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TiVo Introduces Series2
KMFMS writes "Yesterday, TiVo introduced their Series2 line of TiVo DVRs. The TiVo web page for the Series2 states that it will have "2 USB expansion ports to connect to peripheral devices like... network adaptors..." " Presumably
this will mean Tivo will have Broadband support to compete with the new ReplayTV 4000's.
It also claims to support music and stuff too.
It will have built in support for several types of USB devices. The kernel in the only "series 2" device out there (the AT&T Tivo, availble right now thru Tivo's web page) appears to have compiled-in support for a few types of USB ethernet adapters, but it may not be enabled as of yet. In any case, so software drivers will be required, you just have to use the list of "compatible hardware" that they give. That list will likely be long, as it's just a matter of having the unit detect and load the necessary kernel modules (it's running Linux 2.4.something).
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
JVC, Panasonic, and Sony all make these, just look around.
I agree that one should not consider buying one of the Series2 boxes until there is a *reason* to.. However, it is understandable what TiVo is doing. Most likely, when ReplayTV released their 4000 unit with the broadband, TiVo was caught with their pants down and have been rushing since then to have something to show for CES, so that they don't appear to be behind in the development of their product as compared to Replay. This is a way of using what was pretty much already-existing technology in many Series1 boxes (see this comment within this article regarding technology which is already in the TiVo), but being able to say, "look we're doing what Replay did, but better!!"
-mikey
Yeah I had the same attitude until I bought one. When you realize the power the guide data gives Tivo. you can easily appreciate paying $10 a month. Sure the data is free, but programming the Tivo is not. If you had to manually program the guide data every two weeks, I think that would suck. Otherwise, the Tivo is just a digital VCR. You can easily use your computer to just record tv shows digitally. The fact that the system keeps itself updated, tracks shows that you like, automatically record a show if it moves, etc. etc etc. Its more than just the fact you are getting free data. You are getting to use the power of Tivo with that data. It takes a lot of effort to make the data useful, and that is what you are paying for.
I'd love to know the percentage of people who own DirecTiVo units who are actually using the dual tuners. I suspect that as a marketing feature, it was a necessary thing to add to compete against UltimateTV, but I think the reality is that only a small percentage of people are utilizing it.
The added cost to a standalone TiVo of adding a second tuner is probably not trivial. For those systems, the TiVo is doing on-the-fly mpeg compression. Adding another tuner also means adding at least another compression co-processor. For the DirecTiVo versions, the signal is already compressed coming from DirecTV, so those are parts they didn't have to add. For a dual-tuner the thing needs to be able to handle three video streams at once... two recording/compression and one playback. That's a lot of number-crunching. The DirecTiVo only ever has to deal with set of number-crunching (for playback).
-S
--- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
Milalwi
Is that baised on any actions taken by TiVo, or anything they have said?
Last I visited the TiVo "underground" forum they were busy finding the AT&T TiVo (the first Series2 TiVo) just as hackable as the old ones. Sure the old tools for the most part didn't "just work", but that is because the CPU in the new one (some MIPS varient, I think at 200Mhz or so vs. the 50Mhz PPC in the old one) was running byte swapped (I assume to make talking to x86 byte order peripherials simpler).
They had adding an extra drive working, and were pretty sure they could get the rest of the stuff working as well. The serial port still give access to a root shell. Nothing blows away your changes (except during an upgrade).
They also had a list of which USB ethernet drivers were compiled in, but oddly nobody had acquired one to see if it "just worked".
If TiVo was going to cut off the hackers why didn't they do it a month ago when they brought out the new hardware?
Er, which ones are gone?
I've watched one thing and recorded something else with my Stand-Alone Tivo plenty of times its all a matter of having this wired up correctly! And I've got a cheap TV with only one input on it, the standard RF cable. If I felt like it I could actually have my Tivo record one show, be recording another show on my VCR and be watching a third on the TV.
Wall Jack Tivo VCR GameCube TV.
If your Tivo is in standby it is still picking the signal up off of the wire and recording the signal, but it also passes the signal on the wire through intact. Its like having your VCR record something and hitting TV/VCR so you can watch something else at the same time.
As many people here have pointed out it would take a lot more then just another tuner to be able to record two shows at once. You'd have to have enough hardware in the system to encode two mpeg2 streams. The DirecTivo's get around this by recording the DirecTv mpeg2 streams without having to encode them.
"You can't fight in here! This is the war room" --Dr. Stra
No you didn't. You paid for a lifetime subscription for that box, not for yourself. That's an important distinction. If you give away or sell that box, that box is still subscribed. You've effectively added value to your unit. TiVo has always been upfront about selling subscriptions for boxes, not people/households.
If I upgrade to a new TiVo, am I screwed out of my lifetime subscription?
Of course not, that value never goes away, although it depreciates over time, as the box gets older and its value decreases. If you ever decide you no longer want your box you can sell it with the added value of a lifetime sub.
this link on CNN has a little more info on what will be "new" for Series2.
look for online games from the Jellyvision, maker of You Don't Know Jack and Smush.
also look for some sort of video on demand by Radiance Technologies Inc.
this is in addition to the Real Networks partnering and the USB support.
not quite the networking capability that i was hoping for but something nonetheless that might be interesting.
/* Half alive and half dead too, work is for suckers and the sucker is you. - "Half-life" by Local H*/
Note you can opt-out, and it has been confirmed (via tcpdump) that once you do your TiVo sends your account number and date of last call, and nothing about your viewing, how much stuff is on the drive, or anything else.
Opt-out is free (toll-free call, and no monthly service charge or anything). It's described in chapter 7 of my manual (which is all about privacy) in the same size print everything else is. I don't think TiVo is trying to pull a "fast one" which is how the privacyfoundation spins it. Which is a real shame because I think they have done a lot to hurt the only one of the 3 PVR companies that even lets you opt-out!
I'll also note that both ReplayTV and UltimateTV sell your data, don't make claims about washing it first (that I know of), and don't have an opt-out number (that I know of).
It will Not have HDTV out. It has RCA and S-Video out
About the same as the older standalone TiVo (which I think is around 6Mbit/sec for "best" quality, and much lower like 1.5Mbit for "standard"). It is variable bit rate MPEG2 (with an option for CBR). "Best" and "High" both look fine for anything that doesn't have a lot of strobes or super quick cuts one after another. "Standard" works fine for cartoons most of the time. I don't think I ever use medimum.
Ask the MPAA...or head off to the TiVo underground and slap on an Ethernet, just don't let the MPAA know :-)
Enabling Backdoor Mode
The Backdoor mode can be entered using the remote by doing a "Browse By Name" for "0v1t" (TiVo spelled backwards with zero and one instead of "O" and "I") followed by the "Thumbs-Up" key. The only known way of exiting Backdoor mode is to reboot the TiVo (see "C-E-C Fast-Forward" below).
The backdoor code for 2.0 systems is done the same way, except the code is "2 0 TCD". There is one space between the "2" and the "0", and another space between the 0 and the TCD".
The backdoor code for 2.5 systems is done the same way, except the code is "B D 2 5". There is one space between each character.
The backdoor code for V1.5.2 UK (latest) is: 10J0M (thats zeros and ones).
Almost Complete Codes List
One must realize that HDTV is HUGE - at about 5GB for a 30 minute television show - you would need some serious hard drive space - not exactly in the price range of most consumers.
Right now you could make a TiVo with about 320GB of space, using two 160GB Maxtor drives, and the hacks that are already available. Let's say you lop off 5GB for TiVo's OS installation, temp files, etc. That gives you 315GB, enough for a little over 30 HOURS of HDTV programming! Not to mention, most of the stuff you'd be recording probably would not be HDTV (at first).
A 20 hour TiVo costs around $200 or less (if you can find one). The cost of drives varies and is dropping all the time. I'm saying in a year's time, TiVo should be able to come out with an HDTiVo unit that excepts firewire/component inputs for $500 or less. It should also have a tuner capable of decoding OTA HDTV.
And of course, I'd love them to get an HDTiVo integrated with TimeWarner digital cable.
"And like that
-S
--- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?