Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

TiVo Video Extraction with Mac OS X

Posted by pudge on from the extract-me-with-the-network-of-love dept.

Arf4 writes "I recently published an article that describes extracting video from a TiVo Series 1 digital video recorder. I have been searching the boards for info on a Mac OS X solution, but came up blank. After experimenting with my iBook I figured out a way to do it. Using nothing more than a TiVo and Mac OS X (plus a few other free goodies), you can start backing up the latest Alias or Simpsons." Well, and a network card.

4 of 59 comments (clear)

  1. There's a reason for this... by OneFix · · Score: 4, Insightful

    TiVo has been very good to the hacking community...they have supported efforts to add broadband functionality (including adding support to new software revisions), recompile of kernels, ftp and http support, extra harddrive, etc...

    But the reason why they have been hesitant to support the reading (and backup) of the recorded video is that they are concerned with implications of distribution. The first and most obvious reason is that if someone can distribute commercial free recordings of TV shows recorded directly from a TiVo it could be argued that it is helping to facilitate piracy. The other reason would be that it would hurt sales...if you can get new episodes from your TiVo owning friend, why buy a TiVo???

    As such, most respectable members of the hacking community will not encourage this hack...which is really a testament to the advantages of a company working with the hacking community.

  2. Re:Build your own by micromoog · · Score: 2, Insightful
    And all for about the same price as the tivo hardware without the monthly service fee.

    And without the monthly service, which is what makes Tivo worthwhile in the first place for many people.

  3. Re:Build your own by Fished · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yeah, I can get tv schedules (using xmltv). I can record. Does it automatically record stuff it thinks I want? No - but it does many nicer things.

    --
    "He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere. " -- John Calvin, commenting on Genesis 1
  4. Re:Build your own by Piquan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I keep hearing this from different people. I do a lot of replacing stuff with alternatives. For example, I don't have Windows, I have FreeBSD w/ OpenOffice, etc. But as a TiVo user, I don't think that I could switch to a computer-based solution.

    There's just something about sitting down at the TV with a remote that can't be replaced. Also, there's something about the TiVo user interface that I think would become a lot more difficult in the translation to a computer.

    It's not just about recording shows. It's about changing the way you watch TV.