Author: Michael

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Product Information WeaKnees News

WeaKnees Debuts Playstation 3 Upgrade Kits

We’re now selling upgrade kits for the Sony Playstation 3. See our PS3 Upgrade Kit page. We can put up to 320 GB of space in a Playstation 3, enabling users to save more downloaded content! Now that Sony has announced the ability to download content online, the relatively small hard drives in PS3s will get filled fast. We’ve got a way out!

We have two paths to the PS3 upgrade, one being D-I-Y and one where customers send us the unit for our complete service.

The first option for do-it-yourselfers includes the replacement hard drive, pre-loaded USB flash drive, tools, and complete instructions with pictures. The process takes less than an hour, and most of the time involves using the PS3 controller on-screen. With our pre-loaded flash drive, we’ve overcome the problems that many do-it-yourselfers run into, and customers’ units will be updated to the newest version of the PS3 software in the process. And if you’ve installed a WeaKnees kit in your DVR before, you know the benefit of our instructions and phone and online support through email, and through our new Playstation 3 upgrade forum area.

Our second option is a complete service where customers send in their Playstation 3 console. We then backup all the data, install our new drive, and restore the data to the replacement drive. So this way, all data that existed on the game console before is still intact afterward. It’s totally seamless.

Full information is on our Playstation 3 Upgrade page.

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DirecTV Product Information WeaKnees News

New DIRECTV SWM-8 Pricing: $199!

That pretty much says it all – starting today, we’re pricing our DirecTV SWM-8 units at $199. These amazing units allow for one cable to enter your house carrying up to eight tuners-worth of data, for up to eight receivers or four DVRs. All on one cable!

+These units include power supplies (DirecTV branded).

+These units include free ground shipping in the 48 states!

We also have a full line of accessories for these units, and everything is in stock.

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Customer Contacts DirecTV Product Information WeaKnees News

DirecTV TiVo OS Version 6.4a – Add Kits Fail

We sell add kits for almost all versions of TiVo DVRs (as opposed to replace kits, which we do have for every single model). These add kits won’t install with version 6.4a of the DirecTV TiVo software on these models:

  • Hughes HDVR2
  • Hughes SD-DVR40, SD-DVR80, SD-DVR120
  • RCA DVR39, DVR40, DVR80, and DVR120
  • DirecTV R10
  • All Samsung DirecTV TiVos
  • Philips DSR7000, DSR704, DSR708

This same problem came up a few years ago with standalone TiVos running some subversions of TiVo OS version 7.2.

Here are the symptoms: attaching one of our add kits will cause the TiVo to go to the “Welcome, Powering Up” screen, followed by the “Almost There, a few minutes more” screen, then reboot back to the first screen. This cycle repeats endlessly.

Now that we’re aware of the issue, we’re notifying all customers of the potential problems before we ship the kits. Here are the options in this situation:

  1. Order a replace kit instead. Considering the age of most of these models, we generally recommend replace kits anyway. Add kits rely on your older drive, and if the older drive fails, your whole unit is down until you get a replace kit.
  2. Send us the entire unit for the add kit to be installed. We can do it here successfully.
  3. Wait and see if a later version of the TiVo OS resolves the issue.

We really think #1 is the best option, as we think these units generally need replace-style kits, but we do still continue to offer add kits to those unwilling to lose their programming, or to send us the unit for us to install a replace kit and copy the contents.

So if you’re looking for an add kit, check your OS version first. If you haven’t gotten 6.4a yet, unplug the unit from the phone line immediately! You can then install an add kit, and let the unit upgrade later.

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TiVo News

Tom’s Letter: The TiVo is More than a DVR

We’ve said it a few times on this blog, and we continue to insist that a TiVo is much more than a DVR. Now, in his letter to shareholders, Tom Rogers, the CEO and President of TiVo, goes further: DVR means “digital video retriever.”

The letter is a good read. He writes about the future of the DVR industry, the future of broadcast TV, and the future of home entertainment. Naturally, he sees TiVo as central to all three, with its “one box, one remote, one user interface.”

Two quick points here about this letter:

-He notes that TiVo is the only brand in this space. I’d say that AppleTV is certainly in this space (while it doesn’t deal with broadcast material, it hits the other bases with movies, TV shows, music, interactivity, etc.) and even Vudu, Hulu, and the new Netflix box are here, potentially.

-While I do see the convergence of living room media all funneling through a box like this, I also think that those of us in the DVR industry do face a bigger transition eventually, which is that the living room will cease being where all of this media is consumed. So much is viewed on desktops and laptops and, increasingly, cell phones, that the centrality of video to the living room is really soon to pass.

Anyway, the letter to shareholders is a good read.

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DirecTV Product Information WeaKnees News

4 Input SWM Expander In Stock

The Single Wire Multiswitch for DirecTV (or SWM) has made installing DirecTV or expanding an existing installation much, much easier. And the SWM world is still evolving with new products. We’ve just received our first shipment of SWM E4 Expanders. These units hold four SWM units. The Expander attaches directly to the four SWMs (or as few as two) – no wires are used; the SWM plugs right in. Then, the four cables from the KaKu dish are attached, as well as any other cables to either the flex ports or the OTA port.

The Expander distributes the incoming signal to each SWM, and also provides a solid way to mount each unit. Here are some pictures of one of our first units:

The front side of the SWM Expander holds two of the modules as shown.

The back has two more sets of ports, and here the SWMs go upside-down to minimize the internal wiring confusion.

The top shows the attachment scheme for the individual SWM power supplies (one per SWM module) and the satellite inputs.

For installations of two or more SWMs, these make life much easier and less error-prone than splitting cables!