Several months ago, Seagate bought out Maxtor and began to phase out the Maxtor product line. As we had been using Maxtor QuickView drives up until that point, we had to make a decision on which drives to use going forward. We chose the Seagate DB35 line of drives, and we couldn’t be happier.

The Seagate DB35 drives are specifically optimized for use in DVRs, and now over 90% of the drives we ship are from this family. To see if the drive you’ll be getting in any upgrade kit is one of these drives, just click the “more info” link in the list, and the type of drive supplied will be shown on the next page.

We are really seeing pretty excellent performance with these DB35 drives. Way back when we started out, the majority of the drives we shipped were Samsung drives. These weren’t optimized for the DVR world, and whether it was because of that or just general drive issues, we had an unacceptable amount of problems. So as soon as we could source them, we switched over to the Maxtor QuickView line. This reduced the failures very significantly – plenty, in fact, to compensate for the fact that the drives themselves cost significantly more than the Samsungs we had been using.

Now, this latest transition is repeating the previous one. Seagate DB35 drives do cost substantially more than the Maxtor QuickView drives we had been purchasing, but we’re having an even further reduction in problematic drives, so we’re very happy. And so are our customers.

Crazy deal. And here is exactly what you have to do to get it:

1. Add a Series3
   High Definition TiVo to your cart and proceed to checkout.**

 

2. Below the Google Checkout button you will find a place for
   a coupon code. Enter the coupon code we emailed to you and click submit. If
   you need the coupon codes, simply join our email
   list by October 31st and include the words “need coupons” in
   the comments section; we will reply back with the codes you seek. (You can
   use these coupon multiple times, one coupon per order.)

 




3. Click the Google Checkout button. You will automatically
   receive a $10 discount. (This automatic discount can be used multiple times,
   one per order, for any order above $30.)

 



4. Once in Google Checkout, enter the coupon code “google10”
   (no quotes) to save another $10. (The “google10” coupon can be
   used only once per person/account.)

 



 

 

5. After you have completed the checkout process, submit your
   email address and Google Checkout order number on this
   page and we will email you a gift certificate*** good for any product
   on our website! NOTE: You must submit a valid Google order number through
   our website to receive
   the gift certificate. No exceptions.

 

*$200 is a combination of instant savings and a weaKnees gift
certificate for use on a future order.
**All offers and coupons valid through October 31, 2006. Gift certificate requests
must be made by November 15, 2006.
***Gift certificate will be emailed within 10 business days. Gift certificates
are good for any product on our website, can be redeemed online, are transferable,
and are subject to the terms
and conditions on our website. Gift certificates cannot be redeemed using
Google Checkout. Once a gift certificate received from this promotion has been
redeemed, products purchased in the original order cannot be returned for credit.

We’ve created a page of information about CableCARDs, since these unlock the real potential of the Series3 HD TiVo. To recap, the FCC has mandated that all cable providers MUST provide CableCARDs to customers on request. Every cable company is doing it, but since it’s a new product for most of them, people sometimes need help navigating through the world of their cable provider to get what they need.

We have some links and other information about this here:

CableCARD Info for Series3 TiVo DVRs

The Series3 units are back in, and we have pretty good stock so we should have these around for a while now. We have all three sizes that we show here:

Series3 HD TiVos

We’re working through our backorder list today and we should have all of those units out to UPS by the end of the day.

If you get our email, you already know about the coupon codes we sent out for Series3 TiVos. Starting last night, we added a new, simple way to save on just about any purchase on our site. For a limited time, if you use Google Checkout to pay for your order, you will automatically save $10 off of any $30+ purchase (before tax and any expedited shipping charges…ground shipping is free).

If you’ve been reading the blog, you know about the ADDITIONAL $10 off $30 coupon available (for a limited time) if you use Google Checkout.

I’ll do the math for you: That’s $20 off a $30 purchase!

And, to make things even better, the $20 off $30 can be used together with the coupons we emailed! You can use THREE DISCOUNTS in one order.

Want specific instructions? Here we go:

1) Add items to your cart that equal or exceed the total required by the coupons you want to use ($30 for the two Google Checkout coupons; higher for our coupons).
2) Enter the coupon code we emailed to you (either $25 off a $750 purchase or $50 off a $1000 purchase). Enter that in the “Coupon Code” box that appears BELOW the Google Checkout button on our site. You MUST enter that coupon code BEFORE you click the Google Checkout button.
3) Then, click the “Google Checkout button. You will immediately see one of the $10 off $30 coupons applied.
4) After you log in to Google Checkout, enter the other $10 off $30 coupon, which we posted in the blog (link above).

Didn’t get the email and want the coupons? Just sign up for our email list by October 12th and put the words “need coupons” in the comments/questions section and we’ll email the coupons to you.

The Google Coupons could expire quickly; the current round of weaKnees coupons expire 10/15.

Thanks for reading.