UK Tivo FTA Plus amending channel data

Ok I give up and scratch my head :o There are so many posts that wander off in different directions there appears to be no cohesive information in one place on NZ FTA - so can you guys bear with me while I ask a few questions to save me getting Sky installed.......

I have a Thomson UK Tivo. I have imaged my 120GB drive with the latest Philips Image following the steps outlined in the NZ TIVO Guide - oh and I was careful of hashing out the Aussie emulators - I suspect problems occur by us following the Aussie instructions to use Cable Plus Satallite option to get both set top box and Tuner - the install seems to balk at the postcode point until you go back and select cable only. Possibly not helped by not having an STB plugged in so Tivo can detect a signal :)

What I want is FTA terestrial though the built in UK Tivo Tuner and Guide data rather than get a Sky box installed as I will often want to record 2 FTA channels at once and want to get my 2 Tivo set up for FTA recording.

1. can I manually amend files to get the FTA frequencies in and what do I need to amend and how? (OK this is the query I am going to get laughed at for but I am trying to sort out a logical progression - feel free to reply with a link and snort of disgust)

2. does it matter what tuner you have? The reason I ask this is my other Tivo is using an NZ VCR as tuner and it has TV1 on channel 3 at 55.25, 2 on 5 at 175.25, 3 on 8 at 196.25 and C4 on 10 at 210.25. I cannot get Prime - god knows why but I am in the shadow of a hill on the wrong side of the Waiatarua transmitter. This is where I get confused as I am in West Auckland and Jaidev lists Auckland channels as 2 TV1, 4 TV2, 7 TV3, 9 C4 (different from what my VCR reports) and on my Tivo using internal tuner I can only get 2 channels through aerial - TV2 on 6 and TV3 on 9 - what goes on?????

3. If you look at the insert all sky channel file is it possible just to amend this file manually inserting FTA channels as 1,2,3,4,5 etc knocking the sky channels further up the number and then insert as a new channel line up (for when I may get sky later on when wifey gets back from the UK)?

4. If you CAN do that can you amend the guide date files so the relevant bits point to renumbered sky channels so you still get sky guide data?

5. Can you then make the FTA entries point at the sky guide data that is a duplicate of FTA (e.g. FTA TV3 point to Sky 3 data, or if that stuffs up the channel it changes to can you copy the channels guide data with another ID number?

6. If you do this manual buggerising about do you still get guide data automagically through the emulator or have you irretreivably broken it by this stage?

Sorry it is long but I am thoroughly confused and, although willing to take a punt at things I am running into too many variables for my non-technical brain to handle.

After all this I have to set up a Wireless Acces Point on my Tivo and another WAP into my Router as I cannot run a network cable from my ADSL point to my Tivo - good fun!

Are you sure the UK Tivo tuner will work OK? I know our UK TV's didn't work right, picture is fine, but apparently the frequency offset for the sound is different, so no sound signal. Where in west AKL are you? We're in Helensville and can only get 1,2 and 3 clearly, grainy 4, no Prime, we had to go to Sky.
One option is to get Sky, then downgrade the package to decoder rental only, gives you the FTA channels for about $15/month.

The tuner in the UK TiVo's are fine as both systems use PAL. In the UK they use PAL-I and we use PAL-B/G but that is easily corrected via software. I have a UK TiVo running the orginal v2.5.5 software working perfectly against all the FTA channels. The OzTiVo image is the one to use if you wish to connect to an emulator, however you will need an emulator that supports the FTA channels via the tuner (this requires different headends to be loaded on the emulator).

Once the emulator is configured for the local FTA headends then you will need to connect to it using a different area code (rather than the universal 02113/02115 for Sky/Saturn) in order to get the correct headend. So if you wish to move forward, you will need to get a compatable Auckland headend (similar to the one in this post) setup on an emulator. I am not sure how much work would be involved in this area as I have never setup (or used) an emulator.

If you are very nice to DJC and post in the Developer Forum then you might be able to get some progress made in this area. Failing that you might just like to load the headend in the above post after performing a GS against an emulator for 02113 and see if that works.

Thanks Thomson - I saw that headend and will try it.

Tonys I cannot get Prime/Maori through my aerial onto TV let alone Tivo but I think that is a problem with my aerial as I am in a real dip hard under the Waitakere Ranges so do not have clear line of sight to TV transmitters. Next door gets these fine but they are 15 feet higher up in altitude. Makes all the difference!

Likewise there is no point going for Sky FTA downgrade - personally I think the "offering" is reprehensible. In the UK you buy your sky box as part of the 99 pound install fee and agreement to be tied infor the fiorst 12 months - after that it is yours. Sky here are making a packet by never handing over the boxes in the hope of preventing or limiting FTA Digital. Well it wont work. The governemnt has said FTA Digital is coming, hence unencrypted broadcast of teretrial stations over Sky. You can get a FTA set top box and when the service is launcheed (runour mill says end of year) there will be lots of boxes and prices will come down. So at the moment I can get a FTA box for $250 and it belongs to me, or I can wait and get one for $100 in a year or so. Makes no sense to rent from SKY and their pricing does not reflect box cost+profit it reflects an attempt to sooth the regulator whilst at the same time making their FTA offering uncompeitive so consumers think "may as well get full Sky"

At the stage we get FTA Digital it might be well worth seeing if we can talk nicely to the Oztivo lot and see if we can get NZ inc FTA and FTA digital included in the Oztivo image. I cannot belive it would be impossible to expand the Oztivo effort to include menu choices for NZ in the installation including choice of emulator/guide data site.

Sadly, being "hobbyist" level of tech skill that is easy for me to say as I am relying solely on the effort of others to support my Tivo fixation (thanks guys!). However, even not knowing how the install ISO works I assume it must be an executable plus a config file of some sort. If so a well structured config file in plain text could be our responsibility to craft and amend - so we insert postcodes, providers, stations, Local IP etc - and the advantage is changes would be easy to insert if required.

I also assume the Guide Data is hard work to upkeep (and again a big thanks!) but adding FTA and Digital FTA when that comes around requires a restructuring of the Guide Data I am guessing to reflect multiple sources showing the same "stuff" rather than more work to create or source the Guide Data.

We shall see how we go I guess. If the Guide Data lot need any (non technical) help PM me and I will see what I can do

Chris