Yeah I can vouch for these comments.

My 2 Tivos have "fake" guide data until Jan 2011 (day number 15000), but if they don't "phone home" for a period of about 30 days (+/- a day or so) then they get very persistent about subscribing to the Guide Service :-))

Of course, thats no longer a problem in my setup as I fixed it early on and now my Tivos never phone home and never complain that they haven't.

There are 2 "modes" of operation in the Tivo and without any guide data and no phoning home - the default behaviour is pretty limited, you can record stuff by time and channel (either one offs or repeating recordings aka Manual Season Passes).

But you can only record by using the record button for half an hour at a time - you can extend this up to 1.5 hours longer but thats you lot. If you want longer you have to create a manual recording.

There are some "flags" in the Internal Tivo database (MFS) that indicate whether your Tivo is a older one that was allowed to work without guide data as a VCR or not. these flags are enabled only if your Tivo was upgraded from early releases of Tivo software (meaning it was/is an older Tivo that is allowed to operate in this mode).

For folks who bought their Tivos after the "mandatory" guide service requirement (or we'll nag you to death...) then the probable "unlock" keystrokes will simply make your Tivo behave like the older Tivos do and work without guide data or phoning home regularly - but thats a little better than a VCR, but not much.

As was said earlier, its unlikely that any receiver of a failed "Tivo Inc" would allow the unlock code (whether software or remote control keystrokes) to be released to the public becuase if they did then the value of the Tivo Inc assets would be cut by 1,000% or more.