Philips Standalone TiVos
| A Philips HDR112 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Year Released 1999 | |
| Capacity Varies | |
| Current Version 3.0 | |
In 1999, Philips released the first TiVo box ever available for purchase, the HDR110. The HDR110 contained a 13GB hard drive, same as the HDR110, which was released soon after, and replaced the HDR110. This TiVo can only be used as a "dumb DVR" or "digital VCR" after TiVo switched guide data providers from Gracenote to Rovi in September 2016. They released an update to Series 2 - 6 TiVos, but Series 1 TiVos did not receive that update.
Hardware
All of the Philips Series 1 units (even the Sony SVR-2000 and Thomson PVR10UK) use the same internal parts, including the same motherboard, hard drives, power supplies, etc. The Standalone Series 1 units all have the same specifications:
IBM PowerPC 403GCX running at 54 MHz
16MB of onboard RAM
Models
Philips released multiple different models between 1999 - 2001. These models do not differ in functionality, only in hard drive capacity and the front faceplate.
| Model | Released | Hours/HDD Size | Notes | Image |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HDR110 | 1999 | 13 GB = 13 hours | The first TiVo ever released. This design a oddly large TiVo in the middle (while also still having the smaller one in the bottom right corner) but otherwise looks similar to the later models. |  |
| HDR112 | Equivalent to the HDR110 with a different faceplate | |
||
| HDR212 | 2000 | 20 GB = 20 hours | Uses an all-black faceplate. |  |
| HDR312 | 30 GB = 30 hours | |
||
| HDR612 | 2001 | 60 GB = 60 hours | This was the last standalone TiVo Series 1 Philips released, it has an inverted faceplate and the highest capacity of any Series 1 TiVo from the factory. |  |
Trivia
Series 1 TiVos can record from any composite/s-video/coaxial source by tricking the unit into thinking you're using a cable box.
You can still set the clock over the internet by using a Network card such as a TurbotNET. This is pretty important because as these units age, most of the clock batteries are at the end of their life and cannot hold any power, and there's no other way to reset the clock on the Series 1 without doing a service connection.
The very first Philips HDR110 to roll off the production line was displayed at TiVo Inc's headquarters. It's currently unknown if it's still being displayed.
These TiVos have a few second delay between when the video signal from the cable/satellite box or TV signal is coming in and when it's actually displayed on the TV screen. Try playing a video game like that!
The firmware of the Series 1 TiVos can only recognize up to 2 160GB hard drives, making 344 hours the max possible hours on a unmodified Series 1 TiVo. There are ways around this.
Remote
Philips Standalone TiVos were the first to introduce the now-iconic TiVo "Peanut" remote. It got the nickname "Peanut" due to its peanut-like shape. This remote has 32 buttons and it's compatible with almost all TiVo models (not all features are accessible on newer TiVos using this remote due to it's limited buttons) and even the DirecTV models (excluding the Sony SAT-T60) (click to enlarge)
