TiVo's expand store is now on line.

[JimParks]

I ordered the WD eSATA drive this morning from them. It's a 500meg one for $199 US.
I can live with "only" 500 meg. Actually I was doing ok with the devault factory internal drive.

This will take you to the eSATA drive.

http://www.tivo.com/mytivo/domore/storage/index.html

Jim

[Resist]

That is a little over priced don't you think for only 500MB? I paid that over a year ago for a WD that looks just like that for my PC. Granted that one is designed for DVR's but still the price should be much lower now.

[net114]

I'm not saying you made the wrong purchase since this is what Tivo is supporting right now, but it is somewhat of a ripoff considering new egg has the MyBook Western Digital external drive for $139.00. I might still get one later on, but it is a bit frustrating they priced this at $199.

[Joybob]

Dude why are you calling it a 500meg drive?

[bareyb]

That is a little over priced don't you think for only 500MB? I paid that over a year ago for a WD that looks just like that for my PC. Granted that one is designed for DVR's but still the price should be much lower now.

I've seen that drive listed for $219.00 at Best Buy and $199.00 seems to be the going price for it at other places around town right now. Seems like a fair price to me.

[mercurial]

Is that a "special" version of the My DVR Expander? Picked one of those up and installed it right when 9.1x hit and set it up with the kickstart61 (?) method.

[aaronwt]

My 750GB my book was $20 less. Plus a bare 500GB drive is well under $100. But I guess you have to pay it to get an officially supported external drive. I think it's better just to replace the internal drive with a 1TB drive. I still have one more 1TB drive I need to install. I figure I'll just wait until I get that box switched out to FIOS then I only have to do it once.

[Mars Rocket]

It's a little expensive, but it's not a TiVo-specific drive so I expect it will eventually be available from other retailers at a slightly cheaper price, like maybe $169. Or somebody will figure out what exactly the TiVo is looking for on the drive that makes it "authorized" and will be able to reproduce it on home-built systems.

[Resist]

Is there a difference between the WD My Book for computers and the WD My DVR Expander version? If so then that may be the reason for the inflated price.

[bkdtv]

Is there a difference between the WD My Book for computers and the WD My DVR Expander version?Yes.

[Resist]

Can you be more specific? I know it uses a softer amber LED indicator.

[s2kdave]

Looks like there are a few differences like a quiet fanless cooling system and of course the different color led and usb interface on the pc version. It also looks like the expander might not have a capacity gauge that the pc one has. That's all I could tell so far.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=334

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=276&language=en

edit:
The model numbers are also nearly identical. WDG1S5000 and WDG1SU5000.

[net114]

I've seen that drive listed for $219.00 at Best Buy and $199.00 seems to be the going price for it at other places around town right now. Seems like a fair price to me.

What everyone is talking about is that there isn't anything "special" about this drive to make that price point other than renaming it and a few cosmetic issues. But you can go buy a 500GB drive plus an enclosure for much less, so the pricing is higher to make a profit on this "special" drive. Yes, that specific model is priced the same all around town, but it is an overpriced model.

[Dr_Diablo]

I'm not saying you made the wrong purchase since this is what Tivo is supporting right now, but it is somewhat of a ripoff considering new egg has the MyBook Western Digital external drive for $139.00. I might still get one later on, but it is a bit frustrating they priced this at $199.


Agreed on the price...

Three weeks ago I purchased an WD 500 GB My Book Pro from BB for $149.95

[dsabine]

I have to say that I am disgusted with Tivo's decision to not allow NON-VERIFIED drives for use with S3HD but to allow use with the more expensive S3. The most ridiculous part of this is that it has been indicated that Tivo didn't want to provide support for these drives. Tivo doesn't have to provide support, they could simply indicate that the user may or may not have positive results with this particular external drive but that Tivo cannot in way warrant the use of the drive.

What really gets me HOT UNDER THE COLLAR is that I bought a CERTIFIED and RECOMMENDED DRIVE as listed in the forums. See link:

Question # 33 - http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=350510

The Western Digital WD5000AVJS is intended for DVR use and certified for 24/7 use but will not work with the S3HD - See the links that I've included here!

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=280&language=en

http://www.wdc.com/en/library/ce/2879-701220.pdf

I am one of the may Tivo devotees that will now, NOT BE ABLE TO RECOMMEND Tivo to friends. I've had two S1's, one S2 and now the S3HD. I waited patiently for the 9.2 with eSata expansion for RECOMMENDED AV DRIVES. I didn't open the box. when I found out the "62" kickstart wasn't going to work, I waited and requested the Priority 9.2 software update.

Before anyone tries to flame and say that I can use a non-recommended drive by using the MFSLive, DON'T. It's ridiculous because I now have to void a warranty if I want to upgrade by opening the case so that I can marry drives. The capability is there to use the eSata port to use more than a pretty package WD drive that Tivo has partnered to sell. If the drive I have is made for DVR's as it is and is certified by WD then my S3HD should recognize and format.

Here's the solution to it all www.mythtv.com along with a long list of features that we'll never see on a Tivo.

[zoma4]

I have to say that I am disgusted with Tivo's decision to not allow NON-VERIFIED drives for use with S3HD but to allow use with the more expensive S3. The most ridiculous part of this is that it has been indicated that Tivo didn't want to provide support for these drives. Tivo doesn't have to provide support, they could simply indicate that the user may or may not have positive results with this particular external drive but that Tivo cannot in way warrant the use of the drive.

What really gets me HOT UNDER THE COLLAR is that I bought a CERTIFIED and RECOMMENDED DRIVE as listed in the forums. See link:

Question # 33 - http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=350510

The Western Digital WD5000AVJS is intended for DVR use and certified for 24/7 use but will not work with the S3HD - See the links that I've included here!

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=280&language=en

http://www.wdc.com/en/library/ce/2879-701220.pdf

I am one of the may Tivo devotees that will now, NOT BE ABLE TO RECOMMEND Tivo to friends. I've had two S1's, one S2 and now the S3HD. I waited patiently for the 9.2 with eSata expansion for RECOMMENDED AV DRIVES. I didn't open the box. when I found out the "62" kickstart wasn't going to work, I waited and requested the Priority 9.2 software update.

Before anyone tries to flame and say that I can use a non-recommended drive by using the MFSLive, DON'T. It's ridiculous because I now have to void a warranty if I want to upgrade by opening the case so that I can marry drives. The capability is there to use the eSata port to use more than a pretty package WD drive that Tivo has partnered to sell. If the drive I have is made for DVR's as it is and is certified by WD then my S3HD should recognize and format.

Here's the solution to it all www.mythtv.com along with a long list of features that we'll never see on a Tivo.

How many threads do you want to post this in?

[dswallow]

Here's the solution to it all www.mythtv.com along with a long list of features that we'll never see on a Tivo.
Good luck with CableCARD support for MythTV.

[flatcurve]

What really gets me HOT UNDER THE COLLAR is that I bought a CERTIFIED and RECOMMENDED DRIVE as listed in the forums. See link:

Question # 33 - http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=350510

The Western Digital WD5000AVJS is intended for DVR use and certified for 24/7 use but will not work with the S3HD - See the links that I've included here!


Certified for 24/7 use... not certified by TiVo for use with their system. Nobody implied that anything on that list was TiVo sanctioned. Their decision to go with the WD MyDVR is really a combination of both liability and marketing issues. TiVo is not interested in testing out the hundreds of variations of different enclosures and drive manufacturers to ensure that they work. They went with one manufacturer (who already makes the internal drives) and one device, so that they'd at least know what to expect from it in terms of reliability.

I agree that it is pretty weak that they didn't want to allow non-verified devices on the THD like they do on the S3, but this is where the marketing part comes in. It's basically a sweetheart deal for Western Digital, who they've had a relationship with for quite some time.

And for the nth time, you can still connect external drives using winmfs.

[net114]

I am one of the may Tivo devotees that will now, NOT BE ABLE TO RECOMMEND Tivo to friends.

Well in my case, 99% of the relatives and friends I would recommend Tivo to, they either have no idea what external storage even is, or they are using a crappy cable provided box and would be shocked at how much better Tivo is, even with the quirks on the THD and S3 that owners have been enduring.

I can't quite understand your frustration since you haven't opened the box - but to somehow jump from Tivo to MythTV and think you will have less daily frustrations doesn't add up for me. Sorry, but any "homebrew" project that I have ever come across, while loads of fun, requires constant tweaking to make things work.

MythTV is great for what it is, but its not on the commercial level Tivo is.

[Sandlapper]

I don't see why this surprises anyone. Tivo did the same thing with wireless adapters. At first they supported a few non Tivo adapters but you never hear of them anymore. I personally didn't expect anything less.

On a positive note, by only supporting one drive they can help troubleshoot any problems a lot easier than if you have some other drive.

[rodalpho]

The mybook has both USB2.0 and eSATA ports, the DVR expander only has eSATA. There may very well be compatibility or performance issues if there's a controller between the drive and the eSATA port. This is something that came up when the kickstart-62 was first discovered for the series3 but was never really proven. They aren't identical.

Doesn't change the fact that $200 is 20-45% overpriced compared to what you can pick up from newegg.

[jmoak]

Aww, come on folks! They did the same thing with wireless adapters. At first they priced them at $59.95. After a while the price came down. I paid $37.48 for the last one I bought. (http://www.amazon.com/TiVo-Wireless-Network-Adapter-AG0100/dp/B000ER5G6C/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-9933681-4822035?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1193250481&sr=8-1)

I paid $299 for my tivohd. Now they're $239.

I betcha the "expando" drives will be $50 less by christmas, at least.

[flatcurve]

As a lifetime Apple customer, I'm used to this kind of thing anyway... My last two systems were both significantly cheaper and outdated within six months of purchase. But, at the same time, it means that they're making progress.