I recently acquired a second-hand Hughes DirecTV TiVo with the dual tuner from a friend of mine and I would like to install it and see if the silly thing works.

Pardon me if I ask some very elementary questions.

I imagine I would just replace my existing satellite box with the TiVo unit.

Would it be necessary to replace the access card from the TiVo with the access card from my pre-existing satellite box?

Is it going to be necessary for me to phone or e-mail TiVo or DirecTV to guarantee full functionality of the TiVo unit?

I appear to have a dual LNB dish--it has two of those white and gray ceramic looking thingees in front of the dish, and it has twin cables leading from the dish down underneath the house--but I appear to have only one cable poking up through the floorboards and into my satellite box. (I purposefully had the DirecTV installer run the cables underneath the house rather than drilling holes through the walls of my house; I was afraid the gaskets would leak in rainy weather and I'd get a lot of moisture damage.) Is it going to be necessary to re-contact the cable installer and have them run a second line to the TiVo to ensure the dual tuner function works?

Thank you.

If you just want to "try out" the box, you can unhook your current rcvr cable and connect it to "tuner input 1", test, and then "tuner input 2", to test both tuners. When you set it up via the menus tell it "dual tuners" and it will complain that one or the other is missing at various times. You should be able to view one of the "barker channels" (i.e. channel 100) without a subscription - no need to call DirecTV to activate until you know both tuners work. Also, be sure to try recording from each input and make sure that works fine.

If all works OK, you can then contact DirecTV and tell them you want to de-activate your old non-DVR box and put its access card into your new box (that way you don't pay for a new card)... you will then begin to pay an extra $5.99/mo. DVR fee, but it's not too bad because that is per account - if you ever add more DVRs you'll not pay any additonal DVR fee (unlike Dish Network - you pay a DVR fee per box with them).

Finally, you can use the DVR with a single cable, but that defeats the goodness of dual tuners! Somewhere inside the house is probably a dual grounding block that both of the runs from the dish go to, but only one cable runs from it to your current receiver. You can call the installer back or partially/fully do-it-yourself.

Money-saving tips: You could buy a cable with pre-made ends and run it yourself, but the ends might not fit throgh existing holes. You can buy RG6 cable by-the-foot at Home Depot, Lowes, etc. (make sure you get it long enough) and run it yourself and then just call a satellite installer to put the ends on (maybe he'll do that for a free lunch - if he doesn't have to run any cable they can be very, very accomodating )- or, even buy the tools at the same place you got cable and do it yourself - it could be cheaper than having the installer come out and then you'll have the tools on hand for when you put in your 2nd DVR.

I did not know this; Is this something new? (Maybe I'm just confusing DVR fee and receiver fee.) If I get a HD DVR for our main TV can I use the old SD DVR in another room?

This is not new - it's always been the case.

I have exactly that setup - a HR10-250 in the living room and an SD D*TiVo in the bedroom. There is a mirroring fee for the second receiver, but only one DVR fee.

It's pretty simple really:

Your "base account" includes one recevier.

If you add any receiver (DVR or vanilla) beyond the first one, it's a $5/mo. "mirror fee".

If any of your receivers is a DVR, you pay $5.99/mo. DVR fee per account, it doesn't matter if you have just one DVR or all of your receivers are DVRs - a flat $5.99/mo. DVR fee.

Example 1: You pay $X monthly and have a single non-DVR receiver. You swap that receiver for a DVR, you now pay $X + $5.99 each month.

Example 2: You pay $Y monthly for a DVR and 3 non-DVR receivers. You find 3 DVRs orphaned on your doorstep and replace all of your 'vanilla' receivers with those. Your monthly DirecTV bill does not increase at all.