Borloz.com

Well, I just got done doing the last bit of troubleshooting I can do on my ancient 40-hour TiVo. It's been a reliable unit for the past 3 years or so, but I came home the other night to find it stuck on the "Powering On..." screen.

I checked various online forums and came up with a few things to try, so I cracked open the case and started going through the steps one-by-one: First, I checked that all the connections were solid... nothing was loose. Next, I replaced the IDE cable... no luck. Then, I took the hard-drive out and connected it to my laptop via an external USB drive bay.... powered up and reported all its partitions fine.

The problem could be that all the partitions are intact but the operating system is corrupt, I suppose. The OS X Disk Utility told me that it couldn't read from the drive. I'm not sure if it's because the data is corrupt or it has a different file system. I'm guessing the latter, but I don't know of any way to tell for sure. The only other possible cuprits are parts that I don't have access to replace myself, like the power supply and motherboard.

At this point, I see myself having a few options:

1. Replace the hard-drive and hope for the best. I found a few places online that sell drives you can pop right in and you're good to go (assuming that the hard drive is the point of failure, which I'm still not sure of). But, the preloaded drives are almost as expensive as replacing the whole unit, so I don't really see that as much of an option.
2. Buy a new TiVo. I could replace my current unit with one of the same model for a little over $100, but I've been wanting to increase the capacity for a while, so I'd be back in that boat all over again. I could also spring for one of the new upgraded units, but these cost more than I want to spend for a fancy VCR.
3. Try to convince Apple to make the Apple TV do what it should have been able to do from the start - act as a DVR! I know this isn't really an option, but I've always wondered (now more than ever) why Apple ignored this feature set in a product that seems so well positioned to provide it. There are some technical issues with the current encarnation of Apple TV that would need to be addressed, such as adding a coaxial input and a way to encode/decode the video, but these don't seem like insurmountable tasks. What Apple would end up with would be a unit that provides a lot more value to the consumer, not just another way buy stuff from the iTunes store. I would never buy an Apple TV in its current form, but I probably would if it was a DVR as well! And you know it would have a beautiful interface and be a breeze to use because it's an Apple product!

So, here's to hoping that Apple realizes what Apple TV could be. I'm sure I'll break down and do something before Apple does, but until then, it's back to watching live TV and sitting through commercials for me.

Share This