william von hagen - delmarlearning.com€¦ · william von hagen ® warning: doing almost any of...

William von Hagen

®

Warning: Doing almost any of the procedures discussed in this book requiresopening your TiVo, which instantly voids your TiVo warranty forever. Also, youcan get a serious electrical shock if you’re not careful while poking aroundinside your TiVo, just as you can with any electrical device. Never work on yourTiVo while it’s plugged in.

Hacking TIVO-00Fnt 7/23/03 5:38 PM

SVP, Retail Strategic MarketGroup:Andy Shafran

Publisher:Stacy L. Hiquet

Senior Marketing Manager:Sarah O’Donnell

Marketing Manager:Heather Hurley

Manager of Editorial Services:Heather Talbot

Senior Acquisitions Editor:Kevin Harreld

Associate Marketing Manager:Kristin Eisenzopf

Book Packager:Justak Literary Services, Inc.

Technical Reviewer:Mike Baker (aka embeem)

Retail Market Coordinator:Sarah Dubois

Copy Editor:Karen Whitehouse

Interior Layout:Bill Hartman

Cover Designer:Mike Tanamachi

CD-ROM Producer:Cycle

Indexer:Sharon Hilgenberg

Proofreader:Marta Justak

© 2003 by Premier Press, a division of Course Technology. All rightsreserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any formor by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, record-ing, or by any information storage or retrieval system without written per-mission from Premier Press, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in areview.

The Premier Press logo and related trade dress are trademarks ofPremier Press and may not be used without written permission.

Important: Premier Press cannot provide software support. Pleasecontact the appropriate software manufacturer’s technical supportline or Web site for assistance.

Premier Press and the author have attempted throughout this book to dis-tinguish proprietary trademarks from descriptive terms by following the cap-italization style used by the manufacturer.

Information contained in this book has been obtained by Premier Press fromsources believed to be reliable. However, because of the possibility of humanor mechanical error by our sources, Premier Press, or others, the Publisherdoes not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy, or completeness of any informa-tion and is not responsible for any errors or omissions or the results obtainedfrom use of such information. Readers should be particularly aware of thefact that the Internet is an ever-changing entity. Some facts may havechanged since this book went to press.

ISBN: 1-59200-111-4

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2003105364

Printed in the United States of America

03 04 05 06 07 BH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Premier Press, a division of Course Technology25 Thomson PlaceBoston, MA 02210


Trademarks

Apple, Macintosh, and Mac OS are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.

BlessTiVo © 2000 Mike Hill

bootpage.c © 2002 Steve White. All rights reserved.

elseed © Greg Gardner <[email protected]>

explore2fs © 2000 John Newbigin

extract-gzip.c © 2002-2003 Steve White. All rights reserved

GAIM2TIVO v0.2 © 2002 by Hermanator <[email protected]>

hexedit © 1998 Pixel (Pascal Rigaux)

JpegWriter © 2002 J. Bordens

killinitrd-s2.c © 2003 Steve White. All rights reserved.

Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

MFS Tools © 2000-2002 Steven Lang

Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

OmniRemote and OmniRemote PRO are trademarks of Pacific Neo-Tek.

OSX CLI Blesser © 2002 Eric C Wagner

SYSLINUX, © 1994-2002 H. Peter Anvin

TiVo is a registered trademark of TiVo Inc.

TiVo Control Station © 2002 G.R Souther

TiVo newtext2osd 1.0 © [email protected]

TiVo VBI decoder 1.0 © embeem - [email protected]

TiVoWeb © 2001 Josha Foust ([email protected]). The “Tivo Web Project” and TivoWeb” are trademarksof Josha Foust. httpd.tcl © 2000 Stephen Rothwell ([email protected]) SendKeys Tivo Remote Mod ©2000 Jon Squire ([email protected]) TiVo (Web) User Interface © 2001 Josha Foust([email protected]) CSS Stylesheets © 2001 Mike Baker ([email protected]) All other code copyright ofthose in the TiVoWeb README.

TiVoNET, TurboNET, and AirNET are trademarks of SiliconDust Engineering Ltd.

TwinBreeze and PowerTrip are trademarks of Weaknees.com.

Two-kernel Monte for MIPS © 2003 MuscleNerd <[email protected]> i386 version of Monte© 2000 Erik Arjan Hendriks <[email protected]>

YAC: Yet Another Caller ID Program © 2002 Jensen Harris

zlib compression library © 1995-1998 by Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler

All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.


Acknowledgments

I’d like to thank my wife for putting up with my TiVo obsession and for never car-rying out any of her threats. Four TiVos in a two-person house seems just aboutright to me. And you thought that the Lisp Machines in the dining room werebad!

I’d like to thank embeem (aka Mike Baker) for making this book far better thanit would have been without his help. Thanks to embeem and lightn (aka JoshaFoust) for substantial contributions to the MFS information in Chapter 9. I’d alsolike to thank the TiVo hacking community in general, which has freely and selflessly contributed ideas, hacks, and time towards making the TiVo a funmachine. Special thanks to Andrew Tridgell, Dylan, ElectricLegs, embeem, Ingi-neer, JohnnyDeath, Kazymyr, lightn, MuscleNerd, Otto, Tyger, and countlessothers. Like everyone, I’d like to thank Linus Torvalds and the Open Source com-munity for Linux. I’d also like to thank the folks at TiVo for making a great prod-uct and actively supporting the TiVo hacking community. (What’s up with thathashing stuff, guys?)

I would also like to thank the folks at Premier Press for letting me do this book.Special thanks and a big sigh of relief to my agent and book packager, Marta Justak, for not killing me, regardless of how tempting that must have been.Thanks, too, to Karen Whitehouse for the excellent improvements to the text, toSharon Hilgenberg for her impressive work making it possible to find things inthis book, to Kurt Wall for helping and always being a friend, and to Bill Hart-man for making this book look great while working within a time warp.


About the Authors

William von Hagen is a senior product manager at TimeSys Corporation. Hehas been a UNIX® devotee for over twenty years and a Linux fanatic since theearly 1990s. He has worked as a system administrator, writer, developer, systemsprogrammer, drummer, and content manager. He has written books on such top-ics as Linux® Filesystems, SGML, Mac OS X, and Red Hat® Linux, and haswritten for publications including Linux Magazine, Mac Tech, Linux Format, andMac Home. An avid computer collector specializing in workstations, he ownsmore than 200 computer systems. You can reach Bill at [email protected].


For my wife and best friend—I love you, Dorothy, and I always will.


Contents at a Glance

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix

1 Know Your TiVo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

2 TiVo Tips and Tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

3 Exploring Your TiVo Hardware . . . . . . . . . . 61

4 The Hacker’s Tool Chest of TiVo Tools . . . 107

5 Backing Up and Restoring TiVo Data . . . . 143

6 Expanding Your TiVo’s Storage Capacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

7 Connecting the Universe to Your TiVo . . . 207

8 Working with Your TiVo from Windows and Macintosh Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

9 Linux and the TiVo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

10 Getting and Installing New Software for Your TiVo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

11 Other TiVo Hacking Resources . . . . . . . . 363

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383


Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix

Chapter 1 Know Your TiVo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Why TiVo? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2What’s This TiVo Service I Keep Hearing About? . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

TiVo Service Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Identifying Your TiVo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4TiVos and Your Viewing Habits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

A Short Course in TiVo History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6TiVo Business Partners and Integrators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Partnering with the Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Showcasing Upcoming Broadcasts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Introducing TiVo’s Home Media Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

TiVo Hardware Models and Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Identifying Your TiVo Software Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15TiVo and the Competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

ReplayTV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16UltimateTV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Future Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Chapter 2 TiVo Tips and Tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Using the TiVo Remote Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22TiVo Remote Control Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Resolving Remote Control Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Secret TiVo Commands and Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Activating Backdoor Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28Using Clear-Clear-Enter-Enter Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36


Using Clear-Enter-Clear Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Using Enter-Enter Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Using Select-Play-Select Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43Using Thumb-Thumb-Thumb Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45The Irritating AutoTest Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48Sorting the Now Playing List in V. 3.0 TiVos . . . . . . . . . . . . 48Automating Backdoor Mode and Other Codes . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Legendary TiVo Monitor and Diagnostic Commands . . . . . . . . . 53TiVo Scheduling Tips and Tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Using TiVo Wishlists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58Activating and Using Advanced Wishlists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Chapter 3 Exploring Your TiVo Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Attaching a Terminal Emulator or Serial Console . . . . . . . . . . . . 62Opening the TiVo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65Working with TiVo Disk Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Removing TiVo Disk Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66Attaching TiVo Disk Drives to Your PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70Adding Disk Drives to Your TiVo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73Power Considerations in TiVo Series 2 TiVos . . . . . . . . . . . . 75Dealing with Modems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76Networking Your TiVo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82Using a PDA as a Remote Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

TiVo Hardware Supplies on the Net . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1039thTee.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103Hinsdale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103PTVupgrade.COM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104TiVo Store . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104Weaknees.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105TiVo Sites Outside the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105Other Sources for TiVo Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Contents 9


Chapter 4 The Hacker’s Tool Chest of TiVo Tools . . . . . 107

TiVo Tools Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109TiVoMad Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109BlessTiVo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113Bootpage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117MFS Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119Useful Linux Tools Outside Most Tools Disks . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Boot Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133BATBD—Bill’s Accumulated TiVo Boot Disk . . . . . . . . . . 136Dylan’s Boot Floppy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139Johnny Death’s Boot CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139Kazamyr’s Boot CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140Knoppix Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Chapter 5 Backing Up and Restoring TiVo Data . . . . . . 143

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145When to Back Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147Finding Room for Backups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148Creating Image Backups Using dd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152Creating Backups Using MFS Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Creating a Simple Backup Using MFS Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . 156Creating a Compressed Backup Using MFS Tools . . . . . . . . 158Backing Up an Entire TiVo Disk Using MFS Tools . . . . . . 159Backing Up Multiple-Disk TiVo Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160Advanced Backup Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Backing Up Selected Information from Your TiVo . . . . . . . . . . 163General Information about Restoring TiVo Data . . . . . . . . . . . 165Restoring Image Backups Using dd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166Restoring Backups Created Using MFS Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Restoring an MFS Tools Backup Without Adding New Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168Restoring an MFS Tools Backup to a Larger Drive . . . . . . . 170

10 Contents


Restoring an MFS Tools Backup to a Two-Drive TiVo . . . . 171Advanced MFS Tools Restore Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173Verifying TiVo Disks Restored Using MFS Tools . . . . . . . . 177

Connecting Backup and Restore Commands Using a Pipe . . . . 178Changing TiVo Operating System Versions Using Backups . . . 179Dumping TiVo Data to Videotape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181Forbidden Topics Like Video Extraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Chapter 6 Expanding Your TiVo’s Storage Capacity. . . . 185

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186Considerations for Adding Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187What You’ll Need for Your TiVo Upgrade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188Replacing an Existing TiVo Disk with a Larger One . . . . . . . . 189Upgrading a Disk Without Using Backup Files . . . . . . . . . . . . 192Expanding Drives Using Disk Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Expanding a Drive from a Disk Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195Using Disk Images Without Intermediate Backup Files . . . . 198

Adding a Second Drive to Your TiVo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200Using the MFS Tools Utilities to Add a Second Drive . . . . . 201Using the BlessTiVo Utility to Add a Second Drive . . . . . . . 204

Chapter 7 Connecting the Universe to Your TiVo . . . . . 207

Getting a Command Prompt on Your TiVo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208Getting a Command Prompt on a TiVo Series 1 . . . . . . . . . 209Getting a Command Prompt on a TiVo Series 2 . . . . . . . . . 214Two Kernel Monte for the TiVo Series 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

TiVo Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233No Picture or Welcome Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233Your TiVo Is Stuck at the Welcome Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233Your TiVo Is Stuck at the Second Welcome Screen . . . . . . . 235Your TiVo Displays a Green Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

Contents 11


Starting FTP and Telnet on Your TiVo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236Integrating Your TiVo with AOL Instant Messenger . . . . . . . . 238Caller ID and Your TiVo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242News, Sports, Weather, and Your TiVo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243Using TiVo’s Home Media Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Playing Music or Displaying Photos Using Your TiVo . . . . . 246Scheduling Recordings on Your TiVo over the Internet . . . . 248Multi-Room Viewing on Your TiVo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

Chapter 8 Working with Your TiVo from Windows andMacintosh Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Communicating with Your TiVo from Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . 259Serial Communications from Windows Systems . . . . . . . . . 259Transferring Files over a Serial Connection from Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263Networked Communications from Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

Creating TiVo Tools Disks Under Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272TiVo Disks and Windows Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Exploring ext2 Disk Images Under Windows . . . . . . . . . . . 278Accessing Windows Disks from Your TiVo . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Integrating Windows Systems with TiVo’s Home Media Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

Installing and Using the Windows TiVo Desktop . . . . . . . . 282Playing Windows Audio Formats Other than MP3 . . . . . . . 287

TiVos and Mac OS X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290TiVo Disks and Mac OS X Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Exploring ext2 Disk Images Under Mac OS X . . . . . . . . . . 292Blessing a Disk Under Mac OS X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

Creating TiVo Tools Disks Under Mac OS X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296Integrating Macintosh Systems with TiVo’s Home Media Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

12 Contents


Chapter 9 Linux and the TiVo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Introduction to Linux and Open Source Software . . . . . . . . . . . 300Overview of the Linux Boot Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301Linux Filesystems and Initial RAM Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302Obtaining the Source Code for TiVo’s Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

Overview of the TiVo Application Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . 305The TiVo Startup Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305TCL and iTCL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306TiVo’s TiVoSH (tivosh) Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

TiVo Disk Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308TiVo Disk and Partition Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

MFS—TiVo’s Media File System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312Exploring MFS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Using Serial Communications Under Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320Using minicom for Serial Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320Transferring Files Using minicom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Using a Linux Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324Job Control in the Bash Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325Running Commands in the Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326Managing Commands in the Bash Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Popular Linux Software for the TiVo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329Busybox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329Emacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330FTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331GCC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333NFS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333Telnet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

Burning CDs on Linux Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336Working with TiVo’s Home Media Option from Linux . . . . . . 338

Contents 13


Chapter 10 Getting and Installing New Software for Your TiVo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

Installing Software on Your TiVo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344Identifying Binary File Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344Uncompressing ZIP and GZ Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345Extracting Files from TAR and TGZ Archives . . . . . . . . . . 347Safe Locations for Storing Your TiVo Hacks . . . . . . . . . . . . 350

Installing Cross-Compilers for TiVo Development . . . . . . . . . . 351Selecting and Installing a Cross-Compiler for the TiVo Series 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351Selecting and Installing the Cross-Compiler for the TiVo Series 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

Stand-alone TiVo Tools and Development Projects . . . . . . . . . . 354An Alternate UI in the TiVo Web Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354The TiVo Enhancement Development Team . . . . . . . . . . . . 361The Personal TiVo Home Media Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361Closed Captioning Support Using TiVoVBI . . . . . . . . . . . . 361TiVo Utilities Home Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362

Chapter 11 Other TiVo Hacking Resources . . . . . . . . . . . 363

A Byte of Fun—TiVo Advocacy Articles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365Online Forums for TiVo Information and Discussion . . . . . . . . 366

The AVS Forum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368The DealDatabase Forums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371The TiVo Community Forums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

TiVo Hardware Web Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377Various TiVo FAQs and Help Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378

Hacking the TiVo FAQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378The Hinsdale FAQs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379Seth’s TiVo FAQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379TiVo Forum FAQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380

14 Contents


TiVo Network Hack How-To Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380TiVoHelp.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380TiVoStuff.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381

DirecTiVo Sites and Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381TiVo Software Download Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383

Contents 15


Introduction

What exactly is TiVo (pronounced tee-vo), and where did it come from? A TiVosystem records cable and satellite television instantly on a hard drive rather thanon a videotape, thereby enabling you to store and record an endless number of tele-vision programs in one place. But that’s not all it does. TiVo also offers a host ofother features that makes it a truly useful, timesaving device rather than simply areplacement for your aging VCR. In fact, TiVo represents the most exciting revo-lution in personal entertainment technology since the VCR or the television itself.

Some of the many advantages of TiVo over a VCR include:

� More durable recording capabilities than videotape

� Far easier to use than a VCR

� More storage than a videotape

� Automatically locates and records your favorite programs, regardless ofwhen or where they were broadcast

� Optionally selects programs to record, based on your previous viewinghabits

TiVo, Inc. has been in business for a few years now, and they have several TiVomodels available. At the time of this book’s writing, these models fell into twogeneral classes, known as TiVo Series 1 and TiVo Series 2. (More details about thesein Chapter 1, “Know Your TiVo.”) Both of these classes can be hacked, er,“upgraded.” TiVo, Inc. is continually updating its operating system and its capa-bilities, while it matures as a company. The former is a win for TiVo customers,while the latter can present impediments to aspiring TiVo hackers. For example,Series 2 models are faster and sexier than Series 1 models, but it is more difficultto get command-line access to Linux on the Series 2 models. Version 4.0, themost recent version of TiVo’s software and customized Linux for the Series 2,makes it downright challenging to get command-line access. Luckily, many of thefeatures that “needed” to be added to the Series 1 class and which required com-mand-line access now are provided automatically by Series 2 models. As I’llexplain later, however, there are ways around almost everything.

This book does not attempt to replace your TiVo documentation. It doesn’texplain how to set up or configure your new TiVo; nor does this book explain allof the features of the TiVo and how to use them. The documentation that comes


with your TiVo does a good job of all of that. You will find that I may explain howto use certain features after you’ve hacked them or extended their capabilitiesthrough various TiVo backdoors (think “cheat codes,” which are available in dif-ferent versions of the TiVo software). Think of this book as a companion volumeto your TiVo documentation. In this book, I’ll explain how you can hack yourTiVo—that is, how you can extend its capacity and capabilities beyond those thatare provided out of the box. Although you can find some of this information onthe Internet, this book is designed to make your life easier by culling the resourcesand presenting them in one place, and then tailoring the hacking instructions soalmost anyone can do it.

This book isn’t necessarily a TiVo cheerleading session. Where appropriate, I’llpoint out the caveats, downsides, and costs of owning and using TiVo. However,like most TiVo owners, I feel that the benefits of owning and using TiVo far out-weigh the disadvantages. Your mileage may vary.

How To Use This BookThis book is intended for anyone with some computer experience and curiosityabout what’s inside their TiVo. The book starts by explaining how to activatesecret commands and modes of operation that help you get more out of your TiVowithout even opening the box. It then explains how to inexpensively add diskspace to your TiVo, increasing the amount and quality of recordings that you canstore. I’ll also explain how to install and run many freely-available, open sourceapplications on your TiVo, so that you can schedule recordings over the Web, getnews, sports, and weather displayed on your TiVo screen, and even check yourportfolio while not missing an instant of your favorite television broadcast.

I’ll explain how Linux, Macintosh, and Windows users can all work on and getthe most out of their TiVos. The software for each platform is organized into sys-tem-specific sections, and much of it is provided on the CD that comes with thebook. If you’ve never experimented much with hardware, it isn’t “hard,” and thisbook will show you how to do it.

Later chapters of the book explain how to install and run different versions of theTiVo operating system and software on your TiVo, so that you can take advantageof specific, new (or old) features. Your TiVo is a full-fledged computer system—why not make the most of it?

To get started using this book, take a quick tour of TiVo history in Chapter 1 orlook at Chapter 2 to see how to get the most out of the TiVo’s user interface. Next,

18 Introduction


read Chapters 5 and 6 to learn how to use the included CD to back up your TiVoand add a bigger disk yourself—for far less than what others might charge.Finally, look at some of the programs described in Chapters 4 and 7, to see whatyou might find useful to have running on your TiVo—and put it there. Your TiVois a home entertainment device, a home computer, and this book will help you doalmost anything that you want with it. Have a good time!

Let’s Have Some FunLike any smart appliance (and even most video games), there are plenty of tipsand tricks that can help you get more out of your TiVo, even if you decide thatyou don’t ever want to open the box.

To make it easier to find hot tips or usability suggestions, this book identifies thiskind of information with a special “TiVo Guide” icons to differentiate it from thestandard text of the book. This sections look like the following example:

Introduction 19

Did you know that your TiVo has many special commands built into its remote control,providing shortcuts to your favorite TiVo commands and even to some hiddenmenus? To activate these...

TIVO GUIDE TITLE

Hacking Is a Good ThingMany people are confused by the word “hacking” (most notably the media), view-ing it as an activity done by eccentric geeks with no social skills. This couldn’t befurther from the truth. That hype sells newspapers, magazines, and gets viewersfor the evening news, but it isn’t the way that anyone with a frontal lobe uses theword. “Hacking” can be defined as using your ingenuity to explore and improvethe capabilities of application software, operating systems, or hardware. You canhack your car by adding a new carburetor, souping up the fuel injection ratio, oradding some high-performance accessory. You can hack your home cable setup bysplitting the cable and running it to multiple points in your house. If you don’t likeyour house, you can hack it by adding a new room or moving the doors around.That’s what this book is about—expanding the capacity and capabilities of yourTiVo and interacting with it in new ways.


This book is not about “cracking,” which means stealing services or informationand doing something illegal, unethical, or immoral with them. Those kinds ofactivities are the computer equivalent of shoplifting—and, they are just plainwrong.

Installing a new or modified version of your operating system and applicationsoftware or adding new storage devices to your TiVo are tasks that are as Ameri-can as apple pie. Roll the “America the Beautiful” soundtrack please....

This Book, Your TiVo Warranty, and a Few WarningsYou do not have to be a Linux hacker or own a single Ministry or KMFDM T-shirt in order to hack your TiVo. This book provides clear, easy-to-followinstructions for a variety of enhancements that almost anyone can perform.Where relevant, each procedure described in this book also lists potential prob-lems that you may encounter and explains how to correct them.

Warning: Doing almost any of the procedures discussed in this book requiresopening your TiVo, which instantly voids your TiVo warranty forever. Also, youcan get a serious electrical shock if you’re not careful while poking around insideyour TiVo, just as you can with any electrical device. Never work on your TiVowhile it’s plugged in. Think of this book as the equivalent to a book on home tele-vision or automotive repairs, both of which can be dangerous. You can be hurt ifyou’re not careful!

Here are a few other rules to satisfy the lawyers:

Caution: Never work on your TiVo while drinking hot beverages or while dri-ving. Hot beverages may be hot. Don’t drink and drive. Look both ways beforeyou cross the street or open your TiVo. A penny saved is a penny earned. Don’trun with scissors.

Caveat: Neither the publisher nor I are responsible for any damage to you or yourTiVo if you attempt to follow the procedures discussed in this book. Nor are weresponsible if a meteor strikes you while reading this book. This book is made ofpaper, and thus is flammable. We are not responsible for any resulting damage orinjuries if you accidentally set this book on fire or drop it on your foot.

20 Introduction


This Book and TiVo, Inc.The folks at TiVo had nothing to do with this book. They are smart people whodeserve your support. This book does not explain how to get around the TiVo ser-vice or in any way avoid paying TiVo the money that they deserve for their excel-lent service. The folks at TiVo deserve your support for pioneering an awesomedevice and a new way of interacting with broadcast media (although it would havebeen nice if they had left the Series 2 TiVo models as accessible as the Series 1models). The TiVo folks also deserve cultural kudos for not suppressing the hun-dreds of bulletin boards and Web sites that have sprung up discussing TiVo hack-ing and tips and tricks. In many cases, the folks at TiVo go out of their way tocontribute to and host community Web sites where TiVo internals are discussed.I can’t think of any other company that has been so cool about its products. If youattempt to cheat TiVo, you hurt everyone. Please don’t do that.

I do not explain how to extract or edit recorded video from your TiVo’s harddrive(s), although this is possible and is discussed at hundreds of Web sites andnews posts on the Internet. Nor do I explain how to do anything that the losersin the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Motion PictureAssociation of America (MPAA), or the boneheads who voted for the DigitalMillennium Copyright Act (DMCA) could construe as a way to avoid weaselinga few more pennies out of their constituencies or making you pay multiple timesfor something that you already received.

I do not own stock in TiVo, although I’ve certainly considered it. This book is anattempt to share various experiences with TiVo, Linux, the Mac OS, and evenMicrosoft Windows. The goal is to help you enhance the capacity and, in mostcases, the capabilities of your TiVo. You’ve paid for your TiVo, and you can dowhatever you want to the physical device. If you break it... well, you’ve alreadybought it, and you get to keep both pieces. Buy another one. The folks at TiVoshouldn’t be too upset about that.

Introduction 21


william von hagen - delmarlearning.com€¦ · william von hagen ® warning: doing almost any of...

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