I'm currently using a Series 1 DTiVo (DSR6000). From what I've been reading, no more DTiVo's (SD) powered by TiVo are to be manufactured, correct? The R10 is the final one? If that's the case, I'd like to buy one and save it for when my DSR6000 eventually dies. So would I have to immediately activate it after purchase, or can I just save it , and activate it when necessary? Is there any good reason to immediately switch to using the R10? I haven't "hacked" the DSR6000, so that's not a concern for me.

unless you get it used, I think you are required to activate in 30 days.. there's probably a way around it, but I wouldn't know what it is..

You'll have to activate it, but you can deactivate the following month. The committment is tied to your level of service, not a specific reciever.

You can deactivate it the next DAY. This is undoubtedly how some things end up on eBay.

You technicly can activate it without removing it from the box. All the #'s you need are on the box. You will get hit with the 2 year commitment and you must do this within 30 days or pay 150.00 I dont know if there is a minimum time to keep it active, but if you deactivate it right away it may affect the status of your rebate. The 150.00 has nothing to do with early termination(that is the fee for not activating a new tivo). They nail you with this one of 2 ways. A Credit card if you are a new customer. Or put it on your bill.(not sure how since it never happened to me. I do know about activating while it is new and still in the box.

The first time i bought a r10 I could not wait to get started so I wrote the #'s off the box and activated it on the way home from Circuit City.

You may be able to talk your way out of the 2 year commitment (Good Luck) but If you want your Rebate you will have to pay a couple months mirror fee on the unit you are not using.

I still think it is a good idea to do what you propose( Get one now while the rebate is still on and it is free.) Go ahed and use it now and record 4 Shows at the same time!

If you do activate it "in the box", print out a channel lineup so when the CSR tells you to tune to a particular channel and tell what you see, you can say the right thing.

Or you can always do what I did. I bought one of the refurbished Philips DSR7000 units for $69. Yes, it's only 35 hours but you don't have the 2-year commitment or the need to activate it. And it's hackable and it's a Series 2 box. It doesn't come with an access card but you should be able to use the one from your DSR6000 when the need to upgrade arises.

Or do what I said yes i see the picture there are people talking Pretty much covers everything on Tv Or say I dont have my glasses on or hearing aid in but I see and hear something

How often can you deactivate then reactivate, etc? As often as you like with in reason?

If I just buy an R10 for $100 from Best Buy, and don't care about the rebate, do I have to activate? Do they even know who bought it? Can't I just pay cash, and hold onto it until I need it. If I don't want the rebate, why do they care if I activate it?

No unfortunatly. If you dont have a directv account they wont sell it without a credit card and if you do they take your D* account. If you dont activate in 30 they charge you 150.00 If you get away with one without informing D* you are very lucky it means the store messed up and will have to pay some ridiculous fee for any Directivo it sells and has no cc or account to hold responsible. (they usualy make sure)


Btw the reason they care if you activate is basicly they lose money on the hardware especialy now with the rebate. Even if you dont get the rebate they lose money the device costs to build near what you pay or more. They make money on the mirror fee or the new sub for 2 years.

Online you can probably activate and deactivate every other day.Whats the point. To get the rebate you have to have it activated for 30 days than the 4 to 6 week countdown starts to get it.

I actualy told the Csr what I was doing and he had no problem activating when I was not Home.

I would deactivate a couple of my older units once I get all 4 hacked to save a few bucks a month in mirroring fees. The idea being that when all 4 are networked I only need two to record stuff from the sat while the other two would be used to watch recordings from the first two.
Quick question, does the show get transferred from one box to the other or is it just temporarily streamed?

With the 30 day activation requirement, when does the 30 days start? When it's ordered, shipped or received?

I recently purchased 2 R10's at Best Buy in preparation for a new 2 DVR install (I'm a long time non-dvr customer). Because of some technical issues relating to the install and to get a free install (long story), I basically had to accept one R15 from the installer and used one of my new R10's for the second unit. That leaves me with one new R10 that I bought 25 days ago at Best Buy. When I bought the R10's, I just took the units through the normal front-of-the-store purchase process. They did not ask for my D* account number or anything. I just checked out.

Here are my questions:

- Do I have to return or activate the new R10 to avoid a $150 charge? (I know it's in the fine print).
- How would D* even know I have it?
- What options do I have?
- Can I (or should I) call D* and activate it while leaving it sealed?
- If I deactivate it the next day, what charges would I incur?

I would like to keep it for a future install or replacement of the R15 . I only have a few days until my 30 days is up on a BB return.

I hope someone can help me on this.

Off topic for a moment if i may........

I just purchased and activated an R10 yesterday(wanting to keep TIVO until the R-15 is ready for primetime)The first thing i notice is the blurry menu/guide. After swimming through the pages of post on the R10 i am not clear as to if a general consensus was ever reached on the cause or fix for this situation.

You could always return the R15 to DTV if you would rather have two R10s. Call DTV and tell them that unit is unacceptable and want to return it. You might have to spring for the shipping charge.

I think the consensus was that DTV had used a cheaper graphics chip in this unit so the resolution wasn't so great on the menus. Some folks reported they could make it look a little better by tweaking the controls on their TV/Monitors but then you have to find a happy medium with respect to the PQ on programming.

As for activating within 30 days, I would suspect if you went a bit over it would not be a problem. It is possible (I do not know for sure though) that they could tell the approximate sell date of the unit from the serial number or access card number. They would certainly be able to determine when the unit was manufactured and shipped to the retailer if they wanted to.

You can also activate the unit, leave it on your account for a few weeks, then de-activate it. As long as you keep your minimum programming package, and dvr service, I believe you will be okay. Then you can put it on the shelf and keep it until you want/need it and re-activate it. This will only cost you one month additional receiver fee ($4.95 I think).

Carl

I am in the same boat...I have an old old Sony T60 and I want to see what happens with the new Directv DVR but I know if I wait too long there won't be any R10s out there....Here is what I am doing.

Went into Walmat and bought an R10 for cash (98 dollars and some cents). Kept receipt and will wait until the end of February (just before rebate ends) to decide.

If the new Directv DVR gets upgraded by then and it seems better I will take back the R10 (90 day return policy), if not I will activate and get the rebate.

I've been trying to figure out how D* could ever know that I have an unactivated R10. I have a receipt from Best Buy for it and they (Best Buy) of course have my credit card number from the sale. However, BB has no link between me and this particular unit. BB simply scanned the UPC which is the same on all R10's. What kind of a link between BB and D* could possibly exist that could have:

1. D* finding out that there is an unactivated R10 that was sold to BB.

2. BB somehow searching their records for all R10's sold and sharing that info (including credit card info that could only come from the credit card company) with D*.

3. D* taking that info and somehow linking that to individuals through credit card numbers.

I assume now that BB was not supposed to sell these without specifically getting name, CC or D* Acct #, etc. and sending that info to D*. Without that procedure happening, how could the link ever be made in a practical way?

When the unit eventual gets activated, D* could see that it was never activated and was sold to BB xx months ago, etc., but how does that tie the unit to an individual using the above scenario?

Am I missing something obvious?

I'm going to bump this in the hope that someone could comment. I need to make this decision real soon. Anyone have any thoughts?

worst case wait it out. If they end up charging your card contact Directv to activate and if Best Buy doesn't reverse the charge call them.

I noticed that nobody answered you. The show is transfered.

Why don't you just take it back to Best Buy get a refund and then just buy it paying cash at another store, pick it up and just walk through to the checkstand. I did just that at Walmart and as I stated above I will just hold on to the R10 until the end of February to see what happens or I may just keep it until I need it.

It is unopened with the Directv seal on it so I am sure I could sell it for the $99 I paid for it.

This does not work at Circuit City. Their cash registers will not sell an R10 unless it has been activated thru a different system at the store. The bar code from that activation must be scanned before the unit will ring up properly.

The above Circuit City procedure is not the same activation that occurs when you call DirecTV. It is another process that captures basic information about who the receiver was sold to.

It would be wonderful Cosmic Karma if Wal-Mart had to eat any extra cost of unactivated R10s because they didn't set up their system to prevent it. But, given my understanding of Wal-Mart's business practices, I'm sure they'll just tell DirecTV to shove it, and DirecTV won't be able to do anything about it.

Great point, and I bet DirecTV like almost all companies that have to do business with Wal-Mart would just BEND OVER and TAKE IT, because Wal-Mart has so much power at the retail level that no corporation has stood up to them. Wal-Mart has ruined and destroyed many good companies and some very good corporations, and at the same time put a lot of people out of work nationwide, far more than they have hired.

I can personally state this is not the way things work at Best Buy. I went to the store last week, walked to the electronics dept, picked up placed several R10's in my cart, wheeled them to the register and they scanned and I checked out.

Chris
crowtoo@earthlink.net