TiVo Community Forums Archives - Safety in hacking "virgin" TIVO's

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Safety in hacking "virgin" TIVO's
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Posted by: jjpeters

I already upgraded my 14 hour TIVO to 52 hours using the info found here, and LOVE it. I purchased two HDR112's from Circuit City for $249 (couldn't find any Sears in my area offering it any lower) which will be Christmas gifts for my sister in LA and my father-in-law in Ohio. I'm really tempted to do the upgrade for them, but am kinda hesitant to void the warranty on brand new units [ Merry Christmas - here's your new TIVO that doesn't work and can't be serviced. Enjoy!]

Once I get beyond that mindset, I would like to reduce the cost of the upgrade. I copied my original 13.6 drive to a Quantum 15.0 and installed that in my TIVO along with a 30GB Quantum LCT. Could I get away with not backing up each of their original drives and use my original for restoration in case anything goes wrong? I could then save the expense of the backup drives.

If I do make the upgrades, how far should I go with the TIVO startup process to make sure they're working properly? Should I do the complete installation and then do a full factory restart when I get them to their ultimate destinations?

Sorry for all of the questions, but I'm kind of risk adverse since these are gifts and I'll be hundreds/thousands of miles away if they have any problems.

Thanks.

Posted by: srs

Don't upgrade the 'gift' TiVos - yet. Let your sister and father-in-law enjoy them in the current configuration and when they ask if you can make them bigger - then do the upgrade.

14 hours should be plenty for casual TiVoers.

quote:
Originally posted by jjpeters:
I already upgraded my 14 hour TIVO to 52 hours using the info found here, and LOVE it. I purchased two HDR112's from Circuit City for $249 (couldn't find any Sears in my area offering it any lower) which will be Christmas gifts for my sister in LA and my father-in-law in Ohio. I'm really tempted to do the upgrade for them, but am kinda hesitant to void the warranty on brand new units [ Merry Christmas - here's your new TIVO that doesn't work and can't be serviced. Enjoy!]
[snip]
Sorry for all of the questions, but I'm kind of risk adverse since these are gifts and I'll be hundreds/thousands of miles away if they have any problems.

Thanks.

Posted by: RickStrobel

You may want to do some testing on them.

I bought an HDR112 for my Dad, and it took three tries to get a good one.

The first one from Sears had something loose inside. The second from Circuit City had the battery problem. The third one works fine.

Posted by: bsnelson

When I was upgrading my HDR-112, I powered it up and went thru the first few steps of setup until I got to where I could test the phone connection. After it successfully dialed and set the clock, I considered this a success, and unplugged it and did the backup at that point. It was 5 CD-Rs worth.

As a counterpoint, I would recommend upgrading the gift TiVos. You'll be able to verify that everything works, and the "cool factor", even for a TiVo novice, of having a "SuperTiVo", would be rather large.

Of course, then there's the warranty issue; I suppose if you upgraded them, YOU kind of become the "warranteer"!

Brad