On the virge, follow Tivo to Cable or lose the Tivo?

If Comcast offers you value and the channels you want and you have the income to be able to afford a couple Series 3 then I don't see the problem here. Cable sounds like a good choice for you.

 

Make the switch.

 

I'm on the way back to cable, starting with a Series3 for OTA (but keeping D* for sat channels) and then a complete switch to cable when I move in June. When my HR10 died and they wouldn't give me another to replace it (in warranty), I gave up on D*.

 

Advertisements

Define "died" if you would....was it hacked ?

 

I'm not considering Charter, but I'm going to look hard at Version FIOS as it arrives in the next year.

 

Boy that was profound and off the wall.....

 

The original hard drive had died. I replaced it with a 500gb drive, which worked for about 4 months. After it got 6.3 it started to drop audio (like everyone else) on OTA, but then after a few weeks it started rebooting -- every five minutes. I figured I had another bad drive, so I replaced it again. It still rebooted every 5 minutes, so I replaced the drive with another running 3.1.5f -- still rebooting. So I replaced the power supply with a brand new one from Weaknees -- still rebooting. By the way, all of these drives worked fine in a friend's HR10 which he let me use for testing.

D* said I was still in warranty and offered to replace the unit with a new TiVo. They also gave me $10 off a month for six months. Then they promptly shipped out an HR20. They would not get me another HR10. I placed the original drive into the HR10 and shipped it back. Then I sold the HR20 on ebay. I also cancelled my HD service and deactivated the HR10 from my account. Since I owned the HR10 and the HR20 was provided under warranty, I owned it too and I did not get any more years on my account. The $25 I am saving per month ($10 credit, $10 HD fee and $5 receiver fee) for the next six months, added to what I got for the HR20 on ebay, more than pays for the Series3. And all I lose in the short term is some over-compressed reruns on like 8 HD channels.

When I go to cable, I can use my S3 for HD in the living room, use an existing S2 box I have for the bedroom, add a S2 DT box for my den, and sell my DirecTiVo boxes on ebay for a pretty good price, since most of them are upgraded with nice big drives. I just hope they enable MRV on the S3, since I use that feature quite a bit on my D* boxes (but of course it never worked on the HR10.)

 

OK thanks....for the explanation on the HR10.....did you try a different image or use the same one each time you restored to the "new" drives ?

 

Ya...I guess what I'm saying is I want to see if Series3 tivo work with verizon.

 

I used both 3.1.5f and 6.3 images, which I have used in the past to install larger drives in friend's units. I even tried an older 3.1.5c image, with the same results.

I believe the motherboard of the unit was toasted.

 

I dislike cable so much, that I will do a lot to stay away from them.

I have a new HR20. While it is different, it's not terrible. I've got use to it in a week or so.
I still have a SD D* tivo and a HR10, along with the new D* HD receiver that is the same interface as the HR 20.

The HR 20 is a lot faster than the HR10 too.

 

Rumor has it Comcast is going to have Tivo running on their motorola boxes, some of which are already in the field.

I too have had just about enough screwing around by DirecTV. Their house-brand units are terrible. And then they go an deliberately disabled (remove completely) the ability to do MRV on the HR10-250 when they went to the 6.3 upgrade. So now instead of making my wife happy about the new 50" plasma she's complained why she can't pull the movies from "her" Tivo down onto the one driving the new TV. THIS is not progress.

So as much as I utterly despise Comcast and Verizon it looks like DirecTV is giving me no choice other than to make the switch. AND to encourage others to do so as well.

 

Now I consider that a much better option than S3 with CC, simply because cable will treat any 3rd-party STB/DVR like a red-headed step-child. How motivated do you think they will be to help you diagnose a problem with CC and a S3? Certainly a lot less than they would their own box running Tivo.