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How to set up a Series 2 TiVo with an Apple AirPort (802.11b) Wireless Network
Last Modified: January 9, 2003 @ 3:06 am

Background

When my DSL provider went out of business, I decided to go with cable modem instead of getting DSL with a different provider with the goal of getting rid of my landline phone altogether. With that change, the TiVo was the only thing I had that still needed a landline phone for. I use my cell phone (Treo 300, recommended) for just about everything anyway so if I could get the TiVo to get data over the internet via our home network, I could cancel my landline phone and save about $20 a month which more than justifies the cost of the TiVo, right? One problem - our network connections are all upstairs and the TiVo is downstairs. We do have a wireless network though... so I figured I'd give it a shot. I read up a bit on the tivocommunity.com message boards - basically, you connect a USB-to-Ethernet Adapter to the USB port on the TiVo, then connect a Wireless Ethernet Bridge to the USB-to_Ethernet Adapter. It took too many hours of tweaking and trial and error, but it finally works. I am quite pleased. I decided to write up the steps I took in hopes that it will help someone else who is trying to set up a similar configuration.

I have gotten a lot of mail asking why I didn't just get the Linksys WUSB11 USB-to-Wireless adapter or a similar product. Unfortunately, you cannot currently use a USB-to-Wireless adapter with a TiVo as there is no way to properly configure the adapter. You can read more on this at tivocommunity.com. Although to be honest - I did not try myself, I took other people's word for it. If you somehow make it work, please let me know - it would be a lot cheaper and more convenient.

My Network Configuration

I have a DSL/Cable modem attached to the uplink port of a hub. I have an AirPort Base Station (which is acting as my router/DHCP server) attached to the hub, along with my desktop computer. I have several laptops connected to the network wirelessly. Desktop Computer (TiVo with USB->Ethernet->Wireless)//DSL/cable modem -- hub -- AirPort Base Station -- Laptop A\Laptop B

Router: Apple AirPort Base Station serving DHCP
AirPort Network Name (SSID): Alex's AirPort (for this example)
WEP Security: none (for the sake of this example, however running a wireless network without encryption is not a good idea).

Required Hardware

• You need a PC (Virtual PC 5 worked for one reader) to run the WET11 setup program. Note to Mac Users: According to this article, you can configure the WET11 through a browser by connecting via ethernet, setting your computer's IP to 192.168.1.5 and sub 255.255.255.0, then going to http://192.168.1.225 in your browser. Thanks to Michael Dinsmore for the tip.
• A USB to Ethernet Adapter, I used a LinkSys USB100M.
• A Wireless Ethernet Bridge, I used a LinkSys WET11.

Configuring the WET11 to be a DHCP client

1. Unpack the WET11.
2. Set the switch on the back of the WET11 to quot;II (not X).
3. Plug the WET11 into your wired network. I plugged mine into my hub.
4. Launch the driver/setup program on a PC (or virtual PC) connected to the network (wired/wireless does not matter). Download Page | Zip file - or you can try accessing the WET11 from a browser using the default IP address (see the screenshot in the setup guide).
5. In the setup program - follow these teps:
   - select the WET11 and click Yes
   - enter the password (default is admin) and click OK
   - choose Infastructure mode (not Ad-Hoc) and click Next
   - enter the name of your AirPort network into the SSID field (Alex's AirPort), all other settings can be left as is, and click Next
   - choose Automatically obtain an IP address (DHCP)
   - enter your security settings, in our example we leave it disabled
   - review your new settings, click Yes to save the changes
6. Note: Your network may go a little screwy at this point until you disconnect the WET11 in the next step.
7. This is important: you must unplug the power from the WET11 for a few seconds then plug it back in again to save the new settings. The directions say to reset the WET11 - they DO NOT mean for you to hit the reset button on the back of the WET11, this undoes all the settings you just entered and restores the factory defaults.
8. Unplug the WET11 from the wired network.
9. Set the switch on the back of the WET11 to X (not II).
10. Now your WET11 is ready to go!

Let's test the WET11 to make sure it is working on the network.

1. Disconnect a computer from your network.
2. Connect the WET11 to this computer with an ethernet cable (RJ45).
3. Wait a few seconds and see if your computer is able to rejoin the network.
4. If you get back on the network, you're set to go, disconnect the WET11 from the computer. If not, try rebooting with the WET11 attached. If it still doesn't work after rebooting, hit the reset button on the back of the WET11 and go back through the WET11 setup steps.

Connecting the TiVo

Now we need to connect everything to the TiVo.

1. Unpack the USB100M.
2. Plug the USB100M into the top USB port on the TiVo.
3. Plug in the WET11 to a power outlet.
4. Attach the WET11 to the USB100M with an ethernet cable (RJ45).
5. Restart the TiVo: Main Menu > Messages and Setup > Restart or Reset System > Restart the Recorder.
6. Enter new dialing settings: Main Menu > Messages and Setup > Recorder & Phone Setup > Phone Connection > Change Dialing Options
7. Leave Dial-In Number as is.
8. Set Dial Prefix to ,#401 (comma - pound - four - zero - one).
9. Set Call Waiting Prefix to nothing, leave it blank or erase what you have there.
10. Set Tone/Pulse to Tone (I don't think this matters).
11. Set 'Phone Avail. Detection to Off (again, I don't think this matters).
12. Set Dial Tone Detection to On.
13. Select Use these dialing options (at the top of the screen).
14. Select Make Test Call.
15. Cross your fingers, close your eyes, make a wish...
16. Press the SELECT button...
17. It worked right? I sure hope so... if not, pull the USB100M adapter out of the top USB port and insert it into the bottom USB port, then Restart the TiVo again (step 5 above) and go through the steps again.

If you still can't get it working, unplug the WET11 from the TiVo and again verify that it is working when attached to a computer. To start over from scratch, you can hit the reset button on the back of the WET11 and go back through the WET11 setup steps.

I hope that this helps someone. If you know of another way to do this or have some related information, please let me know.

td colspan="2" valign="top

How to set up a Series 2 TiVo with an Apple AirPort (802.11b) Wireless Network
Last Modified: January 9, 2003 @ 3:06 am

Background

When my DSL provider went out of business, I decided to go with cable modem instead of getting DSL with a different provider with the goal of getting rid of my landline phone altogether. With that change, the TiVo was the only thing I had that still needed a landline phone for. I use my cell phone (Treo 300, recommended) for just about everything anyway so if I could get the TiVo to get data over the internet via our home network, I could cancel my landline phone and save about $20 a month which more than justifies the cost of the TiVo, right? One problem - our network connections are all upstairs and the TiVo is downstairs. We do have a wireless network though... so I figured I'd give it a shot. I read up a bit on the tivocommunity.com message boards - basically, you connect a USB-to-Ethernet Adapter to the USB port on the TiVo, then connect a Wireless Ethernet Bridge to the USB-to_Ethernet Adapter. It took too many hours of tweaking and trial and error, but it finally works. I am quite pleased. I decided to write up the steps I took in hopes that it will help someone else who is trying to set up a similar configuration.

I have gotten a lot of mail asking why I didn't just get the Linksys WUSB11 USB-to-Wireless adapter or a similar product. Unfortunately, you cannot currently use a USB-to-Wireless adapter with a TiVo as there is no way to properly configure the adapter. You can read more on this at tivocommunity.com. Although to be honest - I did not try myself, I took other people's word for it. If you somehow make it work, please let me know - it would be a lot cheaper and more convenient.

My Network Configuration

I have a DSL/Cable modem attached to the uplink port of a hub. I have an AirPort Base Station (which is acting as my router/DHCP server) attached to the hub, along with my desktop computer. I have several laptops connected to the network wirelessly. Desktop Computer (TiVo with USB->Ethernet->Wireless)//DSL/cable modem -- hub -- AirPort Base Station -- Laptop A\Laptop B

Router: Apple AirPort Base Station serving DHCP
AirPort Network Name (SSID): Alex's AirPort (for this example)
WEP Security: none (for the sake of this example, however running a wireless network without encryption is not a good idea).

Required Hardware

• You need a PC (Virtual PC 5 worked for one reader) to run the WET11 setup program. Note to Mac Users: According to this article, you can configure the WET11 through a browser by connecting via ethernet, setting your computer's IP to 192.168.1.5 and sub 255.255.255.0, then going to http://192.168.1.225 in your browser. Thanks to Michael Dinsmore for the tip.
• A USB to Ethernet Adapter, I used a LinkSys USB100M.
• A Wireless Ethernet Bridge, I used a LinkSys WET11.

Configuring the WET11 to be a DHCP client

1. Unpack the WET11.
2. Set the switch on the back of the WET11 to quot;II (not X).
3. Plug the WET11 into your wired network. I plugged mine into my hub.
4. Launch the driver/setup program on a PC (or virtual PC) connected to the network (wired/wireless does not matter). Download Page | Zip file - or you can try accessing the WET11 from a browser using the default IP address (see the screenshot in the setup guide).
5. In the setup program - follow these teps:
   - select the WET11 and click Yes
   - enter the password (default is admin) and click OK
   - choose Infastructure mode (not Ad-Hoc) and click Next
   - enter the name of your AirPort network into the SSID field (Alex's AirPort), all other settings can be left as is, and click Next
   - choose Automatically obtain an IP address (DHCP)
   - enter your security settings, in our example we leave it disabled
   - review your new settings, click Yes to save the changes
6. Note: Your network may go a little screwy at this point until you disconnect the WET11 in the next step.
7. This is important: you must unplug the power from the WET11 for a few seconds then plug it back in again to save the new settings. The directions say to reset the WET11 - they DO NOT mean for you to hit the reset button on the back of the WET11, this undoes all the settings you just entered and restores the factory defaults.
8. Unplug the WET11 from the wired network.
9. Set the switch on the back of the WET11 to X (not II).
10. Now your WET11 is ready to go!

Let's test the WET11 to make sure it is working on the network.

1. Disconnect a computer from your network.
2. Connect the WET11 to this computer with an ethernet cable (RJ45).
3. Wait a few seconds and see if your computer is able to rejoin the network.
4. If you get back on the network, you're set to go, disconnect the WET11 from the computer. If not, try rebooting with the WET11 attached. If it still doesn't work after rebooting, hit the reset button on the back of the WET11 and go back through the WET11 setup steps.

Connecting the TiVo

Now we need to connect everything to the TiVo.

1. Unpack the USB100M.
2. Plug the USB100M into the top USB port on the TiVo.
3. Plug in the WET11 to a power outlet.
4. Attach the WET11 to the USB100M with an ethernet cable (RJ45).
5. Restart the TiVo: Main Menu > Messages and Setup > Restart or Reset System > Restart the Recorder.
6. Enter new dialing settings: Main Menu > Messages and Setup > Recorder & Phone Setup > Phone Connection > Change Dialing Options
7. Leave Dial-In Number as is.
8. Set Dial Prefix to ,#401 (comma - pound - four - zero - one).
9. Set Call Waiting Prefix to nothing, leave it blank or erase what you have there.
10. Set Tone/Pulse to Tone (I don't think this matters).
11. Set 'Phone Avail. Detection to Off (again, I don't think this matters).
12. Set Dial Tone Detection to On.
13. Select Use these dialing options (at the top of the screen).
14. Select Make Test Call.
15. Cross your fingers, close your eyes, make a wish...
16. Press the SELECT button...
17. It worked right? I sure hope so... if not, pull the USB100M adapter out of the top USB port and insert it into the bottom USB port, then Restart the TiVo again (step 5 above) and go through the steps again.

If you still can't get it working, unplug the WET11 from the TiVo and again verify that it is working when attached to a computer. To start over from scratch, you can hit the reset button on the back of the WET11 and go back through the WET11 setup steps.

I hope that this helps someone. If you know of another way to do this or have some related information, please let me know.

td colspan="2" valign="top

Go to http://www.tivocommunity.com/ and look at the forums devoted to TV shows: you'll find that TiVo users have similar tastes to the Slashdot crowd: Buffy, Angel, Farscape, Firefly, Enterprise, TechTV, etc. Of course there's plenty of interest in non-geeky shows, too, but your typical Slashdotter would not feel out of place amongst your typical TiVonians.

On one hand, I want to say "GO TEAM!" On the other hand, if this just whips around and Big Brother tries to address the problem by removing PVRs from the equation entirely by going after TiVO, et al, I'll be very, very depressed. On the TiVO Community board, discussion about data extraction are banned for just that reason... no one wants the lightning rod.

My TiVO is very near and dear to my heart. As just about every member of the TiVO Cult chants, "It changes the way you watch television." I want this technology as much freedom to develop as we can squeeze out of our rapidly gestapoing society.

Well, just as a follow-up on the hacks, This site has some good stuff on hacking Series 2 - it looks like they finally can get shell on the new units, like they could on the old ones.

I'm actually looking at a wiring diagram for the house now, and I have 1) Kitchen, 2&3) Livingroom, 3&5) Bedroom 1, 6) Bedroom 2, 7) Bedroom 3, 8) 3rd Floor (media-room to be). So that will be the 8 off of my 5x8 multi-switch will get me 8 DirecTV feeds.

But I still want 2x coax on the 3rd floor, because the DirecTiVo will likely go there when the Media Room is done. And, we are also doing an addition off the house, so the 2nd bedroom will be expanded and become the master, so it should have 2x coax lines also.

Basically, I got the walls opened up, I'm just running tons of wire! Some of them won't be live for a while.

But, more to your question, I believe you can cascade some of the better powered multi-way switches. I'd ask around in the TiVo Community Forum in the DirecTV section if you want to know. There are a lot of guys who know quite a bit about multi-way switches there, and they just love to pull out these really cool graphics to explain them too!

According to an "unofficial" post by a TiVo marketing rep there is much more to this than just mp3 and picture viewing.

My guess: Originally when series 2 was announced they mentioned that they would have some deal with Real. I am guessing that you will be getting some of the premium Real content with this.

The 8000 is not getting good reviews at all. Here are a few:

• http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8 &oe=UTF-8&selm=KQHh9.279170%24vg.48306613%40twiste r.nyroc.rr.com
• http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.ph p?s=&threadid=86096&highlight=Explorer+800 0

Unofficially, yes. My Tivo (Series2) has a USB port with a USB Ethernet adapter. On startup, it grabs a DHCP address, and does its thing.

To shed a little more light on this, TiVo's suggestions are collaborative; that is, other users' choices figure in to what it records as suggestions for you. That can help explain some of the "inappropriateness" that happens sometimes.

Here's a link to a thread on the TiVo Community Forums that further explains how TiVo's suggestions engine works: TiVo Community Forum

1. Suggestions are optional. There is a menu setting under "Messages and Setup ==> My Preferences. Don't care for suggestions? Turn them off. (like they are on my TiVo)
2. TiVo will never delete something you have as a Season Pass in order to record a suggestion. If stuff is expiring too quickly, that's just a sign you need to put in some bigger hard disks. (or watch less TV)
3. If TiVo records something you don't like, give it one thumb down before you delete it. That's all it takes. Seriously! The only thing you should give three thumbs down to is Paid Programming.
4. If your suggestions get too out of whack then you can clear all of them. Go into the "System Resets" under "Messages and Setup" and there is an option to "Reset Thumb Ratings and Suggestions".
5. A good resource for all things TiVo is the Tivo Community forum at http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/ You'll learn more than you ever wanted to know about TiVo there.

-bwillcox-

(owner of a Philips S1 TiVo with 249 hours + turbonet and tivoweb)

Are there any known problems having both USB ether and digital cable? I understand that some of the older network options conflicted with digital cable boxes, not quite sure how...

Don't think so. I have a Series 1 Tivo with a "TivoNet" card (as opposed to a newer TurboNet card). It gets an address from my Linksys Cable/DSL 4 port router via DHCP. Then it connects to its homebase via my cable modem (connected to the WAN side of the router). The router uses NAT to do this, and I had to make no config changes. No ports needed to be opened/forwarded, that sort of thing. I do have digital cable, using a Scientific Atlanta Explorer 2000 box.

The USB adapter thing on the Series 2 units works more or less exactly the same way. The USB adapter is recognized on boot and the kernel module is loaded. Then DHCP is done if it loads. Straightforward and simple. The only downside to series 2 boxes is that you really gotta have DHCP. Hacking the box to let you make modifications (like setting a static IP, for example) is, frankly, a pain in the ass at the moment. But if you have DHCP on your network somewhere, you're golden.

Note that, currently, all this really does is to let you eliminate the phone connection with regards to it calling home for guide data. Future benefits like sharing shows between two machines or something are rumored. Nothing really confirmed. And as it's still unofficial and unsupported, don't expect any help from Tivo customer support on it. However, it does work, it works well for what it does, and there's plenty of people willing to help you get it up and going at the Tivo Community Forums.

The TiVo Community has lots of technical people all working on everything TiVo. It was fetured on Slashdot a little while ago on the story "Distributed TiVo Code Cracking".

Actually, it's easier than that. I have a series 1 TiVo that lost it's modem to lightening. I bought an external modem, plugged it into my TiVo's serial port, and now I have a working TiVo again.

You have to set a few dip switches or plug the modem into your computer and send it a few commands first, and change some numbers in TiVo's dialing options, but even the technically uninclined should be able to handle this.

I found these instructions here.

This took me 15 minutes of head scratching before I figured it out.

And just for the record, the command to run it (as shown on page 12) is:

./dclient http://eolson.dyndns.org/dtc/getwork.php username

From a post (from "Otto", discussion forum, 10-31-2002 08:14 PM):

As has been stated already, this search is essentially for fun. If you want to get the backdoors on your S2 unit, it's already been stated how to do it. Load up the drive in a computer and change that code to the other one. Voila. This power search is just out of boredoom's sake, and to see if we can do it. I'll be cool to find it, but it's not actually going to give us access to anything new, okay?

So, people: Relax. And: If you want to join Just For Fun[tm] (like I do), do it.

First off, if you really want backdoors enabled, that thread on tivocommunity.com details how to do it by changing the hash yourself. You can change the hash it's checking on the disk and voila, no problem.

So this search is basically pointless, but again, it's only for the hell of it.

How it works:
1. Tivo changed the backdoor code in 3.0 to be an SHA1 hash. So when you input the backdoor code, it hashes it, compares the hashes, and enables backdoors if it matches.

2. The hash for 3.0 was reasonably simple to crack. It was short (6 characters) and so was found quickly. 3.2 is longer (everything up to and including 8 characters has been searched already). That's really all there is to it and why it's now a distributed client.

3. The slashdotting I now expect will probably take the server down. I really wish this hadn't been posted. In any case, too late now.

For more info about Tivo backdoors, see here.

For more info about the 3.0 hash crack (the easy one), see here.

First off, if you really want backdoors enabled, that thread on tivocommunity.com details how to do it by changing the hash yourself. You can change the hash it's checking on the disk and voila, no problem.

So this search is basically pointless, but again, it's only for the hell of it.

How it works:
1. Tivo changed the backdoor code in 3.0 to be an SHA1 hash. So when you input the backdoor code, it hashes it, compares the hashes, and enables backdoors if it matches.

2. The hash for 3.0 was reasonably simple to crack. It was short (6 characters) and so was found quickly. 3.2 is longer (everything up to and including 8 characters has been searched already). That's really all there is to it and why it's now a distributed client.

3. The slashdotting I now expect will probably take the server down. I really wish this hadn't been posted. In any case, too late now.

For more info about Tivo backdoors, see here.

For more info about the 3.0 hash crack (the easy one), see here.

However, you can get Circuit City to go $10 cheaper if you take a printed copy of this receipt.

Tivo Community is your friend.

For Satellite, it's far more complicated. Each input needs to be able to arbitrarily tune in even or odd transponders, and cannot do both simultaneously. You have to use multiswitches, and other assorted voo-doo to make it all go.

For detailed information, go to here.

Not quite a radar picture (yet) but TCS will display weather forcasts, stock quotes, sports scores and more on your TV screen using your Tivo. It is activated by keypresses on the remote (or through a network connection, linux client included). It is a nice app, and is only getting better.

There are a lot of cool things that could be done if you consider the TiVo as a television computing appliance.

Although the Tivo is proprietary hardware, since it is based on Linux it is pretty easy to develop applications for it. Tivo released the mods for the kernel, and also a cross-compiler and toolchain, so it is pretty easy to set up a cross-compilation environment and build a variety of applications. For example, recently I released WebPHP, which is a PHP environment for the Tivo. You can develop anything you want for the Tivo, although the latest series of boxes are locked down and have yet to be cracked. Perhaps some of the Linux gurus around here will take a crack at it (Firmware checks sig on kernel, initrd checks sig on all files in root filesystem).

Second generation DirecTV TiVos are going to ship in November. Some places are already taking preorders. It looks like they'll cost $200 - $300, depending on where you get them.

Tivo's only do standard resolution television. Therefore, you would need a HDTV box that has a s-video out to record, and it would be recorded at standard tivo resolution (480x480) on a stand-alone (non direcTV) Tivo.

Dish network is working on an HDTV PVR, the 921, and Sony is rumored to be working on an HDTV unit as well, but no word whether tivo technology will be used on that.

You should check out this forum For the latest on tivo technology. A few tivo employees are active contributers-- and the news always hits this place first.

Hmm, there was talk about this on TiVo Community (a TiVo forum) back in May. But, from that thread, it looks like the plan might be just to move BattleBots to another network (or so I would hope).

-S

This box is actually based on the TiVo software, it just doesn't use the TiVo service. TiVoPony has said that there is a possibility this box could be released in the States, where TiVo service is available.

Here is a link to a discussion of this box on the TiVo Community Forum.

Bob Poniatowski (aka TivoPony), TiVo's PR rep, posted here about how this doesn't monitor non-neilsen homes.

(Ripped from the post)
"'Every TiVo' is a gross overstatement. There is software we can enable if you're a Nielsen household. This software allows the Nielsen box to query the TiVo and find out what is currently being displayed onscreen. But you not only have to be a Nielsen family, meaning you opt-in to data collecting per their privacy policy, you also have to opt-in to data collection from TiVo, per our privacy policy. And, as I understand it, Nielsen comes out and does some serious wiring in your house. So it's not stealthy at all - the Nielsen households involved are well aware of what is happening. As far as how and what Nielsen measures or counts...you'd have to ask them! Again, this is only for Nielsen households - not 'every TiVo recorder'."

Try the TiVo Community's help forum, if you haven't already.

First, I love my Tivo. It's great for recording the boob tube.

However...

A friend of mine, after hearing a bunch of us talk about nice the Tivo was, bought one of the new "Series 2" machines. He wasn't sure he was going to keep it, so he didn't subscribe. After the "trial period" ran out, he can no longer record manually (time and channel, without the guide).

It appears from various comments around the 'net that the "Series 2" machines cannot be used as manual recorders. Now, using a Tivo as a manual PVR kinda defeats the purpose of the thing (IMHO), but the older units can be used manually (i.e., without a subscription) and people may think this is still possible with the newer units.

Yes, I understand that their business model is to get the money from the subscriptions. I'm just pointing out something I had not heard about (that manual recording without a subscription is no longer possible). I was a bit surprised to learn this, in fact.

Milalwi

Guiding this sorta back onto topic...

TiVo-ites from the forums in the Chicago area (and beyond) are also planning to have TiVo BBQ this August.

Don't know yet how many TiVo employees are going to show up but if you read the forums and are in mid-america you should show up. :)

Information on the get together is at:


http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread. ph p?s=&threadid=62906

Like this?

>especially combined with Ethernet access to >the device, would have caused the >Powers That Be to get riled up in a hurry Like this?

According to Tiger, who wrote the MFS Tools application that is used to add/expand drives, most of his handouts for the new version went to TiVo employees and engineers.

Speaking of MFS Tools 2.0, you can do all sorts of nifty adds and expansions with it - including adding and expanding the A Drive on Series2 units.

More on MFS Tools 2.0 here.

Check out the TiVo online forums and you'll see what I mean. You can search the archives or just ask about it. Everyone will tell you what I'm telling you: Season Passes are locked to a particular channel.

TiVo Inc. has made it clear that they would release some unknown (not yet public) backdoors that would allow you to set the time on TiVo and continue to use it as a digital VCR. In spite of that, TiVo made changes in the 2.5 software which made it easier to use the box without service. Beyond the call of duty, if you ask me. Check out the post by TiVoPony in this thread that confirms this policy is still intact. I wish people would do some research instead of guessing. Jeff

Well you are missing the fact that they stole the space from many units, including mine, about a year ago.

I paid for the extra space and they stole 12 hours of it.

Cat

Well I had a problem with it long before they started doing it. Why? Because they took some of the space I paid for away from me. I had a 14 hour unit and upgraded it by adding harddrive space. Then with an upgrade( I think it was 2.0), Tivo reserved some of the disk space I had previously to push their video. At the time there was no explanation, they just took it.

Funny how people forget about them taking the space away in the first place and we get comments like, "it doesn't take up any space allocated to the user". Well it was allocated to me at one point. That's the thanks I get for being a customer, they steal my space and push crap I don't want on me.

I wonder how long it will be before they start disabling old Tivos to force users to get series two machines.

Cat

TiVo has been toying around with this ever since the 2.5 software came out in the US. TiVo uses these recordings for good as well as evil.

In the 3.0 software, TiVos will now download a large chunk of their data from these special programs. TiVo does this by buying a late-night paid programming slot on the Discovery Channel. The actual show looks like a screen full of CC data, and there is a major upside to receiving these datacasts. They significantly shorten the length of daily phone calls. Bonus. (Not to mention that the 3.0 software on Series 2 units unofficially supports update-over-internet...)

As has been stated over and over, the special recordings don't take up usable space. A portion of the MFS filesystem is flagged as Reserved, and this is where the data goes. TiVo downloads a promo, it runs its course, and disappears. It also will never switch to record the show if you have something else set to record in the same time slot, so it's not even very intrusive. And in the US (not sure about the UK), the time slot is early in the AM when you're not likely to have programs scheduled to record anyways.

Regardless, the promos aren't that intrusive, don't take up recording space, and don't interfere with your recordings. Plus, Embeem has created a script to remove the ads, which has been around for quite a while, so you can remove the ads yourself if you're horribly offended.

So long story short, this is not a crisis situation. You're not forced to watch the ads, and its easy to ignore them. Hell, you can even remove them yourself with a little trickery. What's the big deal?

If an extra menu item in TiVo Central with an icon next to it is enough to make you refuse to buy or even return your TiVo, ESPECIALLY since Embeem offers you a script to remove the menu item yourself, feel free to take your TiVo back to its point of sale. It just means less complaint postings in the TiVo Forums for the rest of us to wade through.

TiVo has been toying around with this ever since the 2.5 software came out in the US. TiVo uses these recordings for good as well as evil.

In the 3.0 software, TiVos will now download a large chunk of their data from these special programs. TiVo does this by buying a late-night paid programming slot on the Discovery Channel. The actual show looks like a screen full of CC data, and there is a major upside to receiving these datacasts. They significantly shorten the length of daily phone calls. Bonus. (Not to mention that the 3.0 software on Series 2 units unofficially supports update-over-internet...)

As has been stated over and over, the special recordings don't take up usable space. A portion of the MFS filesystem is flagged as Reserved, and this is where the data goes. TiVo downloads a promo, it runs its course, and disappears. It also will never switch to record the show if you have something else set to record in the same time slot, so it's not even very intrusive. And in the US (not sure about the UK), the time slot is early in the AM when you're not likely to have programs scheduled to record anyways.

Regardless, the promos aren't that intrusive, don't take up recording space, and don't interfere with your recordings. Plus, Embeem has created a script to remove the ads, which has been around for quite a while, so you can remove the ads yourself if you're horribly offended.

So long story short, this is not a crisis situation. You're not forced to watch the ads, and its easy to ignore them. Hell, you can even remove them yourself with a little trickery. What's the big deal?

If an extra menu item in TiVo Central with an icon next to it is enough to make you refuse to buy or even return your TiVo, ESPECIALLY since Embeem offers you a script to remove the menu item yourself, feel free to take your TiVo back to its point of sale. It just means less complaint postings in the TiVo Forums for the rest of us to wade through.

Well it depends a lot on your preference of UI and what features you hold dear. I have a DirecTivo and it rocks. Here is a small breakdown on DirecTivo vs. ReplayTV:

DirecTivo:
-Dual Tuners (record 2 shows at once)
-Costs $99 for new DirecTV subscribers
-Easy to use Interface (Yes, my Linux-running friends, this is a Good Thing)
-Direct digital MPEG2 recording straight to disk, results in ONLY high quality recordings which not only look better, but take up less disk space

ReplayTV:
-Commerical skip
-Local LAN Replay-to-Replay streaming
-Internet Video sharing with friends

I would suggest going to a local electronics store and playing with the interfaces and seeing which one you like more. I had my Tivo first so the ReplayTV interface drives me batty. I might feel differently if I had purchased a ReplayTV first, I don't know.

ReplayTV and Tivo both have vibrant online communities (Replay's and Tivo's) where you can find all kinds of information, good and bad, about the various models. The Tivo community is HUGE with literally hundreds of knowledgeable people (including several Tivo employees) contributing hacks and help constantly.

I think that Tivo users as well as users of other PVRs are going to have to get used to this type of thing. If the information supplied on this page is correct, then this perceived intrusion is not much of an intrusion at all. As long as user-specified recordings aren't overridden, the user isn't forced to view the content, and device capacity isn't affected, I'm not sure what the problem is. Now, if Tivo et al. decide to limit the ability of users to skip ads, that may be an issue - but I'm not sure the community should be up-in-arms about this particular issue. Tivo needs to make money in order to fight the networks in the inevitable lawsuits to come. If they demonstrate a limited willingness to work with the networks, then judges are going to be much less likely to take the side of the 'content' providers.

I think the networks are currently in a tough position with the PVR issue and anything to take them off-balance is a good thing.

I've been thinking about picking up one of these new recorders, but hadn't decided which yet. I do NOT like that TiVo think's it's ok to grab that kind of control over MY property.

I think I just made up my mind, unless anyone has any strong pro-TiVo or anti-ReplayTV information?

I suggest a strong dose of research. The Tivo Community is a great place to start for the Tivo side of the equation. For example, the site will explain how these promo recordings do not in any way interfere with your regular recording. It is just more information that Tivo sends to you, like the channel listings or "system mail".

I went through the DVR eval routine about 2 months ago and settled on Tivo because of overall ease of use, and features-per-dollar. The menus and interface on Tivo seemed much easier to use, but your mileage may vary. ReplayTV has the commerical skip and other features, but nothing that balanced out the price and other oddities.

Either way, just make sure you're basing your decision on healthy research and not a spot reaction to a headline on /.

The recording is of the lowest priority, that is, it will only record if nothing else is scheduled to record. It doesn't show up in your Now Playing list, it shows up as an option on your Tivo Central Menu. Check the thread for all the details/complaints.

No, it doesn't. The thread mentioned above, covers this in detail in TiVo's response ....

To bring this video to the box of (just about) every tivo user, Tivo buys time on Discovery Channel around 4:00am. They broadcast the video in the clear and have Tivo record it, but hide it from the list of recorded programs. The trigger to display the icon indicating extra available material is broadcast on a not often used (and masked by the Tivo) secondary closed captioning stream. Tivo intercepts this and acts accordingly.

Unfortunately, Tivo also adds an extra icon and menu item on the main menu, advertising the availability of (and giving you a direct link to) the videos. This isn't the first time this has happened -- Tivo "teamed" with BMW a few months back to do a similar promotion. There is a big debate going on in the Tivo Community Forums on if this is acceptable to Tivo users (who are already paying $13/mo for the service).

To bring this video to the box of (just about) every tivo user, Tivo buys time on Discovery Channel around 4:00am. They broadcast the video in the clear and have Tivo record it, but hide it from the list of recorded programs. The trigger to display the icon indicating extra available material is broadcast on a not often used (and masked by the Tivo) secondary closed captioning stream. Tivo intercepts this and acts accordingly.

Unfortunately, Tivo also adds an extra icon and menu item on the main menu, advertising the availability of (and giving you a direct link to) the videos. This isn't the first time this has happened -- Tivo "teamed" with BMW a few months back to do a similar promotion. There is a big debate going on in the Tivo Community Forums on if this is acceptable to Tivo users (who are already paying $13/mo for the service).

Wrong. TiVo's data is keyed to the ID of your TiVo unit, which is unique.

Wrong. The ID of your unit is not sent with the anonymous data that Tivo collects. Check the Tivo Underground for more details on how to examine the data yourself.

Tivo Community - Link to thread

There are already 4+ pages of pissed off people..

>Does it make the device cheaper or more stable?

Possibly. It definately makes it more hackable. Using a linux-based bootable CD tool I was able to add a 120G second hard drive to my AT&T branded series 2 TiVo.

All kinds of info on hacking at theTiVo Forums.

ryan

Here's a USENET Thread discussing the new features. There are also a few threads in TheTivo Community Forums discussing the same things.