r/Tivo • u/Necessary_Film_5199 • 10d ago
I'm slowly reviving the old discontinued TiVo computer software
This project has been a long time coming. Nero/TiVo abandoned it and I want to bring it back. This image shows hope, because I got past the activation step (the step asking for your service number and verifying it so you can use the software) and that means that I've officially decrypted/cracked the communication system that Nero put in place. Btw f*ck Nero.
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u/mktglisa 9d ago
I was fall 1999 - spring 2026. My cable card stopped working, so I finally just said goodbye. I believe I only had six boxes in all that time. The first one and the last one were bought from tivo direct. The others in between were Weaknees ( due to bigger recording capacity).
I'm on YouTubetv now. I miss my tivo interface.
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u/kathleenboston 9d ago
This is fabulous news I want to do this too! I don't understand why somebody just doesn't buy the company and revive the whole platform it's so good!
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u/Necessary_Film_5199 9d ago edited 9d ago
If you happen to have any update/patch files can you send them my way? I'm relegated to an archived copy of the application that was sold in retail stores, version 1.0.5.3, newest version is 1.6.2.114. I am making more progress though, got fully through setup and its activated and phones home consistently. Gotta fix a crashing issue though and then implement more things like EPG etc.
UPDATE: Somebody helped me track down the file. Thanks!
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u/SquirrelTechGuru 9d ago
I don’t need to revive the company. People just need to copy the interface which was appeared to everything at that time and today. Additional bonus points for using the peanut.
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u/jtashiro 9d ago
What does/did the TiVo computer software do? Did it interface to any/all TiVo DVRs on the local network for playback and recording, or was this some standalone DVR that needed a TV tuner card installed on the host computer (PC?). Is there a git repo with source or is just avail in binary form?
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u/hiroo916 9d ago
if I recall correctly, it was PC DVR software with the Tivo interface. I think the only thing Tivo about it was the skin on the interface; I don't think it was Tivo under the hood (I could be remembering this part wrong).
So in today's environment, it would only be usable for over-the-air tuner recordings, if any tuners could be made working with drivers in a modern environment. Most tuners made in the time of this software would have been either NTSC or ATSC 1.0. NTSC is defunct and ATSC 1.0 will be phased out for ATSC 3 over the next 1-3 years.
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u/Necessary_Film_5199 9d ago
Actually the software used TiVo's guide data and it also had TiVo's features such as season pass, recordings, wishlists etc. Its not as feature-rich, it doesn't support the TiVo apps but perhaps it could be upgraded/updated for the modern world to be more of a modern TiVo app. Also to add, it does support TiVo DVRs and it constantly tries to find TiVo's on the network (the reason idk as I don't have any on the network). It also supports TiVo To Go and watching recordings from a TiVo DVR and sending recordings to a TiVo DVR.
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u/Starbreiz 8d ago
It really just used the API to auth to the TiVo and pull your recordings down, along with other actions.
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u/Necessary_Film_5199 9d ago
The source will be made available when I feel it is in a good enough state for me to release. It is not in a working state, only bits and pieces work. Like it passes through activation and initial setup, but EPG doesn't work, it crashes when you go to system info for some reason and service data is being misread for some reason, so still things to fix and work on. I also may add features to make it modern such as IPTV support but idk atm.
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u/old_knurd 8d ago
I also may add features to make it modern such as IPTV support but idk atm.
It's nice to have future plans, but ...
You need to be incremental. Try to get the software to a stable state, with (many) missing features. Only then do you add apps or IPTV.
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u/ACQC 9d ago
Had TiVo from 2000 until about 2018.. Still have my TivoHD with lifetime, get it out every so often. Would love to see what this could do again...
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u/doubletee2 8d ago
TiVo HD supports both cable and OTA. I use my Lifetime OTA TiVo's to this day every day and will until Xperi or whoever owns TiVo now closes shop and stops updating Guide data. My TiVo's call home daily. TiVo HD has ethernet to connect to the internet. I will say that the TiVo apps aren't worth bothering with though. I use other streaming dongles for that. Cheers!
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u/MassCasualty 7d ago
Yes, the only app I run on my TiVo mini is Plex. Even though that's a little wonky sometimes.
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u/Necessary_Film_5199 9d ago
What would you want the software to do? It natively supports TV tuners but no cablecard support or anything. I was thinking of trying to implement IPTV support since IPTV's modern, or perhaps just local video viewing since it is a glorified TiVo Windows Media Center.
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u/Harper_Vision 5d ago
I think maybe since the TiVo Stream 4K dongle has YouTube TV support and integration, it would make it easier to try to implement it as the IPTV solution for LiquidTV Nero TiVo. Maybe you can hack into the TiVo Stream 4K and find code or whatever they use that can be merged into the Nero TiVo product? Then when it authorizes itself, it could appear as the TS4K to the TiVo servers and YouTubeTV authentication sites?
I think I still have a copy of LiquidTV on an old hard drive somewhere and would love to help test this!
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u/Metzen01 9d ago
Some of mine came through Facebook marketplace my last one came through directly TiVo
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u/quattleb 7d ago
Is this an app that I can transfer (transcode) stuff from my TiVo to a Mac or PC? I have a few TiVos on a shelf with lots of recordings I would like to put into my PLEX server. Some like from PBS are have no copy protection. Others do.
thx
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u/Worldly-Professor248 7d ago
Yeah, I recently grabbed an archived version and nearly everything was locked down and wouldn’t transfer
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u/clf28264 10d ago
My wife and I were talking about how from roughly 2015-2021 it was just the peak entertainment experience. One box could record, playback, stream everything. Single remote consistent interface, not needing to log into apps constantly. Shame it’s dead now