# Old HR20s, R10



## rob_gendreau (Jun 20, 2002)

Any suggestions about what to do with a few HR20's that I'll no longer be using, as well as a R10? The former are not Directivos, just Directv DVRs and the latter is an old Directivo without service. I no longer subscribe to Directv.

Aside from yanking the drives, and perhaps the power supplies (probably can be modified to make nice bench AC to DC power supplies for various kinds of gadgets) I can't think of much. But they do have network cards, drive controllers, etc I suppose and I hate to just recycle them for metal if there's something else that could be done.

Rob


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## wkearney99 (Dec 5, 2003)

I believe there's some degree of swappability with the power supplies. I think the DirecTivo PS can swap into a S2 and vice-versa. 

I've got like three of them sitting on a shelf, with the weaknees bracket and fan kits too. They're going to have to go when we move next month (tearing down and rebuilding the house).


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

Aren't those DVRs leased? If so, they belong to DirecTV. I seem to recall they went from selling hardware to leasing it about the same time they offered their HD DVR replacement for the HR10-250 HDTivo. That's not to say that DirecTV actually wants them back, but you might want to call and check before you start cannibalizing hardware that doesn't belong to you.


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## rob_gendreau (Jun 20, 2002)

They only want the cable cards back...leaving me to do the recycling. I owned the Directivo; it might have even had lifetime Tivo service but I can't find out whether it did or didn't, not that it matters now.

I wonder if I could make a little Linux media server out of one of them? Even if it just served up MP3s or something.


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

You could only get lifetime service when it was offered on the original S1 DirecTivos, and even then it was only offered for a limited time. Lifetime was never available for the R10.

Aside from the hard drives, none of your DVRs are of much use for anything other than a doorstop. You could gut the chassis and build a mini-ITX PC with it using a pico-PSU power supply. I'm sure you could make your Linux media server with this configuration. Trying to convert the DVR innards to another purpose would be more trouble than it's worth, assuming it's even possible.


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