Tivo

Just the other night I was joking with Cheryl that I was going to have to re-hack the Tivos again. And she laughed in a nervous politeness that indicated I better be kidding.. I was..

Our Tivos have been working flawlessly since the last time I hacked them, the week we got them. I had one of them cracked opened, and torn apart before the FedEx truck got out of the driveway. As marvelous as the Tivos are, I knew we could get more out of them. DirecTivos (Tivos with DirecTV built into them) have great picture (same stream that comes from the Satellite) and Sound (Dolby Digital Encoding) but lack some features that stand alone Tivos brag about.

• There is no way to Schedule recordings remotely (like when I'm at work, and remember something I want to record).
• There is no way to pull programs off the DirecTivo and save them on DVD for friends, family, and archiving.
• There is no way to pull a program from one Tivo and watch it on another Tivo

All these things are useful and the only way to get them on a DirecTivo is to hack it. So Hack it I did. It was a 2 weeks of research (the Tivo hacking forums are Hostile to anyone who doesn't do due diligence before asking a question, and step by step guides are severely frowned upon since the technology changes so quickly), cussing, Green Screens of Death, more cussing, and eventually celebration.

This morning I finally got another feature working, I successfully took a DVD and inserted the program onto one of the Tivos, which means I now need MORE space on the Tivo to store DVDs so I can put the originals out of the way of our 17 Month Old.

I was also reading, just this week, that the new software version will be forced on me sooner or later, and my life will be simpler if I do the upgrade myself rather than re-hacking the units after the upgrade takes effect (and the
upgrade has some nice features including faster browsing).

So now the research begins again, and I can already hear Cheryl asking "Why can't you just leave this stuff alone!?!?!?!?!?".

For a list of good Tivo Hacking resources see this Wiki Entry.

-Jason

I was an early adopter of Tivo, getting it in late December 2000. My wife, rolled here eyes at "yet another piece of electronics". It took her less than 30 minutes to get addicted to it. (the phone rang, and without thinking she paused it, talked for 15 minutes. When she got off the phone, she grinned big, and resumed her program.)

I've hacked the Tivo slightly. Increasing the recording time from 20 to 60 hours. Adding a network card, and a Web interface so I can program my Tivo from anywhere on the 'net (or my cell phone), and so I can watch Tivo programming on any computer in the house.

Although Tivo has started to change the way some networks schedule programs (programs running 2 minutes longer to foil Tivo's recording of programming airing on another network.) Super sized (40 minute) versions of prime-time shows, etc.. But, when will it completely change the way networks air shows?

Thursday nights are chock full of shows I wouldn't mind watching when I had a moment. Joey (Yea, I'm still giving it a chance but I'm guessing it may not hang around long), the Apprentice, CSI, and I might even tune into Survivor just to see what Rupert is up to. But since all this stuff airs in an overlapping way, Tivo grabs Joey, and CSI. I don't even get a glimpse of the other shows to see if they might be worth watching (inevitably while I fold clothes). But, if some smart network exec decided to show a rerun of survivor, or the apprentice, late night Tivo would dutifully grab a copy, and I'd have a chance to see it. And I MIGHT not even skip the commercials.

On the other hand. Maybe the networks are counting on this.. Assuming Tivo households only have 1 Tivo, and multiple TVs, if the Tivo is recording the A list stuff, we might have to watch the B list stuff on a TV sans Tivo, Commercials and all. But, with our baby, there is no chance in heck of THAT happening. TV is reserved for when he's in bed, and we're too tired to move.

Will TV become on-demand? Commercials become compulsory (Broadcast flags)? or subscription based (We'll give you the pilot and two episodes free, but after that it's 9.95 for the rest of the season of 24.)?

Also, If anyone is considering trying Dish networks DVR ('Tivo'), don't. It's aweful and gives DVRs a bad name. I was unhappy with it instantly, and when the thing crashed 2 weeks after I got it, I told them to take it and don't bring it back.

The worst 'Feature' is it records by channels and time, not by show. So if a show moves, get's supersized, etc you miss it, and instead get what aired on that station and that time in it's place.