What will installer think of hacked DTivos?

[tonypitt]

I'm moving in about a month. At the new place I have a choice of Comcast or moving my DirecTV. Probably will go with DTV.

I have 2 hacked DTivos. If I do the Mover's Connection, I can move my present equipment. What will the installer say when he sees I have 2 hacked DTivos?

I think normally the installer hooks the units up to a phone line and makes them phone home. Obviously that won't happen with these.

Anyone go through this before and have any advice?

[dswallow]

The installer will be happy not to do anything you ask him not to do that he normally does; same money, less work.

[Da Goon]

How would he know they're hacked? Are you going to tell him? Seriously, though not that any installer would care, but how hard would it really be for you to hide that from someone.

[captain_video]

There is no way to know that the Tivos are hacked unless you tell him. Since the DTivos are already active on your account then there's no need for the installer to try and get them to dial out. Chances are he'll simply plug them in to see that you're getting a signal to confirm that the dish is aligned properly. The only setup would be for you to rerun guided setup to specify a different zip code to get your locals. Just tell the installer that you'll go through the setup to download the list of local phone numbers yourself. Installers shouldn't need to have the DTivo dial out unless it's a brand new setup and the unit is being activated for the first time.

[JWThiers]

If he changed the boot splash screen its kind of obvious that the units are hacked, but dswallow is right if you tell him to just mount the dish and run the cable andyou do the rest he will be more than happy to get paid NOT to do something. Also I have found that for a nominal donation to his beer fund, most installers are glad to do darn near anything. ie extra drop in this room or that for that matter maybe even pull a cat 5 cable or 3 for you if it is just going to the same location as the coax.

[tonypitt]

If he changed the boot splash screen its kind of obvious that the units are hacked, but dswallow is right if you tell him to just mount the dish and run the cable andyou do the rest he will be more than happy to get paid NOT to do something. Also I have found that for a nominal donation to his beer fund, most installers are glad to do darn near anything. ie extra drop in this room or that for that matter maybe even pull a cat 5 cable or 3 for you if it is just going to the same location as the coax.

As you noted, the splash screen has been changed, so in that respect it's pretty obvious that the units are hacked.

As far as just having him run cable but not hooking it up to my equipment: Every time I've had an install or maintenance guy come out, they've used the signal strength meter to verify that the dish is pointed correctly and receiving all channels. For me to ask the guy to set things up, but then not actually see a picture on any TV seems like a recipe for a problem.

I think that if I dig around a bit I might be able to find an unhacked R10 in a closet. Maybe I can have that around for use with the install and say the others are still "packed". Maybe if they'll give me one for free I'll have DirecTV give me an R15 to play with.

Thanks for the info here. If anyone else has any experience of having an install with hacked units, I'd appreciate hearing about it.

[JWThiers]

Then again I don't think they really care.

[73cuda]

That's what I've been thinking, why would the installer care ? As long as he can get strong signals and all the channels you're supposed to get I think the installer will be happy and move on to his next job. You're not stealing service.

[Gunnyman]

My installer asked for a copy of my Zipper install CD's :D

[JWThiers]

I made my own. :D

[Billdkid]

Believe me we dont care if you dont

[Soapm]

Then again I don't think they really care.

Naw, they don't work for Tivo...

[trainman]

Had a technician (and a trainee) out today to move and realign my dish, because a tree had grown in its way. (Probably could have done it myself, except that it's on the roof of my apartment building, and I'm not allowed up there.)

Anyway, they saw the "TiVo Unleashed" boot screen that's the Zipper default. They saw the Linksys wireless access point connected to a USB port on the TiVo. These items seemed to have no impact on them whatsoever.

But the tech did mention to the trainee that "the new DVR boots up much faster." I mumbled something about how much I liked the TiVo software, and that was that. :D

[Soapm]

But the tech did mention to the trainee that "the new DVR boots up much faster."

I'm sure that meant a lot to the trainee??? "New, how will I know new? How old is this one?"