A digital video recorder is a popular amendment to traditional cable television service that allows customers to record programs that are scheduled to air at a time when they cannot see them and to save the recordings to watch at their earliest convenience. If you are in possession of a DVR unit such as those provided by AT&T;, you will need to have it activated before any of its DVR functions will work.
Cable Connection
The first step in having your DVR activated is to attach a coaxial cable from a cable outlet installed with AT&T; cable service to the coaxial input on your DVR. If you use AT&T; U-Verse service instead of traditional, coaxial cable, your DVR will use an Ethernet connection instead of coaxial. It is over these connections that activation signals sent by AT&T; are received by your box, so it is crucial not to skip this step.
TV Connections
In order to see if your DVR is activated, you will need to test its DVR functions, and the only way of doing so is to attach your DVR to your TV so that you can observe if it is displaying a picture properly. Depending on the model of DVR that AT&T; provided you, there will be several connection options available for creating a connection to your TV, including HDMI, S-video, RCA, component or coaxial. Select your preferred connection type and attach the DVR to the TV via that connection.
Verify Service
To use a DVR requires not only a DVR unit itself but DVR services subscribed to at an additional charge as well. Therefore, the next step in activating your DVR is to verify that you are paying AT&T; for DVR services. If not, you will need to add them to your AT&T; account at this point.
Contacting AT&T;
You are now ready to contact AT&T; and have the company complete the activation of your DVR. Having verified your subscription to DVR services, the AT&T; representative you speak to can send activation and authorization services that, barring any unforeseen technical problems, will enable your DVR functions. Test all the DVR functions to ensure complete activation and report any technical problems to AT&T.;