Went back to tivo after 3 years excited but..

mohanman · 03-19-2011, 09:20 AM

I went back to Tivo after a 3 year hiatus because I moved and had directv for about 4 months.. what a mistake! Directv sucks! They didn't tell me I wouldn't get local channels in HD without a stupid antenna.. also no more G4 in HD, no AMC in hD.. whats up with that? SO I decided to pay the huge cancellation fee to go back to comcast which provides the above and back to tivo.

I originally had tivo series 3 and HD, but just bought two premiers. Not only is it more expensive per month then my old set, but they are kind of loud and big! The interface looks ok, how come they didn't take into account that some people watch tv in the bedroom?? I can hear the fan whirring along, its not that loud, but still audible.. I mean its been three years!!

Mo

joshuamac · 03-19-2011, 10:12 AM

It sounds like you have a bad unit. On mine you would not even know it had a fan. It is virtually silent. I would return it for a new one because it sounds like the bearings or something inside it went bad. You should not be hearing it that loud unless you have bionic ears.

crxssi · 03-19-2011, 10:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joshuamac

It sounds like you have a bad unit. On mine you would not even know it had a fan. It is virtually silent. I would return it for a new one because it sounds like the bearings or something inside it went bad. You should not be hearing it that loud unless you have bionic ears.

Mine is also virtually silent.

And him calling the Premiere "big"??? I don't understand that. It is much smaller than previous TiVo's and much smaller than my old DircTiVo stuff.

lujan · 03-19-2011, 10:44 AM

My Premiere is also silent. It's my Mits DLP that has a loud fan.

mohanman · 03-19-2011, 03:02 PM

The unit is big, compared to HD or series 3. it looks kind of cheap compared to the series 3 too.. i loved the display and the way it stated what was being recorded. miss that..

Oh well, we will see what happens when comcast comes next saturday.. couldn't get earlier appointment. lets see if its easier to install cablecards now that is been 3 years.. I had to call them on 4 separate occasions when i got tivo the first time.. nobody knew what they were doing.. that was fun and a waste of my precious life in terms of hours.

Mo

crxssi · 03-19-2011, 05:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mohanman

The unit is big, compared to HD or series 3.

I think you are confused. The Premire is both a lot shorter and a lot less deep than any other TiVo (including the HD/series3).

http://support.tivo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/354

aaronwt · 03-19-2011, 05:57 PM

And if you have good hearing you can easily hear the fan. I can easiliy hear the fan in any TiVo from twenty feet away. But the noise is not botehrsome. If it had a smaller fan with a higher pitch then it would bother me.

mohanman · 03-19-2011, 06:06 PM

Okay.. well then let me continue to complain..

Whats up with netflix? I mean the interface is ok, but why does it only show my instant queue? My boxee box shows everything including new releases, and you can search by genres?

Lastly, any ideas besides returning it that I can do with the fan noise in the bedroom? I can hear the hard drive chugging along also.. annoying. I don't know about returning it now, I already registered it at tivo.com ?

Thanks
Mo

indychris · 03-19-2011, 06:06 PM

My TiVo sits less than 8 feet from me in an open AV stand. I've never heard the fan, though I can at times hear the fan of my receiver which sits right next to it. There's much I don't like about my Premiere, but no complaints on fan noise.

smbaker · 03-19-2011, 07:08 PM

'loud and big' isn't how I'd describe my premieres. If anything they're smaller and quieter than other Tivos that I've owned. I don't notice fan noise at all.

However, I'm one who actually finds it easier to sleep with some white noise, and it's not uncommon for me to crank up a desk fan or something to drown out more annoying background noises.

As far as quieting it down, you could look at the possibility of adding a bluetooth remote and sticking the thing in a cabinet. I've done this several times over the years and never had an issue with overheating. You do need to have adequate ventilation into the cabinet, but I would think it would muffle your noise a bit. I have a relative who remote-mounted an older Tivo in a closet (with an IR repeater) without issue.

EDIT: Also, I haven't noticed hard drive noise in years. Seems like the S1 and S2 gave off a lot more clickity-noises. Of course, I'm also older, so perhaps my auditory range no longer includes that pitch.

mohanman · 03-19-2011, 08:03 PM

Well.. I actually took a small wooden stick and stuck it in the tivo fan.. for some reason that quieted it down significantly.. not sure why... maybe a ball bearing is defective or something

aaronwt · 03-20-2011, 08:27 AM

Get it replaced if it is still under warranty or within the return period.

mohanman · 03-20-2011, 10:23 AM

well nevermind the noise came back and bothered me a little bit last night, I took the whole box and just put it behind the tv out of site.. better and remote still works. I'll probably return it, I bought two, so I'll see if the second also has the same problem. From reviewing this and other sites, I'm not the only one complaining of fan noise.. a lot of people have replaced their fans calling the one installed "cheap".

Please don't tell me TiVO has become the Dell of DVRs.. I personally felt the series 3 and tivo hd were "high quality".

Mo

mohanman · 03-20-2011, 04:30 PM

Well the second one was noisy too... and I was shocked..no multi-box discount! 19.95 x 2 per month on top of my cable bill.. jeez! Called Tivo, going back to my old Tivo HD and Series 3. Tivo HD makes no noise! Much better in bedroom. Gotta hand it to Tivo great customer support, agreed was too expensive and go my old ones reactivated in seconds.
Mo

crxssi · 03-20-2011, 08:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mohanman

Well the second one was noisy too... and I was shocked..no multi-box discount! 19.95 x 2 per month on top of my cable bill.. jeez! Called Tivo, going back to my old Tivo HD and Series 3. Tivo HD makes no noise! Much better in bedroom. Gotta hand it to Tivo great customer support, agreed was too expensive and go my old ones reactivated in seconds.
Mo

Well, the expense part you knew before going into this, so you can't really complain about it all that much

As for the noise, I am not sure why those units are noisy. Perhaps your bedroom is dead quiet and can hear them better, since most people can't hear hardly anything from the Premiere.

You are right that TiVo customer service people are just first-rate. Polite, friendly, fast, great communications skills, willing to help, and usually informed.

h2oskierc · 03-20-2011, 11:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mohanman

Well the second one was noisy too... and I was shocked..no multi-box discount! 19.95 x 2 per month on top of my cable bill.. jeez!

You must have gotten the second box for $99 too?

Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Forum Runner