“Thank you for calling DirecTV Mr. Carter, and have a nice day.”

“You too, thanks again.”

A long time fan of the ReplayTV series, I’ve been drawn to the dark side known as Tivo. Going off a hot tip from my buddy, Stone, I found out that DirecTV was secretly giving away DirecTivo units to customers with contracts to be renewed.

In case you don’t know, DirecTivo’s are these shiny boxes that function both as a DirecTV receiver and as a Tivo unit. Unlike standalone Tivo units, they have dual-tuners which allow recording of two shows simultaneously–and more importantly–allow you to watch one program while your girlfriend is recording Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. They also come with a reduced monthly fee. While with ReplayTV, I was paying $12.95 per month for the service, with DTV, I’ll be paying $4.99 for as many Tivo units as I want on my account. What a steal. By chosing the DirecTV route over stand-alone models, I’m giving up the Home Media Option which would allow network sharing of recorded content. However, Tivo is charging $100 to unlock the feature from each Tivo box. Way too much for this dent student.

So, I gave DTV a call and….

“Thank you for calling DirecTV, my name is Megan, how may I help you today?”

After little persuasion, Megan gave me the unit for free, credited me the 15 bucks for s/h, scheduled the free installation, threw in a free multiplex box (for running more than two lines from a two-line dish), and most importantly a $20 credit on my bill each month for the next 6 months! What did I have to commit to DTV in return? Nothing more than being a DirecTV customer for the next 12 months (which I was going to do anyway)!

So, if you are on DirecTV (is anyone still using Cable?) and you are interested in picking up a Tivo, call them up now!

This weekend, I’m going to recruit The Stone and work on upgrading the included 40gb hard drive to a more geek-worthy 120gb drive. Full details will of course be provided to anyone showing the least bit of interest!