Install Snapstream on a Tivo?

[mwvw]

Hi,

I have a Sony SA Series 1 hacked Tivo. I also have a snapstream running on a machine with the specs listed below. At this point I am ready to move over to full snapstream. The question is has any one ever installed windows on a tivo box? I have googled for hours with no luck. I don't even know if it is possible, but would really like to test it out. Who knows, maybe I will just have to bite the bullet and give it a test. If anyone can point me to some reference, that would be great! I know it might sound silly to some, but for me it falls into that "what if" catagory.

Michael

Processor: AMD Athlon 1800+ | Motherboard: MSI K72 Turbo2| RAM: 1.25GB SDRAM| Tuner: ATI AIW RADEON| Graphics card: ATI AIW RADEON 7200 32MB| Sound Card: Sound Blaster Live 5.1 Gold | Hard Drive: Maxtor 80GB 7200RPM | CD/RW: Yamaha 20x/10x/40x | DVD: DVD-ROM 16x/48xn| Display: TV | OS: Windows XP Pro SP-1 | Remote: ATI Remote Wonder

[mwvw]

LOL... yup totally serious. I can't just leave well enough alone sometimes. I have done all I can to my tivo and at the end of the day I look at it and wonder. I mean it wouldn't be all that much to just through another drive in and have at it. I have a feeling though that the end result is going to not be so good just due to the hardware specs. In theory though, the form factor is perfect the noise level is awesome..... so on and so forth.

[artbatista]

Well, assuming you are serious I am going to attempt to give you a serious answer.

Windows as it exists today is compiled by Microsoft to run on the Intel x86 series processor and it's compatible siblings such as the VIA, CYRIX, NEC, AMD etc x86 compatible CPUs. At some point in years long gone there were versions of Windows that were compiled for other families of CPU's such as the MIPS, ALPHA, etc, but MS discontinued that years ago.

Now, the Tivo as it exists today is based on 2 hardware platforms. The Series 1 is run on a PowerPC processor from IBM, et al, the Series 2 I believe is run on a MIPS processor. The instruction sets are not compatible between each other or between them and the Intel x86 and relatives, so the operating system that TIVO runs is compiled specifically for the specific TIVO series, which is not much of a big deal as TIVO runs LINUX.

However, to run Windows on a TIVO you would need to port windows to either one of the TIVO CPUs, something that is easier said than done, mostly because MS has this habit of keeping their source code private.

Not to mention that a series one has something like 16 MB of ram and a series 2 not much more perhaps 64MB?. You could not even run Windows 98 on such an anemic system.

So while nothing is impossible, I would say that snow would fall here in Miami before Tivo can run Windows.

Art Batista

Originally posted by mwvw
LOL... yup totally serious. I can't just leave well enough alone sometimes. I have done all I can to my tivo and at the end of the day I look at it and wonder. I mean it wouldn't be all that much to just through another drive in and have at it. I have a feeling though that the end result is going to not be so good just due to the hardware specs. In theory though, the form factor is perfect the noise level is awesome..... so on and so forth.

[mvaughn]

Originally posted by mwvw
LOL... yup totally serious. I can't just leave well enough alone sometimes. I have done all I can to my tivo and at the end of the day I look at it and wonder. I mean it wouldn't be all that much to just through another drive in and have at it. I have a feeling though that the end result is going to not be so good just due to the hardware specs. In theory though, the form factor is perfect the noise level is awesome..... so on and so forth.

LOL....


In all seriousness I don't understand why you would want install windows on a tivo platform.

If you have done ALL you can do to a tivo, then what benefit would BTV add?

If you are really just looking for something to do out of boredom, why don't you try running MythTV w/Linux on your tivo.