Toshiba SD-H400 hard drive upgrade?

[boltonj]

I am planning to buy a Toshiba SD-H400 if I can also upgrade the hard drive. Can the Toshiba be upgraded?

[weathertop]

I ran this question by both weaknees and the folks at PTV Upgrade and they both shared that they are working on having upgrades available for this Tivo, but it is not possible to upgrade this Tivo at this time.

Seems that Tivo/Toshiba introduced some differences with this Tivo model that have not lended themselves to the presently available drive expansion utilities, thus proving this Tivo model to be a tough nut to crack.

And, in his e-mail response, weakness indicated to me that his team would likely be spending more time on developing an upgrade for this Tivo if there was more interest.

So, I'd recommend posting a reply to this thread to indicate your interest in the availability of SD-H400 drive upgrades (rather than badgering either of these groups with e-mails).

:)

[bdfox18]

I'm Interested..

[weathertop]

Well, that makes 3 of us.

:confused:

Any more SD-H400 owners out there interested in the availability of a hard drive upgrade?

[ahbrown41]

I just bought one as well. I imagine I'd be interested in the next couple months

[CraigHB]

I just bought an SD-H400 and would like to replace the 80GB drive with a 250GB drive.

Thanks,

- Craig

[unagiboy]

Interested also.

[Rev. Noch]

I just got one of these for X-Mas and I have put a 160GB Maxtor drive into it, All of the tools completed successfully but when it is in the TiVo, it still reports that it is 82 hours. I put the HD back into my computer and the tools report that it is 120 or so hours and there is nothing to expand.

I would love to have more space on my Toshiba SD-H400

[CraigHB]

Originally posted by CraigHB

I just bought an SD-H400 and would like to replace the 80GB drive with a 250GB drive. Actually, cancel that. The SD-H400 I ordered from GoodGuys.com came DOA. I sent it back and got a TDC24004A from a local retailer. I upgraded it with a 160GB WD drive on sale from OfficeMax for $80. I bought a Toshiba TV with a built in DVD player instead. My TV sucked and needed to be replaced anyway.

Best of luck to you guys with the Toshiba TiVo/DVD player.

Thanks,

- Craig

[accobra]

We'll I'm definitely interested in more space on my Toshiba so lets see if that nut can be cracked!

[adelimon]

Me too. Would probably buy a hard drive as soon as it was available.

[jguidera]

I'd be very interested myself as well.

[aldorm]

Count me in also...I just purchased on and look forward to upgrading it...

[mkop]

Count me in also. Been trying to upgrade my for a couple of days now, until I came across this forum

[cjedlicka]

Well this thread answered my question!

Interest in upgrading here also!!

[Fokker]

count me in also. I got mine 3 weeks ago and loving it.

[drhump]

i'm interested.

[michigan bob]

I got my unit last week.. Its awesome. I know that I will want an larger hard drive within 6 months. BTW, did anyone subscribe to Tivo Plus or lifetime subscription?

[BUDYL]

Paid the lifetime service fee after 30 days of the 45 day free trial. I was sold on the season pass and wishlist. Throw out the sunday tv guide.

[cmarr]

count me in too !

[Murray Watson]

I'm interested.

As for the Tivo Plus subscription, I originally purchased a Tivo80 and Tivo refused to accept a check for lifetime subscription, I returned the unit and bought a Toshiba elsewhere because it offered Basic service.

I'm not going to argue with a company unwilling to accept my money and I refuse to support Visa/MC with merchant fees. I also had enough time to realise that they make money selling the statistics of our selections making their subscription fee overpriced in my opinion.

Tivo's excuse was that they were an "E" company. I spent 3 years as IT director for an "E" company and know the ACH system works quite well. I was processing 10k ACH transactions/month without merchant fees.

[captnem0]

Count me in ... Got a new toshiba sd h400 unit ... would be interested in adding a second drive too!

[szinman]

Count me in as well. I have had my Toshiba for two weeks now, and the disk is rapidly filling.

[mathewjc]

I'm very interested. I just got the SD-H400 and love it.

[TxnBluDvl]

I'll throw my name on that list too. I'd rather have a TiVo that I can upgrade that also has component outputs (and not spend 700 dollars for it vanilla).

[bomavico]

I am interested in upgrading my Toshiba sd h400.

You can do it guys!

[buddhawood]

Any luck yet?

[rudiger]

I just bought this for my parents. I'm interested in any hard drive upgrade information for this.

rudiger

[jkieffer72]

Just purchased my Toshiba this weekend; interested in upgrade in near future...

jk

[Spiff]

I picked one up yesterday, too. This is my first post, and my first TiVo. I first saw one at a friend's house. I got the HMO and a wireless adapter. I'm AMAZED at the sound quality of the MP3s it plays from my XP PC and Mac laptop. I love the ability to schedule remotely. In the future I may want to upgrade too, so I'll keep checking this thread.

[mpastreich]

Just going out and buy my first TiVo tomorrow. My wife and I had a power outage a few weeks ago and it fried the VCR, this seemed like a opportune time to replace it :D

Best Buy is offering a $100 price break which puts it on par with the 80hr TiVo.
(Still debating the pluses/minuses: SD-H400 will take up less room and need one less remote, SA 80hr TiVo will be more easily upgradeable to a bigger drive and has a standard TiVo remote). I figure the 80hrs makes more sense to start with, and the TiVo basic can let us get our feet wet before committing to either the lifetime fee, or a monthly subscription (of course the 'Media' package option seems very interesting in terms of streaming MP3s and Pictures to the TV, now if only I could stream in the other way I would be a truly content camper). :)

If I knew I'd be able to upgrade the SD's drive relatively easily, I'd be much less hesitant about not taking the SA 80hr TiVo ... course I'd also be happier if the DVD unit supported SVCD but thats Toshiba's problem. :)

Depending on how hooked me and the missus get, I'm already considering replacing the HD with a bigger one down the line, so mark down one more interested consumer. :)

[buddhawood]

I just bought a open box 810 at BB tonight. Is there any hope for upgrade in the near future? Sad to say but I've been spoiled with 300+ hours and 80 is not going to cut it!
Fingers Crossed!!!:confused:

[buddhawood]

Anything????

[bomavico]

Give us good news please
Our SD-H400 are hungry?
LETS UPGRADE!

Thanks

[ekuhner]

I'm interested too

I'd like some hacks on it as well, so I can add/remove video through the Ethernet.

[allen88]

Just bought one from Best Buy with the $100 rebate and 10% off. I'm interested in an upgrade also.

[JoeB4ever]

I work at best buy in the home theater department, so I know quite a bit about tivo. Toshiba offered a $100 mail-in rebate for best buy employees on the sd-h400, so i instantly bought it. And I love it. I kinda wish i waited to see about the upgradibility for this model though. I believe it has a lot of potential beyond the basic hacks. It'd be sweet if you could transfer the files on a dvd onto the hard drive.

[buddhawood]

Any updates?

[focuser]

I'd upgrade in a minute, should the upgrade become available....

[ytytyt]

Per RonnyThunder the ability to expand the Toshiba's is now avaliable within the CVS tree of mfstool hosted at http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/mfstools/mfstools/ you will need to compile from source yourself.

[BUDYL]

http://www.weaknees.com/details/rs120sdh4.php

Found the link from a MSN search, not from Weaknees mainpage

[ytytyt]

Interesting that this comes to light just as a free method is avaliable.

[weaknees]

That's really not something we offer - just an automated page that was generated by our system.

But we are working on upgrades, and we'll look at the work being done on mfs.

Michael

[buddhawood]

Originally posted by weaknees
That's really not something we offer - just an automated page that was generated by our system.

But we are working on upgrades, and we'll look at the work being done on mfs.

Michael

Michael, I sure hope that by some miracle you can get this figured out before the latest $50 rebate offer expires this month. I just can't justify another lifetime for just 80 hours ( I know that I have been spoiled by 300+ units)

[Brute]

I would be interested in this as well. I'm in the market for a 2nd tivo as well as a new DVD player, so this model is looking like a good fit. It would be nice to be able to upgrade it.

[daverx7]

Add me to the list that wants to do a HD upgrade to the Toshiba DVD Tivo.

Thanks,

-Dave

[manolin]

I am interested in this as well.
Any news from Weaknees?

Manolin

[buddhawood]

Originally posted by manolin
I am interested in this as well.
Any news from Weaknees?

Manolin

I sent an e-mail last week to inquire the status of an upgrade ( I need to decide to go lifetime or not before the rebate expires 6-30-04, I can't justify $299 for only 80hrs basic...I've been spoiled!) and they replied quickly that the team was working on the HD Tivo and after that was complete they would take another look at the Toshiba.
Fingers crossed 28 days and counting...down!

[wkirke]

I just got one of these from BB today, and didn't realize it was not upgradable. Hopefully soon!!!

Let me know when you have drives available Michael!

-Bill Kirke

[PaulR]

Add me to the list.

Pretty much had to buy this unit as after the Motorola Time Warner box, DVD Player, stereo receiver, and 43" TV, had no room in the cabinet for another piece of equipment....so either the DVD player had to go, or the cable box would have to go.

Time Warner dragged their heels on a DVR, so I quit waiting, go the SD-H400 and took the DVD player out.

[mab631]

I love the toshiba model its great 80 hrs is good i don't need to upgrade now that i just got it but in like a year i would love to upgrade the hard drive to like a 200 hrs one that would nice i hope weaknees can find a way to get around the software. Go weaknees you can do it

[wiretap]

Me Too!

[firstwitness2000]

If the hard drive is not upgradeable, can it at least be replaced if it fails? I am within the time frame to return this dvr to BestBuy if it is not possible to replace the drive with another 80gb hard drive??

[Threader]

put my vote in! Me needs more hd

[ecopoesis]

Originally posted by firstwitness2000
If the hard drive is not upgradeable, can it at least be replaced if it fails? I am within the time frame to return this dvr to BestBuy if it is not possible to replace the drive with another 80gb hard drive??

You can backup and restore drive images with MFSTools. You can even expand a drive image onto a larger drive, it's just that the SDH400 only recognizes 80gig of it.

[xpmagician]

me too but i need to activate my HMO first. anyone know know how?? i have to plus and i can update my schedule with my eithernet cable but the options for HMO is not in the menu.

[APD]

Add me to the list

[BlueOtto]

Add me to the list also. I am more interested in quieting the unit down a little bit, so just getting a new 80 gig drive that was quieter would suffice. I'd do it myself, but I'm not confident of the amount of resources available out there for this unit if something went awry. Any updates on progress of this?

[leobag]

Is this list thing even gonna happen? If so, add me ;)

.leo

[firstwitness2000]

Originally posted by BlueOtto
Add me to the list also. I am more interested in quieting the unit down a little bit, so just getting a new 80 gig drive that was quieter would suffice. I'd do it myself, but I'm not confident of the amount of resources available out there for this unit if something went awry. Any updates on progress of this?

seriously, I have the same feelings. I saw the upgrade instructions for regular tivo's, it's a mile long. Imagine for this unit.

As long as the drive can be replaced in case of failure, since that is about all that can go wrong with these units, then that would be great.

[simmike]

This probably is something that won't bother people, but I was reading the fine print in the TIVO manual about TIVO basic and it said any modification to the unit and the TIVO basic is void.

Keeping the TIVO basic intact is something that many people will want, because it will definitely add to the resell value of this unit further down the line. While many people look down on TIVO basic, it is actually a pretty good freebie, that many regular TIVO users would like to have.

[Ambush]

A friend of mine has one, and myself and a buddy both just bought this model, we'd all be interested in this....

[benhvic]

Add me to the interested list. I would like to upgrade my Toshiba.

[simmike]

It looks like the back of this drive just has some normal philips head screws. So does the case come off easily? I know most DVD players and VCRs the case is pretty easy to take off.

I'm kind of curious if nothing else and would like to see the layout of the inside.

Also, do these generally use 5400 rpm drives for lower heat output? Would a 7200 rpm drive get proper cooling? Is there room to add a small hard drive cooler?

You can check the temp of the unit by going to the system information menu. The other day, which was kind of hot, the temp was 51C, which in my opinion is running your hard drives and stuff hotter than they should be. Thus the question about 7200 rpm drives.

[simmike]

Why is this particular TIVO giving people trouble upgrading the hard drive?

[lslingo]

I'd like to upgrade mine as well.

[Tersanyus]

Count me as interested in upgrading the space on this unit as well. Hope the people in the know can figure out why this unit only sees 80GB even after it is expanded.

I've been watning to open the case just to see what is inside this thing but just afraid too. Though I didn't see any tamper stickers on the back there might be something on the inside to show if it has been tampered with.

[simmike]

I posted a picture of the inside in another post in this forum. I don't think there are any tamper stickers when I opened it up. If you read the standard warranty, it isn't that great to begin with, so unless you bought an extended warranty, you don't have a lot to lose.

I would be more concerned with losing the free basic TIVO, which I will probably go back to after the free trial is over.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=182465

[beckerpm]

Another vote for expansion!

[Mwarhead]

Definetely Interested.

[bkdtv]

Add me to the list.

If you can get 30 sec skip working on the new image, I'll pay extra too.

[Davin]

I'm also strongly considering purchasing a Toshiba unit as my second TiVo.

And while I don't need to upgrade it right away, I'm wondering how progress is coming on this. Does it look like something that will never happen? or something that just needs some more work/tweaking?

Thanks.
Davin.

[ashu]

Its on sale again (200 - 50 rebate). I'm glad I found this section that mentions its NOT upgradable yet.

Anything new weakness? As a current upgrade kit/PowerTrip customer with my original 80 hour TiVo (now 210 hours ;)), I'd happily buy a kit if you made on available.

Are folks saying an MFSTools recompile WOULD upgrade these units successfully? I could go that route too!

Also - someone mentioned the 30-second skip. Is that unavailable by default (with the remote key-sequence?) Perhaps the software is, indeed, quite different, then - especially considerng it handles DVD functions as well!

Anyone? Bueller?

[bkdtv]

People have been able to get new, larger drives in the SD-H400.

The problem so far has been that the SD-H400 refuses to recognize the additional recording capacity. So you can put a 160Gb drive in the SD-H400, but it still won't give you more than 80 hours of recording capacity.

There must be a setting in some file that is telling the SD-H400 to only use 80 gigabytes of capacity for recording, regardless of drive size.

Weakness, please figure this out. :)

[ashu]

Dang those lazy coders who prolly put in a hardcoded number for max size, instead of querying the IDE scans ;)

Yeah Michael/weakness - there is obviously a demand for this - and if it does not involve kernel hacking, I'm sure it'll be profitable. Even if you only make it available as larger drive images that works (I doubt an 'add' solution is feasible, seeing as there is no space for a second drive in the box!).

[bkdtv]

ashuto,

To answer your previous question, the Toshiba SD-H400 is one of the few Tivos (if not the only one) with non-functional 30-second skip. You go through the remote key sequence to enable it and you hear the beep, but it's never enabled. No one has figured out how to enable 30-second skip on the Toshiba.

[SpaceAce69]

My wife and I purchased this model approximately 3 months ago and we couldn't be happier! Great features, great price!! I already had a Linksys wireless network in the house and decided to purchase a wireless adapter for the TiVo as well. I got the Linksys WUSB12 yesterday, plugged it in, and tada!! :)

It took me less than 15 minutes and I was viewing pictures and listening to music off of the computer. I am kind of nutty when it comes to bells and whistles and now just have to purchase another TiVo to do the room transfer ;)

I would be very interested in an update to the hard drive. I am not very well versed in Linux, but it sounds to me that the core software that runs it is the problem with the drive size increase not being "noticed". If you remember, older versions of Windoze would not "see" drives larger than X Mb.

Anyways, I would highly recommend this unit to anyone that is looking for a first or second unit to their family. I haven't used the remote scheduling yet but I am sure this will come off without a hitch as well. It easily plays any of my VCDs, SVCDs, and backups of DVDs. Couldn't be happier. This unit came with the free basic service but we subscribed to Plus within the 45 day trial. With the addition of HMF, it makes it even more of a bonus. Can't wait for TiVo-2-Go!!!! :)

Later!
SpaceAce :cool:

[ashu]

Thanks for all the additional input and responses, folks!

Another one - what software (version) does it come with (can I use the USB-ethernet wired Guided Setup, or do I NEED the phone line?)?

And does it update to a newer version the first time its connected?

[Mwarhead]

Originally posted by ashutoshsm
Thanks for all the additional input and responses, folks!

Another one - what software (version) does it come with (can I use the USB-ethernet wired Guided Setup, or do I NEED the phone line?)?

And does it update to a newer version the first time its connected?

I dont know what software version it comes with but. Mine that I just purchased had to have the phone line for the guided setup, then afterwards I could use the ethernet.

Yes, it does update to a newer version the first time its connected.

A little information for Weakness, Hinsdale, and the makers of MFS tools. I atempted a hdd upgrade to my SD-h400. I added a second drive to it. The tivo does not recognize the additional capacity, but it does require the second drive so the MFS upgrade is recognized by the tivo, it just doesn't allow for more then 80 hrs. In theory you could probably put 2 40 gig hdds in there and it should still be able to do the 80.

What I found weird though was the fact that the new drive I put in is being accessed a lot. You would think it wouldnt access it much when recording as it's not using the capacity.

[acha85]

i'm also interested in upgrading my Toshiba DVD/TiVo

[upilogue]

Interested!

[simmike]

This thread is virtually devoid of new information, but I am glad it is staying alive. That being said, 80 hours is a pretty decent size. If I can judge by all the garbage TIVO records automatically, I have a ton of space. The main reason I would like to swap in a 160GB drive is to max out the quality setting on everything. The quality of the video really tails off after the top setting.

One annoying thing about my 400 is that virtually every time I turn it on, I have to hit the "progressive" button to get rid of a little flutter in the picture. This only takes a second, so it is just a minor annoyance. I am connected via component/progressive and it seems to get the wrong setting every single time. I tried S-video connection and it didn't have this problem. The picture for both was pretty close to the same (I didn't test DVD yet) but the TIVO menus look better with the component connection. I think I'll keep it connected via component as hitting the progressive button is literally very quick and easy.

[bkdtv]

That being said, 80 hours is a pretty decent size.
As you alude to in your post, it's only 80 hours if you use the lowest record quality setting. Quality at that setting is unacceptable in my opinion. If you use the best setting, recording capabity is more like 21-22 hours.

[Larshart]

I would really enjoy being able to expand the amount of hard drive space in my Toshiba SD-400. I can't wait for weakknees to provide an upgrade.

[ashu]

The price just went up again. BB ran a one-week $199 special, plus 50 rebate! but no more!

[manolin]

For those of you interested there are some interesting posts about the Toshiba SD-H400. Go to the end of the posts and read what Sky12 has been doing in "dealdata base" (one word and no spaces) and go to General TiVo Discussions and look for mfstools goes GPL:

Please do not let this post bury, because so far these posts are our only hope for an upgrade of this combo unit.

Manolín

[buddhawood]

Originally posted by manolin
For those of you interested there are some interesting posts about the Toshiba SD-H400. Go to the end of the posts and read what Sky12 has been doing in "dealdata base" (one word and no spaces) and go to General TiVo Discussions and look for mfstools goes GPL:

Manolín

For the life of me I can't figure out what /where you are saying here? I tried searches and came up empty.

[Mwarhead]

Same here

[rudiger]

For those of you interested there are some interesting posts about the Toshiba SD-H400. Go to the end of the posts and read what Sky12 has been doing in "dealdata base" (one word and no spaces) and go to General TiVo Discussions and look for mfstools goes GPL:

Wow, Sky12 has definitely put in a lot of work into his "project". I can understand now why weaknees hasn't come out with an upgrade to the SD-H400. I hope he succeeds.

rudiger

[buddhawood]

Originally posted by rudiger
Wow, Sky12 has definitely put in a lot of work into his "project". I can understand now why weaknees hasn't come out with an upgrade to the SD-H400. I hope he succeeds.

rudiger

WHERE did you you find this info????? I still can't find it. There is no sky12 in member search.

[Mwarhead]

This is the forum and post he was referenceing is at

http://www.dealdata base.com/forum/showthread.php?p=173687#post173687

No Spaces

[buddhawood]

Originally posted by Mwarhead
This is the forum and post he was referenceing is at

http://www.dealdata base.com/forum/showthread.php?p=173687#post173687

No Spaces

THANK YOU! I feel stupid now.

[simmike]

Originally posted by Mwarhead
This is the forum and post he was referenceing is at

http://www.dealdata base.com/forum/showthread.php?p=173687#post173687

No Spaces

I don't think the above site exists.

[Mwarhead]

It does, take out the space. The forums dont allow that url to be posted for some reason.

[manolin]

Linux experts needed...........

...........to solve the software puzzle that doesn't recognize the expansion of the hard drive for the Toshiba SD-H400.
I am almost giving up after so many experiments.

Manolín

[ecopoesis]

There's really no puzzle. It seems that the TivoApp has the 80gig limit hardcoded into it. Short of replacing TivoApp, there is no solution.

[shawagg]

I just got one of these as well. My first Tivo and I love it!

I'm new here and to the idea of upgrading, I was wondering can you plug in external HDs into the USB ports? For that matter why doesn't Tivo just release external expansion drives? Seems to make perfect sense to me.

Later.

[manolin]

The USB ports support only network conection, they don't support external expansion hard drives.
Tivo won't release external expansion drives in the near future according to tivo people.
This is the only tivo which hasn't been upgraded so far.

Later

[simmike]

A quick question on making a backup of this drive.

How big will the backup file be?

Do I need to delete all the video I have on the drive before backing up? Or is the backup software smart enough to just do a backup of required files?

After backup, is it possible to maybe put the backup files in a ZIP file and copy this to CDR or DVD-R?

[ashu]

Originally posted by simmike
A quick question on making a backup of this drive.

How big will the backup file be?

Do I need to delete all the video I have on the drive before backing up? Or is the backup software smart enough to just do a backup of required files?

After backup, is it possible to maybe put the backup files in a ZIP file and copy this to CDR or DVD-R?

Hunt through the MFS Tools thread - but as I understand it, there are two ways to back up (perhaps 3?)

1. Back up everything, including video, into a massive image file (massiveness proportional to used disk space!)
2. Delete all the video manually, and backup the 'core' syste - usually just a *few* GB (varies WIDELY - mine was 2.4GB, I think - Version 4.01a). You can restore this to any disk identically sized, or larger (this comes into play when, for example, an 80GB Seagate has 400 KB less than the built-in 'Maxtor', etc)
3. I *think* there's a way to get mfsbackup to manually backup the critical bits and not video, without deleting them off the disk. Not Sure (hence, 2 ways, perhaps 3)

Again - hunt through the appropriate thread and the guide.

[ebeighe]

Originally posted by simmike

How big will the backup file be?

Do I need to delete all the video I have on the drive before backing up?


I backed mine up using the instructions at:
http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hinsdale-how-to/index9.html
They explain there which switches to use to not backup the video
(which is generally what you want to do to keep the backup file
reasonably sized)
and the backup file was around 1.2Gbytes.

[simonalope]

Since the earliest units are just barely approaching their first birthday, I would hope there haven't yet been too many HD failures, but out of curiosity, if my SD-H400's HD died, could Weaknees/PTV/someone similar provide a new drive I could just swap in? ie, I know capacity expansions aren't yet available, but could I buy a replacement drive pre-loaded with the Toshiba/TiVo software?

[weaknees]

Yes - replacement drives are certainly something we can make.

Michael

[bkdtv]

Does the Toshiba use a Maxtor Quickview? Because the disk reading / writing seems a bit louder than my other Tivos.

[manolin]

Michael,

Can you give us an update about the Toshiba sd-h400 (Hard drive upgrade)
Is it Possible?

Manolin

[weaknees]

QuickViews definitely work in them - most ship with them. Maybe the drive is old/bad?

The update is that we don't have anything definitive to report, but we are still working on it. Now that the HD TiVo upgrade issues are largely solved, we're putting time in on this, but we really still don't see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Michael

[manolin]

Thanks Michael,

Good luck,

Manolin

[simmike]

My 45 day free trial is ending in five days. They have specifically sent me messages saying I can get the $50 rebate and it will specifically be credited to the same card I get billed for TIVO service on Sept 2. The only stipulation is I have to keep TIVO full service for 4 months. I was going to revert to just the basic service, but four months for almost free is kind of hard to pass up.

Just as long as this doesn't mess up reverting to TIVO basic in the future, I will probably do this.

[upilogue]

Michael/everyone,

I am new to Tivo/SDH-400, though I am comfortable with Linux/Unix. I understand that drive size expansion is still impossible with the SDH-400. Right now, all I want to do is install a few apps on it (Tivo Web, elseed, etc.). Is that possible on the this unit? Should I back up the image then use Sleeper ISO? Any pointers would be appreciated... at this point, I don't want to go down the path of becoming 'moron' type I, II, or any type. ;)

Thanks!

[jeffcorbets]

Hi,

My girlfriend bought me a Toshiba SDH-400 and I love it. I am also one of the people interested in both adding capacity and having a 30 second skip enabled. Anyone have friends at Toshiba? ;)

Jeff Corbets

[simmike]

Here is one tip about the rebate with the 400. For sure start your free 45 day trial of full (almost, no home media) TIVO. If it works like it did for me, within a day or two you will get a message saying you can upgrade for the $50 rebate and it will be directly credited to the account you use to pay for the TIVO service. For instance, I started the trial in the middle of June. I got about three of these messages, saying the rebate offer was good until July 31 and the $50 would be credited on Sept 2. The only stipulation is you have to keep the service for four full months.

So I read all the terms of the deal online, signed up and didn't have to send in any rebate stuff. This was better than the Best Buy rebate which required me to mail within 30 days of purchase and wait months and months for the check.

Here is the terms of the deal, which is only good for people who specifically receive the message from TIVO.

http://www.tivo.com/upgradeoffer (http://www.tivo.com/upgradeoffer)

This the most gravy rebate I've ever had to do.

[shawagg]

Damn! Didn't notice the 4 month part.

Oh and simmike, you don't need to activate the 45day trail. I've had it since Jan and never activated it. They still sent me the message still.

I sure wished I chould have added the 45 day trial to my 4 months. Sort of feel cheated.

[simmike]

yeah, the four month part is kind of a drag. But in my opinion this is more than made up by the direct deposit of the rebate at the beginning of September. Even the other rebates which don't require four full months service, people are getting stuck with at least three months just to make sure the rebate clears.

[shawagg]

I activated the Tivo Plus yesterday and today I noticed I have a new option on the Tivo Central Menu for 'photos and music'.

I thought this was part of the HMO. Should I be alarmed?

Also how do I get the music and photos on the Tivo? I'm using dial up on the Tivo, do I have to plug in a wireless USB adapter? I downloaded the Tivo Publisher on the desktop, but I'm not sure what's next.

Later

[bkdtv]

shawagg,

Tivo made HMO available for free to "Tivo Plus" customers a month or two back.

I'm using dial up on the Tivo, do I have to plug in a wireless USB adapter? I downloaded the Tivo Publisher on the desktop, but I'm not sure what's next.
In order to use the music and photo features, you must have a network, and the Tivo must be on that network. Most have a wireless network (a wireless router in their home plus a wireless card in their PC or Mac) and a wireless USB adapter connected to their Tivo.

[simmike]

One thing about the $50 rebate offer that is sent directly to specific TIVO devices, like my Toshiba 400.

Before I signed up for the rebate, I specifically took a photo of the screen message showing they sent me this $50 offer. In fact they sent me the message three times. Anyway, to cut to the chase, today I check my TIVO messages and suddenly all of these three messages are gone. I don't know if this is standard procedure, but TIVO deleted these messages. I'm not saying anything nefarious is going on, but I am also glad I took a photo of the screen just in case my account doesn't get credited in on Sept 2, like promised.

So my point is, if you are thinking of doing this or a similar offer, take a picture of the message screen just as a hard copy backup of the message.

[ebeighe]

Originally posted by upilogue
Michael/everyone,

I am new to Tivo/SDH-400, though I am comfortable with Linux/Unix. I understand that drive size expansion is still impossible with the SDH-400. Right now, all I want to do is install a few apps on it (Tivo Web, elseed, etc.). Is that possible on the this unit? Should I back up the image then use Sleeper ISO? Any pointers would be appreciated... at this point, I don't want to go down the path of becoming 'moron' type I, II, or any type. ;)

Thanks!

You will be making a backup as an integral step in Sleeper.

Yes, it's possible to sleeper and then run Tivoweb and whatnot.... I just got through writing up my experiences, see http://thegeek.freeshell.org/tivo.html

[upilogue]

ebeighe, thanks!

[Mwarhead]

I sure hope some progress is being made on this.

[simmike]

This thread has been dead. I second the above post that I hope progress is being made.

I want to make a backup of my drive, but I don't really want to pull the drive out until I can also swap in a bigger drive at the same time. I would probably put in a 120GB, because I have one available.

[bkdtv]

I too hope that progress is being made.

[wkirke]

I gave up on expanding this unit, sold my Toshiba 400, and bought a Pioneer 810 (tivo with dvd recorder) which is expandable.

I much prefer the dvd playback on the 810, because the 8-second backup button on the remote works on DVDs like it does when playing TiVo recordings (well, almost -- it backs up but doesn't restart when paused). And, the pause, play, ff, and rw buttons display the green bar, showing you how far through the DVD you are. But, the DVD button where the TV power button used to be on the original TiVo remote is driving my wife nuts! <grin>

-Bill Kirke

[manolin]

Congratulations. Thats the way to go.

SD-H400 is a nice unit but there is not way to upgrade the hard drive.
I think we are stuck with it and forever with only 18 hours of goog quality video recording.


Manolin

[ashu]

Originally posted by manolin
only 18 hours of goog quality video recording.



Good is subjective. If the largest TV you own is a 27" flat screen (I do) and you record everything at Medium Quality - this is a locked 50-ish hour TiVo with DVD capability and optical audio output, and component video output - for barely more than the price of a base 80 hour (50-ish at Medium) Standalon Series 2! Makes a perfect spare TiVo (or main - for the Home Theater setup, and make the 2nd TiVo a massive storage device sitting in the 'other' room!)

[Worf]

Some of us are happy at basic, also...

[ashu]

[OT]

Originally posted by Worf
Some of us are happy at basic, also...

petaQ! (http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8853/curse.html) :)

Google is good!

[Mr. Zarniwoop]

To the earlier question asking if the Toshiba SD-H400 uses a Maxtor QuickView drive:

My unit has a sticker on the front that says "QuickVIEW by Maxtor" but...

The drive itself does not say QuickView anywhere on it, and it is significantly louder than the QuickView-labeled 40GB drive that came in my 40 hour TiVo series 2 and the QuickView-labeled 160GB drives I bought from weaKnees to upgrade that TiVo.

So, I think that the sticker may be in error and at least mine was built with an ordinary Maxtor DiamondMax 16 80GB drive.

[weaknees]

If the drive was made before about April of this year, even QuickViews didn't say QuickView on them. A good indication is that the part number ends in "P1" - those are all QuickViews.

Michael

[Mr. Zarniwoop]

The part number is 4R080L04214P1, so I take it that means it is a QuickView.

Still seems much louder than the drives you guys sold me though...

[weaknees]

Ours are pretty quiet - this might be a sign of impending problems.

Michael

[megatron]

i just picked this drive up today at bestbuy for $199 - 100 rebate = $99! I couldnt pass it up at that price since i already had $50 of GCs waiting to be used. Just setting it up now and hoping to revive this thread for some updates on upgrading...

[GBaz]

Damb...i was going to buy one today. but if i cant upgrade it what fun is that? anyone know the sw version on it? then again, i might just use it as a conflict resolver. 80 (er 50) hours sould be enough.
Im kind of shocked that they managed to make something that could not be hacked.

[ashu]

Originally posted by GBaz
Im kind of shocked that they managed to make something that could not be hacked.

Hmm - I think its more a case of they (Toshiba) decided to make something that could not be hacked.

They're tacitly un-supporting hacks on basic (SA) Series 2's by not restricting them. It would be an easy enough matter to make it impossible to upgrade, should they decide to or be forced to!

[GBaz]

True

just read in another thread that this thing lacks the 30-second skip...Can anyone confirm...if it does not have it im not going to buy it.

[smstriker]

I want this upgrade I need more space. Already running out.

[zodiac]

Originally posted by megatron
i just picked this drive up today at bestbuy for $199 - 100 rebate = $99! I couldnt pass it up at that price since i already had $50 of GCs waiting to be used. Just setting it up now and hoping to revive this thread for some updates on upgrading...

Thank for the info!
There is a 15off100 coupon available for bestbuy to save more. I just ordered. Hope more ppl would jump in this thread finally make this upgrade possible.

[weaknees]

Originally posted by GBaz
True

just read in another thread that this thing lacks the 30-second skip...Can anyone confirm...if it does not have it im not going to buy it.

That's right - no 30 second skip.

Michael

[GBaz]

Originally posted by zodiac
Thank for the info!
There is a 15off100 coupon available for bestbuy to save more. I just ordered. Hope more ppl would jump in this thread finally make this upgrade possible.

Do you have the info on this? Is it online only or for both online and instore? if it is printable do you have the url? Thanks

Well i thought this would be a good choice $100 for a 80 hour tivo with dvd and component out.....
Then i learned no upgrades, no 30 second skip, and i already have 7 dvd players counting computers with dvd drives...guess i dont realy need another...
The component would still be nice to have but then again my cable signal stincks, so i would have alot of high quality static on my tv thanks to the component hook up...not realy a plus anymore.
Guess ill get a "new" 40 hour and upgrade that with 2 200 gig drives and recore every thing at best quality.


The real draw back is no 30 second skip. I use that all the time. hit the button a few times. if i go to far i use the 8 second rewind. I hat the FF feature i always end up to far back with the auto correct. if i hit pause im usualy withing about 3 seconds of the show starting again verses 60 seconds before.

[ZeoTiVo]

I bought an SD H400 from best Buy for Net of 100$

I simply wanted a second Tuner to record with when it all boiled down. Add in HMO for free to do MRV and I will be liking this setup.

I am of ocurse now interested in how to upgrade and SD H400 though of course I would probably upgrade my SA 40Gig first as it will be my workhorse and the H400 will play DVDs and such and be there for overflow , hopefully netflix movies etc..

PS now that I have two I can look to start doing trickswith my SA and not be without TiVo service :)

[URPREY]

I have one of these, and I love it. I'm using it on my 65" Mitsu HDTV, and I really like the progressive scan feature within TiVo. At first I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to upgrade, but I already have a 205 hr TiVo upstairs and HMO over my wired network, so I can just transfer shows from my TiVo "server" and delete them when I'm done :)

[Wolf66]

So where is the upgrade status of the Toshiba SD-H400's still in the works or pushed to the way side?

[JoeyM]

Hopefully still in the works :)

[geoman47]

I'm interested.

As I found out with my TiVo brand series 2, hard drives fail. I'm currently doing the $7/month for the Toshiba and will do so until at least a hard drive replacement is available, but I'd likely want to upgrade in the event of a hard drive failure.

Just re-read the entire thread - I guess a replacement drive is available from Weaknees by contacting them, but still no upgrade. So does everyone with the SD-H400 think lifetime is a better deal or $7/month (if its your 2nd+ TiVo)?

[SD-H400]

I'm in!

[Tersanyus]

This thread just seems to be going nowhere anymore. Everytime I see a new response I think there might be a fix or whatever to get more capacity. Yes I am interested in more capacity but I don't record a whole lot right now to have any use for it. I record on High only so that is, I think, 36 hours of programming. Unlike a lot of people I guess, I watch something then delete it. The only thing that has stayed on my TiVo for a while now is the USA series "The 4400" and I have been saving that for my mom. I'm thinking of of just putting that on VHS (ugh) and giving it to her just so I can get it off the TiVo.

Seems from what I read elsewhere (that other, ahem, forum) no one is interested in doing anything further on this unit.

Maybe one day someone will figure out what is stopping this unit from showing upgraded capacity maybe they won't. I hope they do.

[ashu]

I think HQ on an 80 hour is a wee bit less than 36 hours (23 springs to mind).

Of course, upgrading is over-rated - life catches up with you, and you end up having loads of disk space (210+ hours Basic) occupied by shows (Medium Quality) from as far back as Jan/Feb 2004 ;) And the occasional not-yet-deleted-cool-show from early/mid 2003! I could go through mine and regain over half the total space if I had the inclination!

[dmlove51]

I think HQ on an 80 hour is a wee bit less than 36 hours (23 springs to mind).

I really have no idea what this thread is about, but on the SDH-400, best quality gives you 23 hours, and high quality gives you 36 hours.

[ashu]

I sit corrected.

[Maximus888888]

Count me in as well.

[sedrikk]

I just got one of these. I love it. But I would love to be able to upgrade the HD.

[ashu]

BTW - for weaknees benefit (if they're keeping count of prospective customers to determine whether its worth the effort) - I'd like an upgrade path for the Toshiba as well :)

And as a former customer, I know they know their stuff!

[milindck]

I am planning on using the Free 45 day Tivo service and then subscribe to get the 100$ rebate. But the system is already full in last 17 days recording at mostly at High quality and some in medium quality.

The updgrade option would be definitely a relief.

[abnrmlbrain]

Weaknees Toshiba upgrades available here...

weakness.com/toshiba_dvd_tivo.php

I'm new to this forum, so I can't post URL's. Just put the standard http and www stuff in the front of the above link...

Hope this help everyone since I haven't tried the upgrade yet.

[weaknees]

That was an old page we had put up in anticipation before the unit shipped. We'll take it down.

[BroncoWolf]

Here's an idea (probably a stupid one) to get more space on the Toshiba. Would it be possible to use Two Maxtor 80gb drives and add an external switch that will power one or the other (not both at the same time). I'm no weaknees and am not a huge computer guru but it SOUNDS like it could work if there is room for another drive somewhere.

Dumb idea?

[ashu]

Originally posted by BroncoWolf
Here's an idea (probably a stupid one) to get more space on the Toshiba. Would it be possible to use Two Maxtor 80gb drives and add an external switch that will power one or the other (not both at the same time). I'm no weaknees and am not a huge computer guru but it SOUNDS like it could work if there is room for another drive somewhere.

Dumb idea?

No reason why it wouldn't work, although its like having two TiVos dialing in on one account. I don't know how desirable/acceptable that would be.

Although, none of the Season Passes, Recorded List (NPL) info etc would match on the two drives. And only one could record at a time.

[simmike]

I'm beginning to think there is no need to upgrade the drive. I use the 2nd quality setting, which gives me about 37 hours. At this setting, I always have an incredible amount of TIVO suggestions garbage in the recorded programs box. Matter of fact, it records so much garbage that I never watch, that I am thinking of shifting my default quality setting to the max. 17 hours would probably be enough room for me because I usually watch my recorded stuff within a day or two and then delete.

And BTW, the idea about two hard drives in this box, using a funky switch to turn one or the other off, is a stupid idea.

[JoeyM]

But a 250GB single drive IS a good idea :)

[TimeforTivo]

Many, many years ago when I had a brand new 486-25MHz machine (long before OS loaders) I downloaded Windows 95 during the open beta program. I didn't want to mess up my perfect Windows 3.11 for Workgroups installation, and it just so happened that I had two identical 420MB hard drives. So I did just that: I wired two switches, one to each drive's Master jumper. It actually worked out pretty good!

Wouldn't it be possible to setup ftp/telnet (Google for HowToHackSA2TiVo) and pull the recordings that you want to keep off of the Toshiba to make room for the new? You could even set up a cron job to pull based on the date of the files.

[phbigred]

I see I'm not the only one interested in the toshiba upgrade, only 80 hours isn't enough I never watch live tv anymore. Weaknees and PTV please help!

[JoeyM]

just to keep the interest going...

[nsx-animal]

Count me in, Wife is driving me crazy. She wants more space.

[manolin]

Any Luck yet?

HOPES, HOPES, HOPLESS

[megatron]

anything?

[manolin]

I think Weaknees gave up.


Manolin

[weaknees]

Nope - we're still working on it.

[SuperH]

I'm interested! I just bought one of these.

[noob411]

can you get a bash prompt with serial cable like you could on the old units on this unit?

[JamesMcP]

I dunno about serial telnet, but someone posted this before and I believe they had ethernet telnet.

http: thegeek.freeshell. org/tivo/

And as a side note, I'm also interested in an upgrade if Weaknees is still monitoring this. This is my first TiVo so I'm pretty brutal with the delete button and the "thumbs down" on Tivo Recommended shows so space is not an issue.
But the notion of any IDE drive running 24x7 gives me the jitters. MTBF is an average, not a guarantee.

[mychen66]

Why can't we upgrade the hard drive on this? Is Toshiba SD-H400 harder to upgrade than the others? Or is there just not enoght interest?

[bkdtv]

mychen,

The Toshiba SD-H400 is different from other Tivos, in that it appears to be "hardwired" for the 80Gb capacity. Afaik, the SD-H400 is the only Tivo that can't be upgraded (as yet), and it's not because people haven't tried. The standard Tivo upgrade procedure just doesn't work on the SD-H400.

[JamesMcP]

Originally posted by mychen66
Why can't we upgrade the hard drive on this? Is Toshiba SD-H400 harder to upgrade than the others? Or is there just not enoght interest?

Apparently it has different software, possibly hardcoded on a chip. If I read the other articles correctly, you can put a bigger drive in but it won't use more than the default 80GB.

Facing facts, TiVo could probably force more units to be sold by having locked chips but they have (so far) gone with the belief that a fairly open platform means lots more adopters. I think they're right, too. I know a lot of people who stayed with TiVo because it was open when they might have gotten a different locked PVR cheaper.

Toshiba is an old-school company and doesn't need a lot of adopters. I think this may be their only PVR so this is really a trial for them. If it fails, meh, they'll wait 5 years and try again.

I'd rather have the upgrade ability but I'll live knowing I can always drop a brand-new replacement drive in it should it die post-warranty.

[ashu]

Originally posted by JamesMcP

I'd rather have the upgrade ability but I'll live knowing I can always drop a brand-new replacement drive in it should it die post-warranty.

Precisely. And if you plan to (or already do) have more than one TiVo in the household, at least one of which is upgradable (or already upgraded), this is a non-issue. I actually appreciate/enjoy the fact that the SD-H400 has component video output and optical digital audio output.

[Gudlyf]

Sorry to be a little off-topic here, but since there are a lot of Toshiba users here, I figured I'd ask.

I'm trying to do the ol' sleeper hack by reusing my original 80gb drive that shipped with the unit. Backing up and restoring works just fine. Once I install the hacks, though, the system won't get past the "Please wait" screen -- it just shows a scrambled screen, then reboots.

Anyone have that problem? Is it because I'm using the stock drive? Luckily a clean restore brings me back to where I started.

[emaij]

Maybe with the FW people we will make some progress on H400 upgrade: I can't post links yet but here is the URL: www .fatwallet. com/forums/messageview.php?start=0&catid=18&threadid=367467

[bkdtv]

Good news folks!

Jamie over on the Deal-Data forums has figured out how to expand the capacity on the SD-H400 to >80 hours!

Now we just need someone to prepare a kit / instructions that are actually understandable to those of us who don't really know what we are doing. :D

did an mfstools backup<->restore to a 250GB disk. This process preserved all my settings and recordings. After the initial boot, the System Information screen still showed 80 hours. After a daily call, HServer.send showed all the additional space allocated to TiVoClips.

So I booted a minimal environment for running tivosh/MFS, poked around a bit, and finally decided to do a "RubbishObjectByFsId" on the /Config/DiskConfigurations/Active object. Then I rebooted to the full myworld, and now I see 291 hours on the System Information screen. Several daily calls and reboots later, and it seems to be holding.So far so good. It isn't full yet, but it's well past the 80hour mark, and everything seems to be fine. I don't think I've crossed the 137GB boundary yet, but that shouldn't be a problem with 2.4.20.

I'd like to make this a little more accessible to the broader user community that might have a hard time following my sketchy description above. My sd-h400 is back in production, and I can't really experiment on it anymore without risking the wrath of a TiVo deprived family. I'm not sure if booting a minimal MFS environment was really necessary. Could the offending MFS entry be deleted when myworld is running without causing problems? Is a reboot after necessary?

If someone with an sd-h400 feels like playing guinea pig, let me know and we can try to work out a streamlined process for taking out the 80hour limit. A reasonable prerequisite is that you've already expanded your MFS onto a larger disk, and you've got a bash prompt on a serial console. Also, we might well trash MFS when experimenting, so having your original disk as a backup is important. Some experience with tivosh/tcl wouldn't hurt, but probably isn't required.

[ashu]

Woot!

I'd consider trying this out, but not until I have extra disk space in another TiVo to back shows up to, or until I find an excellent new larg disk deal ... off to other websites to hunt for deals :)

[emaij]

Where are the Deal-Data forums?

[megatron]

sweet...

[Maximus888888]

AWESOME!!!

[bkdtv]

More from Deal-Data forums on how to get the SD-H400 to support larger drives...

TOTMEDIA=23205880 sectors. This is 116029440 KB, which makes sense for a 120GB drive.

MaxUser = TOTMEDIA sectors - TOTCLIPS KB - TOTRBACKS = 65100000 KB.

This is the same magic 80 hour number that I had. So it still looks like the allocation between user and TiVo clips is the problem.

The "fix" is to locate the /Config/DiskConfigurations/Active object in MFS and delete it. I did this on a system that wasn't running myworld. I hacked up a special rc.sysinit that just brought up enough to run MFS. If you are up to it, you can try deleting it while the TiVo software is fully running (i.e. myworld is running). This could crash your system, and/or corrupt MFS. I don't think the latter is likely, but I haven't tried it and don't know for sure. Eventually we'd probably want to package this up in a tcl script, but for now, you can just do it from the tivosh prompt.

From the bash prompt run /tvbin/tivosh. This should come back with a "%" prompt for the tcl shell. tivosh is just a tcl interpreter with extra TiVo commands, some to access MFS. For the curious, look in /tvlib/tcl/tv for some of the support libraries. mfslib.tcl has some of the MFS commands available.

The first tivosh command to run is "mls /Config/DiskConfigurations". This will list the contents of this "directory" in MFS. You should see an object called "Active" and one other ("80Gig80HourJyounetsu"). They'll both have the same FsId. Make a note of that FsId. Mine was 5245, but it might be different on different boxes.

The next command will delete that Active object: "RubbishObjectByFsId <FSID>" where <FSID> is the FsId you noted before. I should be a four digit integer.

The "exit" command will get you out of tivosh and back to bash. Don't try cntrl-D; it seems to crash the tivo.

At this point, before you reboot, check the "System Information" screen on the tivo to see if it still shows 80 hours. I suspect it will, but I'm not sure. Let me know.

Reboot, check the "System Information" screen again. Force a daily call, check again.

At this point the 80 hour lock should be gone. Of course, it could come back after a software update, but like all hacks, you'll have to be prepared to do a little work when the software updates come in.

Please report back your results.

I can walk you through the minimal setup for MFS, if that turns out to be necessary.

And someone's response:
Your hack works great!!!.

I followed the commands you described exactly.

Connected to Tivo via Telnet

tivo:/var/tmp$ /tvbin/tivosh
% mls /Config/DiskConfigurations
Directory of /Config/DiskConfigurations starting at ''

Name Type FsId Date Time Size
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
80Gig80HourJyounetsu tyDb 5245 09/17/03 20:13 296
Active tyDb 5245 09/17/03 20:13 296

% RubbishObjectByFsId 5245
0

Once the above was done Tivo was already showing 131 hrs recording time in system information.
However the recording settings were still showing 24,38,60,131 hrs respectively. Seems like only the basic setting was updated on this screen

Then i did a forced connect. It still remained at 131 hours.

Then i did a reboot. Now all recording quality settings are showing the new times. 40,60,80,131 (Aprox) respectively.

Thank you for your help. Let me know if you want me try anything else.

[bsnelson]

Originally posted by emaij
Where are the Deal-Data forums? On Moonbase Alpha, .come on, everybody knows that!

;)

Brad

[taintedzodiac]

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=199874

There's your progress, apparently. Seems they've managed to unlock the size limit.

[nazrat]

Does anyone have an image from an SD-H400 available? I have a dead drive, and can't make a backup image to write to a replacement 80G drive.

I have FTP space if needed to transfer it.

-Nazrat

[tivoman1]

nazrat

I have the image for SD-400. Let me know how I can upload/ give you.

Bye

[nazrat]

I sent you a PM with ftp site info.

Thanks!

[weathertop]

Happy news for all of us....Weakness now makes upgrade kits for the SD-H400!

Just received the following e-mail from Weakness:

We're responding to your email about upgrade kits for the Toshiba
SD-H400. We now have them available here:

http://www.weaknees.com/toshiba_sdh_400.php

Thanks,

Michael and Jeff
WeaKnees.com
http://www.weaknees.com



Thanks, Weakness!!!


:D :D :D

[ZeoTiVo]

very nice :up:

[TheNumberSix]

This is great news!

[phesster]

I just upgraded my SD-H400 to one of WeaKnees 300 hour drives;
the reason I did this was because my old drive ate itself.

I had to go through the TiVo Setup phase, and everything seems to be
OK except my Service Number is missing. What do I do now?

--phess

[buddhawood]

Originally posted by phesster
I just upgraded my SD-H400 to one of WeaKnees 300 hour drives;
the reason I did this was because my old drive ate itself.

I had to go through the TiVo Setup phase, and everything seems to be
OK except my Service Number is missing. What do I do now?

--phess

It should show up after you connect to the Tivo server.

[Need2learn]

The Upgrade worked great ..
NOW does anyone know where or how I can made
the DVD on the Toshiba SD-400 Region Free..

Anyone have the firmware or the hack for the DVD
on the Tivo Toshia.???

[prowlinson]

After following the thread on this site I have ordered a Weaknees upgrade for my Toshiba SD-H400 to replace a dead original 80GB with a new 160GB. Looking forward to getting it back in operation!

Peter

[bkhowson]

I upgraded mine using the instructions at tivo.upgrade-instructions.com (thank you weeknees.com) and the $149 CompUSA special Seagate 7200.8 300GB drive. Worked great, the transfer took 12 hours. I now have 352 hours!

One thing I noticed is that on the back of the SD-H400 is a switch labeled "interlaced/progressiv". It defaults to "interlaced", I have a progressive capable 36" flat Toshiba TV, so took switched it... duh, rtfm.

Now I'm waiting for TivoToGo...

[simmike]

When connected via component cables to your HDTV, you can use the "progressive" button on the remote to toggle between interlaced and progressive signal. For DVD, obviously choose progressive. For TIVO, I think interlaced looks better. The progressive signal has more edge noise for TIVO stuff.

[URPREY]

Originally posted by bkhowson
I upgraded mine using the instructions at tivo.upgrade-instructions.com (thank you weeknees.com) and the $149 CompUSA special Seagate 7200.8 300GB drive. Worked great, the transfer took 12 hours. I now have 352 hours!

One thing I noticed is that on the back of the SD-H400 is a switch labeled "interlaced/progressiv". It defaults to "interlaced", I have a progressive capable 36" flat Toshiba TV, so took switched it... duh, rtfm.

Now I'm waiting for TivoToGo...

Your post spurred me to do the same with mine. I now have 352 hours as well! Very easy process (again). I went with a $149 Maxtor from Office Depot :)

[sedrikk]

WOW, great news. I havent checked the site in a few months. I had given up hope. Time to give this a shot.

[jshorr]

Are there do it yourself instructions on Weakness' site for this model?

[weaknees]

Yup.

http://www.upgrade-instructions.com

[madx2]

Hi everyone, this is my first post here. I wish I did some research on this before so I would have a back up of my hard drive but I don't. :(

I have a few questions.
My Toshiba sd h400 won't boot up right. Sometimes the power light goes on and sometimes it doesn't. Then when I hit the dvd tray open button the light for the dvd player comes on. When I hit the select button on the navigational button the light for the live tv goes on. Does this sound like a hd issue?

I'm having a hard time beliving that the hd could cause such a big issue but you never know.

So if it is the issue and the hard drive crashed I'm wondering if I could get an image from someone so I can restore it on my own. I already have an extra 80gig drive here and I'm not looking to upgrade it as the 80 gigs was plenty for me.
Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks

[FishTank1701]

I have a PC cobbled together from spare parts that I installed a copy of Mandrake Linux 10.1 on. As far as I know, the drive shouldn't be formatted as NTFS, but I'll double check. Other than that, if I use the weaknees bootable CD image referenced two posts above, is there anything else I need to be aware of? I'd like to use one of the 200gb seagates on sale this week at CompUSA for $50 AR in place of the 80gb drive that came in the SD-H400.

[phbigred]

Fishtank as far as I know I've taken a Western Digital 200gb and used the cd image from Weaknees and I've had no problem with it. It actually seems to perform better due to the 16mb of cache and I don't have any lag anymore as I did with the maxtor quickview. Just format the drive and image it.

[FishTank1701]

Oh, I know that the 200gb drive will be fine in the TiVo, but thanks for the input. My real concern is that all of the upgrade instructions typically refer to using a Windows based box, and stress two issues:

A) Don't ever boot into win2k or XP, as it will overwrite the TiVo boot sectors.
B) You must have a non-NTFS partition on the primary drive.

My linux experiment box is in a cannibalized state, with a nice wide open tower, two free IDE channels, and available power connecters for both the current 80gb drive from the TiVo, and the new 200gb. Assuming there aren't any compelling reasons for not using this box as the host for the upgrade process, it's physically ideal.

[HomeUser]

Your box sounds perfect. Mine is an old Gateway2000 66mhz with 128M of ram. I use Fedora Core 3 and the ext2 file system. I can make backups on the Linux file system then burn them to CDR from there. Oh and I know the Gateway BIOS does not support drives larger than 8GB.

To make it easier I copied MFSTools and other stuff to the HD so I no longer have to boot from the CD.

I have successfully created a 400G TiVo disk using the Promise IDE controller card. My first attempt with the on board IDE controller failed I then had the same problems after I installed the Promise card when I found out about the problems with swap size and the -r 4 options everything fell into place.

[FishTank1701]

Thanks HomeUser, much appreciated. This box has quite a bit of firepower, so hopefully it shouldn't have any problems with the upgrade procedure. It's got 1 1ghz athlon processor, and 1.5gb of ram. I put it together at the beginning of the year, hoping to teach myself linux, but got sidetracked with other things. I'm glad to know I can get some use out of it, finally!

[ChuckH]

I just bought a open box 810 at BB tonight. Is there any hope for upgrade in the near future? Sad to say but I've been spoiled with 300+ hours and 80 is not going to cut it!
Fingers Crossed!!!:confused:

I just upgraded my pioneer 810 with a 400 gig seagate hard drive...works great. Easy to do.

Extreme 90 Hrs
Basic 532 Hrs

[dmk1974]

Well, I think my hard drive crapped out on my SD-H400 last night. It froze and when I unplug the power and boot up, it freezes on the orange and black TiVo screen telling me I'm almost there (for 5 hours).

Is the upgrade method pretty well established now? Or should I just get a 80 GB drive as a straight replacement. For the money, I figure upgrade while I'm at it.

Also, can someone e-mail or PM me an image for the SD-H400? I'm guessing if the drive is indeed toast, I can't pull anything worthwhile off the existing drive.

Thanks!

[phbigred]

Suprisingly it is quite simple and it's able to keep any shows you have saved to your tivo. I'd spend a little more money and get at least a 160 drive I am using a 250 and love it. I was a little wary initially and just followed the instructions at Weakness and worked like a charm. Just remember do not boot to your Windows XP drive as the instructions state. Not too difficult it creates a virtual drive for the Linux operating system, I just unplugged my XP drive for safety.

[dmk1974]

Suprisingly it is quite simple and it's able to keep any shows you have saved to your tivo. I'd spend a little more money and get at least a 160 drive I am using a 250 and love it. I was a little wary initially and just followed the instructions at Weakness and worked like a charm. Just remember do not boot to your Windows XP drive as the instructions state. Not too difficult it creates a virtual drive for the Linux operating system, I just unplugged my XP drive for safety.

That's very encouraging. I thought I had heard that not everyone had success with this particular model (I have done dozens of regular TiVo upgrades). Sounds like a slam dunk to get a much larger drive then!

[dmk1974]

Well, I am 0-for-2 on the upgrade. It seemed to go fine as far as upgrading the drive with the Weeknees instructions. I think the issue is the image I got from StanSimmons. It for some reason doesn't have the backgrounds in the menus and as soon as the download from 5.11 to the current 7.x is installed, I get stuck in a reboot loop. Happened both times and the 2nd time I did the full TiVo reset as well.

Any current SD-H400 image files out there with 7.x software?

[weaknees]

That means that the image file was made without the "-f 9999" switch. Be sure to PM the source and let him know.

[drunknbass]

i need a drive image for my unit, the old drive is gone and i got this thing back with the new hd installed and al i get is the grey powering up screen, i figure whoever put the new drive in did it wrong

someone please email it to me, my email should be on my profile, if not im me on aim
aaronpimpit

thanks!!!

[dmk1974]

I need an image too. Preferably with 7.x software already on it. The one I had received didn't work well.

[drunknbass]

how long does the software update from 5.11 to 7 take over phone line normally.. it seems to take a long ass time. 20+ min

[albotrozzz]

Tivo has essentially published that if you upgrade the h400, then the Tivo Basic may no longer be supported on that device. For those of you who have upgraded your H400, and run just Tivo Basic, have you run into any issues with Tivo Basic?

[JamieP]

Tivo has essentially published that if you upgrade the h400, then the Tivo Basic may no longer be supported on that device. For those of you who have upgraded your H400, and run just Tivo Basic, have you run into any issues with Tivo Basic?I hadn't heard that, do you have a link to this tivo publication?

I've seen several TiVo basic boxes with drive upgrades that still seem to be functioning.

[albotrozzz]

The information is in the Tivo Basic agreement in Section 7: Using the TiVo Basic Service.

"You may access and use the TiVo Basic service only with a TiVo DVR that is authorized to receive the TiVo Basic service and you agree not to tamper with or otherwise modify your TiVo DVR. ..."

It's not clear but maybe Tivo is just referring to those cases where someone might want to hack the operating system or program guide. If no one else has had any issues up to this point, it might be OK to do the upgrade. Just thought I would confirm with the rest of you to see if any issues have come up. Better to be safe than sorry.

[JamieP]

The information is in the Tivo Basic agreement in Section 7: Using the TiVo Basic Service.

"You may access and use the TiVo Basic service only with a TiVo DVR that is authorized to receive the TiVo Basic service and you agree not to tamper with or otherwise modify your TiVo DVR. ..."

It's not clear but maybe Tivo is just referring to those cases where someone might want to hack the operating system or program guide. If no one else has had any issues up to this point, it might be OK to do the upgrade. Just thought I would confirm with the rest of you to see if any issues have come up. Better to be safe than sorry.That language is part of the standard (paid) TiVo service agreement too, so I don't think the issue is specific to the sd-h400. If you are concerned about violating the service agreement, don't upgrade your tivo. In practice, tivo has never cut off service due to a drive upgrade, to my knowledge.

[albotrozzz]

Thanks for the info - Looks like I will be upgrading soon!

[Redscott]

That means that the image file was made without the "-f 9999" switch. Be sure to PM the source and let him know.

Hats off to you Weaknees!

Many, many thanks for your upgrade guide.

Upgraded to 200gb drive.

It worked but I did get an interesting message when I was copying over the backup image to my destination 200gb drive.

Can you please tell me what it means?

"APIC error on CPU0: 00(40)bytes (7.05%)(72.45% Compression)"

I ask because I wonder if I am getting CPU or memory errors that I am not seeing in WinXP with my system.

Thanks again :up: :D

[wigleyd]

Upgraded to a 200gb drive and all was fine and then it started restarting after the 7.2.2 update. It gets to the startup video and then the the main tivo screen and the moving tile starts to slow to a stop and then move a little and then the hard drive werrs and it restarts. Is this a swap file problem now or more? If it is a swap file problem is there anything that I can do to fix it.

[davedonohue]

Wigley,

Unfortunately your problem is not unique - check out http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=292962&page=4

The prevailing opinion is that this has something to do with bad sectors on drives - though this is still being debated.

Upgraded to a 200gb drive and all was fine and then it started restarting after the 7.2.2 update. It gets to the startup video and then the the main tivo screen and the moving tile starts to slow to a stop and then move a little and then the hard drive werrs and it restarts. Is this a swap file problem now or more? If it is a swap file problem is there anything that I can do to fix it.

[Tateros]

Hi,

I need some help. I upgraded an H400 to a 160gb drive about a year ago using weaknees because the original 80GB drive was starting to freeze and click. Now I just ordered another H400 and it arrived in non-working condition. The good news is that I was able to boot it up using the original 80GB from my first H400.

The bad news is that MFSTools (Weaknees) can't copy all of the original 80GB's information onto a new 80GB because the original has apparently gotten worse and has too many bad sectors to complete the copying process.

So I decided to try using the 160GB drive to restore the TiVo image onto the new 80GB drive. The problem is, when I start the mfsbackup/restore process, the computer reads, 'backup target not large enough".

Does this mean I can't copy the image from the 160gb drive to the 80gb drive, even though I chose to ignore the shows that are on the 160gb drive?

This is the code I put in:
mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdb

As I said, it examines the drive for a second then tells me that the new 80gb is not big enough to receive the information from the 160gb drive, even though I chose to ignore the recorded shows.

I also tried this:

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt

mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -zxpi /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdb

The computer basically told me to go to hell when I tried the second one.

I've been at this for literally 18 hours and I feel like I am about to start freezing and clicking. Please help!

[HomeUser]

The swap was probably less then 127, drop the -r 4 for the 80G and you are not expanding
mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -zpi - /dev/hdb

[Blackvr4]

New to the forum and I need some help. I think I am hosed but I need to ask.

I have a SD-H400 and it has been great for about 2 yrs. Completely untouched unit. While catching up on some shows, the picture began to stutter and it died. It got stuck in the power up loop.

I removed the hard drive and scanned with the Maxtor max software. It said the drive was failing and I needed to back it up. Duh :)

Anyway, I am trying to get an image off it with mfstools and I keep getting an input/output error. This is what I entered - minus the quotes:

"mkdir /mnt/dos"
"mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos"

"mfsbackup -f9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc"

tivo drive was on the secondary master cable and the PC was running win98. First 2 commands were fine but I got the error after doing the backup command. Is the HD just too far gone to do anything? Is the only option to buy a new HD with the image already on it(weakness)? I wish I would have know about this stuff before it died :(

Any ideas?

Thanks

[Blackvr4]

Anyone?

[PatC]

Anyone?

Blackvr4, See this thread,

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=297352

Call Toshiba and ship it back. HTH, PatC

My Post in that thread.
"Hey I think something is up with the Toshiba SD-H400's! Mine died today 5/5/06 too. Two years old. But, like raider68 said, in desperation I called Toshiba and to my surprise they gave me a case number to ship the old unit to them and they will ship me either a RS-TX20 120GB or RS-TX60 160GB as a replacement, depending what they had in stock. Of course I requested the RS-TX60 160GB for a replacement. Shipped my old one back this afternoon, should arrive at the TN depot on Tuesday.

Can't wait for the new (refurb probably) RS-TX60 with DVD burner and firewire port! I would start calling Toshiba at 1-800-631-3811. It took me longer to complete the phone satisfaction survey, than to get the 5 minute return done. FYI, Shipping weight in original box was 16lbs, with manuals, power cord and remote. They told me to keep the other cables, etc. UPS cost about $24 with insurance.

Seriously though, it sound like Toshiba KNOWS about a major problem with this model, like the old IBM DeathStars

Hope that helps, Pat C"

[no-blue-screen]

Does anyone have a known working image for the SD-H400? I have the one from Stan, but another poster reported that they had problems with that image. I am sending this to my brother in CA, so I don't have his unit here and I want to make sure he has a good image. Prefer one with 7.2.2. Would be willing to paypal someone a couple bucks if they can hook me up with a 7.2.2 image for the SD-H400. Thanks.

[Blackvr4]

I saw that thread last night and called today. I will be shipping it off tomorrow and hopefully will have the newer unit in 7-10 days. Good support from Toshiba!!

Thanks

[PatC]

Your welcome! Yeah, Toshiba did right by me. :) I will certainly keep this in mind when I finally take the HDTV plunge. I'm still waiting for cable card 2 to get out and working.

Still, I wonder what the problem is with these units?

[ArcticZ]

one question about upgrading the h400. I'm now looking at the 160gb HD from WeaKnees.com, i'm wondering is all i have to do is just unplug the old hd and plug in the new one. Weaknees says its hd are all ready to go,and i have the old hd out, not worried about copying over old tv shows, just want to get the thing working again. So when i buy the 160gb i'm just going to just plug in and away i go right? Sorry for such a newbie question, i've never upgraded a tivo before and i know it will come with instructions, just trying to find out how hard it will be before i order it. thanks

[PatC]

Arctic, As far as I know, that's about it! You may have to go into settings and Clear and Delete Everything or All (I forget the exact term) and re-run guided setup. You probably need a phone line for the first call, but if it's networked that should take over after that.

What happened to your SD-H400? See my post and Blackvr4's from 5-9-06. Seems like a lot of these units are dieing after about 2-years and Toshiba is doing the right thing by replacing them even if they are out of warranty. :)
HTH, Pat

[ArcticZ]

Arctic, As far as I know, that's about it! You may have to go into settings and Clear and Delete Everything or All (I forget the exact term) and re-run guided setup. You probably need a phone line for the first call, but if it's networked that should take over after that.

What happened to your SD-H400? See my post and Blackvr4's from 5-9-06. Seems like a lot of these units are dieing after about 2-years and Toshiba is doing the right thing by replacing them even if they are out of warranty. :)
HTH, Pat

Back in Februay of this year the power went out at my house for some reason and SD-H400 never came back. It just went to the orange and black screen that says just a few more minutes, then it would restart and do the same thing all over again. ANd thats all it would do. Even before that happen the unit would sometimes freeze or ack up and i would have to unplug it and plug it back in to get it to work. So i guess the hd was starting fail for a while before it died. So i took the hd out to see if the computer would see it so i could copy it, and that didn't work. So i pluged back in and now all it does is stay at the grey welcome screen and won't go any farther. I knew i was out of warranty so i never bothered to call Toshiba to see if they would do anything. I just went with out tivo for amonth (which was hard to do) and bought a new tivo stand alone unit with lifetime before that ended. So now i would like to see if i can get this working again because it has the free basic on and i can use it as a second tivo and dvd player.

And I don't mean to hi-jack this thread, sorry.

[jilter]

My Toshiba almost 2 years old has also died.
However it has Lifetime on it?
How can I still maintain the Lifetime sub I just bought?
Should I deal with Tivo or Toshiba on this?
Thanks!

Jill

[buddhawood]

My Toshiba almost 2 years old has also died.
However it has Lifetime on it?
How can I still maintain the Lifetime sub I just bought?
Should I deal with Tivo or Toshiba on this?
Thanks!

Jill

Deal with Toshiba. I've read were they have been sending RSTX20 DVd burner units as replacements. It may also cost some cash too.

[PatC]

My Toshiba almost 2 years old has also died.
However it has Lifetime on it?
How can I still maintain the Lifetime sub I just bought?
Should I deal with Tivo or Toshiba on this?
Thanks!

Jill

Jill, See this thread, they just replaced my two-year old SD-H400 with an RS-TX60, refurb in like new condition, 160GB TiVo with a DVD burner :D

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=4040674#post4040674

Pat

[epics]

Deal with Toshiba. I've read were they have been sending RSTX20 DVd burner units as replacements. It may also cost some cash too.

My SD-H400 died. Has anyone sent in one in the past month or so. Im wondering if they are still sending TSTX20 as replacements, as 140 bucks for that deal isnt bad.

[emaij]

How do we send in for replacement?

[Blackvr4]

Good luck. I sent mine to Toshiba in May to get a TX-60 and they had them on backorder. In July, they then decided give me a refurb SD-H400 that when hooked up right out the box did the exact same thing my original did! I had to wait another week for a RA# and it is now back with Toshiba. I have not had mine since the middle of May. I will consider myself lucky to get a SD-H400 that works at this point...

[epics]

Good luck. I sent mine to Toshiba in May to get a TX-60 and they had them on backorder. In July, they then decided give me a refurb SD-H400 that when hooked up right out the box did the exact same thing my original did! I had to wait another week for a RA# and it is now back with Toshiba. I have not had mine since the middle of May. I will consider myself lucky to get a SD-H400 that works at this point...

They replaced my harddrive and board. I really hope I don't get the same problem with you? Once they replace it, how long is it warrantied for?