Alex over at TiVoBlog posted a video of himself installing a WeaKnees external TiVo backup drive. We’re very happy to say that it was as easy for him as it should be for anyone. I just takes a few minutes!
Thanks Alex!
Category: Product Information
Well, we thought it would never happen. We thought that development on PATA drives was pretty much over. But Western Digital surprised us and there’s a 320 GB drive that works (very well!) in the AppleTV.
So we’ve added that option to our site in two ways. You can:
1 – Buy a complete AppleTV with 320 GB of space
2 – Upgrade your AppleTV to 320 GB of space
Either way, see our AppleTV Upgrade page.
We’ve added a new series of TiVo Upgrade Kits to our website. These allow you to add a 1 Terabyte drive to your TiVo or Humax Series2 unit. Yes, that’s 1,000 Gigabytes.
We’ve been selling 1 Terabyte replacement drives for these models for some time. Now we completed testing of the “add” configuration and we’ve begun shipping these units. For more information on the difference between “add” and “replace” kits, see our TiVo upgrade add v. replace page.
These kits add about 1275 hours to all models at Basic Quality, or about 350 hours at Best Quality.
Here’s a screenshot of a unit with a kit added. The unit was originally an 80 GB model:
These kits are available plug-and-play for these TiVo models:
- TCD240040
- TCD24004A
- TCD240080
- TCD24008A
- TCD240140
- TCD540040
- TCD540080
- TCD540140
- TCD649080
- TCD649160
and these Humax models:
- T800
- T2500
These are the largest “add” kits ever!
TiVo, Inc. issued their financial year-end results today via a press release. Beside the numbers (profit is up, but not on a large scale; subscribers are down, but not on a large scale), there is an interesting tidbit on the progress of the DirecTV HD DVR:
“Additionally, we continue to work on our new DIRECTV HD DVR. The new HD DVR will include popular TiVo broadband features, and will be immediately accessible to DIRECTV’s entire national customer base on day-one of the launch. We have had a very successful history with DIRECTV and those subscribers are some of our most loyal customers. Now, as these customers look to upgrade from standard definition programming, they will have the option to choose the TiVo experience to help them truly get the most out of their high definition viewing experience.”
That’s really the first official news update we’ve had on the DirecTV HD TiVo DVR since the initial announcement last September. And, better yet, it specifically mentions that it will include “popular TiVo broadband features.” Of course, it doesn’t say it will include all broadband features, but if it has some, that’s better than any older TiVo for DirecTV. So we’re hopeful. Now, we could use a release date, and a price . . .
While digging around online, I found a page on Moxi’s website comparing the two companies’ HD DVRs. These are basically the only units around that use CableCARDs, so it’s interesting to see how the underdog tries to compare itself to TiVo.
I just found this today, so it may be that this is dated, but here’s a screenshot of the comparison:
Sure, I’m a big TiVo fan, so I’m biased, but I’ll ask the obvious question: what unit costs $699 and has 32 HD and 120 SD hours of capacity? I’m guessing they’re taking the TiVo HD ($299) and adding in lifetime service ($399 for new subscribers, $299 for existing) to get $699. So, for the record, that should be 20 HD hours and 180 SD hours. The TiVo Series3 was 32 HD hours, but not 120 SD hours. So I can’t figure out where that figure ever came from.
OK, so then multi-room DVR sharing? They both have it, but the extra Moxi boxes will cost $799 while extra TiVo boxes with lifetime will now cost $598, since you save $100 on lifetime for each extra box. That’s $200 less than Moxi.
Yes, Moxi has HD menus (although those are coming to TiVo) and arcade games (which you can do to some extent on TiVos) and Flickr. But TiVo has:
- Netflix streaming – this, alone, is pretty huge
- Amazon VOD – formerly Amazon Unbox
- YouTube
- Yahoo! connections
- TiVo cast
- many more internet features, with more coming all the time
Beyond that, of course, there’s the chance that “lifetime service” means something with the unit. I’m pretty sure TiVo is here to stay for quite a while. Moxi and Digeo? Very uncertain, to say the least. That’s not an $800 bet I’d want to make.
Now Digeo and Moxi may be around for quite some time, and they may make a big deal with a cable provider who would use their units to deploy in customers’ homes like the Scientific Atlanta model. But not at these prices. And judging by the traffic in our Moxi forums, it doesn’t seem like too many boxes are already out there.
I wish Moxi the best, and I do hope they survive even if it’s just so that TiVo always has a competitor. But this comparison chart just feels very misleading, to me. If the product can’t compare to TiVo on TiVo’s true features, fine, just don’t post a very selective list.