i am OVER direct tv! PLEASE HELP ME!

[teriberi1532]

hello... i am brand new here :) . our beloved HDVR2 went out a few days ago (after 4 1/2 years of perfection). i refuse to go with the direct tv DVR after reading the horrific reviews. we bought a S2DT TIVO box and it won't dual channel record with our direct tv box. should we switch to cable and use our new TIVO box or return it and replace our wonderful direct tv/tivo box with something from ebay and keep direct tv?? what are the more currend models of the HDVR2 (i know it is an older model). thanks a bunch! this is the ONLY place that i have found relevant information to our problems!

[Redux]

return it and replace our wonderful direct tv/tivo box with something from ebay and keep direct tv?Sounds like a good plan if you were happy before. Any series 2 DirecTivo is fine. I've got half-a-dozen sitting around in storage after going to high definition, there must be thousands of them out there, buyers market I would think.

If you hate DirecTV and want to move on, or if you're HiDef imminent, there are other better ways to go. Otherwise the s2 DirecTivo is a minor wonder of the modern world.

[teriberi1532]

can anyone list the series 2 directivo options (other than HDVR2)?

[wolflord11]

hello... i am brand new here :) . our beloved HDVR2 went out a few days ago (after 4 1/2 years of perfection). i refuse to go with the direct tv DVR after reading the horrific reviews. we bought a S2DT TIVO box and it won't dual channel record with our direct tv box. should we switch to cable and use our new TIVO box or return it and replace our wonderful direct tv/tivo box with something from ebay and keep direct tv?? what are the more currend models of the HDVR2 (i know it is an older model). thanks a bunch! this is the ONLY place that i have found relevant information to our problems!

The Series 2 DT will only act as a Single Tuner with Sat TV. Thats one of the downfalls of it.

You need to make up your mind if you are staying with Directv or switching to Cable. You and you alone will have to work out all the costs, but to switch just to use a Series 2DT........ LOL.

You would be better off staying with Directv and replacing the HDVR2. Here is a list of Series 2 Directv/Tivo units:

HDVR2
SD-DVR40
SD-DVR80
SD-DVR120 DVR39
DVR40
DVR80
4120R
4040R
DSR7000
DSR704
DSR708
R10

Here is an excellent site which may help you:

Tivo Buying Guide (http://www.weaknees.com/tivo-guide.php)

:D

[CrashHD]

Define "went out"

Most common failures are hard drive or power supply. They are also the most easily fixed. Power supplies are $50 from weaknees. Hard drives vary by size (obviously) but $50 will get you more drive than it had to begin with. 500GB drives can be had for $100.

[teriberi1532]

there is white stuff (it looks like marshmallow puff) around the power supply. my husband says that it is the power supply. it started shutting off and re-powering up several times a day. the recorded programs weren't bothered. it got to the point where it wouldn't power back up. it was stuck at the "powering up" screen. this happened in a few days. if it is fixable... YEAH! he would just need directions. thanks! you guys are great!

[Dkerr24]

The 'white stuff' is nothing more than insulation/glue placed around the components on the power supply. It's supposed to look like that.

[magnus]

Sounds like a bad drive to me. I'd replace/upgrade the drive. The easiest way is to buy the image from DVRUpgrade.com they have made it pretty easy to fix/upgrade the drive. You would be looking for a product called InstantCake and would need the one that is specific for your model Tivo.

there is white stuff (it looks like marshmallow puff) around the power supply. my husband says that it is the power supply. it started shutting off and re-powering up several times a day. the recorded programs weren't bothered. it got to the point where it wouldn't power back up. it was stuck at the "powering up" screen. this happened in a few days. if it is fixable... YEAH! he would just need directions. thanks! you guys are great!

[wolflord11]

It does sound more like a HD Problem than a Power Supply one.

Magnus has given some good instructions.

[goony]

Any commodity hard drive will do as long as it is a "parallel" interface drive, aka "EIDE" or "PATA". If you see the word "serial" in the drive description it is the wrong one. Check out more info in the upgrade forum... lots of instructions and how-to info. $20 for an "Instantcake" cd or image (http://www.dvrupgrade.com) that you will use to put the DTivo software onto your bare drive.

If you want to see local hard drive sales/bargains, try http://www.salescircular.com - I just now checked, Circuit City has 250GB drives for $60 after rebate.

Drive size, in GB, multiply by 0.875 and you will get the approximate recording hours for DTivo use.