FS: 80Gb TiVo w/ palmod & cachecard.

[Yem]

My modified TiVo is up on Trademe (http://www.trademe.co.nz/structure/auction_detail.asp?id=11795352) if anyone is interested.

[timmy]

reason for selling? .. unreliability of slices?? <g>

hmm, think u might confuse a few souls on trademe :rolleyes:

[Yem]

Hehe :) Nope - inability to tune UHF. I think its down to my location - TV can't tune 1-4 on UHF either. *sigh*

[jaidev]

thats a sure fire reason to get Sky Digital then :)

[Brandoo]

Or you could hook the tivo up to a VCR with av out - and have your tivo control the VCR....

[Yem]

Yeah, but neither of those things are going to happen. :)
I'm sure someone will be happy to use it properly.

I'll wait around for a turnkey setup.

[gadgetman]

Hey hey, I was bidding on that, but kclark kept autobidding me out, he paid 730 in the end, did the sale complete OK? It would be nice to know if he/she is a new TIVO user? Of course it could just be timmy adding to his collection at the council :D

I am getting mine from poweron, thanks for your tips on the auction!

[zollymonsta]

Far out.. $730? He must be keen!

Would be nice to have the tuner mod done, but I don't see the point at the moment for myself when I can just use my decoder and the a/v jacks. :)

Still its good to see TiVo becoming even more popular in NZ :)

[brucer]

thanks for your tips on the auction!

I disagree with his assertion re 7200rpm hard-drives..

[jaidev]

I disagree with his assertion re 7200rpm hard-drives..

Same!! I have 2 tivo's with 2 x 7200rpm drives working fine for 2 years for one of them and 1 year for the other...

[Brandoo]

I am getting mine from poweron, thanks for your tips on the auction!

Is that confirmed?

A couple of days after mine was delivered, a mate said poweron told him they didn't sell Tivos outside the US anymore?

[thomson]

Far out.. $730? He must be keen!

Actually... I was looking at starting on a US model and that pretty much matches the cost. A US TiVo will cost ~US$180 (90+90pp!), Cached/Network card is US$99, 80GB harddrive about NZ$150 and PAL tuner and Stereo modification about $100 local (probably US$160 to get done in Aus with postage). All that comes to $650-800.

If anyone knows of a (much) cheaper way then please let us know. I know I have a people who have been asking me. Many do want the tuner modification, and if you are savy with a soldering iron, then this could be done for NZ$70... but I have no idea what the stereo modifications is... or even if it could be got working over here (we use Nicam).

[number6]

Actually... I was looking at starting on a US model and that pretty much matches the cost. A US TiVo will cost ~US$180 (90+90pp!), Cached/Network card is US$99, 80GB harddrive about NZ$150 and PAL tuner and Stereo modification about $100 local (probably US$160 to get done in Aus with postage). All that comes to $650-800.


Sounds about right, see those $USD 90 Tivos are not quite bargain they appear at first glance.



If anyone knows of a (much) cheaper way then please let us know. I know I have a people who have been asking me. Many do want the tuner modification, and if you are savy with a soldering iron, then this could be done for NZ$70... but I have no idea what the stereo modifications is... or even if it could be got working over here (we use Nicam).

If you have a friend in the UK then you might be able to source a UK model cheap enough if you hang out at Ebay long enough. Still unless you have someone who can bring it as luggage with them when they come and visit you p+p will set you back about the same as the US p+p does.

re: local tuner mod, in theory any decent VCR/TV etc repair shop should be able to unsolder the existing tuner and solder in the Samsung replacement model so if you source the parts from AUS [one guy sells them I know of], then you can save the p+p on your Tivo to Aus and back.

The NICAM option is simple, as the (replacement) Samsung Tuner is a direct "pin compatible" replacement for the US tuner, only it does PAL B/G (NZ TV standard) and Nicam/"Dodgy-Aus-Stereo" as well, so you get both in the one thing.

Only problem is I don't think there is a PAL tuner (installable software) module file available for NZ channels, only for Aus channels and they are different enough to make the Aus one that they use in Aus not work here out of the box.

So someone over here would have to merge the UK palmod channel table into the Aus PAL mod file [may have been done for all I know but I don't think so]. This requires someone who knows C and has the Cross-compiler working. Its not a big job, about 2 hours if you know what you're doing including testing, but you'd need a Samsung Tuner mod'ed Tivo to test it.

Then of course, you'd need another source added to your headend/Setup for your local Free-to-air channels - for which the channel numbers in this source will be completely different for everyone as they depend on where you live in the country and possibly even in which direction your TV aerial points.

Simplest option is to use your Sky Decoder or a VCR on AV-in as the Tuner and live with that.

After all if you're mates want the "simple solution", then they won't like the (lack of) guide data either - may be they are not ready for a Tivo yet?

You can buy hard-disk DVR (i.e. Tivo-like) devices here - Thomson have one for sale - it was about $1600 a year back and only had 40GB disk, but it was available. It worked just like a VCR (8 programs over 1 month etc).
Still that may be all some folks need.

[thomson]

If you have a friend in the UK then you might be able to source a UK model cheap enough if you hang out at Ebay long enough. Still unless you have someone who can bring it as luggage with them when they come and visit you p+p will set you back about the same as the US p+p does.

Actually shipping from the UK is even worse... you are looking at GBP70 to ship a Thomson unit from the UK. With the prices of the units over there you are looking at around the NZ$700 mark to land a UK unit here.


So someone over here would have to merge the UK palmod channel table into the Aus PAL mod file

This is not as big a job as it sounds... I have just had a look at the palmod code from the AUS site, and the "New Zealand" setting would have definitely only worked for a Philips Tuner. Is a very simple modification to get it going for a Samsung tuner. I have the cross-compiler going for the UK-2.5.5 kernel and will have a look next week at getting a US-3.0 version up and running at which point I will post a NZ Philips/Samsung version of palmod. Will let the AUS people know so that the changes will make their way into the new releases. I have posted some (untested) code here: PAL Tuner in NZ (http://www.forums.oztivo.net/showthread.php?p=888#post888)

If anyone is interested, the following is an example of my UK Tuner kernel module, tuned and made very lean for WGTN viewers :) I like to keep kernel modules small and to the point... Essentially it is a cut down version of the existing ukchan module, but directly maps the channel frequencies with their stations numbers (TV1-3,C4&Prime).



static int getFreq_x(int chan, int u1, u32 *p1, u32 *p2)
{
u32 f = 0;
u32 freq = 0;

static struct {
int chan;
u32 freq;
} chans[] = {
{ 0, 0 },
{ 1, 45250 }, /* freq: 1 - TV1*/
{ 2, 182250 }, /* freq: 5 - TV2*/
{ 3, 224250 }, /* freq: 11 - TV3*/
{ 4, 55250 }, /* freq: 2 - C4*/
{ 5, 783250 }, /* freq: 60 - Prime*/
{ 0, 0 }
};

if (chan > 0 && chan < 6) {
freq = chans[chan].freq;
f = (freq-471250)*1000 + 510150000;
}

*p1 = f;
if (freq > 385250) {
*p2 = 2;
} else if (freq > 137250) {
*p2 = 1;
} else {
*p2 = 0;
}

/* setup NZ (NICAM) ONLY sound - see page 22 of msp34x0g_4pd.pdf */
iicw4(0x88, 0x10, 0x00200008); /* B/G NICAM Stereo (only) */

return 0;
}

Headend slices are just as easy to modify and load (only need to be done once), and the nztivo.slice's load without issues - although I have a stripper program that reduces the slice information so that it only contains the channels that I am interested in. This really speeds up the loading of slices.

[zollymonsta]

Actually... I was looking at starting on a US model and that pretty much matches the cost. A US TiVo will cost ~US$180 (90+90pp!), Cached/Network card is US$99, 80GB harddrive about NZ$150 and PAL tuner and Stereo modification about $100 local (probably US$160 to get done in Aus with postage). All that comes to $650-800.

If anyone knows of a (much) cheaper way then please let us know. I know I have a people who have been asking me. Many do want the tuner modification, and if you are savy with a soldering iron, then this could be done for NZ$70... but I have no idea what the stereo modifications is... or even if it could be got working over here (we use Nicam).

Well not so expensive if you already have a spare hard drive kicking around.
I got a series 1 Phillips Tivo from George at eksys with network card and serial cable. Worked out to around $401 on the Visa. No point getting the tuner mod done if you have Sky Digital or Saturn as you can just use the A/V in jacks.

If you are wanting to get the tuner mod done, eventually there will probably someone game enough in NZ to do it.

[Grant]

I am in the middle of this also.... I have done the tivo pal mod with an ALPs tuner (same as samsung ) and nicam chip as supplied by DK in Aus.

I did the mod myself so could help out anyone who wanted to do it locally...

But- I am stuck on the local channels problems - so thanks for the comments above, they are starting to shed some light on it. I was having probs so installed 99 FTA channels and can only get a picture on 2 of these and they are not the UHF channels for my region (chch). - I assume that this just where the channels coincide with Aus frequencies?

In the above code are the numbers 45250,182250 etc the local channel frequencies in Hz?

{ 1, 45250 }, /* freq: 1 - TV1*/
{ 2, 182250 }, /* freq: 5 - TV2*/

I'm not upto speed with coding/compiling a chch version so will need to ask for some help here.

Nice to know some others are working on the same path! :cool:

[number6]

I am in the middle of this also.... I have done the tivo pal mod with an ALPs tuner (same as samsung ) and nicam chip as supplied by DK in Aus.

I did the mod myself so could help out anyone who wanted to do it locally...

But- I am stuck on the local channels problems - so thanks for the comments above, they are starting to shed some light on it. I was having probs so installed 99 FTA channels and can only get a picture on 2 of these and they are not the UHF channels for my region (chch). - I assume that this just where the channels coincide with Aus frequencies?

In the above code are the numbers 45250,182250 etc the local channel frequencies in Hz?

{ 1, 45250 }, /* freq: 1 - TV1*/
{ 2, 182250 }, /* freq: 5 - TV2*/

I'm not upto speed with coding/compiling a chch version so will need to ask for some help here.

Nice to know some others are working on the same path! :cool:

You will have a problem with the AUS Palmod version as it won't work out of the box here due to channel frequency allocation differences.
[Technically - AUS use 7MHz channel allocation in the UHF bands, we use 8Mhz and a different starting "frequency" so that the AUS and NZ channels don't intersect except at a few places and few of those have a TV channel on them]

The table in the code snippet above has been reduced from the full set of channels so that the author could place TV1 for his location on button 1 on his remote, the same for TV2 so its on button 2 on his remote etc, which is only of use to him or someone else who lives in the same bit of Wellington as him [everyone with a Tivo lives in Wellington don't they - Yeah, Right].

You need to obtain the (compiled) module from the source code mentioned above in This link for the zip file mentioned above (http://www.forums.oztivo.net/showthread.php?p=888#post888). Unfortunately you need a cross-compiler to build the module from this code, or you need to ask someone with the cross-compiler to compile it for you.

The you install it on your Tivo and have it loaded **instead** of the existing PALMOD.o file
[and then reboot your Tivo].

Then you need to test it with each your 99 free-to-air channels to obtain the correct "channel numbers" for the TV Station you can pick up.
Then you either: Rename the channels that work into the proper names and numbers e.g. FTQ Channel 03 becomes "TV1" etc (I think TV! in CHC is on VHF channel 3) or delete them and then re-add them with the correct info, channel number etc.

The others (free to air channels) you can leave then in your Tivo but set them up as channels I don't get (do that from Channels I watch in Guide screen) for now so that they don't appear when you go channel up/down etc on the remote.

NotE: If your TV1 is on "VHF channel 3", then to go to TV 1 on FTA you need to enter 03 (or just 3 enter) on the Remote.

On my system TV1 is on VHF channel 2, TV2 is on VHF channel 4 and TV3 is on VHF channel 7, so I enter 02 on the remote to directly access TV1, 04 for TV2 and 07 for TV3.

When I record a program, the Tivo knows that channel its on so it selects the highest quality source available (Sky decoder if you have it, FTA otherwise).

[thomson]

I am in the middle of this also.... I have done the tivo pal mod with an ALPs tuner (same as samsung ) and nicam chip as supplied by DK in Aus.

Grant, firstly you can find the NZ-aware binaries (palmod.o and palmod_config) here (http://www.forums.oztivo.net/showthread.php?p=888#post888) . You should be able to replace the palmod.o module in the /lib/modules directory and use the new palmod_config to select "NZ Samsung/ALPS".

Did you get a nicam chip from DK? I have had a look at his stereo modification instructions and they do not look like they will work with Nicam. He is using a 5.74MHz ceramic filter... at the very least this will need to be changed to a 5.85MHz? My UK Tivo works fine with Nicam so there may be a simpler solution... as that just uses an i2c instruction to select Nicam decoding.

I have a feeling that both a 5.85MHz filter AND an i2c instruction to get the sound processor to decode Nicam would be required. DK or one of the other modification masters may be able to shed some light.

[Grant]

Hi Thomson, I haven't yet had enough good reception to know if the nicam is working - I suspect not, but I up till now I've been blaming the channel issue.

For me - if I can get the software working then the hardware is a whole bunch easier ;)

I'll take a look with the advice above and see where I get to! - cheers!

[thomson]

The response I recevied from DK (who was unaware of the different standards in NZ and wishes for standards!) mentions that the TDA9821 chip is an analogue device and is will not work with NICAM

UPDATE: It seems that the MSP3430G chip will need to be replaced with a MSP3450G chip... and this is an 80pin surface mount chip - not for the faint hearted. See this post (http://www.forums.oztivo.net/showthread.php?p=888#post888) for more information.

[gadgetman]

Is that confirmed?

A couple of days after mine was delivered, a mate said poweron told him they didn't sell Tivos outside the US anymore?

Yup, I emailed them a few times and they have been really helpfull, yes they still ship to New Zealand, it costs $90US though, I asked them if they would ship more than one unit to save on shipping, but they said the unit are PRE BOXED from Philips and it costs more to send two units :-(

Also I found out that they accept money orders as well as bidpay, which may help some people who dont have a credit card.

I will update this thread when I get mine.

Also, in regards to the post from someone else about the high cost (of a TIVO plus cachecard plus shipping plus PAL mod plus HD), if you just get a TIVO plus smallish (80GB) hard drive and use a VCR or sky for the tuning it will drive the costs right down, to under $400. Just my 2c worth.

[Brandoo]

I got mine from Poweron - really impressed, received the Tivo by Friday, when I had ordered it on the Tuesday.

[Grant]

Howdy T. thanks for the info & files.

Is your palmod_config file a replacement for palmod.conf? ( note the slight name differences)

or a new additional file?

I assumed it was a replacement, so renamed the exisiting palmod.conf file and replaced it with the new file.... but...it all came to a scretching halt when rebooting... no telnet etc so it looks like I'm up for a reimage... I assume that its just a sequence or finger trouble!


as for 80pin chip replacements - I've done it before - if we can get the code working then I'm pretty sure I could handle the rework, I hate to think what the new chip is worth tho..but definitely not for the faint hearted - a possible avalanche of trouble! :rolleyes:

[thomson]

Is your palmod_config file a replacement for palmod.conf? ( note the slight name differences) or a new additional file?

I assumed it was a replacement, so renamed the exisiting palmod.conf file and replaced it with the new file.... but...it all came to a scretching halt when rebooting... no telnet etc so it looks like I'm up for a reimage... I assume that its just a sequence or finger trouble!

Sorry about the confusion... the palmod_config file is not a replacement for palmod.conf - it is actually a binary file that you run which prompts you for configuration choices. It then writes out a palmod.conf file and handles all the ro/rw stuff for you. It was created by the oztivo guys to make things easier to configure. There should have already been a palmod_config binary on your system under /sbin.


as for 80pin chip replacements - I've done it before - if we can get the code working then I'm pretty sure I could handle the rework, I hate to think what the new chip is worth tho..but definitely not for the faint hearted - a possible avalanche of trouble!

The problem is not the soldering... it is getting hold of the chip... unless you are willing to purchase thousands of them then they pratically impossible to purchase. I have tried a few sources, but nobody has even come close.

[Grant]

roger roger got the vector victor. will reimage and start again. thanks for the the help.

[rp1790]

Owner going overseas so have to dispose of this.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/structure/auction_detail.asp?id=14087888

Also have a combo cachecard / turbonet from 9th Tee available

http://www.trademe.co.nz/structure/auction_detail.asp?id=14088085

[Yem]

Interesting stuff. Sounds like FTA is now possible, albeit without stereo sound. I did have a detailed list of my expenses in putting that tivo together, but it has since been deleted. The total was around NZ$1050 IIRC.

Personally, I'm taking a different route to PVR nirvana. Bought a PVR-250 card and a low end Shuttle PC to wrap around it. Will run some scripts to record what I want and writing a simple GUI (http://y3m.net/log/2004-07-27/playback.png) for playback and control. No pause-live-tv, no on screen schedules, no season-passes. No stress =)

Good luck with your auction, rp1790. I never thought I'd see a UK Tivo on Trademe - someone will be very happy.

BTW: Anyone see the TiVo writeup in the latest FFWD mag? The author (who probably lurks around these parts :)) went over the process of importing a TiVo, upgrading the hard drive and so on.

[thomson]

BTW: Anyone see the TiVo writeup in the latest FFWD mag? The author (who probably lurks around these parts :)) went over the process of importing a TiVo, upgrading the hard drive and so on.

It seems that a number of people have seen the >>FFWD article... the following is a quote from one of the more popular TiVo resellers in the US:

"Yes they're still the same price and I only have one left until the next shipment. I had a huge rush on TiVos this weekend; something about an article in a New Zealand tech magazine."

[SeanOffShotgun]

It seems that a number of people have seen the >>FFWD article... the following is a quote from one of the more popular TiVo resellers in the US:

"Yes they're still the same price and I only have one left until the next shipment. I had a huge rush on TiVos this weekend; something about an article in a New Zealand tech magazine."

Ahem Thomson, that's my quote you are using there. And yes that last TiVo did have my name on it and was despatched yesterday. It's about time I had my own TiVo (instead of using one of yours - oops did I say too much?) and joined this forum... so here I am.

With turboNet card included with the TiVo the charge on my Visa is NZ$387.
I would recommend George at www.eksys.com.