Official "TiVo Endorsed" Hard Drives Announced - Will our OLD drives still work?

I'm sure it's just a tivo branded esata hard drive. I'm betting there is nothing special about it and any esata external drive would work.

It's most likely an item that someone without the tech knowhow can go into Best Buy and purchase off the shelf and feel warm and cozy that it is a Tivo drive but it's actually just a rebadged WD or Seagate in a Tivo labeled esata case.

Of course I could be wrong and they could limit it to a certain drive type/manufacturer in the software and if it isn't "the official Tivo drive" then it won't work.

 

I hope it is home-theater-shaped. That is, a box the size of a stereo component. I don't want some random extra box hanging off the back of my stereo rack.

 

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I think that it'll be a situation like the USB wireless adapters. The Tivo adapter will be the only one "officially" sanctioned, but there will be many others that fit the bill.

Since an ESATA drive is and ESATA drive, I expect that we shouldn't see that many problems.

 

Link?

 

I concur. Tivo will "officially" support their branded drive, but other non-tivo branded drives will work fine. Tivo most likely knows that a lot of other business is generated due to people wanting to backup and upgrade their drives. This just gives the average joe a way to do it via retail.

 

I don't think it was an official Tivo announcement, just the news from engadget:

 

Chill. There is no technical reason why existing eSATA drives would/should stop working.

If Tivo is coming out with their own box, it's a "Tivo logoed plug and play" solution, just like the Tivo wireless G was for wireless support.

I suspect those of us with an MX-1/DB35 will have a better external drive than those with the Tivo-branded ones.

 

I suppose, because over an hour later there is nothing official on the wire services or the TiVo site.


So what's the box fee and the monthly service price for 1,2,3 yr commitment?

 

According to the Tivo website at this time the box fee is:

 

That's the $200 Gift Cert fee for the TiVo HD. 1024 if the $300 one.

Maybe 1394 is the eSata drive.

 

Actually, when I first saw the FreeAgentPro with the black case and orange lights, I thought that would be the perfect Tivo eSATA drive with a Tivo logo on it. But given the problems some have had with FAP, I'm glad I went with the MX-1/DB35 combo and will take a face plate off an old Tivo 40 box and modify the MX-1.

And I'll buy a Tivo branded external drive just because I'll want one for my new Tivo HD(s) if it's as cool looking as the wireless G adapter is.

 

Naw, that's the firewire drive.

 

I almost did the same thing, before going the MX-1 route. I did cheap out and get the "normal" Seagate 500GB SATA drive to stuff in it.

Figures that I would do that on Saturday and this would come out on Monday. Looks like I should have gone out and got another S3 today, just to ensure that the Tivo HD will debut tomorrow (wasn't there some talk when the S3 was coming that Tuesdays were "release days" for Tivo? My memory is failing me there, but I remember that folks here seemed certain that it was going to launch on a Tuesday, which it did.)

 

Go ahead and buy it. I was one of the early installs of eSATA drives. I selected the FAP 500Gb model and it has been running flawlessly for over 2 months now. Remember, people only have a tendency to post on here when they have a problem...there are many more of us using the FAP without a problem. Mine does not even get that warm (although it is in a section of my entertainment center without a door, so air flows freely around it). The majority of eSATA install failures seemed to be cable related.

I was even in such a hurry that it was installed straight from the box...I did not even hook it to my computer to change any of the factory default settings that others have.

 

Yep. I'm not worried that TiVo will disable my eSATA drive. They're always been very friendly towards their hacking customers, so long as we don't break their DRM.