# TiVo DVR Expander



## dnorth12 (Feb 10, 2005)

Have the 1TB Bolt. Transferring all my recordings from the Premier that I am going to retire. Forgot that the Premier has a lot more capacity than the Bolt.

Bolt is at 74% with about 20 more HD recordings to go.

I am not going to crack the case and put in a larger drive, so I will opt for external expansion.

My question is, is the only available expansion the WD DVR Expander that TiVo sells for $130.00. And is TiVo the only place to get it?

I searched Best Buy thinking they would sell it since that is where I bought the Bolt, but did not see it on their website. Although I did see a bunch of WD MyBooks for the around the same price with a whole lot more capacity, though they were not marked as DVR Expanders.

I understand that there is special cable needed due to some changes to the esata connection, so that is something that would need to be considered.

Any info greatly appreciated.


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## Peter G (Jan 3, 2012)

North

I bought this expander for my Roamio basic, it works fine. Make sure to follow the hook up instructions carefully in order. 

Try Amazon for another source to buy it. 

I read that the cable needs to be special (deeper socket?) to work properly with the bolt, that may be a good reason to buy it direct from TiVo.

Peter G


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## dnorth12 (Feb 10, 2005)

Hi Peter,

When you say "this expander" do you mean the same one Tivo sells or did you mean to include a link to another product?

Thanks,

dnorth


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

lol. Holy double entendres batman. Or I'll take Porn Star names for $600 Alex.


Anyway I can't believe you can't just hook up any external drive to your Tivo at this point. Even Nintendo lets you hook up any external hard drive to their Wii U for storing their games. And they are very very protective of their content and often ripped for being behind the times in technical features like this.


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## gweempose (Mar 23, 2003)

Another option would be to use kmttg to transfer recordings to a computer or NAS on your network.


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

You should keep the shows that you are not going to watch right way off the Tivo, for space concerns. When you want to watch them, transfer/copy/stream if possible. 

The Bolt space is less due to the 4K ability, so the same drive size shows less hours on the Bolt then Premiere/Roamio.


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## HD_Dude (Sep 11, 2006)

ThAbtO said:


> The Bolt space is less due to the 4K ability, .


Not sure what you mean here, since the Bolt can only stream 4K. It cannot record it.


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

HD_Dude said:


> Not sure what you mean here, since the Bolt can only stream 4K. It cannot record it.


Doubt if any cableCo/OTA is broadcasting in 4K yet.


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## gigaguy (Aug 30, 2013)

gweempose said:


> Another option would be to use kmttg to transfer recordings to a computer or NAS on your network.


I am tied to Time Warner, supplied cheap in my condo, and TWC copyright blocks 85% of content, so transfers off Tivo are not doable, and I have to think that a sizable % here use TWC too? Just wondering...


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## Peter G (Jan 3, 2012)

dnorth,

I meant the same WD DVR expander that TiVo sells/recommends. Works fine. I have a lot of one-pass recordings set up and still am using only about 60% of the available capacity. 

Peter G


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## dnorth12 (Feb 10, 2005)

Peter G said:


> dnorth,
> 
> I meant the same WD DVR expander that TiVo sells/recommends. Works fine. I have a lot of one-pass recordings set up and still am using only about 60% of the available capacity.
> 
> Peter G


Got it. No I mean I really got it. :up: Ordered yesterday, will be here tomorrow.

Thank You...


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## estacionsj (Feb 8, 2010)

Just wondering if any one might know is there a way 
to Remove a DVR Expander with out losing shows.
I have watching a lot of shows and deleting them, im down
to 30% capacity and thinking i no longer need the tivo expander.
So is there a way to remove it with out loosing my shows.

Tivo roamio 2tb
Expnader 500gb

Thanks for any hlp


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

estacionsj said:


> Just wondering if any one might know is there a way
> to Remove a DVR Expander with out losing shows.
> I have watching a lot of shows and deleting them, im down
> to 30% capacity and thinking i no longer need the tivo expander.
> ...


Only way is to copy them to another Tivo or PC (unless copy-protected). Remove the expander. Copy the shows back.


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