# To upgrade to 6.4a or not? Please advise



## RLJinCT (Jun 28, 2004)

I'm wondering whether to make the jump from 6.2a to 6.4a. I have an HDVR2 that I upgraded to a larger HD from Weaknees, which came pre-loaded with 6.2a. Since then I have left the phone line disconnected, to avoid any upgrades after the horror show we all experienced with 6.3. 

My question to the experts here is: Is it time for me to reconnect the phone line and let it update or should I leave well enough alone for the time being? 

I welcome and appreciate your advice. Thanks in advance,


RLJinCT


PS I've just read all the pertinent threads, but since I am not someone who modifies my unit in any way, I am still unsure what to do.


----------



## bwash (Dec 16, 2002)

RLJinCT said:


> My question to the experts here is: Is it time for me to reconnect the phone line and let it update or should I leave well enough alone for the time being?


I am not an expert but was burned by the 6.3 rebooting problems and went back to 6.1 (on an R10) and disconnected the phone. This last Saturday I decided to let it go and received 6.4a and it has been stable for me since. I like not having to delete the messages and the system "seems" faster, and hopefully no problems in the future.

If it got really bad I will purchase instant cake and go back to 6.1.


----------



## rbtravis (Aug 9, 2005)

If you are not using Multi-room viewing(MRV) or the Zipper, then yes it is a useful upgrade. It appears to be faster and more user friendly than 6.2a. If you want to do networking or any other underground activity then stay where you are. The question is are you a hacker(6.2a) or a non-hacker (6.4a)  You can always change you mind if you have DVRupgrade's Instantcake and roll back to 6.2a, a real bargain for $19.99


----------



## RLJinCT (Jun 28, 2004)

No, I'm not a hacker. I replaced the HD myself with Weaknees's instructions, and was amazed that I was able to do that.  Otherwise I don't touch it.

Thanks for the replies.


----------



## macizcool (Jul 15, 2007)

Unlike the other posters, I have not been satisfied with 6.4. My Tivo came with 6.1 out of the box, and I never let it upgrade. I recently decided to let it upgrade since most people didn't have any major issues with 6.4 and was hoping the update would speed up the menus a bit. Unfortunately, this has not been true. The menus are now twice as slow and it freezes up ALL the time (and it seems to happen when Tivo loses a signal, as others have also reported this). If it was just restarting, that would be a different story, but it COMPLETELY locks up, and you have to unplug the unit to get it going again. If you are away from the TV for hours/days like I am, and the Tivo locks up, it's not going to record anything until you notice the lock-up and unplug the unit. This is getting very frustrating.

The only thing I have enjoyed about this update is being able to delete programs with one click (due to the recently deleted folder). Another nice feature is the record date now shows in the info.

Now I will need to learn how to get back to 6.1, or 6.2a........


----------



## rbtravis (Aug 9, 2005)

Mazicool:
You can go back to the old system by purchasing Instantcake from www.DVRupgrade.com. I cannot tell you what to buy because you neglected to mention which model you have. Sounds like your hard drive may be having problems. consider replacing it,


----------



## dcstager (Feb 16, 2002)

There's probably no reason even for people with hacked units to stay at 6.2a now. The patches have been located in 6.4a and a tested Superpatch is available. The Zipper will work on it. Although multiple room viewing is not there anymore, you can still import and export video to and from all your Tivos and PCs with a Home Media Option program called MovieLoader.


----------



## macizcool (Jul 15, 2007)

rbtravis said:


> Mazicool:
> You can go back to the old system by purchasing Instantcake from www.DVRupgrade.com. I cannot tell you what to buy because you neglected to mention which model you have. Sounds like your hard drive may be having problems. consider replacing it,


I have an unmodified R10. I'm not sure if it's a hard drive issue or not, and up to this point, I have not considered this as several others have mentioned freezing issues when the dish loses signal. My dish setup is a makeshift design, so it does lose the signal when it rains.

It could very well be a bad sector. When I first purchased this unit, there were times when playing a particular part of a recording would freeze the video, but the audio would continue playing. The unfortunate part was there was no way to get the frozen image off and would have to reboot. This has not happened to me since I got the Tivo in November, and it was new in box. I do have a used Tivo for parts that I could swap the drives out, but I have recordings on my current drive...



dcstager said:


> There's probably no reason even for people with hacked units to stay at 6.2a now.


There are reasons if my experiences are common.


----------



## tjperez (Jan 14, 2002)

A new advantage of 6.4a is that you can now schedule recordings remotely from Directv's website...a handy feature if you are away and you see something you want to record.


----------



## dcstager (Feb 16, 2002)

macizcool said:


> There are reasons if my experiences are common.


It's the belief that your problem is common that is the problem. If it was such a problem, everyone would be affected. There are numerous threads about hard drive problems manifesting upon upgrade and the reasons they happen. It's not the software upgrade. It's hardware.


----------



## DevilDogs (Dec 29, 2002)

dcstager said:


> It's the belief that your problem is common that is the problem. If it was such a problem, everyone would be affected. There are numerous threads about hard drive problems manifesting upon upgrade and the reasons they happen. It's not the software upgrade. It's hardware.


That's really not accurate. While a lot of people experienced issues with 6.3e, I did not. Does that mean that problem did not exist? According to your definition, "If it was such a problem, everyone would be affected", it does since not everyone was affected.

I too have been affected by lockups in 6.4a. It has been a while since my last lockup, but the last time I said that, I got a lockup. So I guess I just jinxed myself. 

With that said, I do like the new features of 6.4a, but they do have a few bugs to work out. I've seen the deleted items folder have duplicate entries in it when scrolling or paging through it. I've had the deleted items folder say there weren't any deleted items when paging or scrolling off the first page of entries. I've also seen the deleted items shrink, even though nothing new shows up in the NPL. This seems to happen overnight, which makes me wonder if the DVR Showcase is affecting deleted items. But I guess since not everyone is experiencing these issues, it *must* be hardware.


----------



## macizcool (Jul 15, 2007)

dcstager said:


> It's the belief that your problem is common that is the problem. If it was such a problem, everyone would be affected. There are numerous threads about hard drive problems manifesting upon upgrade and the reasons they happen. It's not the software upgrade. It's hardware.


Check the "6.4a is here" thread. That's where I have heard others reporting freezes when the satellite loses a signal. There was one person who mentioned that all he had to do was stand in front of his dish.

I understand that it's possibly a hardware issue, but there are no definitive signs that it's either hardware or software. It could be either of the two as of right now. My Tivo has not locked up for a few days. Thanks for talking down to me.


----------



## bengalfreak (Oct 20, 2002)

dcstager said:


> There's probably no reason even for people with hacked units to stay at 6.2a now. The patches have been located in 6.4a and a tested Superpatch is available. The Zipper will work on it. Although multiple room viewing is not there anymore, you can still import and export video to and from all your Tivos and PCs with a Home Media Option program called MovieLoader.


MovieLoader is a huge kludge compared to MRV. 6.2a foorever!!!


----------



## Gunnyman (Jul 10, 2003)

dcstager said:


> There's probably no reason even for people with hacked units to stay at 6.2a now. The patches have been located in 6.4a and a tested Superpatch is available. The Zipper will work on it. Although multiple room viewing is not there anymore, you can still import and export video to and from all your Tivos and PCs with a Home Media Option program called MovieLoader.


Without MRV we might as well all have R-15's!


----------



## Dkerr24 (Oct 29, 2004)

Not interested in 6.4a at all. 6.2a with the zipper gives me the features I want. Would probably seldom use the remote booking feature anyway.


----------



## dcstager (Feb 16, 2002)

Gunnyman said:


> Without MRV we might as well all have R-15's!


There's an HME program that does everything MRV did, i.e., MovieLoader. Instead of going to the bottom of the Now Playing list to get programs from your PC, you go to Music, Photos and More. From there you can move everything to/from anywhere.


----------



## CrashHD (Nov 10, 2006)

You said you have 6.2a right now, correct?

IF it ain't broke...


----------



## unclemoosh (Sep 11, 2004)

> IF it ain't broke...


I agree, but...

I upgraded one of my HDVR's to 6.4a. I applied the tivoapp patches, ran an updated bufferhack, installed MovieLoader and Galleon. I could already do remote scheduling and recover deleted files via TWP, but these features and Overlap Protection may come in handy. Everything seems to be working well. I have enjoyed some of the features of Galleon I didn't have with javaHMO. MovieLoader seems to be as good, if not better (it allows 2-way transfer from single GUI on Tivo), than MRV.

The jury is still out before I upgrade all of my machines, but, so far, so good.


----------



## beanpoppa (Jan 7, 2004)

MRV is extremely stable. Movieloader, with its dependence on MFS_FTP, isn't. Also, MRV works with Tivoserver on a PC, which allows me to seamlessly transfer videos I've downloaded from the Internet, in almost any format, to the Tivo right from the Tivo UI. Movieloader doesn't work with Tivoserver.

I have 6.2a on four of my Tivos, and suffer through 6.3 on my HR10.



dcstager said:


> There's an HME program that does everything MRV did, i.e., MovieLoader. Instead of going to the bottom of the Now Playing list to get programs from your PC, you go to Music, Photos and More. From there you can move everything to/from anywhere.


----------



## dcstager (Feb 16, 2002)

beanpoppa said:


> MRV is extremely stable. Movieloader, with its dependence on MFS_FTP, isn't. Also, MRV works with Tivoserver on a PC, which allows me to seamlessly transfer videos I've downloaded from the Internet, in almost any format, to the Tivo right from the Tivo UI. Movieloader doesn't work with Tivoserver.


You're right on all of that, I must concede. I guess I've got too comfortable with all the transcoding tools. I was using FFMPEG and TYFFMPEG to create really good ty files for tivoserver already so when MovieLoader moved them around just fine and kept all the metadata in all the back and forth I was satisfied.


----------



## goony (Nov 20, 2003)

MRV is the main reason I will stay at 7.2a... I already have (secure) remote access to my 4 DTivos via a PC-based Linux/Apache server.

The ability to run Galleon is tempting, but not enough to give up MRV. I use Tivoserver a lot and to give that up with 6.4a is further cement for me to stay at 6.2a.


----------



## rbtravis (Aug 9, 2005)

6.4a has the code in it to delete PPV 24 hrs after viewing. If your DVR cannot upgrade to 6.4a they may not be able to delete PPV recordings.  Value added by Philips to the DSR7000/17?


----------



## marrone (Oct 11, 2001)

I've made several daily calls to try to force the 6.4a upgrade. No dice. Any ideas?

(this was instantcaked to 6.2a a while back...I just recently bothered to connect it to the phone line to try to get the upgrade)

I'm assuming my SD-DVR40 should have grabbed it off the satellite and just never got the signal (via phone) to actually switch to the new version.

-Mike


----------

