# directivo (s2) and Macs



## tivo elvis (Dec 10, 2003)

Any thoughts on hacking a dtivo with a mac?


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## litzdog911 (Oct 18, 2002)

None of the commonly available Linux tools work with a Mac. Although I haven't heard if anyone's tried with the newer Intel-based Macs.


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## jap3 (Jul 14, 2003)

There is a thread on here which talks about how to do it. I have a Mac and was going to try it but it was easier just to take the drive to work and use the PC there. If I can find the thread I'll post it.


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## TydalForce (Feb 9, 2006)

there's a build of mfstools for OSX 

I was going to use it when I upgraded my Humax DRT 800 but some real-world logistics got in my way (not enough desk space where my PowerMac is) so I wound up using an old Athlon 650 tower I had laying around 

I think I would have run into a problem in that... you need an EXT2 filesystem reader. One exists for OSX but from what I've heard it won't work with Tiger (10.4) yet.


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## trainman (Jan 29, 2001)

jap3 said:


> I have a Mac and was going to try it but it was easier just to take the drive to work and use the PC there.


I second this opinion; the instructions for hacking the DirecTiVo using a Mac made my eyes glaze over enough that I decided it would be much, much, much, much easier to borrow a PC from a friend and use that to run the Zipper.

Once the initial hacking was done, though, I've been doing everything else via my Mac, and having no problems.


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## Budget_HT (Jan 2, 2001)

Jim,

What are some examples of the "everything else" you have been doing with your Mac?

I have 2 SD and 2 HD DirecTV DVRs with TiVo and I have never upgraded or hacked any of them. The closest thing to a PC in my house is one of the Macs (my iBook) running Virtual PC.


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## ForrestB (Apr 8, 2004)

I think the reason Tivo hacking on a Mac is not very common is because it requires a Mac with 2 free IDE drive slots that can handle drives larger than 128 GB - and Apple hasn't built a computer like that for a couple of years now. But this is very common on the PC.

The only Macs that fit this requirement would be a 2002 PowerMac G4 (Quicksilver) thru last 2004 PowerMac G4 (MDD).


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## JWThiers (Apr 13, 2005)

Budget_HT said:


> Jim,
> 
> What are some examples of the "everything else" you have been doing with your Mac?
> 
> I have 2 SD and 2 HD DirecTV DVRs with TiVo and I have never upgraded or hacked any of them. The closest thing to a PC in my house is one of the Macs (my iBook) running Virtual PC.


I don't have a Mac, but since the PC is only needed for the initial Hack, "everything else" is everything else.

All of the tivo side hack installs is via telnet and ftp, and many hacks use either a standard web interface (TWP) so is OS neutral, other standard apps to access the tivo (ftp clients for example) so has many available for both PC and Mac, or run natively on the tivo and do not care one way or another, caller ID for example. Of the few hacks that do have applications running outside the tivo, there are Mac alternatives (TivoTools instead of tytools for example).

Actually, tivotools looks like a better tool than ty. It appears to actually interface with itunes someway. I wish someone would port it over to the pc. I am not a PC zealot, I'm just lazy. I have to use PC's at work and being the computer geek in the family I have to provide tech support6 to all of my PC owning family. So it is just easier to use PC's at home also.

Am I missing anything? Gunny?


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## TydalForce (Feb 9, 2006)

trainman said:


> I second this opinion; the instructions for hacking the DirecTiVo using a Mac made my eyes glaze over enough that I decided it would be much, much, much, much easier to borrow a PC from a friend and use that to run the Zipper.
> 
> Once the initial hacking was done, though, I've been doing everything else via my Mac, and having no problems.


Just to clarify my logic...

My PowerMac with the IDE controllers capable of dealing with the 300GB drive is also my server in my basement. I didn't feel like taking it down, moving it somewhere that had enough space, taking it apart, playing with hard drives for a few hours, and then putting it all back together.

Compared to taking the old PC tower I had just sitting on the floor attached to nothing without a side panel on... it was mostly a matter of physics ;-}


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## trainman (Jan 29, 2001)

JWThiers said:


> All of the tivo side hack installs is via telnet and ftp, and many hacks use either a standard web interface (TWP) so is OS neutral, other standard apps to access the tivo (ftp clients for example) so has many available for both PC and Mac, or run natively on the tivo and do not care one way or another, caller ID for example. Of the few hacks that do have applications running outside the tivo, there are Mac alternatives (TivoTools instead of tytools for example).
> 
> Actually, tivotools looks like a better tool than ty. It appears to actually interface with itunes someway.


Budget_HT: Yeah, what JWThiers said.

TydalForce: Now that you mention it, that was another consideration; my Mac is an an old and slow Power Mac G4/400 that can't handle drives larger than 137GB, among other things.


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## tivo elvis (Dec 10, 2003)

thanks for the insight, I used work pcs to do the initial hacking (before the zipper) but ditched the whole thing when I couldn't figure out telnet access with the mac. Now I've retired from the corporate world and left all access to pcs behind.


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## TydalForce (Feb 9, 2006)

trainman said:


> TydalForce: Now that you mention it, that was another consideration; my Mac is an an old and slow Power Mac G4/400 that can't handle drives larger than 137GB, among other things.


If you desire, there are IDE and SATA upgrade cards that'll worok in your PowerMac.

Sonnet http://www.sonnettech.com/ makes a few; I have their Tempo Trio in one machine. There's another vendor or two out there but I can't recall who....


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## ForrestB (Apr 8, 2004)

>>but ditched the whole thing when I couldn't figure out telnet access with the mac.<<

It's very simple to use Telnet on the Mac - since Telnet is installed with OSX. To use it, just run Terminal and type telnet ipaddress


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## JWThiers (Apr 13, 2005)

per Gunnyman to telnet on a mac 

telnet -K xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx where the x's are your TiVo's IP address, oh and that's a capital 'K' (prevents a double character echo on the command line)


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## trainman (Jan 29, 2001)

TydalForce said:


> If you desire, there are IDE and SATA upgrade cards that'll worok in your PowerMac.


Yep, I have looked into that, but it's not worth it at this point because I'm planning to replace it with an Intel-powered successor whenever Apple makes the switch on their "desktop pro" models (the rumors are saying August, so my fingers are crossed that my good ol' G4/400 can survive until then).


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## TydalForce (Feb 9, 2006)

Makes sense to me. My first Mac was a secondhand PowerMac G3 (the Beige desktop model) which I have upgraded the hell out of. I can't bring myself to get rid of it, so its my server now (file, print, web, whatever). The Tempo Trio was a great way to get large drive support, as well as firewire and usb. 

If nothing else, something to keep in mind in case you decide to keep your old one as a server or backup, or if someone asks when you go to sell/give it to someone else


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## tivo elvis (Dec 10, 2003)

finding the tivo's ip seems to have me stumped, particularly since I am just hooking it directly to a laptop... it's either that or I just didn't hack them correctly...


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## Gunnyman (Jul 10, 2003)

are you using a crossover cable?


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## tivo elvis (Dec 10, 2003)

yup (crossover cable), I'm probably just clueless when it comes to finding the ip


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## ForrestB (Apr 8, 2004)

When you run the Zipper, it will prompt you to enter an IP address for your Tivo. What IP address did you enter?


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## tivo elvis (Dec 10, 2003)

I hacked these before zipper, using ptvnet to open access, it never wanted an ip address...


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## Gunnyman (Jul 10, 2003)

you need a network mapper to tell you where it is.
try Intermapper


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## tivo elvis (Dec 10, 2003)

just remembered ptv's crap software wouldn't work, so I used your (gunny) "unguide"

oh and thanks


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