Rating: 

"Hacking TiVo," however, is the first release that I thought really let me down. My one and only objection is that the advertisements (About the Book, etc.) do not make it at all clear that the majority of information pertains only to the early TiVo models. Having a Series 2 running at least version 4 of the TiVo software, almost everything in the book is irrelevant or inapplicable to me.

Even the most lightweight "hacks" (the extra features enabled via the remote control) have only a small subset that are applicable to my system. The rest have to be unlocked with codes that can only be derrived by applying later hacks -- hacks that are also inapplicable to my system.

The book provides a clue for where users in my situation can begin to dig around for the information, and I have done that digging. Of course, if I had wanted to dig around through countless internet message boards, I would not have gone straight for an O'Reilly book!

I think the topics covered in the book are excellent, and would be of great interest to those looking for a handy compilation to help them get started hacking their Series I TiVo's (and/or those running version 3.0 or earlier software). I also found the book to be well-written and easy to follow.

However, I think there ought to be a disclaimer on the back of the book (or at least on the O'Reilly webpage) indicating that this book is largely not for newer TiVo machines (specifically Series 2 and version 4+ of the software).