TiVoToGo Encryption – cracked?

Posted on Sunday, December 3, 2006 by MegaZone

Well, it looks like someone cracked the DRM on TiVoToGo, making it possible to decrypt the files on non-Windows platforms. It is C code which reportedly runs on Linux, Solaris, and Windows. (I’m sure someone will port it to Mac if it doesn’t run there already.) This is the Wiki reporting the development, and this is the project page on SourceForge. It is open source, BSD license. Right now it looks like a geek-level solution – you run it from the command line. But I’m sure someone will wrap it in a nice package to make it usable for the average user.

TiVo will probably not be happy about this, but I’m not surprised. There have been ways to strip the DRM on Windows for a while, such as DirectShow Dump, using holes in the DirectShow mechanism, and it was clear people were working on a real ‘crack’ for the system to remove the Windows requirements. Pretty much any widely used DRM system will have people dedicated to cracking it. There is more motivation because TiVo has failed to support any platform other than Windows, leaving Linux/UNIX and MacOS users out in the cold since TTG was released. The lack of an official solution is always going to increase motivation for users to find their own answers.

EDIT: Here’s a guide to using this on a Mac and another one for automatically using it with Galleon on a Mac.

EDIT: This landed on Digg – albeit indirectly. The person who posted it link to the PVRWire story which originated from this post.

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TiVo rolls out TiVoCast update

Posted on Thursday, November 30, 2006 by MegaZone

TiVo Series2 users with broadband may notice a new feature on their units – look under ‘Find Programs’ and there is a new option at the bottom of the list – TiVoCast! This is a new way to manage your TiVoCast subscriptions right from the TiVo itself. You can subscribe to new content, change the settings for existing subscriptions, and even download individual past episodes. New flexibility for TiVoCast users! Formerly, you had to manage TiVoCast online, or via Showcases that popped up from time to time.

Also, as a first, this feature is actually implemented as an HME application. Selecting ‘TiVoCast’ from the menu seamlessly launches the TiVoCast HME application, allowing TiVo to implement this feature without a software update. And they’ll be able to update this application independently of TiVo software updates – expect to see more features implemented this way.

TiVo’s Director of TiVoCast Operations, E. Stephen Mack, posted the details in his blog.

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TiVo on the Colbert Report

Posted on Thursday, November 30, 2006 by MegaZone

Monday night The Colbert Report did a bit with Stephen ‘cleaning out his TiVo’, as a pretense to showing the administration reversing themselves over time. It looks like they actually used a real TiVo to get the menus, then PhotoShopped them to get the listings they needed for the bit. Matt Haughey PVRBlog has posted a video of the TiVo bit from the show. He originally posted the video in his Vox blog.

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TiVo Announces Third Quarter Results

Posted on Wednesday, November 29, 2006 by MegaZone

TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), today reported financial results for its quarter ended October 31, 2006.

The conference call is in a few minutes, but it looks like it was a good quarter. TiVo-owned subscriptions gross additions (as opposed to DirecTV) were up 10% year-over-year (101,000 vs. 92,000), which is the first year-over-year increase in 6 quarters. Overall TiVo-owned subscriptions were up 24% from last year, to 1.6 million. TiVo reported a net loss of ($11.1) million and net loss per share of ($0.12), compared to a net loss of ($14.2) million, or ($0.17) per share, for the third quarter of last year. DirecTV subscriptions declined, as expected, since DirecTV is no longer marketing the TiVo-based systems. So the loss from any subscribers dropping the service or switching to DirecTV’s in-house DVR are greater than what new subscribers were added. Total subscriber base is up slightly to 4.4 million, 11% up from last year.

One important thing to note is that TiVo-owned subscriptions are worth much more to TiVo than a DirecTV subscription. They receive a much higher revenue from direct subscriptions, so the shift to having more TiVo-owned subscriptions in their total is a good thing. Those subscribers can also use the added services which DirecTV hasn’t allowed their subscribers to use.

Online sales increased from 33% of their total sales last quarter to 43% this quarter, and response to the pricing changes they made early in the year have been positive. (The pricing changes from a couple of weeks ago came after the end of the quarter.) However, TiVo did comment that changing pricing to have the same pricing for online and retail purchases allows them to do national advertising, which they began this month.

58% of new sales in the quarter were of the S2DT, and 47% of new subscriptions were for use with analog cable. Analog cable continues to be the largest single segment of TiVo’s user base.

EDIT: From the con call webcast:
- Unsurprisingly, they’ll be featuring the Comcast platform at CES in January. (I’ll be there again.)
- One bit of news on the most recent pricing changes. Since the new pricing on November 5th, 60% of new subscribers have selected 3-year pre-paid or 3-year monthly plans. My response – Duh. They’re the best value by far. And right now 3-years pre-paid cost the same as 2-years, so no one is going to take 2-years pre-paid.
- Single tuner S2s account for about 1/3 of current inventory and they’re selling through a lot of those with the holiday promos. Going forward the focus will be on the dual-tuner products.
- TiVo sees the international market as a large part of their future business. Hmm – maybe they’ll finally get back into the UK?

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TiVo Inc. and CABLEVISION, S.A. de C.V. Sign Mexico Distribution Agreement

Posted on Wednesday, November 29, 2006 by MegaZone

CABLEVISION, S.A. de C.V. (CABLEVISION), Mexico’s largest digital cable operator, and TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), today announced that they have entered into an agreement to distribute the TiVo(R) DVRs and TiVo(R) Service to CABLEVISION’s subscribers throughout Mexico City.

TiVo is heading south of the border! Not counting TGC, which is a separate entity, this is the first time TiVo is being offered in a non-English speaking region. (No, Quebec doesn’t count.) Since they’ve developed a Spanish language version of the UI, that opens some more possibilities for the future as well.

Initially, the service offered by CABLEVISION will utilize TiVo’s standalone DVR hardware platform. CABLEVISION expects to begin marketing bundles that include the TiVo DVRs and TiVo Service in the first half of 2007.

Since the article repeatedly talks about how they’re digital services, I wonder what platform it is. I’d guess the S2DT in conjunction with an external box, since the S3 would be an expensive box to use – and Mexico doesn’t use CableCARD. (Though I suppose they could create a version just for this deployment, I doubt it.) I also note the ‘Initially’, which seems to indicate they’ll be bringing the software to the cable boxes or some other non-standalone platform.

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