Product Suggestions

[Rick Travis]

Consider a product combining Instantcake, the Slicer, and PTVnet, all on one or two cd's it would be great if the slicer could load the new edition of Tivo software along with itself hence saving accrued programs on the Tivo along with turning off satellite updates, so only updates could be purchased could be purchased from DVRupgrade maybe on a subscription Basis. No need to worry about the phone line because Directv only uses it for manualy originated calls. You could call it Instantcake with Icing. I noticed the last upgrade was 3GB larger because all the space available for programs was 3GB less. Just a thought, I do not know if it is possible.

[Rick Travis]

With every Hard Drive upgrade kit you sell consider adding the 2032 battery. You call buy them at Walmart for under $2.00 and it may save a lot of headaches. But only with the purchase of a hard drive. The margin is not good enough if all they buy is a CD. Remember Lou free advice is worth exactly what you pay for it.

[Robmoo]

You need to add SATA support. PATA is on its wat out. DVD drives are converting over to SATA and when they do MB manufacturers will likely get rid of the interface. I brought Instacake for my R10 unit and now I have to go out and buy a PATA adaptor for one of my SATA optical drives so I can use it. I have no experience with Linix, but shouldn't it be possible to make a simple menu where the user selects the location of the drives involved?

Thanks,

Rob

SATA is here and it won't be long berfore PATA is gone.

[Lou Jacob]

You need to add SATA support. PATA is on its wat out. DVD drives are converting over to SATA and when they do MB manufacturers will likely get rid of the interface. I brought Instacake for my R10 unit and now I have to go out and buy a PATA adaptor for one of my SATA optical drives so I can use it. I have no experience with Linix, but shouldn't it be possible to make a simple menu where the user selects the location of the drives involved?

Thanks,

Rob

SATA is here and it won't be long berfore PATA is gone.

Rob,

Thanks for your input. As an old colleague of mine once said, "don't confuse the trend with reality." SATA has been around and gaining popularity for quite some time, however PATA will still be around for quite awhile longer; SATA for optical drives is still quite rare, but we are seeing increasing numbers of PC's with integrated SATA support, and of course, the newest TiVo units (Series3 and TiVo HD) require SATA drives.

With that in mind the newest InstantCake for Series3 and TiVo HD units uses a CD which supports SATA interfaces as well as legacy PATA interfaces. At some point, we may use this CD for some of the older InstantCake versions which have been around for several years, as well.

So, yes, SATA is definitely a factor.

Thx,

Lou

[Bob_Collins]

Title says it all. Come out with updated InstantCake and PTVNet stuff to make it easy and brainless for newbies to get added functionality from DTiVos running 6.4a software with the deleted items folder etc., intact.

[Rick Travis]

Title says it all. Come out with updated InstantCake and PTVNet stuff to make it easy and brainless for newbies to get added functionality from DTiVos running 6.4a software with the deleted items folder etc., intact.

You are correct, according to TiVo Community poll all problems are with older versions of software.
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb...04#post6665804
It would be nice if DVRupgrade would market a current version rather than 4 versions back.

[Lou Jacob]

Just to clarify a few things...

The current release of InstantCake for the Series2 DirecTV units is based upon 6.2a for several reasons:

1. 6.2a contains 'hidden code' which supports HMO/HME and when combined with PTVnet, plus a few tricks documented elsewhere in these forums, these features can be easily unlocked.
2. 6.4a has not been released to all, and on all DirecTV Series2 platforms. For example, we have not received 6.4a on our own units here.
3. Anyone who installs 6.2a on their TiVo and is not interested in PTVnet should receive the upgrade to 6.4a from DIRECTV if their unit has been authorized to receive it (not sure what the prerequisites are for that)

So in summary, developing a version of PTVnet for a version of the software we don't have is not something we are currently pursuing or for which we are seeing any significant demand.

It is unfortunate that some folks are having problems with 6.2a; it was once a stable release on this platform and although none of our customers using PTVnet kits running 6.2a have complained of any problems, if it IS a problem, then it may have to do with changes in DIRECTV's broadcasts.

If that is the case, then DIRECTV should be looking into it as not all of their customer have received 6.4a and that means they are the source of more than one problem.

If and when 6.4a is in broad distribution and/or we gain access to the 6.4a code, we may look into revising PTVnet for the platform, but it is currently not a priority.

Thx,

Lou