I have an original Phillips HDR112 Tivo that I'd like to have the following done to:

  • Add a second hard disk: 120GB or so
  • Double the RAM
  • Add a network (Ethernet or WiFi) card
  • Install hacks so I can telnet/ssh in, use a web interface, etc

And I don't want to do to it myself. Actually, that's not true. I'd love to do it, but I don't have the time. Can anyone recommend a place I can ship it to get all this stuff done, or someone in The Bay Area who does this sorta stuff as a side gig?

I'd obviously prefer someone local and will even buy all the parts in advance for that person if I'm told what I need to buy.

I've found a few places on-line that do some of this, but so far none do it all. And I'd rather not spend forever looking either.

Leads, anyone?

Posted by jzawodn at September 24, 2003 11:00 AM

Reader Comments
# Luke Reeves said:

Ship it to me, I'll do it - I promise! Lemme just e-mail you my Mailboxes Etc. address...

Just kidding. You understand of course that someone had to make this obligatory joke.

on September 24, 2003 11:19 AM
# Chad said:

You can send it to them.

http://www.weaknees.com/tivo_philips_hdr1.php

on September 24, 2003 12:13 PM
# Jeremy Zawodny said:

No, I can't. I already asked.

They'll only do the disk upgrade, which is the one thing I'm confident I could do *without* a major time investment. :-(

Anyone know of someone who will do *all* the stuff on my list?

on September 24, 2003 12:38 PM
# pmp said:

I would like to do the same, but I am a complete chicken shit. I love my DirecTV/Tivo combo and could not last for too long without it. If this went the way that every other home improvement project goes, I will be down at Circuit Shitty buying a new one and plunking down another chunk of dough on my non-transferrable lifetime service plan!

If you find any reliable sources, pass them my way!

on September 24, 2003 02:19 PM
# Jeff Bearer said:

With the tools that are out now the upgrade isn't that hard or time consuming. I think I spent the most time on cutting a hole for the ethernet jack, and rounding the ide cable so it would reach both drives.

I thought that you could send your TiVo to 9th Tee but I didn't see it on their site when I briefly looked just now. Perhaps more searching will find it.

My memory upgrade is still sitting on the shelf, I haven't been able to get a hold of my one friend who has the stuff to do surface mount soldering.

If you can't find anybody to do it in the area, or does it all professionally, let me know, perhaps we can work out an arrangement that is good for both of us.

I wouldn't do the memory upgrade, since I don't have the proper equipment, and those contacts, are really tiny.

on September 24, 2003 03:42 PM
# Rasmus said:

Everything except the memory upgrade really is trivial. It would take you longer to pack the tivo nicely and get it shipped than it does to add the drive, the network card and the telnet hack.

on September 24, 2003 06:52 PM
# Andy said:

1st - check with http://www.pvrblog.com/pvr/ and see if this guy can help you out. If not, then I can pass along an email address that did what you are asking to mine. however, I am only about 95% happy with the end result.

on September 24, 2003 08:15 PM
# Andy said:

Ummm, before I drank to much... I meant say that I can pass along to you an email address of the gent that did mine. He in fact made my accessible via ssh and can add another hard drive as well.

on September 24, 2003 08:24 PM
# jon said:

chadnic might be able to help. his info is on backyard.

on September 24, 2003 08:50 PM
# kasia said:

I may know someone.. ping me later.

on September 25, 2003 04:55 AM
# John Stanforth said:

Good idea to send it out if you don't want to get totally sucked into this, Jeremy. It's true that most of this stuff is pretty easy, but there are a few gotchas here and there that can really complicate things (as I discovered this week when a quick re-hack has now burned three full days of my week).

Although, this does brings up another point: The updates from Tivo (like the 3.1 update I got last week) will hose your hacked setup and you'll have to re-hack it. Are you planning to send it out every time that happens? Something to consider.

on September 25, 2003 11:04 AM
# john said:

saw this link today... thought of your please:

http://tin.le.org/vault/tivo/

Don't know if it's helpful, but I figured I'd share...

on September 25, 2003 05:14 PM
# Jeff said:

Here's one thing to consider: You might be much better off just selling your HDR on ebay and purchasing a new Series 2
TiVo or TiVo Upgrade. The Series 2 TiVo comes with more RAM installed (32 vs 16mb), enables you to network and has at least some of the features
you need/want. Granted, the telnet stuff is a bit harder to make happen with these units, but you'll get a good amount of what you're looking for. We're happy to take the unit in on trade, but you'll get more by selling it on
eBay.

on November 7, 2003 08:03 AM
# Lou Jacob said:

PTVupgrade will do all of this except for the memory upgrade, which we don't consider safe...

on November 9, 2003 02:31 PM
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