Can I use a TiVo to replace a VCR in an old video system?

In article merica,
Gordon Burditt wrote:

If I were transferring VCR tapes to a DVR (I've done a lot of this
but to a DVD/hard disk recorder, not a TiVo), I'd break up the
recordings into individual shows, which makes them easier to find,
although you'll still end up with a bunch of shows labelled only
by time recorded and channel number.

Can you not go in and edit the title name to something meaningful?
I know you can do this on a DVD/HDD unit.


Patty

On 2011-06-06, Doug McIntyre wrote:

The option to subscribe or not is only valid for old Series 1 devices.
Everything since then requires a subscription to even make it work.
(I have lifetime subs, so I never think about it really)

The TiVo S2 units with DVD players/recorders have what they call TiVo Basic
and can be used without a sub. I used to use mine to record from VCR. If
I remember right I had to "trick" the TiVo into "thinking" the VCR was a
satellite input, and record as a manual/timed recording, picking any
channel that the program guide said was valid. The recording would show
up in Now Playing as whatever show the program guide said was being
broadcast during the time of the recording. Without a sub it couldn't be
transferred to a computer, but the OP isn't interested in doing that
anyway.

Jim

Patty Winter wrote:

In article merica,
Gordon Burditt wrote:

If I were transferring VCR tapes to a DVR (I've done a lot of this
but to a DVD/hard disk recorder, not a TiVo), I'd break up the
recordings into individual shows, which makes them easier to find,
although you'll still end up with a bunch of shows labelled only
by time recorded and channel number.


Can you not go in and edit the title name to something meaningful?
I know you can do this on a DVD/HDD unit.

No you can't. Tivo is for all intents and purposes a closed black box.

If I were transferring VCR tapes to a DVR (I've done a lot of this
but to a DVD/hard disk recorder, not a TiVo), I'd break up the
recordings into individual shows, which makes them easier to find,
although you'll still end up with a bunch of shows labelled only
by time recorded and channel number.

Using a Tivo like this is a lot like hammering nails with a
screwdriver. It's the wrong tool for the purpose, even if it's a
used and extremely cheap tool. You can also kill roaches with a
Tivo by slamming the box down on the roach, and doing so without
a subscription does *NOT* violate copyright laws.

Can you not go in and edit the title name to something meaningful?
I know you can do this on a DVD/HDD unit.

No on a Tivo (I've used a Series 1 and a Tivo HD. This applies to
both). Yes on a DVD/HDD unit. You don't get to do editing. Not
titles. Not trimming extra recording time off of recordings. Not
slicing out commercials. Not re-ordering the recordings. Not
marking chapters. Not correcting the episode name (a certain station
has been mis-labelling its episodes for a few series in the guide
data - generally, the episode name is the one coming the NEXT day).
Other stations don't label the specific episode at all occasionally.
And some of them get episode numbers wrong even if they get the
episode title right.

I'd expect those features on a DVD/HDD recorder, but not a Tivo
unless it's a Tivo with a DVD recorder (it seems to me there was
one model of those, no longer made).

It makes sense to be able to do that when you can later burn the
recordings, with edited titles, and pad on either end trimmed, and
perhaps commercials deleted, to DVD.

I can transfer recordings from Tivo to DVD recorder the old-fashioned
way (PLAY on Tivo, RECORD on DVD recorder, with a cable connecting
the two). Tivo's "Save to VCR" function is useful here, but it's
misnamed. It really just plays the recording with a title screen
up front, and tries (not very well) to keep you from interrupting it.
And, of course, it takes an hour to transfer an hour show.

On Jun 6, 2:00*pm, Doug McIntyre wrote:
"Bill J." writes:
Is there a way to break a TiVo so that it cannot be used for timed
recording with TiVo's schedules anymore(and doesn't require a phone
line or membership), but can be used like an ordinary VCR?

No. Nobody has done so because there are many other options that would
work better.

But are there any options that work at least as well, and cost less
than or equal to $110 US plus the effort of modification?

On 2011-06-07, Bill J. wrote:
On Jun 6, 2:00Â*pm, Doug McIntyre wrote:
"Bill J." writes:
Is there a way to break a TiVo so that it cannot be used for timed
recording with TiVo's schedules anymore(and doesn't require a phone
line or membership), but can be used like an ordinary VCR?

No. Nobody has done so because there are many other options that would
work better.

But are there any options that work at least as well, and cost less
than or equal to $110 US plus the effort of modification?

I think that would mainly depend on what kind of quality you're looking
for, and what equipment you already have. You may be able to pick up a
hardware mpg-encoding capture device for your computer and transfer your
analog recordings to dvd for that cost, for example. My own method for
doing what (I think) you want to do is far from the *best* method, but it
utilizes hardware that I had already purchased for other reasons and
added no cost at all: pass the analog signal through a dv camcorder to
digitize the signal, then IEEE1394 (Firewire) to PC, capture, edit, then
transfer to PlayStation3 to watch whenever I want. I prefer this to
using the Tivo mainly because I can name the recording whatever I want
(and also because my Tivo has been unplugged since shortly after we went
ATSC/QAM). I'd suggest forgetting about Tivo for your purposes, for the
time being anyway, and looking at AV forums for other solutions.

Jim

"Bill J." writes:
On Jun 6, 2:00=A0pm, Doug McIntyre wrote:
"Bill J." writes:
Is there a way to break a TiVo so that it cannot be used for timed
recording with TiVo's schedules anymore(and doesn't require a phone
line or membership), but can be used like an ordinary VCR?

No. Nobody has done so because there are many other options that would
work better.

But are there any options that work at least as well, and cost less
than or equal to $110 US plus the effort of modification?


Everybody always discounts their time to zero, not realizing that is a
huge costly commodity.

Besides the video encoder on the TiVo, the rest of it is woefully
underpowered for a general purpose box. Its either an embedded MIPS or
embededded PPC system running in the *tens* of megahertz. Running
anything other than their custom OS would be too taxing, but running
their OS to do other things isn't worth the effort either.

The hard drives are tiny for video (even though you say it has enough),
for a general purpose video box, 20GB just isn't much.

While some of the linux bits are opensourced, you will first need to
get around the protection that they've employed to make people not
mess with the systems. While Series1 had bugs in the boot system, S2 and
onward you have to desolder the BIOS PROM chip and patch it.

I'd definately say you can get more hardware for less than $110.

Lets see..

eBay, Core2 Duo PC system w/80GB drive. $60. Probably on the high side
of price. Hauppauge USB Live Video Capture Device. $10.

So there's the same for $70 with more CPU, more hard drive, software
that will start and stop recording.

I really like TiVo for what it does. I've been waiting forever to
upgrade my DTV system S2 dTiVos until they ship TiVo boxes again, as well as
having other S1 & S3 TiVos, but really, a general PC for doing this sort
of task is better.

"Spider Dawg" wrote in message
...
On 2011-06-06, Doug McIntyre wrote:

The option to subscribe or not is only valid for old Series 1 devices.
Everything since then requires a subscription to even make it work.
(I have lifetime subs, so I never think about it really)

The TiVo S2 units with DVD players/recorders have what they call TiVo
Basic
and can be used without a sub. I used to use mine to record from VCR. If
I remember right I had to "trick" the TiVo into "thinking" the VCR was a
satellite input, and record as a manual/timed recording, picking any
channel that the program guide said was valid. The recording would show
up in Now Playing as whatever show the program guide said was being
broadcast during the time of the recording. Without a sub it couldn't be
transferred to a computer, but the OP isn't interested in doing that
anyway.

Jim

not just Other makers s2 units, but have 3 tivo made s2's that are all in
free basic 3 day guide mode (have two more s2's but they werent eligable)
(if in basic mode, no tricking required)

just for fun, Do you have your tivos on a wireless network? heres a free way
to use the xml server built into about 1/2 the tivo units....
if so, give it a try (it's free, why not try it?)

details at http://www.xml.com/lpt/a/1644

ps, if you have one of the units that work on wireless/have an xml server
built in, there are free progs out there that change your tivo settings to
tweak the time and even change your sub status (ie make it free basic even
on some actual tivos rather than 3rd party)

On 2011-06-07, Peter Pan wrote:

"Spider Dawg" wrote in message
...
On 2011-06-06, Doug McIntyre wrote:

The option to subscribe or not is only valid for old Series 1 devices.
Everything since then requires a subscription to even make it work.
(I have lifetime subs, so I never think about it really)

The TiVo S2 units with DVD players/recorders have what they call TiVo
Basic
and can be used without a sub. I used to use mine to record from VCR. If
I remember right I had to "trick" the TiVo into "thinking" the VCR was a
satellite input, and record as a manual/timed recording, picking any
channel that the program guide said was valid. The recording would show
up in Now Playing as whatever show the program guide said was being
broadcast during the time of the recording. Without a sub it couldn't be
transferred to a computer, but the OP isn't interested in doing that
anyway.

Jim

not just Other makers s2 units, but have 3 tivo made s2's that are all in
free basic 3 day guide mode (have two more s2's but they werent eligable)
(if in basic mode, no tricking required)

I believe this is the first I've heard of Basic service for anything
other than the Toshiba and Pioneer DVD/DVDR combo units.

just for fun, Do you have your tivos on a wireless network? heres a free way
to use the xml server built into about 1/2 the tivo units....
if so, give it a try (it's free, why not try it?)

Mine is on a wired network.

details at http://www.xml.com/lpt/a/1644

I used to use this a lot when I had a sub, but I haven't been able to
access the Tivo's web server since I reverted to Basic. When I was laid
up with a broken ankle I wrote a script to stream the recordings from
the Tivo upstairs to a computer downstairs, and also wrote one to pipe
the video through tivodecode, ffmpeg, and dvdauthor to write directly to
disc as an authored DVD. Fun stuff (my time is cheap). As I said, I
cannot connect to the Tivo in any manner without the sub, only thing the
network is good for now is retrieving guide data without a phone line.

Jim

On Jun 7, 9:59*am, Doug McIntyre wrote:
"Bill J." writes:
On Jun 6, 2:00=A0pm, Doug McIntyre wrote:
"Bill J." writes:
Is there a way to break a TiVo so that it cannot be used for timed
recording with TiVo's schedules anymore(and doesn't require a phone
line or membership), but can be used like an ordinary VCR?

No. Nobody has done so because there are many other options that would
work better.
But are there any options that work at least as well, and cost less
than or equal to $110 US plus the effort of modification?

Everybody always discounts their time to zero, not realizing that is a
huge costly commodity.

Besides the video encoder on the TiVo, the rest of it is woefully
underpowered for a general purpose box. Its either an embedded MIPS or
embededded PPC system running in the *tens* of megahertz. Running
anything other than their custom OS would be too taxing, but running
their OS to do other things isn't worth the effort either.

The hard drives are tiny for video (even though you say it has enough),
for a general purpose video box, 20GB just isn't much.

While some of the linux bits are opensourced, you will first need to
get around the protection that they've employed to make people not
mess with the systems. While Series1 had bugs in the boot system, S2 and
onward you have to desolder the BIOS PROM chip and patch it.

I'd definately say you can get more hardware for less than $110.

Lets see..

eBay, Core2 Duo PC system w/80GB drive. $60. Probably on the high side
of price. *Hauppauge USB Live Video Capture Device. $10.

So there's the same for $70 with more CPU, more hard drive, software
that will start and stop recording.

I really like TiVo for what it does. I've been waiting forever to
upgrade my DTV system S2 dTiVos until they ship TiVo boxes again, as well as
having other S1 & S3 TiVos, but really, a general PC for doing this sort
of task is better.

Well, I've learned everything I think I need to know about the TiVo
from y'all. Thanks to everyone for the help.