Hack your TiVo! Here's how

Of course, TiVo can't do this right out of the box--and it probably never will. But the nice programmers left a backdoor open for those of us willing to join the ranks of TiVo hackers.

AS WITH ANY good hacking article (and this will only be a fair one), I should warn you up front that proceeding further could render your TiVo useless, void your warranty, violate all sorts of end-user licensing agreements, and, in extreme cases, kill you (if you happen to touch the unshielded power supply inside the box while having an especially unlucky day).

That caveat out of the way, let me tell you how I got started down this road to hackerdom. It began when Steve Kovsky heard me griping about my TiVo on the radio. Steve works here at CNET, does the radio program before mine, and is the author of High-Tech Toys for Your TV: Secrets of TiVo, Xbox, ReplayTV, UltimateTV and More,  which makes him an expert on these things.

After Steve heard me griping about how TiVo won't let me skip ads, he sent me an e-mail containing a sequence of keystrokes. When entered via the TiVo remote control, these keystrokes turn the "skip to beginning" and "skip to end" keys into "skip back about 10 seconds" and "skip forward 30 seconds" buttons. It took me about four tries before the sequence worked. But ever since then, I've been skipping commercials whole (as opposed to merely fast-forwarding through them) with aplomb.

HOW IS THIS possible? For starters, TiVo is Linux-based. It also helps more that the company seems to take a benign view of activities of this sort. But the real key is that button reassignability was built into the machine in the first place, perhaps indicating that the TiVo people have a warm spot in their hearts for people smart enough to discover and enter reprogramming codes.

I won't publish the keystroke sequence here, because I think you need to read about it in some detail before you start messing around. If you don't want to spring for Kovsky's book, or if you're just in a hurry, check out Hacking the TiVo FAQ, especially the part that explains the backdoor code Steve sent me. (It also explains some of the many risks you face when hacking your DVR.)

And that wasn't Steve's only tip, either. For example, did you know you can review the log files where TiVo records your viewing habits? And that there's actually software that lets you "opt out" of that data collection? (Too bad the latter works only with older versions of the TiVo OS).

You can also increase your TiVo's recording capacity by upgrading its hard drive. The process is a bit tricky; if you're not comfortable reformatting drives, or you don't know the difference between a primary/slave and secondary/master drive, you might want to skip it. (Or consider getting an UltimateTV, on which the disk-replacement procedure is much simpler.)

A LOT OF THE HACKS described in the TiVo FAQ are things I don't really care about trying. But adding a new hard drive seems like a worthwhile weekend project. After I get back from Seattle (where I've been attending a conference all week), I'll gather the necessary pieces and parts, and see if I can do it.

In a couple of weeks, I'll be back with an update on my TiVo hacking adventures (including a report on whether or not I got the shock of my life from that unshielded power supply). Start an "Is David dead?" pool, if you like, but stay tuned. In the meantime, if you have any TiVo hacks of your own, let me know!

Editor's note: If you'd like to learn more about taking control of your TiVo, ReplayTV, and UltimateTV, check out Steve Kovsky's new column, High Tech Toys, starting tomorrow on AnchorDesk.

What do you think? Have any TiVo hacks of your own? Think I'm risking life, limb, and a lifetime of   Dossa and Joe reruns messing around with this stuff? TalkBack to me below.