Comments on: What Is The Life Expectancy Of A TiVo?

By: TiVoBlog.com » Blog Archive » How My $200 60hr TiVo Has Paid Itself Off

Mon, 12 Dec 2005 11:44:08 +0000

[...] Along with the great people that I’ve meet, I also have received a number of new gadgets that I wouldn’t have acquired if I didn’t buy my first TiVo. Now you’re probably wondering how a purchase of a $200 TiVo helped me get new gadgets including an iPod Mini & a 140 hr TiVo. The answer is TiVo’s rewards program! If you haven’t already signed up for the rewards program I highly recommend that you do. When I first signed up back in August ’04 I never would have imagined that I would be able to get enough referrals to receive a free TiVo and an iPod Mini. The only problem with getting so many referrals is that once you referrer somebody, you by default become their TiVo guru. I can’t even tell you the number of times that I’ve received a call from my buddy or my Mom asking me a question about their TiVo. [...]

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 20:20:04 +0000

Martin,
Did you try one of the drive replacements from weaknees.com or ptvupgrade.com? Just a thought….

By: Martin

Martin — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 20:12:58 +0000

My 40 hour lasted for just over 2 years… One day It was stuck on the “Warming Up Please Wait” Screen and never got past it even with multiple unplugs.

What really gets you is if you purchased the lifetime service, since it is attached to an individual box. My recommendation is that people who want to “save money” by getting lifetime service also spend a little more to get a service plan.

Ever notice just how many refurbished Tivo’s there are?

By: TiVoBlog.com » Blog Archive » Intermittent TiVo Audio

TiVoBlog.com » Blog Archive » Intermittent TiVo Audio — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 19:35:54 +0000

[...] A good friend of mine sent me an IM telling me that his TiVo is having some problems. For some reason, his TiVo’s audio seems to drop unexpectedly. While watching live TV he notices that the audio all of a sudden disappears! If he waits long enough the audio all of a sudden comes back. He has tried restarting the box by unplugging his TiVo however; this doesn’t seem to fix the problem (IS THIS TRUE). His previous TiVo’s hard drive died unexpectedly so I kind of feel bad for the poor slouch . Anybody ever seen this problem before? A quick look on TiVo’s support forum turned up this post. Unfortunately, the post hasn’t been updated with a solution. The only “solution” was to return the box back to TiVo and have them ship you a new box. Any ideas? [...]

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 12:10:39 +0000

I had a series 1 die within a year, got that fixed, it died again within a year. I later read that the hard drives are very sensitive to power fluctuations. I bought a Series 2 and put it on an uninterruptable power supply (UPS) to keep the unit from being shut off by a power failure or brown out. This seems to be the best thing I’ve ever done. I now have 2 Series 2s and they’ve been running just fine for years since I put them on UPS. I’ve also put my 2 computers on UPSs since the power in my home seems to be very inconsistent.

By: Larry

Larry — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 01:32:05 +0000

Bought new Dual 300 GB Drives 692 hrs. ( Basic Quality) $699.00 from weeknees.com LAST JULY . One of the drives is dead . When I come home from work, turn the TV on and I see a paused picture (of what happened to be on at the time). I have to re-boot it every time (UNPLUG IT THEN PLUG IT BACK IN AGAIN)If I want to watch live TV.

By: Tyler

Tyler — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 01:29:33 +0000

My old TiVo died one night. When you plugged it in, nothing at all would happen. I’m one of those lucky people who were able to get a hard drive image and rebuild it. I strongly suggest to people that they should create a hard drive image right when they get their TiVo. The tools out there allow you to backup just the information you need — not the videos and other recordings you don’t want. Your hard drive image, when compressed, will likely fit on a CD (mine did).

Yeah, it’s kinda scary taking apart your TiVo, but then you can restore it in the event of a system failure.

By: Laurie

Laurie — Wed, 27 Jul 2005 16:39:30 +0000

My 1999 30-hour Series 1 TiVo still works fine. No upgrades and nothing has ever failed, including the modem.

By: BS

BS — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 19:34:13 +0000

I have an 80 hour unit I bought back in late 2002. It started having problems with pixelated video and GSOD after only about 2 months, however at the time I didn’t know those were indications of pending failure. The box died (refused to boot up) after 95 days from the date of purchase. Nice timing considering the 90 day warranty. I was able to find an image on the net so I installed a new 120 GB drive using that image and it is still working today. I also have a 60 hour unit that failed after about a year and a half. The bearings went out on the hard drive and since it was in my bedroom I went ahead and upgraded the drive on that unit as well. Since the drive didn’t actually fail yet I was able to save my drive image including the recorded shows. I put the drive in an external USB enclosure and it eventually did die after about 2 more months of use.

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 02:53:25 +0000

Anybody have a TiVo that died shortly after they bought it?

By: bruce

bruce — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 18:11:33 +0000

My upgraded 14 hour from 1999 just died, and I replaced the hard drives (with a single drive) and it’s back in business.

By: Roger Benningfield

Roger Benningfield — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 02:41:34 +0000

My original 14 hour from 1999 is still running, but that’s not fair… it’s been upgraded. My 30 hour from 2001 is a daily workhorse, though.

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 03 Jul 2005 22:37:45 +0000

My little sister still uses my original 14 hour TiVo purchased back in 1999. I don’t think I have anything else electronic in my house that old that still works