S3 eSATA Port Activation Via Software Update?

[briankasper]

I'm incredibly eager to buy an S3, and I'm willing to pay the early-adopter tax as well as the $200 to transfer my S1 lifetime subscription to an S3 --

-- but I've read MegaZone's FAQ and review, and I haven't seen it stated explicitly there or anywhere else whether the eSATA port on the S3 can eventually be activated via a *software-only* upgrade.

I'm probably being paranoid, as they obviously included at least the hardware for the port, and it would be incredibly evil of TiVo to screw early adopters by requiring some sort of hardware upgrade, but has anyone heard positive confirmation that the "for future use only" eSATA port on these initial S3 boxen will be activated via a *software* update at some point?

-B

[jfh3]

You mean other than the Tivo announcement at CES? No.

[sommerfeld]

... has anyone heard positive confirmation that the "for future use only" eSATA port on these initial S3 boxen will be activated via a *software* update at some point?
Haven't heard confirmation, but since the internal drive is SATA, I'd be willing to bet that remaining issues relate to higher-level system behavior (for instance, how you "marry" and "divorce" external storage, and/or how to avoid permanently turning the tivo into a brick when your toddler unplugs the eSATA drive..).

[Dssturbo1]

Did you read all of it, he said,

"Can the storage capacity be expanded?
The S3 has an eSATA port for external storage expansion. However, the port is not active at this time. It will be enabled in a future update."

[eisenb11]

Haven't heard confirmation, but since the internal drive is SATA, I'd be willing to bet that remaining issues relate to higher-level system behavior (for instance, how you "marry" and "divorce" external storage, and/or how to avoid permanently turning the tivo into a brick when your toddler unplugs the eSATA drive..).

I thought I read in one of the reviews that the internal drive was EIDE and that SATA would only be used for the external drive...?

[Gregor]

Pics from megazone clearly show a SATA drive. :)

[Dajad]

Not to mention Megazone's comments that, it his surprise, it uses an internal SATA drive.

[Gregor]

I'm not terribly surprised the internal drive is SATA, it'll just mean that you can't put a second drive in the box :(

[megazone]

Yeah, I thought that was clear - it is a software update only.

[Bierboy]

I'm not terribly surprised the internal drive is SATA, it'll just mean that you can't put a second drive in the box :(Yeah, but internal SATA drives are relatively inexpensive right now, and, if there's eventually an upgrade process, it'll double or triple your storage when you swap out the original. I just put a 320 GB Seagate 7200 RPM SATA2 in my Mac for under $95.

[vstone]

The first D* Tivos had two tuners although only one was active. The second tuner was eventually activated.

In this case it may be a technical issue or it may just be related to content protection.