# Why do we have to hack TiVos?



## JerryLBell (May 3, 2002)

I have an original 40 Gb TiVo that I bought, complete with a lifetime subscription, for $50 because it was busted. It turns out it simply had a busted hard drive. Since I had a spare 40 Gb drive laying around, I was able to follow instructions I found on this forum to give myself a working TiVo for just $50. Awesome! That drive eventually died and I replaced it with an 80 Gb drive that is still working. Still awesome!

However, I wonder why it is that we're required jump through these hoops to be able to increase the drive size on our TiVos. Why doesn't TiVo offer the option of simply adding extra internal and/or external drives? Why should we have to potentially void the warranty on our units to add more space? We don't void the warranties on our PCs when we add a drive, so why with TiVos?

In addition to my TiVo, I have a cable company-provided twin-tuner DVR that records HD. I sure wish it's OS was as well-designed and flexible as TiVos, but it does the job. It has the hardware capability to add an external drive, but my local cable company won't upgrade the OS on our units to recognize this hardware feature. Bummer! Someday I hope to replace it with a twin- (or triple-)tuner TiVo that records HD directly from cable or from OTA. However, I won't do it until TiVo at least allows me to upgrade the drives to as much space as the OS can handle (preferably upwards of a terabyte). 

This topic may have been covered before but I couldn't find it throuh a search. Maybe I just didn't know what string to search for. Does anybody have any ideas on TiVo's future direction regarding users adding drives?


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## Jonathan_S (Oct 23, 2001)

The series 3 High Definition model they were demoing at CES had a e-SATA connector on the back specifically to accept a plug in external drive to expand disk space.

The main reason I can think of for the current TiVo's to require voiding the warranty for drive upgrades is cost. 
Allowing end user internal upgrades requires a sealed power supply to protect people from the 120v wall current; that add some cost for a feature most people wouldn't use. (Also, if you wanted to make it simple to that level you wouldn't want people to have to download tools to get the drives ready to work with the TiVo, so you'd want to build in the upgrade utilities. Programmer time costs as well.)

Allowing external upgrades (until e-SATA came along) was also fairly expensive. USB would require a more powerful CPU in the TiVo to handle the USB overhead in talking to the harddrive. SCSI is just expensive, Firewire uses cheaper disks, but still costs extra money for the controller chip, and you need to integrate that extra chip onto the motherboards PCI bus.


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

Be glad TiVo allows drive upgrading at all.

TiVo makes it "hard", and puts all liability on the user, to basically make a cheaper unit out the door.

To make an "upgrade safe" case and PSU, plus an OS that is more amenable to user upgrades, would add cost to the base system.


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## kschauwe (Sep 17, 2003)

Plus the cost to add a CD-ROM to load a new HD.
TIVO see's their units as appliances, not PC's. 
Remember, your TV/VCR/DVD/Tape Player/Audio Receiver/etc.. aren't made to upgrade easy either.


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## willardcpa (Feb 23, 2001)

JerryLBell said:


> I have an original 40 Gb TiVo that I bought, complete with a lifetime subscription, for $50 because it was busted.....Why should we have to potentially void the warranty on our units to add more space? ....


So, what kind of warranty did you have on that unit with a busted hard drive that you were worrried about voiding?


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## Jerry_K (Feb 7, 2002)

You can always find used TiVos somewhere. My guess is that shipping and time lost for a warrantee claim is not worth it for something you can just buy another of for $50 or usually less. I have used my Series 1 DirecTiVos for five years without a hitch. That is what I call the best warrantee in the business. The one you never have to use. 

The upgrade is so easy now that you are done in no time at all. I did my first using Hinsdale almost five years ago. Good thing I found the one typo in that cookbook. I usually touch type. But with that linux stuff I was one fingering and checking each letter or number entry. It worked though.


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