TiVo

Tips

Skip 30 seconds

To change the advance key to advance 30 seconds instead of to the next 15 minute tick (or to change back), play something, then press Select - Play - Select - 3 - 0 - Select. If you hear three rings, then it worked. If not, try again.

Change sort order of Now Playing List

While something is playing, press Slow - 0 (zero) - Record - Thumbs Up, then choose the sort method.

On-screen clock

To show a clock at the bottom right, very small, in white, while something is playing, press Select - Play - Select - 9 - Select.

Modem

I've made a script that allows a serial port on a Mac running OS X to serve an internet connection to the TiVo's serial port. I use a Keyspan USB serial adapter to provide the serial port on the Mac.

Applescript

display dialog "Before continuing, use System
Preferences to start Internet
Sharing via an unused port,
like firewire."
set pppdTivoScript to "LocalHostIP=`ifconfig | grep 'inet 172' | awk '{ print $2 }'`;
KeyspanPort=`ls /dev | grep USA | grep cu`;
echo \"Sharing ip connection from $LocalHostIP via pppd\"; /usr/sbin/pppd dump noauth
proxyarp /dev/$KeyspanPort 115200 $LocalHostIP:172.16.1.18
passive local maxfail 0 nocrtscts xonxoff"
set scriptresult to do shell script pppdTivoScript with administrator privileges
display dialog "Output of pppdTiVoScript:" & return & scriptresult

Also see http://www.tivohelp.com/archive/tivohelp.swiki.net/45.html and http://www.tivopedia.com/tivo-remote-tricks.php

Problems

SVR-2000

The Sony SVR-2000 is a Series 1 TiVo, meaning it can only network through a serial port as a modem, and runs up to version 3 of the software. Beginning in 2009, our 2001-purchased SVR-2000 started stuttering, including slight changes in playback speed between stutters, and now even stutters on programs recorded before the we first noticed the stuttering.

Diagnoses

1. Reset, didn't fix stutter.
2. Change battery. I've never seen any notes on the backup battery (1 CR2032 lithium battery). I changed it, and the only result was that the unit seems to have forgotten the last time it called home, since it now says it hasn't called in over 30 days, which isn't true. I had to snip away at the case to change the battery (otherwise I would have had to undo all the pieces of case twisted to hold the motherboard down).
3. Time base input. On the off chance that the playback depends on the time base of the input signal, I disconnected the input. Still stuttering, even the menu background movies (which I've read are stored on disk).