Thinking about upgrading to HDTivo, and have some questions.

880 Views 2 Replies 3 Participants Last post by steve614, Mar 12, 2011

alangst

Discussion Starter · Mar 12, 2011

First off I should say that for the past 9 or 10 years I've been using a Series 2 Tivo (upgraded by me a few years ago to a 500gb drive) with a lifetime subscription. I should also mention my HD comes from a Charter box.

I'm now thinking about upgrading to either a Tivo Premier or PremierXL, and have some questions and need some opinions. So thanks for any help offered.

1. Is the XL worth the additional $180? I probaly won't use either remote since I have a Harmony, and will probaly upgrade the HD anyways, so I think the main difference is the THX (not really a huge audiophile, so not sure if I would notice that much of a difference).

2. Is the only way to transfer your lifetime service for $199, if you buy it through Tivo.com? I guess if you don't do the monthly payment plan, thats why you pay $249 instead of $99.

3. Would you recommend upgrading the HD space? I'm currently used to having lots of shows on my Series2, and I'm guessing the HD program will eat up the factory HD space in a hurry.

4. I've upgraded with a weaknees add-on drive initially, and then bought a complete replacement drive off of ebay before. Are these options still fairly easy to accomplish your self, and are they still reliable?

5. Any upcoming products coming out that I should wait for, or any reason to avoid the Tivo premiers?

6. My other option is to pay an extra $20/mon for Charter's HD Dvr, and i'm curious if anyone has any experience with that? HD size, ease of use, etc....

Think thats about it.....Thanks so much for reading through the long post, and I appreciate any help and advice.

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atmuscarella

· #2 · Mar 12, 2011

You should have a upgrade offer from TiVo for a Premiere with lifetime for $469. That is what I would get if I were you. You can get a 2TB drive upgrade from The DVR Dude on ebay for $170 gives you about 317 hours of HD.

Some people love their Premiers other people not so much. If you have a nice HD TV I think I would upgrade from a Series 2. You can continue to use your Series 2 for anything that you record that is in SD. But if it is digital it will likely look better if recorded by a Premier.

Good Luck,

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steve614

· #3 · Mar 12, 2011

atmuscarella said:
You should have a upgrade offer from TiVo for a Premiere with lifetime for $469. That is what I would get if I were you. You can get a 2TB drive upgrade from The DVR Dude on ebay for $170 gives you about 317 hours of HD.

I'll add that if you get a Premiere, want to upgrade the hard drive, and you have a computer, you can save some cash by getting a blank 2TB hard drive and using comer's JMFS Live CD.
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=455968
It's very easy. *

Download comer's CD disk image.
Burn software to CD.
Open the Premiere and remove the hard drive.
Open up PC.
Unplug the hard drives in your PC. (This step isn't necessary, just something I did for idiot proofing).
Plug the Tivo hard drive and the blank 2TB hard drive into the computer.
Boot up the PC with the JMFS Live CD you burned earlier.
Follow the prompts in the software.
When done, install the 2TB hard drive in your Tivo and put the original Tivo hard drive in a safe place.

Don't concern yourself with the THX certification of the XL unless you plan on building a THX home theater room.

* I know "easy" is a relative term, so if you are uncomfortable with messing around inside of a computer, a pre-imaged hard drive from DVR Dude or Weaknees is your best bet.

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