Phillips HDR112 (14-hr refurbished) $179 at e-cost (1 Viewer)

[Stewart M]

After looking at HTF posts and poking around TiVo hack sites, looks like "self-upgrading" (i.e. hacking) a 14-hour TiVo to a bigger unit by adding a hard-drive may be the way I go.
Do others think this is a good idea?
Why does no one here post about ReplayTV?
Is TiVo significantly better (considering we have to pony up $199 for lifetime subscription)?
For others of you thinking about doing this, I found the following sites especially helpful:
http://www.tivofaq.com/hack/faq.html" (great FAQ)
http://www.9thtee.com/tivoupgrades.htm (nice collection of parts and tools needed for upgrade)
And, now that I'm thinking about taking the plunge, the lowest price ($179) for the HDR112 (14-hr Phillips refurbs) seems to be at e-Cost, rather than overstock.com ($195):
http://www.ecost.com/ecost/shop/detail.asp?DPNo=957235
*** Has anyone had better experience with overstock than e-cost, or vice-versa?
(Incidentally, one of the better deals on drives I've seen is a 60GB Maxtor 5400 for $199 at Outpost.com:
Link Removed
Should I go for 60GB or save up for 80GB? Any opinions? (Yes, I understand that I'll get MORE shows, but have any of you found this particularly important?)
Would love any thoughts on this. Thanks!

 

[MikeM]

Just to let you know, if you're a first time customer at overstock.com there are a few $20 off and $15 off online coupons which makes the price virtually the same.
Also at overstock, there is free shipping, and no tax. (Actually, I heard toward the end of this month, they are now going to charge $3.95 shipping as a flat rate, but there was no shipping charge two weeks ago.)
As for the 60 or the 80 GB, I'd always go with the bigger drive. Don't forget, the original "14 hour" TiVo is 14 hours of video at the worst quality. So even when you bump up the TiVo with an 80GB drive, you'll get over 117 hours of "basic" quality video (TiVo software version 1.3), which equals "only" 38 hours at the "Best" quality.
The choice is yours, but after you upgrade it, it's nice to leave the default recording on "best" and still have no time to watch all the stuff it records for you.
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[Gary Williamson]

I, too, looked into buying a 14-hr unit from either ecost or overstock. I was leaning toward the $179 unit from ecost until it computed shipping to be $23. Since overstock.com had free shipping, the total cost of a unit from there was slightly cheaper than ecost. I went with overstock.com.
On the other hand, I ordered the unit from overstock.com last Saturday, their Web site informs me that it was shipped on the following Monday, but I have yet to receive it. The Web site is supposed to update order with UPS Tracking number when order is shipped. My order has a little UPS icon which when clicked informs me that the unit has been 'zone skipped' to Ohio for faster shipping and a UPS tracking number is not yet available. It's been telling me this for 5 days. Overstock.com has yet to respond to inquiry via e-mail. The Web site does not list a telephone number for customer service. This is annoying as I need to know when to expect delivery so I can I someone available to receive it.
I order a lot of stuff via the Web. This is my first experience with overstock.com. I'm not happy. What experience have other HTFers had with overstock.com??

 

[Stewart M]

Thanks Mike & Gary
Overstock has dropped price to $189. Even with new $3.95 shipping charge, I was able to use $20 coupon for first-timers (see Overstock coupon) and get total price, shipped, at $173.95. Seems a great deal. Looking forward to joining the TiVolution.
Incidentally, Overstock has much better (30-day MBG) return policy than e-cost (which also has ridiculous shipping and handling charges), so I'm glad for the tips, guys. Hope your shipping problem worked out, Gary -- would love to know if it didn't.