TiVo Hacks helps you get the most out of your TiVo personal video recorder. Armed with just a screwdriver and basic understanding of PC hardware (or willingness to learn), preeminent hackability awaits. This book includes hacks for changing the order of recorded programs, activating the 30-second skip to blaze through commercials, upgrading TiVo's hard drive for more hours of recording, use of TiVo's Home Media Option to remotely schedule a recording via the Web, log in to the serial port for command-line access to programming data, log files, closed-captioning data, display graphics on the TiVo screen, and even play MP3s. Readers who use advanced hacks to put TiVo on their home network via the serial port, Ethernet, USB, or wireless (with 802.11b WiFi) will watch a whole new world open up. By installing various open source software packages, you can use TiVo for mail, instant messaging, caller-ID, and more. It's also easy to run a web server on TiVo to schedule recordings, access lists of recorded shows, and even display them on a web site. While TiVo gives viewers personalized control of their TVs, TiVo Hacks gives users personalized control of TiVo. Note: Not all TiVos are the same. The original TiVo, the Series 1, is the most hackable TiVo out there; it's a box thrown together with commodity parts and the TiVo code is running on open hardware. The Series 2 TiVo, the most commonly sold TiVo today, is not open. You won't see hacks in this book that involve modifying Series 2 software.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 11 Ratings

Not for everyone - 2004-01-12
Reviewer Rating:
Tivo is a software service, coupled with a digital video recorder, which changes the way one watches TV. O'Reilly's "Tivo Hacks", part of their outstanding "Hacks" series, explores how to tinker with these magical little boxes. "Tivo Hacks" follows the same format as the other titles in the "Hacks" series. Each chapter is an enumerated series of tips and tricks that will have your Tivo doing summersaults by the time you're finished going through all of them.

It is the first two chapters that the vast majority of Tivo owners will find the most useful. The first chapter explores hacks that may be performed with the remote control. This includes such hacks as the indispensable "30-Second Skip" hack, the powerful "Enabling Advanced WishLists" hack, and the why-would-you-ever-want-to-do-this "Italicizing Everything" hack.

The second chapter carefully details how to add more hours to your Tivo. This section carefully walks the more intrepid souls through removing and installing the necessary hard drives, backing up your original drives, and making your new drives Tivo-friendly. "Tivo Hacks" carefully explains each task step-by-step, as well as detailing the tools and materials you will need. The book certainly makes what may seem a daunting procedure very doable.

Tivo is essentially a Linux box. The remaining chapters offer hacks which exploit this fact, and these are definitely for the more technically minded. Herein we find out how to work with Tivo's shell, how to install software on Tivo, how to get Tivo speaking to other computers, how to bring the Internet to Tivo, and many more things that expand the capabilities of your Tivo. The book concludes with a chapter on writing and compiling code for Tivo. As in the first two chapters, each hack is carefully explained and due caution is clearly noted where applicable. Example code for hacks is given in Perl, Tcl, and C.

The author does a fine job throughout in making each hack clear and understandable. If you fancy yourself a bit of a hacker, then after reading this book you should feel comfortable undertaking any of these hacks.

Is this book for you? Well, if you have a Series 2 Tivo, really only the first two chapters are of much interest. The Series 1 boxes are much more "hackable" than the newer Series 2 boxes, and as a result the majority of the rest of the hacks will not work on the Series 2. This book, certainly beyond the first chapter at least, requires a certain level of technical ability, and as such is not for your average Tivo owner. In other words, I probably wouldn't purchase a copy as a gift for Uncle Irwin and Aunt Martha to go along with their shiny new Tivo. On the other hand, if you fit the target audience and want to get the most out of your Tivo, particularly if you want to expand the number of hours in your Tivo, this book will certainly come in handy. While you can certainly find most of the information in this book on the Internet, there is definitely something to be said for having it all in one place so that you may easily flip through it and reference it.

"TiVo Hacks" Disappoints - 2003-11-03
Reviewer Rating:
Book contains lots of hacks, but lacks clarity. Writing seems muddled at times, and instructions for hacks such as backing up TiVo's disk and adding a new disk are unclear/confusing (at best). Although I've not been a TiVo hacker, I do build & repair PCs as a business (and dabble in LINUX)...so I consider myself to be somewhat knowledgable.

Ultimately, the book disappointed me. I shall keep searching for one that's clear, accurate and useful.

Serious hackers only need apply - 2004-09-24
Reviewer Rating:
The majority of the book is working the TiVo at the operating system level to alter the software or to transfer movies. This is advanced stuff that requires a good deal of technical skill. The first chapter of the book does have some hacks that are done from the interface itself, like enabling the advanced season pass. The second chapter covers adding more disk space to your TiVo. Then beyond that you get into the advanced topics; putting your TiVo on your network, changing the software, transferring movies around, and then authoring code for the TiVo.

The book is very focused. The text is well written and the graphics are used effectively. The section on adding disk space is very well done and is better than anything I have read on the web for doing the same type of work.

I recommend this book for people who are familiar with Linux and hardware hacking and are interested in extending their TiVos. For just the average TiVo user you may want to review the table of contents to make sure that you are getting enough out of your purchase.

Almost worthless for version 2 - 2003-11-11
Reviewer Rating:
As near as I can tell, all the material applicable to version 2, the current version, requires elaborate, dangerous procedures that will void your warrantee.

Nicely organized and easy to read - 2003-12-10
Reviewer Rating:
I have not read the other tivo books yet, but I think this one is pretty good. Yes, you can get all the information online from the forums, but this book does a nice job of organizing it all in one place that you can flip through in your leisure. I found the pictures helpful too. The other reviewers seemed a bit harsh on this book, but maybe since I borrowed it from the library, I'm a bit more forgiving.

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