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Some links:

http://www.digitalregime.com/tivo2svcd/
http://www.tivonews.com/article.pl?sid=02/09/09/18 34255&mode=thread&threshold=

Pretty much anyone who owns a Tivo will tell you: don't bother spending any time or money trying to build your own, just go buy a Tivo! There are no products on the market, for money or for free, that are even close to as good as a Tivo.

There are two reasons to buy a Tivo instead of anything else, and they are both due to the Tivo software:

1) User Interface

2) Recording Management

Point One: User Interface. The user interface is simple and convenient. It is literally simple enough to use that your grandmother can learn to use it in less than two minutes, and can use it from then on without ever calling you for help. Try that with your computer.

Now, you're thinking "I'm not building this for Granny and I can deal with a complex UI." True enough... but the Tivo UI is not just simple, it's *convenient*. That means that controlling your Tivo is less time consuming and less annoying than any other device that has this kind of complexity, even for a studly computer wizard such as yourself.

Point Two: Recording Management. Tivo is more than just a digital VCR, although you can use it like that if you want. Tivo doesn't just *have* program guide information, it *uses* it with an intelligence and sophistication that you won't find in any other PVR software. You don't program Tivo to record a particular channel at a particular time like you do VCR. You tell it "record the Simpsons" and it takes care of the details all on it's own, week after week. If the schedule changes, it records it at the new time (or the new day). If there are extra episodes, it records them as well.

Other important features related to Recording Management include: one-time recording, instant recording, conflict management, space management, wishlists, and suggestions. You may not think that all of these are important, but after you use a Tivo for a week you will realize just how important these features are and how well Tivo handles them.

The available PVR software doesn't even come close to Tivo's sophistication. The closest is ReplayTV, and even they aren't as good (although this is something of a religious argument between ReplayTV owners and Tivo owners). To get a better sense of what you're actually paying for when you buy a Tivo, see a comparison of Tivo with ReplayTV. Read that, and consider that the PVR software doesn't even compare to the Replay.

Heck, Freevo doesn't even record (yet)! I don't know why people keep mentioning it whenever Tivo or PVRs come up...

The one omission with Tivo is that it doesn't let you export the recorded video digitally (you can play it back and record it to your VCR, and in fact it has a function specifically for that which is very convenient). Fortunately, the Tivo hackers have finally figured out how to export reliably and import back onto the Tivo reliably (the ReplayTV hackers have been able to do this for a year already). I'm in the process now of setting up a terabyte file server that will be for storing video captured by my Tivo.

If you are feeling the need to build-it-yourself because you like to build things yourself, then get a Tivo and hack it! Let the Tivo provide the things that it's really really good at (UI and recording management), then add on the stuff that it doesn't have that you want (large file storage, networking, video import/export, even mp3 music playback). You'll have to start reading the Tivo hacking forums and playing with bleeding-edge software, but isn't that what build-it-yourself is all about?

Check here, which was the second google hit on "setting the tivo clock".

E-E-Tivo - If in Debug mode (see C-C-E-E 2 below), lets you set the TiVo's clock. Warning: setting this value may cause all of your Guide data to get "expired". If you want to play with this, keep in mind that TiVo may get mad at you for downloading several copies of your Guide data over the course of a couple of days. The best way to fix a messed up clock without reloading all the Guide data is to do the "Make a Test Call" option. The format of the time entry you use is the same as the format for the settime command. (?)

No, it's not ideal that they make you go through a backdoor to do it, but at least it's possible. Also, a test call might (or might not) work even if you weren't subscribed, but there's no real need. I agree that it should just be a menu option somewhere.

-Puk

The code to enable 30-second skips is "select" "play" "select" "3" "0" "select", and does not require the "master back door enable" code referenced by this thread. The "master back door enable" code opens up about two dozen other codes. See the Tivo backdoor page for details.

Slow-0(zero)-Record-Thumbs Up

This will give you an option on your now playing list for sorting by date, show and expiration date.

I'm not sure if you to have the backdoor mode enabled for it. More details are at: Tivonews backdoors

For those who are trying to decide between UltimateTV and TiVo, or who (like me) own one type of unit and are thinking about switching to the other, here's a pretty comprehensive TiVo vs UltimateTV comparison.

In a nutshell, TiVo beats UltimateTV in almost all areas.

One other bit of information that may be significant: UltimateTV requires that you have a DirectTV satellite dish -- it will not work with standard cable TV.

Joseph Elwell.