The PTVnet DirecTiVo upgrade drive review

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The PTVnet DirecTiVo upgrade drive review

Let's face it, DirecTV customers with the combo DirecTiVo boxes have been left in the cold for the past few years when it comes to TiVo announcements. Thanks to an agreement that shifted DirecTiVo customers to DirecTV's control, folks with the units haven't got to use the Home Media Option for the two years it has been out, and there's no sign of when TiVo ToGo or the Home Media Engine developer's toolkit will arrive for the units.

But that doesn't mean DirecTiVo owners don't have options. I've been happily using a PTVnet upgrade drive in my Philips DSR7000 (series 2 DirecTiVo) for the past couple months and I felt it was time to share all the possibilities this upgrade offers.

Stranded by DirecTV

When I first got a DirecTiVo combo unit in early 2002, It was a series one version and I activated it through TiVo.com. I paid for it just like a regular TiVo and got software upgrades at the same time as regular TiVo owners. Soon after, DirecTV stopped handling just the satellite subscriptions and instead moved to control both the TiVo subscription fees and the channel lineups. This made it easier to sign up a new box, since you just had to call one number to get both the TiVo running and your satellite channels paid for, but it also produced a fork in the codebase, where the software for DirecTiVo boxes was now under DirecTV's ultimate control instead of TiVo. This is when things started to go sour for customers.

The turning point was when series 2 DirecTiVos became readily available. Like the standalone TiVos, these new boxes offered all sorts of capabilities with their new hardware. The USB ports could enable wired and wireless networking. The faster processors could do more intense tasks. But unlike the standalone owners that quickly got to take advantage of their new hardware, DirecTiVo has remained essentially unchanged for almost three years. While DirecTV has left its users behind the innovation curve, the healthy hacking underground has been toiling away at various projects for over six years, and the projects have reached levels of maturity in terms of interface and features. The PVTnet upgrade drive draws upon the best projects.

Opening up with the PTVnet drive

The PTVnet upgrade drive fills a void, letting you talk to your DirecTiVo box over a network and opens up a world of possibilities afforded by the hardware. It includes the following:

Enables single, large drives that go beyond the 137Gb limit (with the LBA48 hack)
USB ports work (usb 2.0 even) with wired and wireless adapters
Comes preconfigured with TiVoWebPlus (a web front-end to your TiVo), telnet, FTP, and a small handul of utilities

Installation

I got a prototype version of their 160Gb drive upgrade, padded and packed in a box with a sheet of instructions for installation.

The installation was as smooth as could be, taking only about five minutes to take the case off, swap my old hard drive with the new one, and button it all back up. The obvious drawback is that you lose all your settings and recordings by moving to a new disk, and as always keep away from both the power supply (lower left of the drive) and the white ribbon connector to the top right of the drive.

After it booted up (complete with custom screens) and grabbed the satellite info in setup, a quick reboot later and my old Linksys WUSB11 wireless adapter lit up and grabbed an IP off my router's DHCP server.

Using the web to control your TiVo

Definitely the coolest aspect of the upgrade was getting TiVoWebPlus. This differs from the tivo.com integration dubbed TiVo Central, where standalone Series 2 tivo owners can search for shows and set recordings. Unlike TiVo Central, this is actually running on your TiVo, so when you hit record the show will be added to your ToDo list immediately. If you open up your network to allow outside connections to your TiVo this also lets you set recordings from anywhere on earth.

Every web browser on my home network has a bookmark to the Now Showing list, like the screenshot above. It lets you know what is stored on the TiVo, and if necessary, lets you delete recordings immediately, through the web interface. I only have one TV in the house, and frequently work for hours upstairs in my home office. This page lets me know if there's anything worth watching the next time I take a break.

Clicking on an episode will show you info on it, and what episodes are soon to come (and whether or not they are new, which also helps plan recordings)

The one feature I use most often is definitely the search engine (above is a result for "American"). Even with the upgraded Series 2 hardware, my DirecTiVo box is still slow and clunky to find new shows and set them to record. Given that every computer has a handy keyboard attached, when I think of a show I'd like to add to my season pass list, I grab a laptop and pull this page up. It lets me search for any text string and I can record them in just a couple clicks, without having to use my remote to key in words or get stuck waiting a minute or two at the end for a season pass to get added.

Clicking on your search results brings up an info screen like this one.

Show details feature the additional info about original air dates, which no DirecTiVo can currently do. I love knowing whether or not next week's Saturday Night Live is a repeat from last seaon or not. Setting a season pass and single recording is just a click away and you will be notified immediately if there are any conflicts.

Every feature from the TiVo user interface is included in the package, letting you see the ToDo list of recordings set, the season passes, and what is currently showing. The TiVoWebPlus install also includes HackMan, a script manager that lets you turn features off and on, like an included Caller ID hack.

The info screens offer all the geeky info you'll ever need, including a way to find out how much free space is on the drive, and how that space is being used up.

Other features and extending the package

The other features mentioned at the start of this review, the large drive and the other network services, are great additions that round out the package. The LBA48 hack extends the limit that most TiVos have where the biggest free space they could see on a drive was 137Gb. With this fix in place, instead of running two drives with their added heat and noise, you can stick with a single large drive (as big as 300Gb).

The other network services are handy for any additional hacks you want to try out. As I explained last month here, I used the built-in FTP server and telnet server to upload some scripts that let me show off my TiVo's contents and upcoming recordings. It was all fairly straightforward, requring me to simply connect, poke around directories, upload scripts, make them active via chmod, and they ran just fine after a restart of TiVoWebPlus.

Of course, once you've got networking into a TiVo, the limits are almost endless, though I didn't want to push it further (I'm still new to linux stuff and tcl scripts). I've heard updating the OS to a 4.0 version with Home Media Networking is possible. Adding video hacks and streaming is also possible if you know what you're doing and where to find the scripts.

Conclusion

The obvious question is whether or not the upgrade is worth the cost. I'd say it is worth it, especially if you haven't upgraded your DirecTiVo's hard drive yet, since plain old upgrade drives have comparable price tags. If you're interested in networking or hacking a DirecTiVo, this definitely opens it up and gives you a useful way to interact with your TiVo.

Now that I've had this setup for a couple months, I can't see how I could live without it. I've never liked the limits of using a remote to key in show titles when searching and the way a TiVo UI lags for a minute after setting a recording is frustrating. This package solves those problems and opens up a whole world of fun tricks and features that rekindled my interest in playing with my DirecTiVo. I'm planning to move to a HD DirecTiVo soon and the first upgrade for it will be one of these drives. Building up season passes and finding shows is just so much faster in a web browser compared with using the TiVo UI.

URL: http://www.ptvupgrade.com/networking/PTVnet.html
Cost:: $199-449, depending on how many hours of storage you'd like
Compatibility: Series 2 DirecTiVo models: Hughes HDVR2, SD-DVR40, SD-DVR80, SD-DVR120, Philips DSR7000, DSR704, DSR7000, RCA DVR39, DVR40, DVR80, DVR120,Samsung SIR-S4040R, SIR-S4080R, SIR-S4120R, Hughes HR10-250 HDTV

by Matt Haughey February 6, 2005 in DirecTV, Product Reviews

Comments

Quote: Show details feature the additional info about original air dates, which no DirecTiVo can currently do.

To see the original air date all you need to do is hit the Info button while viewing the basic information. You've had this for almost three years and you never read about this feature?

Posted by: Starkiller at Feb 7, 2005 4:47:49 AM

Wow, thanks for writing this up! I have been wanting to get network access for my DirecTivo, and was considering this upgrade - for the added recording space as well.

Thanks!

Posted by: bri.cors at Feb 7, 2005 6:29:42 AM

"To see the original air date all you need to do is hit the Info button while viewing the basic information."

The date a show was debuted on TV doesn't show up anywhere in the info panels on my DirecTV setup. I'm talking about watching a rerun of something, and how TiVoWebPlus will display a date of say, 3/11/99 to let me know it's old. My TiVo hides that info.

Posted by: Matt Haughey at Feb 7, 2005 8:38:22 AM

Matt,

Pick a show in your Now Playing list. Select it to bring up the episode information. Now hit the Info button. You will now be able to see the extra information including actors, director, original air date, etc. Now I have to add a big caveat. There are many programs in the guide that have no information or only generic information. For example, ABC World News Tonight has generic information and only shows the original air date of the very first broadcast back in the 1950's.

Here is a good thread to read on the Tivo Community forums.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=212298

Posted by: Starkiller at Feb 7, 2005 9:34:22 AM

You don't have mess with the PROM to do this???

Posted by: zakharm at Feb 7, 2005 2:22:17 PM

I didn't notice any prom messing with, but I guess I have a non-RID unit.

Starkiller, thanks for pointing that totally hidden feature out. Personally, I find the original air date to be important enough that it should show up in a show's regular info about an episode when playing live TV.

Posted by: Matt Haughey at Feb 7, 2005 6:04:55 PM

I see all the positive comments, but are there any downsides?

Posted by: paratroopdoc at Mar 21, 2005 10:30:16 AM

Ok, After the upgrade, does the Tivo now update it's listings and programming over the internet connection? I'm a cell phone only kind of guy. I consider the $24.00 for basic land line phone as part of the total cost of my DirecTV/Tivo package since thats all it is used for. Now I know that if I have no land line phone I give up my ability to get DirecTV pay-per-view, I don't care because its not worth $24.00 just to have that capability. So what I want to know, and can't find clearly stated on the PTVupgrade site, if I do the upgrade so I am connected to my existing high-speed internet service, can I drop that land line phone with no effect on my Tivo service?

Posted by: Don Cribb at Jun 2, 2005 5:55:09 AM

Don: With PTVnet, you can configure your DirecTivo to receive all its updates thru your home broadband connection, eliminating the need for a land-line.

Posted by: Greg Neu at Jun 5, 2005 5:37:03 PM

These have been available on www.EBAY for months now. Just do a search on "Modified tivo" or "HMO" for Home Media Option, I got one that will allow 100 time more networking and also Transfering my NOW SHOWING list to any networked drive. I get MPG files that I can edit and burn to DVD + All my tivos are networked and I can watch any one from the other and name them all Like "Bedroom" or "Livingroom" so my shows in the livingroom and be watched on the Bedroom. Its too cool

Posted by: Cassy at Oct 17, 2005 12:48:30 AM

I have an Direct TB DVR R10 that I would like to activate the USB port, put on my 100mb LAN and retain recorded series (ie Soprano's) on my PC hard drive. What do I need to do?

Posted by: John at Nov 26, 2005 10:33:22 AM

John you have an R10. The prom will have to be replaced. Go here and read the thread. http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/showthread.php?t=43911&highlight=R10 It will cost you about $30.00 bux to do it yourself.

Posted by: Chuck at Nov 29, 2005 2:26:38 PM

Proms are no longer available from that site.

Posted by: Doc at Feb 12, 2006 3:22:23 PM

Anyone know if I can do a mod to access MP3's and photos on my Hughes HR10250?

Posted by: Donqwan at Apr 9, 2006 12:41:12 PM

I have 2 windows PCs, networked,& only Dialup
ISP:Can I have all of the features &
possibilities (including Telnet & FTP)
without high speed Intnet Access & Router,on my
Hughes sd-dvr40s?

Posted by: Robert Piver at Apr 17, 2006 6:12:29 AM

Can the Directv R10 be hacked to run off cable instead of Satelite? I have Digital cable and have broadband... can this unit be set up for just cable? I paided $50.00 as wal-mart was getting rid of them.

The hard drive alone is worth it... but I may just return it

Posted by: confused at Jun 13, 2006 6:57:56 PM