Our friends over at EngadgetHD recently upgraded their Series 3 TiVo by adding a 500 GB drive to the DVR. The newly upgraded TiVo now supports up to 65 hours of HD recording as opposed to 35 hours in a standard Series 3 TiVo.
Instead of just purchasing an upgrade kit from WeaKnees or DVRUpgrade, the folks over at EngadgetHD decided to do it the hard way and upgrade the DVR themselves using Linux and several hacks. Please note that this upgrade isn’t intended for everybody. It requires you to have some Linux skills as well as an understanding of hardware and how it works. I really would hate to see somebody destroy their $800 TiVo..
Let me know if you are a brave enough to try out this upgrade. I’m to cheap to buy a Series 3 TiVo yet alone take the chance that I might destroy it…..
Modding Tivo’s in this way is a pretty established practice from the Series2 days (this uses the same tools and techniques). Really, the only concern is that the hardware involved is more expensive than it used to be.
And this was NOT insignificant money they saved on the upgrade.