# DirecTivo without phone line



## tivosmart (Sep 14, 2003)

Anyone out there using Tivo without a permanent phone line?

I've heard that not plugging the unit to a phone line for more than 30 days will disable your DVR service, so you won't be able to record PPV, sports, etc. Is this true?

I'd also like to hear is somebody has a reference or has experience running the DirecTivo via a broadband connection, via connection to the PC or directly connecting the Tivo via an USB-Ethernet adapter to the Internet router (cable or dsl connection in this case).

Thanks.


----------



## bonscott87 (Jan 21, 2003)

The party line at DirecTV is that you have to have a phone line. Even if you don't *technically* they will tell you that you have to. 

1) Not having a phone line will disable PPV on that unit at some point
2) It may or may not effect sports subscriptions. Assume that it will, but really depends if DirecTV actually checks or not. They are not consistant with this and are more strict if you have NFL Sunday Ticket. I had a normal DirecTV receiver with no phone by mistake (forgot to plug it in) for over a year and ST was just fine on it. Had a friend that had a cat that kept uplugging the phone cord and they disabled his ST twice in a season because there were no calls. YMMV on this one.
3) DVR service will function just fine after 30 days. You will get a nag screen once a day to make a call.

Check out the Tivo community for many stories on this. You can also find out how to hack the DirecTivo to activate the USB ports in the underground forums there. They are not active normally and must be hacked to activate them.


----------



## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

From what I heard at www.tivocommunity.com, in order to get the latest upgrade, you WILL have to have a phone line plugged in since the upgrade is delivered via phone instead of Satellite. No, I don't know why, since the receiver is perfectly capable of receiving updates via satellite.


----------



## tivosmart (Sep 14, 2003)

Thanks for the answers. I knew about the loss of PPV, what I'm really interested to know is if somebody has experienced loss of the DVR service after 30 days. There is at least one report at TivoCommunity of one guy loosing his DVR service.

I'm thinking on going wireless at home, so I wanted to know if this is something fairly common or not.


----------



## Halfsek (Oct 29, 2002)

I haven't had my phone line hooked up for a couple of months now. It could even be longer. It just died and I didn't realize it until my DirecTivo told me.
Everything works perfectly. I don't do PPV, so that's no loss.

I'll get it fixed... eventually.


----------



## valand_krisban (Oct 23, 2003)

ReplayTvs can record D* or E* via Svideo and pull the program guide from a broadband connection. The lifetime or monthly service fee is much more than a DTivo though. 

Another nice feature is that they will record anything you pipe into them, E*, D*, OTA, VCR, DVD, etc..., and you can watch a recorded show on one ReplayTV from another one on the LAN.

I hope E* or D* don't code their feeds, or all regular Tivo and ReplayTV owners will be out of luck, and their service fee.


----------



## beegfoot (Jan 15, 2003)

I unplugged mine a few weeks ago and the only thing I noticed on my TiVo was all programs in my season pass showed no upcoming showings, yet the shows still recorded as always. 

I plugged it back up last night and let it update.


----------



## tivosmart (Sep 14, 2003)

valand_krisban said:


> ReplayTvs can record D* or E* via Svideo and pull the program guide from a broadband connection. The lifetime or monthly service fee is much more than a DTivo though.
> 
> Another nice feature is that they will record anything you pipe into them, E*, D*, OTA, VCR, DVD, etc..., and you can watch a recorded show on one ReplayTV from another one on the LAN.
> 
> I hope E* or D* don't code their feeds, or all regular Tivo and ReplayTV owners will be out of luck, and their service fee.


The features you're citing are also on the regular series 2 Tivos. Standalone DVRs and Satellite DVRs are really different animals. The SA ones will encode analog signals to digital format first, while the satellite ones don't do this, they only record the digital signal comming down the "pipe" from Directv or Dish Network or whatever.

The D*Tivo can also be hacked to add a few of the things you mentioned above, although the main problem now is to keep the hacks after an update of the software. It's also not for the folks who are not experienced with computers...


----------



## Bigpeat (Oct 24, 2003)

Halfsek said:


> I haven't had my phone line hooked up for a couple of months now. It could even be longer. It just died and I didn't realize it until my DirecTivo told me.
> Everything works perfectly. I don't do PPV, so that's no loss.
> 
> I'll get it fixed... eventually.


_Without a phone line, _ 
You can still order PPV via the Phone. Cost: $5.00

You can order PPV via the Internet. Cost: $0.00


----------



## TheRatPatrol (Oct 1, 2003)

Can you use a Tivo in a RV?


----------



## spanishannouncetable (Apr 23, 2002)

theratpatrol said:


> Can you use a Tivo in a RV?


Yes.


----------

