# Connecting a dvd recorder to an OTA



## Sandyj (Feb 2, 2009)

We just got our new roamio ota - we only have ota service, so what a great deal! My husband routinely moves shows from our other tivo, whatever the one was right before roamio came out, to a dvd recorder. But when he looked at the back of the roamio, he said it was 'different' and would have to figure out how to hook it up.

Are there already instructions on how to do this? We both work evenings so have to record EVERYTHING we watch, and even with the external drive, need to move shows to make room. And yes, even with 2 tivos, lol. I watch a lot of pbs alone. Any help is appreciated.


----------



## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

You need a breakout cable that has 1/8" mini headphone type jack on one end and three RCA audio video connectors (yellow, white, red) on the other for all of the base Roamio models. This plugs into the AV jack on the back. They sell them on TiVo.com. You can also use ones from devices like the WDTV but may have to switch colors with some. Be advised this will only give you an SD tv signal, not HD. The only HD output on base roamios is the HDMI connection. It probably doesn't matter since your DVD recorder probably doesn't record anything higher than 480i SD anyway. 

Based on what you've said, my suggestion is to just buy a larger hard drive for your Roamio OTA. You can very easily swap the hard drive up to 3TB in them. It's simply plug and play. You can also put in drives up to 6TB with a little PC work on them beforehand. The normal drive in base roamios are 500GB, so this will increase your space for more shows exponentially if you go with a 3+TB drive.


----------



## Sandyj (Feb 2, 2009)

Thanks, this helps. We have a WD external drive to attach already. It was my understanding that you couldn't use a bigger hard drive AND an external drive, as there was some sort of limit on the data size. Or was that just the last tivo version? The hd crapped out on the other one (I THINK a premier) and the the weaknees folks replaced it and told us that. I was trying to avoid another $250 cost - who knew free tv could be so expensive, lol.


----------



## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

Why not just transfer them to your computer? You could then edit them, convert to smaller format and/or write to a DVD with little or no loss in quality.


----------



## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

Sandyj said:


> Thanks, this helps. We have a WD external drive to attach already. It was my understanding that you couldn't use a bigger hard drive AND an external drive, as there was some sort of limit on the data size. Or was that just the last tivo version? The hd crapped out on the other one (I THINK a premier) and the the weaknees folks replaced it and told us that. I was trying to avoid another $250 cost - who knew free tv could be so expensive, lol.


A 3TB internal HD shouldn't cost you more than about $120. I've never used the external ones, but from what I hear they're not extremely reliable and if you lose it or the internal then all recordings are lost since they're striped across both drives. If it were me I would ditch the external in favor of a 3TB or larger internal.


----------



## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

lpwcomp said:


> Why not just transfer them to your computer? You could then edit them, convert to smaller format and/or write to a DVD with little or no loss in quality.


This is also a great suggestion!


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

This is the cable you need...

https://www.tivo.com/shop/detail/av-cable

Only the red/white/yellow one will work with the Roamio OTA. The other one is designed for the Mini. But you get both as a set.


----------



## Sandyj (Feb 2, 2009)

Is there a way to get them to your computer that ISN'T wireless? The only wireless we have is on our cell phones and a small metered hotspot for updating the tivo.


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

If your computer and TiVo are connected to the same local network you can transfer shows from the TiVo to the PC without using any of your internet data. Just because it's using wifi doesn't mean it's using the internet. As long as all the traffic stays inside your home it shouldn't use any of your hotspot data .


----------



## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

Sandyj said:


> Is there a way to get them to your computer that ISN'T wireless? The only wireless we have is on our cell phones and a small metered hotspot for updating the tivo.


How is your computer connected to the Internet?


----------



## Sandyj (Feb 2, 2009)

The computer uses the same hot spot via my cell phone. I have a note 3 phone and do most of my 'internetting' through it, as it has unlimited internet. The hot spot is just 5 gigs, which is enough for the tivo and what computer access I need.

So Dan, are you saying that if I turn on the hot spot, connect the computer AND the tivo to it, I should be able to move stuff from the tivo to the computer without using any hot spot data? Am I understanding that correctly? If so, that would be awesome.


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Sandyj said:


> So Dan, are you saying that if I turn on the hot spot, connect the computer AND the tivo to it, I should be able to move stuff from the tivo to the computer without using any hot spot data? Am I understanding that correctly? If so, that would be awesome.


Yes. But you should monitor it the first time just to be sure your hotspot isn't counting it even though it's local.


----------



## pfiagra (Oct 13, 2014)

Dan203 said:


> This is the cable you need...
> 
> https://www.tivo.com/shop/detail/av-cable
> 
> Only the red/white/yellow one will work with the Roamio OTA. The other one is designed for the Mini. But you get both as a set.


Side question (and only asking because I am too lazy right now after my work day to look it up): does the mini output HD through this cable to component inputs on a DVD recorder?


----------



## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

As long as the recordings are unprotected, they can be copied to the computer.

Typically, we use a router to connect between computers and TiVos. The hotspot should be able to let you connect a computer and TiVo and copy shows to each other. You would not be able to copy to phones or tablets the same way, they use a different format.


----------



## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

pfiagra said:


> Side question (and only asking because I am too lazy right now after my work day to look it up): does the mini output HD through this cable to component inputs on a DVD recorder?


Yes the mini will output HD component through that jack, but I doubt the DVD recorder can take in an HD signal. Maybe 480p tops, unless there's newer ones that I don't know about that can and do something like H.264 encoding to make the file small enough to record HD on a standard DVD?


----------



## Sandyj (Feb 2, 2009)

Dudes.

You have changed my life.

I had no idea you could set up a home network outside of the internet. I thought connecting THRU the internet was the whole point of the network.

I connected the tivo and laptop through my phone and was able to move a show without dinging my data cap, as suggested. I was flummoxed, as was my husband (stop laughing!, lol). It took quite a while, so no savings on time over a dvd recorder, but MUCH easier. I'm guessing part of that is the phone. I am now looking into setting up a private, internet-less network with a router.

This leads to new questions. I had downloaded the last version of the free tivo desktop a couple of years ago (just happened to be on the site back then and saw it, didn't even really know what it was but, hey, you never know when you might need something.....) installed it and it works fine on my win 7 laptop. Is there a reason I should upgrade to the current paid version?

And, when burning the shows to a disc, do I need a special program like the roxio tivo sells, or can I just used what comes with win 7? And will the discs play on a dvd player?

I really appreciate all the help. I'm starting to feel like a cave person.


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

You can still get the free version here..

http://assets.tivo.com/assets/exe/tivotogo/TiVoDesktop2.8.3.exe

The reason they stopped putting a link to it on their site is because with Windows 8+ they no longer include the codecs you need to play .tivo files in Windows Media Player. The paid version includes the codecs required for that. But there are other ways to get them. And if you're using Win7 then you already have them.

As for making a DVD.... there are a million programs out there that do it. Some free some paid. I'm partial to VideoReDo myself.


----------



## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

Before burning to disc, you should decrypt them first so that you are dealing with an unencrypted .mpg file rather than an encrypted .tivo file.


----------



## Sandyj (Feb 2, 2009)

lpwcomp said:


> Before burning to disc, you should decrypt them first so that you are dealing with an unencrypted .mpg file rather than an encrypted .tivo file.


How exactly would I do that?


----------



## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

Sandyj said:


> How exactly would I do that?


The easiest way is probably to install kmttg and use it to do the transfer and decryption.

When you say you have your TiVo and your PC connected "through your phone", what exactly did you mean by that?


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I assume she's using the phone as a mobile hotspot.


----------



## Sandyj (Feb 2, 2009)

Dan203 said:


> I assume she's using the phone as a mobile hotspot.


Yes, exactly. Thanks!


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

How does your TiVo connect to the internet? Also through the phone?


----------



## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

Dan203 said:


> I assume she's using the phone as a mobile hotspot.





Sandyj said:


> Yes, exactly. Thanks!


A hotspot is a way for other devices to use your phone's internet connection. It shouldn't really have anything to do with device-device connections except maybe as a DHCP server.

Is the hotspot a separate device or is it a setting/app on your phone?

I suspect that the reason that the transfers are so slow is that they are going over a slow wifi connection.


----------



## Sandyj (Feb 2, 2009)

It's a setting on my phone. I turn it on and connect to the tivos a couple of times a week to update the program guide. It doesn't use much bandwidth and is relatively quick - usually a couple of minutes start to finish. But I agree that is why it took so long to move the show - over an hour for a 30 minute show, a 2.5 gig file. I don't know how to clock the speed, not that it really matters. So I'm looking into a router, instead.


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

lpwcomp said:


> A hotspot is a way for other devices to use your phone's internet connection. It shouldn't really have anything to do with device-device connections except maybe as a DHCP server.


It's acting like a wifi router/access point for the two devices.


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Sandyj said:


> It's a setting on my phone. I turn it on and connect to the tivos a couple of times a week to update the program guide. It doesn't use much bandwidth and is relatively quick - usually a couple of minutes start to finish. But I agree that is why it took so long to move the show - over an hour for a 30 minute show, a 2.5 gig file. I don't know how to clock the speed, not that it really matters. So I'm looking into a router, instead.


Do you not have access to always on broadband? There are several things TiVo does that require an always on internet connection. For example the search feature on the Roamio will not work without an internet connection. Unlike the older units which only searched the local data, the Roamio uses a central search feature on TiVo's servers which allows it to schedule things that may not be in the local data and search other services like Netflix, Amazon, etc... There are also a few odd features that don't work without an always on internet connection. For example for some reason you can't cancel a recording from the To Do List without an internet connection.

If at all possible you should consider getting some sort of always on internet. Even if you just have to get one of those mobile hotspots from your cell provider to use. TiVo wont use that much data, but it will work a lot better with an always on connection.


----------



## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

Dan203 said:


> It's acting like a wifi router/access point for the two devices.


A wireless device-device connection shouldn't use the access point unless a direct connection is not possible and the router is for routing internet traffic. Even a wired connection is via a switch, sometimes the one integrated into the same box as the router, sometimes not.


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I don't think TiVo allows device to device connections. It requires an access point. It might be possible to setup the PC to act as an access point and allow the TiVo to connect, but since she's also using the phone as a way for the TiVo and PC to connect to the internet using it as a access point makes it easier.


----------



## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

You also can't schedule a recording when you're away from home w/o an always on connection.

All in all, a Roamio doesn't work as well w/o constant access to the internet.


----------



## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

Dan203 said:


> I don't think TiVo allows device to device connections. It requires an access point. It might be possible to setup the PC to act as an access point and allow the TiVo to connect, but since she's also using the phone as a way for the TiVo and PC to connect to the internet using it as a access point makes it easier.


Since when? The xfer doesn't involve the internet at all. You can (or at least used to be able to) directly connect two TiVos together but maybe wifi is different.


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Wifi is different. TiVos can only act as a device connecting to an access point. They can not join ad-hock networks or act as an access point. With Ethernet you could do it if you assigned a static IP. 

Since she's using the phone for internet the easiest way to make the TiVo be able to access the internet AND be able to transfer to the PC is to use the phone as a hotspot. 

You could setup the PC to act as a hotspot and connect the TiVo directly to it for transfers, but then you'd have to reset all the wifi parameters when you wanted to connect to the phone for internet. Unless there is a significant performance advantage I can't see that being worth the hassle.


----------



## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

Tivo Desktop has been getting out of date (or starting to). There are alternatives, PyTivo (Its just harder to setup, but once set up, its a "Set it and Forget it" program), which does 2 way copy/Transfers just like Tivo Desktop, only better/sleeker. 

There is also a program called KMTTG, which has lots more options like decrypt (makes those .TiVo files into MPG by removing an encryption layer set by the Tivo.) It has other features as well, encoding to other devices, like iPhone, iPad.

There is a program called VideoReDo TVSuite (which is a Windows only program and isn't free,) is a video editor to remove sections of video such as commercials, or if there is a section that you want to keep while discarding everything else. It can also make DVDs.


----------



## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

Upon reflection, the wifi restrictions make sense from a security standpoint.

To the OP - I am no network guru, but what I _*think*_ you need is something like this. You would connect both the TiVo and your computer to it via wired Ethernet. That way the TiVo-PC xfers would be over a wired connection. You would have to disable the wireless connection on the TiVo and possibly at least temporarily on the computer. I would also assign a fixed IP address to the TiVo.


----------



## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

A Wireless/Cell hotspot device would not have an ethernet port, only a power port.

I have a hotspot device, only port is a MicroUSB port to charge the battery. Its from Freedompop with a free 500 MB monthly account, and only pay $2 for a roll over program (currently stored 3 GB.)


----------



## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

ThAbtO said:


> A Wireless/Cell hotspot device would not have an ethernet port, only a power port.


Might I politely inquire as to what prompted that post?


----------



## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

Wasn't that what the OP is using? and now researching for a router?


----------



## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

ThAbtO said:


> Wasn't that what the OP is using? and now researching for a router?


She's actually using her phone, but your point still applies, which is why I pointed her to a WAP that has two Ethernet ports and could be used to bridge between the wired and wifi nets while enabling a wired connection between the TiVo and the PC.


----------



## Sandyj (Feb 2, 2009)

I do not have 'always on' internet, and was not aware that the roamio ota more or less needed it. Although we live on the edge of a big city (dallas), our house is in an unfortunate location. Not quite 'dead', but not really alive, either. Most provider maps show their range ending at the house next door, lol. (We look into such things as clear and freedompop from time to time, hoping for better coverage.) When it is windy or the weather is bad, my internet connection is so slow the tivo drops the signal. We would need a wired provider and that would cost more than we are willing to spend, considering how little use it would get. For the time being, the cellphone hotspot add-on is our most cost-effective option.

James, I find the pocket router you suggested intriguing. They carry it at frys locally and my husband is going to pick one up today. It is much less expensive than the 'real' router I was looking at and would seem to be much simplier to use. If it doesn't do the job, it will be easy enough to return for something else.

One step at a time, this is coming together for me. I've downloaded kmttg (I'm a sourceforge fan and use several open source programs from there) and next need to figure out how to add another hard drive to my laptop. It has a spot inside for a second drive, but I haven't been able to figure out how to connect it. The instructions from hp are less than clear (the pictures don't completely match what I see in my computer) and I think I need a cable or something. I've been meaning to get around to it, and the time has finally come.

I do appreciate all the help and will let you know how the router works out.


----------



## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

You could use a 2TB USB external hard drive for the laptop, but with today's HD Tivo recording size, it will fill up quickly.

I have a network attached 8TB drive and it is about 1/2 full at this point. I mostly have old series TV shows and only a couple new ones, like Amazing Race and America's Got Talent. I also would need to find some time to remove commercials which would reduce their size about 1/3.


----------



## Sandyj (Feb 2, 2009)

We did pick up the TP-Link pocket router and set up was a snap. I moved a couple of test shows over from the premier, which while faster than the phone, was relatively slow. I know the speed depends on a number of things. My laptop has a standard 802.11n network adapter, which I believe max's out at 300 mbps, and the router up to 150 mbps. However, the connection on the laptop shows only 72. The laptop and tivo are about 6 feet apart and the router is half way between. I know interference plays a part, so I took it to work for a test with my laptop and I'm still showing 72.

Any suggestions as to how I can speed it up? The speed isn't that big of a deal, since I will probably be doing the transfering during the night, but it would be nice to get closer to the 150 mark. I am connecting wirelessly - would using wired ethernet be faster?

Kmttg is installed and I am working my way through figuring it out.

This is all incredibly cool and I am grateful for your help. I tried explaining the impact all this will have on our tivo lives to my husband, and his only comment was to ask if I thought he could pick up the (breakout) cable at best buy, for the dvd recorder. *sigh*


----------



## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

Did you know that if the DVD recorder isn't recording in HD, you would lose that video quality.

Also, what will you do with all those DVDs once you are done watching them? You cannot record on them again. At least, with a hard drive, you can record all the shows and copy them to it, watch them, and delete them after, or keep.


----------



## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

ThAbtO said:


> Also, what will you do with all those DVDs once you are done watching them? You cannot record on them again. At least, with a hard drive, you can record all the shows and copy them to it, watch them, and delete them after, or keep.


It seems like the next front might be setting up pytivo or streambaby on her laptop to host the archived content for playback on her TiVos, yes?


----------



## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

Sandyj said:


> My laptop has a standard 802.11n network adapter, which I believe max's out at 300 mbps, and the *router up to 150 mbps*. However, the connection on the laptop shows only 72. The laptop and tivo are about 6 feet apart and the router is half way between. I know interference plays a part, so I took it to work for a test with my laptop and I'm still showing 72.
> 
> *Any suggestions as to how I can speed it up?* The speed isn't that big of a deal, since I will probably be doing the transfering during the night, but it would be nice to get closer to the 150 mark. * I am connecting wirelessly - would using wired ethernet be faster?*


Yes, a wired Ethernet connection will improve your speeds and remove some of the variability common w/ Wi-Fi. Wiring even one of your devices (suggest the Roamio OTA) will improve your speed, since there will now be one less device competing for the limited wireless bandwidth. In fact, I ran across this just the other day when doing some network testing. I was testing my connection rate between two wireless devices (laptops), and I doubled the effective rate by moving one of the devices to a wired Ethernet connection.

Your max theoretical transfer rate when wired will be 100Mbps, the link rate spec'd on the TP-Link router's LAN ports (as well as the Roamio OTA). It may not seem like much of a gain over the "72" you're seeing, but I think you'll see marked improvements by wiring the OTA to your TP-Link.



> This is all incredibly cool and I am grateful for your help. I tried explaining the impact all this will have on our tivo lives to my husband, and his only comment was to ask if I thought he could pick up the (breakout) cable at best buy, for the dvd recorder. *sigh*


They're all ingrates, never appreciating all we do to make it all work.


----------



## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

HarperVision said:


> Based on what you've said, my suggestion is to just buy a larger hard drive for your Roamio OTA. You can very easily swap the hard drive up to 3TB in them. It's simply plug and play. You can also put in drives up to 6TB with a little PC work on them beforehand. The normal drive in base roamios are 500GB, so this will increase your space for more shows exponentially if you go with a 3+TB drive.


Gotta vote for upgrading the Roamio OTA's 500GB to 3TB or more (6TB!), given the OP's usage summary. Whatever time/effort is required to do the drive upgrade will certainly save as much time otherwise later spent transferring and archiving shows. Plus, it would keep more content immediately accessible via the TiVo's "My Shows" listing.


----------



## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

krkaufman said:


> Gotta vote for upgrading the Roamio OTA's 500GB to 3TB or more (6TB!),...


FWIW, I just noticed that the *WD 3TB AV-GP* drive price on Amazon recently dropped $9, and is currently at $110. (Though I'm wondering if I should wait another few days, until the 15th and "*Prime Day*," to see if any add'l savings can be had.)


----------



## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

My suggestion would be to connect both the TiVo and the PC to the router with Ethernet cable.


----------



## Sandyj (Feb 2, 2009)

krkaufman said:


> They're all ingrates, never appreciating all we do to make it all work.


My husband is not one to let go of proven technology, no matter how old or outdated. Regardless of how saturated the bush is with small, flightless birds just throwing themselves at him, he has a strangle-hold on the poor creature in his hand. I do my best to pry his fingers open but it is often a thankless task.

Y'all have talked me into replacing the disk, it will help reduce the number of shows to be moved. I was under the impression that something had to be done to the drive before it could be used, or is that just pre-roamio tivos? From reading here, it sounds like I can put an up to a 3TB blank disk inside, straight out of the box. Is that so?

Which now brings me to which one to get, preferably from best buy because I have a hefty gift card waiting to be used. The recommendations I've seen are the WD green drives, but I don't see any on the bb site. Any suggestions?


----------



## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

Sandyj said:


> I was under the impression that something had to be done to the drive before it could be used, or is that just pre-roamio tivos? From reading here, it sounds like I can put an up to a 3TB blank disk inside, straight out of the box. Is that so?


*Correct! Up to 3TB is handled automatically.* Prep work is only required on drives larger than 3TB.



Sandyj said:


> Which now brings me to which one to get, preferably from best buy because I have a hefty gift card waiting to be used. The recommendations I've seen are the WD green drives, but I don't see any on the bb site. Any suggestions?


See my previous post for my recommendation. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to be available through Best Buy. However, I believe people have been using the WD Red drives with some success, so this one may be an option for you:

WD Red 3TB (OEM/Bare) Drive​... and it's ALSO on sale for $110.


----------



## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

Sandyj said:


> My husband is not one to let go of proven technology, no matter how old or outdated. Regardless of how saturated the bush is with small, flightless birds just throwing themselves at him, he has a strangle-hold on the poor creature in his hand. I do my best to pry his fingers open but it is often a thankless task.


Ah, different case, then. Reduce, reuse, recycle taken to the limit.

I can't criticize too much, since I still have a couple ReplayTV DVRs running, and am still using XBMC4XBOX as our primary video library driver.

p.s. Thanks for the chuckle re: birds.


----------



## Sandyj (Feb 2, 2009)

He still uses vcr's.

I have no defense for that, lol.


----------



## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

Sandyj said:


> Which now brings me to which one to get, preferably from best buy because I have a hefty gift card waiting to be used. The recommendations I've seen are the WD green drives, but I don't see any on the bb site. Any suggestions?


WD30EURS
WD30EURX
WD30EFRX

Those are the most recommended 3TB drives.


----------



## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

krkaufman said:


> However, I believe people have been using the WD Red drives with some success, so this one may be an option for you:
> 
> WD Red 3TB (OEM/Bare) Drive​... and it's ALSO on sale for $110.


Hmmm...* this guy's post* has me concerned about recommending the WD Red line of drives.



> The WD Red NAS EFRX series has all the AV-GP has to offer, plus a 120-150TB/yr workload rating per drive (more than double the Purple). But, it is also a TLER/ERC enabled drive, so it can be used in RAID arrays.
> 
> I made the switch from AV-GP to Red NAS, and they have been great, except one drive had some weak sectors (not bad, just written weakly, and couldn't read back). It made the TiVo unusable, I had to run a full read test, followed by a full write zeros test, to reclaim the sectors, and start all over. If these weak write sectors had not been in a critical area of the drive, they likely would have just made a glitch in some recordings.
> 
> The problem with TLER/ERC enabled drives, is they take away control of error recovery from the TiVo. Since TiVos do not have TLER/ERC enabled drive controllers, any sector with a read or write error gets essentially stuck in limbo, only attempting retries for 7 seconds, per failed read/write, then moving on, rather than letting the drive keep trying, until the TiVo can realize there's a problem, and deal with it.


----------



## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

Add'l feedback...



lessd said:


> krkaufman said:
> 
> 
> > Need your help, lessd...!
> ...


----------



## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

This is what I've used from Best Buy on more than one occasion in Roamios with no issues whatsoever:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/wd-main...ulti/9312085.p?id=1219011381210&skuId=9312085

It's an EZRX 3TB Green Drive in the box but it's not easily known or seen by looking at it in the store until you open it and look at the drive itself.


----------



## Sandyj (Feb 2, 2009)

HarperVision said:


> This is what I've used from Best Buy on more than one occasion in Roamios with no issues whatsoever:
> 
> http://www.bestbuy.com/site/wd-main...ulti/9312085.p?id=1219011381210&skuId=9312085
> 
> It's an EZRX 3TB Green Drive in the box but it's not easily known or seen by looking at it in the store until you open it and look at the drive itself.


Wonderful. This is the first recommended drive I've been able to find locally, including best buy. I have an aversion to shipping hard drives as I work for the post office and know what packages go through. Ups and fedex are worse (hard to believe, I know) with brick-loading trailers. I can always delude myself it was gently delivered from best buy central via fork-lifted shrink-wrapped pallet, no matter what the truth is, lol.

The ezrx are desktop versions, eurx are av versions, do I have that right? Any downside to using a desktop drive?


----------



## UCLABB (May 29, 2012)

Sandyj said:


> Wonderful. This is the first recommended drive I've been able to find locally, including best buy. I have an aversion to shipping hard drives as I work for the post office and know what packages go through. Ups and fedex are worse (hard to believe, I know) with brick-loading trailers. I can always delude myself it was gently delivered from best buy central via fork-lifted shrink-wrapped pallet, no matter what the truth is, lol.
> 
> The ezrx are desktop versions, eurx are av versions, do I have that right? Any downside to using a desktop drive?


I used the AV drive, after all, that's what a TiVo is. And, that is what TiVo puts in their units. The green drive is a little cheaper so if it was as good as the AV Green, why wouldn't TiVo use the cheaper drive? I'd forget about anecdotal evidence and go with what TiVo uses.

Check Amazon for the EURX.


----------



## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

UCLABB said:


> I used the AV drive, after all, that's what a TiVo is. And, that is what TiVo puts in their units. The green drive is a little cheaper so if it was as good as the AV Green, why wouldn't TiVo use the cheaper drive? I'd forget about anecdotal evidence and go with what TiVo uses. Check Amazon for the EURX.


I agree with this actually, even though I decided to buy the EZRX. The fact of the matter is, I don't really care if the drive fails at some point and I lose shows. To me it's just TV. I used to care a lot, but important "real" things have happened in my life and my perspectives have changed a lot.

It was really just a matter of......I was there at Best Buy getting the Roamio and that drive was there and on sale for $89, so I bought them together and went home and swapped out the drive and began guided setup.

If I had my consulting hat on and was advising my client what the BEST course of action was for peace of mind and money spent, it would be what UCLABB recommended, the green AV drive.


----------



## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

Sandyj said:


> Wonderful. This is the first recommended drive I've been able to find locally, including best buy.


Remember to price match it against Amazon, to save $9 more, as of right now. ($104 BB vs $95 Amazon)

You can price match at the time of purchase or any time within your return window.


----------

