TiVo Community Forums Archives - Series 1 or Series 2?

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Series 1 or Series 2?
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Posted by: DrChad

Hello Everyone,

:up: background:
I have two DirecTivo Series 1 Sony SAT-T60's that I bought several years ago, but I had some difficulty with recording from 2 channels at the same time with them, so ended up using an UltimateTV for the last 2 years. Recently, I purchased Jeff Keegan's new book, "Hacking Tivo", which opened my eyes to all the amazing things that can be done to Tivo DVRs. So, I am going to switch back to Tvio. As for my background... I have been working on and with PCs, both in software and hardware, for most of my life, but have only recently gotten interested in upgrading and messing around with Tivo's from a hobby view.

:up: questions concerning menu speed:
I would definitely like the maximum disk space of 2*160 GB drives (2*137 GB effective space). But, should I upgrade one of my SAT-T60's, or buy a new Series 2 Philips DSR7000 or a Series 2 Hughes HDVR2? I have read that the menus of the Series 1 DVRs get un-bearably slow when the large 160 GB drives are installed. This would drive me crazy, so I am thinking that maybe it would be better to buy a DSR7000 or HDVR2 and upgrade it to 2*160 GB drives instead. Would this avoid the menu slow down since the Series 2 have much faster CPU's? Jeff Keegan's book recommends the CacheCard upgrade to avoid menu slow down for Series 1 units, but it does not appear to be available yet. I read through all of the posts I could find on CacheCard, but there was no mention about an estimated availability date. Does anyone know how much longer until we can purchase it? In other words, if I decide to upgrade one of my SAT-T60's, how long do I have to wait until the CacheCard upgrade becomes available? Here is the ULTIMATE question along this line: will a Series 2 HDVR2 with 2*160 GB drives have faster or slower menus than a Series 1 SAT-T60 with 2*160 GB and the CacheCard upgrade? Can anyone provide an intelligent guess or estimate here?

:up: other questions:
I am also interested in using Web Tivo, Tivo Control Center, ftp, rsync and/or NFS. From what I have recently read on this forum, it appears the USB ports are not active in the DirecTivo Series 2 units, so they canot be used for ethernet via a USB to ethernet adapter. Is USB port not working a hardware problem or an OS/driver problem? If it is not hardware, then is this USB port problem fix-able by having the correct OS version installed and correct USB drivers installed? Assuming the USB port problem is fixed by DirecTV/Tivo, are there ways to install Web Tivo, and ftp/rsync/NFS onto a Series 2 HDVR2 or DSR7000? Jeff Keegan alludes to such methods for installing software on a Series 2 unit, but just says to check the forums here on tivocommunity.com to find out what the latest methods are for installing software onto the Series 2 units... something about soldering a new PROM and using older kernels. Is there a thread or threads pertaining to this issue somewhere on tivocommunity.com, perhaps pertaining to Stand-alone Series 2 units? If it is definitely impossible to install the necessary software and get an ethernet port working on a Series 2 DirecTivo until DirecTV and Tivo upgrade the OS, then the only way to make use of Web Tivo and ftp/rsync for file transfer is through a Series 1 with a TurboNET upgrade, right?

I greatly appreciate anyone's answers to my questions and any advice on these matters. If there are threads that answer any of my questions directly, I would be grateful for any pointers. Remember, the final issue here is to determine whether I should upgrade one of my Series 1 SAT-T60's or buy a new Series 2 HDVR2 (or a DSR7000) and upgrade that instead!?

Many Thanks,

DrChad :)

Posted by: Robert S

The Series 2 machines include much stronger counter measures against running modified software than the Series 1's. Discussion of Series 2 hacking seems to happen on 'the other' Forum, rather than here.

If you read the 160Gb thread in the Underground you'll see that the maximum drive capacity for Series 1 TiVoes is at least 500Gb.

Posted by: Heinrich

Much easier to upgrade Series 1.

That being said, Circuit City has Series 2 HDVR2 on sale for $99 and it is definately a faster unit. I have 1 Series 1 in the Living Room and 1 HDVR2 in the bedroom. Most people say that there's not much difference but to me there is, the Series 2 is spoiling me. Faster on changes, menu times, updates, screen paints.

If $99 is not much money to you, you could grab one and experiment on it. And you could probably sell it on eBay for cheap. You will have to activate it within 30 days though or pay a $150 penalty.

Just an idea.

Posted by: DrChad

[I just posted a reply, but it does not seem to be showing up in this thread. So, I will write it again. Hopefully the other post will not show up afterward, and thus bore everyone with a double post of the same info. ;) ]

First, I really appreciate both of your comments and suggestions.

Robert S: What is the "other forum" that you are mentioning here? I would like to find out how to hack the USB ports to make them work, and then to install ftpd, Tivo Web and few other programs.

Heinrich: I cannot find this HDVR2 sale for $99 on circuitcity-com. Could you provide a link? Is this sale for existing customers or only for new DirecTV/Tivo customers? Is the Series 2 that you have include the standard 40 GB or 80 GB drives, or have you put in some big drives, like two of the 160 GB? From what I have read, the larger drives cause a big slow down in menu speed, updates, etc.

Does recording from 2 inputs work well on Series 1? It was not working on earlier version of the OS.... I recall there being a patch, and then it started working to some extent, but I still had some problems. Which OS version is needed to record from 2 inputs on a Series 1? Does Series 2 work correctly when recording from 2 inputs at the same time?

Many Thanks,

DrChad

Posted by: DrChad

I just found a nice link to a handbook on series 2 hacking:

geocities-com/todd2222a/

replace the -com with .com, obviously. It has a lot of good links collected together in one place.

DrChad

Posted by: purple6816

The series ones I have record on both tuners just fine. I also have Series two units and they are a bit quicker with the menu's.

I paid 99 for the series ones years ago and now I can get series 2's for the same price. Go figure.

Have not tried to activate the usb ports yet. But, that's an other project. :)