S3 hack for CCI after PROM mod

**ray08** · 02-21-2009, 10:38 PM

My end objective is to be able to transfer shows from Tivo to PC that are marked as copyright protected (CCI). I have comcast and they (comcast) have unilaterally decided ALL shows are copyright protected unless available OTA, more or less.

Just got my S3 back from Omikron and that's now behind me (thanks to Omikron). I have been looking and reading for many hours now and can not find a list of steps to perform for the software hack of the S3 to allow me to do transfers of Tivo recorded (unencrypted) shows to the PC. Looks like TTG won't work, I think I need MFSlive CD and will likely need to use MFS_ftp to do transfers (since it looks like TTG doesn't work). I can connect the Tivo HDD to PC, boot MFSlive, but then what? Seems like there's a hack needed to tivoapp? If so, what is it? I have to do something to an initrd script?

Is there a how-to somewhere that I missed? I have read the 4 page-long forum by beuchel, but that left me confused and uncertain. Not finding anything but small bits and pieces of info to get this working, nothing cohesive.

I currently use TTG and VideoRedo to convert from .tivo to .mpg and edit out the commercials. If I must use mfs_ftp instead of TTG, will I still get .tivo files that can be opened in Videoredo?

So much to do, so much to learn and never enough time!

Thx. Ray

**cartouchbea** · 02-21-2009, 11:55 PM

**ciper** · 02-22-2009, 06:25 AM

There is a thread about CCI hacks and one of the issues (that may no effect you) was the inability to transfer from a hacked CCI unit to a non hacked CCI unit. You should look through that thread.

**cartouchbea** · 02-22-2009, 12:17 PM

**ciper** · 02-22-2009, 10:44 PM

Originally Posted by cartouchbea

if I disabled encryption on my TiVoHD, then things stopped working. So once I re-enabled encryption in tivoapp on my TiVoHD I could transfer things just fine between hacked CCI and non-hacked CCI units.

That's very interesting. Side question, are you able to transfer digital SD to your S2 from the THD?

**cartouchbea** · 02-22-2009, 11:14 PM

**newbie** · 02-24-2009, 05:16 PM

Do I have this right:
1) Disable encryption and TTG and MRV with an unhacked unit won't work. We can get extract with tools like mfs_ftp.

2) Hack CCI but leave encryption alone. I can MRV with an unhacked unit and can extract all shows with TTG. There are many tools which will convert an encrypted .tivo file to a mpg file.

It sounds like the CCI hack makes sense but it may not make sense to disable encryption, unless you know all of your tivo's will always be hacked.

Am I missing something?

**cartouchbea** · 02-24-2009, 09:34 PM

**tivo4mevo** · 02-25-2009, 02:04 PM

Good testing.

While you don't state it explicitly, am I correct that your MRV observations are based on S3 native transfer (S3<->S3)?

Are there any messages logged when you see the "black-screen" playback (you might let the transfer complete prior to attempting to play the video to reduce transfer-related chatter in the logs)?

It might be useful to also see definitive results of cross-series MRV (S2<->S3) as well as S2 native (S2<->S2) MRV.

It's also helpful to state the software version used during testing (I was assuming the latest: 11.0 and 9.3.2a?). Cross-series MRV has evolved in some subtle ways since the initial 9.x version so earlier versions behave slightly differently.

As you probably know, 9.x MRV handles homogeneous transfers in Native format and cross-series in Mpeg using TTG/TTCB (some discussion in this thread). So disabling encryption can have slightly different results in the three possible MRV scenarios.

**garrubal** · 02-26-2009, 03:39 AM

My question probably belongs in the newbie forum, but I'm in a similar situation as the OP.

I just got my Tivo HD hacked. I have a more basic question. How does one transfer files into the Tivo HD?

I saw Cartouchbea's post, indicating that I need to modify the kernel. That takes me to where the file is available. Following a link in that post, it takes me to mrblack51's post:

"how do you move these files over to the tivo? via ftp, bash over serial, or by copying them to the hard drive."

That post is from 2003. Although I don't doubt its applicability in 2009, I'm not sure how to proceed.

I can access my recorded shows via https://tivoaddress/. Is there something similar to ftp://ftpaddress/? That would certainly makes things easier.

I don't think I have a serial cable connection for my Tivo HD, so I don't think that applies.

I upgraded my Tivo hard drive, so taking it out and copying files into it is certainly doable, but not my preference.

Thanks for your patience and your help.

garrubal

EDIT: It looks like this thread provides some answers on how to proceed: http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/sh...ad.php?t=53492

**lrhorer** · 03-21-2009, 11:44 PM

I have a question. Has anyone out there done any empirical network speed testing on NoCSO patched machines versus unpatched ones, especially for TTCB?

I have a patched THD and 2 unhacked S3 machines. I am thinking seriously of getting the PROM replaced on the S3 TiVos and hacking them. The CCI byte hack is a very significant motivation to spend the time and money, especially since I have a couple of hundred shows on the two machines that are copy protected, and I would like to move them to the video server. I'm still a little on the fence, though, because money is tight, and I may have some big expenses coming up.

A major drag, however, is the fact many very high bandwidth HD programs cannot transfer in real time, even under the best of circumstances. Is the S3 faster at downloading programs from a PC, even by a little, with CSO disabled? If so, then I think maybe I really need to invest the time and money to hack my S3s. If not, then I'm not at all sure it's worth it to me.

**jt1134** · 03-22-2009, 12:06 AM

Originally Posted by lrhorer

The CCI byte hack is a very significant motivation to spend the time and money, especially since I have a couple of hundred shows on the two machines that are copy protected, and I would like to move them to the video server.

unfortunately, there is no public hack available to help retrieve these shows. the "cci" tivoapp patches will only suppress the cci byte on future recordings. it is possible to nuke some of the copyprotection values from a recording in tivosh, but unless the recording was made after the nocso hack was applied, this will just ruin the show. kernel source is available, perhaps it would be possible to adapt the s2_unscramble style hack for use with s3 systems.

A major drag, however, is the fact many very high bandwidth HD programs cannot transfer in real time, even under the best of circumstances. Is the S3 faster at downloading programs from a PC, even by a little, with CSO disabled? If so, then I think maybe I really need to invest the time and money to hack my S3s. If not, then I'm not at all sure it's worth it to me.

the cso hack itself doesn't really impact transfer rates. things such as the kernel, network drivers, and method of extraction will affect transfer speeds. simply extracting via mfs_ftp while running a stock kernel+drivers can make an improvement since there is no tivo-desktop style drm'ing going on. replacing the kernel with a custom kernel can provide some additional gains, as will jamie's backport drivers, gige+jumbo frames, etc. the cso hack only matters in this case because you can't extract usable video via any means other than TTG unless you've used it.

i don't have any numbers handy, but i use 9.4 kernels built using jamie's scripts, and extract with various methods using the mfs_* utils. the performance difference versus an unhacked box + tivo-desktop is quite significant.

**tivo4mevo** · 03-22-2009, 08:44 AM