When entered via the TiVo remote control, these keystrokes turn the "skip to beginning" and "skip to end" keys into "skip back about 10 seconds" and "skip forward 30 seconds" buttons. It took me about four tries before the sequence worked. But ever since then, I've been skipping commercials whole (as opposed to merely fast-forwarding through them) with aplomb.. . .
When entered via the TiVo remote control, these keystrokes turn the "skip to beginning" and "skip to end" keys into "skip back about 10 seconds" and "skip forward 30 seconds" buttons. It took me about four tries before the sequence worked. But ever since then, I've been skipping commercials whole (as opposed to merely fast-forwarding through them) with aplomb.

HOW IS THIS possible? For starters, TiVo is Linux-based. It also helps more that the company seems to take a benign view of activities of this sort. But the real key is that button reassignability was built into the machine in the first place, perhaps indicating that the TiVo people have a warm spot in their hearts for people smart enough to discover and enter reprogramming codes.

I won't publish the keystroke sequence here, because I think you need to read about it in some detail before you start messing around. If you don't want to spring for Kovsky's book, or if you're just in a hurry, check out Hacking the TiVo FAQ, especially the part that explains the backdoor code Steve sent me. (It also explains some of the many risks you face when hacking your DVR.)

The link for this article located at ZDNet is no longer available.