[avlBruce]

I'll begin with a little background.
I purchased my Tivo system, which includes a 3TB Bolt+, 3 years ago. Three of the Bolt+ units have broken down and I am now on my fourth Bolt+. Customer service has been very good at replacing and expedite shipping the new units. However, in each case, I was without TV for several days. Even worse, I lost all of the recordings on each of the failed units.

I have a plan that I would like to try to avoid these problems in the future. I am willing to purchase a second Bolt unit and use it as a backup. On a regular basis, maybe one a week, I will use the transfer recordings feature to copy everything from my main unit to the backup unit. If I remember correctly the transfer feature only works with Experience 3 and I am fine with that.

I will never use the backup unit to record a show and I will never use it to play any of the recordings that are stored on the unit. I do not want to rent a cable card for the backup unit and I do not want to purchase a service plan for the backup unit.

If my main unit fails I can move my cable card from the failed unit to the backup unit and I will have Tivo transfer my service plan from the failed unit to the backup unit and I will be off and running while I wait for the replacement Bolt+ to show up. I can then use the replacement unit as my backup.

I know that I'm making a lot of assumptions as to what I will and won't be able to do but it is worth a shot.

Thanks in advance

 

[HerronScott]

I have a plan that I would like to try to avoid these problems in the future. I am willing to purchase a second Bolt unit and use it as a backup. On a regular basis, maybe one a week, I will use the transfer recordings feature to copy everything from my main unit to the backup unit. If I remember correctly the transfer feature only works with Experience 3 and I am fine with that.

I will never use the backup unit to record a show and I will never use it to play any of the recordings that are stored on the unit. I do not want to rent a cable card for the backup unit and I do not want to purchase a service plan for the backup unit.

If my main unit fails I can move my cable card from the failed unit to the backup unit and I will have Tivo transfer my service plan from the failed unit to the backup unit and I will be off and running while I wait for the replacement Bolt+ to show up. I can then use the replacement unit as my backup.

Only issue with your plan is that you have to have a service plan to transfer recordings to a TiVo.

Scott

 

[avlBruce]

Thanks for your prompt reply. That is exactly what I was afraid of. With the sale that is going on right now I can get a Bolt and lifetime service plan for $600. I will have to mull this over.

 

[kpeters59]

Just backup your OnePasses and Channels with KMTTG and copy your shows off of the TiVo to an external drive.

-KP

 

[ThAbtO]

The problem is Bolts use laptop 2.5 inch drives which may fail too soon.
The v21/Hydra/TE4 also can contribute to the failures. Most Bolt VOX use this version.

 

[V7Goose]

I would suggest you look for a used Roamio (any model) with lifetime service for your backup - much cheaper and more reliable.

Any older model, such as Permier or S3, will work as well, but the file copy speeds will be slower. If you do the copies on a regular basis like you said, a cheap S3 THD with a 2 TB drive should cost about $100 or less, and it might be the perfect low-cost option for your plan.

Since you mentioned a cable card, do not forget that any program with vile copy protection cannot be copied anywhere.

 

[V7Goose]

In the long run, I think you will find that your plan is a lot more hassle than it is worth, especially the problem of constantly going to the backup machine to delete all the shows that you have watched. A much better option is to just take your working Bolt and upgrade the hard drive to a much more reliable external 3.5" drive.

 

[Series3Sub]

Boy, I am glad I let the Bolt train pass me by. The latest generation of TiVo I have are Romio's and they work very well, and I enjoy them, while my S4's and S3's (648 and HDXL) just plain WORK and continue to do their jobs with good quality HDD's installed. Rock solid, dependable TiVo experinece with S3 to S5 "older" generations without the problems so many post about on this forum with their S6 TiVo's, and my Mini's work well, too.

In my opinion, the best later generation TiVo made was the Romio, but I've seen posts about the infamous HDMI output fail. I hope I never get that. The 2nd best is, believe it or not, the S4 ever since TiVo swithced to--was it Haxie?--for the Premiere line, they operate as well as a Roamio, at least for the 2 tuner Premieres. Lastly, the S3's just do their jobs reliably without the modern UI design, but when I play the TV shows, I have absolutely no benifit from, nor do I care if the UI is modern to classic (and classic is good enough), and as much as I enjoy Auto-Skip, manually skipping ahead 30 seconds multiple times is truly no real effort at all becasue it is the content that is King, I just don't find the old UI even close to a deal breaker. I have benn HAPPY to keep all my older gen TiVo's because they sitll do a VERY GOOD job of being a DVR, and I have never used TiVo's for streaming apps, so all I really want is a great DVR.