Time Traveler seeking Pioneer DVR-810-H Lifetime

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It seems these boards aren't well traveled these days.

But I've been looking into the Tivos that once had DVD recorders. The choices are pretty sparse on eBay right now and I was wondering if the Last of the Last is finally gone, or if there is still a hope that one could find an 810-H with Lifetime (or Tivo Basic Plus Lifetime?) at this late date.

I've been lucky enough to acquire an RS-TX20, RS-TX60 and Humax DRT800 (but it only has the DRT400 image, I wish I could find an MFS of the DRT800 that supports broadband).

I must say the Toshibas are (very) interesting and "fun" but the Humax not so much, as similar as they seem. Oddly the Guided Setup on the Toshibas was the hardest to get to update and then complete the Guided Setup. But the Humax seemed the easiest to get to update and then complete the Guided Setup (fingers crossed it remains so..)

So with the Toshibas out of the way, and backed up. I've been looking at the Pioneer 57-H and 810-H the Tivo Basic is interesting.. but I think I'm looking for the versions with Broadband support in their drive software and the Lifetime subscription.

I'm a little new at this, so I hope I don't sound too gratingly stupid.

My interests are both from curiosity with regards to SD video, and because I'm converting many of my Dads old VHS tapes from SD video to Digital files.. and the TivoToGo feature in Toast and Tivo Desktop seem to still work pretty well. He passed away about ten years ago trying to convert many B&W movies that never made it to DVD to digital files.. and its a way of keeping him in my mind working on his project.

Anyhoo.. I'm posting just in case.. and to rack up posting points towards (ten) so I can PM someone who might still have MFS recovery images.. or who might know more about this stuff than I do.

 

Well.. success.

I found a Pioneer DVR-810H-S with Lifetime and got the ownership transferred.

This brings my collection up to two Pioneers, two Toshibas and one Humax. I also have a Tivo HD with Lifetime.

Honestly since Verbatim sold all their manufacturing kit and brand, I have not tried burning DVDs. But the Tivo Desktop works great for offloading video from the Tivos to the PC. I don't have a Tivo Desktop Plus key however.. so I can't try going the other way.. from PC to Tivo.

Toast 11 on the Intel Mac Mini however works good both "ways", it can download video from the Tivos to the PC and push video from the Intel Mac Mini to the Tivos converting it to .tivo format along the way.

I've noticed a deficiency between the Tivo HD (Series 3) however. Off air broadcasts which are HD will play on the PC but not on the Tivo (Series 2) models.. all I get is a blank picture with sound. I guess its not surprise. But honestly I'm just fooling around.. its interesting to see how flexible all this was ten years ago.

"Classic Tivo" is Amazing, even today.. and perfect for converting VHS tapes or anything that has s-video out.

The EPG is also quite Amazing in this day and age.. I never did Windows Media Center much.. but have a few activated LRM-519 devices to play with.

 

No

I haven't done that yet.

Well.. I have but.. as raw disk images. I don't think those count.

I've been studying (how) people prefer to back these up and some variant of WinMFS seems to be the most popular. But I'm not sure which one would be the most stable or preferred. If you have a suggestion it would be helpful.

To be clear these are the models I have and that are working and have Lifetime (not Basic, full Lifetime.. so TiVo to Go, Desktop ect.. work).

As of 2020-01-05:

Pioneer DVR-810H
Pioneer DVR-57H
Toshiba RS-TX20
Toshiba RS-TX60
Humax DRT400
Humax DRT800

They are updating from Rovi via USB to Ethernet adapters.

I have tested with Mac OS X Toast 11 - Tivo To Go
I have tested with Windows 7 TiVo Desktop Plus 2.8.3

Uploads and Downloads To and From the TiVos work

Transfers between TiVos work

The one odd thing was they will not request and use an IP address provided by modern DHCP routers. I have to use the "self assign" option in the setup menus, fortunately they pick an unused IP address from the local lan and work just fine after that. They figure out the correct Gateway and DNS service providers... so I wonder if the Tivo software mislabeled the setup options.

Before figuring this out they would attempt to connect to Rovi and report various failure codes.. which made no sense.

 

Thanks

I don't know DvrBARS.. will google immediately.

Any particular versions for each?

 

Interesting.. I have both but have never done a speed comparison.

Thanks for the tip.

I was mostly interested in the S-Video Input feature of the TiVo and fell in love with its full featured-ness for the time period.

DVD writable is a cool idea.. but blanks are getting so hard to find these days they seem more like a passing fad.

 

Successfully backed them all up.

I used:
DVRbars 1007
WinMFS 9.3f beta

Made sure the TiVo's had been connected to TiVo for Guide and Service Updates as of yesterday 2020-01-06 using a Linksys USB300m ethernet over broadband connection.

Thanks for the tips and suggestions.

I'm still learning about TiVos and the online community, especially for Series 2 & 3 TiVos. If there is a community sharing resource for images, or a standard way to help other users. Guidance would be appreciated.

 

I tried the M.2 sata SSD in the 2.5 sata to 3.5 sata converter with a Marvell sata to ide adapter. It worked.. smooth as glass.

DVDbars found it and restored the backup to it very quickly.

Put it in the DVR-810H and booted right up, updated.. I experienced no problems.

 

Doesn't look like any requests in the last year.

 

The Tivo 2 Series is not useful in the way you want today.

The guide data was only available over modem up until the Tivo service discontinued dial-up and went to "Internet Only". Just before they released a firmware update over dial-up to enable the use of a specific number of USB to Ethernet adapters. They are no longer made.

So to make it work today, you would first have to have the firmware update on the Tivo hard disk, and one of the USB to Ethernet adapters.

The Tivo 2 Series were also analog only, they could record old style NTSC broadcasts before the 2009 transition to ATSC Digital. After the change over to the ATSC broadcasts, you had to use an old style Digital to Analog converter box and connect it to the Analog Inputs on the Tivo 2.

So that history "explains" why the listing said "MUST HAVE INTERNET MODEM AND CONVERTER BOX"

Those were true many years ago, and could still be (made) to work today under very complicated circumstances.. however the final signal output from the Tivo and sent to your TV would be very low resolution by today's standards.

The Tivo "Basic" service was for a very few days each week, and does still download in a Tivo that was (not new) and already setup by a previous user. But it had to be signed up for the Trial in 2005-2007 and then changed over to the Tivo "Basic" service. Brand new out of the box today, you can not activate it.

Unless you are a collector, with extreme technical skills and a lot of luck.. its best to pass on this.

Recording things off air, or off streaming is very very hard today.

Most DVR/PVR recorders today have a sealed box that only lets you timeshift or delay viewing the recording and then delete it to make more space. The 90's are long gone. The 00's were never friendly to recording and saving recordings. A few DVD recorders were made, but they are long gone or no longer work correctly and they do not have working free guide services like TV Guide.

The last Tivos that let you offload their recordings to your PC or another Tivo stopped being sold by Tivo two generations ago.. probably the Tivo model HD or Roamio. Tivo no longer sells those.

Hooking up a VCR to a modern TV will require converting the signal from Analog to Digital and Upscaling it to fit the modern TV resolution.. a Tivo can sort of do that, but very poorly and their power supplies are old and failing.

If you just want to convert and upscale your VCR output, you would be better off finding a Composite or S-Video to HDMI converter. They still exist.. I think Tandy corporation still sells them online.. they are not the old Radio Shack.. they are online only and sell only a few things. An Analog to Digitial converter is one of them.

Monoprice usually still carries an Analog to HDMI converter as well.

Lots of luck.