We do still have a long list of people in line for these units, but we think we’ll get a pretty good allocation, and that should cover all we have on back-order, plus any orders between now and the 30th.

Finally!

We know that not many of the new DirecTV HD TiVo DVRs are out there yet, but we’re already getting upgrade requests. So it’s official! We’ve got upgrade options. We can get up to 2 TB in your unit, for up to 300 hours of HD.

See our DirecTV TiVo THR22 Upgrade page.

Here’s a screenshot of a 2 Terabyte THR22:

More information as we have it . . .

OK – we TiVo lovers will take what we can get, so this is better than nothing. Given the limited availability of this DVR and  worldwide hard drive shortages, it sure smells like a “let’s get it out in 2011″ Hail Mary.  Since authorized DIRECTV retailers won’t get the box until next year, we here at weaKnees have yet to see a physical unit.

Next up, what actually is it? Well, the THR22 is largely an HR22 DIRECTV HD DVR running different software, and shipping with a TiVo peanut remote. Unfortunately, this means the hardware is a bit behind the latest and greatest, smaller-size, faster-running, DIRECTV HD DVR HR24, but, again, beggars can’t be choosers.

And there are some trade-offs involved here. On the plus side, you get the TiVo interface (no, not the HD TiVo interface on TiVo Premiere units, but the SD interface from earlier models). You can record MPEG4 HD channels on TiVo (finally!) and you get the TiVo peanut remote, instead of the rectangular DirecTV remote (more on the remote later).

On the minus side, no Whole Home DVR (also called Multi-Room Viewing, or MRV), no NOMAD or iPad support, no 3D, and some other issues. Now, this unit is capable, hardware-wise, of these options, so there’s a chance that TiVo and DIRECTV will update the software to enable these features over time. But, given the slow pace of software development on this project thus far, we aren’t holding our breath.

Details are still coming about this new release, and we’re sure there are a lot more questions about it than we’ve answered here, but here’s one more tidbit. The peanut remote for this unit will reportedly run DIRECTV IR codes, not TiVo IR codes. That’s good and bad. Current TiVo peanut remotes (including the TiVo Slide Remote) won’t work with this new unit, as far as we understand. But this special peanut remote WILL work with other DIRECTV HD DVRs. So if you have an HR24 and you’re happy with it except for the remote, getting your hands on the new peanut might be the answer.

For us at weaKnees, of course, some of us will be getting these THR22s, partly to learn about them more fully, and partly because we’ll opt for the TiVo interface over the lost features and speed of the HR24. Also, being weaKnees, we want to know how much capacity we can cram into these units. Unfortunately, we don’t yet know how upgrades will work. But we’re on the case, and we’ll post what we know, when we know it.

Meanwhile, we’re being told we’ll have an inventory of THR22 boxes early next year, when the boxes roll out nationally. We hope to be offering upgrades sooner than that.

Stay tuned. We’ll be posting more info here in the coming weeks.

We’ve got upgrade kits for the TiVo DVRs sold there – the TCD663160 and TCD663320 units. Both use the same upgrade kits. We offer a few sizes maxing out at 2 TB for 400 HD hours of Freeview.

And we’ve got some accessories that work with these units also, including replacement remotes.

Visit our Australia and New Zealand TiVo Upgrade Kit page.

Here’s a screenshot of the 2 TB upgrade:

We’ve been fielding a lot of questions about this new unit. Here are the answers.

What services will work with the Premiere Elite?

The TiVo Premiere Elite works with digital cable, including Verizon FiOS. That means pretty much any traditional cable company in the US is compatible with the TiVo Premiere Elite, including Comcast, Cox, TimeWarner, BrightHouse, etc.

Incompatible services include satellite TV (DirecTV and Dish) and AT&T’s U-Verse.

Will the Premiere Elite work with ATSC/OTA antenna, like the other Premieres?

No. The Elite ONLY works with digital cable – not analog cable, and not antenna. The other two TiVo Series4 models (TiVo Premiere and TiVo Premiere XL) will both work with digital antenna broadcasts and analog cable broadcasts. There is no way to add these capabilities to the Elite.

How do I get a CableCARD that can support four channels at once?

Any Multistream CableCARD can decode four channels at once in the Premiere Elite. In fact, Multistream cards are capable of decoding six streams at once; so far, no DVR can support more than four.

Older TiVo DVRs may have single-stream cards in them. A single-stream card will work in these units, but, of course, that means only one show can be recorded at a time.

Can I move my CableCARD from my other DVR to the Premiere Elite?

Generally, yes, you can move the card, but you’ll have to contact your cable company after doing so to have them re-provision the card for the new hardware. There may be some exceptions with certain cable providers.

Can I get TiVo Product Lifetime Service for the Elite?

Yes, lifetime service is available for the Elite. The price is currently $499.99 for new TiVo customers, or, if you have an account with an active unit at TiVo.com, you can get a $100 discount on lifetime service, so your cost would be $399.99.

Can I just move Lifetime Service to the Premiere from my other TiVo DVR?

No. TiVo will not allow Product Lifetime Service to be moved from one unit to another. However, if you have a unit with lifetime service, you do get a discount on subscribing another unit to lifetime service. See the entry above.

Most of our customers just want their Multi Room Viewing. And we’re here to help.

DirecTV’s DECA components are the key to making this work seamlessly. But, as a new product, we’ve been getting tons of questions about what parts to get for each room/receiver in the house.

So we’ve build a configuration utility on our site to make finding the products as easy as using them. Give it a try!

Weaknees DirecTV DECA Configuration Utility.

TiVo Networking Parts

TiVo Wireless N Adapter

This adapter is fundamentally different from the TiVo Wireless G adapter (which will continue to be sold). Besides the extra speed (and extra $30 in cost), this unit acts more as an ethernet-wireless bridge. So it plugs into the ethernet port, rather than a USB port.

Using the ethernet port is different for a few reasons, but presumably TiVo designed the adapter this way to be able to get more throughput than they could over USB. But it also means the unit needs its own power outlet. Additionally, this change limits the compatible units for this device to any unit that has an ethernet port on-board – so the dual tuner TiVo (units with service numbers starting in 649) or any HD TiVo for cable (original Series3, TiVo HD and HD XL, and TiVo Premiere, and Premiere XL).

If you don’t currently have WiFi, or if you want N WiFi for your TiVo and you currently have a slower variety (B or G), you can get two of these units and configure them in bridge mode. This allows you to put one adapter on your TiVo and one directly on an unused ethernet port on your router and create an N wireless link.

Final note: this adapter will step down to B or G speeds if that’s the fastest protocol supported in your router.

When customers get a new hard drive from us (we’ve got them for every model TiVo) and they install it and set it up, they find that it’s recording a lot of shows that they haven’t requested. And, shows they don’t want.

This is happening because TiVo Suggestions is on by default – and the new drive is using the default settings. And why are they shows you don’t want? Your thumbs-up and thumbs-down history was on your old drive. So the new drive has very little info to offer to the Suggestion engine.

OK – here’s how to turn it off. Go to:

Settings -> Recording -> TiVo Suggestions

and choose No!

That should do the trick. Now you can just delete the accumulated shows. If you have folders on, you should see them all in a folder marked “TiVo Suggestions”.

While $149 may initially seem like a high price when new Dual Tuner TiVos can be purchased for $149, the key is that our repairs retain the customer’s lifetime service, or prepaid service. So if a customer has a lifetime plan on a TiVo DVR covered under this program, they can keep that in place. New lifetime plans from TiVo for new DVRs cost up to $399, so repairing an existing unit often makes much more sense than replacing the unit.

Under this program, we can essentially fix any problem with these units, as long as the unit has not been physically damaged or tampered with (beyond normal hard drive upgrades and installation of replacement parts). So unless it’s been run over by a truck, we’re able to fix it. To date, units we’ve brought in under this program have been revived – 100%.

Another great advantage to choosing our flat-fee option is that customers don’t have to try to diagnose the issues at all. If customers are not sure what’s going on with the unit – of if they just aren’t interested in trying to figure it out – they can just let us do everything.

In addition, for customers looking to upgrade the capacity of their unit while it’s here at WeaKnees, that’s an option with these repairs. We can add capacity, and we can do so at a discount while the unit is here.

Please see the options for models and capacity upgrades on our flat fee TiVo repair page.