Hacking your TiVo
Good story on /. about a Hacking TiVo book.
by timothy on Wednesday October
15, @12:30PM
Jason
Scott writes "TiVo: You love it or you haven't met it. For those who have
it (or are thinking of getting one), a new book is out about all the different
ways to modify, increase capacity, or even program TiVos. 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,
written a massive and all-encompassing book on this rewarding art." Read on
for the rest of Jason's review.
| Hacking TiVo: The Expansion, Enhancement and Development Starter Kit | |
| author | Jeff Keegan |
| pages | 500 |
| publisher | Wiley Publishing, Inc. |
| rating | 10 |
| reviewer | Jason Scott |
| ISBN | 0764543369 |
| summary | Everything from admining how cool TiVos are to turning them into your home entertainment server. Exhaustive, elaborate, and funny. |
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
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
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.