The Little Tivo That Could - Maybe?

[conehead65]

Hi everyone,
My name is Dave and I am new.
In fact, this is my very first post.
I bought a Toshiba SD-H400 at a second hand store
for $5.00. It is missing both the hard dive and the DVD player.
Should I bother with it or toss it in the trash? I can see that installing a
hard drive would be a snap, but what about the Tivo software? Will this
unit work without the DVD installed? Finally, will I get free basic service
for life with this unit if functional?
Thank you in advance for
any help.
Dave

[classicsat]

I don't know if it will work without a DVD drive, but I believe it is proprietary.

The HDD is simpler, you can use a standard IDE drive, but will have to install TiVo software on it.

You should be able to get the TiVo Basic service on it.

[conehead65]

Thank you very much :)

[jmace57]

Actually there are DVD drives you can use. I think it is a Toshiba drive. If you search on other posts, you should see a model number. You can take a PATA drive and for $20 you can buy Instant Cake software http://www.dvrupgrade.com/dvr/stores/1/instantcake_display.cfm and easily upgrade it yourself.

I'm SWAG'ing this, but suspect you could buy the DVD drive for $30, a decent size hard drive for $40 and the software for $20. Then the service will cost you.

PM me if you have any questions.

Jim

[conehead65]

Thank You,
I wonder if it will work if I omit the DVd as I already own one?:)

[jmace57]

IIRC, there are only a couple of DVD drives that will work with the Humax TiVo. You can't just pop a spare one in. Sorry.

Jim

[conehead65]

Thank You,:)
What if I leave the DVD drive slot blank?
Do you think that my Tivo will work without it installed?