This would work. But DTV would be MUCH smarter to make the max cost $8.99 or less to undercut the cable company "$9.95" pricing.

More features, real Tivo service, lower cost programming and less expensive DVR - why go with cable?

EXACTLY. I will HAPPILY pay $5 a month for HMO, and I would buy another Directivo, that day.

PLEASE DirecTV PLEASE!!

L

How incredibly naive and stupid are these people? I'm not talking about LonghornXP's friends, but the people that actually make some of these decisions. Earl found this screen by innocently entering a code all of us have used or told people about probably 100 times each. My brothers had to enter codes for Sonic the Hedgehog that were more complex than this "hidden" screen. Give me a break. And if they DO read this forum, then they must know about the "other" forum and they have GOT to realize that there ARE people who will reverse engineer the whole damn box, so it wasn't going to stay hidden for long.

Adding HMO can be nothing but a win-win for DirecTV & TiVo. I'm sure TiVo will get a bigger cut of any fees we are charged for HMO. DirecTV gets the TiVo customers that would "think about DirecTiVo, if only I didn't have to give up features." Standalone people (and all TiVo lovers) have been clamoring for a dual tuner Cable Card TiVo for years. This would be damn near that box. If all current standalone features were supported and DirecTV carries ALL the local channels nationwide, BINGO. 90+% of the country has full featured, dual tuner TiVos with the local channels they usually stick to cable for. I think D*'s customer base would soar. That's just my opinion, but I know that lack of locals is the only thing keeping most of my non-D* friends and family from switching.

It's a moderately interesting point, though... what monthly income will TiVo lose from people holding back from using DirecTV, or maintaining a standalone to use with DirecTV, when DirecTV begins offering HMO services...

just wanted to add another twist to the discussion.

It certainly wasn't hurting TiVo all that much to see HMO delayed on DirecTV.

Very true.

Although if DirecTV and TiVo were the same company...

Twistier, eh?

Very good point! Yet another flaw in my short-sighted ability to see the big picture TiVo is currently a steal for DirecTV customers by comparison. I think I was wrapped up in my anger over D* hitting the forum and chewing on employees.

Who am I kidding?

Rupert Murdoch doesn't like buying companies.

Do you have a government job? I think you'd do well working for the IRS. You could write the 1040 instructions and stuff. Either that, or the "universal assembly instructions" that came with my kid's entertainment center.

This would be the only logical way to do this. Drive the price down and buy at a bargain. I think you could say this would be SOP in mergers and acquisitions. If this is the case I am sure this is according to plan, not a nice side effect.

I would guess this issue is mostly political. I can't understand how much cheaper you can get than Tivo. DTV pays Tivo $1.25 per HOUSEHOLD. Tivo is well understood and time tested, and less buggy, and in demand!! The cost savings in having a product that is easy to install, and has great community support shouldn't be overlooked.

Do it! Do it now!

I've got a DSR6000, and really had no reason to upgrade until the R10. Now it seems that I may have timed it just right....we shall soon see .

(well, hopefully soon)

It's a problem with many larger companies, where you have people with agendas counter to the benefit of the company itself; like when someone is ass-kissing to ingratiate him or herself rather than ignoring that and giving advice based on their true opinions, which might seem to run counter to what they think their boss wants to hear. And part of that problem is it's NOT what the boss wants to hear, just what some less-ionformed person thinks their boss wants to hear.

So you end up with a middle layer of management that's focused more on doing what they think someone reviewing them wants done, than on paying attention to the products and services of the company and what their customers might be asking for.

For example (not saying this is true, but just as an example): Murdoch buys DirecTV from Hughes; Murdoch is an unknown. Current DirecTV people worry about their jobs. People at DirecTV know he has a major interest in NDS so they think to themselves, "hey we should look at using NDS because Murdoch will like us better." So they go round and round and ignore what they've already got and bring in NDS just to ingratiate themselves. In the meantime, the focus they had and the lead they had with their existing DVR's languishes for a time.

It's the kind of thing upper management would hire consultants to come in and evaluate/look for, except then there's the issue of the consultants feeling pressure to find something wrong to justify their effort and fee, thus creating a whole new layer of deceit.

I do hope at some level someone at DirecTV considers these things and looks to address them if they're found to exist.

I would gladly pay DirecTV any additional fee for HMO, but I refuse to wait any longer!

I am spending my Christmas vacation pulling Hard Drives and upgrading my software so that I can get HMO. I have waited too long and heard too many excuses that it is driving me as a consumer crazy. If and when DirecTV does offer the HMO I will switch back software and pay their fee but until that point I am taking action.

It is really sad to see DirecTV squander the resource this and other sites offer. They can get free customer input and testing by just asking. Most companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for consulting firms to reach the same conclusions that are offered for free on this site. I hate to see TiVo lose the DVR war but until they see the light it looks like that is where they are headed.

HMO here I come.

Then you aren't familiar with the code on the HR10-250 that would let users see the resolution D* was sending down on HD channels. Once it was found, which unleashed a long complaint thread about downrezzing over at AVS, the next software update removed it.

As of the latest info, TiVo had a market cap of $443M. D* has $2.26B in the bank. If 34% is effective control (Rupert's share of D*), then for $150M, D* could effectively control TiVo.

I still don't understand from a marketing perspective why they released this box with the older ones still in the supply chain. I would have thought they would have wanted those to sell through first.

And to add to Doug's suggestions, a discrete code to switch between the D* Guide and the TiVo Guide would be nice as well.

Ahhhh. Corporate America at its pinnacle ...

Agreed, but I will pay when it is available. I would have HAPPILY shelled out the 198.00 TWO YEARS ago to have this on my DirecTiVo units, and would gladly do the same today. I am not a thief though. All I did was perform what equates to DLL updates on a Windows PC and it had the nice side effect of HMO. I will not argue my integrity with you, I'll simply restate that had they (D*) done this in the first place, we would not be discussing this today.

Screw {stronger expletive desired} TiVo ... they do not provide me service, DirecTV does. If, and that is a capital big IF, Microsoft had stayed in the game with UTV, I would not even be using a TiVo Product. I would have been able to network my units years ago to my PC. I cite the Xbox, Ethernet enabled and usable from day 1. That is my problem with this entire situation ... no one wants to innovate for the benefit of the customer, they want to doing it for the company.

So I'll continue to STEAL HMO on my 4.01 units until I am offered a better more innovative solution. FYI last I checked some folks at DD own the copyright to the released updates, not Tivo ... who are we really stealing from? and at $105.20/mo I feel I sould pretty much get what I want from my provider! They are not my priority, I am my priority.

You mean between Gride guide and List guide .... The DirecTV/Tivo naming of the guides are gone in 6.1

Look, if you guys really want to make a difference, all of you should call in and ask for the Office Of The President contact info. A few thousand letters to that address will work wonders, trust me.

I agree completely. Thus my focus group suggestion where they run the results by "joe user" and if he says cool, its done. If he says "huh?" maybe they wait. The only thing D* will consider is new ways to crush E*, V* & C* ... it is the agenda.

Speaking of which, the C* deal with Level 3 Communications {LVLT} is huge, we are talking terabit capacity huge. D* & E* could literally vanish in 5 years. It wont happen but this gives cable a HUGE boost. Done right they could take back 30% of current satellite customers, but that is years away.

Sorry to hijack ... D* mgmt is the problem here, not the customers whom just want a better product.

I sent my letter, it is posted at SatelliteGuys.us under the same user name. They corporately blew me off

Seems like you did.

Now go post that screen shot on as many satellite related boards as you can find so as many people as possible get to see it. Maybe if thousands of people start calling D* asking about it, they will finally understand that we do REALLY, REALLY, REALLY want this feature.

Besides, all you did was provide an easily recognizable pictorial confirmation of what the hackers had already said: The networking files were there, but turned off.

I don't think that W will do anythnig about it. You could blame the vast right wing conspiracy...

Dude I have screens if you don't mind cleaning the resin out of it, course I usually don't use those with the "bong"

If anyone in a decision-making capacity considered (even for five minutes) releasing a patch to cover up that code...then I would say these forums are making quite a difference.

I don't mean to get all philosophical...but...as customers, it seems so blatantly obvious to us why this would make sense. Most are even smart enough to come up with and intelligently discuss the 1,000+ scenarios where it (HMO) would be profitable to DTV.......

.......so why doesn't it exist today?

If it truly is just internal corporate politics and middle-management B.S....then DTV deserves the negative future they may endure.

Meanwhile, I'm still anxious to learn when 6.1 will roll-out. I worked for a software company once that would never provide their customers with info on updates that were in the pipeline. They crashed and burned.

Back to the original purpose of this thread, I just noticed that the D7DB code on that is on that screenshot also appears on his screenshot of the TiVo Publisher, here...

http://www.njentertainment.biz/eb/r10/post/tivo_pub.jpg

So it's probably a "last 4 hex digits" ID to differentiate between different systems.

Nice Catch....

What is the top secret "other forums" that people keep refering to?

Check your PM

can you pm me what you pm him?