# eSATA & TiVoHD (Only Tivo-brand HardDrives will work?)



## TokyoShoe (Jul 27, 2007)

So I had my unit upgraded to 9.2 earlier this evening. Low and behold when I plug in my external *Western Digital MyBook* and turn the unit back on, it detects then drive and asks me to set it up! But THEN it tells me that it cannot set it up, and that I should check out the url *http://www.tivo.com/expand* for details regarding this service. Well I go to that webpage and it redirects me to a place holder page with the following note:

_"Interested in adding a TiVo Verified storage device to your TiVo® HD or Series3? Check back soon for details on this exciting new product."_

It looks like only TiVo "brand" storage devices are going to work on Series 3 and Tivo HD units, not just any old eSATA like on all the other generation units. I cannot even REMOTELY express out *MAD* I am going to be if this ends up being the case. I actually pre-emptively purchased this external eSATA Western Digital in preparation for upgrading my TivoHD when the service got turned on. Now it gets turned on, and I don't have a "Verified Device" purchased directly from Tivo... so it won't work?

*EDIT:* To make things even more cool, the System Information screen confirms I have 9.2j ... AND it even detects my WD MYBOOK by device name. It still won't actually let me set it up. AND , if I leave it plugged it.. it prompts me to set it up every 5 minutes (and turns me down every single time after prompting me).


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## TokyoShoe (Jul 27, 2007)

I am really hoping other TIVOHD Owners can contribute their own experiences regarding this dilemma. Is this hitting anyone else?


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## thedarksavant (Sep 10, 2007)

TokyoShoe said:


> So I had my unit upgraded to 9.2 earlier this evening. Low and behold when I plug in my external *Western Digital MyBook* and turn the unit back on, it detects then drive and asks me to set it up! But THEN it tells me that it cannot set it up, and that I should check out the url for details regarding this service. Well I go to that webpage and it redirects me to a place holder page with the following note:
> 
> _"Interested in adding a TiVo Verified storage device to your TiVo® HD or Series3? Check back soon for details on this exciting new product."_
> 
> It looks like only TiVo "brand" storage devices are going to work on Series 3 and Tivo HD units, not just any old eSATA like on all the other generation units. I cannot even REMOTELY express out *MAD* I am going to be if this ends up being the case. I actually pre-emptively purchased this external eSATA Western Digital in preparation for upgrading my TivoHD when the service got turned on. Now it gets turned on, and I don't have a "Verified Device" purchased directly from Tivo... so it won't work?


To be fair, from what I've read TiVo puts a strain on external drives that normal day to day usage doesn't even come close to matching. I'm optimistically going to assume that TiVo is going to do the leg work and provide a list of external eSata setups that they will guarantee will function long term.

Apple can't be the only company to _punish_ early adopters


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## lmsyl (Aug 30, 2007)

TokyoShoe said:


> I am really hoping other TIVOHD Owners can contribute their own experiences regarding this dilemma. Is this hitting anyone else?


I am in same boat as you. I have a Seagate 320GB to plug in. Tivo detected it, show the name in system information and tried to set up. But got the same message as yours.  Not a good sign.


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## rodalpho (Sep 12, 2006)

They may have neglected to flip a bit to enable it. Don't freak out yet. I've had an eSATA drive in my S3 for months now and it still works fine with 9.2


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## TokyoShoe (Jul 27, 2007)

rodalpho said:


> They may have neglected to flip a bit to enable it. Don't freak out yet. I've had an eSATA drive in my S3 for months now and it still works fine with 9.2


If it's an issue of them forgetting to flip a bit or flag, I honestly think that's almost as bad. That insinuates zero (or VERY poor) testing or double checking went into the patch before it got rolled out.

I'm just aggrivated that they rolled out the patch, THEN follow it up with mysterious web pages and veiled announcements. Why can't they just come out and say what's going on? If the 2nd half of the project isn't ready yet for announcing.. maybe they should have just WAITED?


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## rodalpho (Sep 12, 2006)

If it goes into wide release and the tivo.com/expand page is still empty, _then_ I'd be upset.


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## TokyoShoe (Jul 27, 2007)

rodalpho said:


> If it goes into wide release and the tivo.com/expand page is still empty, _then_ I'd be upset.


What do you consider wide release?

Tivo has officially sent out emails to (what would seem to be) their entire subscriber base. I got an email from them earlier this evening touting a new software upgrade, the new Rhapsody service as well as watching of progressive downloading Amazon Unboxed videos. It also has a veiled hint towards ESATA service and S3/THD units.

Honestly.. the patch has been rolled out, they've officially got a priority page, AND they are notifying their subscriber base. I consider that about as *wide release* as it gets.


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## s2kdave (Jan 28, 2005)

TokyoShoe said:


> It also has a veiled hint towards ESATA service and S3/THD units.


It's a hint about what they are *going *to announce meaning they haven't announced it yet. Wait until it's officially announced before counting on the feature being there. They're probably going to officially announce eSATA and TTG/MRV at the same time is my guess. Then they'll flip the switch on everything. Just think if they waited to release 9.2 until they announced it, people would start complaining that they couldn't get the feature they announced because it's rolled out slowly.


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## George Cifranci (Jan 30, 2003)

TokyoShoe said:


> What do you consider wide release?
> 
> Tivo has officially sent out emails to (what would seem to be) their entire subscriber base. I got an email from them earlier this evening touting a new software upgrade, the new Rhapsody service as well as watching of progressive downloading Amazon Unboxed videos. It also has a veiled hint towards ESATA service and S3/THD units.
> 
> Honestly.. the patch has been rolled out, they've officially got a priority page, AND they are notifying their subscriber base. I consider that about as *wide release* as it gets.


Do you have software version 9.2? Because as of this moment 9.2 hasn't been released to everyone yet. The original poster is referring to 9.2j which I believe is an early release of the software (the final version won't have a letter). Until Tivo throws "the switch" it is in limited release. I am still on 9.1 on my Series 3.


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## Joybob (Oct 2, 2007)

TokyoShoe said:


> What do you consider wide release?
> 
> Tivo has officially sent out emails to (what would seem to be) their entire subscriber base. I got an email from them earlier this evening touting a new software upgrade, the new Rhapsody service as well as watching of progressive downloading Amazon Unboxed videos. It also has a veiled hint towards ESATA service and S3/THD units.
> 
> Honestly.. the patch has been rolled out, they've officially got a priority page, AND they are notifying their subscriber base. I consider that about as *wide release* as it gets.


Link to priority page plz.

Nevermind.

Did they disable the kickstart method?


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## keenanSR (Oct 13, 2004)

Joybob said:


> Link to priority page plz.
> 
> Nevermind.
> 
> Did they disable the kickstart method?


http://research.tivo.com/91priority/index.htm


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## TexasGrillChef (Sep 15, 2006)

thedarksavant said:


> To be fair, from what I've read TiVo puts a strain on external drives that normal day to day usage doesn't even come close to matching. I'm optimistically going to assume that TiVo is going to do the leg work and provide a list of external eSata setups that they will guarantee will function long term.
> 
> Apple can't be the only company to _punish_ early adopters


Maybe so for hard drives in Computers...

But look at the truth.... the SAME hard drives you find in your comptuer. ARE THE SAME hard drives found in....

NAS (Networked Attached Storage) Servers, computer servers, or even Media Servers.

I have a 3 Terabyte NAS from Buffalo Tech. When I pulled the drives on those. They are the *SAME * Seagate 750gb hard drives that I can buy from Best Buy that I put in my computer.

The NAS is expected to run 24/7 365 days per year.

So the saying that A DVR Hard drive puts more strain on a Hard Drive then a SERVER or NAS is kinda far fetched. Maybe a desktop/laptop hard drive. But not a NAS Server.

TGC


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## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

TexasGrillChef said:


> Maybe so for hard drives in Computers...
> 
> But look at the truth.... the SAME hard drives you find in your comptuer. ARE THE SAME hard drives found in....
> 
> ...


Agreed. The eSATA drives we're currently using now are as good as or better than the internal drives TiVo uses. TiVo may indeed introduce an eSATA drive which they will support, a very likely outcome IMO. My guess is that they will have a code in the firmware that TiVo will look for during a P&P install. However theres no reason to believe that the actual drives that they use will be any different than the ones they/we are using now.

Plus nothing indicates that the current eSATA hacks will not work for non-TiVo branded drives going forward. Weve gone through three upgrades now and all have continued to allow eSATA drives to work as usual.

EDIT: Here's a screen shot of the second Account Information page showing our eSATA drive's model number:


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## mappler (Jan 15, 2002)

TokyoShoe said:


> It looks like only TiVo "brand" storage devices are going to work on Series 3 and Tivo HD units, not just any old eSATA like on all the other generation units. I cannot even REMOTELY express out *MAD* I am going to be if this ends up being the case. I actually pre-emptively purchased this external eSATA Western Digital in preparation for upgrading my TivoHD when the service got turned on. Now it gets turned on, and I don't have a "Verified Device" purchased directly from Tivo... so it won't work?


You know...don't be too "MAD". You purchased a drive ahead of time for a feature that was not yet implemented. I'm assuming that if TiVo puts requirements on the drive, it is for an actual good reason...not just to be "annoying". Furthermore, you can still use the drive. I see no indications that they are expressly precluding the use of such a drive...There are other methods available to get such a drive to work...


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## TokyoShoe (Jul 27, 2007)

mappler said:


> You know...don't be too "MAD". You purchased a drive ahead of time for a feature that was not yet implemented. I'm assuming that if TiVo puts requirements on the drive, it is for an actual good reason...not just to be "annoying". Furthermore, you can still use the drive. I see no indications that they are expressly precluding the use of such a drive...There are other methods available to get such a drive to work...


Yes I purchased a drive ahead of time, anticipating cooperation with certain functionality that hadn't been patched in yet. But do you honestly think that early adopters should get punished this way? We've got tons of other folks using various types of eSATA drives through hack methods right now.

Let's say 9.2 final rolls out and Tivo not only requires Tivo-brand external storage, but they also DISABLE and existing eSATA Hack setups specifically to force Tivo-brand storage purchasing. What would you say THEN?

_And for the record, I guess I didn't realize that a release version having a letter in it constituted it being a "Test Version". That was news to me, so maybe someone DID just simply screw up and forget to flip a bit. Maybe it could get corrected in 9.2 final._


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## j0hnW (Mar 3, 2001)

mappler said:


> You know...don't be too "MAD". <...> I'm assuming that if TiVo puts requirements on the drive, it is for an actual good reason...


Unless that reason is simply for Tivo to make more money as the sole source (or licenser) for "Blessed" Tivo external storage devices. Good reason for Tivo; bad reason for the Tivo customer.

Personally, I'm going to be pretty "MAD" if my 500GB Seagate DB35 external drive stops working with my S3 after months of flawless performance, when I'm forced to upgraded from 9.1 to 9.2.

John


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## TokyoShoe (Jul 27, 2007)

j0hnW said:


> Unless that reason is simply for Tivo to make more money as the sole source (or licenser) for "Blessed" Tivo external storage devices. Good reason for Tivo; bad reason for the Tivo customer.
> 
> Personally, I'm going to be pretty "MAD" if my 500GB Seagate DB35 external drive stops working with my S3 after months of flawless performance, when I'm forced to upgraded from 9.1 to 9.2.
> 
> John


I guess I'll just start hoping they are more customer-focused than money-focused, and wait until the "mystery announcement".


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## kmill14 (Dec 11, 2006)

Tokyo, so tell me again why you are blaming Tivo for you buying an expansion drive before you knew they would support it.


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## cr33p (Jan 2, 2005)

You could still use the external hard drive, pull the original and run mfsadd with WinMFS


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## Revolutionary (Dec 1, 2004)

j0hnW said:


> Unless that reason is simply for Tivo to make more money as the sole source (or licenser) for "Blessed" Tivo external storage devices. Good reason for Tivo; bad reason for the Tivo customer.
> 
> Personally, I'm going to be pretty "MAD" if my 500GB Seagate DB35 external drive stops working with my S3 after months of flawless performance, when I'm forced to upgraded from 9.1 to 9.2.
> 
> John


There is zero reason to think that Tivo will disable all "unverified" ESATA drives. The fact that OP can't get it to setup automatically could be attributable to a dozen reasons (some of which are mentioned here). More importantly, even if "non-verified" devices can't be set up automatically, that doesn't suggest that the existing "kickstart" and mfstools methods that spike2k5 has documented will no longer work.

Also, there have been lots of posts by people using makeshift ESATA devices who have been updated to 9.2, and their devices still work. OP is the only person that I've seen on this board who has first received 9.2 and then tried to just plug-and-play the thing. Until he tries to get the drive working by the current mfstools process for THDs and remains unsuccessful, his experience has no relevance for _current_ ESATA users.


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## bmgoodman (Dec 20, 2000)

Since so many of Tivo, Inc.'s woes are because they want to be a *services* company, rather than a *hardware* company, I wouldn't see why they'd want to have Tivo-branded external hard drives at all. Sure, they did it for wireless adapters, but I saw they were getting hammered by driver issues there. If you looked at the compatible adapters list, as soon as you see entries like "firmware version A and B only", you knew things were out of control. On the other hand, eSATA is pretty much a PnP standard, right? There should not be a driver issue at all. Many of the issues so far look more like poor quality cables.

My expectation is that they will provide an "approved" list of products that can be expected to work out-of-the-box. If you go off-list, the product may or may not work. That said, I'll be surprised if devices that are currently working suddenly stopped because they're not on the "approved" list.

My $.02.


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## fred2 (Jan 20, 2006)

One can hope that what Apple announced yesterday would be equally clear to Tivo. Support for 3rd party solutions makes for much happier (less MAD, TokyoShoe) customers.

Making the entire box more proprietary (as they may have had to do with the wireless adapter driver headache) is going to make fewer and fewer folks Tivo-centric.

I have been more and more hestitant to recommend Tivo to friends looking to replace vcr boxes. Too many glitches of late. This would add one more reason to NOT recommend tivo.

I can see satisfying the "ease of use" crowd but leave the rest of us to our own inventions.


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## Dr_Diablo (Nov 24, 2003)

TokyoShoe said:


> So I had my unit upgraded to 9.2 earlier this evening. Low and behold when I plug in my external *Western Digital MyBook* and turn the unit back on, it detects then drive and asks me to set it up! But THEN it tells me that it cannot set it up, and that I should check out the url *http://www.tivo.com/expand* for details regarding this service. Well I go to that webpage and it redirects me to a place holder page with the following note:
> 
> _"Interested in adding a TiVo Verified storage device to your TiVo® HD or Series3? Check back soon for details on this exciting new product."_
> 
> ...


thanks for the heads up on the eSata drive not working after the update...

I'll not reset my Tivo for the time being... For 6 weeks my WD drive has performed without incident


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## JSKMDWK (Aug 20, 2007)

TiVo support in a phone call yesterday steered my directly to the Western Digital My DVR Expander available from westerndigital's website for $199 as "the only device TiVo is going to support"
J


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## Revolutionary (Dec 1, 2004)

Dr_Diablo said:


> thanks for the heads up on the eSata drive not working after the update...
> 
> I'll not reset my Tivo for the time being... For 6 weeks my WD drive has performed without incident


Diablo: note that he didn't have the ESATA drive installed already. He only tried to install it via plug-and-play AFTER he got the 9.2 update.


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## kmill14 (Dec 11, 2006)

fred2 said:


> One can hope that what Apple announced yesterday would be equally clear to Tivo. Support for 3rd party solutions makes for much happier (less MAD, TokyoShoe) customers.
> 
> Making the entire box more proprietary (as they may have had to do with the wireless adapter driver headache) is going to make fewer and fewer folks Tivo-centric.


Fred2, what are you talking about? Tivo more than any other Electronics company I am aware of seems to not only allow 3rd party add-ons (and hacking galore) for Tivo boxes, but encourages it. You bring up Apple...they went kicking and screaming, while Tivo has had the HME interface going for how long now...


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## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

TokyoShoe said:


> Yes I purchased a drive ahead of time, anticipating cooperation with certain functionality that hadn't been patched in yet. But do you honestly think that early adopters should get punished this way? We've got tons of other folks using various types of eSATA drives through hack methods right now.
> 
> Let's say 9.2 final rolls out and Tivo not only requires Tivo-brand external storage, but they also DISABLE and existing eSATA Hack setups specifically to force Tivo-brand storage purchasing. What would you say THEN?
> 
> _And for the record, I guess I didn't realize that a release version having a letter in it constituted it being a "Test Version". That was news to me, so maybe someone DID just simply screw up and forget to flip a bit. Maybe it could get corrected in 9.2 final._


Okay, enough already! You're very new here and I'm surprised you haven't been royally flamed for being such a PIA over this. People are being very kind to you and I hope you appreciate it.

If TiVo wants to only support certain drives, that's their prerogative and I wouldn't blame them for a moment. As *bmgoodman * pointed out, they learned their lesson with the wireless adapter/driver problem. I doubt if theyll repeat it with eSATA drives and I agree, there will likely be a short list of "approved devices", end of story.

And for we pioneers, the sky is NOT falling. Early adopters are NOT getting punished so stop making stuff up. As has been told to you umpteen times, there's no reason to believe that they will disable any current functionality now or in the future based on past performance.

No one "made a mistake" by not flipping a switch. This latest upgrade is a trial version and if you'd calm down and listen to the people that have been here for years you'd know that everything is going exactly as planned.

I know you mean well, but stop running around knees bent wringing your hands and gnashing your teethyoure embarrassing yourself. Take a chill pill as they say, sit back, relax and stop the duplicate and unnecessary posts on multiple threads ranting about the same thing before you get reported to the moderators. The answers will come soon enough.


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## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

JSKMDWK said:


> TiVo support in a phone call yesterday steered my directly to the Western Digital My DVR Expander available from westerndigital's website for $199 as "the only device TiVo is going to support"
> J


Excellent info. :up: Now we'll need a guinea pig to try it out!  Perhaps Mr. Tokyo will give it a go.


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## HiDefGator (Oct 12, 2004)

How exactly could one eSATA drive vary enough from the standard for it to need to be qualified to work in the Tivo? Smells like nothing more than a marketing partnership to me.


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## MickeS (Dec 26, 2002)

They need to get that "expand" site working now that I have 9.2


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## SCSIRAID (Feb 2, 2003)

MickeS said:


> They need to get that "expand" site working now that I have 9.2


Check this post.......

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=5614559&&#post5614559


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## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

HiDefGator said:


> How exactly could one eSATA drive vary enough from the standard for it to need to be qualified to work in the Tivo? Smells like nothing more than a marketing partnership to me.


And you are surprised why?


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## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

FWIW, Link to WD My DVR Expander.


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## rt1027 (Jul 27, 2003)

My 2 cents.....my S3 was just upgraded to 9.2j and my hacked eSATA drive (listed as ST3500830SE3.ACD on the info screen) works perfectly well. 

No complaints.


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## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

rt1027 said:


> My 2 cents.....my S3 was just upgraded to 9.2j and my hacked eSATA drive (listed as ST3500830SE3.ACD on the info screen) works perfectly well.
> 
> No complaints.


As does ours. Just don't disconnect/divorce it as it appears there's no way to remarry it as KS62 no longer works. I'm sure there will be a work-around eventually...but for now.


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## TokyoShoe (Jul 27, 2007)

richsadams said:


> As does ours. Just don't disconnect/divorce it as it appears there's no way to remarry it as KS62 no longer works. I'm sure there will be a work-around eventually...but for now.


This is my primary concern. The Kickstart62 method no longer works, so if for any reason your eSATA has to be disconnected.. there is a very solid chance that it won't remarry.

And now, details are emerging that there is apparently a "My Book Tivo DVR Expander" unit that's $199 for 500GB, and this is the only actual unit that will probably be accepted to marry up to Tivo S3/HD units. Uhm... yay?


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## keenanSR (Oct 13, 2004)

Now that I think about it, just a few days ago I received a couple of the SIIG eSATA cables for future use but decided to swap out the stock cable I've been using on the MX-1 enclosure. 

When I started the S3 back up I had forgotten to turn the MX-1 power back on so the S3 asked if I wanted to divorce the drive. I think at that point I pulled the plug on the S3, turned the power on to the MX-1 and then plugged the S3 back in. It booted up fine and recognized the external drive just fine.

I'm guessing if you go through the divorce procedure you may not get the drive married back, but just powering down, disconnecting and reconnecting seems to be okay, at least in my case it worked.


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## MickeS (Dec 26, 2002)

Can the drive in the My DVR Expander linked to above be upgraded?


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## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

Based on Spike's most recent post  you can connect a "non-authorized" eSATA drive via P&P on an *S3 * now (not TiVo HD, yet).

EDIT: Heres his online guide:

http://www.mfslive.org/tivos3_esata.htm


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## thedarksavant (Sep 10, 2007)

TexasGrillChef said:


> Maybe so for hard drives in Computers...
> 
> But look at the truth.... the SAME hard drives you find in your comptuer. ARE THE SAME hard drives found in....
> 
> ...


Those drives are stored in units designed to keep them cool not crammed into a tiny enclosure then asked to never ever spin down again.

There are post scattered all over this site from people who've had their external drives fail for one reason or another. Just his morning I read one about an eSata drive that was causing constant reboots. The official eSata Drive FAQ thread is over 68 pages long, many of those discussions centered around eSata configurations that will stand the test of time.

So, yes, the drive is the same, but the rest of the configuration is not.

See item #28 at http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=5124019&&#post5124019


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## HDTiVo (Nov 27, 2002)

TokyoShoe said:


> This is my primary concern. The Kickstart62 method no longer works, so if for any reason your eSATA has to be disconnected.. there is a very solid chance that it won't remarry.


Now that's for getting the S3 to set up the external drive itself, right?

I'm figuring if you are using WinMFS you can do as you please.


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## nrnoble (Aug 25, 2004)

Has there been any problems with the Free Agent drives since the most recent TiVo upgrade?

I have been running the Free Agent 750 for several months without any problems. My software version is 9.1.1.5-01-2-648

I can understand limiting support for a select number of drives. What I would hope is that they don't initially block drives that work, but are not officially supported\tested. This leaves to door open for self-supporting high end enthusiasts who can resolve their own problems (not on the phone the moment something doesn't work 100% perfectly). The issue is the cost of support, and that is understandable.


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## bkrodgers (Nov 16, 2002)

> The issue is the cost of support, and that is understandable.


On some things I agree with that, but this seems more like it's marketing/sales driven. And I just don't like the idea of paying almost twice as much as a regular drive and being limited to 500 GB. Not cool.

So, with my hopes and dreams of being able to add 750GB or 1TB to a TivoHD in an officially sanctioned way looking like they're gone, I now wonder why I should bother with eSATA at all. I understand that you can pop out the drive and marry a new drive with it, but that voids the warranty, right? And since once married you can't separate them without deleting programs, I could easily end up losing everything if I need warranty service.

It seems like a better option to just swap out the internal drive. Then I can leave the stock drive intact and put it back in if I need warranty service. Yes, I know that I've technically voided the warranty here too, but there's no warranty seal on the case, right (mine arrives tomorrow)? Thus, Tivo couldn't really tell -- and I think I've read they aren't sticklers on that even if they can. Correct? My shows are then safe on my larger drive while it's in the shop. Plus, with an internal drive, there's one less thing to find space for and no risk of an eSATA cable going bad or getting loose.

Yes, you get to keep the stock 180GB or so, but I think I can live without that. Is there still an advantage to eSATA I'm not seeing?


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## jlib (Nov 22, 2002)

One user reported here that data from the system information page gets sent to TiVo and the CSR apparently knew his TiVo drive was upgraded when his account was called up on their screen. I will assume what he said is correct. 

The warranty is nearly worthless anyway. It certainly shouldn't keep you from upgrading after you are satisfied the TiVO is not DOA. Upgrading the internal drive first is the most desirable upgrade method (an additional eSATA drive can alwasy be added in the future). Use a big enough drive and you may not even need to revisit the issue in the future.


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## bkdtv (Jan 9, 2003)

jlib said:


> Upgrading the internal drive first is the most desirable upgrade method (an additional eSATA drive can alwasy be added in the future). Use a big enough drive and you may not even need to revisit the issue in the future.


Of course, if you upgrade the internal hard drive, the built-in eSATA expansion feature no longer works.


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## rodalpho (Sep 12, 2006)

If you're sufficiently savvy to do the internal upgrade, that doesn't matter.


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## jlib (Nov 22, 2002)

bkdtv said:


> Of course, if you upgrade the internal hard drive, the built-in eSATA expansion feature no longer works.


When you say built-in do you mean automatic plug'n'play? I don't think anyone has been able to use that feature on the HD anyway. But Mephisto's 2 Terabyte TiVo HD shows there is no problem having an updated internal and external drive at the same time. You have to to use MFSTools/WinMFS to add an external drive anyway whether the internal drive is upgraded or not so does it really matter?


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## jlib (Nov 22, 2002)

thedarksavant said:


> ...There are post scattered all over this site from people who've had their external drives fail for one reason or another...


There are very, very few drive failures _per se_ reported. There are plenty of reports of reboots and general flakiness usually cured by a replacement eSATA cable, though. Since there aren't any modern name brand drives that aren't certified for 24/7 usage it doesn't really matter which drive you select short of finding one that can be acoustically detuned, has the capacity you desire, and is within your budget requirements. If it is a slow spinner such as the WD Green 1TB drive that is a nice bonus for low heat and noise.

The TiVo, as is any DVR, is a very unchallenging application for a modern hard drive and even when recording two channels and watching another the hard drive is sitting idle most of the time just waiting for something to do. It doesn't seem intuitive that if you are recording 2 things at once that the drive isn't struggling furiously to keep up but it really is just sitting idly most of the time. No special drives are needed for the TiVo. So-called DVR specific drives do not have any capabilities that the TiVO can use (save the Seagate DB35 pre-acoustically detuned line) so are of no advantage, neither are server specific drives.

So, just get the quietest, biggest, and cheapest in whatever order those qualities are most important.


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## bkdtv (Jan 9, 2003)

jlib said:


> When you say built-in do you mean automatic plug'n'play? I don't think anyone has been able to use that feature on the HD anyway.


Based on forum posts, the "plug and play" eSATA expansion works on most drives with the Tivo Series3, but only with Tivo Verified drives on the TivoHD.

Once Tivo releases their list of Verified drives, TivoHD users will able to take advantage of that.


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## vstone (May 11, 2002)

jlib said:


> ...The TiVo, as is any DVR, is a very unchallenging application for a modern hard drive and even when recording two channels and watching another the hard drive is sitting idle most of the time just waiting for something to do. It doesn't seem intuitive that if you are recording 2 things at once that the drive isn't struggling furiously to keep up but it really is just sitting idly most of the time. No special drives are needed for the TiVo. So-called DVR specific drives do not have any capabilities that the TiVO can use (save the Seagate DB35 pre-acoustically detuned line) so are of no advantage, neither are server specific drives.
> ...


I believe that the specs for the DB35 drives say they can handle 10 simultaneous HD streams, so 3 streams shouldn't be an issue at all for the drive itself.


----------



## flatcurve (Sep 27, 2007)

jlib said:


> So-called DVR specific drives do not have any capabilities that the TiVO can use (save the Seagate DB35 pre-acoustically detuned line) so are of no advantage, neither are server specific drives.


I personally think that these "DVR specific" drives are well suited in a/v applications. the db35 and hitachi cinemastar lines are acoustically tuned to run quieter, consume less power (better for the tivo PS, and lives longer as a result), and stream smoothly with Read/Write continous (RC/WC) commands where a normal drive would stutter on error recovery.

Sure, you _can_ put any old SATA drive in your S3/THD, but when you hear a CinemaStar 1TB next to a Deskstar (or any other drive for that matter), it's an easy choice. Now what I wouldn't do is take one of those drives and put it in my computer. The RC/WC thing kinda makes me nervous about getting back some bad data.

But hey... to each his own


----------



## xfm (Apr 1, 2005)

FWIW, MyDVRExpander drive has a WD P/N of WDG 1S5000N.

Newegg.com has a WD 500GB eSATA drive P/N WDG 1S*U*5000N at $134.99. Currently out of stock, but an intriguingly close model number at a significantly lower price.


----------



## mchief (Sep 10, 2005)

Actually the PN for the MyExpander is WDG1S5000.


----------



## xfm (Apr 1, 2005)

mchief said:


> Actually the PN for the MyExpander is WDG1S5000.


There is some ambiguity as to whether there is an 'N' suffix. See page below from WD site and scroll down to MyDVRExpander.

http://wdc.com/en/products/productcatalog.asp?language=en

Clarification: Just realized you have to click the External Storage tab before scrolling.

Also WD data sheet pdf also includes the 'N' suffix.


----------



## Ralph Wiggum (Jul 30, 2007)

*tapping foot impatiently waiting for the announcement of the "verified" drives to come out*


----------



## mwwilliams10 (Aug 22, 2007)

I have a feeling you're going to have to wait until 9.2 is fully deployed to all Tivo'ers. I have a feeling Tivo wouldn't want to announce the verified drives while people were still using 9.1.


----------



## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

HiDefGator said:


> How exactly could one eSATA drive vary enough from the standard for it to need to be qualified to work in the Tivo? Smells like nothing more than a marketing partnership to me.


Smells more like "how do we assure compatibility and not have 9 gazillion oddball configs out there?"

Think of the number of eSata boxes out there, and the potential for compatibility issues (ala the wireless adapters) Having a "we promise 100% this will work, always, and it's supported" drive is a great idea. I have no doubt there may eventually be a few more on the plate as "officially supported"

Heck, just read the External Storage eSata thread and what was, and wasn't compatible, now expand that to the general public.. talk about a tech support nightmare.

Do you really want Tivo tech support spending hours on the phone trying to help someone that has a 500GB PATA drive hooked up with a series of converters to eSata and they can't figure out why it doesn't work? They're using the wrong cable, the host adapter isn't right, they have weird connectors no one on this side of the pacific has ever seen, etc.

This is a very safe solution for Ma and Pa Q Public, it will work, always, and then those of us who are more daring, we can go use the backdoors to get our unofficial eSata working.

Diane


----------



## MickeS (Dec 26, 2002)

dianebrat said:


> Smells more like "how do we assure compatibility and not have 9 gazillion oddball configs out there?"
> 
> Think of the number of eSata boxes out there, and the potential for compatibility issues (ala the wireless adapters) Having a "we promise 100% this will work, always, and it's supported" drive is a great idea. I have no doubt there may eventually be a few more on the plate as "officially supported"
> 
> ...


As long as they DO give the option to use other drives, I'm with you. I'm not so sure they will though.


----------



## flatcurve (Sep 27, 2007)

mwwilliams10 said:


> I have a feeling you're going to have to wait until 9.2 is fully deployed to all Tivo'ers. I have a feeling Tivo wouldn't want to announce the verified drives while people were still using 9.1.


It will most likely be announced before thanksgiving. I don't see why they'd miss out on the holiday shopping season.


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## spectrumsp (Oct 2, 2002)

The THD is a relatively new box, especially compared to the S3...and, as a result, I would believe that there are a lot fewer THDs in service than S3s, S2s, and S1s...the issue with the esata drive and 9.2 release only effects the THD...

It shouldn't take that long to get the 9.2 release out to everyone who has a THD...perhaps a week, and it's been rolling out now almost that long...

I would hope we see some info regarding the supported esata drivers in the VERY NEAR term...(this week would be nice).


----------



## TokyoShoe (Jul 27, 2007)

spectrumsp said:


> The THD is a relatively new box, especially compared to the S3...and, as a result, I would believe that there are a lot fewer THDs in service than S3s, S2s, and S1s...the issue with the esata drive and 9.2 release only effects the THD...
> 
> It shouldn't take that long to get the 9.2 release out to everyone who has a THD...perhaps a week, and it's been rolling out now almost that long...
> 
> I would hope we see some info regarding the supported esata drivers in the VERY NEAR term...(this week would be nice).


Well it was pointed out to me (I am new to Tivo patchs in general , as a TivoHD owner) that the current patch is 9.2J .. the J apparently indicating that it is infact a "Test Patch" or something of similar nature. Not an "official patch rollout".

So .. there are possiblities that the TivoHD eSATA functionality could change (for better or worse) when the 9.2 FINAL patch comes out.


----------



## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

spectrumsp said:


> It shouldn't take that long to get the 9.2 release out to everyone who has a THD...perhaps a week, and it's been rolling out now almost that long...


As an FYI, TiVo's software upgrade, v9.2 is _not _ being rolled out yet. The most current release is v9.2.j, a trial rollout (more here).

TiVo pushes out a trial version to a small segment of their millions of subscribers to asses call center feedback prior to the regular release. This generally takes place over a period of two to three weeks. (This is week two for v9.2.j.) However, depending on feedback and any more work required the timeframe for the general release could be longer. Historically there have been very few changes from the trial version.

Earlier announcements for a new software version featuring additional enhancements for S3s and THDs including MRV, TTG (and now apparently eSATA) was slated for November and it would appear that they are on schedule.

EDIT: Here's a link to the BB web page  (inactive) for the "supported device" (taken from this post).


----------



## Ripcord2 (Jun 6, 2004)

dianebrat said:


> Think of the number of eSata boxes out there, and the potential for compatibility issues (ala the wireless adapters)


It's quite a bit different, though. While there are some standards, there is a fairly wide range of incompatibility in the USB NIC space. There's no true standard. So there's a pretty large range of possibilities in what a host needs to do to talk to the NIC (different drivers).

SATA, on the other hand, is highly standardized. For the most part, either the drive supports SATA, or it doesn't. Support for devices can be implemented and there's a very high assurance of compatibility.

That's why some of us are skeptical about the "reducing complexity" motivation.


----------



## spectrumsp (Oct 2, 2002)

"As an FYI, TiVo's software upgrade, v9.2 is not being rolled out yet. The most current release is v9.2.j, a trial rollout (more here). "


Totally concur...but as part of the trail to see if everything is working, I would think Tivo would want those of us who have the 9.2j to use it with several of the esata devices to see how 9.2j operates...

I received the update last week and have found out that the MX-1 "currently" is not supported...which devices are?...I'd love to give one a try and report the results back to Tivo...I think there are others of us out there as well who have received the 9.2j update and would like to trail run an esata drive and report the results back...

I'm just out here wishing on a star...


----------



## xfm (Apr 1, 2005)

spectrumsp said:


> The THD is a relatively new box, especially compared to the S3...and, as a result, I would believe that there are a lot fewer THDs in service than S3s, S2s, and S1s...the issue with the esata drive and 9.2 release only effects the THD...
> 
> It shouldn't take that long to get the 9.2 release out to everyone who has a THD...perhaps a week, and it's been rolling out now almost that long...
> 
> I would hope we see some info regarding the supported esata drivers in the VERY NEAR term...(this week would be nice).


Is spectrum correct? Does the eSATA issue with 9.2 ONLY affect TiVoHD, not S3? I have an S3 and just purchased an Antec MX-1 and planned to shop for an eSATA drive this week.

Can anyone confirm that the S3 still accepts the MX-1/WD 1TB combo used by many if added AFTER 9.2 UPGRADE?


----------



## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

spectrumsp said:


> "As an FYI, TiVo's software upgrade, v9.2 is not being rolled out yet. The most current release is v9.2.j, a trial rollout (more here). "
> 
> Totally concur...but as part of the trail to see if everything is working, I would think Tivo would want those of us who have the 9.2j to use it with several of the esata devices to see how 9.2j operates...
> 
> ...


TiVo already knows what devices will and will not work as a beta tester let it slip that they've been testing eSATA since April.

My money says that this will be the one and only eSATA "Supported Device" for the time being (and likely the ONLY one that will work with THD's)...

BEST BUY MY BOOK TIVO DVR EXPANDER

In the meantime, it appears any eSATA drive will work w/S3's and AFAIK nothing in v9.2.j is stopping anyone from upgrading their internal HDD.


----------



## spectrumsp (Oct 2, 2002)

xfm said:


> Is spectrum correct? Does the eSATA issue with 9.2 ONLY affect TiVoHD, not S3? I have an S3 and just purchased an Antec MX-1 and planned to shop for an eSATA drive this week.
> 
> Can anyone confirm that the S3 still accepts the MX-1/WD 1TB combo used by many if added AFTER 9.2 UPGRADE?


I have seen several posts that Western Digital has a DVR Extender that is supposedly supported, but I have yet to read where someone has successfully used one...I know the MX-1 is not currently supported on the THD (I have first hand experience).

I read in several posts that the S3 supported the MX-1, so I went out and purchased one this weekend...on the THD it turns out you get a window that states it is an "unsuppored device" with no further actions allowed. Spike indicated that he was able to use the MX-1 on his S3...it gave him the same warning that the MX-1 was unsupported, but the S3 allowed him to proceed and set it up anyway...he actually had screen shots of the process.


----------



## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

xfm said:


> Can anyone confirm that the S3 still accepts the MX-1/WD 1TB combo used by many if added AFTER 9.2 UPGRADE?


Our S3 w/eSATA (DB35/MX-1) has been working flawlessly since May through three upgrades - now at v9.2.j. It was installed using the KS62 method (which no longer works w/v9.2.j). The combination you suggest should work without a problem after v9.2.j is installed (unless you have upgraded your internal HDD). (More here)

Reference links:

TiVo S3 Manual eSATA drive expansion (Kickstart 62 - good only prior to v9.2)

TiVo S3 and TiVo HD Plug and Play eSATA drive expansion (post v9.2)

TiVo HD manual eSATA drive expansion

 WD My DVR Expander (TiVo HD P&P expansion)


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## spectrumsp (Oct 2, 2002)

richsadams said:


> TiVo already knows what devices will and will not work as a beta tester let it slip that they've been testing eSATA since April.
> 
> My money says that this will be the one and only eSATA "Supported Device" for the time being (and likely the ONLY one that will work with THD's)...
> 
> ...


Concur...but I have read in several different posts that if you upgrade/increase in size your internal HD then the esata will not function...I would much rather have the ability to change/upgrade an external device as requirements dictate/technology allow.


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## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

spectrumsp said:


> Concur...but I have read in several different posts that if you upgrade/increase in size your internal HD then the esata will not function...I would much rather have the ability to change/upgrade an external device as requirements dictate/technology allow.


An eSATA drive can no longer be added w/KS62 or P&P after the HDD has been upgraded. However an eSATA drive can still be added by using WinMFS or Mfslive Linux Boot cd when the internal HDD has been previously upgraded.


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## spectrumsp (Oct 2, 2002)

richsadams said:


> An eSATA drive can no longer be added w/KS62 or P&P after the HDD has been upgraded. However an eSATA drive can still be added by using WinMFS or Mfslive Linux Boot cd when the internal HDD has been previously upgraded.


True...but don't you have to divorce the drive to remove it and doesn't that then delete all files off the external drive?


----------



## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

spectrumsp said:


> True...but don't you have to divorce the drive to remove it and doesn't that then delete all files off the external drive?


The only time TiVo will ask to divorce an expansion drive is if the external drive is powered down or disconnected while TiVo is powered on or if the external drive is disconnected when TiVo is powered off and then powered back on without the drive.

If you already have an eSATA drive connected and want to upgrade the internal drive, keep the eSATA drive as well and keep all of your recordings I should think a truncated backup and copy of the internal drive to the new drive would allow that. But Spike's the expert, so I'll defer to him.  There may be something in his forum that addresses that situation, or you could ask.


----------



## spectrumsp (Oct 2, 2002)

richsadams said:


> The only time TiVo will ask to divorce an expansion drive is if the external drive is powered down or disconnected while TiVo is powered on or if the external drive is disconnected when TiVo is powered off and then powered back on without the drive.
> 
> If you already have an eSATA drive connected and want to upgrade the internal drive, keep the eSATA drive as well and keep all of your recordings I should think a truncated backup and copy of the internal drive to the new drive would allow that. But Spike's the expert, so I'll defer to him.  There may be something in his forum that addresses that situation, or you could ask.


I never realized that was Spike's forum...Thanks for the info...


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## moxie1617 (Jan 5, 2004)

richsadams said:


> ............
> 
> WD My DVR Expander (TiVo HD P&P expansion)


That's not a bad price for the "approved" drive. I think my MX-1 and 500GB DB35 cost me about $240 last May. Plus, I wound up buying the SIIG cable for another $20 after my housecleaning adventure. BTW, the combo has been rock solid ever since.


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## George Cifranci (Jan 30, 2003)

moxie1617 said:


> That's not a bad price for the "approved" drive. I think my MX-1 and 500GB DB35 cost me about $240 last May. Plus, I wound up buying the SIIG cable for another $20 after my housecleaning adventure. BTW, the combo has been rock solid ever since.


My Antec MX-1 w/ 750GB DB35 and SIIG cable has been rock solid as well. Still running 9.1 on my Series 3 though.


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## jlib (Nov 22, 2002)

flatcurve said:


> I personally think that these "DVR specific" drives are well suited in a/v applications. the db35 and hitachi cinemastar lines are acoustically tuned to run quieter, consume less power (better for the tivo PS, and lives longer as a result), and stream smoothly with Read/Write continous (RC/WC) commands where a normal drive would stutter on error recovery.
> 
> Sure, you _can_ put any old SATA drive in your S3/THD, but when you hear a CinemaStar 1TB next to a Deskstar (or any other drive for that matter), it's an easy choice. Now what I wouldn't do is take one of those drives and put it in my computer. The RC/WC thing kinda makes me nervous about getting back some bad data.


From the TiVo's perspective, it cannot discern the difference between an acoustically detuned (with Hitachi Feature Tool) DeskStar and a stock CinemaStar. Same performance specs, same power usage, same acoustic and seek performance. Since the TiVo can't use any of the new CinemaStar firmware enhancements such as the Streaming Command Set it doesn't make any sense to pay the premium for such a drive. It is mechanically identical to the DeskStar. With the Seagate line, there _is_ an advantage to the DB35 series in the TiVo since the standard drive series cannot be acoustically quieted.

These DVR drives weren't even intended for the retail market but so many people clamored for them (especially the DB35) that you can now buy them like any other drive but they were intended to be OEM drives around which a manufacturer would design a DVR. If the "4 tuner TiVo Series 4"  ever comes out it may be able to make use of the DVR drives' streaming enhancements if designed to but currently the DVR enhanced firmware of these drives falls into the warm fuzzy category, sort of like putting premium in a regular car.


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## Jvo (Jul 5, 2004)

I just received my THD , got the cable card in, and it's working fine. I bought an MX-1 last week in the hopes of expanding using the eSata port. Now, after reading this thread it seems that my MX-1 won't be 'supported' by my THD in the future.

I currently have version 8.1.x software on my THD. Is there something I can do now to expand my hard drive using my MX-1 before I get the latest software upgrade?? 

Thanks,
Jim


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## SCSIRAID (Feb 2, 2003)

Jvo said:


> I just received my THD , got the cable card in, and it's working fine. I bought an MX-1 last week in the hopes of expanding using the eSata port. Now, after reading this thread it seems that my MX-1 won't be 'supported' by my THD in the future.
> 
> I currently have version 8.1.x software on my THD. Is there something I can do now to expand my hard drive using my MX-1 before I get the latest software upgrade??
> 
> ...


You might consider returning the MX-1 and pick up a 1TB drive and use WinMFS to copy and extend the internal drive. Eliminates the complexity of having an external drive. Save the original 160 as a backup.

Thats what I did....


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## Revolutionary (Dec 1, 2004)

richsadams said:


> TiVo already knows what devices will and will not work as a beta tester let it slip that they've been testing eSATA since April.
> 
> My money says that this will be the one and only eSATA "Supported Device" for the time being (and likely the ONLY one that will work with THD's)...
> 
> ...


FYI: the Best Buy page for the "Tivo DVR Expander" is no longer inactive. You can actually pre-order now.


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## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

SCSIRAID said:


> You might consider returning the MX-1 and pick up a 1TB drive and use WinMFS to copy and extend the internal drive. Eliminates the complexity of having an external drive. Save the original 160 as a backup.
> 
> Thats what I did....


Good advice. :up: Here's the info:

WinMFS HDD Upgrade Tools

Or you can plan on purchasing the one and only "Approved Device" for the TiVo HD once your TiVo downloads and installs the latest software v9.2.j (or the final, v9.2) in the coming weeks:

 WD My DVR Expander (TiVo HD P&P expansion)

BEST BUY MY BOOK TIVO DVR EXPANDER


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## tyoung88 (Dec 11, 2003)

I bought a MX-1 at CC over the weekend and although I've done the internal upgrade with a Series 1 the idea of just plugging in a eSATA drive is appealing. Do some of you that may be more in the know (i.e. beta testers) have some information that points towards the THD not supporting any eSATA drives other than the Western Digital Tivo branded one?

I'm really hoping that someone figures out a way to get eSATA to work without requiring me to pull out the drive and run MFS. At that point as previously stated I might as well just upgrade the internal drive since it's so small. Is the technical challenge that every eSATA enclosure has a unique id that the THD would look for? Or is it just a matter of someone getting the Western Digital Tivo drive and imaging then cloning another drive?


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## Ralph Wiggum (Jul 30, 2007)

So has anyone tried to plug one of these Western Digital drives into a Tivo HD tunning 9.2j?


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## Dr_Diablo (Nov 24, 2003)

mines a month old 500 GB WD My Book Pro...

Has operated without a hitch... My concern is the 9.2 update...

Am I going to be forced to purchase this "offically supported" DVR extender... ?

6 week old S3


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## spectrumsp (Oct 2, 2002)

Ralph Wiggum said:


> So has anyone tried to plug one of these Western Digital drives into a Tivo HD tunning 9.2j?


Yes...see my post earlier in this thread...it tells you it's an unsupported device.


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## HDTiVo (Nov 27, 2002)

Going on the premise that this is a TiVo HD thread, it seems PnP eSata 9.2 is not very exciting. Its limited to a single model of 500gb drive and then only if you are using a (the original?) 160GB internal. Limited appeal but certainly easy for those few that choose that.

What remains is the ability to do the dirty work with MFS, which has been tradition for years on TiVoes, so little has changed for TiVo HD users with the arrival of 9.2.

Is there any indication at all that some eSata enclosures do NOT work if the MFS method is used? In other words, are some eSata implementations not compatible with the TiVo HD's? What would be the reasons for any such incompatibility?


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## Dr_Diablo (Nov 24, 2003)

HiDefGator said:


> How exactly could one eSATA drive vary enough from the standard for it to need to be qualified to work in the Tivo? Smells like nothing more than a marketing partnership to me.


Me thinks you are on to something here... Do you think they/Tivo cares what the end users expenses are in the long run?

No...


----------



## teemu (Oct 23, 2007)

Just to add to the list of combos that don't work with the HD. Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 ST3250823AS 250GB in an Icy Dock MB559 with the Icy Dock included eSata cable.

What I don't understand is why, if the WD is the only supported device, the HD can't just tell me that my hardware is not supported and start my HD normally. Part of the reason they might want to support just 1 drive would be for user friendliness, no? The HD shouldn't throw a hissy fit with different external drives. Why the Getting Started screen loop? The S3 appears to be much more graceful in detection and support of different hardware.


----------



## stm378 (Oct 10, 2007)

For everyone that has been checking hourly to the tivo site for their "official word" it looks like the My DVR Expander is truly the "chosen" drive, the former holding page is now a full fledged official site.

http://www.tivo.com/mytivo/domore/storage/index.html

-S-

PS it looks like you can order it from Tivo's site now, and I think it was Rich that said that they were most likely pulling it temporarily to put a little Tivo sticker on the box....good call Rich, you were right on....look at the bottom of the box in the picture.


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## durbin (Feb 13, 2007)

stm378 said:


> For everyone that has been checking hourly to the tivo site for their "official word" it looks like the My DVR Expander is truly the "chosen" drive, the former holding page is now a full fledged official site.
> 
> http://www.tivo.com/mytivo/domore/storage/index.html
> 
> ...


Just ordered mine. I was hoping for a 1TB, but wanted to stick with tivo reccommendations.


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## cjchaps (Oct 8, 2007)

I took the plunge and ordered the DVR Expander from the Tivo Website for my TivoHD.  It came out to a little under $205 shipped. Hopefully by the time I get it I will have the 9.2 update.

The thing costs about twice the price of similiar external 500 gig drives but that is the price you pay for approved devices sometimes.


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## jlb (Dec 13, 2001)

$199.99 on the TiVo website, to mirror (no pun intended) the WD price point.

I also like the TiVo Verified sticker on the box.

But I was curious about the following in the FAQ:



> *How do I know whether a recorded program is on the DVR or the DVR Expander?*
> On the TiVo® DVR, each recorded program is stored partly on the internal drive and partly on the DVR Expander.


I guess that is how they keep it from being used as a portable storage solution.


----------



## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

stm378 said:


> For everyone that has been checking hourly to the tivo site for their "official word" it looks like the My DVR Expander is truly the "chosen" drive, the former holding page is now a full fledged official site.
> 
> http://www.tivo.com/mytivo/domore/storage/index.html
> 
> ...


I predicted that the drive would be "the one and only" but someone else came up with the sticker idea. 

$199 seems a tad expensive now that you can pick up a WD SATA drive for about $100 and an an Antec MX-1 for about $40 on a good sale day...plus the MX-1 has a cooling fan. But for user friendliness, I guess it's not a bad deal.

I'm still glad the S3 will allow an eSATA up to 1TB though. Wonder how long it will take Spike to crack the code for THDs?


----------



## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

Now that the "Approved Device" is official..._and _ being sold on tivo.com, it begs the question; how soon will the final of v9.2 be rolled out to the masses? After all, this drive will not work via P&P without it. Hmmm...  Predictions anyone?

Noted that TiVo's included a link to their Priority Page on their WD Expander promo.

Interesting also that in the new FAQ they note that it's not compatible w/TiVo's that have an upgraded HDD...twice!


> * Can I use a DVR Expander with my Series3 or TiVo HD if the internal hard drive has been modified by myself or a third party?*
> 
> No. TiVo strongly discourages anyone with a modified internal drive from using a DVR Expander. Adding a DVR Expander to a DVR with a modified internal drive may damage the DVR and render it completely unusable.


  Yikes!


----------



## HDTiVo (Nov 27, 2002)

What? No free ship?  Do they ship free with a new TiVo HD? 



richsadams said:


> I'm still glad the S3 will allow an eSATA up to 1TB though. Wonder how long it will take Spike to crack the code for THDs?
> 
> -------------
> 
> ...


Huh? Let's slow down and digest what's factual so we don't have too many confusing comments that don't turn out to be correct, but end up in the folklore.


----------



## andrews777 (Aug 23, 2007)

Is this any different from the version on the Western Digital site? I can live with the ~$4.50 for shipping 2 of them, but the tax is annoying. (~$31 because I live in a "covered" state.)

Brad


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## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

HDTiVo said:


> Huh? Let's slow down and digest what's factual so we don't have too many confusing comments that don't turn out to be correct, but end up in the folklore.


Huh? IIRC there are S3's w/v9.2j running 500GB, 750GB and 1TB eSATA drives at this time. Or was your statement about the TiVo FAQ quote?

Not sure what you mean by "what's factual".


----------



## charms (Jan 19, 2005)

I'm pleased that the eSATA drive is sold as a slightly more generic DVR upgrade product from WD that happens to be"blessed" by TiVo. I hope it raises the likelihood that we'll see deeper and varied discounts from various retailers (*cough* NewEgg). If it was exclusively branded as a TiVo product, we'd probably see tighter price control.

WD's HD product cycles are also a lot quicker than TiVo's, so I wouldn't be surprised to see the My DVR product line expanded to 750 or even 1TB within 3-6 months. One drive for two TiVo models is probably the safe way for them to roll this out.


----------



## Mikeyis4dcats (Oct 2, 2003)

Dr_Diablo said:


> Me thinks you are on to something here... Do you think they/Tivo cares what the end users expenses are in the long run?
> 
> No...


The WD MyDVR Expander has actually been on sale for several months at the same price, long before it was ever connected to Tivo.


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## jlib (Nov 22, 2002)

> *Can I use a DVR Expander with my Series3 or TiVo HD if the internal hard drive has been modified by myself or a third party?*
> 
> No. TiVo strongly discourages anyone with a modified internal drive from using a DVR Expander. Adding a DVR Expander to a DVR with a modified internal drive may damage the DVR and render it completely unusable.


Hmm, I wonder why my BS alert is going off. Not work with P'n'P, yes; damage the TiVO, no.


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## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

jlib said:


> Hmm, I wonder why my BS alert is going off. Not work with P'n'P, yes; damage the TiVO, no.


Yeah, kinda my first impression too. I suppose it keeps the unwashed masses from experimenting.


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## HDTiVo (Nov 27, 2002)

jlib said:


> Hmm, I wonder why my BS alert is going off. Not work with P'n'P, yes; damage the TiVO, no.


Apparently your BS alert was not damaged by upgrading your internal drive.


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