How do I clear or reset purchase history information about pay per
view movies from directv?

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Request for Question Clarification by wengland-ga on 13 Jun 2002 14:09 PDT

Which brand of reciever do you have?

Does it use an 'H' card or an 'Hu' card?  

Preliminary research shows that the purchase history info is stored on
the card.  Normally, it cannot be erased.  However, you can purchase
card writers that will 'unlock' the card.  Perhaps a search of the
alt.dss.hack newsgroup would turn up more information on just clearing
the purchase history.

I, however, cannot in good faith advise you to do that - this is
illegal.

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Clarification of Question by wessto-ga on 13 Jun 2002 14:57 PDT

I have the philips dr6000 I believe.  It is a combo tivo unit.  In
response to the comment below about being connected, yes, the phone is
connected.  The movies were purchased and already paid for.  They just
still show up under purchases.

Hello wessto:

Are you thinking of giving or selling your DirecTV receiver to
someone, and want to make sure the card's purchase history is purged?

According to a discussion on the rec.video.satellite.dbs newsgroup,
DirecTV cards are *not* transferrable.  That is, if you were to sell
your unit to somebody, they would *not* have access to see what your
previous purchases were.  Additionally, they may have to pay a fee
($35-50) to get a new card that they can activate.

If you are buying a newer DirecTV receiver, then you can actually keep
your old card (making a call to DirecTV to tell them you're making the
swap), and put the new card into the old receiver, saving the buyer
$35-50.

As a side effect, when you put your old card into your new receiver,
the purchase history reportedly becomes "invisible", effectively
clearing the data.

A discussion on tivocommunity.com suggests that old purchases will
"fall off" once the "Purchase History" screen gets full.  But they
confirm the fact that anyone you sell the unit to won't be able to see
that information anyways, as they'll need a new access card.  Another
reader also mentions a slightly unethical method for getting a new
card.

I hope this answers your question.  I recently got a DirecTV/TiVo
combo myself, and I'm enjoying it immsensely.  But I'll have to think
about my Pay-Per-View purchases more carefully now.  :-}

--notyou-ga

References:

Usenet thread from rec.video.satellite.dbs, "can i use same access
card???"
[ http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&th=648db0b5a90aabb9&rnum=2]

Forum discussion, "Clearing purchase history"
[ http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=62032&highlight=purchase+history
]

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Clarification of Answer by notyou-ga on 17 Jun 2002 17:32 PDT

Sorry - you're right, I buried the answer, and I made too many
assumptions.

Simply put, you cannot erase your purchase history without "hacking"
it (and even this isn't guaranteed with new cards.)  The alternative
is getting a new card.

New cards can be legitimately obtained by a new owner of a used
receiver.  They can also be obtained if an old card malfunctions.

This answer did not tell me how I can reset the list.  I merely told
me what might happen if I purchase more movies.  I did not ever say I
was buying a new unit or transferring it to someone else.

Hi wessto,

You're apparently not the only one with this problem - I called my
sister, a longtime DirecTV subscriber, and she had no idea how to do
this, and asked that I call her back if I found out how.

So I went to the source, DirecTV.com, to see if they had a technical
support department to ask.  They do, but they do not deal with
non-subscribers, alas.

To get help, fish out your account number, and give the DirecTV
Customer Support Center a call at 1-800-531-5000.

Good luck!

missy-ga

I believe subscribers have no control over the balance on the device.
It is supposed to get reset when your account is updated via
phone.  Is there a chance your connection via phone line isn't
working?

Another reason someone might want to purge the history is so that
another family member (e.g., wife) doesn't know what programming being
purchased.

Short answer: You cannot purge the history.

Long answer: You can purge it from an H card with a card writer hooked
to your computer. You cannot yet purge the history from an HU card
(which most everybody has nowadays).

Other answer: Pay DirecTV for a new card. New card = new history.

there should be a point underneath which you can apply pressure to in
the left corner.. do this for about 5 minutes and it should go abck to
factory settings

Many receivers have a button combination to hard or soft boot them. 
For instance, a 4, 5, and 6th generation RCA reciever can be reset by
holding the info and right arrow on the reciever for about 5 seconds. 
The reciever then will completely reset taking past purchases with it.
 Purchases are not stored on the card.  You can also leave your
reciever unplugged for a few hours to clear the internal memory which
has the same effect as reseting.