# Series 2 Hacking - The Last Word?



## AlleyAndy (Feb 2, 2009)

Hi All:

I'm a recent arrival to the Tivo scene, in the last few months. Sorry I'm late to the party!

I've been reading as many posts as I can, along with the Hacking Tivo books from vonHagen and Keegan. 

The more I read, the more I get confused!

Obviously, much of the information is old, and spread out among many threads.

I had been looking around for a Tivo to play with, and ended up with 5!

I now have: 

Phillips HDR-212 - Unsubscribed, unmodified, connected to DTV converter and TV, and in use by the family.
Sony SVR-2000 - Lifetime, CacheCard, backed up the hard drive to 30GB. Used for experimenting.
Tivo TCD540040 - Unsubscribed, backed up the hard drive to 160GB. My first purchase.
Tivo TCD540080 - Unsubscribed, brand new, never been powered up. Just had to have it!
Tivo TCD649080 - Unsubscribed, unmodified. Don't have cable, so not using it at all.

The Phillips is connected to a DTV converter, working daily.
The Sony is the "play" unit, connected to the network, and used for experiments
The TCDs are all on the shelf, unsed except to back up the drive on one of them.

My questions are:

How can I better use the DTV converter with a Series 1 unit? I've seen all sorts of comments ranging from "You can't!" to "You sort-of can." I've got it working pretty well with the Sony, using the IR blaster. The only problem is getting a channel lineup that better matches the over-the-air channels here. And so far, no work-around to access the sub channels, such as 4.2, 7,2, etc.

How do I find the channel lineups for local cable companies, in order to best use the DTV converter? Do i just run setup over and over until I figure it out?

I'm not sure what else to experiment with and add to the Sony? TiVoWebPlus? Any other fun stuff I should try? I've not figured out which software will enable me to copy video to a PC and/or iPod. (TyStudio?)

I'm all confused about the Series 2 units. How exactly do I hack my standalone Series 2s:
Zipper?
Superpatch?
PROM patch?
SApper?
killhdinitrd?
Monte?
Some other way?

How do I obtain earlier versions of the Series 2 Tivo software? Are there still FTP sites alive?

And, what "version" are we talking about? The Tivo Software Version shown on the System Information Screen? Or the Linux version displayed with uname?

Why can't I use the TCD649080 with a DTV converter? It's supposed to be "cable only" but there are video/audio inputs. I know I wouldn't be able to use the dual tuner this way...

Any chance of transferring video from the Sony Series 1 to a Series 2 which is unsubscribed? If so, how?

I'm sure I can't be alone in my confusion. Today I read some posts from past Tivo experts who were trying to redo some work done a few years ago, and even they were confused!

I know I'm asking many questions...

Thanks in advance for any help and insight!!


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

The most you likely can do is rework a cable lineup to match the antenna lineup. I don't think there is much that can be done for subchannels, except using a DTV-PAL converter and assigning each channel a 5 digit number, or making an external translator which will receive channel changing commands from the TiVo as if it were a cable/satellite box, translate the satellite or cable channel numbers to the OTA ones, and send the IR codes for the DTA box to change its channels.

To find lineups online, zap2it is the best choice, since TiVo gets their lineups and guide data from the same place as Zap2it gets theirs.

Getting content on/off a series 1 is considered extraction, and against board policy to discuss here.

Getting content on/off a Series 2/3 is discussable on board, but you need a subscription to the TiVo service on those to avail yourself of the content transfer features. To do it without a subscription or outside of the provided TTG/TTCB engine is OT here. Enabling subscription features (as TTG/TTCB are) to get around a subscription is considered theft of services, also OT here.

To hack your Series 2s, you need at least a PROM mod (being they are 540 and 649 units) and Sapper. Zipper is only for DirecTV TiVos.

Superpatch patches the tivoapp or other files to control some features. There are no public hacks to enable subscribed features. Your TiVo needs hacked before you can apply superpatch.

killhdinitrd and monte are hacks for older Series 2 TiVos than you have.

There is no need for older version of the older software for any TiVo generally. When most people talk of software versions on a TiVo, they talk of the version on the system info screen, not the version of the Linux OS. While the OS sometimes changes, most updates are primarily a new tivoapp and associated files, and/or database update.

The Series 2 DT from its public release was intended to not support antenna at all, to comply with then upcoming rules requiring anything that can tune antenna have an ATSC tuner, which TiVo opted to not included in that unit, so disabled OTA altogether. Adding antenna with box support could violate that rule, so then they elected to not even support OTA converter boxes with it.


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## AlleyAndy (Feb 2, 2009)

Thanks Classicat!

Just to be clear, it's not my intention to avoid subscription fees, nor to do anything that would be illegal, immoral, unethical with regard to the Tivos. But I've read so much that I don't know what's up!

And some of the rules regarding what's "allowed" and what isn't, aren't really clear to me. For instance, if it's OK to move content off the Series 2 with the free software available, then why wouldn't it be OK to do so with a Series 1? I guess if there were license agreements that Tivo had to enter into in order to move content on Series 2s, then there would be a problem. Oh, well... 

I'll check out zap2it, and see if I can figure out a good cable lineup.

I'm not sure why a DTV-PAL converter would be better than any other. I actually have 3 different brands, and have found that they all work well for subchannels if given a 3-digit channel number followed by "enter". In other words, none of the DTV boxes I have require the decimal point when changing channels. So, I can punch in 102 instead of 10.2 and still get the right channel.

I have a Channel Master CM-7000 set up on the Sony with an IR blaster, and it works fine for the available main channels. 

What I haven't figured out is if and how I can change the channel numbers in the Tivo to match the real ones that come OTA. I suppose that, if the subchannel content is available on cable, I could make it work...

Do we know how to go into the Tivo and change channel numbers from what Tivo thinks they are, to what we want? In theory, it should just be a matter of making some changes in a table that's stored on the drive somewhere, and updating it whenever the schedule is updated... Or is this another OT? 

On the subject, does anyone know how the Series 2 units are handling the DTV converters? According to the Tivo site, certain DTV boxes are "supported", which I would hope to mean that they work with subchannels as well. Assuming zap2it actually knows the schedules of subchannels!

The plan was to mess around with the Series 1 units that I have, then "graduate" to the Series 2s. When I get to that point, I intend to have a subscription, so no TOS issues to worry about!

So, the monte thing doesn't work with all Series 2 units? 

Reading between the lines, I'm guessing that the DTV converter would work on the dual tuner Series 2? Government intent and compliance aside (non-issues at this point, I would think, since the unit's already in the customer's hands) I can't imagine that the hardware would know or care if the audio/video signal is coming in from a cable box or a DTV box?

Again, thanks for your detailed response!

Hopefully this will also help any other newcomers (and people so old that they've forgotten!!) to figure things out!

And thanks for pointing out what's allowed here and what's not. Again, no intent to break the rules, especially when I really don't even know the rules!


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

I am not entirely sure of the reasons anymore but extraction is not a line we cross here, mostly because this board has a positive relationship with the TiVo corporation.

TTG/TTCB is fine to discuss because it is through a mechanism TiVo provides.

the DTV-PAL doesn't use the "-" as the delimiter between the main and sub-channel, they somehow use a 4 or 5 digit channel number. If you can get by without the "-" but an enter also, you could go with that by assigning the number to the channel you want to receive for it.
Yes, you can remap the channels to the numbers you want. I think you need to use a script or TWP might do it. It is not OT here.

The single tuner Series 2s (540) you have fully support converter boxes with the latest software. 

Yes, Monte is for 1xx/2xx TiVos.

I am going to step back and say there is no real reason to hack a Series 2 Standalone anymore.

As I said in another thread, while a Series 2 DT can record from antenna or an antenna converter box, it will have no setup option to do so.


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## AlleyAndy (Feb 2, 2009)

*I am not entirely sure of the reasons anymore but extraction is not a line we cross here, mostly because this board has a positive relationship with the TiVo corporation.*

OK, no problem. I guess I was confused by the thread (that's just been resurrected) at _"Accessing TyServer remotely?" _It's right below!

_"I have a Thompson series 1 Tivo running TyServer via a wireless bridge. Locally, I can connect to it as 192.168.1.200 and use TyTools to pull off recordings then TyStudio to convert to MPEG and watch on my laptop..."_
Maybe something's changed on this subject here since 2006?

*The DTV-PAL doesn't use the "-" as the delimiter between the main and sub-channel*

Got it. The Channel Master, for example, will allow for the entry of, say 062[ENTER] to get channel 6.2, or 102[ENTER] to get channel 10.2. It will also allow just 6[ENTER] to get 6.1 or 10[ENTER] to ger 10.1

Channel changing seems to work fine on my Sony S1, but I haven't figured out how to choose a compatible lineup, though you pointed me in the right direction with zap2it.

*Yes, you can remap the channels to the numbers you want. I think you need to use a script or TWP might do it. It is not OT here.*

That would be cool. I think that, ultimately, the Sony will require remapping in order to get the subchannels. I've been searching for an answer to that, and to how to actually do the remap, but haven't yet found it. Maybe it's post 1698 of 1700 in some thread... 

If anyone has a quick link to where that discussion is, I'd appreciate it!

*As I said in another thread, while a Series 2 DT can record from antenna or an antenna converter box, it will have no setup option to do so. *

OK, so that answers one of my unasked questions... I couldn't see a reason why the tuner wouldn't respond to OTA. But if the reason is that there's no setup option, and therefore no program guide data, then that makes it kind of hard to use!

*Yes, Monte is for 1xx/2xx TiVos.*

Oh, OK. That makes sense.

*I am going to step back and say there is no real reason to hack a Series 2 Standalone anymore.*

Well, maybe it's my "old-timers", but I don't even remember why I started down that path! Maybe it was just the sheer fun (!) and challenge?

Naw, that wasn't it!

There must be a reason why it was so popular, though, and why I thought I "needed" to do it!

It's all getting clearer now.


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