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.

And the answer is: most DirecTV TiVos do not need to dial in. We’d love to sell you a TiVo external modem kit to fix your broken modem or to make your TiVo work with VoIP or digital phone lines, but in many cases, you just don’t need to have the TiVo dial in. Series 1 DirecTV TiVos DO need to dial in – the rest of this does not apply to these units (Sony SAT T-60, Philips DSR6000, or Hughes GXCEBOT). But Series 2 and the HR10-250 units get their guide data and everything else they need from the satellite.

If you don’t let your TiVo dial in, you’ll get the “nag” screen, once per day. Here’s a nag screen of a TiVo that hasn’t dialed in in quite some time.

My TiVo is crying for help!

So what is your TiVo missing out on if it can’t dial in? The main things it misses are:

• Pay Per View: Once you fill up your unit’s limit,  you won’t be able to do more Pay Per View until your unit dials in and unloads the info.
• System OS Updates: While the update itself generally comes down from the satellite stream, it’s the phone call that authorizes the installation of the update. So if you don’t have a phone line connected, the update won’t install.
• Uploading your data: TiVo uses information from viewing habits to aggregate and sell to advertisers and other interested parties. If your unit can’t connect back, it can’t send this data.
• The “nag” screen: dialing in gives you relief from this once-per-day message for 30 days.

If those issues don’t bother you or don’t apply to you, then you can happily just leave your Series 2 or HD DirecTV TiVo disconnected from the phone line, and you shouldn’t have problems.

But there’s another issue that accounts for many modem failures at the moment, and you don’t need our modem kit to fix it: a problem with local dial-in numbers. We’ve been getting calls from many customers over the last week about this problem, and TiVo has a support page up for these problems. They are basically telling customers to access a new dial-in number by having them query the main TiVo number for an updated list of local access numbers.

So if you think you might be having a problem getting local guide data, and you use a phone line to access TiVo, then you should visit the above link, or, if you have a Series2 or Series3 TiVo, consider networking your TiVo to avoid these problems.

After years of searching, we finally have power supplies for the Toshiba SD-H400 TiVo DVR with DVD player. This short-lived TiVo seems to be prized among TiVo owners, since it has TiVo Basic service and consolidates a DVR and DVD player into a nice compact box. Although the cost of the power supply is unfortunately nothing to sneeze at ($149), they are brand new authorized parts.

With this addition, we now have replacement power supplies for every TiVo made, with the exception of the latest TiVoHD models. Those power supplies should be coming soon.

As TiVos age, repair has become increasingly important to TiVo owners. Whether it’s a TiVo hard drive, TiVo power supply or TiVo motherboard, we can repair most problems. TiVo repairs will preserve lifetime service and in many situations (failed power supplies, motherboards and some drive problems), we can also preserve recordings! As always, help is just an email away.

Briefly, the idea is that this enables the TiVo to tell the cable company which video stream to send down to your unit. So more options are available, since not every stream has to be sent at once. The unit plugs into your TiVo’s USB port and then you plug the cable line into it, and the output from it goes to the TiVo. See more info on our earlier blog post about SDV and TiVos.

Now Time Warner seems to have a way to pre-order the unit for any eligible customer. See this page where you can enter you zip code and confirm eligibility, then sign up!

As far as we know, the adapters will be free for eligible customers.

Early on in their history, CableCARDs caused a whole host of problems, largely just due to the lack of knowledge of cable installers. But since then, the problems have really almost totally disappeared, and their installation and use has become routine and reliable.

But if you do have a problem, you should try calling TiVo’s CableCARD hotline. These folks have pretty deep knowledge of CableCARD issues.

Phone number: 866-986-8486

Hours of operation:
Monday – Sunday
6:00 AM – 9:00 PM Pacific

But, in the end, TiVo.com has the best tutorials on how to make these transfers, so we recommend that you just see their pages for the best information. Links are at the bottom.

Some notes about what’s required for this to work:

• You do need to purchase software to make these conversions work. For the PC, you need TiVo Desktop Plus ($25) and for the Mac, you need Roxio Toast 9 Titanium ($75).
• You need to have your TiVo and your computer on the same internal network. If you need hardware for that, see our TiVo networking parts area for anything you might need.

Then, you just follow the steps in TiVo’s tutorials:

TiVo to iPod/iPhone on a PC

TiVo to iPod/iPhone on a Mac

For those that DO rely on off-air antenna signals and have a Series 1 or Series 2 TiVo (basically any TiVo other than the TCD648250, TCD652160 and TiVos with DIRECTV built-in), the transition to all-digital signals will absolutely impact your TiVo and its ability to record.

Those in this situation have several choices:

IF YOU HAVE A SERIES 2 TiVo (TiVo-brand starting with TCD1XXXX, TCD2XXXXX and TCD540XXX, any Humax-branded TiVo, Sony SVR3000 or any Toshiba-branded TiVo):

1) Continue using the Series 2 Tivo and get a compatible converter box.

2) Get an HD TiVo that can handle and convert the digital broadcasts.

3) Get cable or satellite.

Option #1: TiVo has released a list of compatible converter boxes (see the “Converter Boxes” tab after clicking link, or see the list below). These boxes will take a digital signal from an off-air antenna and convert it into an analog signal. The converter box contains a tuner. It will map the digital signal into an analog station and sent it out to your TiVo in a format that the TiVo can read. In order to change channels, the TiVo will have to communicate and control the converter box using an IR Blaster Cable. To cut the cost of the converter box, you can apply for a $40 coupon (limited supplies) from the Federal Government to help pay for the cost of the box. Remember that as of this date, the converter boxes will not work with your TiVo–you will need to wait for a software update before the TiVo can control the converter box.

Option #2: Get a TivoHD. These boxes are truly outstanding, are fully ready for the digital world, and can output high definition. The HD part may not be important if you don’t have an HD television, but you’ll be ready if and when you do change out your TV. The catch is that if you have lifetime service on your old Series 1 or Series 2, TiVo is not currently offering any transfer options. You would have to get new service on the TiVoHD and then sell or give away the Series 1 or Series 2.

Option #3: If you decide to abandon your antenna and go with satellite or cable, your Series 1 or Series 2 TiVo will work with just about any cable box and satellite (from DIRECTV, DISH Network and providers in Canada) set top boxes.

*Here is a list of the supported boxes:

Supported Models

• Insignia NS-DXA1
• Venturer STB7766G
• Magnavox TB100MW9
• RCA DTA 800A
• GE 22729
• Zenith DTT900
• Channel Master CM-7000
• Lasonic LTA-260
• Philco TB100HH9
• Samsonic FT300A
• Tivax STB-T9
• Artec T3Apro

Not Supported

• Digtial Stream DTX9000

IF YOU HAVE A SERIES 1 TiVo (HDR-series or SVR2000):

It’s a bit murkier for you, but as of now, TiVo is suggesting that it is not releasing a software version to make these units compatible with digital converter boxes. Series 1 owners using antenna signals are being told that Option 2 or Option 3 are the only options. For a limited time, Series1 owners (presumably, only those using antenna signals) can get a refurbished HD DVR for $100 and TiVo will move lifetime service for an additional $300. Not a bad deal at all.

If you think your power supply may have failed, you should see our post for help diagnosing TiVo power supply issues. The short recap: no video at all, not even the gray screen, means TiVo power supply failure almost always. Even if the fan and/or hard drive still spins. 

But if you do get video out, like a gray “powering up” screen, then you likely have hard drive failure, and you need a new TiVo drive “replace” kit.

The primary symptom of a bad power supply is getting no video out of any output port. That includes the gray screen – if you get even a gray screen, likely you don’t have a bad power supply. You need to get no video out at all – not even a flicker on your TV screen when you power up the TiVo.

But people often are convinced that the power supply is OK even without video, for some other reason. So here is a list of problems that people report that are all still consistent with problematic power supplies. If you have any of these same occurrences, you can still have a bad power supply – we see it all the time:

• Fan still spins
• Drive spins up
• Drive power leads test to proper voltage (5V and 12V)
• Lights illuminate on the TiVo faceplate

Customers often ask, “If one or more of the above is taking place, how could the power supply be bad?” Well, in many cases, when a power supply is bad, none of the above take place. But power supplies fail in different ways. The connector that delivers power to the drives uses different components on the motherboard than the flat white (parlex) cable that delivers power to the motherboard. And that cable holds several connectors, so sometimes there is a failure of some power delivery through it to certain components (like the processing chips) but not to the fan.

In short, the best way to diagnose a bad power supply is the video test: no video = bad power supply. Then, the best way to check that is to install a replacement power supply. Our power supplies are returnable subject to our normal terms.

We now have replacement TiVo power supplies for almost every model out there.