[Quattro]

I was one of the many whose HR-20 was dead today and needed a reboot. I had not gone online to find out it was a widespread problem. I thought my unit was dead, and I started thinking, "crap, now I'm out of TV watching for days until DirecTv can replace this thing....I wish I had a spare receiver."

So, that is my question, has anyone else out there bought a spare unit out on ebay or craigslist? I'm thinking a H20 would be a good spare.

thanks,

 

[NR4P]

careful buying from craigslist or ebay.
If you buy a leased unit from someone, its activated in that person's name and account. Directv won't activate it under your account.

I tried giving one to my kid, they won't allow it. Even a family transfer.
They prefer I send it back to them, and he order a new one from them.
That way he's bound to a new contract.

 

[bobnielsen]

I had the same thought. I have been wondering what to do with my old HDVR2. Maybe I'll keep it.

 

[tcusta00]

Have you met: http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=141748

 

[carl6]

Unless you can somehow find a receiver that you can own, any leased unit you get will have to be active on your account, or will have to be returned to DirecTV.

I've got four receivers (all DVRs) active on my account. Two are regularly used, one is infrequently used, and one is just for playing and testing with. Lots of built in spares there should one totally die. I've also got one inactive SD DVR, one inactive HD receiver, and two inactive SD receivers (all owned).

So my suggestion would be to add a unit to your account - put it on a spare TV someplace in a guest room or kitchen or wherever - or have two units feeding your main TV (then you can swap back and forth or have PIP). But you do have to pay $4.99 a month for that "benefit".

Carl

 

[Quattro]

Thanks for the replies. I was hoping that by swapping the plastic card from unit to unit, that would work. Apparently, not.

I think I "own" my HR20, if that's the case I guess when I update to a new unit, I'll mothball this unit as a back-up.

thanks.

 

[NotOneofYou]

I was one of the many whose HR-20 was dead today and needed a reboot. I had not gone online to find out it was a widespread problem. I thought my unit was dead, and I started thinking, "crap, now I'm out of TV watching for days until DirecTv can replace this thing....I wish I had a spare receiver."

So, that is my question, has anyone else out there bought a spare unit out on ebay or craigslist? I'm thinking a H20 would be a good spare.

thanks,

If you find a new/used toy on one of these sites, you can req the receiver ID from the seller & call DTV. They will tell you if it is available. If the acct it came from is in "good " relationship, whether open or closed you can add it to your acct with a NEW access card. If the acct it came from is NOT in "good " relationship, it won't be possible.

 

[LarryFlowers]

I had the same thought as the original poster many years back... had a bunch of SD tuners around the house then and thought it would be a good idea to have a backup unit on hand so I went out and bought one at, I think, Best Buy. Brought it home and stuck in the closet.

Couple of months went by and I got a letter from DirecTV about failure to activate a unit I had purchased.

Called the person who wrote the letter and we went round and round about it for a while, friendly, but he was pretty much insisting I activate the unit and I was insisting I just wanted a back up. Like I said it never got into a heated exchange or any of that but he finally put me on hold and was gone a few minutes. When he came back, he said it was ok and left it at that.

I figured they just decided since I had so many receivers it wasn't unreasonable... but maybe they just decided it wasn't worth the cost of the receiver to argue it out.

Today, I wouldn't even attempt it. If I had a receiver fail, I would go out and buy a replacement wherever and then negotiate something with DirecTV retention over the telephone.

 

[David MacLeod]

I was wondering how the time limit until activation would play out. has anyone tried activating one then shortly after deactivating to set aside?

 

[paulman182]

I have some spares that are not currently activated because DirecTV did not ask for them to be returned.

Of course, they could ask for them at any time.

 

[MartyS]

Thanks for the replies. I was hoping that by swapping the plastic card from unit to unit, that would work. Apparently, not.

I think I "own" my HR20, if that's the case I guess when I update to a new unit, I'll mothball this unit as a back-up.

thanks.

I seriously doubt that you "own" the HR20... virtually all of the HR series are leased form DirecTV and most likely will ask to be returned when you either terminate service or change receivers.

If you are thinking of buying a "spare", I would suggest going to Costco and picking up an HRXX that they have in stock. It's about $30 cheaper than D*, you can leave it sit in a box until you need it. It comes with a new access card, so when you do hook it up, all you have to do is call D* and it'll be active on your account in a few minutes.

 

[carl6]

I was wondering how the time limit until activation would play out. has anyone tried activating one then shortly after deactivating to set aside?

When you deactivate the unit, they will send you a recovery kit to ship it back to them.

Carl

 

[David MacLeod]

so you might as well activate it and set it aside, most plans (presently) only charge 1dvr fee so you're not losing money.

 

[MartyS]

so you might as well activate it and set it aside, most plans (presently) only charge 1dvr fee so you're not losing money.

However, you most likely will incur a $4.99 mirroring fee for the newly activated receiver... that applies to each receiver activated on any account. If you de-activate a receiver, they'll most likely want it sent back...

So, picking one up at Costco and holding on to it until you really need it may be the best bet.

 

[David MacLeod]

I have no mirroring fees and only 1 dvr fee per month for the 2 I presently have. also, buying one like that has to be activated in a certain time frame or you have to deal with other crap about it.
weren't mirroring fees due to older packages? I haven't had one on my bill since 2005 so I don't remember.

 

[rudeney]

However, you most likely will incur a $4.99 mirroring fee for the newly activated receiver... that applies to each receiver activated on any account. If you de-activate a receiver, they'll most likely want it sent back...

So, picking one up at Costco and holding on to it until you really need it may be the best bet.

Yeah, but then when you do activate it, you'd have to keep it on the account or risk having to return it when canceled. For 'emergency" situations, I'd think the best thing would be to buy an old used SD receiver that was never a leased model (RCA, Sony, Hughes, etc.). That way, you can activate and deactivate at will. In my case, I have a spare H20. It is leased, but I keep it activated on the account. The extra $5/mo isn't going to kill me, plus we do use it occasionally as a third live tuner when both tuners on the living room DVR are busy.

 

[David MacLeod]

these extra fees you're both mentioning, do you not have an hd dvr package and is that what causes them?

 

[rudeney]

I have no mirroring fees and only 1 dvr fee per month for the 2 I presently have. also, buying one like that has to be activated in a certain time frame or you have to deal with other crap about it.
weren't mirroring fees due to older packages? I haven't had one on my bill since 2005 so I don't remember.

They no longer call it a "mirror fee". It's now called either an "Additional Receiver" fee or "Leased Receiver" fee. The only difference is whether the receiver is owned (noted as "Additional") or leased (noted as "Leased"). Also, you will have a "Primary Receiver" or "Primary Leased Receiver" fee that will be credited as that is include din your package price. See this:

 

[David MacLeod]

all mine are leased and I have the hd dvr plus package and none of these fees.

 

[rudeney]

all mine are leased and I have the hd dvr plus package and none of these fees.

David, do you do paperless billing? If so, there is a bug in D*'s website that prevents you from seeing the details of your bill when you select "view bill". To get around this, you can select another date from the pull-down once you are viewing a bill. Once you do this, then selecting any other date from the pull-down will work correctly, allowing you to see the entire bill. Generally, your first receiver is included with the price of your package, and each additional receiver, whether leased or owned, has a $4.99/mo fee. This is the way it's bene sicne day one.