If you had your pick... Series 1 or 2?

[magicdan]

I'm looking to purchase a Tivo very soon and here are the few questions I have:

First question is if you could do it all over again which series tivo would you buy? and why?

I plan on hacking my tivo as much as I can but not qutie sure what the possibility's are.

I see some tivos already hacked with network cards built in to them, if I'm able to plug a tivo in my wireless router can I then access the programs on the harddrive, within the tivo, from another computer on my network? If so what file format are they?

Can you hack a tivo so you don't pay the monthly service? if not how much is a normal monthly service... Do you need the monthly service?

[Waruwaru]

If I had a choice, I would go with DirecTivo (series 2). Cheaper monthly fees + dual tuner again.

This forum does not talk about service theft. If you want the guide/service, then pay for it is the best way to go.

[captain_video]

Monthly fees are the same whether you have a series 1 or series 2 DTivo. Since you didn't specify whether you were looking for a SA model or a DTivo I'll put in a vote for the DTivo. S1 models require a more expensive Turbonet adapter for video extraction (About $75 with shipping from 9th Tee). S2 models can use a less expensive USB ethernet adapter (about $30).

S2 models can be bought new for $99 or less from any DTV retailer. S1 models are now selling for less than that on ebay due to recent events at DTV (i.e. Hu stream shut down). Your final cost with ethernet/Turbonet adapter could end up being a wash when comparing the two models. UI and features between the two models is barely noticeable so there's no great difference there.

If you plan on doing a lot of video extraction of shows with Dolby Digital soundtracks then you'll definitely want to consider a S1 model. Extraction of DD audio from S2 models is extremely buggy and doesn't work most of the time. Other than that, the choice between models is basically a coin toss since neither one has more features than the other.

[Zirak]

One should consider that any hack that looks at events (read remote keypresses) won't (currently) work on software versions >= 4.0. S1s don't use versions that high, S2s do.

[rc3105]

series 2 is definatly the way to go. nobody's released anything to really take advantage of the usb ports yet but there are some killer apps possible:

drive upgrades WAY beyond dual ide

direct extract/burn & insert/restore via usb enclosure dvd burner

webcams for nannycam style surveilance or video conferencing

network print server

record from a usb tuner

dv import / export with a usb enabled digital camcorder

<insert wacky idea here> ;)