# Adding Tivo onto existing system?



## bobby_t1 (Sep 15, 2003)

Can you add Tivo onto an existing setup with a receiver and 3 LNB dish? How do they charge for it? Do they charge $5/month an tack it onto your existing billing account?

Reason I ask is that at some point I may discontinue my directTV service as I will be travelling a lot and not home enough to take advantage of it. So i may reactivate basic cable, but still would like to use the TIVO. Is this possible? How is the billing structured?


----------



## paulh (Mar 17, 2003)

> Can you add Tivo onto an existing setup with a receiver and 3 LNB dish?


Yes, it is easy if you have 2 additional outputs on your dish (or 1 additional output if the Direct Tivo is replacing a standard receiver) If you are getting the Tivo deal from DirectTv, then they will include the necessary installation equipment



> How do they charge for it? Do they charge $5/month an tack it onto your existing billing account


If the DirectTivo (Technically a Direct Tv receiver with Tivo service) is your only receiver, then you are billed $5/month per household for getting the Tivo service (If you want, you can have the tivo service canceled, but you loose the Tivo functionality) This $5 fee is waived if you get Total Choice Premier.

If you are adding a Tivo as a second, or third, ... receiver, then you also get the $5/month additional receiver fee for each Direct Tv box you have (including the Direct Tivo).



> Reason I ask is that at some point I may discontinue my directTV service as I will be traveling a lot and not home enough to take advantage of it. So i may reactivate basic cable, but still would like to use the TIVO. Is this possible?


If you order the Tivo from Direct TV for $99, then you will be required to enter a 1 year agreement for maintaining an account with Total Choice ($34/month) minimum, so that $34/month with no Tivo service or additional receivers would be the minimum you'd be able to get while you are gone. I do not know if it is possible to temporally suspend your account for a month or two and have the 1 year commitment extended.

If you are still paying for DirectTV and Tivo service, then you can still use the Tivo as a Tivo. If you just have the Directtv service, then the Tivo becomes a standard receiver, and you can only use the 30minute buffer to pause, rewind, and slo-mo Direct TV programming (DirectTv receivers with built in Tivo service).

If you want to use a Tivo with satellite AND cable, then you need a stand-alone Tivo, which costs more initially since they have to encode what they receive, the Direct TV ones just record the incoming MPEG2 stream (Although CC and BB seemed to be advertising them for $200), and the monthly fee is $15 per unit (not household)


----------



## bobby_t1 (Sep 15, 2003)

paulh said:


> If the DirectTivo (Technically a Direct Tv receiver with Tivo service) is your only receiver, then you are billed $5/month per household for getting the Tivo service (If you want, you can have the tivo service canceled, but you loose the Tivo functionality) This $5 fee is waived if you get Total Choice Premier.
> 
> If you are adding a Tivo as a second, or third, ... receiver, then you also get the $5/month additional receiver fee for each Direct Tv box you have (including the Direct Tivo).


I thought it was $5/month for the DirecTV account, regardless of how many TIVO units there were. Would be nice to have 2 DirecTivos in the house, with 4 tuners.But added $5/month is iffy.

Also I heard that DirecTivo may adopt the new home media option already available to standalone series 2 Tivo owneres.


----------



## paulh (Mar 17, 2003)

bobby_t1 said:


> I thought it was $5/month for the DirecTV account, regardless of how many TIVO units there were. Would be nice to have 2 DirecTivos in the house, with 4 tuners.But added $5/month is iffy.


Yes, that is what I was trying to say.

There are 2 separate $5 fees
1) Additional receivers are $5/mo to mirror your programming to each additional Sat Box / IRD / whatever you call them.

2) There is a $5/month per household fee for Tivo service (waived if you have TCP)

If you have only 1 standard receiver, - add $0 to your bill
If you have only 1 Direct Tivo - add $5 to your bill (unless you have TCP then add $0)
If you have 2 Direct Tivos - Add $10 to your bill (That is $5 for Tivo, $5 for the second box; unless you have TCP then only add $5, not $10)
If you have 1 standard receiver and 1 Direct Tivo - Add $10 to your bill ($5 for Tivo and $5 for second receiver; or $5 total if you have TCP )
If you have 2 standard receivers - add $5 to your bill (for the second receiver)


----------



## Edmund (Apr 17, 2003)

If you're truly interested in a Dtivo, then it will only work on Directv. Only a Stand Alone tivo will work with cable, and it costs $15 a month, per unit.


----------



## EricG (Mar 28, 2002)

$12.85/mo or $299.00 lifetime.


Edmund said:


> If you're truly interested in a Dtivo, then it will only work on Directv. Only a Stand Alone tivo will work with cable, and it costs $15 a month, per unit.


----------



## tivosmart (Sep 14, 2003)

Forgive the ignorance on my part, but what if you have 1 DirecTivo with Directv service, all good, paying the $5 monthly Tivo fee, and then you add a standalone Tivo unit. Will you have to pay $13 monthly on top of that or would they consider the standalone Tivo as part of the "household" and then it would be covered in the Directv fee?


----------



## bobby_t1 (Sep 15, 2003)

tivosmart said:


> Forgive the ignorance on my part, but what if you have 1 DirecTivo with Directv service, all good, paying the $5 monthly Tivo fee, and then you add a standalone Tivo unit. Will you have to pay $13 monthly on top of that or would they consider the standalone Tivo as part of the "household" and then it would be covered in the Directv fee?


The technicality here is that a standalone tivo is supported by TiVo itself, and you pay the fees to TiVo. With a DirecTiVo, you pay DirecTV. So yes, you would have $13/month on top of the $5/month direcTiVo fee.


----------

