Suggestion(s) 4 a New/Old Guy?

[ETC]

100 words or less? Not going to happen, so thanks for reading this much.

Last year (Jul-Aug 04), I obtained a new Tivo TCD24004A. Just days after my purchase I was informed the (800) number was no longer available for guide information/updates. It ran a couple weeks, but was not activated. Instead it was put back in the box and sat in the garage. I just pulled it out tonight and turned it on to see what version it was running, but it started into the setup pages, so I pulled the plug. I don’t remember, but I must have deleted/reset it when I put it back in its box.

Unfortunately where I live does not have cable, or a local Tivo dial-in number. I do not have high speed Internet access or a satellite provider at home. Sorry, I'm not much of a television watcher, but enjoy technology and a good hack.

Maybe I’m just cheap, but I can not bring myself to spend the money when I’m lucky to be home more than 50-75% of the time. When I am home, I try to spend as much quality family time (1 & 4 yr old kids), as I can. Honestly I probably watch less than two hours of television a week, and that’s when I leave for work late a couple days and watch the local news that doesn’t start until 0500.

We’re not actually hermits, this computer is in our basement and connects to the Internet (max 28.8), via a 25’ phone line to the other side of the room.

This summer I bought two old VOOM Set-Top Boxes (Motorola DSR-550), put an antenna and booster in the attic with some RG-6, and now we have all the local television networks in crystal clear digital on our old CTR’s. Including eight (8) PBS stations, Four (4) from St. Louis, MO and four (4) from Mount Vernon, IL? One is even a twenty-four (24) hour Kid’s channel, but most of the others are duplicates.

My Wife just went back to work and now I need to tape a show for her once a week. That’s what motivated me to get the old Tivo out. Last year I actually ordered a 160MB Quickview, but they were I back order and it looked like I might be out of town for ninety (90) days, so I cancelled my order and put the Tivo back in its box. I was not excited by the long distance telephone bill Tivo had run up either.

Since then I have occasionally scanned tivocommunity and noted some of the version upgrade issues and was pleased the 137MB limit was resolved via LBA48. I have not had the need nor time to teach myself Linux, but as far as time goes I am willing to skip sleep or resort to the four or five hour (4-5) nap before having to goto work (like tonight), to do what I need to get done.

I might be able to take my Tivo to work and get it thru the firewall to get it activated/updated/schedule information, but before I crossed that bridge I wanted to ask for suggestions. I plan to talk to one of the local Linux/Networking guys, but also figured this was the best place to get a true perspective of my possibilities.


That's what I have do deal with. I am not exactly sure on what version it is running right now, but will deal with that when I need to. If it was just an old Series 1, I would probably just use the stand alone recording option.


The biggest question is do I activate it, let it call in and update, then hack it, or just get a new hard drive and take off down that trail?


Thanks again for reading all of this. Feel free to provide any other suggestions or comments as appropriate.


ETC
"You get enough sleep when you die."

[darrin75]

Let it call in, get all the updates it needs. Hack your brain's out after do so.

[eastwind]

You will have to sub the unit to allow it to record. Once that is done you can set it up to use the serial PPP option that allows it to update over the computer's internet connection (even @ 28.8kbps). So if that's a no-toll call for you, that might be a solution. Or you wind up taking the unit into work once every week or two (if you get past the firewall issue) to get your updated guide info. The data will be a little stale, and you shouldn't unplug the TiVo before it finishes indexing, but if you have a quiet place for the TiVo to sit and churn and you have some way of checking the progress you should be okay.

ew

[ETC]

You will have to sub the unit to allow it to record. Once that is done you can set it up to use the serial PPP option that allows it to update over the computer's internet connection (even @ 28.8kbps). So if that's a no-toll call for you, that might be a solution. Or you wind up taking the unit into work once every week or two (if you get past the firewall issue) to get your updated guide info. The data will be a little stale, and you shouldn't unplug the TiVo before it finishes indexing, but if you have a quiet place for the TiVo to sit and churn and you have some way of checking the progress you should be okay.

ew


I had originally planned to network it, but had forgotten all about that solving the guide issue. Unfortunately the computer is downstairs and the Tivo needs to be upstairs, I'll have to come up with something, because I won't be able to keep a wire running up and down the stairs. Hmmm...

Thanks,
ETC

[ETC]

Thanks guys, maybe I should have put in a poll to keep track of this?

But at the way it's looking, it should be easy to keep track of, especially if everyone continues to agree.


I have to get going to work, I'm late enough as it is.

ETC