Tivo Tuneup
DarqueKnight
Posts: 6,765
in Electronics
Introduction
Three weeks ago I noticed a hum coming from area around my home theater equipment cabinet. The speakers weren't causing it. The plasma TV was off, so it wasn't the source. Putting my ear to the top of the equipment cabinet revealed that something inside the cabinet was the source of the hum. The only components with moving parts are the P5 AC regenerator (fans), Oppo blu-ray player, and Tivo HD XL DVR, which has a fan and a hard drive that spins 24/7. The Tivo was found to be the source of the hum. I had never heard that hum before, so I thought perhaps the noise was caused by the hard drive going bad. I had proactively cloned and replaced the Tivo's 8.5 year old hard drive with a new one in April of 2017, and the old drive is kept as backup. I decided to do the hard drive replacement since I already had to go inside the unit and replace a failed power supply ($100)
New drives have been known to fail, and, the first Tivo that I purchased in July of 2009 (refurb unit) had to be replaced in July of 2010 because the hard drive failed. I was sent a refurb unit in July 2010 whose hard drive had a manufacturing date of October 2008.
I ran the Tivo's hard drive diagnostics tests, which took several hours. All tests were passed.
Figure 1. Results of Tivo's on-board hard drive diagnostics.
Source Of Hum
Figure 2. Tivo's shattered plastic feet.
When I pulled the Tivo out of the equipment rack, a bunch of plastic fragments spilled on the floor. Those fragments were the remains of the four plastic feet that had become brittle with age and shattered. The bottom of the Tivo had been resting directly on its cabinet shelf and the vibration from the hard drive was being directly transmitted throughout the equipment cabinet.
Solutions
Figure 3. The Tivo's shattered feet were replaced with four 1/2" thick 1.25" x 2.5" blocks of Sorbothane.
Figure 4. The Tivo's chassis cover was treated with Dynamat.
Figure 5. The old fan made an intermittent "creaking" noise, but it wasn't something that was heard from the viewing seats. The fan was replaced with a new fan ($20). The new fan's frame was treated with Dynamat.
Figure 6. The hard drive's mounting shelf was treated with Dynamat.
Figure 7. Silenced and ready for duty.
A solid state drive would not be a viable option due to the fact that the Tivo service is continually writing to the drive, and commercial grade, reasonably priced SSDs are not highly tolerant of constant writes.
Overall, I've been pleased with my Tivo (lifetime) subscription service. I have been less than pleased with the build quality of their DVR hardware.
Three weeks ago I noticed a hum coming from area around my home theater equipment cabinet. The speakers weren't causing it. The plasma TV was off, so it wasn't the source. Putting my ear to the top of the equipment cabinet revealed that something inside the cabinet was the source of the hum. The only components with moving parts are the P5 AC regenerator (fans), Oppo blu-ray player, and Tivo HD XL DVR, which has a fan and a hard drive that spins 24/7. The Tivo was found to be the source of the hum. I had never heard that hum before, so I thought perhaps the noise was caused by the hard drive going bad. I had proactively cloned and replaced the Tivo's 8.5 year old hard drive with a new one in April of 2017, and the old drive is kept as backup. I decided to do the hard drive replacement since I already had to go inside the unit and replace a failed power supply ($100)
New drives have been known to fail, and, the first Tivo that I purchased in July of 2009 (refurb unit) had to be replaced in July of 2010 because the hard drive failed. I was sent a refurb unit in July 2010 whose hard drive had a manufacturing date of October 2008.
I ran the Tivo's hard drive diagnostics tests, which took several hours. All tests were passed.
Figure 1. Results of Tivo's on-board hard drive diagnostics.
Source Of Hum
Figure 2. Tivo's shattered plastic feet.
When I pulled the Tivo out of the equipment rack, a bunch of plastic fragments spilled on the floor. Those fragments were the remains of the four plastic feet that had become brittle with age and shattered. The bottom of the Tivo had been resting directly on its cabinet shelf and the vibration from the hard drive was being directly transmitted throughout the equipment cabinet.
Solutions
Figure 3. The Tivo's shattered feet were replaced with four 1/2" thick 1.25" x 2.5" blocks of Sorbothane.
Figure 4. The Tivo's chassis cover was treated with Dynamat.
Figure 5. The old fan made an intermittent "creaking" noise, but it wasn't something that was heard from the viewing seats. The fan was replaced with a new fan ($20). The new fan's frame was treated with Dynamat.
Figure 6. The hard drive's mounting shelf was treated with Dynamat.
Figure 7. Silenced and ready for duty.
A solid state drive would not be a viable option due to the fact that the Tivo service is continually writing to the drive, and commercial grade, reasonably priced SSDs are not highly tolerant of constant writes.
Overall, I've been pleased with my Tivo (lifetime) subscription service. I have been less than pleased with the build quality of their DVR hardware.
Proud and loyal citizen of the Digital Domain and Solid State Country!
Comments
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Nice Upgrade!
What did you use to clone the disks?
I have one of the newer but previous-to-current-gen Roamios. In my area, it's a bit of a pain getting the cable card bound to the provider. There's something in the authentication process tied to the TiVo installation, or the hard drive itself.
I upgraded the drive to a larger one last summer and had to get support involved to authenticate again. In replacing the drive, obviously lost all the shows I didn't transfer to PC using TiVo Desktop. Some have copy protection and can't be transferred, but eh, it was early days and no 'show stoppers'. (poor choice of words)I disabled signatures. -
I used a free utility called WinMFS. It made a bit for bit copy of my original hard drive and I didn't lose anything.
Discussions about WinMFS:
https://www.engadget.com/2008/04/17/how-to-upgrade-your-tivo-hd-with-winmfs/
https://www.tivocommunity.com/community/index.php?threads/tivo-hd-upgrade-instructions-using-jmfs.462179/
WinMFS download link:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/mfstools/Proud and loyal citizen of the Digital Domain and Solid State Country! -
Thanks for those links and the info.
Do you know off hand whether it can be used to clone to a larger disk? or did you just move to the same size in your preventive maintenance clone?I disabled signatures. -
Always enjoy reading your write ups!2 Channel
Pre:Bryston BP173
Amp:Bryston 14B3
Speakers: Golden Ear Triton Reference
Source: Oppo UDP-205, Bryston BDA-3, Bryston BDP-3, Bryston BCD-3, Apple TV, Amazon Fire
Cables: Wireworld Gold Eclipse 7 Speaker, Wireworld Gold Eclipse 7 XLR, AQ Diamond USB/HDMI
Power: PS Audio P10 Regenerator, AC12, AC10 and AC5 Cables
Display: Sony XBR65Z9F
Home Theater
Pre: Anthem AVM90
Amps: Parasound A31, A51x2
Speakers: Polk LSiM 707 (FL/FR), Polk LSiM706 (Center), LSiM 703 (SL/SR/SBL/SBR), Polk 900-LS (Atmos)
Subwoofers: SVS SB16 x 4
Source: Oppo UDP-205, Apple TV, Amazon Fire
Cables: AQ Meteor/Rocket 88, AQ Niagara/Sky
Power: Torus AVR20, Shunyata Denali, Shunyata Delta, Cullen, PangeaAC9SE Cables
Display: Sony XBR85Z9G -
Thanks for those links and the info.
Do you know off hand whether it can be used to clone to a larger disk? or did you just move to the same size in your preventive maintenance clone?
Yes, WinMFS can be used to clone to a larger disk. I cloned to a disk of the same size because I don't do a lot of recording and 1TB is more than enough for my requirements.
Proud and loyal citizen of the Digital Domain and Solid State Country! -
Have you gotten the latest update to 20.7.2 yet Ray? I noticed a speed up in menu response for sure on my 2 Premieres that I have. I don't really care for the simpler color scheme, but the boost in speed is nice.
Nice write up, I need to open both or mine up for a cleanup as I know they have to be caked with dust.HT Optoma HD25 LV on 80" DIY Screen, Anthem MRX 300 Receiver, Pioneer Elite BDP 51FD Polk CS350LS, Polk SDA1C, Polk FX300, Polk RT55, Dual EBS Adire Shiva 320watt tuned to 17hz, ICs-DIY Twisted Prs, Speaker-Raymond Cable
2 Channel Thorens TD 318 Grado ZF1, SACD/CD Marantz 8260, Soundstream/Krell DAC1, Audio Mirror PP1, Odyssey Stratos, ADS L-1290, ICs-DIY Twisted , Speaker-Raymond Cable -
The 20.7.2 update is only for newer model Tivos. My Tivo is an older (and discontinued) HD XL model.Proud and loyal citizen of the Digital Domain and Solid State Country!
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Holy ancient Tivo there! I'm guessing you are just using it for OTA. A lifetime unit for OTA is hard to give up. I had an S3 OLED, two of those HDs, and few Premiere units. All with lifetime.
I sold my S3/HD units because they didn't support MPEG4. Needed Premiere to support that. Ended up getting of the premiere during my failed experiment with Windows Media Center.
Now just one Roamio and two Mini. Enough for 3 TVs, 4 live streams/recordings.For rig details, see my profile. Nothing here anymore... -
Yes, the Tivo is just used for OTA. I discontinued cable TV service in March of 2016.Proud and loyal citizen of the Digital Domain and Solid State Country!
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DarqueKnight wrote: »Yes, the Tivo is just used for OTA. I discontinued cable TV service in March of 2016.
I was doing that from 2007 until 2012. Saved a mint in cable. Then I moved to a house that is shadowed by a mountain and the OTA is very weak. Otherwise, that's what I'd still have.
Those lifetime units are worth keeping no matter what model. Upkeep is cheap compared to monthly Tivo service.
For rig details, see my profile. Nothing here anymore... -
Jeez, you guys see this new GUI theme?
I hate it. Modern? Psssh, how is it modern to make everything look flat and devoid of warm, classic pleasing TiVo goodness? I can't stand when companies do this.I disabled signatures. -
I don't use Tivo; nevertheless, reading your write ups is always a pleasure.
Nicely done, @DarqueKnight!Family Room, Innuos Statement streamer (Roon Core) with Morrow Audio USB cable to McIntosh MC 2700 pre with DC2 Digital Audio Module; AQ Sky XLRs to CAT 600.2 dualmono amp, Morrow Elite Speaker Cables to NOLA Baby Grand Reference Gold 3 speakers. Power source for all components: Silver Circle Audio Pure Power One with dedicated 20 amp circuit to main panel.
Exercise Room, Innuos Streamer via Cat 6 cable connection to PS Audio PerfectWave MkII DAC w/Bridge II, AQ King Cobra RCAs to Perreaux PMF3150 amp (fully restored and upgraded by Jeffrey Jackson, Precision Audio Labs), Supra Rondo 4x2.5 Speaker Cables to SDA 1Cs (Vr3 Mods Xovers and other mods.), Dreadnaught with Supra Rondo 4x2.5 interconnect cables by Vr3 Mods. Power for each component from dedicated 20 amp circuit to main panel, except Innuos Statement powered from Silver Circle Audio Pure Power One. -
Jeez, you guys see this new GUI theme?
I hate it. Modern? Psssh, how is it modern to make everything look flat and devoid of warm, classic pleasing TiVo goodness? I can't stand when companies do this.
It's fitting. It's reflective of most TV programming which is poorly written trash, flat and devoid of warm, classic, pleasing TV goodness.
Older model Tivos like my HD XL did not get the most recent update with the new GUI. I still have the old theatrically themed GUI.
I don't expect to move to a newer model Tivo until I decide to move to a 4K TV.Proud and loyal citizen of the Digital Domain and Solid State Country! -
Jeez, you guys see this new GUI theme?
I hate it. Modern? Psssh, how is it modern to make everything look flat and devoid of warm, classic pleasing TiVo goodness? I can't stand when companies do this.
It is b*tt ugly, but it has been around with the new Bolt machine for around a year. I don't like the bland nature, but owning an older machine and being able to have all the functionality except commercial skip is good enough and I appreciate how much faster the menus work now. Tivo has done an exceptional job of updating their legacy machines turning them into streamers. I have been with them for 13 years now and plan to as long as I have a need for cable as I live 135 miles from any OTA in my state.
HT Optoma HD25 LV on 80" DIY Screen, Anthem MRX 300 Receiver, Pioneer Elite BDP 51FD Polk CS350LS, Polk SDA1C, Polk FX300, Polk RT55, Dual EBS Adire Shiva 320watt tuned to 17hz, ICs-DIY Twisted Prs, Speaker-Raymond Cable
2 Channel Thorens TD 318 Grado ZF1, SACD/CD Marantz 8260, Soundstream/Krell DAC1, Audio Mirror PP1, Odyssey Stratos, ADS L-1290, ICs-DIY Twisted , Speaker-Raymond Cable
