TivoHD - You Can Continue Using Them in Australia and NZ

endotherm on 06/11/2017 - 14:03
Last edited 06/11/2017 - 14:06

This information was lifted from another post because the title talked of the shutdown. It deserves to be its own topic.

There is a way to continue using the devices using a community run service.

  • TiVo in Australia is alive and well. The TiVo community now have a workaround so that you can keep using your TiVo after Oct 31, 2017!
    http://kingey1971.wixsite.com/tivorepairs

  • Official OzTiVo website here: http://hd.oztivo.net/twiki/bin/view. If you know of any tech websites which may be interested in publishing an article, please feel free to refer them here for background information. The quicker and wider we can get the information out there, the less boxes will make it to landfill.

Thanks to user ozpanda.

Entertainment

Comments

  • JimmyF on 06/11/2017 - 15:46

    Yes/no. The model sold in Australia hasn't had its protection cracked yet, so you can modify the OS image to point to oztivo for example. You can PAY to have the hardware chip replaced, but that does mean $$$

    The Australian units will turn into dumb VCR's shortly. No guide data for recording etc, unless you do the hardware chip replacement and reload the software with a modded OS.

    • endotherm on 06/11/2017 - 16:59

      The PROM chip was cracked years ago to remove protection. I've had one fitted to a unit for years. There are already many dozens of units pointing to the oztivo server successfully getting guide data. If you read the links you will see there are people volunteering this service for free, or giving out prom chips for DIY. Of course some people will charge for their work, but it's a small price to pay to keep the units going. Some of us appreciate the sophisticated functions that aren't available elsewhere. A lot of work has gone on behind the scenes to make it as painless as possible. In a nutshell, replace one chip, remove HDD and patch the OS via a bootable flash drive created from a free downloaded image.

      • JimmyF on 06/11/2017 - 17:49

        Yes the prom chip has been cracked, as I said above. The protection model hasn't been cracked, for a simple software 'reload'. So you need to do a hardware mod that disables the protection checks. So its not as simple as it used to be for the US imported tivos from years ago.

        I'm well aware of the oztivo work and model.

  • casho on 14/11/2017 - 11:29

    Do you need to wipe all your old shows, likes/dislikes, season passes etc?

    • endotherm on 14/11/2017 - 11:59
      +1

      You can keep your old recordings. You will have to delete your likes/dislikes/season passes and relearn them with the new system though. These things point to a reference number in the old guide database using HHW data that TiVo used. They will have a different number in the oztivo guide database. Not a huge problem to re-do and relearn things. Much like "re-installing Windows" from time to time, it clears out all the old junk and programs you don't follow any more, including things where your tastes may have changed from 10 years ago when you set it.

      It may be easy to just take a photo of the screen and go through your season passes if you really want to keep things as they are. There may be differences though, for example "Star Trek: Voyager" shows up as Star Trek" with an episode name of "Voyager". It would likely catch it for you, as it knows you are a Trekkie/Trekker. Obviously a bug at the moment, but it is something that will be fixed in due course. This is why it's probably better to thumbs-up and set season passes on the go, rather than rely on old names.

      • casho on 14/11/2017 - 13:21

        Thanks!

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