Morning Discussion

My goal of this finest of Thursdays is to not fall asleep on the couch after work. It's important to have goals, and I especially like ones that are just within my grasp.

On the video game side of things, I'm glad to see that sequel to Boom Blox, and I'm intrigued by the Prince of Persia "epilogue" DLC. As I've said before, Prince of Persia had a somewhat unconventional ending, and while I've had some time to dwell on it and work up my own theories as to why, I'm curious to see how it's dealt with.

Chris Faylor was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
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    January 29, 2009 7:15 AM

    I upgraded the harddrive in my Tivo last night to a nice big 500 gig drive, I think the 160 that was in there was dieing because the Tivo would randomly reboot itself multiple times a day and that was getting really annoying. The whole process took about 45 minutes but it was the most straight forward and easy upgrade I've done. Highly recommend it to anyone who has a tivo and wants more space!

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      January 29, 2009 7:18 AM

      I did the same to my tivo HD. I think my tivo freaked out at first when it found the 750 gigs of storage because it was recording non-stop for a couple of days.

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        January 29, 2009 7:19 AM

        It was trying to fill its void much in the same way you do, with gay porn

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      January 29, 2009 7:18 AM

      did it stop randomly rebooting?

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        January 29, 2009 7:22 AM

        I watched tv for a few hours last night with no reboots and this morning with no issues, so, so far, yes it has stopped rebooting.

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      January 29, 2009 7:19 AM

      I wonder if I can upgrade the Hard Drive on my Comcast Motorola DVR?

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        January 29, 2009 7:46 AM

        the lollin' just won't stop

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        January 29, 2009 7:54 AM

        That thing is such a POS. I had one before I got my tivo and I'm amazed at how much better the tivo is over comcast's offering. It's easily worth every penny.

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          January 29, 2009 8:38 AM

          yah it is... If I can find a Tivo for cheap I would definately jump on it

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            January 29, 2009 8:47 AM

            They sell refurbed HD's for about 180 on tivo.com

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            January 29, 2009 8:51 AM

            https://www3.tivo.com/store/boxes.do?type=renewed&WT.ac=shophome_factoryreneweddvr_img - as cheap as you're going to get it. I'll vouch for two refurbs I've bought people.

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              January 29, 2009 11:57 AM

              I've researched this before but I never fully understood. How does this work with cable?

              So, I spend $200 on an Tivo HD one time fee. Then I use that as my cable box? Then I need to get a cable card from Cox and pay a monthly Tivo fee? It sounds like the monthly fee is alot more than just using my Cox HD DVR Box.

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                January 29, 2009 12:05 PM

                It adds up to about the same when you factor in the tivo service and the small fee for the cable cards.

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                  January 29, 2009 12:09 PM

                  The first cablecard is free if you have comcast so I think I'm actually saving a dollar or two a month.

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                    January 29, 2009 12:10 PM

                    unless you already have a cable box (for on demand), then they charge you. i think it's bullshit :(

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                      January 29, 2009 12:17 PM

                      yeah, but if you got a second cable box instead of the cablecard, you'd get charged, too. That's just What They Do Because They're Dicks.

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                January 29, 2009 12:20 PM

                If you prepay for TiVo, you can get it down to under $9/mo., which is what most cablecos charge for HDDVRs. If you have multiple cableboxes/cards in your house, you might have to pay extra, but Comcast, the first one is free, and if you get a TiVoHD, you only need one M-Card, so.

                Three years is the plan that's under $9/mo. One year is under $12, a few bucks more but god so worth it.

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                  January 29, 2009 1:01 PM

                  I noticed tivo.com also has a lifetime $400 one-time fee. Is that for the life-time of the Tivo box? So, if my Tivo breaks and I need to get a new one, I'll need to pay monthly again? Or lifetime for the account, no matter what Tivo I have? Also, what if I move?

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                    January 29, 2009 1:01 PM

                    it's lifetime for the tivo box itself

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                    January 29, 2009 1:14 PM

                    It's for the box; box dies, lifetime dies. You can pretty much bet that when new series come out, though, they'll have a fee to let you transfer your lifetime; there was a HUGE uproar when S3 came out and they cut out lifetime all together (though it did let me sell my old S2 with lifetime on it for $500ish, yay).

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        January 29, 2009 8:00 AM

        Sure. Go ahead and do it.

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        January 29, 2009 8:08 AM

        Don't even think about trying. If you crack the case on it, and Comcast finds out, it is an automatic $650 charge (even if it still works).

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          January 29, 2009 8:09 AM

          Wow that's crazy, there's no way those things should cost anywhere near $650

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          January 29, 2009 11:13 AM

          holy shit...

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            January 29, 2009 11:19 AM

            Does your model have an eSATA port? With some you can expand the storage by just attaching the external HDD and enabling it in the menus.

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        January 29, 2009 8:18 AM

        lol not ... sorry

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        January 29, 2009 9:00 AM

        yeah, not a good idea since you're *leasing* the equipment from them.

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      January 29, 2009 7:21 AM

      Did you load up InstaCakes or just do the straight upgrade?

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        January 29, 2009 7:22 AM

        Just a straight upgrade

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        January 29, 2009 12:50 PM

        What is instcakes good for?

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          January 29, 2009 1:43 PM

          Instacake is a formatting tool that adds features to your tivo. At least it did for the old Tivo's. Features like networking, media server capabilities.

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      January 29, 2009 7:26 AM

      i have done this as well. it r0x0rz to have loads of space for movies!

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      January 29, 2009 7:47 AM

      Yeah, I kinda want to do this since more and more HD channels means more and more pressure to get through stuff before it starts getting deleted, but the pressure keeps me from building up a ton of stuff that would be too intimidating to get through.

      I'd just get an Expander, though.

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      January 29, 2009 8:21 AM

      Does it require a particular drive still, or can I just toss any 750GB drive in?

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        January 29, 2009 8:26 AM

        Any sata drive seems to work, you just need to use mfstools to copy over the settings.

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      January 29, 2009 8:32 AM

      Chaps my ass that I can't replace the shit HD that is in my COX box.

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        January 29, 2009 8:33 AM

        It even has a disabled eSata port, the fuckers.

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      January 29, 2009 8:36 AM

      link to how-to?

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      January 29, 2009 11:32 AM

      Shit I was thinking of buying one but $699 is insanity =(

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        January 29, 2009 11:33 AM

        woops I meant $599 (still insanity)

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        January 29, 2009 12:21 PM

        $700? For what, an HD XL? The standard model refurbed is under $200 and should be plenty, and you can upgrade it yourself after the fact.

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        January 29, 2009 12:28 PM

        Buy a refurbed HD and then put in a new harddrive. The XL or Series 3 are ripoffs.

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          January 29, 2009 12:55 PM

          I have a Series 3 :(

          but i've had it since launch and they didn't have tivoHDs then.

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