HowStuffWorks Autopsy:
Inside a TiVo
A TiVo records and stores information (TV programs) as ones and zeros, just like a computer does. It also makes simple decisions based on its programming and your commands. So it's no surprise that what you find inside a TiVo is a lot like what you find inside a computer.
On the back of a TiVo are a fan outlet and connections for:
- A power cord
- A phone line
- USB cables
- Audio, video and RF cables
These connections are a lot like what you see on the back of a computer. They carry power and information to and from the TiVo.
Inside the TiVo, the power cord connects to a circuit board that holds fuses, transistors, capacitors and resistors. This circuit board is called a power supply. The power supply adjusts and controls the amount of electricity that reaches the fan, hard drive and motherboard. Along with a heat sink, the fan helps get rid of the heat that the power supply generates.
Inside a TiVo
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Everything else that you plug in to a TiVo connects to the motherboard. Just like a computer's motherboard, it delivers power and information to all the other parts of the TiVo. Ribbon cables connect the motherboard to the power supply, the hard drive and an infrared sensor that picks up signals from the remote control. A small backup battery on the motherboard keeps the TiVo from losing its settings if the power goes out.
TiVo CPU (left) and connections panel (right)
The motherboard is also where the TiVo keeps its brain. A central processing unit (CPU) on the motherboard tells everything else in the TiVo what to do, while other chips on the motherboard take care of specific tasks. Memory gives the CPU and other chips a place to store information temporarily. Several sound and video chips translate incoming signals into a format that the TiVo can understand. They also format recordings so that they have good playback quality without taking up too much space.
Clipboard
A TiVo does some of the same things that a DVD player can do, but also does several things that a DVD player can't do. A TiVo lets people pause and rewind live television shows and skip through commercials. It also lets people record programs that they want to save for later. A TiVo can do this because it records TV shows on a hard drive. This TiVo includes an 80-gigabyte (GB) hard drive. A hard drive this size can hold about 80 hours of video. | 
