WeaKnees is now supporting the TiVo market down under.
We’ve got upgrade kits for the TiVo DVRs sold there – the TCD663160 and TCD663320 units. Both use the same upgrade kits. We offer a few sizes maxing out at 2 TB for 400 HD hours of Freeview.
And we’ve got some accessories that work with these units also, including replacement remotes.
Visit our Australia and New Zealand TiVo Upgrade Kit page.
Here’s a screenshot of the 2 TB upgrade:
This week, the TiVo Premiere Elite debuts. This is TiVo’s latest DVR, with four digital tuners, all capable of recording simultaneously. This is the first TiVo DVR ever that can record more than two channels at once.
We’ve been fielding a lot of questions about this new unit. Here are the answers.
What services will work with the Premiere Elite?
The TiVo Premiere Elite works with digital cable, including Verizon FiOS. That means pretty much any traditional cable company in the US is compatible with the TiVo Premiere Elite, including Comcast, Cox, TimeWarner, BrightHouse, etc.
Incompatible services include satellite TV (DirecTV and Dish) and AT&T’s U-Verse.
Will the Premiere Elite work with ATSC/OTA antenna, like the other Premieres?
No. The Elite ONLY works with digital cable – not analog cable, and not antenna. The other two TiVo Series4 models (TiVo Premiere and TiVo Premiere XL) will both work with digital antenna broadcasts and analog cable broadcasts. There is no way to add these capabilities to the Elite.
How do I get a CableCARD that can support four channels at once?
Any Multistream CableCARD can decode four channels at once in the Premiere Elite. In fact, Multistream cards are capable of decoding six streams at once; so far, no DVR can support more than four.
Older TiVo DVRs may have single-stream cards in them. A single-stream card will work in these units, but, of course, that means only one show can be recorded at a time.
Can I move my CableCARD from my other DVR to the Premiere Elite?
Generally, yes, you can move the card, but you’ll have to contact your cable company after doing so to have them re-provision the card for the new hardware. There may be some exceptions with certain cable providers.
Can I get TiVo Product Lifetime Service for the Elite?
Yes, lifetime service is available for the Elite. The price is currently $499.99 for new TiVo customers, or, if you have an account with an active unit at TiVo.com, you can get a $100 discount on lifetime service, so your cost would be $399.99.
Can I just move Lifetime Service to the Premiere from my other TiVo DVR?
No. TiVo will not allow Product Lifetime Service to be moved from one unit to another. However, if you have a unit with lifetime service, you do get a discount on subscribing another unit to lifetime service. See the entry above.
We know that the world of networking your DirecTV equipment can be a little confusing, but the new DECA products make it much, much easier. In most cases, you won’t need to run any additional wiring to get your compatible units networked together, and even to connect your system to your broadband internet access.
Most of our customers just want their Multi Room Viewing. And we’re here to help.
DirecTV’s DECA components are the key to making this work seamlessly. But, as a new product, we’ve been getting tons of questions about what parts to get for each room/receiver in the house.
So we’ve build a configuration utility on our site to make finding the products as easy as using them. Give it a try!
TiVo has been touting the Wireless N adapter for their DVRs, and it’s now available. We’ll be shipping ours starting 4/30/10. You can preorder one here:
This adapter is fundamentally different from the TiVo Wireless G adapter (which will continue to be sold). Besides the extra speed (and extra $30 in cost), this unit acts more as an ethernet-wireless bridge. So it plugs into the ethernet port, rather than a USB port.
Using the ethernet port is different for a few reasons, but presumably TiVo designed the adapter this way to be able to get more throughput than they could over USB. But it also means the unit needs its own power outlet. Additionally, this change limits the compatible units for this device to any unit that has an ethernet port on-board – so the dual tuner TiVo (units with service numbers starting in 649) or any HD TiVo for cable (original Series3, TiVo HD and HD XL, and TiVo Premiere, and Premiere XL).
If you don’t currently have WiFi, or if you want N WiFi for your TiVo and you currently have a slower variety (B or G), you can get two of these units and configure them in bridge mode. This allows you to put one adapter on your TiVo and one directly on an unused ethernet port on your router and create an N wireless link.
Final note: this adapter will step down to B or G speeds if that’s the fastest protocol supported in your router.
Here’s an email we get a lot – and something I always forget to post on the blog: auto-record of TiVo Suggestions.
When customers get a new hard drive from us (we’ve got them for every model TiVo) and they install it and set it up, they find that it’s recording a lot of shows that they haven’t requested. And, shows they don’t want.
This is happening because TiVo Suggestions is on by default – and the new drive is using the default settings. And why are they shows you don’t want? Your thumbs-up and thumbs-down history was on your old drive. So the new drive has very little info to offer to the Suggestion engine.
OK – here’s how to turn it off. Go to:
Settings -> Recording -> TiVo Suggestions
and choose No!
That should do the trick. Now you can just delete the accumulated shows. If you have folders on, you should see them all in a folder marked “TiVo Suggestions”.
