Hack for External or Larger HDD ?

[spaceboy]

Hi All,

I just bought my shinny new TiVo HD from HN's yesterday & am very happy. I have searched and searched forums, but I can't seem to find the answer to what I thought would be a simple question....

How can I hack my Aussie Tivo HD, to allow an external drive? Or, can I manually swap that 160gig drive to a 1tb drive (obviously imaging the drive)?

Thanks in advance !

[Darren King]

There is no way of enabling an external eSATA hard disk as this time. You can however put a 1TB hard disk (or whatever size you want but 1TB has been tested by several OzTiVo members and it works) in the TiVo and use the following webpage instructions here:

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/how-to-upgrade-your-tivo-hd-with-winmfs/

use the following WinMFS configuration settings:
Custom Linux swap size: 500 MB
MfsSupersize: On

Remember however: You break it, you own all the pieces and no warranty :D

[spaceboy]

Thanks Darren, You are an absolute champion!
I will be swapping that internal HDD to a larger one, quick smart. I will also report back, how it went.

Few last questions for you or anyone else...

1) Is there a way that I can take the content from the TiVo, & send it to my PC's HDD. To store for the long term ? If so what file types are they, is there an easy way to convert them to something that will play in say VLC player ?

2) Is there a way to schedule a recording via a website. The official TiVo site says, early next year ?

3) Can my TiVo connect or see a network drive (or media server) & play video’s from there ?

[petestrash]

1. No, not at this stage. promised as and extra cost upgrade in the new year.
2. I believe it is running in a beta form using yahoo's TV site.
3. See #1 :)

Peter

[spaceboy]

Thanks for the reply petestrash!

I understand, they are the official responses. I was wondering if there was a way around, these locked features??
I.e. A SW hack/crack?

[Darren King]

Not at this stage. Maybe later on there may be a hack but like the USA TiVo it will require removal of the PROM chip (like the BIOS in a PC) and replacing with a modified chip that will allow some added features. Of course this will require expertise in delicate soldering work which will rule out most people from doing it themselves.

[superJB]

Has anyone socketed their PROM yet? Maybe someone with legendary soldering skills? ;-)

[Darren King]

If that question was directed at me then the answer is: No.

[superJB]

Socketing the PROM would open up the likes of bufferhack, (the potential for) 30 second skip, and enable other hacks (trickey and such). But I can understand the hesitancy to engage in any SMD rework given the $700 cost.

[znelbok]

There is no way of enabling an external eSATA hard disk as this time.

I am new here and may be out of line, but from an internal shot that I saw of the tiVo, it appears that all they are using is an adapter cable (as expected as there is no difference between sata and esata other than the connector).

So if you wanted to use an external drive could you not just swap the internal connector on the board over, this will enable the external port and disable the internal drive.

Would allow multiple drives to be used and possibly moving the files to the PC.

Mick

[petestrash]

You can swap the cables, and then use an external drive instead of the internal, but you still only have one drive. The other sata connector is not enabled, as the code has been removed from the current firmware.

Peter.

[ciper]

How exactly is the support for external drives disabled? Are the device entries missing?


But I can understand the hesitancy to engage in any SMD rework given the $700 cost.
It's extremely easy. I am a novice and check my results - http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=412679

[petestrash]

How exactly is the support for external drives disabled? Are the device entries missing?

There is no menu item for it, and kickstart does not work.

It appears to have been pulled from our current version of tivoapp.

Unlike the US, all of our units are sold as 'lifetime', but they are going to charge us for software upgrades.

So the initial release is actually crippled compared to US releases.



How exactly is the support for external drives disabled? Are the device entries missing?
It's extremely easy. I am a novice and check my results - http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=412679

I'm not keen on pairing drives in a TiVo if it can be avoided. It doubles the chance of you losing a drive, and if you lose either drive you loose a lot of content due to how the data stored across the drives.

I'm happy with a single 1Tb or 1.5TB drive.

Peter.

[Darren King]

I'd have to agree with Peter regarding dual hard disks. There was once a time when hard disks were relatively small and having two hard disks was practical to get even reasonable recording storage if you were going away for a few weeks or didn't have time to watch a few movies right now but "might do later".

Nowdays we talk in hard disks which have broken the 1TB barrier for a fairly cheap price and even one of these hard disks has way more than enough space for a few stored recordings.

While on the surface it looks impressive having multiple 1TB or 1.5TB hard disks and hundreds of hours of storage the downside to this is that it is on a relatively fragile medium compared to things like DVD's and sooner or later things will be lost when the hard disk fails. And with a TiVo that means that ALL recordings are lost even if it is only one hard disk out of multiple that fail.

[ciper]

I'm not keen on pairing drives in a TiVo if it can be avoided.
Some are willing to take the risk, others aren't. I agree it is adding many more points of failure (the drive, the enclosure, the powers supply, the cable connections).
This thread makes it seem as if a second drive doesn't work at all. Does adding second drive the manual way (using MFSTools or WinMFS) still work? When you said it was disabled in firmware I thought it might be something like the silicon image port splitter being disabled or the OS not seeing /dev/hdb.


There is no menu item for it, and kickstart does not work.
The kickstart code never worked on the TiVo HD. Esata support only works with the mydvr expander 500gb drive. If you keep an eye on TCF threads they seem to have a high failure rate once they are around 9 months old.


It doubles the chance of you losing a drive, and if you lose either drive you loose a lot of content due to how the data stored across the drives.
It is essentially the same thing with the official ESATA expansion. If the drive fails all recordings since it was added are lost. Any shows recorded before the failure are still intact but it's rare that any would still exist by the time the drive craps out.


I'm happy with a single 1Tb or 1.5TB drive.
It is physically possible to have a single fully usable 2TB A drive with either updated tools or if you build the file system by hand.


Nowdays we talk in hard disks which have broken the 1TB barrier for a fairly cheap price and even one of these hard disks has way more than enough space for a few stored recordings.
I think my current file sizes will help you to understand why it's not that much space.
*one hour HD averages 7.7gb
*one hour Digital SD averages 1.6gb
*one hour Analog SD averages 3.7gb
Recently I had a 4 hour, 31gb, recording in my suggestions folder.
HDNET movies are often 8.2gb per hour!

Here is a recent example -
http://i42.tinypic.com/17ps95.jpg

Grab a copy of the "TiVoPlayList" software and see for yourself.

Don't forget that in some many households the TiVo is shared between 3+ people (parents and kids). Does 1TB seem so huge now?!


And with a TiVo that means that ALL recordings are lost even if it is only one hard disk out of multiple that fail.
Two 1TB drives can be had for under 190 us dollars shipped. A single 2TB drive is still listed at 300+ us dollars even at the cheapest of online retailers. Losing all of the recorded programs would suck but I would much rather save 120$

[petestrash]

I visited someone today and their box has been pushed to v11.1. I am still on 8.2.1 which does not support esata even when married outside of TiVo.

V11.1 now has the external drive menu, so will probably work. I'll have to take my external drive around and check.

Peter.

[ciper]

Wow that's quite a jump!

What type of streaming video options are new with version 11.1?

[petestrash]

None yet, that will be a paid upgrade.

Peter.

[DaimDev]

Hi all,

Just wondering if things have changed here regarding a hack to get other non approved external hard drives to work?
I found the kickstart 62 hack on Engadget and just wondering if anyone has done this or if there is another way?

http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/04/how-to-use-your-tivo-series3-esata-port-to-add-an-external-driv/

Cheers,

Damien

[petestrash]

Kickstart 62 does not work on V11 software.

The easiest way that does not require you to remove the PROM chip is to remove the internal drive and marry the new external and existing (or new) internal using mfslive or winmfs in a PC.

They will then work together in the TiVo.

Peter.

[DaimDev]

Sweet.
I thought someone clever might have imaged the external that you could load onto any other external drive (unless its hardware locked).
Just got my HD today, so time to set everything up tonight.
Any other tips I should do?

Ta,

Daim

[petestrash]

The specific external drive used is hardware locked if you wanted to use the onscreen interface. This can be bypassed once the PROM has been replaced.

The only advice I would give is that if you can live with a single 1-1.2Gb drive (~200 hours HD/400 Hours SD) then don't use an external drive at all. If either drive fails you are in trouble and by having 2 drives, you double the chance of one of the drives failing.

Peter.