renaldow

So I've been looking into buying a Tivo, especially now since a lot of the older models prices have dropped on Ebay. I've run across something that I cannot confirm or find 'real' info about. Hopefully you guys can help me out.

Everytime I've seen an expanded Tivo for sale it says that when the older models running 1.x upgrade to 2.5 software, they are going to lose 10-14 hours of recording time. Of course, that's one of the major selling points I've seen for people selling the expanded recording Tivo's.

I've checked the Tivo website and the Tivo user groups, and all I've found out is that older Tivo's will automatically get upgraded to 2.5, but no one mentions anything about the 2.5 upgrade causing any loss in recording time. If it was something as radical as 10-14 hours (as an unexpanded Tivo only records 10-30 hours to begin with) it seems like there would be a lot of info about it, and a lot of angry customers. Of course, I've found nothing like this.

So what's the deal? Does the automatic software upgrade really effect recording time, or is that more Ebay salesmanship ala OOP? I have no interest in buying an expanded Tivo, I'm looking at getting a cheap 212 or 312, depending on what kind of a deal I can get. If I want to expand it in the future, I have the ability to do so myself. I do not want to buy a 20 or 30 hr recorder only to lost 1/2 to 1/3rd of the recording time as soon as it auto upgrades, though.

skar

You probably want to ask over at www.tivocommunity.com for a more precise answer.

I've had my 20 hr TiVo since 1.2 and it has always had 20+ hrs of recording time. Same with all non-upgraded TiVo's. If you have an expanded TiVo it will probably lose some recording time while upgrading but if your 120hr turns into a 106 hr you still have a LOT of recording time. I don't think you will ever lose more than 10-15%.

renaldow

Thanks Skar, that pretty much answers my question. It didn't make sense to me that Tivo would put out a software upgrade that would somehow wipe out most of the recording time from their equipment, and that the consumers would be down with that as they weren't complaining.

Scott

renaldo, I have one of the original 14 hour boxes, and the upgrade(s) to 2.5 (the most recent) did not shorten my recording time at all. TiVo leaves room on the hard drive for several reasons, and that room was already dedicated to that purpose.

Going to the TiVo forum (as skar mentioned) is a very good idea. There are lots of subscribers, a great deal of knowledge (both about any aspect of TiVo and any other subject you can think of), and some downright friendly folks. Worth the price of admission.