eSATA & TiVoHD (Only Tivo-brand HardDrives will work?)

19151 Views 101 Replies 48 Participants Last post by HDTiVo, Oct 23, 2007

TokyoShoe

Discussion Starter · Oct 19, 2007

So I had my unit upgraded to 9.2 earlier this evening. Low and behold when I plug in my external Western Digital MyBook and turn the unit back on, it detects then drive and asks me to set it up! But THEN it tells me that it cannot set it up, and that I should check out the url http://www.tivo.com/expand for details regarding this service. Well I go to that webpage and it redirects me to a place holder page with the following note:

"Interested in adding a TiVo Verified storage device to your TiVo® HD or Series3? Check back soon for details on this exciting new product."

It looks like only TiVo "brand" storage devices are going to work on Series 3 and Tivo HD units, not just any old eSATA like on all the other generation units. I cannot even REMOTELY express out MAD I am going to be if this ends up being the case. I actually pre-emptively purchased this external eSATA Western Digital in preparation for upgrading my TivoHD when the service got turned on. Now it gets turned on, and I don't have a "Verified Device" purchased directly from Tivo... so it won't work?

EDIT: To make things even more cool, the System Information screen confirms I have 9.2j ... AND it even detects my WD MYBOOK by device name. It still won't actually let me set it up. AND , if I leave it plugged it.. it prompts me to set it up every 5 minutes (and turns me down every single time after prompting me).

1 - 20 of 102 Posts

TokyoShoe

Discussion Starter · #2 · Oct 19, 2007

I am really hoping other TIVOHD Owners can contribute their own experiences regarding this dilemma. Is this hitting anyone else?

thedarksavant

· #3 · Oct 19, 2007

TokyoShoe said:
So I had my unit upgraded to 9.2 earlier this evening. Low and behold when I plug in my external Western Digital MyBook and turn the unit back on, it detects then drive and asks me to set it up! But THEN it tells me that it cannot set it up, and that I should check out the url for details regarding this service. Well I go to that webpage and it redirects me to a place holder page with the following note:

"Interested in adding a TiVo Verified storage device to your TiVo® HD or Series3? Check back soon for details on this exciting new product."

It looks like only TiVo "brand" storage devices are going to work on Series 3 and Tivo HD units, not just any old eSATA like on all the other generation units. I cannot even REMOTELY express out MAD I am going to be if this ends up being the case. I actually pre-emptively purchased this external eSATA Western Digital in preparation for upgrading my TivoHD when the service got turned on. Now it gets turned on, and I don't have a "Verified Device" purchased directly from Tivo... so it won't work?

To be fair, from what I've read TiVo puts a strain on external drives that normal day to day usage doesn't even come close to matching. I'm optimistically going to assume that TiVo is going to do the leg work and provide a list of external eSata setups that they will guarantee will function long term.

Apple can't be the only company to punish early adopters

lmsyl

· #4 · Oct 19, 2007

TokyoShoe said:
I am really hoping other TIVOHD Owners can contribute their own experiences regarding this dilemma. Is this hitting anyone else?

I am in same boat as you. I have a Seagate 320GB to plug in. Tivo detected it, show the name in system information and tried to set up. But got the same message as yours.

Not a good sign.

rodalpho

· #5 · Oct 19, 2007

They may have neglected to flip a bit to enable it. Don't freak out yet. I've had an eSATA drive in my S3 for months now and it still works fine with 9.2

TokyoShoe

Discussion Starter · #6 · Oct 19, 2007

rodalpho said:
They may have neglected to flip a bit to enable it. Don't freak out yet. I've had an eSATA drive in my S3 for months now and it still works fine with 9.2

If it's an issue of them forgetting to flip a bit or flag, I honestly think that's almost as bad. That insinuates zero (or VERY poor) testing or double checking went into the patch before it got rolled out.

I'm just aggrivated that they rolled out the patch, THEN follow it up with mysterious web pages and veiled announcements. Why can't they just come out and say what's going on? If the 2nd half of the project isn't ready yet for announcing.. maybe they should have just WAITED?

rodalpho

· #7 · Oct 19, 2007

If it goes into wide release and the tivo.com/expand page is still empty, then I'd be upset.

TokyoShoe

Discussion Starter · #8 · Oct 19, 2007

rodalpho said:
If it goes into wide release and the tivo.com/expand page is still empty, then I'd be upset.

What do you consider wide release?

Tivo has officially sent out emails to (what would seem to be) their entire subscriber base. I got an email from them earlier this evening touting a new software upgrade, the new Rhapsody service as well as watching of progressive downloading Amazon Unboxed videos. It also has a veiled hint towards ESATA service and S3/THD units.

Honestly.. the patch has been rolled out, they've officially got a priority page, AND they are notifying their subscriber base. I consider that about as wide release as it gets.

s2kdave

· #9 · Oct 19, 2007

TokyoShoe said:
It also has a veiled hint towards ESATA service and S3/THD units.

It's a hint about what they are going to announce meaning they haven't announced it yet. Wait until it's officially announced before counting on the feature being there. They're probably going to officially announce eSATA and TTG/MRV at the same time is my guess. Then they'll flip the switch on everything. Just think if they waited to release 9.2 until they announced it, people would start complaining that they couldn't get the feature they announced because it's rolled out slowly.

George Cifranci

· #10 · Oct 19, 2007

TokyoShoe said:
What do you consider wide release?

Tivo has officially sent out emails to (what would seem to be) their entire subscriber base. I got an email from them earlier this evening touting a new software upgrade, the new Rhapsody service as well as watching of progressive downloading Amazon Unboxed videos. It also has a veiled hint towards ESATA service and S3/THD units.

Honestly.. the patch has been rolled out, they've officially got a priority page, AND they are notifying their subscriber base. I consider that about as wide release as it gets.

Do you have software version 9.2? Because as of this moment 9.2 hasn't been released to everyone yet. The original poster is referring to 9.2j which I believe is an early release of the software (the final version won't have a letter). Until Tivo throws "the switch" it is in limited release. I am still on 9.1 on my Series 3.

Joybob

· #11 · Oct 19, 2007

TokyoShoe said:
What do you consider wide release?

Tivo has officially sent out emails to (what would seem to be) their entire subscriber base. I got an email from them earlier this evening touting a new software upgrade, the new Rhapsody service as well as watching of progressive downloading Amazon Unboxed videos. It also has a veiled hint towards ESATA service and S3/THD units.

Honestly.. the patch has been rolled out, they've officially got a priority page, AND they are notifying their subscriber base. I consider that about as wide release as it gets.

Link to priority page plz.

Nevermind.

Did they disable the kickstart method?

keenanSR

· #12 · Oct 19, 2007

Joybob said:
Link to priority page plz.

Nevermind.

Did they disable the kickstart method?

http://research.tivo.com/91priority/index.htm

TexasGrillChef

· #13 · Oct 19, 2007

thedarksavant said:
To be fair, from what I've read TiVo puts a strain on external drives that normal day to day usage doesn't even come close to matching. I'm optimistically going to assume that TiVo is going to do the leg work and provide a list of external eSata setups that they will guarantee will function long term.

Apple can't be the only company to punish early adopters

Maybe so for hard drives in Computers...

But look at the truth.... the SAME hard drives you find in your comptuer. ARE THE SAME hard drives found in....

NAS (Networked Attached Storage) Servers, computer servers, or even Media Servers.

I have a 3 Terabyte NAS from Buffalo Tech. When I pulled the drives on those. They are the SAME Seagate 750gb hard drives that I can buy from Best Buy that I put in my computer.

The NAS is expected to run 24/7 365 days per year.

So the saying that A DVR Hard drive puts more strain on a Hard Drive then a SERVER or NAS is kinda far fetched. Maybe a desktop/laptop hard drive. But not a NAS Server.

TGC

See less See more

richsadams

· #14 · Oct 19, 2007

TexasGrillChef said:
Maybe so for hard drives in Computers...

But look at the truth.... the SAME hard drives you find in your comptuer. ARE THE SAME hard drives found in....

NAS (Networked Attached Storage) Servers, computer servers, or even Media Servers.

I have a 3 Terabyte NAS from Buffalo Tech. When I pulled the drives on those. They are the SAME Seagate 750gb hard drives that I can buy from Best Buy that I put in my computer.

The NAS is expected to run 24/7 365 days per year.

So the saying that A DVR Hard drive puts more strain on a Hard Drive then a SERVER or NAS is kinda far fetched. Maybe a desktop/laptop hard drive. But not a NAS Server.

TGC

Agreed. The eSATA drives we're currently using now are as good as or better than the internal drives TiVo uses. TiVo may indeed introduce an eSATA drive which they will support, a very likely outcome IMO. My guess is that they will have a code in the firmware that TiVo will look for during a P&P install. However theres no reason to believe that the actual drives that they use will be any different than the ones they/we are using now.

Plus nothing indicates that the current eSATA hacks will not work for non-TiVo branded drives going forward. Weve gone through three upgrades now and all have continued to allow eSATA drives to work as usual.

EDIT: Here's a screen shot of the second Account Information page showing our eSATA drive's model number:

See less See more

mappler

· #15 · Oct 19, 2007

TokyoShoe said:
It looks like only TiVo "brand" storage devices are going to work on Series 3 and Tivo HD units, not just any old eSATA like on all the other generation units. I cannot even REMOTELY express out MAD I am going to be if this ends up being the case. I actually pre-emptively purchased this external eSATA Western Digital in preparation for upgrading my TivoHD when the service got turned on. Now it gets turned on, and I don't have a "Verified Device" purchased directly from Tivo... so it won't work?

You know...don't be too "MAD". You purchased a drive ahead of time for a feature that was not yet implemented. I'm assuming that if TiVo puts requirements on the drive, it is for an actual good reason...not just to be "annoying". Furthermore, you can still use the drive. I see no indications that they are expressly precluding the use of such a drive...There are other methods available to get such a drive to work...

TokyoShoe

Discussion Starter · #16 · Oct 19, 2007

mappler said:
You know...don't be too "MAD". You purchased a drive ahead of time for a feature that was not yet implemented. I'm assuming that if TiVo puts requirements on the drive, it is for an actual good reason...not just to be "annoying". Furthermore, you can still use the drive. I see no indications that they are expressly precluding the use of such a drive...There are other methods available to get such a drive to work...

Yes I purchased a drive ahead of time, anticipating cooperation with certain functionality that hadn't been patched in yet. But do you honestly think that early adopters should get punished this way? We've got tons of other folks using various types of eSATA drives through hack methods right now.

Let's say 9.2 final rolls out and Tivo not only requires Tivo-brand external storage, but they also DISABLE and existing eSATA Hack setups specifically to force Tivo-brand storage purchasing. What would you say THEN?

And for the record, I guess I didn't realize that a release version having a letter in it constituted it being a "Test Version". That was news to me, so maybe someone DID just simply screw up and forget to flip a bit. Maybe it could get corrected in 9.2 final.

j0hnW

· #17 · Oct 19, 2007

mappler said:
You know...don't be too "MAD". <...> I'm assuming that if TiVo puts requirements on the drive, it is for an actual good reason...

Unless that reason is simply for Tivo to make more money as the sole source (or licenser) for "Blessed" Tivo external storage devices. Good reason for Tivo; bad reason for the Tivo customer.

Personally, I'm going to be pretty "MAD" if my 500GB Seagate DB35 external drive stops working with my S3 after months of flawless performance, when I'm forced to upgraded from 9.1 to 9.2.

John

TokyoShoe

Discussion Starter · #18 · Oct 19, 2007

j0hnW said:
Unless that reason is simply for Tivo to make more money as the sole source (or licenser) for "Blessed" Tivo external storage devices. Good reason for Tivo; bad reason for the Tivo customer.

Personally, I'm going to be pretty "MAD" if my 500GB Seagate DB35 external drive stops working with my S3 after months of flawless performance, when I'm forced to upgraded from 9.1 to 9.2.

John

I guess I'll just start hoping they are more customer-focused than money-focused, and wait until the "mystery announcement".

kmill14

· #19 · Oct 19, 2007

Tokyo, so tell me again why you are blaming Tivo for you buying an expansion drive before you knew they would support it.

cr33p

· #20 · Oct 19, 2007

You could still use the external hard drive, pull the original and run mfsadd with WinMFS

1 - 20 of 102 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.