Hacking TiVo: The Expansion, Enhancement and Development Starter Kit with CD-ROM (Paperback)

by Jeff Keegan (Author) "TiVo is easily one of the coolest products that I've purchased in the last 10-15 years..." (more)
Key Phrases: backdoor mode, mfstool backup, mfstool restore, Web Remote, Control Station, Red Hat Linux (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
In Hacking TiVo, Jeff Keegan proves that the TiVo television-recording device is far more than an enhancement to the passive lifestyle. By showing his readers how to use known tricks and all-purpose resourcefulness (plus some online community resources), Keegan shows how to make the TiVo perform far beyond its advertised purpose. He provides a chef's tour of the versatile appliance, calling attention to non-invasive tricks (like entering Select-Play-Select-3-0-Select to skip exactly 30 seconds ahead in a recording to bypass an ad) before moving on to more drastic kinds of fun. By the time you're through with Keegan's guide to the TiVo, you'll have it working as a more or less complete Unix workstation, accessible over the Internet via the excellent TivoWeb interface, and showing home videos, telephone caller ID information, and instant-messaging communications on your television screen.

This book mostly is concerned with software hacks, which will void your TiVo warranty as surely as anything involving a soldering iron, but which have the advantage of usually being reversible. Though he says the hacks in this book will work on TiVo Series1 and Series2, he doesn't explain how to defeat the systems' anti-intrusion mechanisms (which prevent the installation of software, and thus preclude the performance of about half the hacks in this book). This appears to be an exclusion for legal reasons, and he points out that the information is easily found on the Internet. --David Wall

Topics covered: How to make your TiVo do more of what you want. Instructions show how to add a bigger hard drive (for greater recording time), access the TiVo's bash command line, use unsupported command sequences, and share files between your TiVo and your networked personal computer. Particularly neat sections deal with using TivoWeb and putting Caller ID information on-screen.

Product Description
You love your TiVo. Make it love you back.

In Hacking TiVo, TiVo Underground insider Jeff Keegan blows the lid off of your TiVo, literally. Your TiVo does many wonderful things on its own; Hacking TiVo shows you how to access TiVo enhancements that you've never dreamed of.

The obvious hacks are all there, of course, including:

• vastly increasing the size of your TiVo's hard drive
• accessing the backdoor remote control codes
• full detail on how, when, and why to use over 35 backdoor codes
• adding on-screen sports scores, stock tickers and more
• starting and stopping installed hacks with your remote control
• hacking into the TiVo operating system.

Those hacks, while fun and interesting, just scratch the surface.

Advanced hacks covered in the book will show you how to not only connect your TiVo to the Internet, but also allow you to take control of your TiVo remotely via the Web once that connection exists. Hook your TiVo into online instant messaging services like ICQ or Instant Messenger; link it to your Caller ID; display your own photos onscreen; or insert footage from your camcorder into your TiVo.

At the heart of this book is its unique CD-ROM, which makes hacking your TiVo fast and fun. Simply insert the CD and reboot, and your PC becomes a Linux machine, pre-configured and capable of reading and writing to your TiVo hard drives. Simply follow along with the book to install the hacks one at a time, or use the CD's install all feature to install all of the hacks at once! This is simply the easiest CD-ROM available today for TiVo hackers.

At over 500 pages, Hacking TiVo offers more extensive, hands-on coverage of backdoor codes, video extraction, and operating system hacks than any other TiVo book available. And with more than a hundred pages of guidance on writing your own hacks, the possibilities are limited only by your imagination.

Hacking TiVo is available exclusively from Amazon.com. If you're looking for the very best book on getting the most out of your TiVo, you've come to the right place.

Your TiVo is already great. With Hacking TiVo, take your TiVo to the next level.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 550 pages
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons; Bk&CD-Rom edition (October 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764543369
• ISBN-13: 978-0764543364
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #453,827 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

165 of 170 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best TiVo book available, October 13, 2003

By A Customer

I have been looking into this TiVo hacking thing for some time - browsing the Internet, reading the newsgroups, but everything I saw seemed to be a bit intimidating, and I certainly didnt want to open a $300.00 PVR and screw it up.

I have been waiting for this book for 2 weeks, and finally got it last week. Having read, and not liked, 2 other books on the subject, I can tell you that this one was worth the wait.

This book is not simply a collection of tips and tricks, nor is it an essay on the various things you can do if you want to go and download this or that software. It is a very easy to understand, hand-on guide that actually walks you through this stuff step by step.

The CD that comes with it is a beautiful thing - something that was lacking in some of the other books. It has the hacks on it, and all you do it put it in your PC and restart, and it boots into Linux. Then you just follow along with the book.

This weekend, I was able to install a second hard drive, and added 140 hours of recording time. But most importantly - I didnt ruin my TiVo.

Now, I am not a complete techno-newbie, I have upgraded a video card and installed a CD burner here and there, but I am completely new to this hacking thing. This book made it less imtimidating to try, and it went a lot smoother than I thought. Even though I am just getting started, I am hooked already.

If you have any interest in this hacking TiVo thing at all, get this book.

129 of 136 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars To say I learned something is an amazing understatement, October 16, 2003

By	C. Webb - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

From Jason Scott,...

TiVo: You love it or you haven't met it. For those who have it (or are thinking of getting one), this 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, Jeff Keegan has written a massive and all-encompassing book on this rewarding art.

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 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 his TiVo costume. Honestly, I'm 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 Amazon exclusive, so this 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,...

49 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars To say I learned something is an amazing understatement, October 24, 2003

By	Jason Scott (USA) - See all my reviews

TiVo: You love it or you haven't met it. For those who have it (or are thinking of getting one), this book is 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, Jeff Keegan has written a massive and all-encompassing book on this rewarding art.

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. Honestly, I'm 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.

I'm glad this book came into my collection and I think any TiVo owner (or hopeful TiVo owner) will agree.