Excellent Hacks to the ReplayTV 4000

Hit the link below to find links to assorted hacks done to the extremely cool ReplayTV 4000 PVR. Thanks to jptsetme for submitting links to hacks like hard drive upgrades, software to download mpegs, edit the guide, and systems under development to automate create of VCDs and DVDs from Replay's. It's exciting seeing so much headway being made so fast, and evidence that this is one heck of a machine. "The Replay hackers at AVS forum have done an amazing job on the new ReplayTV 4000's. You can now do some very cool things with this new PVR.

You can increase recording space (by either replacing the existing drive, or adding an additional one.) This has, of course, been done with Tivos and older Replays in the past. Not only has this hack been adapted for the Replay4000 model (including custom sized photo partitions and preserving existing shows), but Replay has also recently released new software that removes the previous 137G per drive limitation, so you can now turn any ReplayTV4000 into a 320G model with a couple of 160G drives and a PC (Linux, Win2k, XP, or with a Linux boot disk on an x86 box with a good enough BIOS to recognize the drive size.)
http://rtvpatch.sourceforge.net/

But, you might decide you don't need to open the box at all, since you can now offload your shows to your PC and then serve them back to the ReplayTV4000 with your PC masquerading as another ReplayTV4000 on your local network, giving you nearly limitless storage capacity. [Note: this does not use the internet sharing feature, which is so slow over typical broadband as to be practically unusable. This is streaming the show in realtime from your PC back to your Replay4000, using the same mechanism two Replays use to stream shows back and forth over your local network.]

ReplayPC (C/C++, Windows, Linux, Mac. A simple text mode utility for extracting mpg files from ReplayTV4000 PVRs via TCP/IP)
http://replaypc.sourceforge.net/

Replayer (Pure Java. Java GUI utility allows you to extract mpg files from your ReplayTV 4000 to your PC)
http://www.forbesfield.com/replayer.html

Replay Server (built on PHP for Apache. Allows you to serve downloaded shows to a ReplayTV (on your LAN only) from your PC as if your PC was a ReplayTV)
http://206.124.140.12/rtv/

SwapDV (J++, windoze only. Allows you to download shows from your ReplayTV 4000, serve downloaded shows as if your box was a ReplayTV 4000, and edit the "guide" provided by your PC. i.e. capabilities of both Replayer and Replay Server, but only for Windows.)
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&a mp;threadid=116035

A number of users are also working on burning shows to VCD, SVCD, XSVCD and DVD, with moderate success.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&a mp;threadid=115338
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&a mp;threadid=106437

Lastly, there has also been a hack developed to remove macrovision from the old Panasonic Showstoppers (effectively transforming them into ReplayTV3xxx machines.)
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&a mp;threadid=118170."

Comments

SWEET!

[Kubik - The Original]

Even more ways to store and encode my pr0n! This is a glorious day in /. history!

Why use a PVR?

[Mattcelt]

Has anyone worked on an emulator yet to use a PC as a Tivo or ReplayTV? It seems with all the work done so far, they're using the TIVO's a lot to go to a PC for output/modification anyway, so why not just go straight to PC?

Re:Why use a PVR?

[FortKnox]

This is a typical response to a person without a PVR. The biggest advantage of the TiVo is downloading the channel lineups. Unless you can somehow get a program to d/l the yahoo channel listings, along with all programs in the future, I think it'll be a difficult transition...

Re:Why use a PVR?

[Mattcelt]

Right, you got me. :-) I haven't laid out the cash for one yet. But why couldn't I use a modem to do the channel/guide d/l's? That's what the PVR does anyway.

I never considered the guides to be the biggest attractor, anyway, b/c the downside (i.e., having all my viewing habits broadcast back to the company) goes hand-in-hand with it. But I would love to have the pause and rewind features, even if it means I don't have the guide...

Re:Why use a PVR?

[stalefish]

Tivo's and Replays end up being cheaper, quieter, and easier to use than building a custom pc. There is software and hardware available, and people have been doing it. But the people that I know enjoy the conveinence of the PVR.

Re:Why use a PVR?

[hexa00]

that's what I did , just bought a ATI All In Wonder Radeon 7500, let's you record shows in mpeg 1 or 2 or someother codec.

And of course you can select wich shows to record from a TV Guide.

It let's you encode in vcd compatible format.. so burning to cd is ez.

It even has a RF Remote control :)

No need for a PVR with this

Re:Why use a PVR?

[FatRatBastard]

You're right about channel lineups, and I think that the Yahoo channel listings wouldn't be that hard.

I have Watson for OS X (an awesome, awsome program) that, among other things, does just that. Enter your Zip code and cable system and Watson will spit out nicely formatted TV channel guides.

If the Watson guys can do it I assume it shouldn't be all that hard to parse it into a format you could use in conjunction with a PC based PVR.

Re:Why use a PVR?

[Oo.et.oO]

you could hack together a simple script to get TV listings from any of the free listing sites very easily, then this is a moot point.

BUT, commercial PVRs are small, quiet, and look nice in your entertainment center dealy. this can be done also, with some ingenuity.

and anyway, a commercial product that is this cool and hardware heavy is begging to be hacked simply because WE CAN.

major props to the communitay!

Re:Why use a PVR?

[ncc74656]

This is a typical response to a person without a PVR. The biggest advantage of the TiVo is downloading the channel lineups.

It's more than just that. I have a TiVo and an All-In-Wonder Radeon. Both will download program information, but only the TiVo will scan the listings for stuff that it thinks you'll like and then record it. The software for the AIW Radeon lets you pick stuff to record from the listing, but that's as far as it goes. (Gemstar also has had trouble keeping the server running that provides the listings...with the download speeds I've gotten sometimes, you'd think they were using a VIC-20 and an acoustic coupler. AFAIK, TiVo has never had these problems.)

Re:Why use a PVR?

[FortKnox]

the TiVo will scan the listings for stuff that it thinks you'll like and then record it.

This is really simple to emulate. Every movie has like 100 topics. Each movie falls under certain topics with certain weights. From there, its a simple neural net.

The hard part? The person that has to put the "topic wieghts" on each movie + show.

Re:Why use a PVR?

[ncc74656]

the TiVo will scan the listings for stuff that it thinks you'll like and then record it.

This is really simple to emulate. Every movie has like 100 topics. Each movie falls under certain topics with certain weights. From there, its a simple neural net.

The hard part? The person that has to put the "topic wieghts" on each movie + show.

...and that is why TiVo got my $200. I used to pore over the TV listings in the Sunday paper, but finding stuff you might like by that method is a mind-numbing task. (Some might say TV itself is mind-numbing, but that depends on how much your viewing preferences lean toward drek such as pro wrestling, Jerry Springer-type talk, or so-called "reality" shows like Survivor.) You also tend to not catch everything. TiVo fixes both of those problems for a reasonable (IMHO) fee.

Re:Why use a PVR?

[jd142]

only the TiVo will scan the listings for stuff that it thinks you'll like and then record it

I don't know, that's why the tv guide is in the toilet. What I'm waiting for is something that will truly replace my vhs vcr. I want to be able to record shows and then put the medium somewhere.

The hacks to hook the pvr to my pc make the pvr a much more attractive buy. All I'd have to do is run some cabling to the computer when I wanted to store something permanently. But from the looks of the links, it's not quite there yet. Especially considering my vcr is working just fine. Now if I were to need to replace my vcr, it would be a different situation. The times I actually tape and archive stuff is rare. With cable, everything is always on again sometime, except for shows I know are doomed before they even air, viz. The Tick, Lonegunmen.

Re:Why use a PVR?

[ncc74656]

The hacks to hook the pvr to my pc make the pvr a much more attractive buy. All I'd have to do is run some cabling to the computer when I wanted to store something permanently.

I added TiVoNET, so I hooked up the Cat 5 run that I had been using previously with a computer under the TV. That puts it on my LAN 24/7. It grabs guide data through the cable-modem connection, and I can use netcat and ExtractStream to (usually) get a TV show onto one of my computers for editing and reencoding.

But from the looks of the links, it's not quite there yet.

It is a bit rough around the edges, but it usually works as long as you're not afraid of shell prompts and batch files (and if you're here, you probably aren't). There are some shows that I'd like to keep around (I'm currently archiving Enterprise), and SVCDs take up much less space than tapes. Editing and reencoding is the most time-consuming part, but that's nothing that faster hardware won't cure. (Somewhere, an Asus A7M266-D is calling to me...:-) )

Re:Why use a PVR?

[Dusty Chalk]

Well, no, it's not that simple. I believe what it does is tap into the database of shows that everyone else who's recorded some of the same shows that you have to see what else they've recorded, and then recommend that back to you. Same as "People who have bought that PC also bought..." at a lot of the online music stores.

Re:Why use a PVR?

[FortKnox]

Tap into a DB of shows from other viewing habits? Not likely. That's private data.

Think about it. The "thumbs up, thumbs down" feature. Its to add extra weight to the shows that you've "thumbed up." I honestly think it'd be easier to code, more efficient, and less "legal shadow" to use a neural net instead of a DB search that you are infering. I should probably ask in the tivo forums about this. But if it isn't your standard run-of-the-mill neural net, I'd be really surprised.

Re:Why use a PVR?

[steveha]

I can use netcat and ExtractStream to (usually) get a TV show onto one of my computers for editing and reencoding.

Whoa, could you tell me more? You are just about to sell me a TiVo.

What quality does the TiVo capture at? Can it capture full 640x480 TV pictures? (Sometimes called 720x480, if you are talking about entire scan lines and not just the square-pixels viewable part.)

I have no problem with paying money to TiVo for their box. I have no problem paying monthly for TV listings. I have a problem with doing the above and then not having any way to burn my own DVDs; I know you can hook a VCR up to a TiVo but I'm not interested. I have been saying for years that I would buy a TiVo when I can put one on my home network and grab video for DVD burning. Maybe that day has come?

steveha

Re:Why use a PVR?

[ncc74656]

Whoa, could you tell me more? You are just about to sell me a TiVo.

Acutally, I got email today from someone who saw my page on ripping TiVo video that suggests newer, easier-to-use software than what I described (plus I've been using different methods for my own rips lately)...but the page will give you some idea of what's involved and what you need.

Lately, I've been using ExtractStream and netcat to dump the audio and video streams to my Win2K box, as it's the one with the fastest processor and most storage. The webpage mentions using netmplex to combine the audio and video streams into an MPEG-2 program stream; this isn't necessary for my purposes and isn't even desirable as separate programs are needed to decode audio and video.

What quality does the TiVo capture at?

Best quality is 2/3 D1 (480x480) at 5.8 Mbps CBR MPEG-2 for video and 32 kHz stereo at 192 kbps MPEG-1 Layer 2 for audio. Lower-bitrate modes are available, but you don't really want to use them if you're interested in editing & archiving video. Note that the resolution is the same as SVCD, though you'd need to reduce the video bitrate and adjust the audio sample rate to burn an SVCD. To burn a VCD or DVD, some additional conversions would be necessary.

Re:Why use a PVR?

[Rick the Red]

Do the "people you know" also enjoy the monthly subscription fee? Will they enjoy it more, or less, as the fee goes up?

Somehow I think the hardware cost of a do-it-yourself box will be more than repaid by the savings in subscriptions.

Oh, and can your Replay/TiVo/whatever play games, or record/play/serve-to-the-household-network CDs? DVDs? MP3s? A homegrown box can do whatever you want it to, not whatever they want it to.

Re:Why use a PVR?

[bitca]

But how do you get the programs from your tivo onto your hard drive or a cd/dvd?

Fantastic

[Rayban]

When will we have an HDTV-capable PVR? The Bell ExpressVu boxes up here are either PVRs or HDTV decoders. Looks like at this point you can't have your cake and eat it too.

Re:Fantastic

[TheMatt]

It might be a while. If I recall, HDTV is 1.5 Gbps uncompressed (1920 x 1080 x 30 fps x 8 bits per color), so that is a bit beyond modern HD solutions in a set top box (if you want to record more than an hour)

Now, I'm not too sure what compression keeps HDTV quality. Anyone out there with that number? That could give an estimate of hours you could record...assuming the I/O system could handle the speed.

Re:Fantastic

[ptbarnett]

Dish Network has one in the works, but it will require a subscription to their service. It will also require an additional dish, since HDTV programming is broadcast from satellites at 61 and 148 degrees (mainstream programming is broadcast from 110 and 119).

It's probably at least a year away.

Re:Fantastic

[Anonymous Coward]

There is an open source PVR/Linux tv at linuxtv.org, but that does mostly euro standards. I'm just starting a new effort at Linux HDTV which is an effort to set up a HDTV PVR.

Re:Fantastic

[ddennedy]

Ah yes, you seek an HDTV PVR. Well, if you buy a Windows over-the-air (OTA) HDTV receiver card like the Telemann HiPix, Access DTV, or Hauppage WinTV-HD, they provide HDTV capture and have onboard MPEG-2 decoders to output true ATSC signals to a digital monitor. The software is not robust though so it's rarely worth even trying. HiPix and WinTV-HD store vanilla MPEG-2 transport streams; Access format is proprietary.

On Linux, it is possible to capture OTA DTV/HDTV using just a WinTV-D. Heroine's libmpeg3 can parse and decode MPEG-2 transport streams, but good luck getting ATSC signals out of that arrangement. However, Teralogic is the company behind the MPEG-2 coder chip used in the above 3 products--their Janus platform. They have a different, but similar chipset called Cougar designed for set-tops that they have ported to Linux and call the Cougar-L platform. Perhaps someday we will see support for Janus on Linux.

Finally, the non-PC way to do it is to use a standard settop receiver like the RCA DTC-100, a modification from http://www.169time.com/ that adds firewire ports, and a D-VHS deck. Now, for Linux, I am aware of some Linu1394 developers that are exploring the creation of a D-VHS driver. The concern here is that JVC appears to hold a patent on this format.

Re:Fantastic

[KernelHappy]

If I recall, HDTV is 1.5 Gbps uncompressed</snip>

Uncompressed NTSC video (720x480) would use about 237mbit/second (720x480x24x29.97 (drop frame)), but we don't record that uncompressed. Instead we compress it before we transmit or store it digitally and in the case of DSS/Tivo combo boxes the units store the compressed stream exactly as it is received. IIRC most HDTV programs are broadcast using a 18Mbit/sec stream. This isn't exactly tiny but in a day of 160GB harddrives its manageable. In fact DV uses a M-JPEG like codec that consumes about 25Mbit/sec for standard NTSC video and current consumer PC technologies are up to the task of handling it. Storing an exact copy of a HDTV broadcast is quite acheivable given current consumer level equipment.

So the problem is political rather than technological. Media companies view the move to HDTV and digital video in general as their chance to correct the "mistakes" they made with previous copiable formats. These companies do not want their content to fall under the previous fair use controls and they are draging their feet while they frantically search for a way to control every aspect of their content even if it impinges on the consumers fair use ability. This is evident in the vast array of manuevers going on behind the scenes to get DRM in place before the consumer HDTV explosion happens.

Late in the game, hardware manufacturers jumped to using encrypted streams over IEEE1394 (Firewire/i.Link) to the display device. So if you purchased a HDTV decoder 1-2 years ago there is the possibility/probability you may not be able to use whatever the standard format of choice for recording content is without buying a new decoder or additional hardware.

The simple fact is that the powerhouses behind the scenes don't want us timeshifting their prescious HDTV content until they can control every aspect of how we use it.

Yeah, but...

[EricKrout.com]

Yeah, but my Commodore 64 has been able to do all this stuff for years. (Just ask my friends in Afghanistan!) - Junis ;-)

Can you imagine....

[Aexia]

a beo-... Ehhhh. Too easy.

Can you imagine a Beowulf cluster of MPAA Nazis descending upon this?

Re:Can you imagine....

[jgerman]

Come on now, do we have to wade through the making fun of the beowulf clusters posts for the next sixth months now. It wasn't even funny the first time, yet there's still a couple modded up ones under every topic.

Re:Can you imagine....

[Pig Hogger]

Can you imagine a Beowulf cluster of MPAA Nazis descending upon this?

That would be a GRENDEL cluster...

Phone Home

[loydcc]

Is there a hack to keep it from ratting out my preferences to replay Brittney Spears commercials. That would be a truly useful hack. Until then I think I'll stick with my 1/2 inch tape VCR. Upgrading the storage capacity is easy with it's modular cartridge accaptance port. And programming what I want to watch costs me nothing.

Re:Phone Home

[deepvoid]

Why would you want to do that? Replay TV could be a better neilson box than the peice of trash they use now. This would give the advertising companies an incentive to show even MORE of Brittney (though you might need an MRI to do that by now ;>) Wouldn't it be nice to have a button on the remote which could give a thumbs up or down to the commercial as well, skipping any recording of it if you disliked it, as well as sending the approriate signal to the polyester person (PP) who thought it up?

Re:Phone Home

[Jekyll]

Actually, yes, there is. That is if what you are referring to is what TiVo said about its users. It's called opt-out. It takes one phone call to TiVo, and after that, your super-secret anonymous information isn't taken.

Re:Phone Home

[Anonymous Coward]

ReplayTV expressly doesn't gather that kind of information. But, as others have pointed out, I wish it would. I want them to know that I watch futurama and Nightline and Frontline and Farscape and Nova and every movie with Meg Tilly in it. I want them to know I never watch sports. I want my vote to count because I want more shows like I like and less shows like I don't like.

Re:Phone Home

[monkeydo]

Hey genius, your vote does count. The Neilson families are chosen randomly to represent the distribution of households in the US. So your vote counts proportionally to the number of households with the same taste as you.
If they got this sort of information just from people who had PVR's or who volunteered you would have a statistical problem. It is difficult to draw generalizations from self-selecting samples. The people making TV shows don't care what you watch, they care what the majority of your demographic watches. If you have fringe tastes no one is interested and you get screwed. It isn't an accident, it's by design.

Re:Phone Home

[IronChef]

ReplayTV has no monthly fee.

They claim that the data they collect is anonymous too.

Re:Phone Home

[loydcc]

Replay TV could be a better neilson box than the peice of trash they use now.

Who buys the PVR's? Geeks and early adopters ie the people with money or desire to get the coolest gadgets. But then the average household is left out of ratings system. So instead of Americas Funniest Home Videos taking the ratings Cowboy Bebop takes the ratings. (I know they don't run opposite each other it's just an example of the two different kinds of viewers.) Eithor way the outcome is skewed.

When the average viewer can afford a PVR or has no choice but get one cause the video cassette makers went the way of the Vinyl Recordplayer, then maybe Replay TV or Tivo could be a better Neilson Box.

Until then TV is pretty much going to suck 90% no matter what they put on it. The scam is that the ratings system today only pleases those who volunteer to be watched. And those sheep enjoy 'Touched by an Angel'

Re:Phone Home

[deepvoid]

You can't tell me the current neilson box doesn't skew things. In order to get one and keep it, you can't have a life. At least with a PVR I can record the program and watch it when I want, and not when it plays.

If the PVR makers dropped the price on the low end models and advertised more to Joe Sixpack, the ratings yeild will still be crap.

Re:Phone Home

[loydcc]

That's exactly my point. The current system does skew things. Who actually watches Americas Funniest Home Videos? I don't know a single person who watches it and I know like hundreds of people. Yet under the Neilson system it wins it's time slot.

Networktastic!

[Rogerborg]

• offload your shows to your PC and then serve them back to the ReplayTV4000 with your PC masquerading as another ReplayTV4000 on your local network

Wow, imagine a ReplayTV cluster of, er... Beowulf nodes...

Sorry, I appear to have wandered into the wrong joke.

Re:Networktastic!

[Anonymous Coward]

this is a lot funnier than the rated 4 beowulf joke above...

Why not simply use your PC?

[Graabein]

Why buy another box, why not just use your PC?

There are several products out there which allow you to use your PC as a TVR and record directly to VCD. Just one example: Hauppauge WinTV-PVR (no affiliation, yadda, yadda).

Anyone tried this product or others like it? Experiences: Good, bad, indifferent?

Re:Why not simply use your PC?

[tiedyejeremy]

I use my replay in one room and the computer in another. Radeon All-in-Wonder. It works ok. not great - and it doesn't decode the premium channels or handle changing the channels on my decoder. The panasonic unit does. Also - I implemented most of these hacks 3 months ago - so they're not that new...

Re:Why not simply use your PC?

[vukv]

because it is much more convinient to useit from your sofa than sitting in front of your computer... its like comparing watching DVD's on your computer with watching it on your entertainment system... big diff.

PVR's are awesome, every single person who ever tried them loved them to the death... But you need to try it in order to understand it

Re:Why not simply use your PC?

[Lumpy]

Sure you can with a anemic little computer (Pentium MMX 266) and a crappy ol' bttv tuner card.

Go and download Nupple-video and follow his tips on there to heppily converth the Nupplevideo output to mpeg2 files then buy yourself a nice Hollywood+ mpeg playback card. Now add crontab, mplayer, and spice it with the at daemon to make it easier, bake at 350 with your favorite Linux distro (I choose Slackware 8.0 for it's low fat high quality ingredients) and you have a basic PVR that will gladly play it's video onto your Television without any silly content viewing protection, statistic collection and selling, or government spyware... that eye on the Tivo... I know it's watching me!

it's nothing like a tivo, no FF rewind, pause, or all theo other fluff, but you can make a nice web control panel , point, click, watch Invader Zim!

no it's not easy, no it wont be pretty, no it's not DVD quality with 6.1 surround.. but who cares. it's free, open, and cooler than a Tivo.

Re:Why not simply use your PC?

[azephrahel]

As somone who has putzed with this a few times (on a slack box no less!) you should be able to get fast-forward, rewind et all pretty easily, provided you don't mind some playing around...and if anyone has some suggestions I'd appreciate it :)

I use my setup soley as a recorder, and don't playback on the device itself.

A) record to a drive that is NFS exported, and use a video player that you can trick into playing incompleete files on disk. Try this with gtv aviplay plaympeg or the other simple players, and you'll see as much video as was recorded when you started the player process, but no more. I havn't played with this in awhile since B worked off the bat.

B) start recording to an mpeg file on the tv server. On the client: mkfifo file.mpg;wget --quiet --output-document=file.mpg ftp://name.of.server/name.of.mpg & plaympeg file.mpg

Choice B is what I'm currently using since how I'm trying A isn't working out... Also B seems to be less cpu intensive on the poor little tv server. This leaves a few things lacking like watching tv while I'm not recording it, and channel switching involves scripts I was too lazy to make into cgis...

dumpster dived cyrix: $0.00
ati aiw 128: $70.00 (two years old)
salvaged nic: $0.00
salvaged simms: $0.00
8 gig "BigFoot" HD: $65.00 (3-4 years old)

considering I only paid for two peices, and those many years ago, I'd say this is a FAR cheaper PVR and more fun ;)
maybe I should get it a k6 300 though...

Re:Why not simply use your PC?

[Lumpy]

yes you can and quite easily.

download the Linux Ir remote software package and bind keys to make mplayer do it's functions.

The parent post was marked funny.. but it's real, works great. and I use it instead of the tivo I am currently hacking to allow non tivo company guide updates.

it is quite nice to have a completely open PVR platform to work from.

Re:Why not simply use your PC?

[proxeus]

I bought an ATI TV Wonder VE and it is the single worst PC purchase I have evermade. You MUST have a video card with overlay support which ruled out my old S3 Savage4 (now GeForce 2 MX400) which the box said it supported. It has absolutely NO driver (that I can find, if you can please reply) for anything but Win98 and ME, which also rules out my computer (booting Slackware, WinXP, and Win2000 Advanced Server). Plus, with ATI's long history of driver problems, I doubt that it will ever work.

Re:Why not simply use your PC?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure you did, the 4K has only been shipping since the last week of November. That means you must be an evil hacker genius to get all these show/file sharing hacks in place in negative time.

Re:Why not simply use your PC?

[jgerry]

Use your PC if you want; I'll stick with my DirecTV/TiVo combo unit. Here's why.

1) Picture quality is exceptional. My DirecTiVo pulls the MPEG2 steream directly off the satellite and records it to the HD. No decompress/recompress cycle is necessary. The picture quality is exactly the same as watching the satellite signal directly. Plus, I can record 2 channels at once while waching a third program. Try that with your PC.

2) TiVo has ease-of-use that is orders of magnitude simpler than using a PC-based solution. My non computer educated friends, people who can't even use a simple text editor, people who don't know what a network is -- those people can sit down and use my TiVo, not only to watch stuff it's already recorded, but to pick new things too. It's very easy.

3) A PC in my living room isn't going to happen. That's pretty much the way 95% of people feel as well.

4) By the time you buy the TiVo and the lifetime subscription, you've spent $350-ish U.S. dollars. How much will a decent PC with TV capture card cost? More than that. You're paying for the monthly satellite or cable feed either way.

No contest. I'll take my TiVo or equivalent over the PC-based solutions.

Re:Why not simply use your PC?

[azephrahel]

Some people woudln't even bother responding to this.. but I'm feeling generous, so here ya go:

Start by reading this page, its
a general link page on v4l, that lists the best set of resources on the subject.
http://www.exploits.org/v4l/
And this page about the tv wonder itself (scroll to the bottom to see which linux drivers it uses)
http://lhd.zdnet.com/db/dispproduct.php3?DISP?90 0
You will see the tv wonder series uses the bttv chipset.

Then read these page, which is the home of the DRIVERS for the card you have. Guess what, configure your kernel right, and the'll be in there already!
http://bttv-v4l2.sourceforge.net/
http://bytesex.org/bttv/
also you might wanna read this if you still have problems
http://gatos.sourceforge.net/livid-gatos/2001-Ap ri l/msg00092.html

Follow it all up by reading the xawtv homepage.
http://bytesex.org/xawtv/

Re:Why not simply use your PC?

[quakeroatz]

Ya you can get this card going in any Distro with bttv, vfl and xawtv... BUT...

1) Recording quality sucks, not even TV quality
2) Video/Audio Sync sucks, i haven't seen a decent capture yet
3) Filesize is HUGE! Capturing 15 seconds of TV is 100+ megs

If I'm wrong here, please describe your working method.

"Mine works fine" isn't helping anyone.

Re:Why not simply use your PC?

[Anonymous Coward]

Err this is azephrahel again, posting anon as not
to karma whore.

Set your bitrate appropriately, that lowers filesize significatnly.
For VCD quality set the video bitrate at about 1150000, video size at 320x240 (352x240 if you can). You can half that bitrate and still get decent video.
(see here for more info on the vcd spec)
http://www.icdia.org/cdprosupport/encoding/pink/ mp eg1_specs.htm
Another mistake (that I made a few times)
is setting your audio bitrate to high.
224kbit/sec is the vcd1.1 spec, and for most TV viewing, you don't need it.
64/97 kbps mono works fine.

At the vcd spec it should be about 10-11MB/minute
Lower bitrates are of course lower. You should be abled to record and playback decent video at 260mb-300 for 1 hour of video
Its all in the settings :)

Re:Why not simply use your PC?

[quakeroatz]

Sweet, I'll try these settings tonight.
Thanks!

Re:Why not simply use your PC?

[tiedyejeremy]

I got a showstopper the first week of December - not the 4000, mind you, but had these hacks and HD installation done quite quickly. The code may have changed (how much, I cannot guess), but the hacks are the same...certainly not the the show sharing, as that was not an option. The macrovision, the computer conversion to SVCD, additional storage...

My Wishlist Hack - Canada

[Outlyer]

Ok, I have just one request. Someone hack these things to support Canada. It still boggles the mind that while TIVO supports the UK, they ignore Canada. I mean, it's more than just igloos and hockey up here, eh?

In all seriousness, this is the machine (more so than the TIVO) that seems to be the perfect machine to "fake" guide support on. Unlike the TIVO which dials up and grabs guides from TIVO, the ReplayTV can use your broadband connection. If someone could figure out the host (ideally the hostname) that it connects to, we could trick it into going to a substitute host, grabbing the listing there.

Yeah, I'm simplifying it slightly. For one, who knows what format the data is in. And whether it uses some sort of encryption. However, unlike TIVO, ReplayTV doesn't sell subscriptions, so they'd have no financial interest in protecting the guide format.

(By the way, if anyone can confirm this, my theory about the lack of TIVO and ReplayTV support in Canada is that it's due to the rather strict Canadian privacy laws, and rules around Canadian Content.)

Re:My Wishlist Hack - Canada

[jarodss]

Bell ExpressVu has a PVR

Does that help?

Re:My Wishlist Hack - Canada

[evil_one]

Being a Canadian Satellite company employee, I can tell you that, no, it doesn't really help. Although the PVR (which is essentially a Dish Network 501) is a great unit, you can't do any of the cool hacks to it that you can do with the Tivo and Replay units. If you have a PC with a tv capture card, you can do everything with a 4500 or better ExpressVu that you can do with the PVR (though it's a lot messier and arguably more expensive) and then some. The PVR is just a nicely integrated package, giving you timered recordings and pause/play buttons.

Re:My Wishlist Hack - Canada

[Anonymous Coward]

I would have thought that the lack of potential lawsuits on TV recording devices would attract these companies to base in Canada.

Re:My Wishlist Hack - Canada

[Anonymous Coward]

"Why should we leave USA to go visit USR Jr.?" /Homer

Re:My Wishlist Hack - Canada

[LojaK]

I'm Canadian, and since PVR's are exactly common here, excuse my ignorance on the subject. That said, I understand Replay differs from TIVO because the latter is subscription based. From that, I'd infer that there is some sort of communication occurring between the box and the corporation (via the cable or satellite provider). Does the Replay unit do this as well? Can it function as a standalone unit?

-- Steve.

Re:My Wishlist Hack - Canada

[Backov]

It's actually strictly about Canadian content.. Good ole CRTC strikes again. It's the reason why we don't get HBO on Canadian cable - they don't adhere to Canadian content, they don't get paid.

It's also why when you're watching cable, occasionally NBC turns into CTV.. It's the cable company forcing (pirating) US stations into being compliant with CanCon.

Fscking Nazi bastards.

Cheers,
Backov

Re:My Wishlist Hack - Canada

[kevlar]

Hey, did you get your Navy back yet??

Re:My Wishlist Hack - Canada

[issachar]

amen brother... it's especially irritating when I see an ad saying that Show X is comming up next, so I hit record on the VCR and go out for the evening, only to discover that I wasn't watching Fox at all, and a different show came on instead. Canadian content my ass... Last night's episode of the Simpsons where they go to Toronto was more Canadian than any of the crap the CBC puts out.

Re:My Wishlist Hack - Canada

[jtl]

We know the hostname (rns.replaytv.net). We know most of the data formats, and it wouldn't take someone with interest long to fill in the missing details. This part of the conversation isn't encrypted, and even if it were, we know the encryption system At least one person knows the data formats from earlier models well enough to do exactly this already.

See http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&t hreadid=116146

Re:My Wishlist Hack - Canada

[Monte]

The Replay units more or less have the "lifetime subscription" built into them - that's why they're more expensive (out of the box) than Tivo. Add $250 US to the price of the Tivo (their lifetime cost) and you get a better comparison.

Both the Tivo and non-4000 Replay units connect to your phone line and they call "home" every night to download program listings and software and channel updates, etc. The Replay 4000 units demand broadband, and have a 100baseT connection in the back.

The sattelite versions get their data off the dish, I think. Not sure.

Using a PVR without the channel listings loses a great deal of the benefit of the unit - I think you'd be better off with one of the PC solutions already discussed.

Re:My Wishlist Hack - Canada

[mosch]

I believe the problem is more simple. TiVo gets guide data from tribune media services, and their "big build" (the full dataset) doesn't seem to include Canadian data, thus rendering canadian tivo impossible.

Re:My Wishlist Hack - Canada

[jptsetme]

Much of this work has been done already, although it's not nearly as straightforward a hack as the others I mentioned. The following thread contains a discussion about getting a Replay 3xxx unit working in Canada.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&a mp;threadid=36362

In addition to finding and parsing channel data yourself (this guy has offered in the past to share his learnings on reverse engineering the network requests made by the Replay)...

You need a line simulator and either a linux box (for noauth PPP access) or Win2K Advanced (for the extralong username used by the Replay). Or I guess you could take out the drive and modify the user name, but that's even trickier.

So depending on how adventurous you're feeling -- go find yourself an old Replay or Showstopper and get hacking.

And if you're feeling *really* adventurous, maybe you can build some generic foreign nomenclature translation hack to allow mapping from any channel guide data source to the Replay format.

The Replay units are nice, but...

[freebsd guy]

As a proud owner of a Philips DirecTivo unit with TivoNet and (most recently) a ReplayTV 4000, I have had a chance to evaluate both machines and see their relative strengths and weaknesses. The results have been interesting:

• Neither unit forces you to pay for service (with the Tivo, just load 2.5xtreme and turn on "SubTest"). However, the Replay units are sold at a significant markup and the Tivo units are sold below cost. I'm no market analysist, but three guesses which one is better for consumers?
• Tivo can't update the software without notice, unless you're dumb enough to plug the unit into your phone line. Replay requires that you maintain a connection to their servers so they can tamper with your property after purchase.
• The Tivo has a 30 second commercial skip feature too, contrary to popular opinion. SELECT-PLAY-SELECT-3-0-SELECT.
• The Tivo runs Linux, meaning that you can cross-compile anything to run on it, short of MS Office and IE. What can you run on the Replay? Next to nothing.
• The Tivo has a programmer-friendly interface. It has native tcl support and provides easy ways to access the system database, called MFS. Does Replay offer this? I think not.
• The Tivo gets its guide data off the air; the Replay needs to connect to a central server to get it. What happens when Replay goes bankrupt? You got it - no more guide data.

For these reasons and many usability reasons, I will be returning my Replay unit before the 30-day exchange period expires. It's just an overpriced piece of crap.

freebsd guy

Re:The Replay units are nice, but...

[Zaknafein500]

Neither unit forces you to pay for service (with the Tivo, just load 2.5xtreme and turn on "SubTest"). However, the Replay units are sold at a significant markup and the Tivo units are sold below cost. I'm no market analysist, but three guesses which one is better for consumers?

This is innaccurate. In fact, if you follow the instructions above, you are stealing TiVo service. TiVo requires a subscription, either 9.95/monthly or 249/product lifetime. The sole purpose of 2.5xtreme (this has been debated, but no one is going to change my mine) is to facilitate the theft of TiVo service and of DirecTV.

Re:The Replay units are nice, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

Neither unit forces you to pay for service (with the Tivo, just load 2.5xtreme and turn on "SubTest").

I'm no market analysist, but three guesses which one is better for consumers?

Guess which one will go away real quick if the loss on every Tivo unit isn't recovered through subscriptions to service?

Here we see the attitude that will kill Tivo. Steal service - it's easy!! And when Tivo is gone, then where are your chocies?

For these reasons I will be hoping that freebsd guy either grows a conscience or is prosecuted before the 30-day exchange period expires. He's just a snot-nosed thief.

Re:The Replay units are nice, but...

[Lumpy]

Yeah if you can get your hands on it.

every site that had that 170meg ISO is now gone, kaput, erased by Tivo.

and there's the question to if it ever really worked. so few had it that there isn't a good consensus that it ever really worked.

Re:The Replay units are nice, but...

[kbarrett]

>The Tivo has a 30 second commercial skip feature too, contrary to popular opinion. SELECT-PLAY-SELECT-3-0-SELECT.

This also is deceptive. You are just fast forwarding for 30 secs. You still watch the commercial, and it's not intelligent. The older Replays actually JUMP the 30 seconds. And in the new Replay4000, the unit actually detects and skips the commercial.

Re:The Replay units are nice, but...

[cesther]

"The Tivo gets its guide data off the air"

I'm intrigued as to how it does this. What signals in the US have EPG information encoded in them? What formats? How does this work with terrestrial analog signals?

With Digital Video Broadcast (DVB), the Euro and Rest of Non-N.American world this information is encoded as System Information (SI).

So if you only wanted to watch digital satellite there is a route for Tivo to acquire the schedule.
I guess the same would be true with DirecTV?

However aren't Tivo selling a subscription service for the guide?

Freedom in where you acquire your EPG information is from me where the issue is with these PVRs. I want to be able to select a particular guide that has a POV that I like. Imagine a cross between a EPG and a weblog.

Re:The Replay units are nice, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

Dish uses DVB, whereas DirecTV created their own format called APG.

APG provides the guide data to all DirecTV boxes, not just TiVo. UltimateTV is doing the same thing. This is one of the requirements for making a DirecTV box.

As for the TiVo service, guide data is just one of the pieces. Software updates and box cost are also included. Remember, they are selling the boxes below cost. You could always buy lifetime and be done with it.

Hope this helps

Re:The Replay units are nice, but...

[ncc74656]

The Tivo has a 30 second commercial skip feature too, contrary to popular opinion. SELECT-PLAY-SELECT-3-0-SELECT.

This also is deceptive. You are just fast forwarding for 30 secs.

Wrong. There is a backdoor code (given by the original poster) that enables 30-second skip. I've tried it; it works. I found high-speed scanning at medium speed works better for me, though...there's no correction for overshoot with 30-second skip.

Where the original poster was wrong was in saying that TiVo gets its guide info over-the-air. Since there's no TV station that provides this service, that's impossible. TiVo phones home for its guide info, just as ReplayTV presumably does.

Re:The Replay units are nice, but...

[seligman]

The original poster was talking about the DirecTiVo (ie, the TiVo with integrated DirecTV service). These units do get the guide data off of the satellite, from DirecTV's APG.

Re:The Replay units are nice, but...

[GoRK]

The correction for overshoot on the 30s skip is the 8 second "instant replay" button. Push it twice and you'll be ~15 seconds back for instance. I can skip commercials now in about 2 seconds, far faster than I could even when I got the 3x FF exactly right.

Oh, and he was right about DirecTivo+2.5xtreme getting guide data off the air. Normal DirecTivo's don't (I don't think) but 2.5xtreme has a hack to make it possible. Still, things like showcases, etc. won't work. Since I dont have a DirecTivo, I can't say for sure.

~GoRK

Re:The Replay units are nice, but...

[Monte]

The Tivo gets its guide data off the air; the Replay needs to connect to a central server to get it. What happens when Replay goes bankrupt?

Let's see, you're advocating that people by a Tivo (which makes profit from the subscription, not the sale of the box) and then install a hack that lets them use it w/o subbing? I don't think it's Replay that's going to go bankrupt.

The Tivo has a 30 second commercial skip feature too

That's not "commercial skip", that's instant 30-second fast-forward. The 4000 skips commercials without the user having to press anything - and for me it works bang-on 19 out of 20 times.

And you forgot to mention those neat extract-and-stream hacks (getting back to the original subject). If you want to extract video from a Tivo you have to pull the hard drive and mount it on a Linux machine.

exciting to see Taco use apostrophe correctly

[Anonymous Coward]

Did anyone else notice?

It's exciting seeing so much headway being made so fast, and evidence that this is one heck of a machine.

Perhaps having a fiance has encouraged Taco to use correct punctuation to set a better example for the forthcoming little burritos.

Re:exciting to see Taco use apostrophe correctly

[Anonymous Coward]

No he didn't you don't comma before conjunctions.

Ah, then there is sharing of the shows (URL).

[Tide]

Lest us not forget the site that lets all of us ReplayTV 4000 users find new 'friends' to share shows with. With over 100 members and 1200 shows, its not a bad place to start to find that lost episode of The Tick.

Planet Replay

Re:Ah, then there is sharing of the shows (URL).

[nrc]

With over 100 members and 1200 shows, its not a bad place to start to find that lost episode of The Tick.

Of course if you had a TiVo you wouldn't have missed that episode of The Tick to begin with. >;)

Re:Ah, then there is sharing of the shows (URL).

[Tide]

What does Tivo have to do with this? If you didnt set it up to record, it doesnt record. Tivo doesnt read your mind from the future. I just started watching Alias and its nice to be able to find older episodes of Alias on Planet Replay to get up to speed.

Re:Why use a PVR? - look at SnapStream PVS

[altair87]

There is a software based PVR for PC's called Snapstream PVS. The website is http://www.snapstream.com It works under WinXXXX.

Re:uh, table trouble?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, it's a bug in Windows Internet Explorer (doesn't affect other browsers or other platforms).

well..

[nempo]

Now just market these damn PVR:s in sweden and ill be all set and happy :p

Re:well..

[jonelf]

Check out Nokia 510S:

http://www.nokia.se/digitaltv/produkter/510s.htm l

(In swedish.)

way off topic?

[warpSpeed]

Would a cluster of these make a good wedding present?

~Sean

Internet Sharing

[imuffin]

I really like the internet sharing feature of this box. I understand that a lot of people have capped upstream bandwidth from home, and that because of this it would take forever to send a show to someone... But hopefully these draconian restrictions will be lifted... When we all have decent broadband, which might happen in the not-so-distant future, this will be a really cool feature.

Now:
Me: Dude, I missed Futurama last night! Can you capture it, encode it, and then put it on your server so I can grab it?
Friend: "I guess..."

The Future:
Me: "Dude, I missed Futurama last night!"
Friend: "No problem... " hits a couple of buttons.. "You'll have it in an hour."

Re:Internet Sharing

[slpalmer]

[Slight Correction]

The Future:
Me: "Dude, I missed Futurama last night!"
Friend: "You're on drugs. Futurama was cancled remember!"

Re:Internet Sharing

[TeknoHog]

Dude, I missed Futurama last night! Can you capture it, encode it, and then put it on your server so I can grab it?

Lando already did that for you.

Re:Why use a PVR? - look at SnapStream PVS

[Mattcelt]

The website seems a little sparse on technical information. Can you use it with an existing TV card (e.g., Ati A-I-W) or does it have to be used with their own? What recording/playback formats does it support?

It is interesting, to be sure, however. Something to consider...

Re:Been Done?

[johnjones]

yes its been done but badly on TiVo

ReplayTV is a really nice machine and they dont relie on selling data to networks/pepsi/bigcorp to make a profit so makeing the best machine possible is what drives them.
(like it should be and not gathering stats on super bowls adverts and showing me more britney)

if you want a PVR I would advise buy a replay and not a sucky TiVo
(hey we can all have opinions)

regards

john jones

ATI All-In-Wonder card

[wiredog]

Has tv inputs and software. Even has a guide service. I think the TV-Wonder does also.

One more piece of hardware for Rob to break?

[ackthpt]

After looking in on Rob's journal this morning, this comes up. Is there a coincidence how things get broken at Rob's? Kathleen are you reading this? ;)

Warning: Explicit Depiction of Cmdr Taco's Burrito

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps having a fiance has encouraged Taco to use correct punctuation to set a better example for the forthcoming little burritos.

Exclusive footage of how Cmdr Taco will create these "little burritos".

whats a

[Anonymous Coward]

PVR?

Re:whats a

[renehollan]

PVR, n.: Personal Video Recorder. A device capable of recording video programs that meet one's personal preferences, almost always using a local hard disk.

Re:whats a

[thePredator]

Personal Video Recorder. google.com could have told you this too...

Re:Been Done?

[Anonymous Coward]

I certinaly would like to see you do half that with a TiVo. Extract the mpegs, and update your own showguide instead of waiting for the Furer err Tivo to update it for you.

Re:Why use a PVR? - look at SnapStream PVS

[iCEBaLM]

You can use it with pretty much any VfW or WDM supporting card, I use it on my hauppauge WinTV-FM card and it works well.

Download the free version and try it out.

-- iCEBaLM

We are trying to do this, wanna help?

[fons]

http://davedina.apestaart.org

With a couple of friends we are trying to make a linux based home entertainment system. Eventually we want te be able to:
- play mp3's and serve them on our lan. (works)
- have a nifty audio database with webinterface (almost works)
- serve a webcam (works)
- play dvd's (works)
- rip dvd's (kinda works)
- play divx-cd's (works)
- watch tv (works) and decode pay-tv :-) (almost works)
- record from tv (works, but no automated TV-guide)
- serve recorded DVD's and TV-shows on lan (works)
- burn recorded stuff onto cd's
- play games (works)
- create a nice interface so we can control it with a normal and simpel remote.

We can still use some help. If you're interested go to our site, read the faq and download what we already have.

Re:We are trying to do this, wanna help?

[NumberSyx]

record from tv (works, but no automated TV-guide)

I know there is a perl script ruuning around that downloads TV listings from the TV guide website. Perhaps you could write another script which, once the listing is downloaded, it would grep for the shows you wanted, then setup an at job to record at the proper time. If you wanted to, I imagine it would not be too difficult to slap a Tk front end on it to make it easy to use.

Re:We are trying to do this, wanna help?

[Anonymous Coward]

I know its on Window$ but have you looked at

http://www.media-box.org

Same goal, different OS

Re:We are trying to do this, wanna help?

[fons]

yes we have looked at this. The project, like may other similar projects is linked on our site.

http://www.media-box.org is pretty interesting project. If you are using windows.

At this point it's more stable, usable then our project.

Homemade PVR

[thePredator]

Does anyone have any good links for making your own system that is a PVR, mp3 Jukebox, DVD player, game machine, etc?

Re:Homemade PVR

[fons]

we're trying to do this

although far from finished you can download what we already have at:

http://davedina.apestaart.org

RealPlayer 7200 on Dish Network

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone know of any hacks for the RealPlayer 7200 on the Dish Network sat system? It is a nice unti but would be better if you could store the recorded media on a more perm basis.

don't forget about what ReplayTV did ..

[Hohlraum]

.. with the older models. I'm an owner of a 3030 and they have effectivly STOPPED improving this model. Atleast tivo people might still get improvements to their software from time to time.

My biggest gripe with my 3030 is that it doesn't keep track of shows its already recorded. If you setup a horror movie theme channel it will record the same damn movies over and over unless they are already recorded and on the harddrive. I mean how many freaking times does the thing need to record 'Boltneck'

Re:don't forget about what ReplayTV did ..

[Monte]

I'm an owner of a 3030 and they have effectivly STOPPED improving this model.

Do you believe that Replay/SonicBlue is somehow obligated to continue to upgrade their software?

Atleast tivo people might still get improvements to their software from time to time.

I'll bet most of them are still paying monthly subscription fees to underwrite those development costs. Replay doesn't have that luxury.

Fucking idiot

[October_30th]

Hasn't anyone told you that your page widening IS NOT BACK?!

It doesn't work on a real browser, so you may as well stop posting your crap.

I guess we know...

[Dr. Nonsense]

I guess we know what CmdrTaco wants for a wedding present..

"We" don't matter

[Anonymous Coward]

Go outside and talk to people on the street and in the real world. How many of them have heard of Extreme? How many Tivo owners would know what to do with a r00t shell on their box? True, people will only pay for service if they can't find a way around it, but average consumers aren't Slashdot readers - they're sheep. Sheep who wouldn't know how to take the cover off their Tivo, much less perform the free service hack.

We, Linux gurus, have the right to get free Tivo service because we are a small, clever minority that is smarter than the Tivo engineers. It's a meritocracy, pure and simple, and we have won. And our victory isn't going to make a dent in Tivo's balance sheet.

Re:"We" don't matter

[Anonymous Coward]

A sad attempt at a troll.

What's your point?

[freebsd guy]

If you've ever used a DirecTV system, you would realize that DTV provides about two weeks of guide data no matter what receiver you use. Meaning that Tivo's "service" gives you ... surprise! nothing you're not already paying for.

2.5xtreme is there to unlock the crippleware called Tivo. If you bothered to read its documentation, you would find that all it does is remove the silly "can't record until you pay" restriction built into the Tivo. Again - letting you take full advantage of the hardware you spent your hard-earned parents' money on.

2.5xtreme has nothing to do with stealing DirecTV service. Typically stealing DTV service requires you to buy several hundred dollars of equipment and hook up a dedicated computer to fake an access card. It's hardly cost-effective and it isn't possible to steal a single channel with the xtreme software.

freebsd guy

Re:What's your point?

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe you should unlock the crippleware that is your head.....Aren't you leaving out the fact that you got your box cheaper than it costs to manufacture? And Tivo is giving you a way to pay now or pay later?

Your just a thief, justify it however you want

Re:What's your point?

[furiousgeorge]

can u give a link to 2.5xtreme? I have friends in Canada that subscribe to DTV (using a US address) and would LOVE to use a Tivo.

(for the record i'm currently a DTV and TIVO customer and pay for all my service, even though the $10/month i pay tivo is bullshit. Like the points given above, i'm paying $10/month just to keep the box functioning)

Re:What's your point?

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you ever gotten a free :CueCat from Radio Shack, and neglected to view enough of DC's banner ads to pay for the device?

Have you ever bought and hacked an i-opener without subscribing to the service?

Have you ever blocked advertisements on a web site?

Have you ever bought a razor but declined to buy additional blades?

The fact is that companies with stupid business models deserve what they get. Selling a product below cost doesn't guarantee future profits.

Re:What's your point?

[Zaknafein500]

If you've ever used a DirecTV system, you would realize that DTV provides about two weeks of guide data no matter what receiver you use. Meaning that Tivo's "service" gives you ... surprise! nothing you're not already paying for.

TiVo takes the guide data and indexes it into a format that allows for you to find and record shows quickly and easily. It allows you to tell TiVo to record 24 on Fox every week, and it does it. The guide data comes from DirecTV, but the massive sorting and indexing is done by TiVo. This is what you pay for. To use TiVo, you are required to have a subcription, bar none. If you are using the service without paying for it, you are stealing.

It is true that xtreme does not, in and of itself, steal DirecTV. However, if someone where trying to steal DirecTV on a DirecTiVo, it is a component, since it allows the daily calls to be disabled.

Re:What's your point?

[jgerman]

If there's no login and password, and it's sitting on a publically available system, reachable from any phone, I'm not stealing shit.

Re:What's your point?

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, I see... so if something might have an illegal use, it should be banned, right?

You people make me sick.

Re:What's your point?

[Zaknafein500]

Oh, I see... so if something might have an illegal use, it should be banned [slashdot.org], right?

That's an extreme case. I should have worded my first post differently. 2.5xtreme is used almost exclusively to steal service. I don't think it should be banned, but there's no denying it has very few uses that are legitimate.

Re:What's your point?

[Anonymous Coward]

Bullshit. There are many reasons why somebody might not want their Tivo phoning home every night. How about privacy (yes, the Tivo logs every fucking button you push on the remote). How about the fact that some of us don't have a land line phone because wireless is a better deal.

Re:What's your point?

[Anonymous Coward]

There is no getting around it; you are stealing service. Justify it any way you like, the main requirement is that you can make yourself believe it's OK.

Re:What's your point?

[Anonymous Coward]

"freebsd guy" is nothing but a talented troll. Check out his other posts, then quit wasting your time on him.

Re:What's your point?

[koreth]

"Very few" uses, maybe, but there's at least one legitimate use: it allows you to turn off the encryption 2.5 normally applies to video files, a necessary step if you want to archive recordings on a digital medium (DVD-R, for example) without going through a lossy D-A-D conversion.

That's all I plan to use it for. I've already paid the lifetime subscription fee for my DTivo (so I couldn't use it to steal TiVo service even if I wanted to) and I'm happy to pay DirecTV every month for the channels I receive. I have no interest whatsoever in extracting shows to give or sell to other people. I just want to stop accumulating videotapes and start accumulating DVD-Rs instead.

Re:What's your point?

[haruharaharu]

Aren't you leaving out the fact that you got your box cheaper than it costs to manufacture?

What's that got to do with anything? I didn't force them to do it, so it's just a good opportunity for me.

Re:What's your point?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok,

Lets use your example against you.

Cuecat = useless
I-Opener = wasn't even used for its intended purpose. People only bought it to have a cheap Linux terminal.
Web Ads = same as skipping commercials
Razor = costs less to build than you bought it for

Now some real examples.
Printers = They count on ink sales to make up the diff.
"Free Film" = The developing is the real cost.
Cell Phones = Contracts and keyed phones guarantee you use their service.

My point is if you like the product (In FreeBSD case "love"). Then don't be a dumbass and steal it. Its theft, plain and simple. If he buys lifetime then uses the 2.5extreme to disable the callback then its not.

He's a thief that is stealing something that he can obviously no longer live without.

Re:What's your point?

[Anonymous Coward]

Look at me! I'm a troll! I'll make up things about TiVo logging everything you do! Ooooh, scary!

Hacking non-linux based devices

[GGardner]

Isn't it interesting how all the TiVo people crow about how hackable it is because it runs a linux kernel, and yet all the same kinds of hacks are possible on the Replay, which runs a closed-source OS.

Re:Hacking non-linux based devices

[Anonymous Coward]

Who modded him flamebait? Why?

Re:Warning: Explicit Depiction of Cmdr Taco's Burr

[bofkentucky]

That was both foul and incorrect, its actually a fat, acne-infested 16 year old that provides the sour cream.

But how good is it?

[PeterMiller]

Being Canadian, PVR's aren't so common, but man do they sound cool.

One question, what's the quality like on these thingsa? Is the picture the same? Worse? Sound?

Re:But how good is it?

[Monte]

One question, what's the quality like on these thingsa? Is the picture the same? Worse? Sound?

There are different recording modes (like a VCR), from crappy to great. The less crap you want, the more hard drive space you burn.

The lowest quality is pretty good (IMO) except when there's a lot of movement on the screen - say, a shot of Niagra Falls, or a fast pan - then the artifacts break up the picture very badly.

However, most of the stuff I record on the Replay I'm gonna watch and then dump anyhow (Iron Chef, Junkyard Wars, Battlebots, etc). For this purpose - time shifting - I think the extended mode is just fine. If I recorded a movie I really liked I'd probably buy it on DVD anyway, to get a great copy.

Audio (again, at extented mode) is good enough for
"watching TV". I don't think I'd want to record a concert on it, though.

That's my two cents.

Re:But how good is it?

[zzyzx]

Watching football, I noticed a slight problem even at best mode. Anything other than that, it's barely noticable even in good or average mode.

Re:Why use a PVR? - look at SnapStream PVS

[dodald]

I have found this program ShowShifter to work 10x better then SnapStream. With showshifter you can pause live TV, and pick up where you left off (No rewind though). And (A plus over SnapStream) you can watch as you record. It (like SnapStream) offers timed recordings, however can not currently download tv listings. The "trial" version ShowShifter is also less naggy, and more functional then the trial version of snapstream. Check it out. (Also only Windows).

DishNetwork PVR hack?

[rlabutis]

Does anyone have a similar hack for Dishnetwork 500 PVR? It would be nice to off load the recorded programs to a DVD recorder.

Re:DishNetwork PVR hack?

[funaho]

Sure would be nice. I've got one of those too and I can't find anything about it on the Net.

AccessDTV HDTV PVR

[Brian Stretch]

AccessDTV makes a PCI HDTV card that can record the 20Mbps HDTV datastream to your hard drive. I have one. Very, very nice with my Sony G500 21" FD Trinitron monitor (wish I could justify one of those 24" widescreen models). Windows only, and a GHz-class PC is recommended (excellent on my WinXP Athlon XP 1800+ machine).

It's lousy for analog TV, won't record analog at all and I never did get audio working for analog, but it's the card to get for digital TV.

Re:AccessDTV HDTV PVR

[shrhoads]

Yah, the hardware that I am aware of is here.. It includes 4 cards, and I'm working on more leads. If you have updates please let me know.

Power VCR 2 V3

[Anonymous Coward]

Look for this Power VCR program. It works with my winTV card

winTV card and 100 GB hard drive & tvguide.com ..... $250

Tivo/replayTV .............$200 + monthly fee / $700

Using the computer and then streaming it back to the TV isn't as nice as the ReplayTV box and remote control, but for a full time college student it will record The Simpsons, Seinfeld, Undeclared, and what ever other shows I want it to record.

The emulator would have to compress video in real time in software mode. With CPU's over 2 Ghz, you may see some better quality, but to get 640x480 at 29 fps now, you almost need to do it in hardware.

My Ideal PVR

[Anonymous Coward]

I have a Tivo with DirecTV and a dual tuner, and I put in extra hard drive space giving me about 130 hours of playback time. I'm sorry but until someone provides the convenience of built-in satellite tuner plus the dual-tuner feature (allowing a person to record up to 2 things at once while watching a third recording), I have no reason to switch. IMO the DirecTivo is the best TV-watching experience available.

Danger of Hacking

[DustMagnet]

If I hack a ReplayTV (I'd want the larger hard drive), what's to keep them from detecting the hack and remotely disabling it. Leaving me with a $1K brick.

Re:Danger of Hacking

[Monte]

If I hack a ReplayTV (I'd want the larger hard drive), what's to keep them from detecting the hack and remotely disabling it. Leaving me with a $1K brick.

Why would they want to disable your hard drive? It's no skin of their corporate nose if you upgrade your unit. Keep in mind that PVRs aren't widely in use yet, they're very much an "early adopter" / geek item, and this is a delicate time for the companies. They don't want to turn off their hard-core customers, who will give word-of-mouth advertising for them.

What I'm worried about is sooner or later they're going to lose one of these lawsuits, and they'll be forced to disable 'net sharing and/or commercial skip. And possibly move against the hacks that are pulling shows off the unit (and then those shows get posted to Usenet)...

I predict one or more of these will happen in the next six months.

I use a PVR because it's economical...

[SexPig]

My Tivo w/ DirecTV cost $79 for the unit and $250 for lifetime of unit subscription (note there's no MPEG encoder on this unit because DirecTV signal is already encoded). That's a total of ~$330 and it does everything I want it to. It would take me days to hack together and get working the current linux solutions out there and it would add up to more than the Tivo after hardware & labor to get it going.

• Pros:
• this setup records two different programs while viewing a third recording
• the remote & menu system is intuitive
• I have the Tivo recording while I'm working on my computer. If there's no dedicated box can this be done with a home-brewed system?
• system is self updating. No spending Saturday afternoon recompiling to get latest features
• system is quiet and fits nicely under my DVD player

• Cons:
• sometimes it's fun to hack a solution

Re:I use a PVR because it's economical...

[Rick the Red]

Cons:
Won't work without Direct TV. Or were you able to buy a lifetime subscription to DirectTV for only $250? If so, please tell the rest of us how to get the same deal :-)

Re:I use a PVR because it's economical...

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.dssmili.com has hardware and freeware for your lifetime DirecTV subscription.

Oh, and tell everyone EQ sent you!

Dear God!

[Timmeh]

So once again, I am down a tivo. And this makes little Rob very sad.

Please don't tell me he's talking about his wang.

Obtaining a channel guide

[Animats]

Biggest problem with non-subscription PVRs is obtaining a TV guide without a dialup connection. But if you have an Internet connection available, there are lots of sources for guide info. (And, once you remove the formatting, that information probably isn't copyrightable, just as telephone directories are not.)

Some open-source TV schedule acquisition software would thus be useful.

Questions

[quakeroatz]

What is the recording quality like with Nupple-video + BT8x8?
Does anyone have a sample video I could have a peek at?
Does this same person mind the 30gig spike in usage where they would offer said file?
Wanna know what my record for consecutive questions is?

Cheers

Offtopic damnit

[fm6]

A reasonably intelligent post. Except that it's totally mildly offtopic and extremely redundant. We've beaten the Tivo-versus-Replay thing into the ground many times. Can we maybe resist the temption to turn every discussion into a "which is better" flame fest?

More like...

[tezzery]

you: "dude, i missed futurama last night"

your friend: "that's because it's CANCELLED"

Why no Canadia

[maggard]

There's no technical reason for TiVo or Replay or anyone else not serving Canada - the issue is content and language. For the nifty on-screen guides and recording features to work there needs to be someone supplying the listing data and that's not been done for Canada. CanCon, privacy, neither are relevant to this it's just the darn feed and coding a dual-language version.

Bell Express Vu satellite TV service already works just fine though I expect they're just piping through the listings they've already got. Of course that's also only a listing of just what they offer and not trying to track what the various broadcast markets have along with the numerous cable services and their numerous tiers & packages.

Eventually the Canadian market will get served. All of the suppliers have stated this; it's just that they're focusing on filling out their large US markets along with the very-experienced-with-paying-for-TV UK. Doubtless when they can put some capitol into further expansion, get some more experience operating outside of their native land, become familiar with multilingual services, then they'll make their respective grabs for the Canadian market.

By the way apparently serving these numerous local listings is not a trivial problem. Bell's own Sympatico ISP/Portal dropped the listings they offered when their supplier TVGrid.Com went bust, hasn't replaced them yet. I believe TV Guide Canada still offers listings but that's about it. Anyone know who serves the newspapers for their guides?

As to the US I know TiVo is supplied by Tribune but TiVo has also stated that they've built their system so they can change providers based on services and costs, there's no lock-in. This is promising as should a Canadian provider negotiate a contract with TiVo or Replay or any other PVR system and these businesses make the dual-language jump then things should go quickly.

Can I load my own program schedule into it?

[The Wing Lover]

Just wondering.

It seems like with these units, you don't actually have to pay a subscription fee, so I would much rather have this than a Tivo (which I would be happy to subscribe to if they sold service to Canadians).

But I am still left without a program guide, since they don't have local lineups for Canada. Is there some way for me to copy my own program schedule to the unit? That way, I could write scripts to get schedule info from tvguide.ca and update the PVR with them.

The irony...

[unicorn]

Someone making sideways critiques of Cmdr. Taco's punctuation, while misspelling fiancee in the same sentence.

i just came across this

[beast6228]

http://home.attbi.com/~bwhitetx/

Tivo the machine vs Tivo the company

[Gorimek]

Yes, the massive sorting and indexing is done by Tivo. But it's Tivo [b] the machine[/b] that I already own, not Tivo the company. The company performs no service for the $10/month you pay it.

You pay that because it's the only revenue model they could make work. And that's OK, but let's not kid ourselves about what we get for our money.

Can someone give me...

[CheezyD]

info on how to watch pr0n on cable without the squiggly lines? I think I'm going blind. P.S. I have a BT848.

Re:Can someone give me...

[Anonymous Coward]

I've seen programs that claim to unscramble pay TV channels, but I haven't been able to test them (my cable company moved all the scrambled channels to digital TV, requiring a special digital receiver).

There's fscktv, or maybe one of the programs listed on this page will work. Of course, you could just pay for the channels.

Because it's cheaper and better

[Gorimek]

A PVR costs a few hundred bucks. A PC with all the cards etc will cost far more, and won't have all the cool software features that makes these things really shine.

If you're thinking of using the PC you already have, consider what performance will be like when it's recording. And it will be recording 24/7 if it's to have any resemblance to the usefulness of a PVR.

What I don't get

[aengblom]

What I don't get is why television companies don't get together. Come up with an alternative to TIVO that keeps the comercials and market the shit out of it. Every time a comericial for an NBC show comes up, press "bookmark" and the unit will record every showing of the comericial. Integrate the hell out of it and price it low. Boom suddenly guess what: Folks buy it and watch the shows they want. Stop competing ruthlessly against each other. Suddenly the networks have 24 hours where they can send programing that people will watch.

Oh. Now I do
1. I'll watch Friends, but I'll won't tune in 20 minutes before hand and realize I love that show too.

2. I'll stop watching cheap crappy reruns of Gilligans Island just because it's 3AM

3. The Networks won't cooperate

4. It upsets the entire system. That's damn scary. Everything they know is suddenly wrong. New business means new execs ;-)

5. 24 hours worth of quality TV is demanded

6. The system will be hacked

7. The content will be traded

8. Reruns of shows and movies... why. I moved it to my writeable DVD 2 years ago.

9. Customers arn't stupid

Damnit I hate to answer my own stupid thoughts.

It's going to be awhile before these catch on. They're just to radical a change.

I guess I know... Was Re:I guess we know...

[Dr. Nonsense]

Wow, I guess I know now why we see people complaining about the moderation system... (this is my first time.)

My post above was just modded -1 redundant, when the only other post that seemed to reference ANYTHING similar to it, was...

#3027104 which asks "would a cluster of these make a good wedding present?"

That post itself is modded down to 0, but maybe that was done because the guy titled his own post "Way off topic?" [normally, in normal slashdot tradition, I might be inclined to bring up the concept of a conspiracy, but nahhh...]

Which makes this post hardly redundant, as mine is an analysis of motives, and a juxtaposition of one story to another; not just another lame beowulf cluster joke.

Unless someone is arguing that the "from-the-hardware-I-lust-after-department" in the original story was the original statement of the idea of a wedding present, although it wasn't.. maybe a hint, but certainly not a statement of intent.

Now, I just gotta grit my teeth as someone comes along and mods this thoughtful ontopic analysis of a post down as offtopic, or other some such moderation.

BEEEP: This has been a posting of the moderation complaination system, had this been otherwise serious, there would have been careful, thoughtful analysis above... oh, wait, there was..

ReplayTV Hardware license issues

[hillct]

This is at the bottom of the ReplayTV online ad:

"ReplayTV 4000 requires a broadband Internet connection and a home network. A PC connected to a home network is required to store and view digital photos with ReplayTV. 320 hours of storage is only available on the ReplayTV 4320 model. If your ISP limits outbound data transfer speeds, it may take a day or more to completely send an hour of recorded material over the Internet. When in use, the Commercial Advance(TM) feature may not skip all commercials. SONICblue reserves the right to automatically add, modify, or disable any features in the operating software when your ReplayTV 4000 connects to our server."

Does this mean that ads for which the advertiser pays SonicBlue an addition al fee, get encoded so replayTV won't skip them?

-CTH