Paul's Time Sink

27 Jul, 2008

I belive that my TiVo Series3 was upgrading to the new 9.4 version of TiVo's software.  The problem is that the upgrade was not successful.  The message on the screen states something like "The DVR has detected a serious problem....  This will take about three hours...."

Since I used to work at TiVo, I know what state the TiVo must be in for that message to appear. (And in fact, in a internal development build, I did have a bug in my code that caused this problem.)  Unfortunately, it looks like the TiVo does get past that error, and then reboots, but then gets back in that state.

I am thinking that I will have to send it back to TiVo to get it repaired.  But I am trying to decide what I want to do with it when it comes back.  Here are the options that I am considering:

1. Use the TiVo as I am using it now.
2. Sell the TiVo and:
   1.  Don't watch cable TV on the big television downstairs
   2. Move one of the cable boxes to the TV

I am leaning towards selling the Series3 (especially since it has lifetime service), and not bringing a cable box down.  The kids aren't watching TV, and this TV can be used for playing games and watching movies.  If I want to watch a television show, I can probably get it on Xbox Live or from other online sources.

Technorati tags: TiVo, Series3