Tivo Roamio: The Best DVR You Should Own (Review) (1 Viewer)

[DaveF]

Roamio received the QuickMode -- fast play -- feature the Bolt launched with in its latest update. I've played with it briefly on my Roamio, and it works well. I still don't know if it's something I'll use much, but it's cool that TiVo is updating the Roamio with new software features.


SkipMode (ad skipping) is said to be in limited release for testing, with general distribution at some unspecified time in the future. Reportedly it was to be out on the 10th, but the limited release has uncovered bugs and the general release is postponed accordingly.


http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=534629&page=9

 

[DaveF]

3TB WD Red drive and Torx driver set ordered to upgrade my Roamio Plus before Christmas.

(I was thinking of going with the 4TB drive. But that required buying a $20 external drive adapter. The price/storage value wasn't compelling then comparing a $110/3TB vs $170/4TB effective prices. And I do think 3TB is good for me. 4TB would have been more good but not worth the extra cost and extra step of MFSR.)

 

[Bill Buklis]

Nice. I agree. The 3TB should be sufficient.


Allow some time to upgrade as you'll be back to the base setup and the box will once again need to upgrade to the latest version.

 

[DaveF]

Per the TCF thread, I upgraded today to a 3TB drive
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=507695

To prep:
* Have the latest version of pyTiVo installed and working (the one that understand text metadata output from cTiVo)
* Have cTiVo installed and working (the latest beta version with text metadata support for pyTiVo)
* Have KMTTG installed and working
* I also recommend having Archivo handy too
* Have a 1TB free space on your Mac to download your TiVo shows

With cTiVo, set subscriptions for all your shows and let it download everything. This will take a day (literally, 12-24 hours depending on how many shows). I ignored Suggestions

With KMTTG, download your OnePasses, Thumbs, and Channels data

Then install the harddrive:
I only needed a T10 driver for everything.

I removed the four case screws from the back, and pulled the top off. It's stiff, but I worked it off.

Then I unscrewed the four holding points of the drive, lifted the drive out and disconnected its power/data bus.

I unscrewed the rails and readied the new drive. I went with a WD Red 3 TB, per recommendations at TCF.

I connected the rails, connected the bus, and screwed the assembly back into the TiVo. When putting the TiVo cover back on, some care is required to get it positioned correctly, so the tabs slot in and latch the cover back into place. This took a few tries and a little fussing around to figure it out. But when a little patience and paying attention, it goes back in.

After reconnecting the TiVo, I was greeted with the familiar happy face.

After that, there's about two hours of new-TiVo setup, including downloading the guide data a couple of times. Everything was pointing towards not needing a CableCard re-initialization, but I found that FX was giving an error. I called Verizon and after a few minutes explaining what was going on, the (very helpful) support lady found a service bulletin about Fox channels being unavailable if a CableCard isn't properly registered. When the TiVo encounters an errant channel, it helpfully displays all the cablecard ID info; I read that to the FIOS rep, and everything was working in five minutes.

Then restore your data:
Use KMTTG and upload the OnePass and Thumbs files to your TiVo. I don't think you can upload your Channels data, but with your saved list, you can dis/enable all channels you had before.

Then use pyTiVo to transfer files back to the TiVo. I'm unable to pull shows to the TiVo with the new hard drive (it used to work). But I can push shows from the pyTiVo web interface to the TiVo. It turns out this is much easier, because I can queue up a suite of shows and let it run in the background. I uploaded about ten shows successfully; now I've got queued two seasons of a show which seems to be working. After that, I've got five seasons of Supernatural to upload. This is also slow.


EDIT: Season and Episode numbers are transferring consistently. (Pulling shows from the TiVo is supposed to fix this, but that's not working for me.) A kludge advised at TCF is to edit the metadata, adding the programID, within brackets, to the start of the description text. The text file has entries like this:

description : Daphne attends a clinic fundraiser; Bay deals with MaryBeth's feelings for Hank; Toby tutors Sharee in an effort to keep her on the field hockey team; John reunites with an old baseball colleague.
...
programId : EP013845660062




copy the programID into the description like this:

description : [EP013845660062] Daphne attends a clinic fundraiser; Bay deals with MaryBeth's feelings for Hank; Toby tutors Sharee in an effort to keep her on the field hockey team; John reunites with an old baseball colleague.


The hard drive upgrade is an afternoon project: 15 minutes to upgrade the drive, and an afternoon to initialize the TiVo


Uploading shows is turning into a multi-day affair with lots of grumbling and experimenting and partial successes.

 

[DaveF]

I'm finding that the file transfer process is not nearly so clean as I first thought. Lots of shows not transferring season and episode number. And the server has crashed at least once, aborting transfer halfway through a season of shows.


I'm glad for the ability to upgrade after the fact. And all the enthusiast-created software is great, and works remarkably well for labors of love. But I wish I'd simply bought the Pro originally

 

[DaveF]

I ultimately abandoned the file transfer. I managed to get shows transferred back that I'm watching on the TiVo, and quit. It turns out that transferring shows back to the TiVo marks them as copy-protected and they can't subsequently be transferred to an iPad. So a series that I planned to watch outside the house, I stopped fighting with and set up a new OnePass to record again.

 

[DaveF]

The TiVo Skip Mode was rolled out this week. Very nice!

 

[DaveF]

Sorry for duplicate posting: but there are two parallel threads on the Roamio and a decade later I don’t know which is the primary.

After a decade of great, problem-free performance from my TiVo Roamio (and subsequent two minis), they’re being sunsetted. I just factory reset my Roamio, and will be uninstalling the three units from their locations.

I’m undecided if I‘m going to put them in recycling or try to sell them. I like to sell and rehome good used electronics, but it’s not really worth my time any more.

 

[mylan]

I need help with my two Tivo minis that have stopped connecting to the network. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[DaveF]

For this kind of hardware problem I’d look over at TivoCommunityForum.