We've been happily using a Series 1 DirecTivo for many years and never saw much need to hack it except to upgrade the hard drive. Now that I'm playing around with digital video more with the AppleTV and Mini, I see a need to do more with the video files on the Tivo so I began looking for a Series 2 machine with networking capability.
DirecTivo machines aren't available new any more since DirecTV now sells only their own units, but they're available used for not much money. Mine cost $70, but they can probably be found cheaper on eBay. I've bought a Hughes SD-DVR120 which can be hacked to network through the USB port. Something that was never officially supported. Edit: Just bought another DirecTivo from a co-worker for $20. It's a Samsung identical to the Hughes.
Sources of information:
Goals:
- Upgrade hard drive
- Network the Tivo
- Transfer files to ATV and Mini
- Automate file transfer
Completed:
- Upgraded hard drive to WD 320 GB
- Installed DVRupgrade
- Network is working
- Able to browse to webserver
- Able to telnet in
- Installed superpatch
- Installed TyTools (Windows)
- Installed TivoTool 0.7.0 (MacOS)
- Downloaded first video
Summary. TivoTool is working well. You can either choose shows to download directly from the Tivo or set up daily automatic downloads using show names. You can also stream video directly from the Tivo to the Mac if your network is fast enough. Once the Tivo shows have been downloaded to my Mac Mini in .mpg format, I'm able to stream them wirelessly from my AppleTV using my Wireless-N network.
Now, I'm also moving video from the Mac to Tivo, mainly ripped DVD content or files from my Flip video camera. For DVDs here's the flow:
1. Mac the Ripper => ripped DVD
2. Visual Hub => stitches together multiple VOBs and formats for Tivo
3. MPEG Streamclip => fixes timecodes
4. TivoServer (from TivoTool) => emulates a Tivo box to communicate with destination box
Edit: This isn't actually working well. Tivoserver is crashing on every attempt. It can successfully upload a file that originated on the Tivo, so the problem is file format.
If I rip to single VOB, step 3 is unnecessary. Rip in "Title Only Extraction" mode.
Update: For the DVD to Tivo path I'm having better luck on the PC:
1. Use DVD Shrink to extract to single VOB
2. Rename VOB to MPG
3. Upload to Tivo using Tivoserver 0.4.4
DVD Shrink can also load existing VIDEO_TS directories and then write out a single VOB.
