Hacking Tivo: The Expansion, Enhancement and Development Starter Kit: Amazon.ca: Jeff Keegan: Books

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First Sentence
TiVo is easily one of the coolest products that I've purchased in the last 10-15 years. Read the first page

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Customer Reviews

31 Reviews

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(9)

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3.0 out of 5 stars (31 customer reviews)

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4.0 out of 5 stars Making DVDs of your Tivo recordings, Jun 7 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Hacking Tivo: The Expansion, Enhancement and Development Starter Kit (Paperback)

I haven't read this book, but have been actively reading the reviews of it, as well as other Tivo "hack" books. One theme that seems to continually run through the reviews is that someone wants to burn their Tivo recordings to DVD. If you're one of those people and you have a PC, read on, otherwise this posting will be a waste of your time.

I use a product called Pinnacle Studio 9 AV/DV (Analog video/Digital Video) to accomplish burning Tivo recordings to DVD. It works great and you can even edit out all of the commercials...which is superior to fast forwarding through them. This product can be purchased right here on Amazon...at the best price I've seen. Of course, you'll need a DVD burner, but you'd need that to burn DVDs either way. The quality is quite good.

I see no reason that this solution wouldn't work for any series Tivo 1 or 2, including DirecTV Tivo.

Hope this is helpful to someone.

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2.0 out of 5 stars Obsolete, May 21 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Hacking Tivo: The Expansion, Enhancement and Development Starter Kit (Paperback)

Most of the information contained in this book is useless unless you own a model 1 tivo. General information, such as the disk partition structure is absent. Techniques for circumnavigating the bios kernel checking are also not mentioned. In short, save your money and get more current information on the web.

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5.0 out of 5 stars This is a great book, for any series, Mar 8 2004

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"tholden1" (Plano, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hacking Tivo: The Expansion, Enhancement and Development Starter Kit (Paperback)

The Series 1 is still very much alive. It is the most hackable tivo and has the most extra features/programs you can add to it (like Tivo Control Station). And, since they are VERY reliable, you can find many of them cheap on Ebay. I just bought another one off Ebay to handle recording conflicts.

The Tivo user community has developed most of the hacks that any of these books use (i.e., Von Hagen's book). Jeff Keegan has been an active participant in the community and gives credit to the people responsible for the hacks. I know Von Hagen has not been an active participant and I am not sure in his book whether he gives proper credit or not. I understand some community members reviewed the book though prior to it being published.

Jeff knows his stuff. His publisher threw out the Series 2 hack due to litigation concerns. Von Hagen was able to include it. It doesn't make Von Hagen's book better. And, the hack that was thrown out can be found on the web as well as a full step-by-step install document.

So here are my thoughts:

If you have a series 1: Buy this book.

If you have a series 2 and want to explore all that is available for it and learn to hack on your own: Buy this book and find the cross-compiler and main hack information on the web. Or buy the Von Hagen book for the extra Series 2 information and this book for the extra programming and hack information.

If you have a series 2 and just want to upgrade your hard drive: This book is fine for that. I used the web for my upgrade instructions and I found that this book actually covered some things I didn't know that may save someone from damaging their hard drive.

This is a great book. The CD is very well put together with its own install script for EITHER series 1 or 2. There is a wealth of information for any Tivo user or programmer/hacker or tinkerer/enthusiast. For Series 1 it is a no-brainer. For Series 2, either get Von Hagen's book in addition to this one or find the few pieces of missing information on the Tivo community forums.

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Most recent customer reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Series 2 Owners Beware!!!!
This book is great if you have one of the old machines that non one seels any more, but it's worthless forthe owner of a new TiVo. Read more

Published on Mar 2 2004 by Joe Wolenski

1.0 out of 5 stars I Should Have Read the Other Reviews B4 Ordering..
...but I didn't. I ordered the book along with a Series 2 Tivo. Tivo should arrive later this week, but got the book early. Read more

Published on Feb 23 2004