Category: WeaKnees News

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Troubleshooting Help WeaKnees News

weaKnees TiVo Power Supply Inventory Grows

For years, we have had the largest inventory of replacement TiVo power supplies around. We can now add another notch to the bedpost (and believe me, we TiVo geeks do notch our bedposts over this stuff).

After years of searching, we finally have power supplies for the Toshiba SD-H400 TiVo DVR with DVD player. This short-lived TiVo seems to be prized among TiVo owners, since it has TiVo Basic service and consolidates a DVR and DVD player into a nice compact box. Although the cost of the power supply is unfortunately nothing to sneeze at ($149), they are brand new authorized parts.

With this addition, we now have replacement power supplies for every TiVo made, with the exception of the latest TiVoHD models. Those power supplies should be coming soon.

As TiVos age, repair has become increasingly important to TiVo owners. Whether it’s a TiVo hard drive, TiVo power supply or TiVo motherboard, we can repair most problems. TiVo repairs will preserve lifetime service and in many situations (failed power supplies, motherboards and some drive problems), we can also preserve recordings! As always, help is just an email away.

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WeaKnees News

DirecTV HD DVRs Require Restart Again – but get 1080p!

So, once again, a system update came down to HR20, HR21, HR21 Pro, and HR22 units, and, once again, the units seem to be requiring manual restarts. We reported on the last OS update from DirecTV requiring restarts earlier this month.

But, this time at least, there’s an added feature, and one that seems surprising: 1080p. We really don’t have all of the details yet, but it seems that through software, DirecTV has enabled 1080p in certain cases. 1080p is the highest quality level of HD signal that most current equipment can use – it’s generally a bit sharper than 1080i.

Initially, at least, only limited HD programming will be available in 1080p. What little information we have on the subject really stems from this press release. If you have any more – please post in the comments!

My TV, of course, only goes to 1080i. Maybe LG can update its software 😉

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Product Information TiVo News Troubleshooting Help WeaKnees News

SDV Tuning Adapters for Time Warner – Pre-order

If you’ve got an HD TiVo and you want to get all of the channels from your cable company, you’ll likely want a Switched Digital Video (SDV) Tuning Adapter. These items are just rolling out in from cable companies around the country.

Briefly, the idea is that this enables the TiVo to tell the cable company which video stream to send down to your unit. So more options are available, since not every stream has to be sent at once. The unit plugs into your TiVo’s USB port and then you plug the cable line into it, and the output from it goes to the TiVo. See more info on our earlier blog post about SDV and TiVos.

Now Time Warner seems to have a way to pre-order the unit for any eligible customer. See this page where you can enter you zip code and confirm eligibility, then sign up!

As far as we know, the adapters will be free for eligible customers.

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DirecTV Product Information Site Change WeaKnees News

Lower Prices on DirecTV TiVo Satellite Tuner Repair

As more and more DirecTV TiVos age, we’re seeing many, many more satellite tuner failures. What was once a rare repair job for us has become much more standard, and that being the case, we have a lot more experience with this type of repair job, and we’re able to fix them much more effectively. 

So we’ve reduced the price of these repairs, and now they are a very compelling alternative to getting a replacement unit. Repairs start at just $129. See the full information on our DirecTV TiVo Satellite Tuner Repair page.

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Product Information Site Change WeaKnees News

New TiVo Upgrade Kits – 1 Terabyte Drives for Most TiVos

We’ve just begun selling 1 Terabyte hard drives, fully prepared and ready to install in all Series2 TiVos. This includes the DirecTV units, and the TiVos with integrated DVD players and burners. We’re using the AV line of Western Digital Green Power drives for these kits, so there’s even a power-use reduction over older drives!

Here’s a screenshot of a 1 Terabyte drive installed in a Pioneer 810H. This is a combo DVD-TiVo unit, and since it has an internal DVD burner, it only has space for one hard drive. So the 1 Terabyte kits give these units a new maximum capacity of 1360 hours. This information also applies to the combo units from Humax and Toshiba.

For standalone Series2 TiVo units (from TiVo, Humax, AT&T, and Sony), a single 1 Terabyte drive maxes out at 1270 hours of space at Basic Quality. See the screenshot for capacities at other recording qualities.

Finally, for all of the Series2 DirecTV TiVos (brands include Hughes, Philips, Samsung, RCA, and DirecTV), these units get up to 973 hours of all-digital recording space.

These kits are ready to go and begin shipping today!