# What to do with my TIVO now?



## komputernut (Dec 26, 2007)

I have decided to get rid of my TIVO service (I have a series 2). I was pretty disappointed to find out that it is little more than paper weight at this point. My understanding is I cant use it to manually record and all that leaves is setting it up on and old TV to pause live TV.

I think it would make a great little media box. A place to store music and video maybe even share files over my network.

Is it possible to turn my TIVO box into something else useful? Understand I don't expect it to display or record Cable TV (I have another HD DVR), what I would like is just a PC like device for storage of video and audio and be able to move media via my wireless network to and from it.

Thoughts?


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## infin8007 (Dec 26, 2007)

I believe you can. I've seen websites about hacking it and getting to a bash prompt.
I will be doing the same when my subscription is up a year from now


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

You cannot move media without subscription, and enabling transfers without a sub is theft of the subscribed service.


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## komputernut (Dec 26, 2007)

classicsat said:


> You cannot move media without subscription, and enabling transfers without a sub is theft of the subscribed service.


Not quite sure I understand how your statement makes sense.

I bought a piece of equipment. I own it. If I choose to change it is that not my right? If I want to transfer something from mt TIVO to another box and I can make it work, should I not have that right.

Now I may be forbidden to access the TIVO service any longer, but thats not what I want.

If I can install a non-TIVO os and make it work, is that not up to me? Or did I misunderstand what you were saying all together?


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

Search for the answer.


It boils down to two truths:

1. While you may own the physical hardware, the software still belongs to TiVo, which requires you to subscribe to their service on that box, to use a number of software features, including many that don't directly involve the guide data or connecting to things in the outside world. That is a fact, please don't argue it here. It is this board's policy to respect that subscription and the features it brings.

2. While you could write your own OS/application for the hardware, it is really impractical, as the box has a lot of unknowns to the 3rd party developers, and is rather underpowered, and will draw too much power for what you can do with it.


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## BTUx9 (Nov 13, 2003)

What the OP is asking about is installing a new set of S/W on the tivo, which is NOT considered theft of service on this forum

There have been ppl who've installed a full debian linux on a tivo, and that would give you whatever capabilities debian would (but this is only possible on a hacked box, which may require h/w modifications, depending on what version you have). This would turn the tivo into a headless server, in that the only communication to/from it would be via the network.

Classicsat IS right in that the tivo is quite underpowered, so it's not capable of being much more than a file server


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## komputernut (Dec 26, 2007)

classicsat said:


> Search for the answer.
> 
> 2. While you could write your own OS/application for the hardware, it is really impractical, as the box has a lot of unknowns to the 3rd party developers, and is rather underpowered, and will draw too much power for what you can do with it.


That is all I was asking as the post above points out. Simple as that. Not trying to "steal" anything.

Thanks.


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