On Mon, 28 Mar 2005, Mike Miller wrote:

> There seem to be several kinds of devices and services.  I have DirecTV and I 
> added the TiVo service to that for $5/mo, so I'm paying $50 per month 
> altogether for DirecTV/DirecTiVo.  It is actually a really nice combination 
> with digital recording of a digital signal which makes playback identical to 
> watching the direct feed.

DirecTV has an agreement with TiVo - so you're getting a re-branded Tivo 
box and a discounted TiVo service.  DTV probably pays a buck or two per 
subscriber per month, and then charges you a few bucks more to cover it. 
But it's basically the same software and service (except, no tivotogo for 
DTV yet).  This is what Comcast will be doing in the next year or two, to 
replace their Motorola boxes.

> I have a question:  Does anyone here have experience with hacking these 
> things?  Mine is a Philips DSR708.  It has a USB port that doesn't do 
> anything with the current software.  I would like to be able to access its 
> files on the local network, copy them to my PC and write them to DVD.  If 
> someone here can make my device do that, I can pay you for the service and 
> for any needed parts.

Dig around here:
http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/

I'm pretty sure it's been done for that model.