With TiVo DRM out of the way, here's how to enjoy .tivo on your Mac

It took a while to crack that pesky TiVo DRM, but now that the TiVo File Decoder is finally ready to do its job and decrypt those .tivo files into MPEG-2, utilizations of the hack are coming hot and heavy. Our pal Dave Zatz put together a handy little guide for the Mac users out there, who have been sitting on the sidelines up till now, which details how to connect to your TiVo, transfer the files, crack the DRM and enjoy the videos with existing Mac software. Right now the process involves getting your hands dirty with a little bit of Terminal action, but hopefully Galleon or some other bit of software will be integrating the process before too long. But for now, with just a little bit of effort, you can finally view the media you've recorded on your chosen DVR with your chosen operating system.

[Alcaron @ Dec 5th 2006 12:35PM]

Honestly, I like your posts like this (you know, the ones not slathered with baseless smugness) about a MILLION times more than the rest of your posts.

Oh and yay for terminal, jesus you dont transfer the files over that interface I hope!

[andy @ Dec 5th 2006 1:19PM]

hopefully someone will figure out how to get into a S3 soon so that we can interface with it at all.

[Kevin @ Dec 5th 2006 1:49PM]

"Read" link no worky.

[KnowItAll @ Dec 5th 2006 1:50PM]

If all that is required are terminal commands, then it'd be really easy to use XCode to make a simple UI with a push-button interface to trigger the commands.

[Roy @ Dec 5th 2006 3:00PM]

i couldnt find the article on the site....was it taken down? does anyone else have a copy of it they could share???

[Adam Knight @ Dec 5th 2006 3:44PM]

There's already a guide out there to make this work with Galleon on the Mac: http://www.macgeekery.com/hacks/software/video/how_to_view_tivo_recordings_on_your_mac_or_ipod

[Dave Zatz @ Dec 5th 2006 5:30PM]

Adam, we'd like to see it integrated directly into Galleon without a separate download, compiling, or Terminal window/scripting.

[Justin Thyme @ Dec 6th 2006 12:30AM]

"Now that the Tivo DRM is out of the way?" Guys, you can read, can't you? The only difference is that the decryption code can now run on a Mac or Linux. But the decryption code won't do you any good if you don't know the key for the .Tivo file. If you call that a crack then god help you. The DRM is still there, you still need to use your MAK key to unlock the file. Furthermore, Tivo long ago stated in a news release that they watermark, so depending on what they did, forensic tracking of a pirated video is theoretically possible back to the owner of the Tivo account. Still want to call it a crack? Any it's great that the decrypt code is portable now. =JT=