POLL: How many active UTVs are out there?  

Thanks NLogN, I totally forgot about the poll thing. I'll delete my post. :D

Now I know from reading this forum that there seems to be many UTV's still left out there, so I hope everyone can take the time and answer this question. :D

4 subbed and 2 waiting in the wings as standby. :D

kazak

I also have 4 subbed and 2 waiting in the wings as standby.

There's no option for "zero", for those of us who sadly no longer have an active UTV.

I have 3 UTVs and 1 Directv TiVo. Wish I had a 4th UTV instead.

I have 4 active (all hooked up to UPS) & all of the tuners working. I have none "waiting in the wings," though I am looking to buy another one just in case. I also have one Tivo but there's just no comparison.

I have 2 sub'd units.

3 sub'd units. 2 have larger hard drives. All three work as good as the day I bought them. One is over three years old.

1 UTV -- 3 years old, and good as new. Kids and wife love it.
1 Tivo -- 1 year old, feel like 10 years old comparing to UTV. No comments about what my family think about it :rolleyes:

I want to move away from DirectTV -- but I need a DVR.
Unfortunately, I can not find any DVR on par with UTV. Most probably will switch to MCE.

I have 3 subbed and 1 waiting in the wings.
3 friends with 1 .
1 friend with 2 .
The makes a total of 8 active subbed.

JJEZ96

I have one upgraded 3 year old UTV. I also have one waiting in the wings.
I refuse to go Tivo. Unfortunately, UTV has forsaken the product like an ugly stepchild.
I could not survive without dual tuners and would rather build my next unit in an un-monitored, un-regulated, HTPC, or move to a DVD Recorder with HD.

Can anyone explain to me what political conflicts resulted in UTV's undoing? Microsoft dropped the product like it feared legal battles.
I can not believe that they dropped it due to lack of product acceptance.
Was the real problem that Tivo bought exclusive monopolistic access to the retail outlets?

What's a UTV?

UTV stands for Ultimate TV, the first DVR D* had before they got Tivo.

1 sony ultimate with 2 working tuners
1 Rca ultimate with 2 working tuners not used for sale
1 sony ultimate with 1 working tuner not used
1 sony ultimate with nothing working

I have 5 and love them... I can not imagine the day when I have to go to tivo... I will put the utv's freezers if it keeps them running :)

One RCA bought ? years ago, about $350.00 at Best Buy. My wife thought I was nuts for wanting it. About a week later she was using it and looked up at me and said "you know this IS the ultimate TV!!!!" She is constantly backing up to catch stuff she missed on live tv. My favorite thing to do is pause a football game or Nascar race and FF through the boring stuff. Hope to go with the new HD unit coming out.

I have 2 Sonys and 1 RCA sub'd (both tuners in each unit have been replaced, all 120gb HDs).

I've got 2 Sony spares (original condition, both tuners working, stock HDs).

1 - Sony - Stock
3 - RCA - Stock
2 - RCA - 120g drives
1 - TiVo

1 Sony - original (4 years old)

I really want to upgrade to 120gb hard drive, will CCS do that? I don't know if I could give the unit up for a week though.

Yes, CCS can do that for you.

Hi eileen22,

As you probably already know, you can upgrade the UTV yourself. Assuming you have stable phone line connection with MSNTV your UTV should be able to download the UTV OS to the new drive.

Check the FAQ for details, but here is a basic primer.

1. ATA-3 (Security) IDE Hard Drive (120GB,160GB, or larger (MAX 137GB useable))
1a. Virtually any Hard Drive available NEW today is ATA-3 compatible. (Ulike 2-3 years ago)

2. A Phillips Head Screw Driver. (For the Hard Drive and Case)

3. One Access Card (REMOVED!)


Having Removed the Access Card Unplug the UTV... unscrew the cover. Pivot the Case Cover toward the front of the UTV to remove. The Sony UTV has several ribbon cables connecting the front panel to the Motherboard. (The RCA has only one.) You can try leaving it connected or gently remove the cables, don't force it. Be sure to reconnect these cables correctly later.

The Hard Drive Bay can be removed and the drive pulled/replaced just like in a PC. Make sure the new Jumper settings are set to Master/Single Mode.

After the new drive is installed and the cables and cover are back in place you simply power up the UTV and it will dial out and download the software. After it is downloaded you simply "reboot" the UTV and you should be rocking with a larger drive.

Drives are cheap and UTV experience is well worth it. Giving your UTV a cleaning (Can of Air) is probably overdue anyway... :)

Good Luck,

I have one unit still chugging along with an 80 Gig drive I put in after the old one started to fail. Other than the drivem the unit has worked flawlessly. It's probably the only thing I've ever bought that I've been completely happy with. My truck comes in second - and I really like that truck.

lgodave,

Thanks for the response, but it is really that easy? I saw that Throck had a problem on the other thread, and I'm probably much less techy than he is. I have installed things in my PC before, but that is about it. I did swap a hard drive in a laptop several years ago, with help from my company's IS dept.

What are the Jumper settings, and where do you set these to Master? Is that right on the hard drive, some kind of toggle switch?

Thanks,
Eileen

Let's guess real numbers... None of us know for sure how many active UTV's are still in service. I doubt DTV knows either.

The last time I spoke to the UTV specialty group (before they eliminated the entire group) I was told there were only about 5000 active UTV's left. The person told me there were only about 17,500 made. I have no clue if that was good information, but to me it sounds reasonable.

I'd bet there are only about 4500 UTV's alive and active.

Any other guesses?

I have 2 subbed units

I have 4 subbed units, 3 35 hour and 1 70 hour.
1 brother has 2 subbed units.
Other brother has 1 subbed unit.

Long live UTV!

i RCA Stock , replaced 2 years ago from RCA
1 RCA souped up to 160 g 1year ago......
seperate HD samsung to watch HD but waiting for the new HD-DVR

Hope the OS is close to ULT

eileen22:

If your O/S downloads without problems then I expect it really is that easy. This, however, was not my experience. And as far as I know, there is no way to tell beforehand.

I have 1 sub'd 2 tuner system