Hack Talk II

[Mark]

Are you saying we can not talk about upgrading a tivo?? Some people call that haking your tivo. I do not see it that way

Inquiring minds want to know.:confused:

[raj2001]

This is just IMHO, but I don't think most hacking of a TiVo is really frowned upon. As a matter of fact, TiVo knows there is alot of hacking/upgrading going on and they don't discourage it. I even saw an article where TiVo was even saying that they "love their hackers". Hacking to expand capabilities is a good thing, IMO, and should be encouraged.

However, I believe that talking about stuff that violates copyright, like distributing TiVo software, or video extraction, is frowned upon and forbidden and could land the site in legal hot water. Also, "howtos" about hacking to steal service is a definite no-no. That's the way it is over at TiVocommunity.com (which is frequented by TiVo staff and promoted by TiVo), I don't know if the same rules would apply here, but I am guessing that they do.

[Karl Foster]

The main hack talk that I think the mods are most concerned about is talk of hacking cards and/or systems to receive Directv services for free.

I have upgraded (hacked) my two Ultimatetv units meaning that I replaced the hard drives. I still am paying full price for service and paying my UTV fee every month. I am not attempting to extract video or anything of the sort. Just added some extra storage space. The units still work exactly as before.

[Mark Lamutt]

Originally posted by raj2001
This is just IMHO, but I don't think most hacking of a TiVo is really frowned upon. As a matter of fact, TiVo knows there is alot of hacking/upgrading going on and they don't discourage it. I even saw an article where TiVo was even saying that they "love their hackers". Hacking to expand capabilities is a good thing, IMO, and should be encouraged.

However, I believe that talking about stuff that violates copyright, like distributing TiVo software, or video extraction, is frowned upon and forbidden and could land the site in legal hot water. Also, "howtos" about hacking to steal service is a definite no-no. That's the way it is over at TiVocommunity.com (which is frequented by TiVo staff and promoted by TiVo), I don't know if the same rules would apply here, but I am guessing that they do.

The above statement is exactly correct. Talk about upgrading tivo units is fine. Talk about stealing service, or directly transferring stored information from a PVR hard drive that has not yet been decoded is not fine.

[Mark]

Speaking of hacking a tivo. I read that you upgrade the hard drive you you void the warrenty..

[Mark Lamutt]

That is also correct. If you open the box, the warrenty is no more.

[Jacob S]

That would not necessarily mean that it is illegal to do, just that they would not want to cover a product in which someone tampered with.