PTVnet Success Stories

[Lou Jacob]

A continuation of the original PTVnet Success Stories thread archived at DVRplayground. Have a success story or testimonial to share? Please post it here.

If you need support or additional information on PTVnet, here is a good place to start.

[Lou Jacob]

3/17/05 - aragones writes:

Success

Hey all

Phillips DSR7000 with 2 drives. I came into work this morning, burned the ISO, took out both drives.

Added them to my PC, boot the CD followed all the prompts. Once I was finished I put the drives back into the tivo and powered it on. TIVO came back up Fine. I had a 3com adapter lying around but it did not work , So I ran to Radio Shack and got the USB Linksys adapter. Fired that up and got an IP address no problem

FTP works
Tivoweb works
telnet works

Havent had any issues with it that I can see, testing more stuff right now. Total time about 1hr

Thanks for a great product!!!

3/24/2005 - jcashlives writes:

Very Nice Product

Have done rebuild, upgrade and rebuild (due to a good hack gone bad).

Restored an image using mfstools then used the ptvnetwork diy software.

Both wicked smooth and wicked cool software. Been looking at hacking my Hughes SD-DVR40 D*tivo for a while. With different opinions about best way and the use of kernals from a galaxy far, far away, I have been very leary.

PTVupgrade's rep on the various forums led me to use your product. It has done all you have said.

Furthermore, with your diy software, a little research, and a few other tools from the net, I have the device I have wanted for years, but was afraid to hack.

3/10/05 - mcaswell writes:

InstantCake and PTVnet Success!!!

I booted from the PTVNet CD and then used Instant Cake when required. I opted for all the recommended settings and couldn't seem to get the networking to function correctly.

WELL DUH!!! If you're told to gas and you try diesel.. don't be surprised when it don't work right! Even though I read and read and re-read the threads about getting wireless to work with the DTivo (HDVR2 to be exact) I somehow missed the part about using the Game adapter or a bridge.

So today I bought the recommeded Linksys USB200M USB to Ethernet adapter and Since my Wireless Access Point is Netgear, I decided to try the Netgear WGE 111 54 Mbps Wireless Game Adapter. 802-11b and 802-11g compatable. When I got home from work, it took less than 5 minutes to piggyback the new drive in (for testing) and to connect the Linksys to the Netgear and then insert the USB networking adapter in the USB port on the HDVR2. I powered up the DTivo and got the nice little Lights. The netgear WGE 111 has seperate lights on the front for Ethernet Connected, Wireless Activated and Ad-Hoc mode. There is a switch to change from Ad-hoc ( Adapter to adapter) and Internet modes.

The speed is very good and rock solid!

PTVUpgrade's make some very easy to use products.. now I just gotta find the directions again for loading in my other software. 8-)

mcaswell

3/30/05 - quin writes:

Best money I spent

Mine is a success story, but not "just another success story"
I thought about getting the PTVnet CD for so long that in the meantime, my TIVO was updated. (from 3.1.1e to 6.2). I quickly discovered that PTVnet would not work with 6.2 (yet)
No, problem..I'm a geek, so I thought I would just learn all I needed to know and do the hacks myself. No need to spend another $20 for programs that I could get free.
Well, after more then a week of reading, downloading, testing, and more reading, I had the ability to rebuild my Tivo from a blank drive with one of several versions and although I knew a lot about how the hacks should work, I still did not have the hacks working on my Tivo. This wasn't fun. I had learned a lot about Linux, but still had to follow the step-by-step instructions and hadn't learned what I needed in order to get where I wanted to be.
I enjoy learning all this, but I just want to play with the hacks!!
I WANT MY CAKE AND EAT IT TOO.... I had barely scratched the surface of "Tivo hacking knowledge"
So finally I also bought Instantcake and, in retrospect, it was the best money I spent.
With the combination of PTVnet and the Instantcake CD's, I was up and running in an hour...a working TIVO, all the hacks I was going to try and put on manually, and even some that I am still exploring....
So now I can STILL learn as much as I want about how the hacks work, but also have the benefit of a working configuration to play with...and as importantly, anytime I screw it up in the future, I can always get back to this working point...
This is going to be fun again.

Now I can play with the hacks, before I'm knowledgeable enough to do it myself.
Thanx PTVupgrade, for letting me have my cake and eat it too.

6/8/06 - jracer writes:

Thanks

This is a great product! I just used Instantcake and PTVnet. I used instantcake first, rebooted and then used PTVnet. I read aftwards that I should used PTVnet first but, it did seem to work for me. Had a couple of small issues but reading the forum answed all my questions. One thing I did learn that may be of help to others is that I had an issue with webtivo not working. The tivo pinged and I could FTP but the browswer could not find the IP. After digging a bit a found that 'use proxy' was checked in lan settings in IE. I unchecked this and it worked great. Thanks for this forum and your DIY kits. Having lots of fun now.

3/3/06 - marcpitt writes:

Easy Upgrade

I just upgraded my RCA DTIVO with a 250 GB drive and the InstantCake and PTVnet software 6.2. I couldn't believe how easy and quick the whole install went. After the CD's, i installed the drive in my unit and booted up. I was on the network, able to telnet, ftp and web to my unit. I also installed JavaHMO on my PC and was able to get to Music & Photos. Lastly I am using TyTools to extract files from the unit.

I am having an issue where my machine seems to drop of the network after 5 or 6 hours. I have started to search the forums and may attempt to use a static IP address.

Overall, thank you for a good, fast and easy product.

12/13/06 - seegs writes:

Another success story, and this one from a Mac user (in case there are others out there wondering). DTiVo Philips 708 with a 160 WD HD popped out of a LaCie enclosure. Quick caveat: while the Mac works beautifully to burn the ISO's and for Telnet and FTP after the fact, you do need to purchase/borrow a cheap PC to bake the HD. Trust me; stop searching for ways to have the Mac upgrade the drive and shell out the minimal $$$ for a cheap PC.
Purchased the InstantCake and PTVNet images from DVRUpgrade; followed all the directions online with a $20 Win PC purchased from Goodwill up the road; initially tried a 200M(v2) USB/Ethernet adapter but quickly ordered the FA120 from PTVUpgrade. Everything works beautifully.

I can see where people might run into problems if they aren't careful with the Master/Slave/CS settings on the drives, but for me it worked like a charm.

12/31/06 - videog writes:

I sent a note of thanks to dvrupgrade, and here is mine to you. This stuff worked exactly as stated!. I bought 'all' for my DTivo HR10-250. So far I have used 'cake' and 'net', and it's hard to say anything but WOW that was easy.
What I will say us that if you do as it asks, you will get great results.
I made sure that I was using PC hat had a disk controller that could hande large drives, and I went on eBay to get your preferred adapter. No problems, no errors, just done! Pop he drive in the HR10 and voila bigger tivo on my home network.
Now on to the other upgrades.

1/13/07 - mphare writes:

How easy could this possibly be?I have both IC2 and PTVNet 6.2 and was able to image a new 250 GB DB35 in just a matter of minutes for my refurbed DSR704.The screens are clear and direct. There were no problems with the process.Thanks for a great product.Now, off to re-image my last DSR704 and completing my HMO/MRV cluster.

and on 2/5/07 mphare writes:

Success Story #2
I just rebuilt a 120 GB drive in my 3rd DSR704 using PTVNet and IC2. (I had to wait for my wife to view all the saved Oprah's before I trashed the drive.)
The ISOs performed flawlessly and the machine is running fine.
Thanks again!

[mgreenej]

Just wanted to add my success story. Our Samsung S4120R became very erratic and after some troubleshooting with DirecTV and others it appears the hard drive was the issue. I purchased a Seagate 160GB DB35 drive, and purchased Instantcake & PTVnet. And just followed the directions. It was very easy, very smooth, and the DVR is back online recording. And it now has networking as well (I'm using a Linksys USB200M V2.1).

Thanks to Lou for answering questions in the forums, and to DVRupgrade for the easy to use products!

[Rick Travis]

This was posted bi PBOD153 in TivoCommunity forum
"Well I fixed my tivo 2 weeks ago and have not had an issue since. I bought the instant cake software and installed the hard drive into my tivo. I unplugged the phone line so the software would not update to 6.3e. went from many freeze ups and reboots daily to not a single one for two weeks.
upgrade while your at it. I picked up a 320gb maxtor drive from staples for about $70 shipped and have been smiling since. "
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb...12#post5625412

[rudicollins]

was a total newbie to this sort of task. pc hardware is something i know inside and out but when it comes to software not so much. ftp, telnet, applying hacks... yikes! was a great learning experience. hope my success story helps another newbie.

followed instructions at WeetHet and DVRupgrade to perform my upgrade.

Hughes SD-DVR80
Western Digital 160Gb 7200rpm HDD
PTVnet + InstantCake
Superpatch 6.2a
Linksys USB200M NIC
TyTool 10r4 for extraction

the upgrade started off rocky. installed new HDD in my home desktop as recommended but could never boot properly to PTVnet disc. ended up being an unresolvable conflict with my motherboard... ECS P4M800PRO-M. overcame that obstacle by using an available Dell Dimension 1100 which ran the PTVnet & InstantCake discs without error.

newly imaged HDD booted fine once installed in the DirecTiVo box. loved the increased capacity & significantly faster performance navigating thru the guide & other menus. Refreshed services via DirecTV site to immediately get local channels back on guide.

Followed instructions at DVRupgrade for installing Superpatch which does all it claims to do though with a couple quirks in my case. After installing Superpatch 30-sec skip is somewhat unstable...about 1 in 10 uses it will double-skip. & the Now Playing list is somewhat unstable...sometimes upon navigating to the Now Playing List the list is blank for up to 45 seconds. after that slight delay the recordings magically reappear. only minor annoyances.

successfully transfered a recording to my pc yesterday with TyTool. no longer need to use stand-alone DVD-r to archive my recordings.

very happy with this successful upgrade. thanks for making these products available. many more thanks to the strong support community for all the how-to & troubleshooting documentation in the forums.

[DonCobb]

Mine is a success story, but not "just another success story" oh and yeah forget about the london parachute centres ukskydiving site because the nlpc aboslutely suck!
I just rebuilt a 120 GB drive in my 3rd DSR704 using PTVNet and IC2.

[Lou Jacob]

We received this earlier today; good to see that folks are happy with the product(s):

I would like to let you know that yesterday I purchased InstantCake and PTVnet for a Hughes SD-DVRXX and the install was fast and easy. After installing the new drive in my TiVo, it fired right up and was a fast clean install. I will definitely recommend you to my friends and family to upgrade their DVRs. I was planning on a full day of messing with .iso files and then installing the software, who knew for ~$40 I could be done and upgraded in about an hour. KUDOS! Instantcake really is a piece of cake!

-TG