DVR fee may create more hackers:(

[Bob Haller]

Subs in a attempt to save money may be more willing to attempt HD upgrades on the 501 & 508 since its likely the new software for the 510 might also be used for the earlier 501 and 508.

Comments like prying the pvr remote from my dying hands can create some very dedicated hackers to get bigger drives. If they are successful at this they may go futher espically if they feel the company is trying to rip them off for a essentuially no cost to the company service.

I think this may be a interesting negative to the fee.....

[wooglin]

Its not hacking or illegal to put a larger drive in. Thats my humble opinion. I personally plan to buy a backup 508 so that if and when mine dies I can fix it.

[Unthinkable]

Subs in a attempt to save money may be more willing to attempt HD upgrades on the 501 & 508 since its likely the new software for the 510 might also be used for the earlier 501 and 508.

Comments like prying the pvr remote from my dying hands can create some very dedicated hackers to get bigger drives. If they are successful at this they may go futher espically if they feel the company is trying to rip them off for a essentuially no cost to the company service.

I think this may be a interesting negative to the fee.....

I think thats stretching it quite a bit in my opinion. Inquiring minds will always be looking to reverse engineer software and hardware combinations irregardless of what a fee is currently or is proposed to become. Hackers will be hackers. This proposed dvr fee isn't going to encourage all the script kiddies out there to study up harder on how to circumvent a marriage of hard drive to PVR receiver. People will be doing this kind of research on their own no matter what Dish Network charges. Agreed with the first response above as well that upgrading a hard drive shouldn't really be considered a "hack", although technically I guess it would qualify as such since Dish has gone to great measures to prevent it from being easily done.

[Jacob S]

Swapping out the hard drives is not illegal to my knowledge but hacking the receiver to allow free PVR/DVR service would be. There should not be much difference in upgrading the hard drive in the 501/508 that does not charge for PVR service vs. buying the 510 in which is identical to the 501/508 only with a larger hard drive and hacking it to give you the DVR features for free instead of swapping the hard drive would be kind of iffy since the receivers would be so similar, kind of hard to explain exactly what I am trying to say. I think some should hack/write or change programs in the receivers to give you additional features that some people are wanting.

[Neil Derryberry]

Don't feed the troll.....

[Bob Haller]

Neil what? This is a legit topic, the fee may encourage folks to mess around upgrading their HDs to save the fee and purchase price, then they may move on to less desierable pursuits:(

Wonder if thew E beancounter considered this possiblity?

[BobMurdoch]

The official line is that they don't prohibit the installation of larger hard drives, but your on your own if anything goes wrong as they don't support the upgrades and it will void your warranty.

This was stated on a Tech Chat about a year ago, unless their stance has changed in regards to this issue.