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Most residents of the USA are familiar with
either TiVo or Replay.
Basically it's a cool PVR (Personal Video
Recorder) combined with a service (accessed by modem/phone) that
helps customers to program their PVR to record TV-programs like
movies, soaps, etc.
The PVR hardware (here I refer to the Philips
TiVo) is basically a complete PowerPC running a specific Linux
version.
The hardware includes a harddisk, MPEG2-encoder
and MPEG2-decoder. The MPEG2-decoder hardware is basically the same
as used in a DVD player and DVB satellite reciever. Due to this
hardware, the TiVo is capable of recording realtime MPEG2 to harddisk.
Read the Disclaimer!
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TiVo?
So why get a TiVo? Well, first of all I
bought it for the fun of hacking ... I live in the Netherlands (Europe)
and the TiVo service is not available here at the time I'm writing this
article. I bought it also to make recording movies and my favorite series
(for example Star Trek) easier. I got sick and tired of those horrible
bad quality VHS tapes ...
I also have several ideas on how to expand
the use of my TiVo, for example to hook it up to my home-LAN (Local Area
Network) so I can copy MPEG2 recordings to my PC and store them on a CDR
or CDRW. I actually have a load of other ideas, but let's just start at
the beginning.
What's in the box?
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So I ordered my TiVo
at Tivo.com where
the 30 Hours version. TiVo's can be found at eBay
too!
Note: there are two
30 hrs models out there: one with one harddisk - this is the one
you want since upgrading is easy
and one with two harddisks - that's the older model, which cannot
be upgraded!
By saying upgrade I mean to expand
the recording capacity by adding an additional cheap IDE harddisk.
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Items
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TiVo
Well, duh! ....
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Powercable
The powercable is suitable for use in the USA
only, so if you do not live in the USA: store it somewhere where
you cannot find it again if you live in Europe (like I do)...
Note: The TiVo power supply can
handle voltages varying from 100 to 240 Volts, being suitable for
all power-outlets all over the world ... even Europe ... :)
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Modem/Phone cable
A very long phone-cable and a phone-cable splitter
for the hookup of the buildin TiVo modem (which is actually completely
useless in this part of Europe since there is no TiVo service available
yet - with the exception of the UK).
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RCA Cables (2)
2 RCA cables are included for connecting Composite
Video (Yellow) and Stereo Audio (Red = right channel and White =
left channel).
For European users: there are cables
out there converting RCA to SCART. You might want to check, for
example, Conrad
for cheap cables.
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Super Video Cable
The TiVo also comes with a Super Video cable.
This cable is prefered over the Composite Video cable (Yellow) mentioned
above. Note that you will still need the Audio connectors (red and
white) of the RCA cable mentioned above since the S-Video cable
only passes Video on and no Audio!
For European users: there are cables
out there converting RCA to SCART. You might want to check, for
example, Conrad
for cheap cables. Note that not all TV/VCR sets support the use
of S-Video!
The difference is that composite video mixes the
colors red, green, blue and the synchronisation signal to one single
signal. S-Video keeps these signals apart giving you a better video
quality. The SCART connector on your TV or VCR should support this
too in order to get Video at all!
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IR-cable
The included IR (Infrared) cable is used to control
other hardware - satellite reciever for example - via the TiVo.
Newer models appear to have two infrared emitor, older models seem
to have only one.
Suggestions and info for additional uses of this
cable are welcome, please e-mail
me.
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Serial Control
Cable
This cable can be used to remotely control additional
video hardware like a satellite reciever or can be used to access
the TiVo shell by using a PC.
Suggestions and info for additional uses of this
cable are welcome, please e-mail
me.
This cable is initially used to access the Linus
shell later on :)
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Home Control Cable
Some setup-boxes support serial data access as
well and use a phone jack for their serial connection. This cable,
not used in European equipment as far as I know, is used for that
rare situation ...
Suggestions and info for additional uses of this
cable are welcome, please e-mail
me.
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Coax RF TV Cable
For recieving TV-channels at all - unless you're
using a satellite receiver that uses composite video or S-Video
- we need to hookup cable/antenne as well using this cable. Most
European users need to alter one of the connectors of this cable
to get connected at all.
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RS232 adapter
This very common adapter is used for converting
a 9 pin RS232 (as used on the "Serial
Control Cable") to a 25 pin serial connector. Note: this
is NOT a gender changer, nor a null-modem adapter!
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Remote control + AA-batteries
Naturally, a remote control including batteries
is included too.
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18.118.28.31 
