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[personal profile] teddywolf
Wednesday of this week we finally replaced our old TiVo HD.

We're long-standing TiVo users in our home. I know people who have had it for longer, but I can say we've had it for nearly a decade now. For the past couple of years our TiVo HD had been behaving badly: freezing and rebooting in the middle of watching a show, freezing in the middle of a recording, things like that. So, after checking our admittedly-stretched budget, we decided we should probably see what we could do about replacing it. I mean, freezing and rebooting multiple times a day is not normal. I called TiVo a bit over two weeks ago, we got a replacement box sent out at some charge to us (but not as badly as buying a new one), transferred service over, and that's that, right?

Well... no. For one thing, there's no easy way to transfer shows from one TiVo to another. As in, if they aren't both of the current generation you can't really do it. For another, they didn't have the easiest way of transferring over the Season Pass list. For yet another thing was actually setting up the new box and making sure everything works. For a fourth, the TiVo would work better hooked up to the router via Ethernet cable than via our old Wireless G network connection...

I've sporadically agitated for several years that we move our cable modem and network setup down to the living room from its old location on our second floor. My wife objected previously that she worried about the signal strength going down in our room or that we had no space downstairs, but this time she said, "So long as you do it."

So I did, and that was that, right?

Well... no. I did bring everything downstairs, found that I would need slightly more space than I could justify at the TV cart, brought over our small coffee table as an interim measure, then found I'd need one more coaxial cable, and went rummaging. All the while my little lion was being remarkably patient, moreso for it being her. I think she was tired of the TiVo regularly interrupting her regular show. As the kids have been putting their feet up on it every now and again I figured it was OK to let it semi-retire. I started setting everything back up, got a bit distracted by my daughter at a point when things were wobbly, and the heaviest hard drive we have slid off the table and landed on one of its rounded points on my left foot.

Ow. Ow ow ow ow ow! ow ow. My little lion was nowhere near the table at the time, but given the weight I'm just glad it landed on my foot instead of hers.

There was more trouble trying to get the Season Passes moved over, and the old box actually did give up the ghost when I tried plugging it in one last time, and and and... heck, I still haven't hooked up the extra external storage as I'm not sure if it exacerbated the problems with the old TiVo. I probably should try it while the new TiVo is still under warrantee.

Still, now we have a splufty new TiVo merrily recording shows, our network's flashing lights no longer wake up our son, and my family is much happier about that.

I think I need to go to the doctor's office come Monday as my foot still hurts.

Date: 2013-06-22 02:39 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bikergeek.livejournal.com
The hard drive in it was probably dying...you could probably have replaced it for far less than the cost of a new TiVO. I have a Series 3 TiVO...it was given to me with a dead HD in it, I bought a replacement HD for it and it's happy now.

Date: 2013-06-22 03:19 pm (UTC)
gingicat: woman in a green dress and cloak holding a rose, looking up at snow falling down on her (just me - ginger)
From: [personal profile] gingicat
You did not TELL me that your foot still hurts.

Date: 2013-06-22 06:03 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] teddywolf.livejournal.com
I told you yesterday, and I made sure you heard me.

Date: 2013-06-22 09:28 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] autographedcat.livejournal.com
My TiVo Premier XL is currently sitting on a shelf because we don't have cable at the moment, but I'm keeping it for whenever we might in the future, because I won't watch TV without one.

I do not understand whey they haven't added cloud-storage of settings for easy migration to new units. It seems like a thing they'd *want* to encourage.

Date: 2013-06-22 09:57 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] teddywolf.livejournal.com
According to the person I talked with at tech support, they seem to feel that people only get a new one when the old one is broken, at which point settings and shows cannot be migrated over. I view it was one of their worst marketing decisions ever.

The Season Pass list can be transferred from one to the other with one of their new protocols, in a clunky fashion. It looks more like a beta version. They still have no ways to truly transfer shows from one to another.

One reason I was interested in not getting the XL was so I could potentially plug in an HD antenna. Sad to say the lower price was also attractive; but the ability to perhaps be ready to cut the cord was at least as big a consideration. You could still use your XL for Amazon Prime, HuluPlus, MyFaceInATube [/Middleman] and some other streaming services like that. If they ever have a Crunchyroll app for the TiVo I'll be pleased, but I've been waiting over three years so far with no love.

Date: 2013-06-22 10:59 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] autographedcat.livejournal.com
I could use it for that, but I have a Roku for streaming, and I like it's interface better than TiVo's for that particular application.

I'm not as concerned with migrating *shows* over as much as Season Passes and Wishlists. And there's no reason for it not to send those up to the cloud when it's downloading new schedule information.

Date: 2013-06-23 01:02 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] teddywolf.livejournal.com
It did keep most of the season passes though not the manual recordings I'd set up (grumble). Wishlists... I think it sort of extrapolates. However, the season pass thing is only saved so long as you have an active license. Feh. It's not like it's a ton of memory to hold one.

Date: 2013-06-25 06:16 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] alandd.livejournal.com
Maybe I could do it because I had both active at the same time (one lifetime, one month-to-month) but I was able to use their web site to copy over all the season passes. I don't remember wishlists since I don't generally set them up.

I pulled all the shows off of my old TiVo onto my computer, but I haven't bothered putting them back on yet. And it takes bloody FOREVER to do it... Boo TiVo.

Date: 2013-06-23 01:20 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] browngirl.livejournal.com
Oh ow, I'm sorry. Let me know if you need childcare Monday so you can go to the dr. about the foot.

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