[mythtv-users] Tivo debuts slimmed-down TV service

[Jon Hoyt]

> 
> On Thursday, May 8, 2003, at 09:41  PM, Ben Davis wrote:
> 
>> Joseph Caputo wrote:
>> 
>>> I'd be interested to see the hardware specs... wonder if it might
>>> make a
>>> decent Myth box?  Of course, based on the current generation of Tivo
>>> hardware, I'd say probably not.
>>> 
>> The idea of putting Linux on a Tivo is pretty new to me..  Is this
>> actually possible??  I mean, it would make much more sense to me
>> buying hardware that's made for TV recording rather than spending
>> almost twice as much building a full-on computer...  Would this really
>> be possible? I would think there would be some serious hardware driver
>> issues...
>> 
>> 
> 
> 
> This is almost certainly impossible. The reason people (foolishly) get
> their hopes up about TIVO is that it runs linux right now. The stock
> software from TIVO is in fact linux based. However, the chance of
> getting a stock linux distro to install and work with all that
> proprietary hardware is near null. Furthermore, the TIVO architecture
> (slow ass CPU and hardware encode/decode) would complicate things even
> more. The short answer is .... forget it.
> 

Would it be possible to tear out that proprietary hardware and put in a new
motherboard/processor.  In other words,  reuse the case, power supply, IR
transceiver and hard drive.  I currently have a Tivo that will become
superfluous once I get a Myth box built, I'd love it if I could turn the
Tivo into an inexpensive frontend.  Does anyone know if this would be
feasible?

On a related note, the Tivo has a red LED that lights up when the box is
recording.  I have found it quite handy at times and I wonder if it would be
possible to create similar functionality with Myth?

Jon