# Why did Tivo Inc. decide to ban upgrading of Tivo DVRs?(cable, DirecTV, or OTA)



## Leila (Apr 28, 2006)

Why did Tivo Inc. decide to ban upgrading of Tivo DVRs?(cable, DirecTV, or OTA)

Can anyone point me to a news article about this new crackdown?

Thanks!


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## Dssturbo1 (Feb 23, 2005)

can you point to what you are even referring to?


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## shanew1289 (May 7, 2004)

r u saying installing a new hard drive is a deal breaker or what?


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## rock_doctor (Oct 22, 2000)

Not aware of any such article. In fact, I would imagine they would (unofficially) support it. For every unit an owner repairs, it saves DTV several hundred dollars not having to replace that unit. Remember all new units are subsidize by DTV. 

mark


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## TydalForce (Feb 9, 2006)

TiVo doesn't support the upgrades, otherwise their support team would be overwhelmed with everyone's upgrade problems, and that's not what they're there for. Likewise, it'll void your warranty because they don't want you opening the box and doing something stupid

Having said that, they've never prevented anyone from doing upgrades, and AFAIK they've (unofficially) helped out the developers working on upgrade solutions.

You can upgrade if you want. TiVo won't stop you or come knocking on your door if you do. But they won't support it if you break it.


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

Tivo, Inc., has no problem with anyone upgrading their DVRs. If you check the Tivo website they have a section dedicated to development of new hacks and features for Tivos. They have openly solicited input from software developers for HME. None of this would be possible unless you were able to hack or upgrade a Tivo.

As indicated, if you open the case you void the warranty and you're on your own. Tivo had initially announced that they would be providing upgrades for Tivo drives when they were first introduced. This never materialized and the hackers learned how to perform the upgrades themselves, negating the need for such a service from Tivo. Several enterprising individuals have provided their own upgrade service with the blessing of Tivo, Inc. (i.e., Weaknees and PtvUpgrade, among others).


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

What Tivo has cracked down on, if that is what you are thinking of, is open non-commercial distribution of their software images.


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

True statement. However, it is anything but new. They banned distribution of their copyrighted images several years ago. Currently, only PtvUpgrade is licensed to distribute Tivo images in the form of an InstantCake CD. Actually, the InstantCake script is not affiliated with Tivo, Inc., in any way but rather it's a software product developed and distributed by PtvUpgrade that automates the installation of the image on a Tivo hard drive.


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