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Best Options for Premiere replacing Series 3

792 views 8 replies 6 participants last post by  unitron 
#1 ·
My Series 3 is dying, slowly but surely and I can't imagine life without a TiVo so I've ordered a Premiere XL w/Lifetime direct from Tivo. Is this a smart idea? Is there a better/cheaper way to do this?

THanks!

-=Tim=-
 
#4 ·
I would fix the Lifetime S3 and sell it to finance the Premiere purchase. I sold all my old S3/TiVoHD boxes to finance most of the cost of my Premieres. I'm certainly glad I did. I can't stand using my girlfriends S3 boxes any more.
 
#5 ·
I wouldn't get the XL, if you need the added space do a hard drive upgrade and save a lot of money.

The premier is a great box, it would be silly to replace an S3 with another S3 model. A lot of new functionality is coming out that is Premier only.
 
#8 ·
54 won't actually fix anything, I'm pretty sure.

How do you feel about taking your TiVo apart?

Is it an original S3? (TCD648xxx)?

Is it lifetimed?
Not good about taking it apart.

Yes it is an original S3.

Yes it is lifetimed.

Kickstart 54 told me that:

Initial State: Pass
Short Test: Fail 7
Conveyance Test: Fail 7
Extended Test: No Support
Off-line Scan: Done

Now I'm thinking about sending it off to WeaKnees where I bought it from for a replacement and deluxe upgrade. About $250 and returning the Premiere I ordered.

-=Tim=-
 
#9 ·
Not good about taking it apart.

Yes it is an original S3.

Yes it is lifetimed.

Kickstart 54 told me that:

Initial State: Pass
Short Test: Fail 7
Conveyance Test: Fail 7
Extended Test: No Support
Off-line Scan: Done

Now I'm thinking about sending it off to WeaKnees where I bought it from for a replacement and deluxe upgrade. About $250 and returning the Premiere I ordered.

-=Tim=-
It's certainly worth resurrecting.

(or mailing to me, and I'll even pay the postage:) )

(As I understand it, that's the last model where you can move the crypto chip, to which the lifetime sub and the recordings are tied, to another same model motherboard, although it sounds like your problem is the hard drive.)

You could get another hard drive the same size or larger, put a 648 image on it, dd the MFS partitions from the old drive to try to rescue the recordings, make sure everything works, and then, and only then, expand to fill the rest of the drive if it's bigger, or dd it over to a bigger drive and then expand.

If you're going to pay someone else big money instead, you should at least expect them to rescue your recordings.

If you ship the entire unit to someone to work on, make sure they check the power supply while they've got it apart, it's about time for that to give trouble as well. They shouldn't have to replace it, just replace some capacitors, most likely.
 
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