# connect tivo to my network, no subscription



## spiegela (Jul 11, 2006)

I just purchased a tivo from compusa. I plan on using this like my vcr. No subscription. How can I connect it to my network without the Media Access Key?

HELP!!


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## Sirshagg (Dec 27, 2001)

I believe a series 2 SA TiVo is a paperweight without an active subscription.


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## Scott D (Jun 17, 2001)

Do you plan to return it?


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## spiegela (Jul 11, 2006)

I just want to know if there is a way to connect to my home network without the subscription service.


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## Sirshagg (Dec 27, 2001)

Yes, you can connect it to your network without the service. But it's still a paper weight, albeit a paperweight connected to your network.


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## cheer (Nov 13, 2005)

spiegela said:


> I just want to know if there is a way to connect to my home network without the subscription service.


You cannot use it for anything without a subscription.


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## Gunnyman (Jul 10, 2003)

Sirshagg said:


> Yes, you can connect it to your network without the service. But it's still a paper weight, albeit a paperweight connected to your network.


a USB enabled paper weight
wow could be the next Pet Rock...

:up: :up:


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

If you want a hard disk based recorder to use as a VCR, you don't want a TiVo, unless you want to subscribe or have a Toshiba, Pioneer, or old Series 1 unit.

If it is none of the above, you need to sub. If it is one of the above Series 2s, you need to sub to use most networking features.

If, and only if, it is a DirecTV TiVo, or a Series 1 standalone, you can install a likeness of the standalone S2 network features.


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## Sirshagg (Dec 27, 2001)

Wouldn't it make sense to sub it anyway?

1 year subscription = $155.40 

minus

$155 rebate (not qualified unless you sub) 

equals

$.40

seems rather reasonable to me.


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## nyder (Jul 12, 2006)

actually, I'm not sure if this is true. I have a series 2 (got for free) and being disabled, there's no way I can afford to pay tivo sub, + cable. I've been looking for a way to use my tivo as a DVR without subscription.
What i've found is in other countries, like Aus, where they don't have tivo, they use an emulator for dialing up. (not sure of the legal status of this, and if i'm crossing a line posting about it, i'm sorry). 
Now they mostly are saying to use Series 1 because it can do PAL while series 2 is NTSC only (I guess, i don't know). But someone had gotten a series 2 working using a NSTC tv.
So, what that says to me is, it is possible.
I'm looking for more info, before I do it myself. Just hoping to find someone that has done it with a series 2, over here in America (or at least somewhere with NTSC standard).

Of course, just because it might be possible doesn't mean that it can be done, or maybe it depends on what series 2 you have.

Anyone know anything about what i've posted?

at the very worse, at least it has a season of Lost on it, a whole bunch of eps I didn't see. =)


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## Gunnyman (Jul 10, 2003)

if it's possible you won't find a howto anywhere around here because we love Tivo too much to steal from them.
Tivo=Box+Subscription.


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## cheer (Nov 13, 2005)

For intellectual discussion purposes only...

Yes, there are groups like the OzTivo and ZaTivo folks. Since Tivo service is not available in countries such as Australia and South America, they have created pseudo-motherships and use them to feed guide data, etc. to the Tivos. Just getting guide data together is a very non-trivial effort.

They are very protective of the details, because they absolutely are not interested in service theft. The Canadians used to do it until Tivo service became available in Canada. Almost exclusively you have to prove your residence of the country in question to get any technical info at all on the process.

There is no freely-available information on how to get this going in the US that I'm aware of, and to be honest even if some people have figured this out (and I have no idea if they have) you won't find any help here, or on DDB, or AO, or...anywhere. In the US, this *is* theft of service.

I hear what you're saying about fixed income/disabled...but I'm sure you agree that doesn't justify service theft. Not that I'm accusing you of malicious intent or anything -- always better to ask questions IMO.


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

nyder said:


> at the very worse, at least it has a season of Lost on it, a whole bunch of eps I didn't see. =)


You can watch recordings fine without a sub. It is making it record without a sub, or enabling network features on a Stadnalone Series 2 that is considered stealing here.


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## speter60 (Jul 13, 2006)

classicsat said:


> You can watch recordings fine without a sub. It is making it record without a sub, or enabling network features on a Stadnalone Series 2 that is considered stealing here.


Hi.
I'm new to all of this,But if you are not stealing the service,and just turning on the features to record and such,in what way are you stealing ?Theft of service I understand,but I did buy my paper weights .
Thanks


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## cheer (Nov 13, 2005)

speter60 said:


> Hi.
> I'm new to all of this,But if you are not stealing the service,and just turning on the features to record and such,in what way are you stealing ?Theft of service I understand,but I did buy my paper weights .
> Thanks


You bought your paperweights (which, incidentally, probably said somewhere on the box that service is required) at a reduced price, because the hardware costs are subsidized by Tivo. The Tivo is designed such that service is required to record and such; if you somehow hack the box to enable that without paying the service fee, that's theft of service.


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## speter60 (Jul 13, 2006)

cheer said:


> You bought your paperweights (which, incidentally, probably said somewhere on the box that service is required) at a reduced price, because the hardware costs are subsidized by Tivo. The Tivo is designed such that service is required to record and such; if you somehow hack the box to enable that without paying the service fee, that's theft of service.


 Hi,
Actually it doesn't say anywhere, specifically what it will do ,or not do, without service ,either on the box or in the manual,it saye it has limited pvr functionality without service,the same wording as my series 1 which I use without a sub.
I believed it would work the same way.

Thanks


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

I think I am going to agree with speter60 on this one when you buy a piece of hardware from a store it's yours you can do what you want with it. 

Theft of service is when you steel a service someone is providing/selling - unless you connect to TiVos servers and steel the data they provide us as a service then you haven't stolen anything. 

Just my opinion, 

Thanks, 

atmuscarella


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## ForrestB (Apr 8, 2004)

Hmm, when I bought my DirecTivo, I had to sign a statement saying I would subscribe to DirecTV within 90 days or they'd charge my credit card for $300. Isn't there a similar agreement for the 'free' Tivo's.


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## Sirshagg (Dec 27, 2001)

ForrestB said:


> Hmm, when I bought my DirecTivo, I had to sign a statement saying I would subscribe to DirecTV within 90 days or they'd charge my credit card for $300. Isn't there a similar agreement for the 'free' Tivo's.


The only 'free' Tivo's I've seen are "free" after a $150 rebate and the $150 rebate is only valid with at least 1 years programming subscription ($150.40 without MSD).


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## Sirshagg (Dec 27, 2001)

speter60 said:


> Hi,
> Actually it doesn't say anywhere, specifically what it will do ,or not do, without service ,either on the box or in the manual,it saye it has limited pvr functionality without service,the same wording as my series 1 which I use without a sub.
> I believed it would work the same way.
> 
> Thanks


Some of the old series 1 units have decent functionality without the sub. Not the case for series 2.


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## willardcpa (Feb 23, 2001)

Tivos are like cell phones. The cell phone outfits will give you a phone, or sell you a $300 model for $50, provided you go with their service. Tivo is the same thing, they lose money on the hardware and make it up on the software subscriptions. Accept it as the "marketing model" that is in place. You wouldn't be hunting around for hints on how to use your cell phone without a subscription would you???


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## speter60 (Jul 13, 2006)

willardcpa said:


> Tivos are like cell phones. The cell phone outfits will give you a phone, or sell you a $300 model for $50, provided you go with their service. Tivo is the same thing, they lose money on the hardware and make it up on the software subscriptions. Accept it as the "marketing model" that is in place. You wouldn't be hunting around for hints on how to use your cell phone without a subscription would you???


You are allowed to use your cell phone with another service after you have fulfilled your contract


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## willardcpa (Feb 23, 2001)

speter60 said:


> You are allowed to use your cell phone with another service after you have fulfilled your contract


Fine but I said "A" subscription, as in you still need to pay somebody for the cell phone service. You can't get the cell phone and then expect to use it without paying somebody for the cell phone service. Same with Tivo.  
That's what others are trying to convey here - a tivo only works with a subscription - just like a cell phone.
Sure you paid for it, you can do anything you want with it - but if you want to call somebody you gotta pay somebody for the service. Same with Tivo, if you want to record something - you gotta pay for the service.
Otherwise, it's as usefull as a cell phone without "A" subscription. Ya gotta live with it like it or not.
Only difference between the cell phones and Tivos is that there are other providers for cell phone service and there is only one Tivo service provider. 'Course that's the way it was with land line phones for the first 150 years they were around - there was only one Ma Bell. So I guess if you want to wait for the appropriate legislation/Supreme Court decisions eventually you will probably be able to get your Tivo service from somebody else. In the meantime, I guess that is what the Patent process is all about.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

I disagree that TiVo is like a cell phone. 

When you receive a "free" cell phone you have signed a contract to purchase cell phone service for a certain period of time. 

When you purchase a TiVo at your local store you have agreed to nothing at all. You could have purchased the TiVo to disassemble and use for parts, its none of TiVo business what you do with it and if they lost money on that sale or not also has nothing to do with it. 

However if you want the data that TiVo provides through their monthly service then you have to pay for it. 

Thanks, 

atmuscarella


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## TColeman (Jul 14, 2006)

I have a series 2 model that came with the basic service so it is not necessary to sign up anything, however, hooking up to the network wouldn't do you any good because this limited service doesn't offer that privilege. The basic service is fine, just plug it in to your phone line and you can get the TV listings without the need for the network at all. Have fun, you are really going to enjoy it.


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## Gunnyman (Jul 10, 2003)

not all tivos come with tivo basic as an option.


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## willardcpa (Feb 23, 2001)

atmuscarella said:


> ....However if you want the data that TiVo provides through their monthly service then you have to pay for it.....


You also need to pay the monthly fee to be able to record anything with it.
So, as others have pointed out, if you don't subscribe the box is a very expensive paper weight.  
So in that respect tivos ARE like cell phones.  
Sure you can buy one and cannibalize it for parts, or use it for a paperweight if you want to. But I doubt that very many people would do that, that is probably why Tivo does not follow the cell phone model exactly by requiring a minimum subscription length in order to just buy the box. Since the boxes retail for about $200 there aren't many folks that are going to buy it without subscribing it. Whereas, there are probably a ton of "show-boats" who would pay $50 for a cell phone just to hang it on their belt as "bling".

I know it is not exactly like a cell phone. But the similarity that I have repeatedly tried to point out is you can't expect to buy the box and get it to work without paying the subscription fee. That's what a couple of folks earlier in this thread thought they could do, and wanted to know why they couldn't. And in the past many have thought that Tivo was "wronging" them by not allowing them to do that. Many have said, "Hey, I bought it, I should be able to use it any way I want to." Hence, my analogy to a cell phone - don't expect it to work without a subscription. 

And as to your comment "its none of TiVo business what you do with it and if they lost money on that sale or not also has nothing to do with it " Well you can think that all you want, but the Tivo model is set up such that they sell the boxes at a loss and then make it back up on the subscription, that is why they have the boxes set up such that they will not record without one. Several years ago Replay tried the other approach, they sold the boxes for full bore, and then provided the guide for free, but that way the boxes cost $600-700, and they went under so that didn't work. I agree its none of tivos business what you do with it, but off hand I'd say only an idiot would buy one without subscribing it, it ends up either being a paperweight, or costing several times for parts use than one you could have picked up on e-bay.

And you can buy cell phones for cheap bucks and not subscribe them, WalMart and others peddle those "prepaid" cell phones that come with little or no time and then you "pay as you go" for more time. So it is possible to get a cell phone without having "signed a contract to purchase cell phone service for a certain period of time." In fact I think that is how most "credit challenged" folks get cell phones. I am amazed at how many homeless folks I see using them. 

You can disagree all you want, but like cell phones, if you don't pay the monthly fee you can't use the box for its intended function.


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## speter60 (Jul 13, 2006)

It would be easy to say if tivo actually stored and maintained the recordings on their network,as this would be a service,I don't really see much difference between putting all of
the series 2 features on a series 1 and turning them on ,on a series 2


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## Gunnyman (Jul 10, 2003)

Tivo is a luxury item.
If you can't afford to play, then don't buy one.
You will spend as much time, money and energy trying to beat the system as you would on a year's subscription.


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## speter60 (Jul 13, 2006)

For me this is a hobby, It is not about beating the system ,it is about learning something new,tinkering with it,taking the risks,and trying to understand it all. I don't mind paying to play.If everyone just accepted things the way they are we would be sheep.there would be no new ideas


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## nyder (Jul 12, 2006)

okay, I understand now. while I don't necessary agree with it, I do understand why it's considered a theft of service to modify your tivo to record without using Tivo's service. Since theft of service isn't an apporiate topic for this forum, I will not ask or post any info about it here.

I wasn't sure if that was what you considered theft of service (I was thinking it was more of modifying the tivo to call them without having a valid account) but now it's very clear I was just being confused. (not all the hard to do)

thanks for clearing that up for me, sorry if I crossed any boundrys with my post.


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