It's finally died. :( Pioneer 810h dvd

[ErinLindsey]

Over the weekend at some point, my Pioneer 810 died.

It sort of recorded Lost last night. Got the first 48 minutes, and then I guess it rebooted and came back to get the last 3 minutes of the episode.

The front of the Tivo says "no disk" and I'm afraid to put a disk into it to see what will happen.

I can reboot the unit, and get it to go to the main menu, and for a few minutes I can go into the Now Playing, or wander around thru the different menus, but after a few minutes, that stops and the unit wont respond.

It hasnt done an update since April 3rd, and it's software version is 9.3.2-01-2-275

Was there a recent update? (I cant tell by looking)

Is my hard drive gone bye bye? I'm pretty sure the dvd burner probably has since it just says "no disk".

I wonder if this is because I decided to not renew the warranty that Best Buy sent me this year. ($300 to renew! Eeek! That would take my money for my future Amazone Kindle 2 I've been saving)

Is there somewhere I should send the Tivo to see if it can be fixed, or should I just let my boyfriend attempt to tinker with it and see if he can get a new hard drive and dvd drive installed into it?

Do they still make Tivo's with the built in dvd burners?

I wonder if I can get a basic Tivo unit now, and hook an external dvd recorder to it?

I guess until I get it fixed or replaced, I'll just go get a DVR box from the cable company (argh...stone age technology)

At least I still have my Toshiba RS-TX20 (knock on wood!!!) Hope that lasts longer. I've had the Pioneer since Xmas 2004, and the Toshiba since February of 2005.

[robomeister]

It sounds like you have the classic failing hard drive. I have several Pioneers and I've seen the same situation that you have. I can be playing a show, then it gets stuck and then the TiVo will reboot. I think what happens is there is a bad spot on the drive and when the TiVo tries to play that section, it doesn't know what to do, so it reboots or gets stuck on a frozen screen.

Since the hard drive and the fan are the only moving parts in any TiVo (besides the DVD burner), it is fairly easy to fix. You can do it yourself (or you boyfriend, if he likes to tinker) or buy a pre-configured drive. If you want to try the do-it-yourself route, check out www.mfslive.org.

Good luck,
robomeister

[ErinLindsey]

Where would I get the pre-configured drive? Can the Pioneer support a larger hard drive?

I might let the boyfriend take a crack at fixing it for me, since I suspect sending it someplace for fixing would be expensive, and doing it myself may result in injuries.

I am looking at getting one of the newer Tivos and one of the wifi connection thingies, and seeing if that would work for me.

If I go the with a new one with the Wifi, that would enable me to send the shows to one of my computers and using that to burn a disk for shows that I want to save, right? (hopefully?)

That was my first Tivo, and I totally loved it. Coolest thing I'd seen since my dad got our first vcr in 1981. (we still have that vcr, and it STILL works! wish the Tivo would have lasted as long...)

Now I'm in mortal fear of my Toshiba Tivo dying. (it's been doing that weird little "skip" when watching tv) The Pioneer didnt really give me any warning, other than it not connecting to the updates about a month ago for some reason...and I thought it was because we'd had a few storms and maybe a storm had interrupted an update or something.

[dbthornton]

dvrupgrade.com sells pre-configured drives and is a sponsor of this forum. I have a replacement 250Gb drive in mine.

Mine also shows the "no disk" thing periodically without any thing being wrong with the DVD drive.

You can also connect your Tivo now using a wifi adapter, and send shows to your computer.

[robomeister]

ErinLindsey,

You can put pretty much any IDE or PATA (parallel ATA) drive into the Pioneer TiVo. One of my Pioneer TiVos has a 750GB drive in it. I believe the 750GB drive is the largest PATA drive available.

In order to transfer files from the TiVo to another device (PC, another TiVo, etc.) you will need to have the full subscription, not the basic subscription that comes standard with the Pioneers and Toshibas.

Upgrading and/or fixing the TiVos is not as hard as it seems. If you have a working TiVo, it's pretty straight forward. You remove the drive, copy it to another drive, and replace the drive. If you have a drive that doesn't work, then you need an image of the drive to put onto a new drive. I have both the Pioneer models, so I can provide you with a clean copy the software image, if you want to try to upgrade on your own, or your boyfriend. :)

I also have the Toshiba RS-TX20, and can provide you with a clean image for that model, too, if you need it.

I've upgraded/fixed/repaired numerous TiVos over the years and would be willing to help you through the process. If you are going to decommission your Pioneer, I'd be interested in it. :) Or you could put it up on eBay. I've seen 57H units go for over $100, even if broken.

Good luck,
robomeister

[retired_guy]

One thing to consider is the format of the DVD you had in the reader when the reboot occurred. My Pioneer has been working fine for many years, but recently my daughter put a DVD she obtained from a library into my unit and, after showing the name of the DVD, it rebooted when I tried to play the DVD. When I looked at the DVD case, it indicated that some "new" technique had been using in recording on the DVD to improve its performance on a 9x16 TV. I then tried another older DVD in the unit and it worked fine. I also played a program recorded to the hard disk and that worked fine too. I retried the library DVD and got a reboot every time I tried to play it; something about that DVD causes the problem.

By the way, this unit has a 500GB drive I got from Weaknees in it. Very easy to do with their drives, but cheaper to buy raw drive and format it yourself these days.

If you've got lifetime plus (full TiVo functionality) on the box, I'd replace the drive. Otherwise, get a new HD box. My Pioneer DVD recorder was certainly the best of all my Series2 boxes, but the HD boxes have so much additional function that I rarely use the Pioneer any longer, other than to play DVDs or occasionally record one.

[cwskulker]

Alas, I think my Pioneer 810H's hard drive has met its maker. I am weighing the options of replacement from dvrupgrade vs 'DIY' via Instant Cake (purchase an image). Does anyone know if Instant Cake for 810HS will work for the 810H also? Thanks