I am a noob to Tivo but not an RTARD.  I have a few questions that I can not find answered on any of the forums that I have been reading.  I have read that a Tivo Series 2 box with no subscription is a "Boat Anchor" but these post sound like they were from and end user who is not willing to modify or upgrade their Tivo.

I have a series 2 DT Stand Alone Tivo Unit (TCD649080) and my questions are specific to this hardware. 

The box is a virgin box and is asking for the user setup and subscription information at boot up.  (My goal is only to be able to use the Tivo as a VCR) ( Manual Date, Time, Channel Recording)

Here are my questions:

1. Can the subscription sevice be bypassed with the use of InstantCake image-upgrade?
(I tried to use zipper cd with the virgin image but after the powerup screen I only got a grey screen)  My best guess is that the virgin image will not work and is missing info that gets written durring the setup process.

2. If the subscription can not be bypassed what is the shortest length of time that you can subscribe for?  What other questions are asket durring the setup?

3. if the subscription can be bypassed using InstantCake, can you start with a virgin box that has never had the subscription service, or do you have to subscribe for a month or a year and then upgrade and pull the plug.

4.  The zipper CD installation asks the question at startup "Did you replace the Prom?"  Does the prom (series 2 SA) need to be flashed or bypassed, or is the question left over from older installations?  If the prom needs to be flashed or bypased is there any info explaininng what needs to be done?  From what I read it looks like everything is now done in software by modding the kernel with killinitrd.

Thanks in advance for any info regarding theese questions and a series 2 SA Virgin Tivo Box.