Tivo Hacking A-OK - Says Tivo

s|eeper writes: "C|Net just posted an article about Tivo publicly stating that at this time, they have no problem with people hacking their Tivos to add more disk space."

Comments

Re:More solid information?

[Phil Wherry]

While the article doesn't provide a lot of information to actually support the idea that TiVo doesn't have a problem with upgrade hacking, the fact is that TiVo has been one of the most hacker-tolerant consumer electronics companies I've ever seen. A lot of the credit rests with Richard Bullwinkle, the company's Internet spokesman/evangelist. His recent comments on AVS Forum pretty clearly illustrate the attitude I'm talking about:

Well, I'm sure many of you have been waiting for anything I might say about the "hacking" of TiVo, so let me put on my best Yoda voice, and see if I can spread some wisdom. First, let me give credit where credit is due. That was no easy task, and those guys are pretty stunning engineers to have gotten into the places they did in the first place.

Second, let me give a bit of warning -- more as a friend than a corporate entity. PLEASE BE CAREFUL. TiVo's are not designed to be opened. Anyone who has ever been inside a computer knows that power supplies for user-upgradeable equipment should be covered. TiVo's is not, because it is not designed to be user-upgradeable . I'm not worried about this from a legal perspective, because that little sticker that says "Risk of Electric Shock -- Do Not Open" covers me pretty well in the eyes of the law , but it would break my heart to hear of someone who hurt themselves going inside their TiVo.

Third, make backups. We already know of one thing that is going to affect you guys with the release of 2.0, and we would feel bad if we made your TiVo useless after we changed the software somehow, but we of course would take no financial responsibility for that. We want to keep you happy TiVo customers, but we will not risk relationships with partners or do any special testing to make sure hacked boxes work. The thing we will do that will affect you, that we already know about, is the same thing that makes 2x30 GB machines 60 hours instead of 72. In short, we have never created a box over 30 hours, and any receivers over 30 hours that are out there when we release our new software will have about 12 hours taken away. Any programs within that space will be deleted. Consider this fair warning.

Finally, please be cool about this. We have already taken down AVS with floods about the subject. You don't want to anger people and force them to take action about this.

By the way, as far as hacking goes, don't interfere with the TiVo service. Anyone who tries to steal it, copy it, or modify the way it works in a negative way will receive instant ramifications from TiVo. I don't mean to be a heavy, but that is what puts food on my family's table.

How is that for straight shooting? If you have questions, I will try to answer them here.

Cheers,
Richard Bullwinkle
TiVolutionary

How will advertising change?

[boss soul]

It seems like if they allow people to add HD space at their own discretion, this stands as yet another selling point for this product. Considering this, I wonder...

If TIVO, and products like it, become more and more popular, will the very nature of advertising on television change as a result?

My friend owns one of those TIVO thingies, and it seems like he never watches any commercials at all... he just pre-records all his favorate shows, and then zips thru the ads with the 30 second-skip button. If it gets to the point where most viewers are using a service that allows them to do this, how will the networks change the format of ads in order to compensate? Will they place them during the shows themselves, or in the form of product placement?

Or will they simply revert to subliminal mind control techniques? :)

Why is this news?

[Skim123]

Buy a TiVo, you are paying your own money... you decide to tinker with it... why would the TiVo folks have any say in the matter? Don't you buy a TiVo? You aren't renting it, correct? I don't see why TiVo would have any stance on this. It would be like Ford saying, "We don't have any problem with people changing their own oil filters." That being said, why again is this news?