We’ve got some good deals for Black Friday on huge DVRs: TiVo Roamios and several models from DIRECTV including the Genie are all on sale today!
And, if you’re looking for a new remote for your TiVo, we have one at the lowest price EVER in honor of the date.
The TiVo HD (TCD652160) and the TiVo HD XL (TCD658000) are the second HD DVRs for cable that TiVo produced. They’re great units, and many customers bought lifetime service for theirs, which makes them valuable units.
Over the years, we’ve seen many, many of these units with a failure that results in a flashing green light, and no startup response beyond that at all. For years, we’ve been unable to fix this failure, but with some help from our friends in Australia, we’re now able to fix these – so far in pretty much all cases we’ve seen.
We’re very happy to have finally overcome this hurdle. This was, by far, the most common failure that we’ve seen that we hadn’t been able to fix. Our repair department is already able to fix 95%+ of the units that come in here – this brings us closer to our goal of 100%.
The process and the pricing for the fix works this way: you’ll start with our Series3 and Series4 TiVo Repair Program fee of $99.99. That includes labor for the diagnosis and testing of all parts, and also includes return shipping. Then, once we receive and test your unit, and assuming we find the problem in question, there will be an additional $79.99 fee for the parts and labor involved in this repair. So, potentially for $180, you’ll be salvaging a fantastic HD TiVo – and saving the costs of a new TiVo Roamio and lifetime fee, starting at about $600.
And if you’re in Australia and need your TiVo repaired, drop us a line and we’ll get you in touch with our friends down under.
After weeks of testing (it takes a LONG time to fill up an 8tb unit and put it through its paces!), we’ve finally launched three 8TB units: The 8TB TiVo Roamio, 8TB TiVo Roamio Plus and 8TB TiVo Roamio Pro. In addition, we have released 8TB self-install kits for the Roamio, Roamio Plus and Roamio Pro. All 8TB products are in stock and shipping. Each unit contains a 4TB internal hard drive and an external 4TB drive. As always, we use only drives specially made for DVRs.
An aside for those still reading: When we launched our 4TB Plus and Pro, many emailed to ask about the differences between the 4TB Plus and 4TB Pro. If you look at the TiVo Roamio Comparison Chart, you’ll see that the only difference between these units from the factory is the size of the internal drive. Once we remove the factory drive and install a new one, the units become identical (aside for the word “Plus” vs “Pro” on the front of the unit). So while we offer the Pro in a 4TB capacity, we see no reason to spend the money on the Pro over the Plus unless you have some super-geeky friends that would be impressed by the word “Pro” on the front. We offer the 4TB Pro for those who, for that reason or whatever other reason, just want it.
The same is true for the 8TB Plus and 8TB Pro. We recommend that you save your money and get the Plus.
For years we have been promoting the 30-second skip built into the TiVo through a backdoor. Not to be outdone, DIRECTV also tucked a similar trick into it’s HD DVRs. The 30-second skip is great for skipping through commercials. It is also fantastic for blitzing through football games. From the end of one down to the next snap, it’s often remarkably close to 30 seconds. Watching football with your finger on the skip button gets you through games pretty darned quickly.
With the rise of the hurry-up offense, though, the 30-second skip is essentially useless (unless you don’t mind missing every other play). I personally don’t watch much pro football, but I do watch a decent amount of Pac-12 games (and am NOT happy with DIRECTV and the Pac-12 Network, but that’s another story). Washington, Cal and others are jamming plays in every 12-18 seconds, making the 30-second skip useless.
I’m not saying I have a miracle cure for this situation, and my solution isn’t all that earth-shattering, but it does work. I use a combination of the instant-replay button and the 30-second skip to create my own 18-second skip and, if necessary, 12-second skip. Instant Replay (IR) is a 6-second rewind, so IR+IR+30-second skip=18-second skip, and obviously IR+IR+IR+30=12-second skip. It takes a bit of extra time to go back 6+6+6, but it’s less than watching 12 seconds on annoying commentary.
Go Bears!
We’re now shipping complete, upgraded Roamio, Roamio Plus and Roamio Pro units with a single 4TB internal drive.
This is the largest internal drive made today. It provides up to 630 HD hours. For more information, see our original blog post.