While DVRupgrade is best known for their TiVo related offerings, they’ve also branched out into other areas. They sell VideoReDo, a popular video editing and DVR burning package often used with TiVoToGo recordings, and a number of accessories. They also offer VUDU, HDHomeRun, Neuros MPEG-4 Recorder II, and a number of other products such as Slingboxes, Logitech remotes, and more.

I’ve used DVRupgrade’s products myself. A few years ago I used InstantCake to image a drive to recover and expand an old Series2 before I sold it to a friend. A just a few months ago I picked up a 750GB replacement drive to replace the factory 80GB drive in my Pioneer DVR-810H when it finally gave up the ghost after four and half years of constant use. I’ve always been very happy with both their products and their service, and I recommend them highly.

Press release:

CONTACT:
Scott Jackson
DVRupgrade, Inc.
(773) 326-0189
Scott.Jackson@dvrupgrade.com

DVRupgrade® delivers new TiVo® Life-Extension Services

TiVo Repair & Upgrade Services Make an Old TiVo Better than New; Repair or Re-gift That Old TiVo

CHICAGO, IL – (November 18, 2008) – There’s new life for that old TiVo, hard drive and all, thanks to DVRupgrade’s new repair services.

For the past nine years TiVo DVRs have changed the way people watch TV, and for almost as long, DVRupgrade has been providing upgrade kits and services to advanced TiVo owners who want to increase the recording times on their TiVo. Taking things one step further, now everyone who owns an older DVR can repair and enhance it with DVRupgrade’s new repair service. There has never been an easier and faster way to repair a TiVo DVR.

“Try walking into a local electronics store to repair and upgrade a broken TiVo,” said Lou Jacob, President and founder of DVRupgrade, “they will try to sell you a new one! We have found that almost all TiVo failures are hard-drive related, and can be easily fixed with a simple hard drive replacement.” Lou goes on to say, “Also, for those who have a lifetime subscription on their TiVo, repairing your unit is worthwhile and will save you money.”

There are a few different methods to repair and upgrade your TiVo. One inexpensive approach is a “Quick-Install Kit,” where a mechanically inclined person can install, revive and upgrade a TiVo in twenty minutes. The kit includes everything required for a successful installation and requires no computer or technical experience. If the customer wants DVRupgrade to do the work, “Same Day Turnaround” service is also available. With the holidays in mind, and for those considering the move to high definition, DVRupgrade is also offering a “Buy a New TiVo HD and Re-gift the Old” special. This service is appealing to those who would like to either give their old TiVo to someone else or use their older TiVo with another TV in the home. By purchasing an upgraded TiVo HD from DVRupgrade, the customer gets both a repair and upgrade of their old TiVo and a new TiVo HD, all for a special discount.

Repair and upgrade options for your TiVo start as low as $19.99. Learn more about DVRupgrade products and current holiday specials by visiting the DVRupgrade website at www.dvrupgrade.com.

About DVRupgrade, Inc.

DVRupgrade is the original provider and market leader of value-added products and repair services for TiVo DVRs. With TiVo Life-Extension solutions, DVRupgrade is committed to protecting TiVo technologies and customer subscriptions, while reducing the effort to make a TiVo DVR “better than new.”

If you’re not up for doing it yourself, you can spend a bit more and buy a ready-to-run drive that you can just drop in. And if you’re using a TiVo Series3 or TiVo HD you can use an external eSATA drive, like the My DVR Expander, of course. Or you can always buy a pre-upgraded unit to start with.

Unfortunately CNET doesn’t let you embed the Insider Secrets videos, but fortunately TiVo Blog spotted the same video re-posted to YouTube.

How about you? How would your top ten list compare to theirs?

In an earlier post I listed some sales DVRupgrade is having on the TiVo HD, along with two special offers – an HDMI cable for one penny and the TiVo Glo remote for $30. At the time you could only select one of these special deals. However, after talking to them about it, they said that was an error and they’ve fixed it – now you can get BOTH deals on one order. So the specials are even better.

And just this Saturday I posted about Amazon’s special offer on the Sony BDP-S300, wherein you get the Blu-ray movies Spider-man 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, plus five more free via mail-in. When I posted the price on the player was $384.57, but within a day that was dropped to $294.08! Which is where it currently stands.

First up, get $50 off select TiVo HD units with coupon code DVRTCF2007-050. Which units?
43 hour / 320GB – normally $449, just $399 with coupon
70 hour / 500GB – normally $579, just $529 with coupon
107 hour / 750GB – normally $779, just $729 with coupon and eligible for $30 Hitachi rebate, making it $699
144 hour / 1TB – normally $949, just $899 with coupon and eligible for $30 Hitachi rebate, making it $869

Simply put the TiVo HD you want in your cart, and enter coupon code DVRTCF2007-050 during check out and the $50 will be deducted from your total.

But that’s not all. Since the TiVo HD does not ship with an HDMI cable, DVRupgrade is letting you buy one for one penny! Yep, $0.01. Just enter coupon code HDMI07TCS.

Wait, there’s more! You want a TiVo Glo Remote – the nice remote that comes with the Series3 but not the TiVo HD – instead of the HDMI cable? You can get one for $30 by entering coupon code DVRTCF2007-030.

The coupon code entry is on step four, ‘confirm order’, during checkout. Simply enter the $50 off code (DVRTCF2007-050) and hit ‘Recalculate’ and you’ll see the deduction. Then enter the HDMI for a penny code (HDMI07TCS) or, and the $30 Glo Remote code (DVRTCF2007-030) if you want it, and hit ‘Recalculate’ again and you’ll see them added to the order. Note that you can only select one of the special offers – if you enter one and then enter the other, the first one entered is deleted. The last one you enter is the one that will be honored on the order. EDIT: After I mentioned it to them, DVRupgrade changed the offers so that BOTH are available!

Happy shopping!

The coupon is only good on that specific model, as a special offer, but they also have other expanded TiVo Series3 and TiVo HD models, with up to 1TB in capacity. And if you want even more, they do special orders up to 2TB.

I rarely had issues with the default 250GB drive in my S3, and since I added the official 500GB eSATA drive I have more space than I know what to do with. As more of the content I like moves to HD, I’ll probably need the space though. Right now, most of what I record is still SD.

How much will this TiVo-of-plenty set you back? $1599 after the current $200 rebate. It is an expanded Series3, not a TiVo HD, so you do get the nice remote, fancy case, and THX certification for that money. That’s worth it… right?

I asked DVRupgrade about their plans to offer a similar unit. They said that, while they do currently sell ‘off the menu’ upgrades, such as 2TB units, as special orders, they do not currently have any plans to make a 2TB unit a standard offering on their site. They cited a low demand for the larger capacity units, likely due to the higher costs, even with an increase in demand due to the current $30 Hitachi rebate. They prefer to stress the higher reliability of single drive units over the dual-drive configurations.

• Elimination of all advertisements running on the site
• Full access to the TC Club Members Only Chat Forum, as well as other forums which may be added in the future (make a suggestion!). These forums are lightly moderated, which means that discussing religion, politics, and other off-topic conversation is permitted. Inflammatory or derogatory remarks or disparaging other members is NOT. (“Light moderation” is not the same as “no moderation”.)
• Increased private message space for up to 500 total stored messages … more than TRIPLE the space!
• More space in your signature file … DOUBLED! (unfortunately, images are still not permitted)
• Special discounts from time to time from our site sponsors
• Identification that you are a TC Club member on your public profile and wherever you post on the site
• Subscription auto-renewal
• The joy of knowing that you are helping to support the site

Users who join TC Club, or renew their membership, before the end of the year also get a TC Club T-shirt.

As an added incentive, DVRupgrade and Capable Networks (TiVoCommunity’s parent) have teamed up to offer special rewards. Anyone who is a member of the club by midnight CST on Sunday 12/16 will be eligible for a drawing on Monday 12/17. Eight winners will be drawn:

• 3rd Prize: 5 lucky winners can choose between a TiVo Wireless-G USB network adapter or TiVo Glo Remote ($50 value each)
• 2nd Prize: 2 even luckier winners will get a Neuros’s MPEG-4+ Recorder II ($100 value each)
• Grand Prize: 1 top winner will receive a Neuros OSD digital media device ($230 value)

Full details are available here.