that anyone has on this board is all just speculation. Most likely it's a no, but you never know. Maybe a nicely crafted excuse might get them to do it. CS has the ability to do it, it's just a question of whether they will. I swapped an S3 for exchange that had lifetime and they moved it to the new box.

while no one here is giving an "official" answer it is far from speculation since these types of questions are asked about every day and the answeers are well time tested.

in your case you say you swapped an S3, so I assume you got another S3. if your "well crafted excuse" was that the other one did not work then TiVo has had a policy for years to help out lifetime subs with hardware problems. The key is that if the same box is available then TiVo will swap for that same box. They might charge a "repair" fee depending on how long the box was in service.

Unless you get a CSR that will do the transfer lifetime to an S3 for 199$ deal still, which is getting harder to find it seems, then the lifetime is not moving off the S2 box for the original poster.

 

[s2kdave]

in your case you say you swapped an S3, so I assume you got another S3. if your "well crafted excuse" was that the other one did not work then TiVo has had a policy for years to help out lifetime subs with hardware problems.

I was saying that the OP might be able to come up with an excuse to convince the TSR to swap them. I was just letting him know that they have the power to do it. I didn't say I made an excuse up. Mine was about the pixilization issues on the S3 that they claimed an exchange would fix the problem, but it didn't. And I got stuck with the new yellow LCD that I can't even see from the couch instead of my old bright orange one which I could read just fine.

 

[ZeoTiVo]

I was saying that the OP might be able to come up with an excuse to convince the TSR to swap them. I was just letting him know that they have the power to do it. I didn't say I made an excuse up. Mine was about the pixilization issues on the S3 that they claimed an exchange would fix the problem, but it didn't. And I got stuck with the new yellow LCD that I can't even see from the couch instead of my old bright orange one which I could read just fine.

Right, so you fit into TiVo inc's policy of swapping the same box and moving the lifetime since you might have had a hardware problem. That policy has been in play for years and with teh S3 TiVo was trying hard to help customers with problems so they were fairly ready to use the policy on S3 in the last year.

The OP has a different problem of wanting to move his lifetime to a box he already has because it is hacked to his liking. The swap for repair usually includes sending in the bad box and receiving a new box from TiVo

PS -I just quoted "well crafted excuse" since that was your wording I was using.

 

[wickerbill]

Why not? because that's not at all how it works. The TSN is on the motherboard not the hdd. Swapping hard drives would accomplish nothing as far as the lifetime sub is concerned.

Yes, it would as long as they are the same models of series 2. The hard drive is what is hacked so moving it to the other tivo that has a lifetime subscription would make that one hacked. I don't know if you can do this between different models like the 240 and the 540.

 

[ZeoTiVo]

Yes, it would as long as they are the same models of series 2. The hard drive is what is hacked so moving it to the other tivo that has a lifetime subscription would make that one hacked. I don't know if you can do this between different models like the 240 and the 540.

to move a hardrive you have to run some utils to have it work properly with the new TSN of the new box. It is not a simple swap and frought with issues with hacks.

a 240 model can be hacked without having to do a PROM mod.
A 540 requires a PROM mod for hacks to work

so there are differences to take into account and it is not a simple thing to swap hard drives from one TiVo to another with hacks on it.

now setting up a new drive to work in a TiVo DVR - that is fairly straightforward