DirecTivo (Philips DSR 708 R/17), TiVO

[gsg81@msn.com]

Hey guys,

First let me say, I've had DirecTivo since Christmas and have never
enjoyed television more--DirecTV's excellent picture quality + channel
selection (for less than basic cable, minus the five buck Tivo fee,
which is worth it) and the integrated Tivo receiver (watch one channel,
record another) have made TV fun again--like saturday morning cartoons
fun. I could probably be one of the letter writers in DirecTV's
commercials. :-)

Just a curiosity though--there are more than one manufacturer of
DirecTivo units. I just ordered the whole thing through directv.com
and the installer came with a Philips unit. I think Philips is an
excellent brand and I have no complaints whatsoever about the box. It
looks sexy too. :-)

But I'm curious, are there any differences besides user interface
depending on who makes the box? Do Philips, RCA, Sony etc. actually
participate in building/designing parts of the unit or are they just
licensed to sell Tivo units, with some remote control and design
particulars...?

(If anyone's familiar with the video game business, this sort of
reminds me of the 3D0 Machine... Panasonic and Goldstar were actually
licensed to make the things while the 3D0 company developed the
chipset.)

Also--is this considered a "Series 1", "Series 2" or neither? And is
there a way I can find out how much HDD/hours are remaining?
Thanks,
Gabe

[Jack Zwick]

In article . com>,
wrote:

> Hey guys,
>
> First let me say, I've had DirecTivo since Christmas and have never
> enjoyed television more--DirecTV's excellent picture quality + channel
> selection (for less than basic cable, minus the five buck Tivo fee,
> which is worth it) and the integrated Tivo receiver (watch one channel,
> record another) have made TV fun again--like saturday morning cartoons
> fun. I could probably be one of the letter writers in DirecTV's
> commercials. :-)
>
> Just a curiosity though--there are more than one manufacturer of
> DirecTivo units. I just ordered the whole thing through directv.com
> and the installer came with a Philips unit. I think Philips is an
> excellent brand and I have no complaints whatsoever about the box. It
> looks sexy too. :-)
>
> But I'm curious, are there any differences besides user interface
> depending on who makes the box? Do Philips, RCA, Sony etc. actually
> participate in building/designing parts of the unit or are they just
> licensed to sell Tivo units, with some remote control and design
> particulars...?
>
> (If anyone's familiar with the video game business, this sort of
> reminds me of the 3D0 Machine... Panasonic and Goldstar were actually
> licensed to make the things while the 3D0 company developed the
> chipset.)
>
> Also--is this considered a "Series 1", "Series 2" or neither? And is
> there a way I can find out how much HDD/hours are remaining?
> Thanks,
> Gabe

Series 1 hasnt been made for 4 years now. Apparently all brands come out
of the same factory in Mexico, with different labels on front,
it's like Chevy's and Buicks coming down the same assembly line.

[Gary J. Tait]

On 22 Jan 2005 08:55:28 -0800, wrote:

>Hey guys,


>But I'm curious, are there any differences besides user interface
>depending on who makes the box? Do Philips, RCA, Sony etc. actually
>participate in building/designing parts of the unit or are they just
>licensed to sell Tivo units, with some remote control and design
>particulars...?
>

Nope, all the same. All made in the same factory, with minor order
differences (For instance, I believe the Samsung units use Philips
screws instead of Torx like the rest).


>(If anyone's familiar with the video game business, this sort of
>reminds me of the 3D0 Machine... Panasonic and Goldstar were actually
>licensed to make the things while the 3D0 company developed the
>chipset.)
>

TiVo cross manufacturing is tighter than that.

>Also--is this considered a "Series 1", "Series 2" or neither? And is
>there a way I can find out how much HDD/hours are remaining?
>Thanks,
>Gabe

It is S2 hardware, as it has USB, although S2 software features like
the Standaline cousins have are not available for the DirecTV TiVos.

[Fast Lane]

Yours would be a series 2 with the 80GB HD which translates in about 70
hours worth of recording. The kids liked the TIVO so much ( filled it pretty
much ) that I ended up getting a second unit. First one a Hughes and the
second one a Philips, both 40GB. They come from the same factory in Mexico,
with just a different face plate and some changes in the software to show
the different logos.

If you use your unit a lot with season passes it is nearly always full and
it will do the deleting of the shows as indicated. People have reported that
they can become slugish after a while and might need to be reinitiliazed.
( HD defrag?)


> wrote in message
oups.com...
> Hey guys,
>
> First let me say, I've had DirecTivo since Christmas and have never
> enjoyed television more--DirecTV's excellent picture quality + channel
> selection (for less than basic cable, minus the five buck Tivo fee,
> which is worth it) and the integrated Tivo receiver (watch one channel,
> record another) have made TV fun again--like saturday morning cartoons
> fun. I could probably be one of the letter writers in DirecTV's
> commercials. :-)
>
> Just a curiosity though--there are more than one manufacturer of
> DirecTivo units. I just ordered the whole thing through directv.com
> and the installer came with a Philips unit. I think Philips is an
> excellent brand and I have no complaints whatsoever about the box. It
> looks sexy too. :-)
>
> But I'm curious, are there any differences besides user interface
> depending on who makes the box? Do Philips, RCA, Sony etc. actually
> participate in building/designing parts of the unit or are they just
> licensed to sell Tivo units, with some remote control and design
> particulars...?
>
> (If anyone's familiar with the video game business, this sort of
> reminds me of the 3D0 Machine... Panasonic and Goldstar were actually
> licensed to make the things while the 3D0 company developed the
> chipset.)
>
> Also--is this considered a "Series 1", "Series 2" or neither? And is
> there a way I can find out how much HDD/hours are remaining?
> Thanks,
> Gabe
>

[gsg81@msn.com]

Thanks for the info. It's weird; why does Tivo do that, with the
differend brands? Is it to give the impression that there's
competition in manufacturing the devices, and thus, competition leads
to a better quality product (and Philips, Samsung, RCA etc get a
kickback for this...?)

Would be interested to understand the business model for the devices...

Anyway, I'm sure this has been asked before, but--is anyone -WORKING-
on how to get the files/recordings off the DirecTivo units and onto a
computer, an external HD, or even by hooking up the IDE drives inside
to a PC? I don't care how technical it gets, as long as it's possible!
Forgive my ignorance if this isn't so but it seems since the smart
card allows the signal to be decrypted it also can be used somehow to
decrypt the recorded streams...?

I doubt DirecTV will enable TivoToGo... especially because they're
dumping Tivo eventually... what a shame.

Anyways, I'm delighted to watch TV for the first time in years. If
there are any DSS or Tivo engineers reading this, THANK YOU!

Gabe

[Gary J. Tait]

On 23 Jan 2005 16:37:37 -0800, wrote:

>Thanks for the info. It's weird; why does Tivo do that, with the
>differend brands? Is it to give the impression that there's
>competition in manufacturing the devices, and thus, competition leads
>to a better quality product (and Philips, Samsung, RCA etc get a
>kickback for this...?)
>

They do that to maintain control of the hardware platform, so as to
make it easier to write a common software for.

>Would be interested to understand the business model for the devices...
>
>Anyway, I'm sure this has been asked before, but--is anyone -WORKING-
>on how to get the files/recordings off the DirecTivo units and onto a
>computer, an external HD, or even by hooking up the IDE drives inside
>to a PC? I don't care how technical it gets, as long as it's possible!
>Forgive my ignorance if this isn't so but it seems since the smart
>card allows the signal to be decrypted it also can be used somehow to
>decrypt the recorded streams...?
>

It's been done for a while. Look up the DealDatabase forums.
The TiVo essentially rencrypts the video after the DirecTV/Videoguard
decryption. Part of the hack to extract video disables that
recryption, so unencrypted video is recorded to the HDD, and can be
FTPd out of the box.

>I doubt DirecTV will enable TivoToGo... especially because they're
>dumping Tivo eventually... what a shame.

That has the least to do with it, they simply don't want the general
public direct digital access to the content they carry.

>
>Anyways, I'm delighted to watch TV for the first time in years. If
>there are any DSS or Tivo engineers reading this, THANK YOU!
>
>Gabe

I am not a DirecTV or TiVo employee, just a loyal TiVo enthusiast.