Slashdot Mirror
TiVo File Encryption Cracked
An anonymous reader writes "TiVo file encryption has been cracked. Details on the project can be found on the wiki. Mac and Linux users rejoice!" The project page says, "The conversion still requires the valid MAK of the TiVo which recorded the file, so it cannot be used to circumvent their protection, simply to provide the same level of access as is already available on Windows."
This is good news for people who are trying to use content they recorded, like they should be able to.
After reading the linked "details" article, I am at a loss to tell whether or not this will work with HD-Tivo. I've wanted to buy one of these for a long time (and they've recently hit the market, but at $700ish I can't justify the cost unless I have some way to archive my programing (and Tivo2Go is not offered for HDcontent). HD-DVD and BluRay are both non-starters at the moment, whereas HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, etc all play assloads of HD content all the time (including many movies that aren't out on DVD yet, as well as their own series such as Deadwood, Dexter, etc).
So can anyone tell me if this actually brightens the prospects of being able to use a series 3 HD Tivo to record HD shows and then archive them offline for storage? I did RTFA but the jargon about headers and address bytes and whatnot got a little heavy for me.
I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.
whats the news? i've been doing this for a while, they come to the pc in a proprietary format and then i use tshow to clean them up. I'm using a series 1.
It hasn't been "cracked", since it still requires your Media Access Key to decode the video.
If I recall, the DMCA prohibits trafficing in technology to bypass security measures on copyrighted media put in place by the owners of that copyright.
The limitations on Tivo are copy protections put in place by a third party, not the owner. (I can still record the same programs on my betamax with no trouble.) Have I missed something?
Trying to use sarcasm in text-based forums does not work.
It's cool that Mac/Linux users can now access their media in the same way as Windows users have been able to. It's not *too* cool (ie: dangerous to TiVo, and by extension the implementors) because you still need your MAK key, and all it does is provide the same level of access as TiVo already provide to windows users.
... a few creative uses come to mind :-)
The crucial thing here is that TiVo took a business decision not to support Mac/Linux users. They can't really complain when those users decide to support themselves, giving themselves the same abilities that TiVo provide to Windows users...
Personally I think this is the right balance - my TiVo has been sitting in a corner since I moved house - the new cable box does everything TiVo did, and does it in HD (although the interface sucks a bit. Bad comcast). With this though, I can see a new lease of life for the TiVo
Simon
Physicists get Hadrons!
Check it out, and you'll be amazed.
I did, and I wasn't. It was a giant pain in the a** to set up and configure, it didn't work reliably, and the cost for hardware was way higher than buying a TiVo.
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
...recording programs to a large hard drive and then being able to either play from the HD or else transfer them to a computer and burn DVD's of the stuff for permanent storage. There are standalone DVD burners (Panasonic, Sony, etc.) that have hard drives. You record to either DVD or the hard drive, and you can playback from the HD or record the data to DVD.
Yes. Almost all video capture cards come with programs to do this -- every card I've had/seen from ASUS and ATI does. There won't be any program guide or fancy remote control, but it'll record whatever you program it to. Just like a VCR.
The appeal of the Tivo is it's simplicity and ease of use. Yes, I can build my own, but it will cost far more than the cost of the tivo and monthly (or lifetime) service. Plus a home grown solution will tend to require never ending tweaks to keep it running.
The reason hardware for MythTV costs more is because Tivo sells their hardware at a loss, because they can count on making up for it in high subscription fees.
I recently spec'ed out a MythTV box with an 80gb hard drive and hardware MPEG encoding and a nice media center case for $350 shipped from NewEgg. A pretty good deal, I'd say, and it can actually be used for other things than just watching TV (it's got an Athlon 64, 512 mb RAM, and NVidia GeForce 6150 graphics).
My bicyles
It's a pain in the ass to set up and configure. I can't argue with you there. If you've done it once successfully, though (or two or three times) it becomes much easier.
However, I take issue with "didn't work reliably" and "cost was higher than a tivo."
My own MythTV works flawlessly, using a donated PIII-750 (cost: $0) for the server, and a Hauppauge 150 (cost: $60) for the tuner/encoder. There are no monthly fees. If you can show me a TiVo with lifetime subscription for $60, I'll be amazed. And tell my friends to buy it.
My MythTV also has features that TiVo will never have -- like the ability to automatically detect and skip commercials, the ability to select programs to automatically burn to DVD, and support for enough tuners to simultaneously record everything on every channel (well, in theory... I'd love to see the hardware for that!).
I like the TiVo. It's easy to use. But I like my MythTV a lot more. And I don't have to worry about what stupid decisions TiVo corporate might make -- like encrypting my videos so only I can watch them, support for the "Broadcast" flag, and wasting my storage space with advertisements.
One other thing I like about my MythTV. It doesn't "forget" whether I've watched a show or not after a few months. If I've watched something and told it I'm done with it, it's not going to record it again without my permission. Unlike the TiVo which will happily record shows you've watched a dozen times, if it's been long enough for the TiVo to forget.
A cloud of smug!
668: Neighbour of the Beast
"Why TiVo when you can MythTV?"
Why post on-topic when you can blatantly go off-topic and get modded up for it? This is a nuts and bolts Tivo article. It's not about considering one DVR solution over another. No other solution is even on the table here. I'm not the biggest fan of Tivo but I'm getting a bit sick of these folks who feels some sort of duty to shove in a reference to MythTV every time Tivo is mentioned. I for one won't be amazed by links about MythTV but I can't read a single DVR article that doesn't have some wonky poster extolling the virtues of MythTV. We get it. We know. Stick to the topic.
$500 for a TiVO w/ Lifetime subscription is not a bad price, but let me break down my MythTV box.
- $119 nMedia Media Center Case I could have used an old beige box, but this case fits in perfectly with my other components
- $88 Athlon64 3000+ CPU
- $87 Asus A8N-VM CSM motherboard with Geforce 6150 onboard
- $95 Seagate 400GB SATA 3.0 HD
- $90 1GB DDR RAM Crucial ValueRAM
- $10 Universal Remote
- $5 Homemade Serial IR receiver
- $40 2 WinTV software encoder cards from Ebay
Total: $534I happen to have Charter HD cable with a Motorola DCT-6200 cable box. This cable box has a FireWire port that can be used to record shows in HD. Because my Asus MB has FireWire built-in my ~$530 Myth box has 1 x HD Tuner, 2 x SD Tuner. No fees (except my cable fee) and 3 tuners with a 400 GB HD for storage. If I wanted to I could rent a second HD cable box and have 2 HD tuners, but that is overkill for me.
For $530 dollars and a little bit of time I have a box that far exceeds the TiVO and records my HD content in DRM free MPEG2. Plus, if I ever need to I can reformat the HD and use it as a decent desktop PC.
Next paragraph added to avoid lameness filter.Above I priced out a basic MythTV box. My actually Myth Box is a little better with a PVR-500 (hardware MPEG2 encoder card) and I have several remote controls for it. I currently use a ATI RF remote (~$30 @ NewEgg). I would not recommend it unless you already have one. It works fine, but the button response is slow (1 press/sec). I have (yet to be installed) a Windows Media Center remote. I have tested it and it seems to work quite well. I also have tried the remote that came with my cable box. It works well, but I was unable to prevent the signal from changing the cable box. I have tried several multi function remotes with different homebrew receivers. I was able to configure everyone of them with MythTV and LIRC. I also have a gyration wireless keyboard/mouse connected to the system.
More crap to bypass the lameness filter. thoiioe uiowjelkf auieohfla jsioayruhd aypiorhpqjhp iywphrqodhnq qyprhaondpohap qihd hqahd q doiahdoh kljsgf kljsgldf lkjgasldf lgsf lkagfd lkaghf agf jag jklgad iuotqwr bkjhs htaia hgskjdg aghsg lagsl lkagd lagsd algda lagld ad aldgla dlkasg dlagd aldga lslagls dlags dlgald aldglagdla dlkagld aldgla dagd lagd algdl adlagd agdlagd aldglagd adg aldg aldgThanks,
the_crowbar
Have you read the Moderator Guidelines
This is an article about the BS associated with proprietary solutions. The possibility of using an open solution and BYPASSING all of this BS is very much on point. I am a LONG time Tivo user that chose to build a MythTV system over this very problem.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Your MythTV didn't cost you $60. Just because someone donated the computer to you doesn't mean it was free.
Although I'm not sure what your point is here, I guess I'll go with it. Just because you griped enough to DirecTV and didn't get charged for a year doesn't make it free to you either. Be sure to count the time on the phone with them, the downtime without the service, and the general BS that you have to put up with when speaking w/ customer service.
There's that and there's the time it cost you to put it all together and get it working.
Depending on who you are, this is part of the adventure. Maybe as much fun and memorable as actually using it when you're finished.
or $5 for those long standing customers. For two tuners per unit. And in my case, in HD.
Shortly I'm going to try to get a fusion card to work in HD-OTA with a new box, but don't kid yourselves on the costs. A tivo runs 40+ watts and costs about $3/month to run. An efficient PC is likely to be double that, at best. (the older CPUs - perhaps we're talking Athlons - burn 90-100 watts on their own.) The older machine will also need a new hard drive for the storage needs, esp for the HD crowd. Add another 60-100 there.
13/month seems like a hard sell to me, but the dtivo units run way cheaper than the PC route, with the simple reliability that can't be matched by general purpose PCs.
UPSs deal with power hits well, esp when the draw is only 40W. I can literally go an entire day. (OTOH, the hdtivo has been rebooting itself at ~2:30 the past two saturdays - very odd behavior)
I'm personally interested in Neuros OSD, which is an open source hardware solution to DVR and whatnot. The specs seem to require a separate memory card or USB hard drive though (no indication of any built-in capacity) -- and I haven't ever actually seen/purchased/played with one.
Of course nobody reads the FAQ! If people read the FAQ, the Questions wouldn't be so Frequently Asked.
Ah, don't flatter yourself too much. I've gone through the GP's recent posts and he's hardly your "personal troll". He's pretty funny too.
It's perfectly relevant to the discussion. After all, the discussion centers on an inconvenient aspect of TiVo. The assertion is made that by using MythTV, you avoid that inconvenience altogether. I find that interesting, in the context of the discussion.
Couple of points:
- The case did come with a quiet 280 watt PSU. The only fans in the system are the PSU and the CPU cooler. The AMD stock cooler is very quiet.
- The embedded video has s-video output. I don't use it because I am doing HD over DVI. The s-video adapter does cost an extra $10 though. If you have another Asus board that has onboard s-video that adapter will work.
- $10 universal remote is not a problem. I bought a nice one off woot.com for $8. I also have a MCE remote I bought off ebay with receiver for $15. The case also has an internal IR Remote window to place the receiver inside the case.
- The WinTV may not be the best capture card, but it is as good as the TiVO. Had you read the rest of my comment, you would notice that I am now using a PVR-500 (2x 150 in single PCI card). The PVR-500 adds $135 to the cost, but that can be bought later to upgrade the system if needed.
- I don't have any parts designed to be silent, except maybe the PSU. That came with the case so is factored in to the price of the case.
- I did forget about the DVD writer. I had one lying around there was no need to buy one; had I needed to purchase one they are only ~$30. Of course I am pretty certain TiVO does not come with a DVD-Burner. Since I can easily dump video off my Myth box in MPEG2 I can use a DVD burner on any desktop PC.
I don't recall what the shipping cost were, but there was no tax. Purchased across state lines and all that. As far as research goes, there was a little. Right now I am using KnoppMyth on the system. If you want to build a fully working system with little research, check their forums. I think you may need to be registered.With regard to ease of use, the TiVO I am sure is the easiest. If you don't want the DRM though MythTV is not hard. Granted I have several years of using Linux, but KnoppMyth is pretty easy. Just install it and at first boot it walks you through the system setup. If you get stuck post in their forum. I have been surprised at the quick responses I have gotten in the forums.
Thanks,
the_crowbar
Have you read the Moderator Guidelines