I have removed the VCII module from three 922 receivers. I also removed the cage and the three wiring plugs off the mother board. The 922 runs much cooler with no side effects. Hope this helps.
I'm going to remove mine next week. (I'm away from home right now, otherwise I'd pull it now) Last time I checked, there were only 3 channels still broadcasting in Videocipher. ESPN, ESPN2 and Weather. Weather is the only one that I'm really interested in seeing if it goes in the clear. I wonder how much more power the VC2 board causes the 4DTV to consume.