Tivo Hacking?

bonehead asks: "Does anyone know of any projects underway to reverse engineer the Tivo? Tivo and Philips seem to have a very hostile attitude toward end-user upgrades, which I find highly disappointing. While there have been success stories reported of users adding additional disk space, there are also threats from the company about 'throwing a switch' that would disable user-modified units. It seems to me that an open set of utilities for formatting drives with Tivo's proprietary file system and adding additional space would be quite useful. Going a step further, how about simply using the Tivo as a hardware platform and creating a fully open-sourced set of software to replace theirs? Any thoughts or experiences?" (Read on ...)

Not to steer this conversation too far off topic, but this is a disturbing trend that I'm noticing among computer hardware manufacturers. I wonder if they seek to emulate their cousins in the software industry with their EULAs which they think gives them the right to dictate to the customer how they can use a product that exists on the open market. I can't tell you how many of the current issues we've handled on Slashdot result from this kind of thinking. Am I the only one that is bothered by this "kill switch" that software (and now hardware) makers are building into their products?

What gives them the right to treat us in this way?

Why do we let them?

Comments

Re:Do it yourself video recorder

[drix]

Don't be too hard on TiVo. Realize that they are likely selling the hardware at a loss depending on customer's monthly subscription to make up the difference.

Of course we should be hard on them! If businesses want to survive in a capitalist economy such as our own, then they should not come to rely on a consumer willing to pay a pointless fee to make up for their loss. I'm tired of all these companies (Netpliance, FreePC) crying foul when their loss-leader plans blow up in their face. You should come to expect that and count on it, and not feel like the consumer owes you something to make up for your manufacturing loss.

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Re:Do it yourself video recorder

[Anomalous Canard]

Don't be too hard on TiVo. Realize that they are likely selling the hardware at a loss depending on customer's monthly subscription to make up the difference.

People who make business plans should expect that most of their customers will make rational economic decisions. Despite P.T. Barnum's advice, a business plan that counts on the stupidity of its customers is broken and reflects the company's contempt of its customer. We should not respect broken business plans. We should behave in ways that benefit us. If that means cracking open the TiVo, then it should be done.

Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected

Do it yourself video recorder

[Jim Buzbee]

Don't be too hard on TiVo. Realize that they are likely selling the hardware at a loss depending on customer's monthly subscription to make up the difference.

They are also walking a fine-line with the MPAA regarding recording copyrighted material. The MPAA is afraid that people will make a digital recording of first-run (Pay per view/HBO, etc ) material and start distributing it on the net. If the MPAA gets unhappy, they'll attempt to shut TiVo down. TiVo must at least attempt to keep the recorded material "protected" or they'll be put ot of business by the MPAA.

If you are interested in doing a box yourself, Here's a page describing the creation of one. This guys advantage is that he is dealing with a satellite receiver so the data is already professionally compressed.