Customer Reviews

Hacking the TiVo, 2nd Edition

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I didn't give this book 2 stars because it's a bad book; overall this is a well-written book that has a lot of good information for earlier Series1 and Series2 Tivos -- specifically those that have software versions 3.0 and lower. There is some info. for software versions 3.1 and 4.0, but the newest Series2 boxes (as of fall of '04) are already up to s/w version 5.3 and no one has figured out how to really hack into those without unsoldering the PROM (Programmable Read Only Memory) chip, reprogramming it and resoldering it onto the motherboard. (Just look at the hacking forums on tivocommunity.com or dealdatabase.com and search for 5.3 or Series2.5) To see what version of software your Tivo has, just go to the Settings & Messages -> System Information screen.
This book does have a good list of the hidden codes that can be entered via the remote control and they work for almost all versions. But if you're looking to really get into the box and have direct access to the hard-drive, etc., that info. is not yet available for the newest Tivos.

The current, non-DirecTV system, updated by satellite, is actually 7.1 (as of 9 August 2005). I haven't found that any of the hacking books are especialy useful for Series 2 boxes, especially as the software upgrades.

While this book contains some useful information for older Tivo boxes, the Series-2 has been Upgraded automatically by the Satellite to an even higher version. While the other reviewer, recently written, says it's now 5.3 and nobody has figured it out without actually tweaking hardware and reinstalling the chip (definately NOT recommended), the Software has already been upgraded again. As of now, 8/1/05, it is Version 6.1.

can find most of the info on the internet only for those wanting to open up the tivo

This book by the cover appears to be a very in-depth book when in fact it is meant to be a sort of text book. I have taught for over 4 years and this company was a primary source of text books. Over all their text books are of good quality, but leave a bit more to be desired. I found this book to be in-line with my history with this publisher. In fact if I had known that the book was by them I would not have purchased it for myself. That was my mistake for not paying closer attention.
The book offers the typical level of information that I would expect from this publisher. It will provide enough information to dazzle those of you that are not so technically inclined, and may even impress you. For those that have a bit of technical knowledge. You will find the book basic and leaving you at a point where you will either want to know more, or are not sure if this book offered you any more information than you already knew.
Anyone that is serious about finding out information about the Tivo box, the actual software, or remote hacking is pretty basic and offers no real interesting information that will really improve your Tivo experience. It offers information about changing the text and displaying information on the screen that really has no realavence, or benefit.
As for the hardware hacking, this information may be interesting to someone that may be timid about opening the box. If you have any real computer experience, you could have figured most of this information on your own.
In my best oppinion I would pass on this book. In fact if any other Tivo books are of similar quality I would save the money and find a good library to check it out for free. Even if it is late you will have still spent less than the shipping.

As usual for the past 15 years, the editors were asleep at the wheel and completely hosed the vital (to brain-damaged Linux) command line arguments -- at least on page 39 (Chapter 2: Adding a Larger Hard Disk to Your TiVo).

If you're transferring everything over to a larger hard drive using the "mfstool" commands the correct arguments are as follows (I've used "[space]" to indicate a single space between commands):

mfstool[space]backup[space]-o-[space]-a[space]/dev/hdb[space]|[space]mfstool[space]restore[space]-i-[space]-C[space]/dev/hdd

Idiot copyeditors and typesetters. Idiot editors in general.