Top Bottom. Nov 29, Oct 27, Question Hisense U6g and Series X. Oct 8, Question Vizio P-Series 55" only refreshing at 30 Hz. Jul 13, Question Advice on picture settings for TCL 5 series. Feb 24, Nov 18, Question Vizio 2. Aug 11, Question i have a samsung series 7 ru TV and home theater samsung ht-ek. Aug 9, Jul 23, Oct 6, Overall, it's a huge improvement over the cable company DVR. It has the same awesome TiVo interface we knew and loved from our previous TiVos, but it's been spruced up a bit for HD.
It looks nice. The picture quality is excellent, and the TiVo Series 3 has a great variety of options for what video modes it sends to the TV. I had absolutely no trouble getting the two Cable Cards working. I plugged them both in to the box at the appropriate point in Guided Setup, called Comcast to have them activated, and then finished Guided Setup.
They've worked perfectly from the beginning, tuning both SD and HD channels, both premium and non-premium. I stole the TiVo wireless adapter from my Series 2 for the Series 3, and it worked seamlessly. I plugged it in before guided setup, and the TiVo used it for its connection from the beginning. The only real problem I've experienced is that I've had a few very short audio dropouts. These last for less than a second, and seem to be related to load or resource constraints on the TiVo.
For example, on the day I experienced this, I could clearly trigger it by scrolling around in the program guide. Making the box work harder had an obvious correlation to the audio dropouts. However, when I wasn't using the guide, the dropouts were very infrequent, and I haven't experienced them since that day. I don't find this to be a severe bug, but it's obviously something I'd like to see fixed.
As it is, it's far less frequent and much less disruptive than the problems I had with my Comcast DVR. At the time of this writing, a few features have not yet been enabled on the Series 3. This may or may not be a big deal to you: 1. TiVo To Go transfer shows to and from your computer. I never used this on my Series 2, so its absence doesn't concern me at all. Multi-room Viewing transfer shows between TiVo boxes over the network. I'd like to have this, but it's not crucial for me. For me, this is another "nice to have" feature, and certainly not a showstopper.
TiVo claims that these features will be added in a future release. However, if any of these features is a dealbreaker for you, it would probably be wise to wait until it's actually shipped before you buy a Series 3.
There's no guarantee as to when, or even if, these will actually happen. I'm personally ok with that, but you'll have to make your own decision. I'm extremely happy with the TiVo Series 3. Yes, it's expensive. But to me, it was well worth the cost to get rid of the cable company DVR. To put it in perspective, it costs a lot less than most HDTVs, and in my mind the improvement it brings to the television wathching experience is on par with what HDTV brings.
My only complaints about the TiVo HD: 1. Also on season passes the minimum you can set for programs to keep is 5, with the smaller hard drive it'd be nice if you could set it to 1 for things like news broadcasts to set it to record daily and just delete yesterdays if you didn't get to it when it records todays 2. If your TiVo is functioning properly then you have now verified that your small Mfs Tools backup image on your C: drive is functional.
The backup file will serve as insurance if you ever run into drive problems or want to upgrade again in the future. Now power down your TiVo and remove the drive. Now that you have created and tested your backup image you are ready to expand your recording capacity. Regardless of which upgrade configuration you choose below, you can at any time using Mfs Tools revert your TiVo back to a single drive unit or expand recording capacity in the future using larger A or B drives.
To : Adding a New B Drive. Fast option — preserves setup, season passes, etc. If you are simply adding a new large B drive to your existing unmodified or expanded TiVo A drive from your single drive unit, then your season passes, setup, and recordings will be preserved. After creating and testing your Mfs Tools backup image, all that is remaining to do for this upgrade configuration is to run Mfsadd to make your existing A drive aware of the added space provided by your new large upgrade B drive.
Those upgrading to these larger capacities should consider using the Mfs Tools restore option -s command line parameter increases the swap outlined in Upgrade Configuration 2 test image has increased swap already - does not preserve recordings or Upgrade Configuration 3 preserves recordings - time consuming in preference to simply using mfsadd described below to increase recording capacity.
Then you should reset the drive jumpers on your new large Upgrade drive back to Slave see diagram on drive or drive documentation and place back into your PC connected to the Primary Slave IDE connector the restored test image on your upgrade drive will be overwritten. If the drive sizes are not reported correctly, you may either have a locked drive will report size as MB - see section 7 for instructions to unlock or you may need to turn off your computers Bios IDE detection - search Avs TiVo Underground forum if you need assistance accessing your computer's CMOS.
At the prompt both Boot Cd users type the following command:. The following command assumes your existing TiVo A drive is connected as Secondary Master and your new large upgrade B drive is connected to the Primary Slave. This will only take a few seconds and will report the results and size of your drives. When complete you can press Ctrl-Alt-Del and wait for the 'No more processes You are now ready to install your drives in your TiVo and can skip to step Fast option — preserves setup, season passes, etc but not recordings.
For those not concerned about preserving their recordings to preserve your recordings see alternate Upgrade Configurations below — time consuming this will be the speedy option used by most to complete their upgrade.
After creating and testing your Mfs Tools backup image, all that is remaining to do for this upgrade configuration is to expand your verified test image still on your upgrade drive to recognize the full capacity of your new upgrade A drive and B drive if any. We will be using your new upgrade drive, with test image already restored, as your new A drive.
Your B drive if any in your new upgrade configuration can be a new large upgrade drive or you can use one of your original TiVo drives will automatically be overwritten as a new B drive now that you have a verified backup image:.
Example : After creating a backup image from your single drive 60GB Series 2 standalone and restoring this image to your new GB upgrade drive to test, you can now expand your new GB upgrade A drive with a second new GB drive attached as your new B drive using the commands below.
Note: If you do not currently have an Mfs Tools backup image on your upgrade drive, you should see Step 8 above to restore your backup image to the upgrade drive to be used as your new TiVo A drive. Verify that your large upgrade drive, for use as your new TiVo A drive, is still jumpered to Master see diagram on drive or drive documentation and attach it to the Secondary Master IDE connector in your PC. If this is the drive that you just used to test your Mfs Tools backup image then the restored image is still present and can simply be expanded using Mfsadd to claim the extra space on this drive and also any space of a new B drive if any.
If you are also adding a B drive can be a new large drive or you can use one of your original TiVo drives —will automatically be overwritten - as a new B drive now that you have a verified backup image then now is the time to place it in your PC. Make sure that it is jumpered as Slave see diagram on drive or drive documentation and connect to your Primary Slave IDE connector.
With a backup image already on your new upgrade drive then use ONE of the following to expand:. The following command assumes your new larger upgrade A drive — with image - is connected as Secondary Master and your new B drive - if any - is connected as Primary Slave. You are now ready to install your drives in your TiVo and can skip to Step Slow option — preserves setup, season passes, etc. Those wishing to replace their single drive TiVo with a new single larger A drive, or new A and a new B drive, while preserving their recordings will need to copy their complete existing TiVo A drive to the new larger upgrade A drive.
This can be time consuming so if you are not concerned about preserving your recordings then you should see Upgrade Configuration 2 above for a much quicker procedure. If you are also adding a new B drive then now is the time to place it in your PC. Mfs Tools will provide progress readouts and results when completed if screen goes blank before finishing simply hit the shift key to restore screen.
Those wishing to replace one of the drives in their dual drive TiVo with a new larger upgrade drive, while preserving their recordings, will need to copy their complete existing TiVo A or B drive whichever is being upgraded to the new larger upgrade drive first.
This can be time consuming and because Mfs Tools cannot copy one drive at a time, we will be using the linux dd program to perform the copy for quicker upgrade method without preserving recordings see Upgrade Configuration 2. Swap File: If you are upgrading an unmodified dual drive unit or a previously upgraded dual drive unit in which you did not increase your swapfile if you previously increased swap using TiVoMad or Mfs Tools 2.
Those upgrading to these larger capacities should consider using the Mfs Tools restore option -s command line parameter increases the swap outlined in Upgrade Configuration 2 test image has increased swap already - does not preserve recordings in preference to the dd copy method outlined below.
There is no simple method to replace one drive of a dual drive unit with a new larger upgrade drive and preserve recordings if wishing to also increase your swap file. Double check that your existing TiVo A drive is reported at it's full size and connected at port designation hda, and your existing TiVo B drive is showing at port designation hdb, and that your new upgrade drive is reported at it's full size and connected at port designation hdc or applicable designation if using different IDE ports.
Use the following command to copy the existing A drive to your new upgrade drive at the prompt:. Note: You may wish to now power down and remove your new upgrade A drive and existing B drive and place this new drive set into your TiVo to test. You are now ready to install your new larger A drive and existing B drive into your TiVo and can skip to Step Note for those who are copying to non-Quantum A drives: If you were replacing your A drive and have copied an image running TiVo software version 2.
Issue the following command at the prompt to copy the existing B drive to your new upgrade drive:. Note: You may wish to now power down and remove your existing A drive and new upgrade B drive and place this new drive set into your TiVo to test. You are now ready to install your existing A drive and new larger B drive into your TiVo and can move on to Step Those wishing to replace their dual drive TiVo with a new larger A and B drive while preserving their recordings will need to copy their complete existing TiVo A and B drives to the new larger upgrade A and B drives.
This can be time consuming and can be accomplished in several ways depending upon the number of available IDE ports in your PC for quick method without preserving recordings see Upgrade Configuration 2. Unzip this file to it's own folder and place a blank disk in your floppy drive. First connect all four drives to your PC. Power up your PC with Boot Floppy in your floppy drive. You will see displayed on your screen a series of readouts before presenting you with a linux prompt. You are now ready to install your drives into your TiVo and can skip to Step Those upgrading to these larger capacities should consider using the Mfs Tools restore option -s command line parameter increases the swap outlined in Upgrade Configuration 5 Option 1 above.
If you do not have four available IDE ports in your PC, or want to stick with the Boot Cd, or prefer not to disconnect existing drives, then you can also perform this upgrade preserving recordings using linux dd copy program already on the Boot CD to copy the original TiVo A and B drives individually to the new larger upgrade A and B drives Mfs Tools cannot copy one drive at a time and then can use Mfsadd to expand after copying.
This can be time consuming and those not concerned about recordings should see Upgrade Configuration Those with dual drive DirecTiVos, dual drive Series 2 units with user added B drive , the rare factory combined dual drive standalones see Step 7 Option 2 for description , or dual drive UK Thompson TiVo will not have enough available partitions remaining in order to combine their existing drives onto a single larger A drive and expand to use any remaining space while still preserving their recordings.
For further upgrade possibilities of these units see Upgrade Configuration 2 will not preserve recordings or Upgrade Configuration 4 or 5 preserves recordings. Mfs Tools will provide progress readouts and results when completed if screen goes blank before finishing simply hit the shift key to restore screen if needed. Remove all TiVo drives from your PC - making sure to keep track label which is going to be your TiVo A drive and which will be the B drive if using a B drive in your new upgrade configuration.
You should now make sure the jumper settings are configured correctly - with your TiVo A drive jumpered to Master and your new B drive jumpered to Slave see diagrams on drives or drive documentation. Some cable boxes can use a direct serial cable connection, which is much faster. HD Standalone TiVos cannot use a cable box at all. Changing channels requires no additional cabling. It is fast and easy. Almost all cable boxes and satellite boxes are compatible with standard definition TiVo units.
However, some are not. For a complete listing, see the FAQ entry here. Again, no HD TiVos can use a cable box - see above. The Roamio OTA, however, works only with antenna. That line started with the HR20, through the HR Series 2 Standalone TiVos: No matter what the input source whether digital cable, analog cable, digital satellite or over-the-air antenna , the TiVo will receive an analog signal and then convert that signal into digital.
When converting from analog to digital, you will have the ability to tell the TiVo how much to compress the picture. Although the highest recording quality generally looks pretty close to the picture quality you'll see without a TiVo, there will be some although in most cases not a noticeable difference between the TiVo's quality and the quality without the TiVo.
As a general rule, the answer is no. DVRs provided by cable companies vary tremendously from city to city and cable company to cable company , so it's impossible to analyze those features. As a general rule, our customers tend to dislike generic cable company DVRs and prefer the feature-rich TiVo-brand. Standard vs High Definition? Here is a summary of your options:. The two-tuner Premiere is great for customers who want to use both antenna AND cable or who live in apartment or other complexes such as senior citizens' homes that have cable systems that require an analog tuner.
For discounted pricing, we recommend a visit to our page that has TiVos with prepaid lifetime service included. These are typically older-model TiVos but they are priced aggressively and have lifetime service already paid. Your choices are our supply of refurbished Series 1 and Series2 units with pre-paid product lifetime TiVo service. These are single-tuner units that include "All In" TiVo service.
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