Leo Laporte s Guide to TiVo is a fun, light-hearted, easy-to-follow guide to all things TiVo, from the simplest remote control trickery, to upgrading hardware, to hacks that give you even more control over your television destiny. Besides not reading like the Federal Tax Code, this book is different from the competition in that we don t cover every single software and hardware hack available. We only focus on (and clearly describe) the hacks, upgrades, and improvements that most TiVo users are likely to perform. Let s face it, trying to use your TiVo to play your MP3s might sound cool, but given the TiVo s lack of sound processing hardware, the results are hardly worth it (though the competition wastes precious space on this ridiculous hack). We focus on the things that will make life with your TiVo worth living–things such as adding a Caller ID display to your television, adding a new hard drive, remote control hacks that anyone can perform, and adding Web capabilities.Here s what you ll find inside…Written by Leo Laporte–one of the most widely recognized voices in consumer technology today– along with Gareth Branwyn, a veteran Wired magazine writer, editor book author and certified
TiVo-holic.
Sure, there are other TiVo books out there, but none, and we mean none, are written with real users in mind. All of the competitor books assume that the reader is a Linux programming, certifiable geek. We assume two things and two things only–one, you have a TiVo, and two, you love your TiVo. That s it.We arm you with the information you need to grab your tools, pop the hood on your series 1 or series 2 TiVo, and get to work: adding more storage space, networking your TiVo, adding more cache memory, and more. Not only for the hardcore hardware hacker, we cover everything from doing it all yourself, to using a prepared upgrade kit (no computer required!), to even sending it to a service center and having them do all the heavy lifting.Leo Laporte s Guide to TiVo is as user-friendly as TiVo itself, a book you can start utilizing right away, but that grows in sophistication and detail as your mastery of TiVo grows.We cover basic advice on buying, setting up, and using your TiVo, to more in-depth coverage of advanced software features and the most popular hardware hacks (such as adding more storage space and networking your TiVo).Leo Laporte is the former host of two shows on TechTV –The Screen Savers and Call for Help. Leo is a weekend radio host on Los Angeles radio KFI AM 640. He also appears regularly on many other television and radio programs including ABC s World News Now and Live with Regis and Kelly as The Gadget Guy. He is the author of Leo Laporte s 2003 Computer Almanac and Leo Laporte s 2004 Screensavers Technology Almanac, both of which have been bestsellers.Gareth Branwyn is a well-known technology journalist and self-proclaimed reluctant geek. He is writer and editor for Wired, ID, and Esquire magazines, and has written many books on technology topics including Absolute Beginner s Guide to Building Robots and Mosaic Quick Tour (the first World Wide Web book ever published).
