Networked TiVo Goodness
The 40G hard drive in our ancient Hughes HDVR2 DirecTiVo S2 unit finally died a couple of days ago, and wouldn’t finish (after more than 24 hours) the “CLear and Delete Everything” stage. So, I decided to take the plunge.
- 120G Maxtor ATA100 (8M cache) HD from CompUSA
- Linksys USB200M (v1.1) USB to 10/100baseT Ethernet adapter from CompUSA
- InstantCake and PTVnet installer CDs from PTVUpgrade
- 25 feet of Ethernet cable from Radio Shack
- TiVoTool software on my Macintosh
After everything was properly mixed, baked, and served, I now have a 109-hour DirecTiVo Series 2 running the 6.2 software, connected to the network with telnet, FTP, and TiVoWebPlus enabled. Once a show is recorded, I can extract it to a DivX or MPEG file on my Macintosh with a single click and then watch it or save it to DVD.
Total cost: about $225. I should have done this ages ago.