Tivo Cisco 8685DVB HD-DVR Media Center

[Lolo_Bee]

Hello! My name is Lolo and I'm completely new at the forum and to the Tivo world!

I've been searching on the forums to get some info, but I couldn't find nothing about my decoder.

I've just been installed a Cisco 8685DVB HD-DVR Media Center, wich is based on TiVo system. But it's not a generic TiVo decoder, I think it has as special firmware because the Ethernet and USB ports doesn't work because of the TV company specific model.

So, I want to dig on the decoder, but I want to know some things.

Is the decoder firmware based or it's a software based solution? I mean, all the system is stored in the HDD or in a flash memory, so if I do a dd of the HDD, I begin to mount the fs, edit some files and of course, I'll end up screwing up something. If I restore the dd image again in the HDD, everything will work again like magic??

I've read that the TiVo is a semi-linux based distro, so, maybe the Tv provider disabled the USB and Ethernet ports with a software configuration. I don't know what will I find when I mount the HDD, but well... it's an idea that may work ;-)

By now this is my first goal, because I can't access the recordings from the network, so if I enable the ethernet port, I'm sure that it'll be very easy to extract them.

Thank you so much for your attention.

Best regards, Lolo

[unitron]

Hello! My name is Lolo and I'm completely new at the forum and to the Tivo world!

I've been searching on the forums to get some info, but I couldn't find nothing about my decoder.

I've just been installed a Cisco 8685DVB HD-DVR Media Center, wich is based on TiVo system. But it's not a generic TiVo decoder, I think it has as special firmware because the Ethernet and USB ports doesn't work because of the TV company specific model.

So, I want to dig on the decoder, but I want to know some things.

Is the decoder firmware based or it's a software based solution? I mean, all the system is stored in the HDD or in a flash memory, so if I do a dd of the HDD, I begin to mount the fs, edit some files and of course, I'll end up screwing up something. If I restore the dd image again in the HDD, everything will work again like magic??

I've read that the TiVo is a semi-linux based distro, so, maybe the Tv provider disabled the USB and Ethernet ports with a software configuration. I don't know what will I find when I mount the HDD, but well... it's an idea that may work ;-)

By now this is my first goal, because I can't access the recordings from the network, so if I enable the ethernet port, I'm sure that it'll be very easy to extract them.

Thank you so much for your attention.

Best regards, Lolo

That appears to be the Virgin Media TiVo currently available to customers in the UK (with actual ownership of the hardware remaining with Virgin Media, so if you bought one from an individual in England it was stolen property), or a version available in Spain.

Where are you located geographically?

[Lolo_Bee]

Hello and thank you for your reply

I've read in other forums that this one is like a Virgin Media, but it's not. Well, in fact it's the same model, but it's owned by a Spanish cable company called ONO. This company is testing this "tivo" decoder in Madrid and Barcelona.

Best regards, Lolo

[unitron]

Hello and thank you for your reply

I've read in other forums that this one is like a Virgin Media, but it's not. Well, in fact it's the same model, but it's owned by a Spanish cable company called ONO. This company is testing this "tivo" decoder in Madrid and Barcelona.

Best regards, Lolo

If it's the same model as the Virgin Media TiVo, then it is like the Virgin Media TiVo, although not necessarily identical, and the software is no doubt different for the different market, which is probably why the Ethernet and USB ports are currently disabled.

Since it's a Series 4 model, like the U.S. Premiere and Elite, the only way so far to back up the hard drive is to do a byte for byte copy onto another drive at least as big using

dd

or

dd_rescue

or

ddrescue

and don't ever boot into Windows with the drive attached.

Some of the software on there is open source Linux, but the software that really makes it a TiVo is closed source and proprietary.

Although I don't necessarily understand exactly what you have in mind, I fear that what you have in mind isn't going to work.

You could ask questions in the UK Virgin Media forum, including whether they have a version of TiVo Desktop over there

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=69

but you might not get a very warm reception since apparently the unit you have or intend to acquire will actually be the property of the Spanish cable company and therefore not really yours to hack on like the customer owned U.S. TiVos. (There are some "leased by the cable company TiVos in the U.S. as well, but most are owned outright by individuals)

I salute your spirit and curiousity, though.