# Series 2 - No Account, No Recording?



## MikeRivers (Sep 22, 2008)

This probably has a simple answer of "No" but if there's a simple or complicated answer, I haven't found it. 

I got a Series 2 TSN 240-xxxxx from Freecycle so I'm not out any money if it's just a doorstop and program buffer at this point. I don't have an account and don't want one, but I'd like to use it to record programs. I spent a few hours tricking it into working with my Apex DTV converter - I can tell you how if anyone needs to know. 

From what I've read here, I suspect that I blew it. Seems like it wouild record when I first set it up, but it wouldn't accept the IR code for the Apex. So I let it make a call home in hopes that it would be updated. That much worked. But when I try to manually enter a recording (which I can do with my antique Sony TVR-2000) it tells me that my account is closed and won't go any further. 

Can they do that? Disable a product that someone purchased? Unless this was one that came along free with a cable or TiVo subscription that sure seems immoral, but I guess if they can get away with it, they will. 

Any hope for this unit? Or should I just salvage the hard drive and power supply?


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

It needs a Tivo subscription to function, ie. record.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

I don't think you'll find the power supply very useful. And in fact the hard drive is pretty small by current standards, and uses the old PATA IDE interface.

Maybe you should just Freecycle the TiVo back to someone else.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

MikeRivers said:


> This probably has a simple answer of "No" but if there's a simple or complicated answer, I haven't found it.
> 
> I got a Series 2 TSN 240-xxxxx from Freecycle so I'm not out any money if it's just a doorstop and program buffer at this point. I don't have an account and don't want one, but I'd like to use it to record programs. I spent a few hours tricking it into working with my Apex DTV converter - I can tell you how if anyone needs to know.
> 
> ...


Buying the hardware does not grant one the license to use the software.

Paying for a subscription grants the right to use the software.

Without the right to use the software, the functionality is limited.

As for your technique of getting the DTV converter to work with it, please start another thread and describe it for the benefit of others.


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## MikeRivers (Sep 22, 2008)

wmcbrine said:


> I don't think you'll find the power supply very useful. And in fact the hard drive is pretty small by current standards, and uses the old PATA IDE interface.


I have a hard disk audio recorder that uses IDE drives and uses an operating system that doesn't understand partitioning and only addresses 128 gigabytes of drive space, so I have use for the drives. And as a junk collector, motherboard power supplies always come in handy.

I don't really know how a TiVo account works. Do they give away (and essentially always own) the recorders? That would be the only way I could rationalize rendering the hardware inactive without an account. But I guess that's what they do. Out of curiosity, I checked on an account and I can get one for $12.95/month but I don't watch TV enough to even justify that.

That's not a problem for a tech forum though. I was just hoping that someone had figured out how to hack the software to enable manually programmed recording. I'll bet someone has, but this may not be the right place to find it.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

MikeRivers said:


> I have a hard disk audio recorder that uses IDE drives and uses an operating system that doesn't understand partitioning and only addresses 128 gigabytes of drive space, so I have use for the drives. And as a junk collector, motherboard power supplies always come in handy.
> 
> I don't really know how a TiVo account works. Do they give away (and essentially always own) the recorders? That would be the only way I could rationalize rendering the hardware inactive without an account. But I guess that's what they do. Out of curiosity, I checked on an account and I can get one for $12.95/month but I don't watch TV enough to even justify that.
> 
> That's not a problem for a tech forum though. I was just hoping that someone had figured out how to hack the software to enable manually programmed recording. I'll bet someone has, but this may not be the right place to find it.


They "rent" the software, so to speak. Your subscription pays for the license to use the software and also for the program guide data.

In order to make use of a subscription, you have to buy the hardware.

Often, the hardware has been sold a lot more cheaply than it would be otherwise, in order to get people to subscribe. It's sort of like the old safety razor marketing days, when the handles were sold cheaply or given away, and the company made their real money selling replacement blades.

That's the business model which they have chosen, and so those are the rules attached to their products.

You are free to choose whether to use their product under those conditions or to use some other product from some other company.

Basically, the TiVo is an appliance which has some computer-ish aspects.

Those aspects, and their use of some open source software in combination with the proprietary software which they wrote themselves, are what made TiVos "hackable" to the extent which they are.

Around here the "hacking" mostly consists of replacing the hard drives with bigger ones, repairing power supplies afflicted with capacitor disease, and using alternatives to the TiVo Desktop software.

There's another site which goes a little further.

This site filters out its name, but if you google "tivo prom day", you should be able to find it without any real trouble, and you'll see some of the same user names in both places.

Something else both sites have in common is no real tolerance for discussions of how to get TiVo service without paying TiVo.

The reason for that is that although TiVo never intended for users to be doing stuff like replacing hard drives or coming up with add-on circuits for the original Series 1 TiVos that let them connect to computer networks, they haven't fought it or tried to disable "hacked" units as long as the owners had either purchased a lifetime subscription or were making on-going subscription payments, and so the TiVo community of users would prefer to get along with them rather than put them out of business.

Also, neither site puts up with discussion of how to get cable or satellite tv service without paying what's supposed to be paid, either.

One is free, however, to complain about price and quality of service at either site.


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