# Can no longer activate used equipment after 2/28/07???



## pridefc (Oct 16, 2005)

D* was here today to upgrade my dish to the new slimline and to install a non tivo PVR. (I still have 5 Dtivos, though!  )

The installer told me that D* will no longer allow people to activate used equipment after 2/28/07. He said that he didn't think D* was going to announce it publicly. He was a good installer and seemed to know what he was doing. Has anybody else heard this?

Maybe it's actually non-leased instead of used equipment. If that's the case then maybe this is their way of getting people to lease equipment they already own. Who knows, but I sure hope he doesn't know what he's talking about!


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## brianhos (Apr 12, 2004)

pridefc said:


> D* was here today to upgrade my dish to the new slimline and to install a non tivo PVR. (I still have 5 Dtivos, though!  )
> 
> The installer told me that D* will no longer allow people to activate used equipment after 2/28/07. He said that he didn't think D* was going to announce it publicly. He was a good installer and seemed to know what he was doing. Has anybody else heard this?
> 
> Maybe it's actually non-leased instead of used equipment. If that's the case then maybe this is their way of getting people to lease equipment they already own. Who knows, but I sure hope he doesn't know what he's talking about!


I don't buy that, there is no way they are going to stop me from activating an old R10 I have sitting around. They would want the additional receiver fee.


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## litzdog911 (Oct 18, 2002)

Similar thread started at DBSTalk. No basis in fact for this rumor.


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## herdfan (Feb 5, 2003)

litzdog911 said:


> Similar thread started at DBSTalk. No basis in fact for this rumor.


Agreed it is probably just a rumor. OTOH, if D* did try to pull something like that, it would not surprise me.


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## Win Joy Jr (Oct 1, 2001)

Since I am canceling on 1/28, I guess I need to ebay my HDVR2 and DSR7000 right away...


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## HiDefGator (Oct 12, 2004)

I guess we'll find out on 3/1 won't we. The suspense is killing me already.


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## dbex (Sep 17, 2003)

Wouldn't D* run into some legalities here? If you had purchased a product from somebody and they deliberately made it so you couldn't use it...couldn't you be sued for that?


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## pridefc (Oct 16, 2005)

I started this thread and the one at DBStalk, but not to spread a rumor. I was just a little shocked by it and wanted to see if anybody else had heard the same thing. Luckily, it seems like it really is a rumor. Let's hope it stays that way too!


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## Bonanzaair (Aug 26, 2006)

On Page 79, paragraph 6 of the 2006 Tivo Annual Report is the following verbage.

"In addition, DirecTV will continue to have the right to distribute DirecTV receivers with Tivo service through February 15, 2007 and a related grace period as set forth in the Development Agreement."

Tom Rogers has stated that DirecTV will no longer have the right to sell new DirecTV subs after February. I guess the grace period is two weeks.

Sorry gang, get your DTivos on your account NOW!


Bonanza


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## HDTivoGeek (Sep 16, 2006)

That refers to DTV SELLING the equipment not activating it. It clearly says *SELL* not activate.

LOL, Read your statement again (obvious but funny typo): Tom Rogers has stated that DirecTV will no longer have the right to sell new DirecTV subs


Bonanzaair said:


> On Page 79, paragraph 6 of the 2006 Tivo Annual Report is the following verbage.
> 
> "In addition, DirecTV will continue to have the right to distribute DirecTV receivers with Tivo service through February 15, 2007 and a related grace period as set forth in the Development Agreement."
> 
> ...


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## Tkilmer (Dec 25, 2003)

That doesn't sound like hardware, it sounds like subscriptions to the DVR service. I quess it could be read either way.


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## Mavrick22 (Feb 7, 2006)

Tkilmer said:


> That doesn't sound like hardware, it sounds like subscriptions to the DVR service. I quess it could be read either way.


That is the way I am taking it also is that if by the deadline if you dont already have TIVO dvr service on you D* account then they will not be able to add it. I think that they did the same thing with the old Ultimate TV boxes in that you can still buy a used one but they will not activate it on your account unless you already have the Ultimate TV dvr service on your account.

Here is to hopeing that this is the way this all will go down.


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## drew2k (Jun 10, 2003)

Bonanzaair said:


> On Page 79, paragraph 6 of the 2006 Tivo Annual Report is the following verbage.
> 
> "In addition, DirecTV will continue to have the right to distribute DirecTV receivers with Tivo service through February 15, 2007 and a related grace period as set forth in the Development Agreement."
> 
> ...


The only part of the quote above that comes verbatim from the TiVo annual report is enclosed in quotation marks. It concerns distribution of receivers (hardware) by DirecTV, and as a stand-alone quote, it does not preclude activation of DirecTV receivers with TiVo service if those receivers are acquired through other channels.

The following sentence, regarding subs, is not in quotation mark and appears to be paraphrasing.

This portion of the overall post needs to be clarified or a source needs to be cited ...


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

If they do this, I will be really mad. I am planning to sell about 6 DirecTiVo boxes this summer...


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## Mark Lopez (Jan 1, 2000)

I'll bet the same people who are saying this will never happen are the same ones who said 6.3 would never be released.


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## Bonanzaair (Aug 26, 2006)

drew2k said:


> The only part of the quote above that comes verbatim from the TiVo annual report is enclosed in quotation marks. It concerns distribution of receivers (hardware) by DirecTV, and as a stand-alone quote, it does not preclude activation of DirecTV receivers with TiVo service if those receivers are acquired through other channels.
> 
> The following sentence, regarding subs, is not in quotation mark and appears to be paraphrasing.
> 
> This portion of the overall post needs to be clarified or a source needs to be cited ...


Hey, I'm sorry if this has caught people of guard. Tom Rogers has repeated a statement like this at least twice. The first time I heard the comment was the 3rd Qtr Conference Call and the last time I heard this was the investor meeting Tom attending during CES in Las Vegas. I have looked for links to the audio on the Tivo Investor Page as well as Google. The links are no longer available. I have e-mailed Tivo Investor Relations and will post when I have received an answer.

Bonanza


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## Cmmsh (Jan 2, 2007)

From what I understand, D* has a contract with TiVo until 2010. I can't imagine they would stop their customers from activating TiVo equipment any time soon.


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## Bonanzaair (Aug 26, 2006)

Cmmsh said:


> From what I understand, D* has a contract with TiVo until 2010. I can't imagine they would stop their customers from activating TiVo equipment any time soon.


Yes - the contract is for Mainenance and Support.

Again from Page 79 of the 2006 Tivo Annual Report:

"On April 7, 2006, the Company entered into the Seventh Amendment of our Development Agreement, dated as of February 15, 2002, with DirecTV, Inc. Under this agreement, wihch amends the expiration date of the Development Agreement from February 15, 2007 to February 15, 2010, Tivo will continue to provide maintenance and support for DirecTV receivers with Tivo Service through the expiration date of the Development Agreement."

"This Amendment extends the term of the Services Agreement until February 15, 2010, and provides DirecTV-related with the ability to obtain additional technical support and training for its use of the advertising-related software tools with DirecTV receivers with Tivo Service"

I just e-mailed Tivo's Investor Relations last night. Let's see what they say. I hope I am wrong.

Bonanza


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## dbett (Aug 13, 2001)

Fud.


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## speedcouch (Oct 23, 2003)

pridefc said:


> DThe installer told me that D* will no longer allow people to activate used equipment after 2/28/07.


I know everyone here is thinking about Tivos only, but I have a first generation Sony HD receiver I've had in the closet the last two years. I was planning on getting reactivated later this year when we get a new TV that has more than one high-quality input. Or using in the bedroom when we move the old HDTV in there.

If this is true, it really pisses me off. I spent $800 on that thing and have been trying to find a way to get some more of my money's worth out of it since we replaced it with the HR10-250 in 2004.

Cheryl


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## mtchamp (May 15, 2001)

I know that TiVo's original contract with DirecTV was made in February 2002 and was for 5 years. I remember it well, being a DirecTV customer and TiVo customer at that time. It expires next month.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/services/2005-08-23-directv-tivo_x.htm

Renewal of TiVo deal in doubt

That discrepancy raises doubts about whether DirecTV will renew its five-year contract with TiVo that expires in February 2007.

"It doesn't make sense to have a third party providing something core to our experience," Carey says, although he rules nothing out.

No new sales contract has been made with DirecTV. The only agreement that will be left is for support of TiVo customers for 3 years signed in April 2006.

http://www.zatznotfunny.com/2006-04/tivo-and-directv-extend-pact/

Since Liberty Media is taking over DirecTV, there is a possibility that they will want to reduce it's relationship with NDS, current DirecTV DVR supplier and owned by News Corp, current owner of DirecTV. We might get TiVo back with a new supply contract at some point, but only if DirecTV is bleeding customers leaving to use TiVo with cable or FIOS. It's going to get interesting when Comcast starts rolling out the TiVo service in a few months.


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## gworkman (Feb 6, 2006)

dbex said:


> Wouldn't D* run into some legalities here? If you had purchased a product from somebody and they deliberately made it so you couldn't use it...couldn't you be sued for that?


Dish Network got away with it when they decided not to activate 9xx or 811 receivers last year.


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## HiDefGator (Oct 12, 2004)

I'm not seeing the big surprise here. DirecTV believes that eventually every customer (or at least a huge chunk of them) will want an H20 or HR20 so that they can get HD locals. The more old equipment they allow to be activated, the more existing equipment they have to upgrade for free or at a reduced amount in the future. Better to just tell those customers now that they need new hardware. It reduces their support costs, etc.


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## Cmmsh (Jan 2, 2007)

HiDefGator said:


> I'm not seeing the big surprise here. DirecTV believes that eventually every customer (or at least a huge chunk of them) will want an H20 or HR20 so that they can get HD locals. The more old equipment they allow to be activated, the more existing equipment they have to upgrade for free or at a reduced amount in the future. Better to just tell those customers now that they need new hardware. It reduces their support costs, etc.


I cannot believe that they would want to tick off customers by not allowing them to activate their own equipment. Ain't gonna happen. They're already on thin ice with many of their customers, and they're not going to chance something like this any time soon, especially with a takeover about to happen.


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## smoothster (May 29, 2003)

gworkman said:


> Dish Network got away with it when they decided not to activate 9xx or 811 receivers last year.


 I just recently activated 2 Dish 811 receivers at 2 different times without issues


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## HiDefGator (Oct 12, 2004)

Cmmsh said:


> I cannot believe that they would want to tick off customers by not allowing them to activate their own equipment. Ain't gonna happen. They're already on thin ice with many of their customers, and they're not going to chance something like this any time soon, especially with a takeover about to happen.


I couldn't believe the Gators would win the national championship either. But it didn't stop it from happening. How many customers do you suppose have DTV equipment sitting in their closet? Probably a very small handful, mostly hoarding DirecTivo's which DTV doesn't really want activated.


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## Cmmsh (Jan 2, 2007)

HiDefGator said:


> I couldn't believe the Gators would win the national championship either. But it didn't stop it from happening. How many customers do you suppose have DTV equipment sitting in their closet? Probably a very small handful, mostly hoarding DirecTivo's which DTV doesn't really want activated.


I disagree. I bet there are several people who have equipment they may want to use at another time. And most of the people who do have extra equipment are top-of-the-line customers. They're going to let them do pretty much whatever they want to do.

On a side note, I still can't believe the Gators won the national championship, either. They weren't even the best team in the SEC. The luckiest, surely, but not the best.


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## hitormiss (Jan 12, 2004)

I ran into a TiVo exec at CES and mentioned that I was planning to sell my spare DirecTiVo box. He told me I better do it by February, because no new TiVo account will be activated on DirecTV after the February deadline (he didn't specify the 15th or the 28th). I asked about existing accounts with TiVo, and he didn't think it applied there - if you're a new DTV subscriber or a current one without TiVo service, you will not be able to activate a TiVo box on DirecTV post-February. 

I recommend getting this confirmed before taking my word for it, but it's another data point. Given the wording in the three-year extension, this scenario makes some sense.


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## Stanley Rohner (Jan 18, 2004)

Arcady said:


> If they do this, I will be really mad. I am planning to sell about 6 DirecTiVo boxes this summer...


That's funny. It sounds like you're already really mad......
In another thread you said The HD signal that DirecTV sends out is complete garbage. Their SD signals are so compressed that they look worse than old VHS tapes and that you were in the process of switching to cabletv.

If you're in the process of switching over to cabletv why won't you be selling your boxes until next summer ?


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## speedcouch (Oct 23, 2003)

Well! Last night, our oldest regular IRD pretty much went up in smoke! My husband tried to turn on the RCA model we keep in the computer room and he started smelling melted plastic. Seems one of the circuit boards fried itself. My paranoid self keeps wondering if DirecTV found a way to sabotage it over the satellite. So I'd have to lease some of their new equipment.  

Anyway, I guess I found a use for my Sony HD100 after all. Called them this morning to tell them that I needed to reativate an old receiver. They rep didn't seem to have any problem with it at all (of course it's not Feb 28th yet either). Anyway, I am at work, so I'll have to go home and see if the reactivation actually worked. I just can't believe anything with Direct is this easy. I fully expect I'll end up back on the phone with them during the busiest time of the evening arguing when they try to sell me a new receiver or something. But keep your fingers crossed for me that this doesn't turn into that type of drama.

Cheryl


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## Black Max (Oct 27, 2000)

SpeedCouch were you required to agree to a service commitment?


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## speedcouch (Oct 23, 2003)

Black Max said:


> SpeedCouch were you required to agree to a service commitment?


Nope! That question never came up in the conversation yesterday morning at all.

When we got home, we hooked up the Sony receiver and couldn't get a picture at first. Eventually we remembered we had to change the output setting to 480 from 1080i (since we're now using it on a SD TV). Then, still getting "call ext 721" message on channels, so called Direct. Got the automated voice menu first. They said they were going to test the signal and to put it on a channel where we were receiving the msg. My husband hit the wrong thing on the remote and lost channel 3 on the TV for a bit. By the time, he got back to it, a human had come on the line. We then realized the ping gave us a picture and I said "I think the problem is fixed." She laughed and I thought I'm betting I was the only person she'd spoken all day that already had the problem fixed by the time she got on the line. All I can say is I'm amazed the simple "reactivation" of an older receiver was so painless. Let's hope it keeps chugging away for a while now. Probably one of my best experiences with customer service. :up:

Cheryl


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## Bonanzaair (Aug 26, 2006)

Ok...the word from Tivo Investor Relations

After 2/15/07, DirecTV loses it rights to market and make new TiVo 
boxes. It would be *up to DirecTV* whether they could replace a defective 
box or give you an additional TiVo receiver and this ultimately depends 
on DirecTV's existing inventory. Additionally, you could purchase a TIVo 
DTV receiver from a third party (such as eBay) after 2/15.

Bonanza


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## Toeside (Feb 14, 2002)

Bonanzaair said:


> Ok...the word from Tivo Investor Relations
> 
> After 2/15/07, DirecTV loses it rights to market and make new TiVo
> boxes. It would be *up to DirecTV* whether they could replace a defective
> ...


That's good news. I do wonder if DirecTV is going to limit used hardware activations. I have an HR10-250 and a 100 Hour Samsung DirecTiVo (don't remember the model number) that I'm planning on selling.

I guess I better get to work on that.


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## michad (Sep 9, 2002)

okay so I have a Sony t-60 and two R10 dvrs; without smeeking too much, I can expect to sell them easily or should I just rob the drives out of them and junk the boxes?

ps; toeside, I'm in the market for another hr10-250.


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## packerfan (Jan 8, 2002)

Well, I decided to activate an r10 that I was planning on saving as a spare. I bought it off ebay about six months ago. I figure I will keep it on the account for a while and if I'm not using it much, I will deactivate it.


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