Tivo DVR My Tivo is slowly starting to die Looking at replacing this with something capable o...

[G+_Rud Dog]

Tivo =DVR

My Tivo is slowly starting to die. Looking at replacing this with something capable of carrying out my DVR needs. The Tivo is my local and Comcast recording go-to-box, it is simple and no learning curve.

HD-HomeRunPrime is the only device found during my search allowing the use of my Comcast descrambler card and DVR, although they charge 35/Year for the program listing service. Oh and the DVRs are sent to your local NAS.

 

Any recommendations for the hardware replacement(Tivo) carrying out the same dutys as the Tivo?

[G+_Damien Wessling]

Pull the drive out, attach to a PC, run Steve Gibson's SPINRITE at Level 4, place back in Tivo unit. Should run fine again.

[G+_Rud Dog]

Damien Wessling excellent Idea. This is a fix-all and by that I mean the cost of replacing the Tivo should it fail for some other reason in the future is prohibitive. They want over 300 bucks for a new lifetime service guide, not including the price of the Tivo. Which I paid, for my first 2 Tivos. When they failed the second set of Tivos cost me the same amount. It's time to switch to something more affordable.

Will have to piece a PC Box for running my SpinRite program that is gonna take some time. Thank you for the suggestion.

[G+_Black Merc]

After the spinrite, is their an upgrade option... Example... Buy a compatable but, larger capacity drive and clone the drive to the new(expanding the clone to the full size of the new)?

 

Spinrite will(hopefully) save all the data and refresh the drive. Then upgrading for more storage space.

[G+_Dan Hockey]

If other options don't work out have a look at weaknees for repair parts.

 

weaknees.com - TiVo Superstore | Upgraded TiVo DVRs, Remotes, Parts, Repairs

[G+_Rud Dog]

Black Merc Did not know you could simply clone the drive. I have one of those two drive cloning devices will pop them in there and test your idea, thanks.

[G+_Rud Dog]

Dan Hockey After trying Dan's idea will head over to the site you linked thank you.

[G+_John Valois]

I bought a TiVo Bolt+ when my last TiVo started to die. This is best TiVo that I have owned. Added a TiVo Mini for a second TV. No subscription cost for the Mini, it streams from the Bolt.

[G+_Rud Dog]

John Valois never looked into the mini. As it stands right now I can watch on one tuner and record on the other. In this scenario would my wife be able to get on the mini and watch a program live or recorded?

[G+_Black Merc]

Rud Dog truthfully, it's not really a clone, but a bit for bit image of the drive/partition.

I wonce helped with a deployment of xp boxes(way back when). I got the setup just right(as ordered) on the first box. Then with clonezilla I basically Xeroxed out 19 other hdds for the remaining order. Once the hdds were installed, changed a few things that windows and the network demanded were individually different and I was done.

[G+_Rud Dog]

Started the clone on my hardware duplicater 75% complete. WIll update after comppletion.

[G+_Rud Dog]

The cloning went well 320GB to 1TB replacement drive unfortunately only 320GBs was recognized but its working. Now to see if this fixes the pixelation. Will update soon.

[G+_Black Merc]

Rud Dog you may just have the size of the original drive/partition in a partition on that massive drive with the remaining space unpartitioned.. Another tool I used 'partition magic' should allow you to resize the partition to the full of the drive.

[G+_Rud Dog]

Black Merc appreciate your help. As far as partitioning all I did was pop the Source drive(Tivo 320GB) into the source slot on my cloning hardware and the new 1TB drive in the target slot. Would I partition the drive before inserting it into the cloning hardware. Really not sure what the hardware is doing when it clones the source drive onto the new drive.

[G+_james robinson (radiati]

Unless I'm misunderstanding your question, Plex on a NAS or rpi and an HD Home run is a really easy and inexpensive option, get the lifetime Plex pass (~$120) it handles the program listing. You can even try Plex on your PC then if you like migrate it to a NAS

[G+_Rud Dog]

james robinson So if I understand this correctly you are running the HD HomeRun Prime (Comcast card) and plex SW on your NAS with a lifetime subscription fee for your program listings? As for the program listings you opted for Plex over HD_Homerun subscription service, correct?

[G+_John Valois]

Rud Dog The TiVo Bolt+ has 6 tuners. A TiVo Mini connects to your Bolt via an Ethernet connection. The Mini act’s as a if it was a A regular TiVo. Same UI. Your second TV could watch whatever she wanted to. Live broadcast channels or recorded programs. Your iOS devices, if you have them, can also watch content as well. I was traveling and I was able to watch live or recorded media from my home TiVo.

[G+_james robinson (radiati]

Right. The plex DVR feature has the program guide. They just added live DVR too. I don't used the prime, I just get ota channels over my cable instead of antenna cause my internet is cable, and they don't block the basic stuff. But setup would be the same with the printer and cable card. I found the silicon side software to be really basic when I tried it, might be better now

[G+_Scott Dible]

I'm also doing OTA DVR, but I use Emby. I recently switched from Plex. They also have a lifetime subscription, but it doesn't include the guide. You can use an XML scraper, or Schedules Direct for $26/yr (which is what I do for simplicity). So far, I've been very happy with it. For now, the Emby server is open source and the apps (included with premier) are closed. There are some restrictions on using the free version. I really enjoy the openness of the project and the development pace. I switched to Emby because LiveTV was not ready on Plex... Now that they both have it, you should evaluate both. The guide on Emby is considerably better, and it is still ahead on some live TV features such as watching/time-shifting a program as it's recording.

 

Considering Plex's recent shift in privacy policy, I don't see myself going back anytime soon.

[G+_Rud Dog]

Scott Dible Thank you. Have never heard of Emby but will be checking it out.

[G+_Scott Dible]

Rud Dog I've really enjoyed it so far, and had no problem spending the money to support the project. The devs are very active in the community. emby.media - Emby

[G+_Gary Pietila]

Try Spinrite on the HD if possible.

[G+_Black Merc]

Gary Pietila suggested 1 day ago...

[G+_Rud Dog]

Gary Pietila, Black Merc will run SpinRite on drives and soon, right now the job at hand is to get these tivos up and running. Ordered two identical drives for replacement. That way I can pull my 1TB from the one Tivo under test and replace it with 320GB which is what it came with and the 1TB was only using 320GB of space. Will update when I can run Spinrite.

[G+_Rud Dog]

Both drives were cloned and installed now will wait and see if the problem I was experiencing was the HD or elswhere.