Slashdot Mirror
Book Review: Hacking TiVo
As a relatively early convert to the TiVo way of life, I always found it hard to describe to people who didn't have one why their lives could be changed by it. If I was lucky, I could get friends to visit and with a few short minutes of demonstration, I'd sold another one. If they were farther away, I just hoped they would stop by some day and I'd have another convert. Why was I so intent on this? Because if you watch TV, or even if you don't watch as much as you used to, TiVo can change your life completely. It frees you from the tyranny of watching shows when you're told to watch them, and then goes on to turn your entire television experience from one bombarded with ads and missing all the "good stuff" on scattered random channels, to a true symbiotic relationship where you sit down in front of the tube and every single moment is one filled with shows you want to watch about stuff you're interested in.
A lot of Slashdot readers know what I'm talking about, because they have a TiVo or other PVR in their home right now. So when I tell you that this book will take your TiVo to the next level, I hope you get as excited as I was after reading the dozens of tricks, programs, and hacks this book lists.
The opening chapter describes, in succinct but energetic fashion, why every person with a TV should have a TiVo. Keegan's description may fall towards the evangelical side of things, but he goes out of his way to explain why his feelings are so strong. In fact, this book has an interesting side-effect: converting those who don't own a TiVo. Just a quick browse through the first few chapters will have someone who's heard of TiVo but never used one chomping at the bit to get down to the store. To the TiVo army, this is a powerful munition indeed.
From there, it's a powerful spiral into chapter after chapter of modifications, starting with back doors in the code and moving into opening the TiVo's case (explained with lots of clear pictures), adding storage, and even working with the TiVo's OS (a variation of Linux) to turn it into a web-accessible site or to improve performance.
One inspiring chapter describes the author's experience at a baseball game, having his father go to get refreshments and missing some great plays, and the author pulling out his Palm Pilot with cellular modem to tell his TiVo over the web to record the game's highlights on the news. With that tantalizing trick presented, Keegan goes into the whole involved deal, everything from modifying the TiVo to creating the external server to feed the TiVo information.
As I said, the tricks come fast and furious: TiVo as a way to browse photo galleries. TiVo pulling down the current weather and presenting the radar maps. TiVo printing Caller ID information on the screen when someone calls. By the time you're done with the book, you'll be wondering what there is that you can't do with it. And that, to me, is the sign of a truly great instructional book.
A warning: If you want a neutral voice in the author, this isn't the book for you. Keegan's enthusiasm drips from many pages, written in the tone of the guy down the street with the new toy who simply has take you to the den and show you how cool it is, describing in greater and greater detail all the cool stuff he's discovered tinkering with it. The author's wife, newborn daughter, mother and father make appearances all throughout the book, including a particularly touching description of having his father design an assembly language program to manipulate an LED display. No, really, it's touching. I did a search for Jeff and information on him and I found a photo of him in this costume. Honestly, I'm speechless. The man has achieved what we call "full commitment."
By about halfway through the book it stops being an instruction manual and begins being a full-on reference book, giving you explicit instructions on programming in Tcl, mucking about in Linux, and generally being a hard-core warranty violator. One appendix is dedicated to being a Tcl reference list while another hits you up for some basic Linux training (to be able to work comfortably in the OS).
Keegan has also been kind enough to include a CD-ROM with pretty much all the programs and utilities needed to accomplish what's in his book. It's a telling personal trait that he apologizes for putting it all on a CD instead of enabling readers to go out and search for the programs themselves.
To say I learned things in this book is an amazing understatement. Just to know that some of these things are even possible with my TiVo guarantee how I'll be spending the next few hundred dollars, buying larger drives, getting a cache card, and wiring the machine for ethernet. And Yes, it tells you how to get the shows off of your TiVo onto your computer's hard drive.
When I ordered this book from Amazon, I found out it was an Amazon exclusive, so that's the only place to get it right now. On the other hand, I was able to get my copy in a very short time, so I'm fine with that ... but I hope that you can get it in other places in the future. Regardless, it was worth the money I paid for it, especially since Amazon had 30 percent off in some effort to push to product. Great for me; I'm glad this book came into my collection and I think any TiVo owner (or hopeful TiVo owner) will agree.
Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Good to see more people writing about the ins-and-outs of one of the finest linux-based consumer products ever created. Kudos!
Does it go into hacking the Series 2 TiVo? I'm sick of reading about all these obsolete series 1 hack methods.
I'd just like to get bash working on my Series 2 stand-alone with minimal effort.
You could hack around the non-open bits of a Tivo. Or just build a myth box (http://www.mythtv.org). Total entertainment center, 100% open source.
Granted I've never seen the point of what is basically a glorified VCR/TV Guide hybrid for $9.95/month. But if I can hack a Tivo into doing more interesting stuff, then maybe it's worth it, buy the book first and the Tivo next if I like what I see...
...in bed
As a hacker of many TiVos, I must say that when I saw this book the first thing I thought was how fast the info would be out of date. Every time TiVo pushes a new version of the software, you have to get new hacking info from the web sites. Does this book even code the new DVD-R TiVos? I bet there was old info in this book the first day it hit the shelves. This is not good subject matter for a paper book.
-Mike
Would be nice if someone could make Tivo reverse the fourth quarter of the World Champion Tampa Bay Buc's game against the Colts two weeks ago on MNF.
@vSpid Like, Whatever
no-one is making any money out of scummy referral links on this one.
Does someone want to rectify this situation?
I'd like to invite everyone who is about to reply with one of the following to just use the numbers provided to save time and precious electron phase space: 1) I like to actually *use* my imagination to, say, read a book. 2) With all the mindless poop the networks excrete, why would you want more of it? 3) I gave up tv years ago, and look at all I've accomplished with the lost hours! (Go ahead and list your achievements in addition to the number)
TiVo: You love it or you haven't met it.
Or your job involves television advertising.
The shareholder is always right.
Buy at amazon, support the small guy.
Every 1c off your purchase will be donated to USPTO.
Doesn't the break the DMCA.... what a shame if it does muhuhuhuhuhu
----
So is how much detail is the hardware hacking? Or are we limited to blinking LEDs or whatever is the basis for the dad story?
Is the hareware hacking really educational like Hacking the XBox?
How does this book compare with the other hacking tivo titles?
Ok, someone spoil the surprise for me... Is it possible to download data from my Series 2 machine to my computer? That would absolutely rock.
TiVo has just marked down the early Series 2 DirecTiVo units (35 hour capacity) to 100 dollars. Best Buy is currently selling the Philips DSR7000 unit for 93 dollars. You obviously need to have DirecTV to use the unit, however.
The Standalone 40 and 80 hours are still running between 200-300 dollars.
"My God...It's full of ads!" -Fry, about the Internet, Futurama
I'm still not sure why more people haven't adopted ATI's All in Wonder cards. I use mine for everything that the TiVo can do, plus a lot of the stuff that you can hack the TiVo to do. I can login remotely and set it to record. I can burn VCD/SVCD/DVDs without hacking anything. And adding storage? I've got its cache and recording space set up on my NAS. And all for less than $150
fact is, until tivo is in canada it will never take off, eh. thats because canada sets the trends. so, screw you tivo, ill use mythtv
My main interest with a Tivo is whether or not it can be reliably modified to not record any commercials? I understand some models have a skip-ahead feature, but I could clearly see the quality of my television-viewing life dramatically improved if I had a device that would make commercials disappear. Can this be done with the Tivo, and if so, is this something that you have to fight over and fix every now and then to keep working?
Ref: As the article says, this book is exclusive at Amazon for $20.99 (spend $4 more to get free shipping.)
If you click on the article amazon link, no one gets commission. I don't know why you would want Amazon to get that extra $1 instead of having to pay it out, but it's up to you...
With my mythtv I get the following benefits:
DVD player/ripper
image gallery/slideshow
game frontend (xmame, snes, nes, pc)
music player
generic video player
my weather forcast
and a web page to controll it by.
Who wants to own a device that requires a monthly subscription to work to its maximum potiential. Does any one know the cons to the guide + service?
Get a free ipod.
You can build your own tivo-style unit, it's pretty trivial really, and can use an analogue TV tuner card, a terrestrial digital TV card (DVB-T) or satellite digital card.
For example, I have an Asus 7100 deluxe combo which has a PAL tuner in it. Asus have a simple "vcr" app where you can schedule a program to be recorded. It will also capture from my webcam, due to the way it uses standard driver APIs, so would probably work with better video capture adaptors, apart from the channel selection. It's a bit buggy, but that's graphics card bundled software for you!
The big win by using a tivo box is that the hardware is standard, on a PC it seems ever bit of video hardware needs slightly different drivers to make it work.
The thing that makes tivo easy and useful when a diy solution is hard work and a pain to use, is the program selection and programming. In the Uk you could use www.digiguide.co.uk which can control an external program to record what you want, and it's a lot cheaper than the Tivo subscription.
Personally, I'd probably just take the hit and buy a tivo, it's just a whole lot less pain, just like I have a real DVD player in the living room rather than a PC... and my wife can understand how to operate it (just)!
See, this is why not only Tivo, but life, should have a 30-second skip. :)
Step 1: Run video/audio out connection to your stereo receiver's video/audio in.
Step 2: Connect your digital camcorder to your stereo receivers video/audio out.
Step 3: Import video from camcorder into computer.
I tried connecting my camcorder directly to my TiVo, but the picture was scrambled. Going throught the stereo receiver fixes it. Of course its being converted from mpeg-2 to analog and back to digital then to whatever format you use on your computer. But the picture still looks pretty good using iMovie. I don't have the ability to create DVD's but I do make Quicktime movies from my tv shows.
I've achieved critical karma mass with the lost hours.
I wonder if ROW (rest of world) realizes that its irrelevant for them to hold opinions. America can buy, sell, destroy, or reconstruct any nation, any group of nations, or any other policital or geographical entity many times over. For all practical purposes, you don't exist. You are ants to our godhood.
So how good is the coverage of various TiVo models? I have a Hughes HDVR2 and while I love the dual-tuners and high image quality, much of the hacking info I have found does not apply to my unit.
dumbass...It's exclusive at Amazon
Tivo Community Forum
Deal Database Forums
Tivo Web Project Home Page
I found it to be really enjoyable to sift through many different forums for instructions on how to mod my TiVo. I learned more by reading more than one persons account on how to do things, and was able to get help by posting questions.There's a ton of info out there if you're willing to search, otherwise, I guess the 21 bucks is a decent price to pay, and you won't have to get flamed for asking a dumb question.
Napoleon watches from the hereafter: "If I only had FOX News, nobody would have known of my defeat in Russia"
What,
Is strange about your comment is that now that I have obtained a TIVO I often have found myself standing in a shopping mall, etc. watching something interesting in life unfold before my eyes.
And I swear I go into TIVO user mode unconsciously and find myself wanting to hit the rewind 10 seconds button (a capability in TIVO) on the situation in the mall. It is so strange.
I often find myself just wanting to pause real life also.
But your comment of speeding past those thirty seconds of life's unwanted advertising makes perfect sense as well.
I'm sure you meant your comment as a joke to some degree but life and TIVO watching have some peculiar similarities for some odd reason.
Caution: Contents under pressure
The ReplayTV 50xx series has COmmercial Advance. It still records the commercials but it skips them on playback. As an owner I find it works about 95% of the time on most shows and 60% on the rest.
The problem is that fact that SonicBlue (the old owners of ReplayTV) got sued because of this tech and their Internet Sharing tech. So the new owners (DNNA, Digital Networks North America) have removed this feature from the upcoming 55xx series units (the 50xx units are no longer manufactured, but can still be picked up at a few stores). The 55xx series units will have a similar feature, but it will require 1 button press to skip the whole commercial.
and it's hard to get a non-series 2 machine now. Furthermore, a series 2 tivo has some safeguards to make hacking it significantly more difficult, compared with how hard it is to hack the earlier TiVo's. Thus, The countless series 2 users I know will be very happy to have access to some series 2 hacks someday, whenever that comes out.
stuff |
I use Direct TV satellite service. They have a TIVO like unit that I'm interested in. The part that bugs me however is that in their newest units they have started charging 10 bucks per month to "turn on" the recording features. Yes, I can buy and own the unit but I can't use its full features unless I pay a monthly charge for the privilege. This really frosts my cookies.
I want to open the box that I purchased and turn on the recording feature but I'm afraid that doing so may run afoul of some of the crazy laws that are now on the books. I'm already paying for the decryption of the signals that I would be recording I just don't want to have to pay a monthly fee to use the features of the unit that I have already purchased.
Would doing so still run afoul of the DMCA or some other corporate sponsored "screw the consumer" law enacted by the bought and paid for United States Congress?
The race isn't always to the swift... but that's the way to bet!
For one thing, I'd like to know how much space is devoted to series 1 vs. series 2. For that matter, any space devoted to the differences between TiVo software versions, and whether v.4 "improvements" have made them harder to hack. This seems to be a review of the author and his enthusiasm.
I just got a series 2, and this book is supposedly on its way, but I'm still thirsty for more information. At this point, I'm this close to sending it back and getting two used series 1s.
Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong, but other than some hardware upgrades, it looks like Series 2 simply makes it possible for them to sell me networking services (at $99 per box) and another box. That brings my investment to $600-800 for two TVs? AND I'm not allowed to extract video to my own network? WTF? It seems like I can get two (albeit smaller) reconditioned units for $300 and run it through my current network.
I've thought about the whole mythTv thing, but I think I'd rather have two 'dumb' boxes by the TV and run the whole thing through my network...I should have a storage server soon.
Any advice?
Every description of why someone should buy a TiVo sounds like it's aimed at people who have never seen a VCR.
Record shows to watch later -- wow, I've only been doing that since 1980. My 1997-era RCA VCR skips commercials.
I can't think of anything on TV so important I would want to be able to connect over the net and have it recorded.
I have wanted the 10 second repeat button on my car radio many times recently...
YES, there is a McDonald's in Hanoi Square.
I listen to a lot of talk radio in the car and often come in in the middle of an interesting conversation and find my right hand reaching to hit the replay button.
Is there any information available on the multi-room viewing protocol TiVo employs on their Series2 boxes. I know the developer docs are available for the Music & Photos feature, but I've never found anything about multi-room viewing.
I know they have TiVoGuard, which is used to protect the signal as it moves across the network. Is there any information on this, specifically, is their a non-encrypted option to transport data.
The reason I wonder is I have a bunch of DivX encoded movies that I'd like to watch on a real set-top box. If I could get info on the transfer protocol, that would really help. Yes, I'm prepared to transcode the DivX files to whatever format TiVo expects. Also, I'm prepared to put my foot where my mouth is and write code to do this, and also open source the work.
I'm just beginning research on this, so an information is valuable. I've scoured the web, and haven't found anything useful. Just about ready to break out Ethereal and do some dirty work.
-- Fighting mediocrity one bad post at a time.
Is strange about your comment is that now that I have obtained a TIVO I often have found myself standing in a shopping mall, etc. watching something interesting in life unfold before my eyes.
If that wasn't a troll, seek professional help immediately. You do have problems.
Do not fold, spindle or mutilate.
I wonder if ROW (rest of world) realizes that its irrelevant for them to hold opinions. America can buy, sell, destroy, or reconstruct any nation, any group of nations, or any other policital or geographical entity many times over. For all practical purposes, you don't exist. You are ants to our godhood
Empires rise, empires fall. History's full of examples.
America won't always be the world's only superpower. And when that change happens it won't be as obvious as you'd imagine.
Until that time, I'm sure you and others like you will happily live in ignorance thinking that other nations are just pawns on your chessboard. Just try to remember that, in the endgame, pawns are often the deadliest pieces.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
I have no monthly subsription charge. I thought ahead and paid the lifetime charge. If my Tivo dies, I'll get another one and set the serial number to the one that died. Almost all people who make the comments that you have made, haven't used Tivo. In fact, I used to make the very same comments myself. Now I have two networked Tivos and I love them.
The 30-second commercial skip feature was eliminated with TIVO2... or was it? This is one of the most helpful Easter Eggs I have found. Excerpted from BigMarv's How I Did That:
-begin excerpt-
1. Grab your TiVo remote.
2. Bring up any recorded program. (You have to be watching a recorded program rather than "Live TV" in order to enable the feature.)
3. On your TiVo remote, key in the following sequence: SELECT PLAY SELECT 30 SELECT
4. If you've successfully entered the code, you should hear three "bings" in succession to inform you that you've successfully enabled the 30 second skip.
-end excerpt-
If you ever lose power in your house, you will have to repeat the above steps. Happy skipping!
I had a TiVO, that I got shortly after the 30 hour version came out. LOVE IT! Been traveling so I can't use it at the moment so I don't now how compatible the mods are for the new OS versions etc. But here's what I did...
I was able to put in two new drives (mirroring the original drive without ever booting it, and setting it aside. I can always recover to the store version if I absolutely have to) I was able to turn the system into a 280 hour unit! Worked great. And let me just say that's the only way to use TiVO because as soon as you get used to it you'll realize that there is a lot more on TV that you are interested in then you thought. It just plays at times incompatible with your lifestyle. But not with TiVO.
I now have a 3 year old TiVO that is better then anything on the market by more twice the recording time.
Now if I can just get my old TiVO to work with my new Dish network program schedule. Or HD-TiVO open for the same hacks. I'm getting a stiffy just thinking about it.
fire
The TIVO website mentions that HDTV may be supported in the future. Is there any word out there (unofficially) for when?
Anyone out there hack The DISH network PVR's? I've got the cheaper of the two with one receiver, but it is still awesome. I'd love to add a 100G drive, but haven't seen anything about doing it.
I no longer use my old Series 1 tivo. The hacks are nice, but with something based on a PC, the sky's the limit.
Currently, I'm using SageTV It's a PC based DVR software package. With it, I can currently;
- Record two standard def stations, and a high def station at the same time while watching a fourth video of any type. (Obviously, this requires having two tuners and an HDTV tuner.)
- Record standard TV to MPEG-2, MPEG-1, or just about any other format. This makes it easier to make VCDs, DVDs, or just play the program back on a standard PC.
- Playback using Dscalar to deinterlace the video.
- Play DVDs
- Play DivX
- Record shows as favorites (just like season passes) or let SageTV record things based on my past viewing habits (much like tivo's suggestions only I don't have to bother with thumbs up and down buttons)
- Do all of the above with an integrated schedule, which is free. No need to pay a monthly fee.
- Play and manage my MP3 library (I think you can do ogg, ape, etc. with some tweaks to the config)
- Stream video and audio to another PC over my LAN.
I'm sure I'm missing much more. This thing does way more than any tivo, even a hacked tivo, and it's constantly being expanded. It surpasses TiVo and ReplyTV in every way. I've even found it to be more flexible than MythTV and Showstopper (though they do have a few benefits in some areas.)
None of these hacks works with the Directv series 2, though, right? I wish I could turn it into a mini server.
Now that more and more cable companies are broadcasting cable content in HDTV quality, does anyone have (or know of) a DVR solution with TIVO capabilities that will capture HDTV signals and make them watchable on a large widescreen TV? All I've read so far were pretty horrific reports on almost unusable recording quality by current standalone units.
-- &&
Actually it can't. Take a look at how much of the American army is tied up in Iraq and Afghanistan, or sitting on its hands waiting for something to happen in Korea.
Right now, it is pretty much at full stretch dealing with a middle-sized dictatorship, a stone-age theocracy and a communist basketcase that can't even produce enough food to keep its own people fed. For the most powerful military that the world has ever seen it is hardly an impressive position.
You think the pawns move themselves?
There's a player moving the pawns.
Just keep that in mind, pawn.
Can you imagine if you could screw something up and just choose to undo it? Now that would be cool.
Mine worked so well, I had to sell it. Seriously, read the story.
Do yourself a favor and don't even touch this digital crack. Please.
RinkRat
This is more of an "Ask /." question but I figured knowledgable /.-ers and the occasional moron would be likely to post here too...
I have seen the glory of TiVo as well as its own unique tyranny. So instead of rushing out and spending $300 on equipment (plus or minus depending on upgrades) then the yearly or monthly service fee, I borrowed a friend's Gateway Destination PC (p2 300 Mhz) and tried to build a DVR just with software and the included tunner card. I can watch cable TV on it beautifully (its currently running windows bu I am willing and able to upgrade to Mandrake or Slackware).
Unfortunately I have been un-able to record. Any advice on programs, cheak tunner cards with encoders, the better Linux distro for the job, etc... I'd like it to sit under my TV and serve up recorded tv shows, downloaded movies and mp3s (sored on my win XP box) to my home theater system. The plam pilot trick is cool too but one thing at a time.
Modded down? What a bunch of crud. I say, Insightful +1. And hope the moderator used up his points quickly.
sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
To see someone on Slashdot calling TiVo a "glorified VCR/TV Guide hybrid" is quite a surprise to me. Does the prospect of never missing an episode of a show not appeal to you? Or the ability to pause live television? Or the power to skip past commercials with a button press (or with 0 button presses on a ReplayTV)?
Are you sure you even own a TV? :-)
3000+ comments meta-modded. 0 mod points awarded.
Lesson for other meta-suckers: Don't believe the hype!
"- Record shows as favorites (just like season passes) or let SageTV record things based on my past viewing habits (much like tivo's suggestions only I don't have to bother with thumbs up and down buttons)"
How does it know to not record programming that sucks if you can't give something a thumbs-down or equivalent?
"- Do all of the above with an integrated schedule, which is free. No need to pay a monthly fee."
Putting aside the fact that you can pay a one-time fee for TiVo's service...your integrated schedule is not free. Maybe you don't pay for it, but someone is paying. How sustainable is such a setup? Out of curiousity, who produces your guide data?
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
Or, instead of reading a hundreds of pages book, just buy a ReplayTV and download DVArchive. Viola - downloads shows without any hacking, turn a PC into a big video server to stream shows back to ReplayTV, etc. It's literally that easy.
Now that Replay has been picked and reinvigorated by one of the larger consumers electronics company (DNNA - Denon and Marantz), you're good to go.
And if you get a used/refurbed 5000 series (not a 5500 series), you'll still have the "infamous" automatic commercial advance feature.
Can Tivo do stuff that the free PVRS can do, like be a front end for emulators and get shows from the web? If so, it might be worth buying a Tivo instead of building my own.
Still, last I checked it it was $250 for a tivo and $250 to use it and $100 for the net card and $50 to use it, so it might be cheaper to build my own. But I'm lazy...
The biggest reason I don't have a "tivo" type PC based device using an All-In-Wonder card or some other TV tuner is that they can not tune a Digital signal. So, if I have DirecTV (I do) or Digital Cable, I have to change the channel on my homemade "tivo" box, then record on my PC. Two steps. That, and the Tivo interface is just soooooooo smooth...
(insert attempt to be witty here)
You think the pawns move themselves?
There's a player moving the pawns.
Just keep that in mind, pawn.
You know, there's a reason why you're posting as an AC. It's because you know how moronic you sound and you don't have the balls to stand up and say "this is me, this is how dumb I am".
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
I got tivo four years ago and instantly fell deeply in love with it. That love continues to this day, but has changed form. About a year ago, I realized that my giddy passion had given way to serenity, by which I mean that I realized that I just didn't want to watch tv any more, even on tivo. It was tivo that got me to this state of mind. It started by seeing how intrusive commercials were, and how much better tv was without it. The next phase for me was the realization of how manipulative the networks were with their program timing and scheduling; how wonderful to be free of that too! And then last summer I found I had dined at the table of paradise enough. I had actually watched enough episodes of The Simpsons, Futurama, Friends, Seinfeld, Frasier, and tons of other shows. To borrow an analogy from another slashdot writer, it was like the weekly trip to the hardware store after you've bought a new house, where one day you get there and you realize that you just don't need anything else, and you turn around and leave.
This has been a profound experience for me. And I don't think I could have gotten here without Tivo. Maybe I would have and it would have taken longer, but I like to think it was tivo.
Now I keep tivo around for the kid (Sesame St, etc).
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
Is there any way to get rid of the spam that gets added to the main menu on every update?
It's because if my servants see this, they'll get grumpy.
I tire of your prattle. Begone! Or I shall tell your master. Oh wait, that's me.
Whether you want to just add a little capacity to your TiVo's drives or turn it into a full-blown home entertainment center hooked into your home LAN, Jeff Keegan has written a massive and all-encompassing book on this rewarding art." Read on for the rest of Jason's review.
:]
So.. Buying a book, then following steps 1 through 10 is considered art nowadays? I guess putting a mod chip in an Xbox is art, too. How about installing a new hard drive in my PC? Does that count?
Save your money and go to a site like this one. Not very artsy but takes you through the steps.
Hacking is an art, following other people's steps, line for line, is not. It's the artistic equivilant of a paint by numbers..
Frey Technologies (the makes of SageTV) provide the data. That's part of the reason you pay a very reasonable fee for their software. They don't scrape their data.
...is a necessity for any reeasonable video capture setup. I'm sure a vanilla P4 2.8 has the horsepower to do it in real time, but layering on Windows, unplanned interrupts + preemption, and other active hardware INVARIABLY leads to dropped frames or other glitches.
I'm actually quite surprised that nobody has managed to build a card that will do MPEG2 record and play in hardware as well as assisting conversions to/from MPEG2 *and* sold it for under $1k. Whenever I've looked for one I always end up in the 'prosumer' market looking at expensive cards.
You can do fairly well with firewire capture, but then you STILL are stuck with painful MPEG2 conversion if you want to make DVDs or SVCDs, which I think most people reasonably want to end up with eventually.
I"m actually surprised Apple of all people hasn't decided to just embrace MPEG2 and stick a really good MPEG2 chip in their systems for this purpose. "Look Ma, MPEG2 conversion/capture/play and 0 percent CPU utilization."
Well, I saw it at a Borders last Friday (10-October), so perhaps other Borders have it, too?
Milalwi
"Maybe you don't pay for it, but someone is paying. How sustainable is such a setup?"
How sustainable is commercial supported TV if everyone skips the commercials?
How does it know to not record programming that sucks if you can't give something a thumbs-down or equivalent?
You can flag a show 'don't like' but unlike tivo, you don't have to use the thumbs up. Merely watching shows will tell the software that you like it. This intelligent recording doesn't record related shows, or shows with a similar word in the topic, so I don't get things like 3 hours of 'house & home' on the shopping channel because I watched 'this old house.' It's much more intuitive than TiVo and requires much less thought and input from the user.
Putting aside the fact that you can pay a one-time fee for TiVo's service...your integrated schedule is not free. Maybe you don't pay for it, but someone is paying. How sustainable is such a setup? Out of curiousity, who produces your guide data?
Well, the software costs $59.95, but beyond that initial purchase price I pay no monthly fee, and I don't have to pay an additional fee. I suppose you're right that I'm paying for it upfront, but at $60 for the software and the guide data, it's certainly less painful than paying $300 for a lifetime tivo subscription. The people who make sage (Frey Technologies) get their guide data from zap2it - the same provider TiVo uses. I don't know what their costs are but I don't really care either.
There's also a plugin which allows for import XMLTV data, so even if Frey or Zap2it were to go under, I'd be able to get data into the application.
Good questions, you really ought to give the website a glance. It explains far more than I could possibly squeeze into a post here.
Actually, he's right. The pawns *don't* move themselves. I don't know what's so moronic about that.
I think you think he's moronic because he's suggesting that there's something *manipulating* the pawns and that that something might be America (which, again, isn't that moronic.)
You may also object to his final jibe -- calling the poster a "pawn". This, yes -- this is perhaps moronic. But no more so than a lot of the anti-americanism that gets spouted off here and elsewhere.
A BOOK for fans of TiVo!? . . . 500 pages that completely miss the point.
-- sometimes AND gates turn me on.
Look, at the moment, what America says, goes. What will change it is if they _lose_ a war. Rather than just come to a settlement ala Iraq.
Already happening. One of the reason America invaded Iraq is because OPEC nations are considering moving off the dollar standard, possibly to a Euro standard. The dollar is what makes the U.S. the superpower (the ungodly military spending is primarily for cronyism, it doesn't seem to be helping much in holding Iraq).
i ndex.html
See #19 - http://www.projectcensored.org/Publications/2004/
You are ants to our god- oh, hang on, I'm late for the swing shift at Arby's. I'll finish with you later, insignificant insects!
If your bitterest enemies are people who hack the heads off civilians, then I would say you're doing something right.
We don't want people who think "Kids In The Hall" is funny recording television shows. That's just wrong.
Okay, because you asked for it, here are the major differences between Series 1 and Series 2 standalone devices:
Series 1
Series 2
There are people who've successfully hacked the Series 2 TiVos by replacing the BIOS with one that has the signature-check edited out, but that requires soldering, which is more than most TiVophiles are comfortable with.
In contrast, people with Series 1 devices have added ethernet cards, installed more RAM, installed Apache and a full web-based UI for programming TiVo, etc.
I own a couple of Series 1 standalone TiVos, but don't own any Series 2 standalones. I do own an HDVR2, which is the second generation DirecTV-integrated model. I haven't done anything to it yet.
I bot one last month and took it back the next day.
The reasons:
The unit only will control IR sat receivers, half of
ours are UHF(sat recv. is in a dif room).
The unit can not be set to record a program with out
the subscription. Why I don't know. I basicly wanted
a VCR with no tapes.
When TIVO goes chap 11 what do I do, stack it on my DIVx player or under my BetaMax??
The menu service is limited to only DISH and Direct
sat services, no ExpressVu.
Great idea , bad execution.
i have a 60 hour series 2 in my living room. i got the lifetime subscription on that. it is connected to my network via a linksys 802.11b wireless usb adapter. i'm thinking about getting a series 1 to hack, and put in the bedroom. if i buy one off eBay would i have to resubscribe, or the subscriptions transfer?
I have a 5060, from back in August when Amazon was running a promo with a $50 rebate and a $50 Amazon gift certificate with purchase. I bought the RePlay over the Tivo because of the deal, as well as the fact that it has built in networking (I use my roomate's DSL but I don't have a phone line, I'm all cellular). My roomate has one too, and it's great being able to send shows to him or watch shows from his over the network.
I'm not all that impressed with commercial advance though - it works well some of the time, but I watch some shows that cut to black (like Law and Order with those black screens with the location in white text) that seem to confuse it.
I have blog like everyone else
I think this is an insightful comment. I don't have TiVo, so I can't claim the same view, but I think your experience is interesting and I'm glad you shared it.
I watch TV with an antennae. I'm sure there
are many people who are on the road, driving with kids, camping etc. who also watch TV through the air channels. Is there a system out there that i can buy that will do the simple things of DVR/PVR's ???
all i want is to be able to Pause live tv for an hour or two. Dont want to record or anything like that. just want to have a pause, replay, skip functions.... I dont understand why something like this not in the stores.
I got one, if you want one, let me know.
I've read through the comments looking for the most highly recommended PVR and here's what I come up with so far:
Most Tivos are Series 2 instead of Series 1, which means a lot less flexibility
There are DirecTivos for cheap but they require a DirecTV subscription
You can build your own and install MythTV (free) or Sage ($$).
There's also ReplayTV which last I heard is pretty good.
What others are there that are good buys?
skkkoooonnnggggkkk ptui
...than SpAmazon. And Bookpool will never spam you like Amazon will, given half a chance.
The book is still in pre-order state from Bookpool, but they'll ship it to you when it hits. You can check the details at this link.
Bruce Lane, KC7GR,
Blue Feather Technologies
From the comments/features I've read about TiVo, I have all those and more with TW'rs PVR for $5/month.
Period. If it breaks, they give me a new one. The DVR is integrated with the guide which d/l's over the cable (no phone line req'd). Has a Series Manager (like Season Pass) with infinite control of repeats/days/channels/time slots/number to keep/etc. I haven't turned on my VCR since I got it six months ago.
Q: I'm confused.. Where can I buy it again? :)
A: Only at amazon.com. Anyone who's ever written or knows a writer knows how little writing pays, so if you'd like to give more at no cost to yourself, use that link.
Q: Can't I get all of this for free elsewhere?
A: Absolutely, the hacks talked about are all out there. What this book does is bring them together in one place, walk you through them with a consistent voice, and start you off on what's needed to write your own hacks (for example, with a description of the internal APIs TiVo has to access their proprietary MFS filesystem, etc). I've had many friends who are competent developers who wanted to try implementing a few ideas in their TiVo, but didn't want to play the catch-up game of reading through thousands of posts to try to gleam what collective knowledge we've all accumulated. Re-inventing the wheel might be fun, but it's not as fun as creating something of your own using the creations that have preceded you.
Also, many of the sites that used to host various TiVo hacks have disappeared because the authors have moved on to other things. I wanted to make sure these hacks were collected in one permanent place (on the CD-ROM for the book).
Q: Does your book cover Series2?
A: Yes and no. Series2 users can use the book and accompanying CD-ROM to add larger hard drives to their TiVo, and to mount Series2 drives. As for describing how to get a bash prompt, that I don't describe, for various legal reasons (the exemptions granted under the DMCA aren't as nice as my publisher would like them to be). Once you've gone off to find out how to do that (via the BASH_ENV and 2-kernel-monte exploits described at places like dealdatabase.com), much of the book still applies.. (even though I don't ship series2 binaries for everything, my descriptions of the tools and the development talk still applies and makes for interesting reading).
Q: Does your book cover Series1 DirecTiVos?
A: Yes, although again for legal reasons there's one step where I tell you in the book that you need to look elsewhere first (obtaining a bash prompt by flashing your prom). If you purchase a TurboNET card (as I'd imagine you will if you have a Series1 DirecTiVo) then the software on the TurboNET site will flash the prom for you so you can move on. Once that step is done, the rest of the book applies to your DirecTiVo completely (with the exception of video extraction).
Q: Hey, yeah, video extraction.. Do you cover video extraction?
A: Yes, I cover video extraction (and insertion), for Series1 standalones only. Series1 DirecTiVos scramble video by default, and though there is a simple hack out there to disable this scrambling, I'm prohibited legally from talking about it in the book. I don't cover Series2 extraction either.
Those are the main five I get asked most. I spent many months on this, and I'm glad that people finally have a chance to read it. I hope everyone enjoys the book! More than that, I hope this attracts new developers to this great platform.
..Jeff Keegan
seven syllables explain TiVo: kee gan dot org slash ti vo
I have a 20-hour Series 1 and have wanted to put in a larger disk for a while. The problem is that I'm afraid it will slow it to a crawl. As it stands, it takes a good 5-10 minutes to make any changes to my season passes or my wishlists. I have 100+ SPs and about 50 WLs and the processing gets slower and slower with each one. I'm thinking of upgrading to Series 2 just for the faster processor and increased memory.
Anyway, can anyone tell me whether increasing the storage space would slow it down even further? Most of the slowness probably comes from increased database processing with all of my SPs and WLs, but I was afraid that the additional memory addressing with a larger disk would push it over the edge.
Has anyone had experience with this? Is this a valid concern?
When violence rules the world outside / And the headlines make me want to cry / It's not the time to just keep quiet
Haven't used the USB one, but I have personal experience with the 350 and a close friend has had experience with the 250.
The 350 I got wouldn't even work at all on my system until I called Hodgepodge technical support and downloaded all new "beta" drivers and firmware. Even then it was appalling -- on a P3 1.03Ghz box, CPU was pegged at 100% during recording and playback, rendering the apps nearly unusable.
The MPEG2 files created by the 350 are not compliant with DVD players, none would play on another system with a software DVD player installed that WILL play MPEG2s from TMPGENC or other sources.
And speaking of their software, it is a disgusting HODGE-PODGE of codes from here, drivers from there, apps from six other places. You don't get good integration with anything, especially higher-end products like Premiere.
Sorry, but if you want something worthwhile that works well, then the cheapie hodgepodge solution doesn't cut it, and you're looking at a $1k card from someone like Matrox.
heh, we haven't seen anything yet. My take on all this is that American economy has depended on massive demand for American Dollars and the parking of money in American institutions e.g. banks, stock markets, real estate etc. instead of in home countries. We stoke this demand by fomenting political and economic instability in various parts of the world. Wealthy people just "feel safer" parking their money in the USA. I see this changing over the next several years. Already the Japanese are seeing an increased need for resources at home and are pulling investments from America. This along with the maturing Euromarket will cause the US Current Accounts to go negative (they already have) and this will affect exchange rates causing the cost of imported goods AND Capital to rise. We will have double digit interest rates again. You think its bad now with 3 million jobs lost and some permanently to offshore. When there is actually a capital squeeze we will have famine and conditions not seen here since the civil war.
Good to know that they give PCs away with tuner cards in them.
Oh wait, you had to buy a PC for it first. And at least one supported tuner card. And a license for Windows...which itself needs to be kept up to date.
Yowza. Sounds good. Out of curiosity, what was your cash outlay for the hardware and how long did it take you to get it running in it's current (assumedly perfect) state? Can you write up some documentation so my parents can set one up in an afternoon?
1. Why is it a nightmare? I hate personalization of any kind. I hate when anybody or any machine tries to predict my behaviour or interests. YMMV, and if so, that's a feature to you. To me it's a disturbing bug.
2. How often do I copy one videotape to another one? Frequently. Every time I rent videotapes I copy them all immediately thereby time-shifting when I watch them. It's trivial to do this with a non-Macrovision VCR, and I do it all the time.
3. What if I need to go compile my kernel in the middle of a show? Yes, I need to do many happy Linux things. But I can't think of a single TV show I have ever cared about having interrupted.
As I said, YMMV. Go forth and prosper, enjoy your TIVO. But to me, yes, I'm familiar with them, and yes, TIVOs are a big yawn. Maybe some day they will reach the capability and functionality of my VCRs.
I like new technology. I'm a gearhead and a geek. But I don't like it if it fails to present me with features I previously have been accustomed to. DVD players suck. TIVO does too. Sometimes analog is better. I embrace technology, but I embrace only BETTER technology. My idea of what's better is different than yours. Plenty of room in the world for us all. No need to be a TIVO zealot, there are many of us out here who yawn when you speak.
That, or you don't watch TV.
The ability to timeshift is a great idea, but applying it to television is less inspirational. I want them to expand this technology!
I wanna be able to do post-facto timeshifting of stuff like sleeping. Who wouldn't like to timeshift sleeping hours into the time spent stuck on hold, in a waiting room, or being talked at by proselytizers?
Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachtani?
www.fogbound.net
I bought a 120GB drive for by DirecTivo from Hinsdale. Now I have 146 hrs (approx). I didn't really have the time to play with it, nor the spare PC to mess with preping the drive, so I paid the premium. Instructions were excellent and it worked without a hitch. Check it out.
Can I have it?
Get off my launchpad!
Or you could use an open source option like furious_tv. You're free to modify that since it's open source.
Also, it comes with a handy GNOME interface called ftv_gnome. Just set up X forwarding and you've got a convenient network interface.
I could use something cheaper but I use TiVo. I can build a PVR but I use TiVo. Heck, I could do a much better job than the lame homebrew alternatives I've seen posted here (vidcap cards that can't sync audio). I do it not simply becuase I think they did it better. Few corporations out there "get it". TiVo does. They have not only been hacker friendly, turning a blind eye to nearly all of it, but put in the minimal amount to keep the MPAA happy in newer models. They are also respectful of privacy in an industry that doesn't. Recently a TiVo exec in a TV interview explained the level of privacy intrusion commercial PVRs are capable of. Not only could they report to interested parties that you watched Bend It Like Beckham at 2:00AM last night but you freezed framed on Kiera Knightley's upskirt cartwheel for 20 minutes. Most companies in a position to collect and distribute information like this are all to happy to profit and obfuscate their actions under a general license agreement. TiVo doesn't. They tell you exactly what they collect and where it goes. There also keen on keeping it this way. Instead of just screaming violently at the groups that want to violate our electronic freedoms shouldn't we support the ones that think like us? We need to support the few companies like this with our cash so maybe more will "get it". If respecting privacy isn't profitable what corp. is going to care? We already now what side the government is on.
I also converted away from TiVo, but mostly just for fun. Part of my decision was based on the fact I had 3 problems with the 2 TiVo's I had, in just over a year (TiVo series 1 hard drive died after 8 months, the replacement TiVo series 2 hard drive died after 4 months, finally the ID chip was faulty thus requiring another service).
So, I thought, why not try a PC based system? I build a system that cost about $800:
Shuttle SS51G XPC
Intel 2.4 GHz CPU
512 MB memory
160 GB Seagate HD
LiteOn CDRW/DVD
Hauppauge WinTV 350
Before you claim $800 is so expensive, consider an 80 hour TiVo lists for $350, lifetime membership costs another $300, and the home media option is another $100.
My system works well enough for me, allowing me to record TV to the harddrive, play music, show pictures, etc. Plus, I can burn SVCD's and so forth. The scheduling is done via TitanTV which worked okay. My system can also double as a DVD player, but I haven't looked into getting the best possible sound and picture out of it (i.e. DVI and SPDIF).
One thing the TiVo did I couldn't get working is watching a show while it is recorded - with TiVo I would watch a show starting 15 minutes into it, then just skip commercials and catch up to live TV.
I don't use any PVR software like SnapStream or ShowShifter or whatever, so at the moment the TiVo interface is far superior.
Their are advantages and disadvantages both ways. But, I think building your own is something reasonable. If I hadn't had such rotten luck with TiVo hardware I might have stayed. But the policy on lifetime memberships always irritated me, not being able to transfer between systems. That happened to me with my TiVo 1. In the future, when TiVo 3 or 4 comes out and does HDTV decoding, you'll have to buy another unit and start up another membership... but people who roll their own should just be able to get an HDTV card and be set.
Orexin produced by the hypothalmus is what keeps us awake. Without it the brain returns to its natural state of unconsciousness. At night our body clock tells the hypothalmus to reduce its production and we go to sleep. I learned this this week because my TiVo recorded a science program for me based on my interests. So, chances are there was already a program on timeshifting your sleep but you missed it because you don't have TiVo. I suggest buying a TiVo and putting the words "timeshifting" and "sleep" as your keywords. There's also a serious concern is that orexin regulation may be used to make 24 hour work force. So be careful what you wish for.
If you're willing to forgo the Tivo service fee anyway, giving them $0 revenue, perhaps you should look into programming your Tivo.
Let me break it down for you:
Stock DirecTivo unit: ~$200 per Ebay
HU (football) Card: ~$75 per Ebay (note: make sure it is guaranteed to receive preview channels)
Card Programmer: ~$100 Various places
This assumes you already have a dish, but if not those can be had for ~$100. All estimates are over what I've seen on Ebay due to the nature of auctions. All auctions I looked, however, had less than 15 minutes remaining.
Can your computer-based solution handle HD TV? If so, that may be the way to go, as the above unit will not.
If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
This is the most idiotic post i have ever fucking seen you fucking moron mother fucking cock sucking fucking bitch.
There are people who've successfully hacked the Series 2 TiVos by replacing the BIOS with one that has the signature-check edited out, but that requires soldering, which is more than most TiVophiles are comfortable with.
If you really want to do it, then there is a way without soldering. It ain't exactly legal, but it works.
A quick explanation of the Tivo's protection methodology:
-The hardcoded BIOS boots up and checks the kernel. It's looking for a signature on the kernel. Since we don't have Tivo's private key, we can't fake or recreate the kernel's signature. If the kernel signature is valid, it boots the kernel.
-The kernel has a chunk of code that checks every file on the root partition. If it doesn't match, then the kernel replaces that file with the right one before continuing on. This pretty much eliminates changing any files on the drive.
And that's how it works. The BIOS protects the kernel, the kernel protects everything else.
The trick to fixing this is, ah ha, an exploit that they accidentally left in one particular BETA kernel which then made it out into the wild. The exploit was removed, but the kernel was already out there.
I believe it was the U5 kernel. Anyway, the exploit is that a BASH environment variable could be set in the boot options and the kernel didn't clear it before booting up the shell. So what you do to get in and actually trick out the kernel is as follows:
- Use the BETA kernel. This kernel has protections, and so you have to have a correct filesystem for it to see.
- Create the BASH env variable such that, when the shell starts, it mounts a new partition with a modified, and therefore unsigned, kernel on it, swaps the root partition out with another, and does a two card monte trick with the kernel. The two card monte trick is where the running kernel loads a module that actually replaces the entire kernel with another one and starts it up. Neat trick, actually. This swaps the unsigned kernel into the kernel space, and bypasses the BIOS check, because the BIOS check is already finished and done.
Then all you do is use a copy of the latest kernel, and modify it slightly to eliminate the initd check of the partition. Two card monte swaps the unsigned kernel in and it runs just fine now that the BIOS check isn't stopping it dead in it's tracks.
The beauty of this hack is that Tivo can't fix the problem without changing the code in the BIOS/PROM chip. The U5 kernel that actually has the flaw is signed. They can't unsign it. The boot code there has the public side of the keyset and will read that kernel as signed forever and ever and ever. The new kernel can't detect that it's been two card monte'd into memory. It could check it's own signature, but that's as easily disabled as the initd part of the kernel is disabled. So once you have a two card monte set up and running, you just need a few good partitions to set it up in and then you have to slightly reconfigure it whenever they release new code for the box (basically disabling the initd in the new kernel and setting the boot params back to the U5 kernel on your other partition), but other than that it's wide, wide open.
Now, this ain't exactly legal, as the U5 kernel is Tivo's code, not yours. Or maybe it is, as the thing is the linux kernel. It's GPL'd. I'm not sure about that, as they never released U5 to the public that I'm aware of. In any case, it works. Search around dealdatabase.com and you'll find it.
- 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.
I just wanted to say that it's also an interesting case from a security standpoint. Their method of having a hardcoded and difficult to change BIOS protecting the system via hard crypto was basically unbeatable for a while. But when one exploit was found in one version of their signed code, then the system was basically broken open then, and forever more. I think it showcases an important flaw with using public key type signatures on executable code when you have absolutely no way to revoke that signature. One mistake, and your security is history or can be made to be history. All the hacker must have is one way to get in, and then the company can't undo that way in, even when they fix the flaw.
I just found that very interesting, is all.
- 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.
SageTV supports the Hauppage card fully, and allows for watching a show in progress like you're talking about. In fact, I did this just last night with the cubs game. Starting watching 20 mins late, FF'd all the commercials, and caught up to live around the 7th inning. And the scheduling interface beats the pants off TitanTV. If you're still using the Hauppage software, you don't know what you're missing.
Girlfriend has it. Even with the limitations, it's better than using an old VCR, and suits her needs fine.
The PC components probably cost me around $1200. A similar system could be put together much cheaper. I spent nearly $200 on the case alone since I wanted a case that looked at home in an entertainment center. I also went with low-noise fans and power supply, etc. The tuner cards were the bulk of it, HDTV tuners aren't cheap - nearly $300. The SD tuners are Hauppage PVR-250s, which go for around $100 each. A gyration (waive in the air)mouse and keyboard cost about $120. I also had to get a VGA->component transcoder to output the display to my HDTV.
A single tuner, standard def setup could be put together using a Hauppage 350's Svideo out, and run on an Epia motherboard for probably around $600.
Now, as for setup.. it's not too hard with Sage. The difficult part is in getting sage to work with a standard IR remote control. This required girder and USB UIRT, which isn't something for the faint of heart. But I've got it all controllable by my old TiVo remote (those peanuts are REALLY comfortable and laid out well.)
Anyhow, my setup is definitely on the higher end of what's possible. If you're happy with just keyboard and mouse control, only want one tuner, and find svideo output acceptable, you can put together a much less expensive setup. Especially if you don't mind have a PC that looks like a PC in your entertainment center.
My computer based system doesn't do HDTV, but in theory it could, if I bought an HDTV card ;)
Are those made?? I'd begin converting away from Tivo today if I could get my hands on a resonably priced card like that.
Of course, then I'd probably have to go to a dual-CPU machine to process that much data... Hmmm. How to convice the wife...
If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
As I state several times in the book, anyone not taking full advantage of the forums (doing many searches during their initial learning phase, and much contributing later on) is missing out.
Having been in the community for years using these hacks (and writing some of them), I couldn't agree more that the experience of being on the forum and sharing discoveries is huge.
However reinventing the wheel is only so much fun. Many people would rather have a compiled place for the common agreed-upon knowledge, then move onto the new stuff they'll create on their own sooner. How much time do people really want to spend trying to get tivoftpd0.1 to work before finding the buried away posts that explain that it was completely broken and that you should be using tivoftpd0.2? I think it's much more interesting writing your own hack and releasing it than worrying about the mundane issues like getting file transfers set up and installing existing hacks.
One other reason I was happy to write the book was to give people a place to send others when they hear the same (boring to them) question for the 500th time. Everyone wants to help out newcomers, but it's much more interesting talking about issues that haven't been fully reverse-engineered/understood yet than to rehash how to get your TiVo up and running on the net via PPP or a TurboNET card.
Don't be a burden on the community by asking common questions you didn't get answered by your initial searches.. Everyone would agree that you should read a FAQ before posting questions - this serves as a detailed, guided, and interesting (if I do say so myself) intro to get you caught up-to-speed on what we've all been doing.
..Jeff Keegan
seven syllables explain TiVo: kee gan dot org slash ti vo
Are you sure it was this book? From what my publisher told me, someone from amazon.com came by with a truck and picked up all of their copies directly.
:)
I'm curious as to whether any bookstores would buy copies from amazon.com and stock them on their shelves (or whether Borders has some special internal deal that otherwise isn't talked about).
But anyway, as the author of the book, I can tell you that I've been told repeatedly (in no uncertain terms) that this is only available at amazon.com. I'd love to see an exception.
..Jeff Keegan
seven syllables explain TiVo: kee gan dot org slash ti vo
I'm sorry to correct you, but you're wrong. I'm the author of the book. I've been told many times (in no uncertain terms) that it will only be available from amazon.com. Supposedly they came in a truck and picked up the copies from the publisher.
:)
Now if bookpool were to buy copies from amazon.com and sell them at a loss, well then they're insane.
..Jeff Keegan
seven syllables explain TiVo: kee gan dot org slash ti vo
Hi, :)
I'm the author of the book. I answer this question in this slashdot comment here. If someone wants to mod that up, that'd make things a lot easier.
..Jeff Keegan
seven syllables explain TiVo: kee gan dot org slash ti vo
D'oh!
No it was not. My mistake. I confused it with the "Tivo Hacks" book. One wonders how I could read the entire review and not understand which book it really was. I must have been especially stupid Wednesday afternoon. Wait! It was before I had my afternoon coffee! Yeah, that's it!
Milalwi
Yup, they're made. $200-300. CPU isn't a problem since the board handles most of the decoding. You need a fairly large HD to store all that data though.
Some HD tuners; MyHD, AccessDTV, HiPix, Fusion II.