Viewing HR-20 recordings with no dish

[IDIC]

We are in the middle of a 2-part move (from house to apartment to new house). We are only going to be in the apartment for a couple of months and don't want to go through the hassle of setting up a dish on the deck and want to use the movers advantage special to set things up in the new house. We have an HR-20 with a lot of recordings on it. Will we be able to watch these while our account is suspended? If not, are there other options?

[Steve]

We are in the middle of a 2-part move (from house to apartment to new house). We are only going to be in the apartment for a couple of months and don't want to go through the hassle of setting up a dish on the deck and want to use the movers advantage special to set things up in the new house. We have an HR-20 with a lot of recordings on it. Will we be able to watch these while our account is suspended? If not, are there other options?Last time I checked (about a month ago) you could.

You can simulate it now. Disconnect your antenna, network and phone from the HR. Then unplug and repower it. After some time, it will fail the satellite test, but will eventually allow you to exit out. After that. you can access your PLAYLIST.

What I haven't tried is keeping it in this state for longer than a few hours. /steve

[jdspencer]

Yes!

[Richierich]

I tried that with my SD TIVO and it wouldn't work. So let me know if it works for you as I have alot of stuff recorded on my old SD TIVO that I would like to view. I was told I would have to ACTIVATE it and then they told me they don't know how to ACTIVATE an older SD TIVO so I was told I am screwed.

[bobnielsen]

Strange, after deactivating my HDVR2 SD Tivo, I could still watch all the recordings (this was over 2 years ago).

[miketorse]

I tried that with my SD TIVO and it wouldn't work. So let me know if it works for you as I have alot of stuff recorded on my old SD TIVO that I would like to view. I was told I would have to ACTIVATE it and then they told me they don't know how to ACTIVATE an older SD TIVO so I was told I am screwed.

I was able to actually get this to work fine on my old R10. What does it do that it won't let you access your playlist?

[Richierich]

I'll have to go back and see but I think it said "NO RECORDINGS AVAILABLE" or something to that effect so then I thought I had to be connected or activated so I called and they said there were no longer any instructions on how to activate this unit so I just thought HO HUM, I'M SCREWED!!!

[davring]

Be certain and disconnect you sat/phone/int connections BEFORE you suspend your service, this will insure your HR doesn't receive the inactive signal from the automated system D* employs.

[Steve]

Be certain and disconnect you sat/phone/int connections BEFORE you suspend your service, this will insure your HR doesn't receive the inactive signal from the automated system D* employs.Good point, but I would imagine the HR software periodically checks to see when the last service confirmation "ping" was received and will automatically time out at some point. Who knows if that's hours, days, weeks or months, tho? /steve

[Richierich]

Yes I think I deactivated service and didn't unplug so I have the inactive flag on my account.

[whitepelican]

Yes I think I deactivated service and didn't unplug so I have the inactive flag on my account.

Shouldn't matter anyway. You can still view recordings on DTivo units without the satellite hooked up. I've done it many times. It will fail to see the satellite on startup and then give you the choice to try to re-acquire the satellite signal or go to the main menu. You just go to the main menu ("DirecTV Central") and you can get to the Now Playing list from there.

[davring]

Shouldn't matter anyway. You can still view recordings on DTivo units without the satellite hooked up. I've done it many times. It will fail to see the satellite on startup and then give you the choice to try to re-acquire the satellite signal or go to the main menu. You just go to the main menu ("DirecTV Central") and you can get to the Now Playing list from there.

The OP has an HR20, not the old Tivo unit, they work quite differeetly.

[whitepelican]

The OP has an HR20, not the old Tivo unit, they work quite differeetly.

Did you notice which post I was responding to? Richierich mentioned that he couldn't playback recordings on a Tivo unit that wasn't connected to the satellite. I was pointing out to him and others that that is not true.

[davring]

Did you notice which post I was responding to? Richierich mentioned that he couldn't playback recordings on a Tivo unit that wasn't connected to the satellite. I was pointing out to him and others that that is not true.

Got past me, sorry...

[Mertzen]

Good point, but I would imagine the HR software periodically checks to see when the last service confirmation "ping" was received and will automatically time out at some point. Who knows if that's hours, days, weeks or months, tho? /steve

About 30 days. But not sure if it affects the recordings. I used a deactivated R15 way after that once.

[Drew2k]

On the HR20, I seem to remember reading there is a way to jump to the Playlist and bypass the "inactive" messages, but for the life of me I can't find out what those steps are!

[gusmahler]

I have the exact same issue coming up. Is there any final confirmation on this subject for the HR20 and/or the R15?

[rendar]

I was in a similar situation, and I could not get my recordings to play while it was disconnected from the satellite.

[webcrawlr]

I just had a new roof put up and had no dish placement for two days and I was able to watch all my previous recordings. HR20 and HR21.