# Networking your TiVo - great decision



## b166er (Oct 24, 2003)

I've been networked 4 days now - what a significant improvement to "life with TiVo" it's been. This is how it's changed my working with TiVo since I did it at the weekend. It's an outline for newbies and shows what you get for your networking.

I can now control the TiVo remotely thanks to the cachecard (network card). Especially useful when you're away from home, but just as useful if you're in another room using your PC. I could have gone for the cheaper turbonet card but I liked the idea of the next feature too.

Since I added the optional 512MB memory to the cachecard, the TiVo runs through menus quicker. You wouldn't get this if you had no memory, or went for a turbonet card.

I no longer need to have the TiVo hooked into the phone line for it's daily updates. Not such a big deal for those of you in the UK using the freephone number, but significant for those of us who aren't, and needed to make a long-distance call (to the nearest UUNET number) daily. Even if you are in the UK, you no longer have to share your phone line with the TiVo as it gets updates direct over the internet. You need a router to keep your internet connection available of course. If you're connecting to the internet via a USB modem then you're going to need a router.

My Now Playing screen now has a logo against each entry in the list.

My TiVo will now automatically set the 30-second skip key sequence after a reboot.

I can now make regular backups of my Season Passes/Wishlists and save them on the TiVo and/or copy them to my PC for offline storage. I can restore individual season passes from these backups at any time. Useful for hibernating SP's.

I can now re-organize my season passes from my PC and have them do their reorganization in the background. No more "please wait a minute" screens for me.

I can now change channel or start recording direct from my digiguide PC application too. No getting up and looking for the peanut.

I can now see my To Do list in a calendar format on my PC.

I can now delete items from the ToDo list from my PC by ticking checkboxes and clicking on "delete selected items". Makes clearing up the to do list MUCH quicker.

I can now look at all shows airing today that are new episodes. There maybe something new starting that I wasn't aware of. This is a good way to find such shows.

I can now see a calendar/grid view of which channels have guide data, and up to which date they have it.

Last but best of all, all my recordings have 2 minutes start padding and 5 minutes end padding *if* it wouldn't cause a conflict.


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## frogster (Jan 4, 2006)

b166er said:


> You need a router to keep your internet connection available of course. If you're connecting to the internet via a USB modem then you're going to need a router.


Actually you can easily share a USB ADSL modem connection or indeed a dial-up modem connection via Windows ICS as long as you have a network socket on the PC. You don't _need_ a router though of course if you have one, so much the better.
ICS works perfectly and I used it for over a year to avoid having to pay for the daily UUNET Tivo dial-up call.


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## simon (Oct 7, 2002)

b166er said:


> I've been networked 4 days now - what a significant improvement to "life with TiVo" it's been. This is how it's changed my working with TiVo since I did it at the weekend. It's an outline for newbies and shows what you get for your networking.
> <snip>


So can I assume that you've had TiVo for a long time, and only modded it recently? Did you find it difficult?

Thx

Simon


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## b166er (Oct 24, 2003)

frogster said:


> Actually you can easily share a USB ADSL modem connection or indeed a dial-up modem connection via Windows ICS as long as you have a network socket on the PC. You don't _need_ a router though of course if you have one, so much the better.
> ICS works perfectly and I used it for over a year to avoid having to pay for the daily UUNET Tivo dial-up call.


Right. That's what I did at Christmas. You do need to keep the host PC on all the time though and that's a negative. The router I bought cost 20 quid so it's not like it's a prohibitive factor these days. http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/AS...142647/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/302-5084484-9933620


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## b166er (Oct 24, 2003)

simon said:


> So can I assume that you've had TiVo for a long time, and only modded it recently? Did you find it difficult? Thx Simon


Right. Opening the TiVo can be tricky (you need a special screwdriver head). Replacing the drive and adding the cachecard is easy though. Maybe it just seems easier because I've had years of experience of upgrading PC's drives, components and cards.

I did go the easy route when it comes to the network software installation. Rather than take my existing drive out, load it up on a PC and add the drivers, I just ordered a newer bigger (250GB) drive from TiVoHeaven and they pre-installed the network for me. I probably could have done it myself with all the good hacking tutorials around, but my drive was starting to show signs it was on it's way out so I went for a new one with all things network pre-installed. It saves a lot of time and risk of doing something wrong. You just need to consider whether buying the drive yourself and doing the network drivers installation is worth the saving over buying the drive with all that stuff pre-installed. For me, I only need to save 2 hours of my time to make it worth the extra.


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

b166er said:


> Opening the TiVo can be tricky (you need a special screwdriver head).


Torx 10 I think, or 15. One of the two


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## simon (Oct 7, 2002)

b166er said:


> Right. Opening the TiVo can be tricky (you need a special screwdriver head). Replacing the drive and adding the cachecard is easy though. Maybe it just seems easier because I've had years of experience of upgrading PC's drives, components and cards.
> 
> I did go the easy route when it comes to the network software installation. Rather than take my existing drive out, load it up on a PC and add the drivers, I just ordered a newer bigger (250GB) drive from TiVoHeaven and they pre-installed the network for me. I probably could have done it myself with all the good hacking tutorials around, but my drive was starting to show signs it was on it's way out so I went for a new one with all things network pre-installed. It saves a lot of time and risk of doing something wrong. You just need to consider whether buying the drive yourself and doing the network drivers installation is worth the saving over buying the drive with all that stuff pre-installed. For me, I only need to save 2 hours of my time to make it worth the extra.


Ok, Having looked at the pricing, I think it would be more than 2 hours for me 

Thanks for the advice, I think I may have a go on my own... sometime...


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

As a newly cachecarded,long time Tivo owner I can second b166er's recommendation. It makes a big difference.

I don't have all those hacks installed. I'm using...
endpad (amazingly helpful).
Tivoweb (very useful and now available across the internet).
Mode 0 (Better quality recording).
Aerialplug's extra logos in Now Playing (makes it much more readable)

I will be looking at unmentionable things and DailyMail when I get time.

I did the network install on my existing drives having done an upgrade a long time ago following the commands parrot fashion. Installing the network card, drivers and getting telnet and ftp working was easy.
Getting the other hacks working required some time and effort reading this guide http://tivo.stevejenkins.com/ , reading here and asking some dumb questions.

I'm a long time PC user so the hardware was easy but the Linux commands, permissions etc. is still taking time to get right.

If you're reasonably competent at working on your PC and have some experience of using command line utilities like ftp and telnet then you should give it a go.


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## ericd121 (Dec 12, 2002)

b166er said:


> I can now make regular backups of my Season Passes/Wishlists and save them on the TiVo and/or copy them to my PC for offline storage. I can restore individual season passes from these backups at any time. Useful for hibernating SP's.


Welcome to the CacheCard Community! 

Can you point me to the "restore individual season pass" module?


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## b166er (Oct 24, 2003)

ericd121 said:


> Welcome to the CacheCard Community!
> 
> Can you point me to the "restore individual season pass" module?


It's the first link on this page:

http://www.alt.org/wiki/index.php/TiVoWeb Modules

I haven't tried restoring individual season passes but it said it could do it, and following the screens from the restore menu it looked like it could.


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

b166er said:


> It's the first link on this page:


Er... no. That's _Backup_ SPs


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## b166er (Oct 24, 2003)

cwaring said:


> Er... no. That's _Backup_ SPs


Backup [and Restore]...


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## ericd121 (Dec 12, 2002)

Actually Carl, I read the ReadMe on that link and it does say you "*can pick off the ones you actually want to bring back*".

Yes, I've had that module for two years and I've finally got around to RTFM!


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

Really? Ok, well, I've not needed to use it to restore yet  Didn't even know there _was_ a manual for it


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