Doped a/muc-Si:H films were produced in different starting deposition conditions by the hot wire chemical vapor deposition technique, In this paper, we show that by changing the initial onset deposition conditions of the process and maintaining the overall pressure, hydrogen dilution and filament temperature, it is possible to control the compactness of the films. As the films nucleation is the key parameter to produce compact films, we show that starting the process with hydrogen and progressively introducing the process gas enhances the compactness and improve the electrical properties of the films produced.