Who and What is TiVo?
The TiVo Corporation was created in 1997. In 1999, TiVo Corporation unveiled for the world what it had created: the digital video recorder (DVR) known as TiVo. A DVR can be compared to a VCR, in that you can manually preset times to record programs. Unlike a VCR, however, the TiVo DVR uses a hard disk drive as its storage medium, which means you no longer have to deal with recording and storage of video tapes. TiVo will work with a cable system, satellite system and an over-the-air antenna. We estimate that TiVo currently has a subscriber base that exceeds 280,000. This year at the 2002 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), TiVo unveiled the TiVo Series 2 recorder, which has some interesting new features.
TiVo does not manufacture its units; the manufacturing and retail sales are done through Philips, Sony and Hughes. These manufacturers pay TiVo a royalty for the licensing of the TiVo software, as well as for the TiVo DVR technology.
TiVo uses a subscription-based Service Agreement, with the subscriber having two pay options – either $9.95 per month or $249.00 for a lifetime subscription (“Lifetime Subscription” is defined as the lifetime of the TiVo unit.) Space has been reserved on the TiVo which can be sold as advertising spots, which can be a combination of both text and video. The Service Agreement assures you get the latest software updates and the Scheduling Guide, which is customized to the system or combination of systems (i.e., Cable, Satellite, or OTA) you have. The stand-alone TiVo is currently at software revision 2.51. The TiVo service allows you to easily schedule programs for TiVo to record, using a point and click Menu System. Scheduling Guide information is provided daily from TiVo through a daily “call home,” using TiVo’s built-in modem. The daily call home takes place 24 hours after TiVo has finished the previous call home, so it is on a rolling schedule. Our TiVo was purchased with version 1.3 of the software, and has been updated by TiVo to the current version, 2.51. The TiVo Corporation continually improves and refines its software and user interface, and adds new features, as well.
The TiVo software provides the option to set a “Season Pass” on a viewer-selected program, which means that TiVo will record every episode of that selected program, even if the date and time slot changes during the program’s viewing season. It is possible to set the Season Pass to omit program re-runs, too, so you won’t have to watch re-runs of your program. TiVo also has a feature called the “Wish List,” which allows you to search for and record programs based on your favorite actor, team, topic, hobby, etc. Another unique feature is TiVo’s ability to allow you to actually pause and rewind live television broadcast programs. TiVo calls this feature “trick play.”
The TiVo “Suggestions” feature helps the TiVo unit ‘learn’ your viewing preferences as you watch television. This feature keeps track of the programs you watch, and automatically records them for you, so you won’t miss any of your regularly viewed programs. The “Thumbs Up/ Down” feature allows you to rate programs, so that TiVo can learn the programs you like and dislike. Based on your ratings, TiVo has an option (which can be disabled) that will attempt to seek out other programs of the same type and record them for you.
It All Started With a Request From a Friend…
Even before I purchased my TiVo, I was asked by a friend if I could add another hard drive to his TiVo unit. I was honest with him, and told him I didn’t know. I knew that TiVo ran the Linux operating system and had some great features, but that was about it. When I tackled this request, there was only one source for information on upgrading the TiVo: tivo.samba.org. There is now a wealth of information available online about upgrading TiVo.
The TiVo Community Forum is, by far, the largest TiVo product information support mechanism available; if you have a problem with your TiVo, chances are that others in this online group have probably had the same problem, and can offer suggestions or solutions to help. Subjects covered are topics such as: upgrade options for TiVo; how to get a BASH prompt; PPP over the serial port; TiVoNet; TurboNet; and TiVo Web Project. The TiVo Community Forum can be found at www.tivocommunity.com/. There is plenty of helpful information and innovative TiVo suggestions at this web site. Because of TiVo’s Linux roots, its development community continues to grow and offers an interesting hobby for those so inclined.
Shortly after TiVo was first released, the additions or modifications were limited: you could back up your original ‘A’ drive, and “bless,” or install a ‘B’ drive. Dylan’s Boot Disk was the tool of choice for “blessing” the ‘B’ drive, and the Linux command “dd” was used to back up the original ‘A’ drive.
We will walk you through a step-by-step process of how to add more storage space to your TiVo, and along the way we will try to give you some additional insight into TiVo and its underlying technology. We strongly urge you read this article carefully through to the end before attempting anything discussed within this article. It is also important to note that if you do not have previous experience in adding a hard drive to a PC, then this process most likely isn’t something that you should try. In this case, find someone who has more knowledge of such things, and ask them to give you a hand with your TiVo upgrade.
So Why Would I Want To Add Another Hard Disk To My TiVo?
Warning: Performing this procedure will VOID the warranty of your TiVo.
The easy answer to this question is, of course, to add more program storage space to the TiVo. If you were to purchase a 14-Hour Model TiVo at your local retailer, keep in mind that those 14 hours are in the “Basic Quality Mode” setting. If you want to record at a higher quality setting, it will require more hard drive space. Using MPEG2 compression, Basic Quality is good for programs such as cartoons or talk shows, and it will give you close to VHS resolution; but, for sporting events or action movies, Basic Quality Mode falls short due to “artifacting.” If you own a large screen TV or a projection TV, due to artifacting you will almost be forced to record in the Best Quality Mode setting. On a 14-Hour TiVo, you will only have slightly more than four hours of program storage. It is possible to combine different recording quality modes, but one shortcoming of TiVo is that it does not have an indicator for the estimated available space remaining on the hard disk.
The low cost of IDE hard drives and the fact that TiVo runs the Linux OS led to the theory that it might be easy to add additional storage to a TiVo unit. Over the last few months, the process has become easier and more automatic, with fewer steps to follow. By adding an additional hard drive or replacing both of your TiVo hard drives, it is possible to gain as much as fourteen (or more) times the storage capacity of the original drive that shipped with your TiVo. This could add additional value to your TiVo, for not much additional out-of-pocket expense. The amount of storage that can be added depends on what size hard drives you wish to use. We would not recommend that you use a hard drive over 120GB, as the current TiVo Linux kernel and IDE controller are not set up to support drives beyond 137GB natively.
Note: This “how-to guide” is written for users of Single Drive Stand Alone TiVos. These instructions will NOT work for DirecTiVos or dual drive TiVo units. (It is possible to upgrade both the DirecTiVo and Series 1 Dual Drive units if you consult some of the resources that we give you in this article such as www.tivocommunity.com – Understand that this is beyond the scope of this article.) Also, this was written based on a Series 1 TiVo unit. We understand that it will not work with a Series 2 unit. The process is very much the same for the UK TiVo, but since we didn’t have a UK TiVo for testing this process, we are unable to verify the results.
Required Items
- 1 – 5400 rpm hard drive = ‘A’ drive
- 1 – 5400 rpm large capacity hard drive (bigger = more recording time)
- 1 – T10 Torx screwdriver
- 1 – T15 Torx screwdriver
- 1 – Needle Nose Pliers
- 1 – TiVo mounting bracket (9th Tee – Mounting Bracket)
- 1 – Kazymyr’s Boot CD v2.6i image (9th Tee – Kazymyr’s CD image)
- 1 – Blank CD
- 1- PC that meets these minimum requirements
- CD writer for burning the CD image and booting the machine to Linux.
- 1G free space on the C: drive (partition must be FAT or FAT32)
- No devices attached to the Secondary IDE channel
- IDE cable to attach drives to system
You will need a Hard Drive Bracket, Needle Nose Pliers, Two Hard Drives, T10 Torx Driver and a T15 Torx Driver.
When selecting a hard drive for use with your TiVo, opinions vary as to which hard drive is best. Everyone seems to agree that you should select a 5400 RPM hard drive, rather than a 7200 RPM hard drive, because you will not gain additional performance with the 7200 RPM hard drive. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, the fact that the 5400 RPM drives produce less heat can be a possible factor with your TiVo. We have used Maxtor, Western Digital, and Quantum drives in the upgrades that we have done, and have seen no problems with any of them. The main difference among the various drives is the noise that they generate. Unlike an office environment, where you may be accustomed to the loud fan noise of your PC, in your family room this sound can be quite another story. Some drives are louder than others, but if this isn’t a factor in your purchase decision, pick the cheapest 5400 RPM drive that you can get. Of course, some folks are loyal to one brand over another, and there is no reason that you shouldn’t be able to select your favorite brand.
Close up of the hard drive bracket from 9th Tee.
Before You Get Started, Just a Few More Things
There are a few things you must do before getting started. You will need to download the Kazymyr Boot CD ISO from 9th Tee (see link in Required Items list). The image is only 8.66MB, but if you have a slow connection it may take a little while to download. Burn the image to a blank CD with any package that will burn ISO images. We used Nero Burning ROM, but there are many applications that will work. In the Required Items list above, we specified a TiVo mounting bracket from 9th Tee. You should purchase this bracket and have it on hand before you start taking anything apart. Although we have seen people use such diverse items as wire ties and makeshift brackets to mount the drive in a TiVo, we feel that the 9th Tee bracket is the best option available and will cause the least amount of headaches.
Now, clearly label both of your new drives. This way there will be no confusion later. If both of your drives are the same size, that’s fine, just pick one drive and label it ‘A’; then label the other one ‘B.’ If you are using drives that you already have on hand, there is no need to format them. Before you start, be sure to save and remove any data that you want to keep from the drives. This process will completely destroy and overwrite any data on the drives to be added to your TiVo.
Power must be removed from the Tivo before you start. Before you shut down your TiVo, however, you will need the software version number of your TiVo. This information is available by pushing the TiVo button on your remote and selecting “Messages & Setup;” next, choose “System Information” and press “Select.” Look for ‘Software Version,’ and write down the number that follows it. Also note the recording capacity, which is listed in hours, in “Basic” and “Best” Quality. We will refer to that number once we are finished to compare the ‘before’ and ‘after’ total record times.
TiVo System Information Screen, note the Software Version and Recording Capacity.
What Should I Expect To See Inside My TiVo?
System Board Components
Before we remove the cover, we want to take a peek at what’s underneath it. You will notice that there is an IBM PowerPC chip; it is running at a whopping 54MHz. For all that the TiVo can do, 54MHz of processing power sure doesn’t sound like a lot. You would think that more processing power would be needed to handle all of the MPEG2 video encoding and decoding, but the fact is that the TiVo has a hardware-based MPEG2 encoder/ decoder, so it doesn’t need additional processing power. TiVo has its own special chip embedded in there as well, called the “Media Switch.” There is also a built-in V.90 modem TiVo uses to make its daily “call home.” You’ll notice a standard IDE connector just like the one that is in your computer. There is a proprietary connector that looks like a PCI connector. Unfortunately it’s not, but some TiVo users have figured out how to attach an Ethernet adapter to it. With the Ethernet adapter, the “call home” is done through your broadband connection, not the modem. The RF modulator is the silver brick that your coaxial cable hooks into. The modulator takes the output from the TiVo, and converts it to Channel 3 or 4 for display on your television.
With the cover off, you can see that TiVo has a lot of the same components as a standard PC.
- 1 – TiVo “Media Switch” ASIC
- 2 – IBM PowerPC
- 3 – IBM MPEG Audio/Video Decoder
- 4 – Sony MPEG-II Video Encoder
- 5 – Conexant V.90 Modem
- 6 – IDE Connector
- 7 – TiVo proprietary connector
- 8 – 2032 Battery
- 9 – Micronas Sound Processor
- 10 – Phillips Video Decoder/Scaler
- 11 – RF Modulator
- 12 – Analog Devices DSP with 2 Serial Ports
Disclaimer: Removing the cover of your TiVo will VOID the manufacturer’s warranty on the TiVo unit. By removing the TiVo cover, you understand and agree that you are taking FULL responsibility for your actions. The TiVo Corporation will not provide any support if anything goes wrong, nor will THG. Failure to follow these instructions to the letter could result in a non-working unit, and Tom’s Hardware specifically disclaims all liability for damage to your TiVo and your PC. If something goes wrong and you break it, you own it.
Now It Is Time To Remove The Cover And Get Started!
Remove The Cover
If you did not read the disclaimer above, please take the time to do so now.
Also, one ADDITIONAL WARNING: there is an UNSHIELDED power supply inside the TiVo that could result in a strong electric shock and/or serious injury if you touch it!! Even with the unit unplugged, there is the chance that you could sustain an electric shock that may cause serious injury. Additionally, an electric charge could be conducted through you to a component inside the TiVo, which could ruin your TiVo unit. This warning also assumes that the person following the instructions in this article understands the basic principles of electrical conductivity, such as the fact that water and certain metals conduct electricity (i.e., no wet hands, foods or liquids near anything electrical, do not stand on a wet surface when working with anything electrical, keep metal tools away from electrical sources), and that standard electric static discharge (ESD) precautions should be followed. Tom’s Hardware specifically disclaims any and all liability for personal injury to you and for any property damage that might result.
With the warnings out of the way, go ahead and unplug the TiVo from the electrical outlet, grab your T10 Torx screwdriver, and pop the top off the unit. Remove the three T10 Torx screws that actually touch the cover from the back of the TiVo. With the screws removed, you can now slide off the cover. More than likely, you will have to use some force to remove the cover. Some people suggest using a flat blade screwdriver to pry the areas where the screws were, to help with the removal of the cover. You can set the unit in your lap with the front facing toward your abdomen. Put the palms of your hands on the sides of the unit with your fingers on the back of the unit. Push away from your body with your palms and toward your body with your fingers. It is possible that the cover will be so tight that you will have no choice but to use a screwdriver to coax it along.
The back of a TiVo; the cover screws are circled in red.
Remove The ‘A’ Drive
With the cover removed, you can now see where the hard drive is located. Remove the IDE cable and the power cable from the drive. With the cables unhooked, go to the other end of the drive and remove the two T15 Torx screws. The drive should now slide about 1/4 inch toward the power supply, and once it does, you will be able to lift it out of the case.
With the cover removed, you can see the Quantum hard drive and the unshielded power supply directly behind it.
Mount The ‘A’ Drive and Backup Drive In Your PC
There is a mounting bracket on the bottom of the drive. Depending on how comfortable you are with the drive dangling from the end of a ribbon cable, you may or may not want to remove the bracket. The jumper settings on the drive are set to “Master.” We suggest that you leave the jumper alone and connect the drive to the end of the ribbon cable on the Secondary IDE channel of your PC. The utilities that we are going to use will not work if the drive is connected as a “Primary Master.”
Inside the machine we used to back up the ‘A’ drive. The original Quantum is the 2nd drive down, the replacement Maxtor is the 3rd.
Set your backup drive to “Slave.” If you are unsure of the jumper settings, refer to the drive manufacturer’s documentation. Connect the drive to the middle connector on the Secondary IDE channel. For both drives, be sure that the red wire is closest to the power connector of the drives. (The red/ blue stripe on the IDE cable always indicates Pin One.) Verify that you have connected power to both drives, as well.
It is important to verify that the jumper settings are correct. Most of the problems we have seen are caused by the “Master/ Slave” jumper settings being set incorrectly. Below, we have provided links to some of the drive manufacturers’ web sites:
Boot Your PC
In your BIOS, make sure you have the “boot to CD” option turned on. Insert the Kazymyr Boot CD and boot up your machine. ISOLINUX will boot up and it will pause at the boot: prompt; press Enter to start the default setup. Linux will load and it will pause at the login screen. It will read “Welcome to the TiVo bootdisk-on-CD! You may now login as ‘root’, TBD login:.” Type ‘root’ and press enter; there is no password for the root account. You will then be presented with “#/” prompt.
This is the ISOLINUX boot options screen.
TiVo bootdisk-on-CD login screen.
Backup The ‘A’ Drive
We have read a few articles on the web that leave out this step. Believe me, if something goes wrong, you’ll thank us for telling you to do the backup.
To start out, we need to mount the C: drive. Unlike Windows, this version of Linux doesn’t automatically make your C: partition available to you. So we have to tell Linux where the C: drive is and how to mount it. Also, in most cases in Windows, when you want to access the first partition on the first hard drive, you go to the C: drive. In Linux, it doesn’t work that way. With Linux, if you want to access that same partition, you have to make a directory (IE..mkdir /mnt/bigdrive) and point it to that drive/ partition (IE.. mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/bigdrive). Basically, you make a directory and use the “mount” command to attach the device to the directory.
Let’s now return to backing up the ‘A’ drive.
At the “#/” prompt, type the following:
mkdir /mnt/dos
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos
For the backup process, we will use “Mfs Tools” by Tiger. “Mfs Tools” will quickly create a small backup file that can later be burned to CD. At the “#/” prompt, type the following:
mfstool backup -6so /mnt/dos/backup1.bak /dev/hdc
The backup process should not take very long at all (30 minutes or less). Just be patient and wait until it is finished. To prevent screen burn, the screen may go blank, but this doesn’t mean that the computer has stopped working. If it does go blank during the process, just hit the “Shift” key to bring the display back.
Here is what the screen should look like after you complete your backup to your C: partition..
Restore Backup Image To The New ‘A’ Drive
We know that a lot of people suggest using “dd” and doing a “drive to drive” copy. Although there is nothing wrong with using dd, we have had very good results just using mfstools to put the image on the drive. To restore the image, you need to type the following command at the “#/” prompt:
mfstool restore -zi /mnt/dos/backup1.bak /dev/hdd
The restore should take less time than the backup. As noted before, “mfstool” will provide you with a progress indicator so you know what’s happening.
Completed restore from your C: partition.
Upon completion of the restore, you need to unmount the drives. To unmount, use the command “umount.” The umount command removes a special device or remote node from the file system tree. You can do that by typing:
umount -f -a -r
Now, you need to halt the machine. The “halt” command is like selecting “Start, Shut Down” in Windows. It shuts the machine down, making it safe to remove the power. Now halt the machine by typing:
halt
Wait until it reads, “System halted,” then turn off your PC.
It should be noted that if anything goes wrong with the backup, all is not lost. You can just start the copy process over again.
Swap ‘A’ Drives
Remove both drives from your PC. Now, we need to change the jumper settings of the newly created backup ‘A’ drive to the “Master” setting. Again, incorrect jumper settings cause the majority of the problems in this process. Check the drive manufacturer’s documentation if you are unsure how to set the jumpers. If you haven’t already done so, remove the mounting bracket from the original ‘A’ drive and attach it to the backup ‘A’ drive. Place your original ‘A’ drive in a static bag and store it in a safe place.
Mount Backup ‘A’ Drive and ‘B’ (Large Capacity) Drive In PC
The process is almost complete now; just a few more steps are left. Verify that the jumper settings on the backup ‘A’ drive are set to “Master.” Attach backup drive ‘A’ to the Secondary IDE channel as a “Master” (end of the ribbon cable). Now, take the drive you will be using as the ‘B’ drive and set its jumper settings to “Slave.” As usual, if you don’t know where to place the jumpers, consult the drive manufacturer’s documentation. Attach the new ‘B’ drive as a “Slave” on the Secondary IDE channel (middle of the ribbon cable).
Inside the backup machine with both Maxtor drives installed. With these in, we can expand the ‘A’ drive and “bless” the ‘B’ drive.
“Bless” ‘B’ Drive And Expand Backup ‘A’ Drive
Boot your system up with Kazymyr Boot CD to the “default” setup. Log in as root, as there is no password for the root account. At the “#/ prompt,” type the following:
mad/setup.sh
TiVoMad will then ask the following questions, the responses you should type are in red.
- Enter the device name of your TiVo A drive [hdb, hdc, hdd] ?
hdc - Will your target TiVo have two drives in it [y, n] ?
y - Is your second drive connected now [y, n] ?
y - Enter device name of your TiVo B drive [hdb, hdd] ?
hdd - Is your ‘A’ drive a Quantum Fireball [y, n] ?
(You get to supply the answer to this one)
Only answer “yes” to this if the drive actually has a Quantum label on it. Maxtor did purchase Quantum’s hard drive line of business, but that does not make Maxtor and Quantum drives the same. Maxtor is still shipping some Quantum drives in Maxtor retail boxes. If you are unsure on the Maxtor/ Quantum situation, you can contact Maxtor’s technical support department for clarification as to which drive you have. - Does your TiVo have Version 2.0.1 software (or greater) [y, n] ?
(This one is yours to answer as well. Refer to the Version and size information you copied earlier onto a piece of paper.) - Is your target TiVo > 140GB [y, n] ?
Add up the total amount of space in Gigabytes of the two drives that you plan to install in the TiVo, and that will be your answer. - Do you want to continue [y, n] ?
y
The TiVoMad script walks you through the process of upgrading your TiVo.
The ‘TiVoMad’ script does all of the dirty work that you previously had to do manually using commands. It takes care of “blessing” the ‘B’ drive, it determines if the “runideturbo flag” needs to be set, and it creates a larger swap partition for systems that are greater than 140GB. The ‘TiVoMad Script’ will also invoke “mfsadd,” which will make any additional space on your ‘A’ drive available to your system. It should only take about 30 seconds for this process to finish. Upon completion of the TiVoMad script’s run, you can then shut down your PC using the “halt” command.
The ‘TiVoMad Script’ tells you when the upgrade is complete.
Now, halt the machine by typing:
halt
Wait until it says, “System halted” and then turn off your PC.
Install Backup ‘A’ Drive And “Blessed” ‘B’ Drive Into Your TiVo
Remove the drives from your PC and, if you haven’t already attached the mounting brackets, do so now. Be sure to keep track of which one is the ‘A’ drive. If, for some reason, you confuse the two, the ‘A’ drive is set to “Master” and the ‘B’ drive is set to “Slave.” Place the drives in the TiVo, taking care not to bump the power supply as you do so. The ‘A’ drive goes in front of the power supply, and the ‘B’ drive goes toward the middle of the case. Secure the two screws in front of each drive to hold them in place. Attach the ribbon cable to the drives with the red edge closest to the power connector. Securely attach the power cable to both drives.
You may want to replace the ribbon cable, as with both drives in the TiVo, the factory-provided ribbon cable will fit very snugly. It is possible to make the factory cable work, as you can see in our pictures. To give yourself some breathing room, you might want to consider purchasing a longer cable. If you are going to replace the cable, many people suggest using one of the new fancy, rounded IDE cables for better airflow.
With the new drives in the TiVo, you can see that the original ribbon cable is a tight fit.
Replace the cover of the TiVo and fasten it with the three removed screws.
Fire Up Your TiVo
Reconnect your TiVo to your television. Apply power and let the system boot up. After the unit has booted, press the TiVo button on your remote, and select “Messages & Setup.” Then select “System Information” and press “Select” again. Note the difference in the expanded recording capacity.
Another look at the TiVo System Information screen. By adding two 80 Gigabyte drives to our TiVo, we gained a little over 161 hours in Basic Quality Mode.
Conclusion
Actually, the process to add additional storage to your TiVo isn’t that complicated. With some basic PC knowledge and the hard drive market’s continual fall in prices, you can add more recording space to your TiVo unit than you ever thought possible. Of course, adding all this additional space can create a new problem: you will not have enough time to watch all of the programs available on your TiVo! If your TiVo supports multiple users, like ours does, this gives you the ability to record more programs for each person to watch. After adding all of this extra space, there will always be something on your TiVo to watch.
Digital Video Recorder technology is continuing to develop. We saw a lot of evidence of this at the 2002 CES with the introduction of Personal Media Servers. Even the TiVo Series 2 will get into the act, when it ships later this year. Although many people thought that this technology would never get off the ground after TiVo’s slow start, it certainly appears that the DVR is here to stay. We can only hope that as DVR technology matures, it will continue to be as flexible as the Linux-based TiVo.