[vox] Tivo question

[Dave Margolis]

Hello all,

My apologies if anybody thinks this is off topic, but since
there are some Tivo enthusiasts on this list and the guts of the thing is
a Linux box, I figured it would be OK...

I didn't think I cared enough about TV to ever want one of these beasts,
but I bought my brother-in-law _Hacking the Tivo_ (O'Reilly) for X-mas and
after flipping through the first couple of chapters I decided I really
wanted to get my hands on one.

Here's my question.  The author claims you can't extract the video files
from a series 2 Tivo (currenlty available direct from Tivo for $199)
because of some kind of not-yet-cracked encryption.  He tells us, however,
that the saved video files are readily aviable for watching by some
regular means after a quick trip through mencoder, if you have a series 1
Tivo that is.

On the other hand, series 2 Tivos have a USB port on the back, ready for
a compatible USB wired or wirless network adapter.  Series 1
Tivos have to be physically hacked with a third party add-on.

It looks like new hard-drives and most of the other hacks listed will work
on both.

I'm not stating these as facts, but just impressions I've gotten from the
book.  I'm not afraid of the nic upgrade on the series 1, but the USB
thing sounds easy and I don't want to miss any of the other benefits of a
series 2 Tivo if there are any.

I'd really like to be able to extract the video for editing and/or burning
to DVD.  Having the video files stuck on the Tivo seems like a
waste.

The question is: new series 2 or series 1 purchase from eBay (or
somewhere else)?  Has somebody already figured out the video
extraction on series 2 Tivos since the book was published?  Am I just as
well off with a series 1?  Will the software upgrades from Tivo continue to
support the series 1 for the forseeable future?

If I do go the series 1 route, any recommendations on a specific model?

Thanks for your time,
Dave