Many of the cool things you can do with your TiVo depend on what software version is running. This simple recipe lets you determine the version.The version information is included in the System Information screen. To get there: Press the TiVo button on your remote. Scroll down to Messages & Setup and press the select button. Scroll down to System Information and press the select button. Look for the line that starts with System information. You should see something like 3.0-01-1-010. The first two numbers (3.0 in this example) are usually all that you'll need to know.... Read More

 Lots of TiVo backdoor codes exist that allow you to do some cool things with your TiVo. Most of these are safe and will not void your warranty. Before you use any of these backdoor codes, you must enable backdoor mode. To enable backdoor mode, you need to know what software version is running. Use this recipe to determine what version you have. Refer to the table below to determine the backdoor code to use based on your software version. Version  Backdoor code 3.0      3 0 BC    (3<space>0<space>BC) 2.5      B D 2 5   (B<space>D<space>2<space>5) 2.5.2    B M U S 1 (B<space>M<space>U<space>S<space><one>) 2.0      2 0 TCD   (2<space><zero><space>TCD) Once you know the correct backdoor code, you must enter it in the Search by Title screen. To get there, Press the TiVo button on your remote, t... Read More

 When watching live tv or a recording, using the playback features like pause, instant replay, fast forward and rewind cause the play bar to be displayed on the screen. Once play resumes, this bar stays on screen for a few seconds sometimes obscuring important stuff on screen.A simple code causes the TiVo play bar to disappear quickly when resuming play. To enable this mode, press the following remote control buttons while you are watching a recorded show: Select Play Select Pause Select Entering the code again will turn off this feature.... Read More

 This is another of my quickie guides to alternatives to Tivo services using ones own PC and TV Tuner card. I will give an overview of three of the main commercial (non-open source) PVR software packages (taken from my website htpc page) and some notes about each.Home Theater PC (HTPC) systems have just recently started to emerge. A HTPC is basically a normal PC but has the ability to be used with a Big screen TV/LCD in a living room environment. So a few basic requirements of it are to have: TV/S-Video/HD outputs to connect to a TV, TV Tuner/AV inputs for other devices and TV, FM Tuner (optional), DVD Drive/Burner, remote control/wireless keyboard and a larger sized hard drive to save your recorded tv shows to. The first search or obstacle one might encounter is, ok, i have hardware but what can i use to drive it? What software package will take advantage of what i have? Here's a quick rundown of the 3 main commercial software packages out there worth mentioning (not including open-sou... Read More