http://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/ Engadget HD Comments for WeaKnees now offering upgraded HR20s http://hd.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://hd.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2009 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/Jul 12th 2007 10:16AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/
-) Unless WeekNess has worked out an agreement with DirecTV (which isn't stated anywhere), the opening of the HR20 to install an HR20 (Be it pre-purchase, or via their upgrade program), violates the DirecTV warranty on the box... and violates your lease agreement.

After doing either process, you would only get warranty support from Weekness... any replcements or anything else would be through them, as going through DirecTV you would not get an "upgraded" system, and returning an HR20 without a hard drive......

-) The HR20 supports external hard drives via the eSATA port. Drive(s) (as you can RAID drives to gether to create upwards of 3TB if you wanted), connected via eSATA are seen as a replacement drive, not an addon to the internal.

-) If you are so inclinded to violate your lease (or if you out right purchased the HR20 for $800), upgrading your internal drive is fairly straight forward. As there are no software installations necessary (like the TiVo counterpart), just connect the drive... install it... and put the cover back on. The HR20 does everything else at boot.

As far as I am aware, no one has found a method to copy the contents of an existing drive, to a new larger drive.

For a lengthy discussion on the Pro's and Con's of the WeaKness offer... see
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=91160&highlight=Weakness
]]>Jul 12th 2007 12:01PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/Jul 12th 2007 10:33AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/
Knowledge is power.]]>Jul 12th 2007 11:47AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/
As for the eSATA drive, I don't know about anyone else, but one less box and one less power brick in my rack is very welcomed. Also, one less component to fail.]]>Jul 12th 2007 11:34AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/
Given reports that the constant stream of HR20 patches (averaging one a month now) has corrupted external drives (being relatively untested in the upgrade process), I think I'll wait.]]>Jul 12th 2007 11:50AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/
If that is the case, then it is even more of highway robbery... as the prices are seriously inflated just to give you an eSATA enclosure with drive.

As for concerns of violating your LEASE and your Warranty...
Even if WeakNess sells it to you, the unit is still under the LEASE agreements with DirecTV... not Weakness.

It would be a real shocker if you want to leave DirecTV at a later time, and upon returning your modified unit, you find out that you now have to purchase it (at the higher $800) because you violated the LEASE agreement, by the unit being opened.

As for the warranty... fantastic if WeakNess is going to give you a warranty on it, but what is going to happen when the warranty is up?

]]>Jul 12th 2007 12:41PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/
As for the lease, maybe it's different on other hardware, but I had a lease on my H20 (which broke in less than a year) and DirecTV wouldn't replace without extending my "lease," so I just sold it on eBay. DirecTV never sent me a bill or anything, and they knew I sold it cause when I called them to cancel it, I told them I sold it on eBay.

Speaking of that, how is this lease any different from their previous "commitment"? The monthly lease fee just replaces the "per box fee" and the lease termination price replaces the early disconnect fee.

BTW, the component outputs were broken, and my TV doesn't have HDMI -- which worked fine. Just wanted to make sure no one thought I sold a bad unit as good to an unsuspecting person.]]>Jul 12th 2007 12:05PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/Any other gotchas?

Thanks]]>Jul 12th 2007 4:29PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/
Am I missing something? Any assistance would be great.
]]>Jul 12th 2007 12:17PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/Jul 12th 2007 12:34PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/]]>Jul 12th 2007 4:16PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/
The issues are more like fast-forward messes up one time in a thousand, or doesn't have that nice TiVo backtrack correction when you stop. It has one 1-hour buffer instead of two 1/2 hour buffers, so you can't pingpong between the two tuners and keep your buffers. Channel changing could be faster.

Compared to the HR10-250, it has some weak points (and a few very weak points), but it has advantages as well. The picture is noticibly sharper, for instance. And of course, it will accept the MPEG4 stations due in September at the HD Big Bang.]]>Jul 12th 2007 5:30PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/I wonder if they will correct that eventually?]]>Jul 12th 2007 5:11PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/Jul 12th 2007 5:18PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/
Options for upgrading are looking ugly either way.]]>Jul 12th 2007 5:10PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/]]>Jul 12th 2007 5:19PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/Gil]]>Jul 17th 2007 11:09AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/07/12/weaknees-now-offering-upgraded-hr20s/Aug 15th 2007 6:38PM