Is all this legal?

[zarathustra]

I'm interested in becoming a customer but I'm a little confused about how this can work legally. I have directv and can't imagine that they would officially sanction this. I'm not accusing anybody (you all seem very legit) and I know you aren't attempting to steal any revenue so I'm pretty sure directv doesn't care but how does this stuff work without directv support?

I expected that you may need to copy the existing hard drive setup but that doesn't seem to be the case. If I use InstantCake and PTVnet with a valid subscribed card and tivo service how does this software pull it off? Have you guys reverse engineered all this or is there some arrangement with directv?

Thanks

[Lou Jacob]

Zarathustra,

Just because DirecTV doesn't officially sanction it doesn't make it illegal. The software works, and the products we offer have been available for over seven years. We are a legitimate business with many customers and a good reputation.

I'm not really interested in debating that issue, certainly not in a technically-oriented support forum. Hopefully you will choose to use our products along with our many other happy customers, however if this is something that concerns you, it may not be the best choice for you.

Thanks,
Lou


I'm interested in becoming a customer but I'm a little confused about how this can work legally. I have directv and can't imagine that they would officially sanction this. I'm not accusing anybody (you all seem very legit) and I know you aren't attempting to steal any revenue so I'm pretty sure directv doesn't care but how does this stuff work without directv support?

I expected that you may need to copy the existing hard drive setup but that doesn't seem to be the case. If I use InstantCake and PTVnet with a valid subscribed card and tivo service how does this software pull it off? Have you guys reverse engineered all this or is there some arrangement with directv?

Thanks

[Rick Travis]

Zarathustra,

Just because DirecTV doesn't officially sanction it doesn't make it illegal. The software works, and the products we offer have been available for over seven years. We are a legitimate business with many customers and a good reputation.

I'm not really interested in debating that issue, certainly not in a technically-oriented support forum. Hopefully you will choose to use our products along with our many other happy customers, however if this is something that concerns you, it may not be the best choice for you.

Thanks,
Lou
Under the terms of the License what you are doing is legal.
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

You may convey verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you receive it, in any

medium, provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an

appropriate copyright notice; keep intact all notices stating that this License and any

non-permissive terms added in accord with section 7 apply to the code; keep intact all

notices of the absence of any warranty; and give all recipients a copy of this License along

with the Program.

You may charge any price or no price for each copy that you convey, and you may offer

support or warranty protection for a fee.

When you convey a copy of a covered work, you may at your option remove any additional

permissions from that copy, or from any part of it. (Additional permissions may be written

to require their own removal in certain cases when you modify the work.) You may place

additional permissions on material, added by you to a covered work, for which you have or

can give appropriate copyright permission. The URL for the license is at the front of the text
:D
Messages and Settings>System Information> copyright notices at bottom of System Information Screen

[zarathustra]

Zarathustra,

Just because DirecTV doesn't officially sanction it doesn't make it illegal. The software works, and the products we offer have been available for over seven years. We are a legitimate business with many customers and a good reputation.

I'm not really interested in debating that issue, certainly not in a technically-oriented support forum. Hopefully you will choose to use our products along with our many other happy customers, however if this is something that concerns you, it may not be the best choice for you.

Thanks,
Lou

No, not debate and I'm not concerned, this all looks great, just curious more than anything. I assume everything needed is on my sub'd card and a fresh image on a larger drive just works. I only ask because if I attempt this I need to know as much as possible to avoid anything going wrong. My wife will kill me.

So, if I install just InstantCake on a larger drive I get more hours of recording. The drawback is I lose my recorded shows and season pass. Everything else stays the same like the Tivo user interface right?

If I install both InstantCake and PTVnet I get an open system with lots of open-source tools to access it from a pc or browser. Does my wife still use the original Tivo user interface as well?

Thanks.

[Pops355]

I raised this same question about using Cake, namely does it work like a format and wipe out your drive content. They don't say anything about that in the instructions or help links, nor do they answer your question about this....maybe they assume everyone is a programming genius who gives their $$$ to DVR Upgrade, but we are not....and they think questions like this are beneath them.


Here is the answer which you won't find in their instructions.

Instant Cake does wipe out your existing hard drive content...like if you want to revert to a better Tivo software version to fix the DirectV 6.3e freezing and rebooting.

So back up any shows you want to DVR before "Caking" your hard drive. Hopefully, they are not hiding this information and won't delete this post....since it allows people to take steps before losing their HD content.

[Lou Jacob]

I raised this same question about using Cake, namely does it work like a format and wipe out your drive content. They don't say anything about that in the instructions or help links, nor do they answer your question about this....maybe they assume everyone is a programming genius who gives their $$$ to DVR Upgrade, but we are not....and they think questions like this are beneath them.


Here is the answer which you won't find in their instructions.

Instant Cake does wipe out your existing hard drive content...like if you want to revert to a better Tivo software version to fix the DirectV 6.3e freezing and rebooting.

So back up any shows you want to DVR before "Caking" your hard drive. Hopefully, they are not hiding this information and won't delete this post....since it allows people to take steps before losing their HD content.

Pops,

The answer to that question (which really has nothing to do with the topic being discussed in this thread) is addressed in the very first sentence of the instructions and is also addressed in the product description. Plenty of references to the fact that InstantCake creates a 'new' drive for you all over this forum (under the appropriate topics and threads).

We don't expect users of InstantCake to be programming geniuses, however the program was designed for our more technical users, and those who do not have an expectation of private support, and it is definitely not for you. Answering the same questions over and over again, is certainly not a requirement here, and although it is not beneath me, its certainly not a priority.

The core of our product offering is replacement drive kits and installation services, and these products are designed for the non-technical types, and those who require/prefer product support.

In any case, I will close this thread since its drifted considerably off-topic at this point.

Thx