Tech DC » tivo

Add More Recording Time To Your Tivo

Rick — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 13:30:11 +0000

With a 1TB or 1.5TB drive you can record hundreds of hours of TV in a TiVo. You first need to decide between two approaches.

Option 1: Order a pre-made TiVo Drive

This is the simplest method. You can buy a hard drive already setup for your TiVo from weaKees (TiVo Upgrade Kit section). I have also had good experience buying from dvr_dude on eBay.

Purchasing a new drive is your only option if your original drive failed and you don’t have a backup (obtained possibly through the Linux option described below). Replacing a failed drive can also save you from losing your lifetime or multi-year subscription contract with TiVo.

The cons to this approach are:

Buying hard drives with TiVo software already loaded can add over $100 to the cost of buying a blank drive.
This method will give you a new blank TiVo. It does not keep any of your programs, to do list, recording preferences, channel lineup, or CableCard pairing (for TiVo 3 or HD users who use CableCard to tune digital channels). This isn’t a con if it’s a new TiVo.

Option 2: Build Your Own Drive

This method takes much longer. You remove the drive and put it and the new drive in a computer that boots off of a Linux Live CD. In Linux, you run a command to copy the old drive to the new one bit by bit.

TiVo HD users should follow our TiVo HD instructions. TiVo 3 users should follow the bumwine instructions. TiVo Series 1 and Series 2 should follow the hinsdale instructions.

Building your own drive can take hours but it is the cheapest upgrade method and it saves all your shows, preferences, etc.

My Experience

Since my first Philips TiVo Series 1 with 20-hour recording capacity, I have been upgrading or adding drives to TiVos for myself and D.C. area clients. It can change the way you use your TiVo. If you have hundreds of hours of recording capacity, the TiVo feels closer to a TV and movie archive. Give it a try if you find yourself running out of space or if you want more TiVo suggestions.

Powerline vs Wi-Fi

Robert — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 17:48:49 +0000

Just about everyone knows what Wi-Fi is and most people even have it at home. Because wireless N is not yet standardized, most people are still using wireless G. What most people don’t know is that there is an alternative that in many cases will work better than wireless G and it uses lines you already have in your walls.

Powerline

Powerline connections use your existing electrical wiring. One huge advantage is the simplicity. Plug one powerline box into your router with an ethernet cable and the power cord into an electrical socket. Then put your other powerline box wherever you need ethernet and hook it up to your device with an ethernet cable. That’s it. You’ve got internet. Because of the simplicity, companies like Sling Media sell powerline devices like the Slinglink Turbo Powerline Kit to make hooking up a Slingbox that much easier.

Speed

A big problem with wireless is that you never actually get the claimed speeds. Wireless G claims a theoretical max of 54Mbps. Cut that number in half if you have two wireless devices talking to each other. With expected interference, such as neighbor’s Wi-Fi, you can likely cut that number in half again. In my experience, if you get 20Mbps from ethernet device to Wi-Fi device, that’s about typical. If you’re trying to move some big data like an HD show from one tivo to another, then you’re going from Wi-Fi to Wi-Fi and only getting about 10Mbps. This is painfully slow.

This is where powerline becomes very handy. If you just move one of your TiVos to powerline instead of Wi-Fi, you don’t have to cut that speed in half. Powerline can take some trial and error to setup but if you find the best plugs to use, you can expect to get near 20Mbps and some newer powerline technology claims even more. The end result is you can double your TiVo transfer speeds because only 1 TiVo on Wi-Fi can use the full 20Mbps while 1 on powerline is also getting 20Mbps.

Placement

Finding the best places to put the powerline devices may be the hardest part. If speed is not important, you can probably use just about any 2 plugs. I have yet to see 2 plugs that didn’t work at least a little. The closer they are physically on the wire, the better the performance should be so it helps to know how your electrical is ran in your house. If you don’t know, trial and error is a must as well as bandwidth testing software such as Qcheck.

Excellent Alternative

Everyone has Wi-Fi but that creates even more interference that slows it down. Powerline is a great alternative or complement to help maximize your home networking. Once wireless N is standardized, it will be much faster than wireless G but it will never be as simple to setup as powerline.

Watch Your Home Team with Slingbox

Rick — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 00:12:38 +0000

Slingbox is a device that hooks up to your cable, tuner, or DVR. You connect to it remotely using the SlingPlayer software to watch TV from wherever you are on the Internet. It costs $150 to $240 depending on the version you want.

Because it is a one-to-one connection and not a broadcast, it isn’t illegal. So if you want to watch your home TV while you’re on the road, or if you want to watch the football team that isn’t shown where you live, Slingbox is a great solution.

The quality isn’t perfect. It depends on the upload bandwidth at the Internet connection where the Slingbox is located. Sports programs unfortunately will suffer the most from the video compression because they have a lot of action. Sometimes you just need to listen to the announcers to figure out what really happened.

If football is very important to you, then consider purchasing DirecTV and then adding the Sunday Ticket for $300. But if you can handle the reduced video quality, Slingbox is a great solution.

UPDATE: Slingbox just released the Slingbox Pro-HD, their new top-of-the line version. This box can now send high definition video over a local network.