REPLACING Old DVR With a New One

[carpediva]

A sincere mea culpa and apologies if this is answered elsewhere but I've FAQed and Searched and find I still must put my query forth.

I just purchased a new S2 box from Tivo that has twice the capacity as the one I've got now. I also purchsed new service with this new box, as that was a condition of getting it free.

My ultimate goal is to transfer my recordings from old box to new, and then manually re-enter my 124 (!) Season Passes and all the 1-time recordings in my ToDo List (as I understand that is the only option).

However, the only way I've seen to transfer recordings from my old box to the new is to have both boxes on my account and connected to a home network, so I can use the Multi-Room Viewing (MRV) feature to transfer recordings from one box to the other.

Firstly, my boxes are on two different accounts; I don't know if that matters. But more importantly, my understanding is that I would need a second wireless adapter to connect the new box to my network- and I don't want to buy another adpater because I ultimately plan to use only the new box, not both together.

So, I can think of two solutions that might work; can any of you experts please help me with either of them or a better solution?

Solution One: Is there any way to transfer the existing recordings I have on my current box to my new DVR without buying a new adapter?

Solution Two: Or if the above isn't possible, is there any way to hook up both DVRs to my TV, start recording only on the new one, but keep the old one also connected until I watch everything left on it?

Any and all assistance is much appreciated. Sorry for the length, but I find it's usually easier for people to help if they have all the info you can think relevant.

Thanks again!

[ZikZak]

Firstly, my boxes are on two different accounts; I don't know if that matters.

It matters. You cannot MRV between two tivos on different accounts. Even if you could, you're correct that you'd need another adapter.



Solution Two: Or if the above isn't possible, is there any way to hook up both DVRs to my TV, start recording only on the new one, but keep the old one also connected until I watch everything left on it?


That's probably your best setup. connect both tivos' outputs to inputs on the TV (assuming the TV has enough inputs)

[mick66]

Firstly, my boxes are on two different accounts; I don't know if that matters. But more importantly, my understanding is that I would need a second wireless adapter to connect the new box to my network- and I don't want to buy another adpater because I ultimately plan to use only the new box, not both together.



You can call tivo and have one account added to the other account.

You could transfer all recordings to your pc (or a few at a time) and then move the adapter to the new Tivo and transfer the recordings from the pc to the Tivo.

[Brad Eleven]

I'm in the same situation, but with a Series 1 DTiVo. How might I transfer my precious archived recordings from my S1 to the S2 arriving any day now?

PS: No problem with hacking about, I replaced the S1's drive a while back and was able to get all saved recordings from the failing drive (which was overheating) by suspending the job (^Z), issuing sync(1), powering down old drive til it cooled off, then powering up old drive and resuming job.

[DeathRider]

Does it really matter as long as both accounts are in good standing and neither are on MSD?

[gastrof]

Does it really matter as long as both accounts are in good standing and neither are on MSD?


If you're talking about being able to transfer recordings from one to the other, yes, it matters.

Apparently you can't move your recordings to someone else's machine, and as long as two machines are on two separate accounts, as far as TiVo knows, they're owned by two different people with the same name.

[carpediva]

Mick66:

Thanks for your suggestion: "you could transfer all recordings to your pc (or a few at a time) and then move the adapter to the new Tivo and transfer the recordings from the pc to the Tivo." I did think of that, but I've got about 40 hours of stuff saved, so the time committment would be ginormous.

ZikZak:

Thanks for confirming that the idea of 2 DVRs on 1 TV would work. I'm going to see if I have enough inputs to try that, though I'm not completely clear yet how I will control the 2 different boxes- with their unique remotes? I think I'll be qble to figure that out.

Thanks everyone for their responses- I'll keep you posted. And if anyone else has other suggestions than those already given, please chime in!

Thanks again.

[usnret]

If there are two different accounts, would there not be two different MAK's?? If so, what happens to the transfers???

[gastrof]

Mick66:

Thanks for your suggestion: "you could transfer all recordings to your pc (or a few at a time) and then move the adapter to the new Tivo and transfer the recordings from the pc to the Tivo." I did think of that, but I've got about 40 hours of stuff saved, so the time committment would be ginormous.

ZikZak:

Thanks for confirming that the idea of 2 DVRs on 1 TV would work. I'm going to see if I have enough inputs to try that, though I'm not completely clear yet how I will control the 2 different boxes- with their unique remotes? I think I'll be qble to figure that out...


If your DVRs are TiVos, you might be able to set one to one set of remote codes, the other to another set, and see about getting a dual DVR TiVo remote, or a universal that can control two different TiVos at the same time.

[bpurcell]

Mick66:

Thanks for your suggestion: "you could transfer all recordings to your pc (or a few at a time) and then move the adapter to the new Tivo and transfer the recordings from the pc to the Tivo." I did think of that, but I've got about 40 hours of stuff saved, so the time committment would be ginormous.

Think of Mick66's suggestion as an overnight job. Set up the Desktop to download all the shows before you go to bed. As long as you have enough free space on your PC, 40 hours should transfer overnight pretty easily. [EDIT: This might be a bit optimistic, thinking about it now...see my restatement further down :o ]

Then, you'd have to change the Desktop MAK to the new Tivo and then do another overnight job.

[carpediva]

bpurcell, okay I like your idea of using Mick's suggestion: I've confirmed I have enough space on my computer.

But how do I get the recordings transferred to my new DVR? I don't see an "Export" option in my Tivo Desktop, plus I saw a post on Tivo's site where a moderator said specifically that you can't transfer in that direction. (The post was over a year ago, though...)

Can you briefly walk me through how that would work?

Thanks!

[bpurcell]

Once you have the Desktop using the MAK from the new Tivo, then look in your Now Playing List at the bottom of the list. If you have everything networked up correctly, you should see a link to your computer. You then click on each show to transfer it over. Unfortunately there isn't a "download all" option, so you'll have to repeat the transfer steps for all the shows, but you don't have to wait until the previous show is complete. The shows will line up in queue waiting for the previous one to transfer.

I'm not sure why a moderator would say you couldn't transfer back to the Tivo (called TTCB for short). I do know that the Mac's new Roxio Toast software doesn't allow TTCB, but Tivo Desktop definitely does.

[steve614]

40 hours should transfer overnight pretty easily.

This is being a little optimistic isn't it? For my setup, it takes approx. 6 hrs. to transfer 7 one hour recordings at medium quality.

[bpurcell]

This is being a little optimistic isn't it? For my setup, it takes approx. 6 hrs. to transfer 7 one hour recordings at medium quality.


Well, now that you force me to think about it, yes I was a bit optimistic. I have a pretty strong connection and usually takes me 30 minutes for each hour of show (medium quality). Even at that rate it's 20 hours to complete 40 hours. If you did it in pockets each night (say 7-10 hours of shows), you could have it all moved over relatively shortly.

[mick66]

I'm not sure if you can use TTG with one MAK and then be able to use TTCB to transfer the recording to a tivo with a different MAK. You'd have to change the MAK in tivodesktop to match which ever Tivo you'll be using it with, but I'm unsure if the transfered to pc recording would have a problem being transfered to a machine who's MAK doesn't match. If it is a problem, you'd definitely have to call Tivo and have the accounts merged so that they do have the same MAK.

[mick66]

The couple of times that I've upgraded an already upgraded Tivo and couldn't save recordings in the process, I did just what bpurcell suggested. I loaded the to do list with transfers before I went to bed and again before I went to work. After the upgrade, I did the same thing to put the recordings back on the newly upgraded Tivo.

[carpediva]

Hey All:

Thanks so much for all the help and suggestions. The best one for my particular situation is likely the option of transferring my recordings to my computer and then back on to my new Tivo. However, since I've seen conflicting reports about how easy (or not) it is to do that, I've decided I don't want to take that risk, especially since I've never been able to get my recordings to play on my PC- if it didn't work, I'd lose 40 hours of programming. Also, attaching both Tivos to my TV would be simple, but alas I don't have enough inputs.

So, I've decided to do the following this Saturday, when I have a multi-hour window where nothing is being recorded:

1) Jot down all 124 of my Season Passes and 1-time To Do Items (sigh) then manually enter them into my new Tivo (sigh).
2) Attach the wireless adapter, etc. to my new DVR and start recording from that going forward.
3) Then whenever I want to watch something on my old DVR, I'll just unplug the new box's Audio/Video cords from the TV and plug in the old ones. That way I can "toggle" between the 2 boxes easily until I've watched everything on the old DVR.

I thought I'd post my (admittedly Luddite) solution for anyone else that might have the same issue.

I can't think why this wouldn't work, but of course if you disagree, please holler!

Thanks again everyone for your time.