TVSquad

One of the biggest problems with HDTV personal video recorders is that HDTV programs take up a lot more hard drive space than their standard definition programs. So if you've gotten used to storing dozens or even hundreds of programs, you can kiss your huge video library goodbye when you upgrade to a TiVo HD or Series3 TiVo.

Unless you're willing to upgrade your box or pay someone else to do the dirty work for you, that is. A stock TiVo Series3 TiVo has a 250GB hard drive which is large enough to store about 30 hours of HDTV or 300 hours of standard definition programs. TiVo reseller WeaKnees has long been offering upgraded TiVos that let you store an obscene number of shows for a slightly less than obscene price.

Now WeaKnees may have topped itself by offering a 2TB TiVo capable of storing 292 hours of programming. If that doesn't sound like much, think about it this way. It would take you 12 days to watch 292 hours worth of television. Sure, you'll zap past the commercials, but that's still 9 days worth of TV.

Things get even crazier when you realize that not every show you record will be in high definition. The 2TB TiVo will store a whopping 2777 hours of standard definition television. You'd have to plop down in front of your TV for 115 days without sleep or bathroom breaks to watch that much TV. The price for all this glory? Just a modest $1599 (after a $200 rebate).

It's been a while since TiVo offered new customers a product lifetime subscription. But if you're one of the lucky few who picked up a TiVo Series1 or Series2 box back in the day and paid a flat fee for service, you're in luck. And by luck, I mean if you're ready to shell out even more money to buy a new TiVo HD, you can transfer your product lifetime service for an extra $199.

Of course, if you aren't planning on watching any high definition TV for a while, you might as well keep the box you've got. But if you were going to pick up a $300 TiVo HD anyway, this is a pretty good deal. You'd wind up spending over $150 on a one year subscription for your new box, which makes an extra $199 look like a pretty good deal.

There's no indication TiVo plans to offer newer customers a lifetime service option. This offer is geared at getting older customers to upgrade their boxes.

[Thanks Mandabar!]

Those newfangled TiVo HD and Series3 boxes not doing it for you? Don't have any intention of buying an HDTV or HD DVD/Blu-ray player for another few years? Then have we got the not quite obsolete all-in-one box for you.

TiVo reseller WeaKnees has picked up a number of refurbished Humax TiVo units with built-in DVD recorders. They don't make them like this anymore because, well, they just don't. So this is a limited time deal.

WeaKnees is selling the units for $199, but there's a $150 rebate from TiVo, which brings the price down to $49. You can also pay $299 ($149 after rebate) to get an upgraded hard drive that will store 350 hours of television. The deal also comes in $249/600 hour and $449/900 hour varieties.

Of course, if you've got 950 hours of storage, we're not sure how often you'll feel the need to burn DVDs, but that's beside the point.

The TiVo Series3 ships with a 250GB hard drive. That provides enough storage space for 30 hours of high definition or 100 hours of standard definition recordings. If that's enough for you, DVRupgrade and WeaKnees both selling modified TiVo boxes with larger hard drives, or upgrade kits for anyone who already has a TiVo.

If you have a bit of know how, you can buy an off-the-shelf hard drive and do the upgrade yourself. But part of the appeal of DVRupgrade and WeaKnees is that they make the process easy. How easy? About as easy as taking the old hard drive out of your box and replacing it with a new one. No need to prepare a hard drive or install any software. No need to understand anything about Linux.

Of course, opening your TiVo's case does mean voiding your warranty. So we wouldn't suggest ordering an upgrade kit unless you're pretty sure you know what you're doing. Fortunately, TiVo Blog has put together a pretty good video showing exactly how much technical knowledge you'll need to install an upgrade kit. DVRupgrade shipped them a 750GB (100 hour) hard drive, screwdriver, and instructions. Check out the video after the jump.

Shortly after TiVo announced the TiVoHD, 3rd party TiVo upgraders like DVRUpgrade and WeaKnees began taking preorders for upgraded units with larger hard drives. The stock unit has a 160GB hard drive, which is just large enough to store 20 hours of HD content.

There's just one problem. It turns out the MFS Tools software that has been allowing users to upgrade TiVo drives for years doesn't work with the new box. That's because TiVo made a slight change to the file system, which apparently could enable hard drives larger than 2TB. It's not clear whether that means you could slap a 3TB drive into a TiVoHD right now (assuming one existed), but support may be enabled in the future.

Anyway, it looks like a member of the TiVo hacking community has been hard at work developing a new tool called WinMFS that allows you to prep an upgraded hard drive using Windows. Previous tools required a Linux box. Anyway, he's managed to throw a 500GB hard drive into a TiVoHD, and plans to publicly release WinMFS soon, which means you may be able to upgrade your box by the time it arrives. Or order one from a 3rd party retailer.

[via TiVo Lovers]

Ever wonder what a TiVo looks like on the inside? Sure, there's plenty of manuals floating around the internet showing you how to void your warranty, remove the lid, and update the hard drive. But none of them involve smashing your machine to bits with a crowbar.



After running into a few technical problems with his TiVo, YouTube users Kevin decided to take matters into his own hands rather than order a replacement unit. And he gets a tiny TiVo sticker from the front of the unit as a souvenir.

My favorite two lines from the video:

• "I don't know what any of that does."
• "I feel a lot better. And now it probably works about as well as it did yesterday."

I was plodding around the Interweb last night and I noticed that there were some conspicuous blank spaces on my favorite blogs. Apparently, YouTube brought their servers down last night to do some upgrades and maintenance, and they decided to play a joke on the people that visited the site directly, rather than access their movies through embed-laden blog posts: they put a message up saying "All your video are belong to us." It was a take-off on the poorly-translated and oft-repeated phrase "All your base are belong to us," from the late '80s video game Zero Wing. Later in the evening they added a line saying "No, we haven't been hacked. Get a sense of humor."

Oh, those wacky engineers. Always leavin' them laughing, aren't they? Anyway, some new features are supposedly debuting today, including personal channels and the ability to post videos directly to a blog, so go over to the main YouTube site and check it out.

[via Pop Candy]