I am sitting hear and realizingthat there is an awful lot of shows that are going to be on in the next week that I am not able to watch so.....Tivo is begining to look better and better. I am thinking about buying one but, I was on their website and it mentioned something about monthly charges. Are these charges just for the interactive menu to search out programmiing or do you have to pay the fee in order to use Tivo at all?
Dave

Read the Freaking Man... oh, wrong hardware.

Start here... www.tivo.com

- Jon

The subscription fee is for the guide data. When the TiVo makes it's daily call, it downloads the new data. This usually results in about two weeks of data on the TiVo at all times.

If you don't pay the subscription fee, the TiVo works like a basic VCR. You have to setup manual recordings for certain times. And none of the recordings will be named.

Having a TiVo without a subscription is like owning a car with no gas in it.

That website bites. I can't seem to find a straight answer. I know a bunch of fellow empeger's have tham so I figured this is a less apinful way to find out.
Dave

Hey Scott,
Thanks for the info. If I remember correct you work for Musicmatch? You ar ejust the man I'm looking to speak with. I have ripped hundred's of CD's in the last month and now I have a problem The CD ROM is intermittnently not reading any disks when I try to rip them in Musicmatch 7.0. I don't get it.
Dave

Here are the best TiVo resources:

http://www.tivofaq.com
http://www.tivofaq.com/hack/
http://www.tivocommunity.com

And if you're using the direct-TV enabled Tivo, there is no need to download the latest guide info, as that comes in over the satellite stream. In this case the sub service is simply to pay for copyright infringement issues. (Tivo knows it can be ripped in digital format, and has to pay to avoid lawsuits). This is from a TIVO exec that I hounded one night trying to figure out why I had to pay $10 a month so they can watch my usage statistics. Also, the Tivo can be hacked not to require a call at all, therefore no monthly charge. But I didn't say that.

Also, the Tivo can be hacked not to require a call at all, therefore no monthly charge.

This is what I tell my friends when they ask me what I'd do if TiVo went bankrupt. I tell them no big deal. I go get a TiVoNet board and point it to the zap2it listings, thus cutting out the TiVo subscription service. But, until then, I'm fine with the subscription fee. TiVo deserves it.

Anyone know if there are third party listings available for Canadian Sat? ExpressVu specifically. I'm assuming this third party service provides listings for DirecTV and Dish/Echo, right?

This is interesting. If I can get a 3rd party solution to listings I'd pick up a Tivo. There's no way I'm paying them a monthly fee for listings (no way I *can* anyway, is there?)

Of course if a listing service for Replay were to come around, maybe that would be a solution as well.

Bruno

Well, I don't know a ton about the hack, but here's what I've heard:

TiVo gets their TV listings data from zap2it.com. When the TiVo dials up, it basically just downloads this data and processes it. So, someone figured out how to get the same data directly from the zap2it.com website.

From what it looks like, zap2it doesn't have Canadian listings. But, I imagine there are other websites offering Canadian TV listings. Now, whether these other sites' data could be used for the TiVo, I don't know. You can probably find out more info on the TiVo Underground board. Or, maybe Dylan wants to ring in on the subject. I suspect he knows a little more than me.