Replace Sat T60?

[oboebjt]

I have a 7+ year old Sony Sat T60 DirecTivo that I believe has just kicked the bucket. It has been having problems (delays, stutters, programs that won't delete, etc) for quite a while. Finally the stutters were too annoying and today I tried reseting everything. It has been sitting on the "clearing and deleting everything screen for about 5 hours now. Pulling the plug causes it to power up again until it finds the same "clearing" screen.

So what do I do now? I understand that DirecTV no longer uses TIVO. They have offered to replace my T60 for free with a 24 month committment. Are their DVR's any good? The 2 years does not bother me because I plan to stick with DirecTV (need the NFL package).

Or do I replace the hard drive and hope that was the problem. I see that Weaknees has already imaged drives for $99.

My lifetime TIVO is tied to my T60. I have another Phillips DirecTV receiver with TIVO. If I get the new DirecTV DVR will I be able to use the other TIVO receiver. I'm kind of confused about where DirecTV starts and TIVO ends???

[newsposter]

From my readings on this forum, lifetime is now tied to your account so as long as you have one active receiver on lifetime, you are 'set' from that perspective.

i've purchased a drive from WK to add to my HDtivo..no mess no fuss. But if you dont mind some time and playing with drives in your computer, it's much cheaper that way ( you still have to buy an image though i guess)

[wedgecon]

You have all the classic symptoms of a failing hard drive. The Sony is a great unit and you can not really go wrong with replacing the drive. If you want to get pre imaged drives greater than 137 GB you can go to dvrupgrade.com.

[oboebjt]

After nearly 7 hours of "Clearing all data" My TV suddenly came back. I got it through the setup and things seem to be working okay .... but perhaps a little slow. So I suspect new hardware is still in my short term future.

Thanks for the info regarding lifetime TIVO and the hard drive. It sounds like I can go either way. Is the old Sony TIVO unit with the new hard drive a better unit than a new Directv DVR?

[JimSpence]

... Is the old Sony TIVO unit with the new hard drive a better unit than a new Directv DVR?That depends on whether you need to keep the TiVo interface. The DVR replacement from DirecTV will probably be the R15 which has an entirely different looking interface.

[oboebjt]

I've only ever used the TIVO interface. How does the R15 differ? Is it only cosmetic or are there performance issues?

Things I like about my TIVO: 30 sec skip, season passes, reliability ... haven't had any problems in 7 years until now.

Things I wish my TIVO had: Folders, Caller ID

My Phillips TIVO has folders and I wish the T60 did .... but the T60 has always worked so effortlessly (a few glitches with the Phillips) that I have left it in our main viewing room despite the fact it is older.

[JimSpence]

The differences are a bit more than cosmetic. Although it has dual tuners it doesn't buffer both of them. It has one 90 minute buffer, but it gets dumped when you change channels. The work around is to record your current tuner before changing channels. It does have folders and caller ID. It uses the grid type guide.

Here's a forum to go to for more info about the R15.
http://www.dbstalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=106

[newsposter]

jim i'm curious...is the r15 like the hr20 (sounds like it from your description, i just never read up on the r15 at all and was wondering since you obviously know what you are talking about here and i dont

[JimSpence]

Well, I don't have the R15. I've jusr read a lot on the DBSTalk site. My understanding is that the R15 is very similar to the HR20 with regards to the user interface.

This FAQ there should be a good starting point.
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=58959

[MikeekiM]

I love my SAT-T60, but have to admit that if I were to retire any of my DVRs, the Sony would go before my Hughes, just simply because of the group/folder support on the Hughes... I wish my Sony was upgradeable to at least take advantage of folders :(

[oboebjt]

Though my T-60 miraculously revived itself last night, my situation is still desparate. I can watch TV, but I have to wait about 5 minutes between each button push. So I had to make a decision quickly.

I researched the R15 on dbstalk and decided to stick with my old trusty TIVO T-60. I am afraid that I won't care for the way the live buffer works in the D* units. I like to be able to see what is happening on each tuner. I also saw many suggestions for reformatting the R15 to take care of problems. I never once had to reformat my T-60 in over 7 years (until now) and can't imagine having to recreate all of my Season passes, etc.

So I ordered a new hard drive from dvrupgrade. I also ordered a new fan because I figured while I have the box out and open I might as well replace the only other thing that I can see that might fail. I figure that will take care of things for another 7 or 8 years. I'll let you know how the install goes.

[Dkerr24]

Though my T-60 miraculously revived itself last night, my situation is still desparate. I can watch TV, but I have to wait about 5 minutes between each button push. So I had to make a decision quickly.

I researched the R15 on dbstalk and decided to stick with my old trusty TIVO T-60. I am afraid that I won't care for the way the live buffer works in the D* units. I like to be able to see what is happening on each tuner. I also saw many suggestions for reformatting the R15 to take care of problems. I never once had to reformat my T-60 in over 7 years (until now) and can't imagine having to recreate all of my Season passes, etc.

So I ordered a new hard drive from dvrupgrade. I also ordered a new fan because I figured while I have the box out and open I might as well replace the only other thing that I can see that might fail. I figure that will take care of things for another 7 or 8 years. I'll let you know how the install goes.

While you have the case open, take the unit outside and blow it out with compressed air. Getting the dust out of the unit will help it stay cool. I take the covers off mine annually and give them a good cleaning.

[oboebjt]

I received my new drive from dvrupdate today. I followed the very detailed and clear instructions and had only a slight problem when removing the extra screw that the Sat T-60's have on the right side of the drive rack. No problem really ... it is just difficult to reach, but I had been warned so no big deal.

Unfortunately when I replugged everything my receiver would not go past the "Welcome, powering up" screen. I waited about 15 minutes. I opened everything again and reseated all connections. Still didn't work. I replaced the ribbon cable with the new one that came with the drive (the instructions said it was not necessary so I didn't do this the first time). Still didn't work. I replaced the new drive with my old failing drive .... and it worked (still failing quickly with stutters and pixelation).

What could be wrong? Is it a bad drive or is there something else I can check? I have an email in to dvrupgrade.

[Dkerr24]

I received my new drive from dvrupdate today. I followed the very detailed and clear instructions and had only a slight problem when removing the extra screw that the Sat T-60's have on the right side of the drive rack. No problem really ... it is just difficult to reach, but I had been warned so no big deal.

Unfortunately when I replugged everything my receiver would not go past the "Welcome, powering up" screen. I waited about 15 minutes. I opened everything again and reseated all connections. Still didn't work. I replaced the ribbon cable with the new one that came with the drive (the instructions said it was not necessary so I didn't do this the first time). Still didn't work. I replaced the new drive with my old failing drive .... and it worked (still failing quickly with stutters and pixelation).

What could be wrong? Is it a bad drive or is there something else I can check? I have an email in to dvrupgrade.

Check the jumper settings on the new drive? I think they have to be set to Master, not Cable Select or Slave. The new drive getting power? The case should vibrate slightly when you touch it. Can you hear it spin up when you plug it the power cord?

[wedgecon]

If checking the cable and power does not work you might want to try and put the drive into your computer and run the manufacturers diagnostics on it.

You might also try go to the support section at dvrupgrade and see if they can help.

[oboebjt]

I plugged in the new drive again and started it without the cover. It is spinning up and I hear a few clicks. I didn't have it plugged into the TV so I don't know what the display said ... I just wanted to observe the drive where I could really hear what was happening. The jumpers are set to master .... but I notice that the jumpers on my old drive are different. It is a different manufacturer so I don't know if that is the reason for the difference. On the new drive the jumpers are on the first set of pins (Master) on the old drive the jumper is on the 2nd set of pins. According to the diagram on the new drive that would be cable select (no diagram on the old drive).

[oboebjt]

I finally put on my glasses and found the diagram on the old drive. It is set to cable select. Should I change the new drive to cable select and give it a try. Would it hurt anything if it is wrong?

[newsposter]

I finally put on my glasses and found the diagram on the old drive. It is set to cable select. Should I change the new drive to cable select and give it a try. Would it hurt anything if it is wrong?

changing jumper settings 'wrongly' wont ever hurt a drive (just wont work)...but cant help you more with your other issues sorry

[wedgecon]

I finally put on my glasses and found the diagram on the old drive. It is set to cable select. Should I change the new drive to cable select and give it a try. Would it hurt anything if it is wrong?

Give it a shot, maybe cable select will work if your old drive was set that way. You will not harm the drive. You might also want to try your old cable with it as it may be an IDE cable select cable, the one you got should also work for this but some IDE cables do not work with cable select.

[oboebjt]

Tried everything ... no luck. I'm sending the box and drive to DVRupgrade. I'll let you know what they figure out.

[latrobe7]

Wow, sorry to hear you are having trouble with the upgrade.

I also have a SAT-T60, about 7 years old. I just replaced the hard-drive about 2 months ago. I did not purchase a pre-imaged drive, just a 160GB drive on sale for $50 at Best Buy. I then copied the contents of my old drive to the new and got to keep all my recordings and my season passes. I kept the old drive as an emergency back-up for the new. I figure my TiVo is good for a few more years yet :)

If any of this is helpful and you would like further details, let me know. It only took me about two hours total.

[SLOmike]

I had a T-60 on which the Hard drive died.

I got a R15 from DirecTV to try out.

After a few months I bought a new Large drive for the T60 and got bought a new disk image.

I sent the R15 back to DirecTV.

Both my wife and I disliked the R15.

-Mike