# Most Of Us Approaching 2 yrs - HDTIVO- Hows It Holding Up?



## cheridave (Mar 2, 2004)

Alot of us are now either on our second units or 2nd (maybe more) hard drive.

Now that we are almost entering our third year with our HD-TIVOs and we experienced some growing pains....well, how are your HD-TIVOs holding up.

What else are you experiencing?

Dave


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## TomB (Apr 28, 2000)

Well, still a bit annoyed at the slow interface, and having some audio hiccups, but am finding that the majority of our prime time and shifted viewing is now HD. Moderately happy... No significant changes in the past year or so....


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## Howie (May 3, 2004)

Mine was from one of the first batches a couple of years back (1000 bucks worth). It's still stock - I never did upgrade it. And it's still going strong. I haven't had drive or HDMI problems so far. I've been contemplating throwing another drive in it for additional capacity, but I think I might wait until the Series 3 comes out to see if it would be better to change directions totally. But, all in all, I've been very happy with my unit.


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## Larry Hutchinson (Dec 7, 1999)

Working fine after 2 years.


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## litzdog911 (Oct 18, 2002)

I hope I don't jinx things by saying this ....
My almost 2-year old HR10-250 is still working fine with no upgrades or modifications, including its HDMI output.


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## alv (May 6, 2004)

I'm on my 3rd.


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## Unbeliever (Feb 3, 2001)

Mine was in the first batch. I had to replace the hard drive as it was starting to exhibit signs of bad spots on the disk, but other than that, it's going strong.

--Carlos V.


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## tem (Oct 6, 2003)

I'm on my 5th -- HDMI -> HDMI -> Hard drive -> HDMI -> current

I just hope it holds out until Comcast gets TiVO software. Then ? May replace immediately, definitely if it croaks.


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## yannco (Feb 21, 2004)

2-year old HR10-250 is still working fine with no upgrades or modifications, including its HDMI output.


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## Runch Machine (Feb 7, 2002)

Mine is 2 years old and working perfectly. No HDMI problems and the original drive is still in there. I did upgrade it by adding a second drive after about a month, but I am very happy with it. I have bought 2 more since the price has come way down. So far, no problems with either of them, but one is only 6 months old and the most recent only a month old. 

I do put my Tivos into standby when ever I am not watching them. I don't know if this has any effect on drive wear, since they are still spinning, but it does stop the constant writing of the 30 minute buffer.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Mine are working great. I had one replaced thouigh because of the HDMi port after a year, but I doubt it ever worked from the beginning. I didn't have a display to test it on until Summer 2005, but the other HDTiVo from May 2004 is working great alonmg with the HDMi.
Of course now something will happen to one of my units.


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## jfischer (Oct 14, 1999)

Mine's not one of the very first, but still about 1.5 years old. Knock on wood, no problems at all. HDMI still works, and the drive's holding up.

I figure that by posting this, mine will now die in the next 24 hours


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## teasip (Aug 24, 2002)

1.5 yrs old and recently sent in the HDMI card to CCS (CSS?) for repair. Otherwise, aside from the slowness issues well documented, no problems. Still awaiting FiOS TV availability to compare apples to apples.


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## zalusky (Apr 5, 2002)

I have two hr10-250's and had to replace the hard drive in each twice.

The hard drives were not even repairable with spinrite.


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## maharg18 (Dec 4, 2002)

2 years here with absolutely no problems.


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## bdlucas (Feb 15, 2004)

Nary a problem.


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## Sirshagg (Dec 27, 2001)

Replaced mine once. Really tired of the hickups / stuttering, slow speed, and no software updates. But still the best thing out there, at least till Series3.


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## nolanski (Mar 27, 2006)

BUT!
No issues it's my favorite unit in the rack because it does it's job so well!

Nolanski


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## cheridave (Mar 2, 2004)

Wow, I am really surprized to hear that some of you have your original HD-TIVOs and have not experienced any problems. I think thats great.

It does appear that most of us did experience HD problems before our first year was up. I know I did.

Dave


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## thumperxr69 (Mar 22, 2004)

nolanski said:


> BUT!
> No issues it's my favorite unit in the rack because it does it's job so well!
> 
> Nolanski


Here Here...Mine is going on 1 year (9 months on the replacement -HDMI). Still the most phenomenal piece of electronics I have ever owned bar none. Even my techno phobe wife was caught saying "Why didn't you TiVo that in HD today???". I have taught her well. :up:

I will hold onto this as long as possible. No need for HD locals for me. OTA is fine for me.

T


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## btwyx (Jan 16, 2003)

My only problem has been the channels not available flakyness. That's been really bad for me, and D*'s total incompetance about even reallising they have a problem is very annoying. I'm on the 3rd (or 4th) one in discovering its an inherent problem, not a poblem with the particular unit.

Apart from that, everything's been fine. Going forward, the absense of a 6.2 upgrade and the inability to receive MPEG-4 are getting to be enough to make me look fondly at an S3.


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## bdlucas (Feb 15, 2004)

cheridave said:


> It does appear that most of us did experience HD problems before our first year was up.


How could you possibly know that?


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## Kamakzie (Jan 8, 2004)

I am still on my first (Made in America) with a few minor hiccups every now and again. Mainly slow response sometimes that a reboot fixes or it sometimes reboots on its own!


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## tavarua88 (Oct 13, 2002)

less than a year (7 months) and a tech is coming out to take a look at it on tues...


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## jeffshome (Jan 4, 2002)

I have three of the very first units and I've had to replace one hard drive. No HDMI problems.


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## horta (Nov 3, 2002)

Mine is an original one. I have no problems. Never opened or modified. I do not use HDMI. Yeah slow menus, but over all 100% satisfied.


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## Jasper (Sep 4, 2001)

I was in the top 100 of "the list"  so I guess it's about 2yrs old now. I originally added a drive right after I got it. At about the 1yr mark the original drive failed so I "had" to upgrade to dual 400's  One of them crashed but the other is still going strong. 
Never used the HDMI so I can't comment.
All in all, I love the HD tivo. I have FIOS for Internet and I would love to switch to their tv service but, the HD tivo keeps me with Directv.


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## acvthree (Jan 17, 2004)

I was on the third round of shipments. No problems so far. I added a second disk from weaknees about a year ago.

Al


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## kmp14 (Sep 18, 2003)

Mine chewed up 2 hard drives already, and HDMI died. BTW, my UtlimateTV, bought in March of 2001, is still working perfectly. That hard drive has been spinning for FIVE YEARS. Seems amazing to me


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## Wisegoat (May 22, 2004)

I am on my 3rd. First one died after 2 months. Second one lasted almost a year. 3rd one doing OK. Would love to have a faster guide and ethernet and folders, but it is still better than the POS 14 hour HD recorder offered by the local Cableco.


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## ebonovic (Jul 24, 2001)

I was #5... and that unit was replaced because of the HDMI..

Got the next one... HDMI 

Gave up on the third one, and have had it hooked to component since... so t is going about 20 months strong now.


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## Mr.Pibb (Jun 9, 2003)

Original purchase last July, hard drive on that one crashed a couple months ago.
First refurb hard drive crashed within a couple weeks
Second refurb had a bad hard drive from the start.
Requested and received a new replacement (manufactured Jan 06!) and it was OK, but I put in my own 320G drive and am keeping the original on a shelf just in case!


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## DeWitt (Jun 30, 2004)

I have one of the earliest units. ($1,000 - Ouch!)

No problems till about 4 months ago when it got slow to being unusable. Reimaged the drive and been perfect ever since. Using HDMI with no problems.

Kicking myself for not getting one of the cheap units before the lease program as I really want a second HD Tivo.


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## Lije Baley (May 12, 2004)

I bought my first one in May '04, during the CC internet ordering frenzy (remember checking the website for availability?). It lasted until last January when it was replaced because it was spontaneoulsy rebooting. (Interestingly, there was no charge). Its refurb replacement was doing the same within two weeks, and was also replaced. That replacement is still working fine, but has no logos. Never checked the HDMI on any of those units.

I picked up my second unit last July with the BB half-price Tivo coupon, only to see better deals in August/September with the great Tivo sell-off at D*. BB was still a pretty good deal, after discounts from D*. The HDMI works fine on this one.

All in all, the units have allowed me to watch HD when and how I wanted to watch it and I'm satisfied. I wonder if D*'s HD-DVR will be an acceptable replacement when the time comes.


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## Scott Corbett (May 29, 2003)

I'm on my fourth one.
I've had only a couple of months of acceptable performance from any of them.


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## Maik (Jul 23, 2002)

Bought mine in June 2004 and it has operated trouble free since. I use the component connection. Last week I bought my second unit.


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## wallyj (Jun 2, 2004)

First unit will be 2 years old in May. Never had any trouble with it. Using the HDMI to DVI adapter and cable supplied. Added a second drive a few months back. Still all good.

Bought a second unit about 6 months ago. Using HDMI and all is well.

Only complaints have to do with sloooownes.


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## whiteal (Oct 11, 2003)

Hard drive died last fall and unit had to be replaced.


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## cheridave (Mar 2, 2004)

bdlucas said:


> How could you possibly know that?


Only going by what I read here.

The Hard Drives and HDMI failures is what appears to be the biggest problems.

The slow menus, hiccups, etc seems to be characteristic of the HD-TIVO.

Dave


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## KSbugeater (Jan 26, 2006)

Purchased from Solid Signal for $899

Activated Apr 2005

HDMI > DVI connection, as well as S- for recording to DVDs

No problems whatsoever, except once I had the "channel not avail." problem Btwyx mentioned, but D* fixed with a zap from above

No complaints either. Yeah, it's slow when you try to set up recordings while tuned to two HD channels, but not unreasonable. TUNE TO 000 and 001 FIRST if you are impatient!

Also, I have over 20 SPs but only one auto-record wishlist. I think the latter probably adds to the processing time for computing time- and space- conflicts.

I, too, will use this unit as long as possible... if they eliminate MPEG2 someday, I'll demand that they leave some token signal up there so my HR10 can still record OTA.

Now that my year of warranty is up, I'm thinking about adding another hard disk.


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## bladewalker (Aug 3, 2004)

1.5 years, and as of the last few weeks, it looks like my harddrive is failing. It's been a great 1.5 years, but I'm going to leave TiVo and DirecTV now. The drive failure is just the kick to put me over the fence... moving internet/phone/tv to my cable company will save me $50/month for the next year. At which time I'll be back on the fence probably. And Series 3 could definitely work its way into my setup when it finally debuts.


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## adamshipley (Aug 21, 2002)

I got my original HD Tivo in August 2004 and added a second hard drive about a year ago. It's still going strong with no issues with HDMI or a hard drive failure. I bought another HD Tivo late last year to replace an older SD tivo and it also had no issues to date.


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## chris_h (Dec 17, 2003)

I got a second one just prior to the lease program coming around. The first one was $900, so getting a second one for $200 seemed like a bargain, and I wanted a backup ($400 - 200 rebate). The original one was still going strong when retired. I have had it since Jun 04 if memory serves.


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## Cody21 (Jan 11, 2004)

Other than an occasional reboot, still running fine ... mayboe a POLL is in order???


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## kbcrowe (Dec 12, 2000)

My original from two years ago made it about 6 months (HDMI). It's replacement made it about another 6 months and it's HD crashed. It's replacement lasted less than two hours, not exactly sure what happened to it-- power supply maybe. It's replacement is going strong and I just bought a second one for the LCD TV in my office before the lease kicked in.


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## bdlucas (Feb 15, 2004)

cheridave said:


> Only going by what I read here.


What you read here is about people who have problems, because they post. What you don't read here is about people who don't have problems, because they don't post. From what you read here there's no way you can conclude "most" of us had HD problems.


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## TiVoPrince (May 23, 2003)

*Hoping that*
mine lasts until the cable company pulls thier act together. DirecTV was a great experince from 2000 to mid 2005. Since August the declining support and lack of clear advantage will probably put me over the line when my current commitment ends....


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## Rally1 (Nov 29, 2005)

1st unit: *hard drive failure.*
2nd unit: *HDMI failure (new box).*
3rd unit: *Still working after three months (refurb).*


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## rogue5 (Jul 30, 2004)

Had to swap the HDMI card but other than that no problems. Still going strong with about 20 season passes, and no suggestions active. I record mostly HD shows and haven't had a problem (finds wood to knock on!!), I have a second unit standing by for the last year and a half that D* sent me when the HDMI went bad. I used the card from that unit and swapped it with the bad one, I still want to send that card to those guys that fix the cards so I have two good boxes. Has anybody used them, what was the experience like. This thier website http://www.ccscorporation.net/PVR_T.htm if anyone has used them please let me know what you thought.


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## teasip (Aug 24, 2002)

Excellent experience with CCS within the past 2 mos.. I haven't ready any negative comments about their service.


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## csweeny (Jun 9, 2004)

Going on one year for me with no problems (using HDMI). I felt even better yesterday when my rebate finally showed up after submitting it for the 100th time $299-100-100=  Best piece of electronics for under a 100 bucks. To bad I can't get a second one for that!


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## alagol (Dec 31, 2001)

Mine is an original ($1000) and still works well. I use component so I don't know about HDMI. My OTA is only so-so , therefore my only complaimt is not having locals on HD SAT. Overall, very satisfied.


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## Dave47 (Jun 4, 2004)

Purchased June 2004 from Circuit City. I upgraded the HD to 400GB, but NOT because the original drive was failing. I have used HDMI since Day 1 as well with no problems.

David


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## plehrack (May 7, 2002)

Mine was from the first batch and ran fine until the day I decided to upgrade my audio cables. When I removed the red RCA, the jack (relatively easily) pulled out of the unit. I've been using my replacement unit for about a year without issue.

Peter


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## Lee L (Oct 1, 2003)

Unit 1, received late april 04 bought for $899 using VE $100 discount preorder, upgraded to two 250 gig drives sometime over the summer (I can;t remember, but it was only a couple of weeks after Weakknees started offering the brackets. It still works fine to this day and is in an enclosed wood cabinet. I have never tested teh HDMI though. It is pig slow since I have about 75 SP/ARWL and a pretty full NPL, but hey, it records HD.

Unit 2, Bought 2-26-06 for $417-$200 rebate and $120 of programming discounts. Stock, works fine, much faster (but not as fast as teh SD DVR 40 it replaced) since the sdrive pace is smaller and HDMI does work on it.

Both these are still in service to date and have had no issues.

Heck, If they would give us a version of 6.2 for these things I would never want another DVR. Too bad that will never happen.


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## Waldorf (Oct 4, 2002)

bdlucas said:


> What you read here is about people who have problems, because they post. What you don't read here is about people who don't have problems, because they don't post. From what you read here there's no way you can conclude "most" of us had HD problems.


Just to add to this, I *almost* didn't post because I've had mine for nearly two years with absolutely 0 problems.

Just like those sites like resellerratings.com... Most people don't go there to post what a great transaction they had... they go to complain.


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## herdfan (Feb 5, 2003)

I am on my 2.5 one. My original had a dead HDMI out of the box, so it was replaced within a week. It went into service on 5/2. Somewhere around the 9-month mark, the HDMI died. I requested a replacement and when it came, I swapped HDMI boards and sent D* back their replacement unit with my faulty HDMI board. Has been working fine ever since.


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## KungFuCow (May 6, 2004)

Im on #6. Hard drive failures and HDMI problems abound.


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## avNeophyte (Mar 25, 2004)

I'm on unit number 4. Two hard drive failures and one HDMI posterization failure.

Program guides unbelievably slow on all 4 units!


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## jeshaffer (Feb 15, 2004)

Slowness compared to 6.2 is killing me. I only use it for sports and movies in HD. Otherwise it is TV on my sammy SIR4120. 


I am using it less rather than more as it is increasingly painful. D should be ashamed that they screwed us on this unit by getting our $1000.00 and then flushing us with no upgrade and now a Non Tivo leased unit replacement. Very nice business model. 

Looking like comcast series 3 later this year for me. Then i will ebay my unit for about 10% of what I paid for it and count it as a lesson learned. I think between the new business model and that POS DVR they are passing off, they will be surprised when it comes to it where the loyalty lies.


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## jkast (Apr 1, 2005)

I have two hr10-250s. One from April 2004, one from Sept 2005. Upgraded the 2004 machine by adding a 500mb drive to the existing 250 mb drive last June. Upgraded the 2005 machine just after I got it replacing the 250bg drive with two 300gb drives. Not a single problem with either box..... But they are slow on the menus.


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## cheridave (Mar 2, 2004)

bdlucas said:


> What you read here is about people who have problems, because they post. What you don't read here is about people who don't have problems, because they don't post. From what you read here there's no way you can conclude "most" of us had HD problems.


Not sure why you are trying to "bust my chops", but based on your statement that people who have problems post here and people that don't have problems don't post here......

Then if that is all I have to read and go by, that would make my statement true.

People posted about Hard Drive and HDMI failures.

I'm not trying to prove or dis-prove anything about the HD-TIVO, only generating conversation about approaching the 2 yr mark and how our HD-TIVOs are holding up.

Dave


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## mgoddard1 (Jun 2, 2004)

I bought one a month after they were released. The hard drive crashed a few months ago so I replaced it with a 400GB Hitachi. My HDTivo has worked perfect other than the hard drive crash.


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## jmrife (Jan 12, 2004)

Still rocking along after two years. I bought a second unit about a year ago.


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## AbMagFab (Feb 5, 2001)

I have two - one from the original batch, one from October of last year. Both are running great, and work perfectly. Seeing the crappy cable DVR's many of my friends have to deal with, I can't imagine using anything else.

When the Series 3 is available, it's "buh bye" to DirecTV, and hello to real HD (from FIOS TV or even my cable company).


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## Jon J (Aug 23, 2000)

Glad you asked.

My HR10-250 has for the past two weeks been freezing and refusing to answer remote instructions. Sometime these freezes last as long as 5 minutes and happen four or five times a day, minimum.

In addition, it has started rebooting three or four times a day for no apparent reason.

Yesterday I phoned the Protection Plan to ask how frequent the freezes and reboots had to get before I'd be sent a replacement. A rather snippy rep said nothing would be done unless I phoned while the freeze was happening and they had gone through their "troubleshooting" procedures. Of course, if the troubleshooting involves rebooting the unit, it will work until the next freeze which could be hours later.

IOW she was saying the unit must be a boat anchor before we will do anything.

I guess that will be the basis of my next call.


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## Marco (Sep 19, 2000)

First one had HD issues after 15 months or so. Second one is doing fine.


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## bladewalker (Aug 3, 2004)

> Seeing the crappy cable DVR's many of my friends have to deal with, I can't imagine using anything else.


I just switched from DirecTiVo to Charter cable with the Motorola Moxi DVR, and was braced for an unbearable experience. To my pleasant surprise, after a few days, I'd say it was about an equal trade. There's a few UI aspects that are better and a few that are worse, and the general responsiveness is much much faster on the Moxi than the dog slow TiVo.


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## Jim Skripchuk (Oct 6, 2003)

Jon J said:


> Glad you asked.
> 
> Yesterday I phoned the Protection Plan to ask how frequent the freezes and reboots had to get before I'd be sent a replacement. A rather snippy rep said nothing would be done unless I phoned while the freeze was happening and they had gone through their "troubleshooting" procedures. Of course, if the troubleshooting involves rebooting the unit, it will work until the next freeze which could be hours later.
> 
> ...


Call them again and tell them it just reboots, that is what it is eventually going to happen. Mine would reboot and play fine for about an hour and then reboot. I just told the csr it was stuck in a reboot. She told me to unplug for two minutes, and I knew this would cause the same effect, so when she asked me to plug it back in we waited for two minutes and I told her it rebooted again.

I have the protection plan. She sent another one out by fedex and I received in two days. This was just this week.


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## Castaa (Jun 16, 2004)

I got my HR10-250 in July 2003. It used to randomly reset time to time but the 'f' version of the software seems to have fixed that problem for me. No show stopping problems but the interface is very sluggish at times when going from menu to menu. I'm not sure what is going on there.

Thankfully I have had no hardware failures.


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## jhearn (Apr 23, 2004)

Had mine for about two years now. Replaced an ailing hard drive once. Started seeing the reboot problem again. But then replaced my HDTV and connected the TIVO using the HDMI output. Haven't had a bit of trouble since, and thats about two months ago.


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## Todd (Oct 7, 1999)

Got my first one 2 years ago and it died 3 months later, most likely due to the hard drive. Robert over at Value Electronics promptly got it replaced for me and that one has been pretty flawless. _Knock on wood..._ Of course I wish I had 6.2, but that's about it. :up:

Too bad we have to go with the NDS junk for MPEG4...


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## Stanley Kritzik (Dec 17, 2004)

Spread over 1 1/2 years, I'm on unit # 4 -- all HDMI problems. My current unit, which is under extended warranty, has a bad HDMI unit, so I'm using component video and waiting for D*'s new equipment.

Why am I spoiled? Because I have, for my business, what used to be called an IBM AS/400 -- now a System i. This server just runs. Period. There are a few hundred thousand such systems world-wide, and uptime is reputed to be 99.995%, or thereabouts. If I had HR10-250 run experience in my work world, I'd be devastated.

The conclusion: D* has to have products made that work a heck of a lot better than the 10-250.

Things like hard drives are so cheap today, that "mirroring" the drive is a cheap and easy solution that would allow non-destructive drive replacement. For the electronics parts, just make 'em better and re-engineer unreliable subsystems. There's no excuse for all these 3, 4, 5 and 6 replacement histories.

SK


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## mbobak (May 23, 2004)

I bought mine in early July 2004, paid $1000 from Circuit City. Still going strong, no issues, thoug I don't use HDMI, so....

-Mark


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## bocktar (Sep 24, 2001)

[Cross Fingers]

Got mine from VE's first preorder shipment. No problems. Just slow. Still love it though. Leaving D* when S3 shows up.

[/Cross Fingers]


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## jrosen1040 (Jan 10, 2004)

Both of mine are from the early shipments (not the first but soon after). I think one arrived in June 2004 and the other a month or so later. One was replaced (by Directv with a brand new unit) when it died after about 2 hours of use. But since then both have worked fine. I don't use HDMI on either so I don't know about that. I haven't upgraded them.


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## tall1 (Oct 12, 2004)

Stanley Kritzik said:


> Spread over 1 1/2 years, I'm on unit # 4 -- all HDMI problems. My current unit, which is under extended warranty, has a bad HDMI unit, so I'm using component video and waiting for D*'s new equipment.
> 
> Why am I spoiled? Because I have, for my business, what used to be called an IBM AS/400 -- now a System i. This server just runs. Period. There are a few hundred thousand such systems world-wide, and uptime is reputed to be 99.995%, or thereabouts. If I had HR10-250 run experience in my work world, I'd be devastated.
> 
> ...


You get what you pay for. Last time I checked, an iSeries was about $100,000. I paid $199 for my HDTivo. Check out the CCS Corporation website  for a possible explanation of the HDMI problem.


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## Stanley Kritzik (Dec 17, 2004)

tall1 said:


> You get what you pay for. Last time I checked, an iSeries was about $100,000. I paid $199 for my HDTivo. Check out the CCS Corporation website  for a possible explanation of the HDMI problem.


Well, you can pay as little as $20,000 for a small IBM Series i, or get a terabyte system for $1,000,000, easily. The main point is that the engineering and architecture are sound. I mean, constantly running hard drives will fail, with MTBF at, say, four years. Well, with a lot of drives out there, there are failures every day, week or month. For $100 at cost, a second drive makes that problem about disappear, as far as a destructive drive failure is concerned.

Also, there's a lot of low-priced electronic items around that just work. The HDMI thing is just lousy design, with components overheating, or the equivalent. Someone should have fixed that item a long time ago. That would be a lot better than all the box swaps D* has done.

S. K.


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## njmurvin (Apr 17, 2003)

First one bought at BB for $1000 less the D* incentives at the time.

Bought second on 2/28 at Costco to beat the deadline for the lease only program (although not really sure why). It's activated but not in use yet as I haven't completed the remodel of the room where it goes. 

First one is still working same as new. Slow menus (so what else is new?). Occasional freezes and dropouts. But, it delivers HDTV to me, so all is forgiven.


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## jeffl-1 (Jul 12, 2004)

bdlucas said:


> What you read here is about people who have problems, because they post. What you don't read here is about people who don't have problems, because they don't post. From what you read here there's no way you can conclude "most" of us had HD problems.


Crap, How about all the people who have never posted here that have had failures. This thing is a lemon. The failure rates are very high. This comes from someone who built them.


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## Budget_HT (Jan 2, 2001)

AbMagFab said:


> I have two - one from the original batch, one from October of last year. Both are running great, and work perfectly. Seeing the crappy cable DVR's many of my friends have to deal with, I can't imagine using anything else. ...


ditto


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## Chris Blount (Nov 1, 2003)

On my 4th unit. 

Purchase May 2004. 

Replaced in September 2004, May 2005 and April 2006 (just lost it last night). 

All hard drive failures.


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## jm_sullivan (Dec 10, 2003)

Almost 2 years old now. It arrived on 4/23/04, the day before I got married. Mostly great performance so far. Last year the hard drive went kaput, but replacing it was no big deal for me. It's been fine ever since, though I think it could be better if Directv would ever release a software update for it.


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## jpenneck (Sep 16, 2002)

I have two units, one is two years old and one is 6 months old. The two year old unit has just recently started spontaneously rebooting, maybe once a week. It normally happens when someone changes channels...

I'm sure I could get DTV to "replace it" but I'm not really inclined to give DTV any more money than I have to, especially as the "replacement cost" would likely be the same as getting a new lease...

If DTV would get their act together and release the HR-20 (?) I might consider upgrading, but their current approach to equipment leases stinks !


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## DennisMileHi (Apr 23, 2004)

I got my first unit May 2004. After D* credit, I think the net cost was around $600. Using component and still running with no problems. 

Got my second unit for my home theater June 2005. After all the D* rebates and credits, it was basically free to me. Using HDMI with no problems.

Yes, the menus are slow and playing with season passes is a bit of a pain timewise, but we are used to it.

So, nothing much to complain about. Still wondering whether the HR20 with D* or the series 3 with Comcast will be the way to go down the road.


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## rb5505 (Jul 29, 2004)

what's the latest opinions on the $7.99 protection plan (for 2 r10's & 1 hd250)? i personally think it's worth it for all 3, but likely not worth $5.99 just for one r10. i guess i would though for a hd250 alone.


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## mx6bfast (Jan 2, 2004)

On the first BB list. 1st unit bad hdd. 2nd unit now hasn't made a daily call for 510 days.


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## Phod (Apr 28, 2004)

It doesn't seem like there are many that were purchased early (or even mid-early) and are still going fine -- unhacked I mean.


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## tall1 (Oct 12, 2004)

rb5505 said:


> what's the latest opinions on the $7.99 protection plan (for 2 r10's & 1 hd250)? i personally think it's worth it for all 3, but likely not worth $5.99 just for one r10. i guess i would though for a hd250 alone.


I think it all depends on your hassle factor threshold. If you want stuff to get fixed quickly without any hassle (except for dealing with D* CSRs), buy the $7.99 PP.

But I think any financial planner will tell you this is a bad investment. It also depends on your cash outlay for your advanced equipment (DVRs). I have spent less than $500 for 2 HDTivos, an R10, R15, & HDVR2. So for me it would be nuts to spend almost $100 a year to insure $500 worth of equipment. And it would be extremely rare for all 5 units to fail so I would be insuring far less than $500.

In addition, I have spent some time at the underground learning how to enhance these DVRs and if the HDD fails (which will eventually happen), I would rather repair it myself. Now other stuff can fail too, bad HDMI card (although in both HDTivos, I have the new HDMI card that works), bad modem, power supply etc. but those problems are rare.

But someday this DIY approach will end because you cannot upgrade the new D* DVRs (e.g. R15).


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## carlsbadd (May 14, 2004)

A year and a half on original unit, don't use HDMI so don't know if it works or not.
A few resets starting to show up in the last few weeks.
I am going to try a clear and delete settings to see if it helps.
All in all going pretty strong.


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## Jon J (Aug 23, 2000)

My HR10-250 has finally gone TU. I reported it's freezing and rebooting to the Protection Plan about two weeks ago and was told they could do nothing until it actually failed. Well, this should satisfy them...or maybe not, because

Over the weekend the tuners on a Samsung SD DirecTiVo failed and a replacement is on the way to me. At least I've got the report of the failing HD unit on file if they question it.

Of course, they are free to send a technician and we'll watch it freeze (or not freeze as the case may be) and reboot periodically. 

UPDATE: Another kind technician took pity on me and agreed to replace the HR10-250 before it is officially a doorstop. Should arrive tomorrow. Thank goodness we've watched all but a couple of the shows we really like on it.


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## wspo (Jul 19, 2004)

Purchased Sep 04. HDMI DOA. No other problems to date.


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## Morris Herman (Feb 25, 2003)

Two units in operation:

First unit since June 04, arrived DOA; replacement works flawlessly with HDMI output.

Second unit bought with Big Buy 50% coupon last year, no problems whatsoever, also using HDMI.


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## tgewin (Jan 28, 2002)

Mine died yesterday... or at least it was working Sunday night when I went to bed and wasn't working when I got home Monday afternoon. Locks on the Welcome, Powering up screen. I don't think it's the HD but need to do some more extensive tests of it in my PC. From what I've read on the forum that shall not be named, it almost sounds like my PROM or main board got fried somehow overnight Sunday or during the day Monday. The voltages read fine on the 12v and 5v rails. I'm not sure what the pinout is to check the 3V rail, but I'd be surprised if somehow it was low when the others were actually a little high. 

But anyway... I'm not trying to use this as a "help me fix my tivo" post. Although if someone has a suggestion or has a spare main board they'd be willing to give me, they're free to PM me.


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## Mr.Pibb (Jun 9, 2003)

tgewin said:


> Mine died yesterday... or at least it was working Sunday night when I went to bed and wasn't working when I got home Monday afternoon. Locks on the Welcome, Powering up screen. I don't think it's the HD but need to do some more extensive tests of it in my PC. From what I've read on the forum that shall not be named, it almost sounds like my PROM or main board got fried somehow overnight Sunday or during the day Monday. The voltages read fine on the 12v and 5v rails. I'm not sure what the pinout is to check the 3V rail, but I'd be surprised if somehow it was low when the others were actually a little high.
> 
> But anyway... I'm not trying to use this as a "help me fix my tivo" post. Although if someone has a suggestion or has a spare main board they'd be willing to give me, they're free to PM me.


That's where each of my units with bad hard drives would get stuck. You could hear the drive clicking loudly on one of them, so it definitely was the drive.


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## danielhart (Apr 27, 2004)

I purchased 3 of the original batch that were made in the USA. Had one drive go bad after 14 months, but had the D* replacement plan - they sent me a new one and let me keep the dead one - so I put a new drive in that - So I have 4 all working fine*

*with the usual complaints about slow interface, hicups, etc.


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## jfalk (Nov 27, 2000)

One more "Me too." No problems at all.


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## PRMan (Jul 26, 2000)

Jon J said:


> Glad you asked.
> 
> My HR10-250 has for the past two weeks been freezing and refusing to answer remote instructions. Sometime these freezes last as long as 5 minutes and happen four or five times a day, minimum.
> 
> ...


Just stick a magnet on the top of the case and leave it overnight. I guarantee you that it won't boot up tomorrow. Oops, did I leave that magnet there? 

I upgraded my original unit from August of the first year with a 200GB drive for 450GB total space. That has been nice.

I had a flaky HDMI but when I was replacing the HDD, I realized that the problem lay in a badly-designed connector which can come loose even when the unit is shipped. I reseated the card and reattached the connector (which is a bent piece of flimsy aluminum). No more HDMI problems since (well, I do get the occasional problem if I shift modes from 1080i to 480i or something, but another trip around the horn fixes it).

About a month ago, I upgraded it with the Zipper.

I agree with everyone else here. Would it have KILLED them to include a CPU that could handle everything?


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## nerftoe (May 7, 2004)

On my second unit. First was HD issues.. have had my 2nd unit a little over a year now. The slow menus have driven me insane for almost two years now. Can't wait until Comcast/Tivo/Cablecard.

-Chad


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## bullitt (Feb 13, 2002)

Still have original unit purchased at Circuit City in July of 2004. No problems except an occasional reboot and slow interface. Good to see Tivo will be around for another 3 years with DTV.


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## DDayDawg (Jul 13, 2004)

I have an original one grand waitlist baby. Used HDMIfrom day one with no problems. Original unit, original hard drive, no issues. Let's hope it continues on.


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## teasip (Aug 24, 2002)

Slow response to remote, not infrequent freezing, failure to respond to anything Monday night with the screen flashing like a strobe with the image on the screen. Ordered new HD yesterday. We'll see if it fixes the issue. No re-boots to my knowledge.


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## Enchilada (Jul 23, 2002)

I just replaced my original pre-order HR10-250. One of the OTA tuners was dying, and the HDMI had long since given up the ghost.

New one is working great with 2 300gb Seagates.

Mike


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## hockeynut (Dec 20, 2002)

DDayDawg said:


> I have an original one grand waitlist baby. Used HDMIfrom day one with no problems. Original unit, original hard drive, no issues. Let's hope it continues on.


Same here, but I haven't had channel logos since Nixon was in office.


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## bradleyx (Jun 16, 2004)

I started my HD TIVO odyssey about 18 months ago, and I'm currently on either my fourth or fifth unit. To tell you the truth, I lost count. The first 2 or 3 died quickly--hard drive failures. The next one arrived with a dead HDMI, but gave me more than a year of beautiful performance via the component connection before it flipped out several weeks ago. My new unit now will not complete its daily call, so I'll be spending a little time on the phone with Tech Support again. Perhaps I'll ask them how many replacement units they've shipped.

The nice thing--when I call, they refer to me as one of their "best customers." How special I feel!


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