Guide to hacking your series 2 DirecTiVo

There are plenty of guides out there to upgrade any TiVo's hard drive space (I wrote here last year), but the more robust hacks like getting a web browser to control your TiVo and transferring recordings from your TiVo to your PC have historically been limited to older Series 1 devices.

On top of that, DirecTiVo owners have been largely left out in the cold when it comes to hacking, since newer devices are locked down by DirecTV. Series 2 DirecTiVos can do everything standalone series 2 TiVos can do -- DirecTV just doesn't let it happen. But last Fall someone figured out that the TiVo 4.0 OS could be loaded on a DirecTiVo with the home media options and ethernet networking enabled.

While cruising the depths of the other TiVo forum, I found a great guide to hacking the Series 2 DirecTiVo.

For the most part, these hacks are innocuous things that customers want, and don't take any revenue from DirecTV. Many folks (myself included) don't have a phone line anywhere near my DirecTiVo box, and would rather use a wireless network connection. Many folks (again, me too), would love to see the HMO music and photo streaming enabled on their devices. The other major feature enabled by these hacks is getting video off your TiVo, which is something many people want and should be coming soon to standalone TiVos, but again, DirecTV folks are left in the cold.

I haven't tried this hack out on my own DirecTiVo yet, but if I do, I'll certainly take photos and notes and post a full report afterwards.

Comments

[B.K. DeLong]

I may be out of the loop on this but have you found any information about hacking non-DirecTV-specific Series 2 TiVos? Or will this guide work on standard Series 2 TiVos as well?

[Thomas Hawk]

In addition to the post above, Howard Wolinsky of the Chicago Sun Times has a great article out this morning on a company called Weaknees that will sell you upgrade kits as well as apparantly sell you a remote and show you a way to split your satellite signal with a DirecTV TiVo, even though you are not supposed to be able to, and use the remote anywhere in the house on multiple televisions.

I blogged the article at:

http://thomashawk.com/2004/09/how-to-take-control-of-your-tivo_30.html

Tom

[Will]

BK,

I believe this will generally work for all Series 2 Tivos. I followed similiar steps to get my standalone to work. It should get you to the point of being able to telnet into your box as well as ftp files to it, but you may need to look through "the other forum" to get things like video extraction to work. YMMV - Your mileage may vary.

[cjay]

Will this work on an DirecTV HD TiVo?

[Matt Haughey]

cjay, crusing the forums at dealdatabase, it seems like there are separate HD DirecTiVo hacks.

[John Beeler]

Looks great - except that installing wireless drivers looks like it is a pain in the ass involved getting flamed for being a newbie. Doh.

[Josh]

Indeed, the denizens at DDB don't suffer fools lightly, and their definition of "fools" includes "anyone that isn't themselves." You can learn a lot by searching and reading the threads, but if you pipe in with something they don't deem "constructive" you may get put in your place. The really good (updated) tutorials are often few and far in-between, and scattered about. You've got to do your homework and piece things together. Alas, isn't that what hacking as all about? ;)

That said, they do some amazing work in there and are generally pretty cool about sharing the knowledge. (Generally.)

I've tricked out my Series 2 DirecTiVo to do all the cool things I've ever wanted it to do, including the "best-of-both worlds" HMO stuff and extracting the digital files. I'm sticking with this system for a long while... it's perfect. (Well, until I can't fight the HDTV urge any longer, or Moxi/Digeo or Voom knock my socks off with even more compelling hardware.)

Important note: thus far the only Series 2 DTiVo's that can accept the hacked OS 4.0 and HMO are the older "non-RID" units, namely the Hughes HDVR2, the Phillips DSR7000, and the RCA DVR39. Newer models are identical, aside from now being protected by an "RID" chip and thus this particular hack won't work.

[Josh]

Oh, and BTW, the best part about this hack is probably the simplest addition:

Folders in the Now Playing list. FINALLY. (If you've upgraded your HD, you'll know why this can be key.)

Personally I do think DTV sees HMO as a threat to their revenue stream. The more time I spend listening to MP3s and browsing photos (and potentially "bothering" them for support about my home network,) the less time I am consuming PPV and considering a subscription to Showtime.

[Tim]

Okay, I've come to find out that the instructions above, utilizing Sleeper, does not address the "NEW" Series2 DirecTiVos that have the "initrd" roadblock that DirecTV has installed. I've found loads of discussion regarding the use of the new "killinitrd" code but nothing that serves as a cookbook that would allow someone to hit the ground running as the above link's contents does for owners of an old Series2 system. Anyone know where new Series2 DirecTiVo owners can find non-hardcore-hacker-type friendly instructions on applying hacks and scripts to a system with initrd on it? Thanks.

[Jimmy]

Hey Tim. I have run into the same roadblocks as yourself. My steps are documented here: http://bumfiction.com/wordpress/

It looks like I will have to go with Sleeper's ISO. There IS a workaround.

I would highly suggest reading this thread before you start
http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-33189

and then this
http://dealdatabase.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31213

[DirecTivo to regular cable]

Does anybody know how to turn an old direcTivo machine to a stand alone Tivo. I no longer have DirectTV but want to be able to use my DirecTivo box on my regular cable subscription. I'm willing to pay the subscription fees, but I dont think its required that I buy a new stand alone tivo - or is it???

[phord]

You can't convert a DirecTivo to a cable-TV standalone DVR. There is no video compressor in the DirecTivo; it relies on the already-compressed video stream from the built-in satellite receiver.

Sell it on eBay and buy a StandAlone box instead.

[Tom]

How to convert DirecTivo to 4.0 on rid units

http://www.weethet.nl/english/tivo_dtv2_os4hackrid.php

[Mel]

Can u use the tivo hd with optimum...wil it work without dtv service?

[Lewis]

So,
Anyone know what to do with and "old" series 2?
Can it be booted to an OS? which one?

[TheP4People]

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[daniel king]

is the series 2 stand alone able to have another os put on it, other than the linux that is already running it? And if so, would you have to install a dual harddrive to run both?

[Michael]

Does anyone know how I can record tv shows on my tvio series 2 with out a subscription to tivo ?? tivo says it cant be done. there has to be a hack. HELP i just want to use it as a DVR.

[Board President]

If the TiVo S2 is mainly a simplified computer, why hasn't any one posted a way to get it to work without paying TiVo corp. All these awesom hackers out there, and not ONE path to freeing my box from the Martix. A million hacks to add a larger HD. Oooh! I've spent 4 hours and not found one thing. -This has been a waste of time so far. I want to watch recorded TV without Tivo shoving ads in my face every night. (And they are getting bolder!)

[Richard Weaver]

I have a DirecTivo that I upgraded years ago. About a year ago, DirecTV "upgraded" the OS and broke my DVR. It freezes when playing recorded content. To "fix" the problem, DirecTV replaced it with a nonTIVO DVR (thanks!). The old one will not fast forward over the freeze but sometimes will come out by itself. Can I restore the backup I made when I upgraded capacity to restore functionality and save the recorded content? Can I use it as a standalone DirecTV tuner with no phone connection?

[Randy]

I have a Tivo question. My 14 year old daughter is a diver and a poll vaulter for our local High School. Her Diving coach uses a Tivo DVR on a cart with a camera and a monitor to record the divers using the delay feature so when the diver comes out of the water, they can see what they did, make corrections and improve. The diving coach does not know how this system was created, he just uses it and so he is not a source for my question. I want to recreate this for our poll vaulting coach. I have purchased a Series 2 Tivo; I have an extra TV and was trying to get the system to working using our personal movie camera with the camera image feeding into Tivo thru the Tivo “Video In” connections. This set-up would never be connected to broadcast TV and only feed the camera image so I tried to set the Tivo up off line. That didn’t work. Should I set it up as if I was going to use it in my home and then take it off line? I don’t want to pay the subscription fee when I am going to donate the package to the High School. Can Tivo do what I want? I was reading posted info and it seems like Series 2 machines are different from Series 1’s and that may be what the diving coach has. Any help much appreciated. Also FYI – I am not the most technically savvy user, so go slow.
Thanks
Randy

[Steve]

Randy, if you have not received any other answer yet then try this out. First, set up your Tivo for satellite service on channel (whatever your camera outputs video to, usually 3 or 4). Note that you MUST have a video signal going into the video connector during this procedure, you can just use your camera out for this. Then tell Tivo to record "off the satellite" when you are useing your camera. If I am not mistaken, you must have tivo service activated to record anything on the box.