How to add external storage to your Tivo

The MyDvr Expander for Series 3 Tivos

When you start recording a lot of HD content on your Tivo, you will fill up your hard drive quickly. You can record just 20 hours of HD content on the TivoHD model, and although that might sound like a lot, it’s just ten regular length movies. (Even less if you consider that most movies have commercials when broadcast on television, making them even longer.)

One solution is to go into Do-It-Yourself-Mode, and start taking out screws on a mission to replace the hard drive inside your Tivo. Not that it’s difficult, it’s just not the easiest solution.

The easiest solution is to buy the MyDVR Expander by Western Digital.

(The company offers two sizes, the 500 megabyte and the 1 Terabyte version. The 500 meg version will add up to 60 hours of HDTV content and up to 300 hours of SD content.)

One of the first things you’ll notice is price. On Amazon.com the smaller sized drive is listed at $91.95, the larger at $169.95. You can get other external drives of the same size for up to half that price on sale, but they won’t work. Your Tivo will only recognize the MyDVR brand.Think of it this way, you’re paying for the convenience.

How easy is it? We hooked up the 500 megabyte version to our Tivo, plugged it in, and in less than five minutes the Tivo was ready to go with the expanded capability.

There are just a couple of precautions you need to be aware of before you buy. First, the new drive is connected physically to the Tivo, so make sure you have the space for it. Second, you must have a Series 3 Tivo or above to use the expander. Third, once you hook up the expander, make sure you don’t unplug it from the Tivo if you want to preserve your recordings. Unplugging it after you’ve started recording can cause some unexpected results.

Tagged as: hacks, mydvr, storage, tivo