But none of this applies if you are pre-existing, and don't need a dish. Right?

Greg

No, the terms are the same. You have to register the receiver within 30 days no matter what.

You mean register with tivo? This is cool. But if you mean register with DTV, I'm not planning on using any DTV card that might come with it, I'll have to use the one that comes with our apartment's satellite

It's the DTV card that must be activated within the time limit. Are you sure your apartment complex forces you to use their card? They shouldn't care. Whether you use a new card or swap an existing card, DirecTV (or some reseller) must be contacted to activate the exact receiver/card combination that you will be using. You can't just swap a card from one receiver to another without contacting DirecTV (excepting hacking).

This requirement to activate the included card is typical for newly purchased DirecTV receivers so if your apartment complex really is unyielding about this they are preventing everyone from buying their own receiver without paying hundreds of dollars in fees. (Maybe that is their goal. Do they charge a rental fee or something like that for the hardware?)

-Dylan

Dylan's response is good. Another thing to note is that a DirecTiVo receiver is activated through DirecTV. TiVo will not activate it for you.

Just confirmed, we have to use the old card... The way it works is our complex uses Southwestern Bell Home Entertainment ... they have a big dish somewhere and the signal is sent to all our apartments .. we then lease receivers to get the programming.

I asked SWBHE about a receiver of my own, they said I can use mine, but I have to use their card (they'll reprogram something for my reciever and their card).

I'm curious ... if I get this $89 unit, will I get a card with it? If I do, they're going to rape me on some fees if I don't use their card, right?

Greg

Well, I know that there are at least one or two out there. I had to drive to Portland for a friend's open house today (in beautiful no-sales tax Oregon), I kept thinking about Speedvision/WRC coverage on the drive down, so I just had to stop at the Circuit City (another place I usually avoid like the plague) in Jantzen Beach. They had exactly one Sony SVR2000 left. Now they have none. One upside of divorce. No permission needed!

Now to see if I can get my JP1 remote jiggered to run this thing, then get lost in the land of tivonet and drive upgrades. I'm doomed!

I'm think you may have been mis-informed by Southwestern Bell. By describing your situation, I assume you have a Sony receiver (A50 i think). These receivers are unique and you would probably need what's called a destacker to get reception on any other make or model receiver. This may be in addition to using your current access card. I could be wrong though. Tell us more about your setup.

Now to see if I can get my JP1 remote jiggered to run this thing

Ah, you gotta love the JP1. Coolest hack around.

It's been months since I've poked around that scene, since I haven't changed the equipment in my living room for months and haven't needed to reprogram it. But the last I looked, there were more Tivo tricks than you could shake a stick at. You should have no trouble getting programming into your JP1'd remote.

You're right, I've got two A50's (one for bedroom, one for living room). Both are plugged directly into that F-style connection in thir respective walls.

My assumption is that they've got one dish for our apartment complex, or the actual dish is somewhere off-site and they pump a signal to our block like a cable provider.

I arrange all additional features and payment as if Southwestern Bell is the only company. I don't even have a DirectTV account number as far as I know. They charge me $5 a month to lease each receiver then the normal going rate for programming.

The access card doesn't look specific to this sony or SWB but directTV. It's got a number three on the front and a directTV logo, on th eback it's got an NDS logo and quite a few numbers.

It'd be nice if I could just dump SWB and plug my new receiver in to SWB's connection and deal with DirectTV directly.

Is this helping to clarify my situation?

Greg

I think you may have to stay with SW Bell unfortuantely. This thread has more info on using a non-A50 receiver with your service. Good luck!

A couple of destackers is what it looks like ... God knows what those are. Think Radio Smack will carry them?

Greg

Destackers are only sold through a couple distributors, and they are not that easy for consumers to get since they're primarily used in commercial applications. Your best bet (I think) is to go to a DirecTV installer in the area and try to get them through them. Holland Electronics is the largest distributor AFAIK.

What a destacker does
The signal from the dish runs at a specific frequency range on the coax cable. However, the cable is capable of carying much more data than that range from the dish. So, in order to feed multiple customers off one cable, they do what's called stacking the signal. This is where they take one signal and assign it to a different frequency range in order to fit two or more signals on a single cable. Your A50 is able to natively use the unconventional stacked signal. Every other DirecTV receiver cannot. The destacker is an external device that takes the stacked signal and re-assignes it to the proper frequency range on the coax in your appartment.

This info is coming out of my head from what I remeber. It may not be perfectly acurate. I hope I described it clearly enough (probably not).