Will some of you with strong knowledge of DVR's give me the low-down on them? I subscribe to DTV and have a standard DVR. Everything I read about them prior to my purchase says they need to constantly be connected to a telephone line yet I have never connected ours to a telephone line for two months and it works great. I asked DTV about this and they said "Well...you need it for software upgrades or it will slowly stop working for you." I was also told that it needed to be connected to a telephone line in order to receive pay-per-view but again found that to be false as I ordered a movie without ever connected to a ground line. Now I am wondering what in the world the $4.99/mo fee is for and wonder if DTV tells customers to connect it simply to get the fee??? I am also interested in eventually purchasing an HD DVR and wonder if I bought one on E-bay and never connected it to a phone line if I could get away with not paying for a monthly fee. Much help is appreciated!!
First, your box does not need to be connected to a phone line, that's for the cable company or sat company to see your stats on usage. Second, you will still need to activate your box with the company, if it's not stolen, your're home-free without monthly fees!