Tivo with freeview STB

[slangnz]

Greetings.

I'd be surprised if this hasn't been discussed before, but I checked and searched and couldn't find anything.

Has anyone tested tivo with freeview? I'm very interested in dumping my crap analogue setup, and moving to freeview, but am currently unsure what STB to use etc. I know that most of what's on the market should be able to pickup the digital feed, but am interested in other peoples freeview NZ experience(s), esp w.r.t. STB make, model, configuration, setup, ir codes etc.

Also (not really tivo related...), does anyone know if it is possible to have a DVR (with SCART) control a STB and have it change it's channel via. the SCART interface? (there may still be hope for my mother (and mother-in-law) who all have nice flash DVR's that only do analogue terrestrial...

Cheers -

[petestrash]

I don't know much about the Freeview implimentation in NZ, but I assume it is similar to the UK. There are plenty of PVR's available with freeview built in.

Check pvruk (http://www.pvruk.co.uk/) for some examples.

Peter.

[ehintz]

Huh. I asked much the same thing a few weeks back, and got no reply... Just now came by to see if email notification was busted or something, seems my thread is gone without a trace. Guess I'll follow this one, as I'm curious about the same thing.

[petestrash]

We did lose some posts last week when the board went down.

Peter.

[Skolink]

As you can see here http://forums.oztivo.net/showthread.php?t=912 DJC added the headends for Freeview a while ago. I'm not sure if they now include TV3 and C4 (just came online recently). I got a Strong STB (satellite) on Saturday and will set up a TiVo for Freeview during the week.

[inaxeon]

Just today I completed a project of mine which consisted a Topfield TF5200CI receiving freeview with only prime left on terrestrial.

the STB is controlled by the TiVo using Serial

my experiments with IR on set top boxes put me off IR for good which is why I went for serial

working well so far, I'll post more info if anyone is interested (big project though!)

[petestrash]

Always interested to hear more on peoples TIVo projects.

Most boxes here only use the serial port for updates and cannot be controlled. I am only aware of one user here with a Toshiba box that used serial, so any info on your implimentation could benefit others.

Peter.

[jaidev]

The Headend for FreeView has been changed to setup the channel information correctly so STB's can change to the correct FreeView channels.

I have acquired a Kaon KSF-620R2 Multiroom STB for freeview, I was after an STB that had dual tuners without the PVR functionality!
I have a dual output universal LNB which had Sky Multiroom on each output. My idea was to put in a splitter to have the multiroom setup from one LNB output and the other output for Freeview. I was told by a couple of Freeview outlets this wouldn’t work since Sky hasn’t switched to horizontal.
However I advised them that it's possible it could work since the universal LNB I have supports independant polarity on each of it's outputs. To test this I changed the Sky channel on 1 decoder to 888, the horizontal polarity test channel. It didnt affect the other decoder.

I setup my Kaon against our Headend 02110 and it is working happily independent of Sky and I only have a single dish to worry about.
Thanks to whoever in Oztivo loaded the Kaon IR codes works perfectly, and saved me a heap of time! :)

[ehintz]

I setup my Kaon against our Headend 02110 and it is working happily independent of Sky and I only have a single dish to worry about.
Thanks to whoever in Oztivo loaded the Kaon IR codes works perfectly, and saved me a heap of time! :)

Sounds like more or less just what I'm looking to do, assuming cost isn't too high... Whereabouts did you get the STB? A quick check of google didn't help much...

[inaxeon]

Always interested to hear more on peoples TIVo projects.

Most boxes here only use the serial port for updates and cannot be controlled. I am only aware of one user here with a Toshiba box that used serial, so any info on your implimentation could benefit others.

Peter.

my implementation is perhaps a little more ambitous than most, my Topfield TF5000CI does offer control via the serial port but doesn't speak the same language as the TiVo so I built this translater board which consists of an Atmel Atmega162 (the only PTH AVR with two UARTs) it's actually pretty simple (Board in the middle).

Basically it translates the TiVo APG protocol to the Topfield CLI.

I went down this path because it was easier than sitting around trying to figure out how to do this with just the TiVo, also having this external entity powered by the STB allows me to ensure the STB is always in the correct state.

I had a look at the solution of another member using the toshiba box but unfortunatly this solution had very long channel change latency, with my solution the channel changes are instant and very reliable

[DOlsen]

Cool.

Ok - not much information value, but I'm impressed :-)

Nice, neat & tidy installation.

[inaxeon]

Cool.

Ok - not much information value, but I'm impressed :-)

Nice, neat & tidy installation.

If anyone wanted to build this I'd probably be more than happy to give out the info but I suspect that anyone capable of building this could just as easily design it themselvs ;)

[jaidev]

Whereabouts did you get the STB? A quick check of google didn't help much...

I got it from www.freeviewshop.co.nz, quite a nice guy and lots of advice, I initially was going for a Topfield, although most of his were sold out about a week ago, he then told me about the Kaon and I got that. Was $450 a bit more than I initially wanted to spend but is dual tuner and he gave me good discounts on some cable and water proof connectors etc..

[ehintz]

I got it from www.freeviewshop.co.nz, quite a nice guy and lots of advice, I initially was going for a Topfield, although most of his were sold out about a week ago, he then told me about the Kaon and I got that. Was $450 a bit more than I initially wanted to spend but is dual tuner and he gave me good discounts on some cable and water proof connectors etc..

Interesting. I'd been there already, and they don't list the Kaons. Guess I'll send 'em a mail.

Anybody gotten a Coship to work? That $169 price tag is mighty tempting...

[Skolink]

I set up a Sony TiVo with a Strong satellite STB on FreeView. I used post code 02110 and it works well.

The only issue was when selecting the IR code set to use. The third and fourth code set locked up the TiVo when selected, and required a reboot. Luckily I found that I could skip over the 3rd and 4th set without trying them, and the fifth IR code set worked with my STB.
I also need to change it to 4 digit codes, so that I don't have to wait so long before changing channel again.

BTW the Strong STB I have is fairly basic, but is only $140.

[ehintz]

BTW the Strong STB I have is fairly basic, but is only $140.

Cheap, and more or less works out of box.

Sounds like we have a winner. Which model, and whereabouts did you get 'er from?

[inaxeon]

I might have to get you to give me a hand with that, I've got a sony TiVo and I never managed to get 02110 working


I set up a Sony TiVo with a Strong satellite STB on FreeView. I used post code 02110 and it works well.

The only issue was when selecting the IR code set to use. The third and fourth code set locked up the TiVo when selected, and required a reboot. Luckily I found that I could skip over the 3rd and 4th set without trying them, and the fifth IR code set worked with my STB.
I also need to change it to 4 digit codes, so that I don't have to wait so long before changing channel again.

BTW the Strong STB I have is fairly basic, but is only $140.

[petestrash]

There will be genuine TiVo freeview units available in 2008.

Peter.

[tonys]

Will these be official Tivos, with full Tivo corporate support and guide data? For NZ?

[petestrash]

It hasn't been clarified exactly what services will be available for New Zealanders.

The announcement about the new units is titled Australia & New Zealand, but only mentions Australia in the details leaving out New Zealand entirely.

Worse comes to worse, I assume you would be able to pickup a UK unit or modify an Australian one.

Peter.

[Grant]

Does anyone know of a STB that will also handle the Terrestrial tuning required for Prime?

- I'd dearly love to dump the old external VCR thats my number 2&stereo tuner at the moment and replace with a single box..

Nice work Jaidev - dual tuner Kaon sounds great to me!

[Skolink]

I might have to get you to give me a hand with that, I've got a sony TiVo and I never managed to get 02110 working

No problem, PM me and I'll give you my contact details.


Cheap, and more or less works out of box.

Sounds like we have a winner. Which model, and whereabouts did you get 'er from?

The model number is SRT 4620 II http://www.strong-technologies.com/frmProdDetails.aspx?id=111#
I got mine from a friend who imported some: jarrodhenderson at hotmail dot com
I think he is willing to mail them any where in NZ (and maybe overseas)

[tarx]

Does anyone know if the following http://www.freeviewshop.co.nz/strong-srt4651x-digital-satellite-receiver-p-155.html Freeview STB will work with my Tivo? In particular I would like to know if the STB IR Codes are supported?

[ehintz]

Figured I'd post an update... I bought the thing last June but only got around to getting it going a week or so back. Using postcode 02110, and the built-in oztivo strong-fast settings. Did the changing zipcode thing through the UI and it all just worked. I have had to do some fiddling with my Strong box config, but I believe a newer sourced one may not need the config I had to do. FWIW I got mine from the fellow (Jarrod) mentioned above in the thread, he's been great to deal with. http://jacesolutions.co.nz/

[jaidev]

It hasn't been clarified exactly what services will be available for New Zealanders.

The announcement about the new units is titled Australia & New Zealand, but only mentions Australia in the details leaving out New Zealand entirely.

Worse comes to worse, I assume you would be able to pickup a UK unit or modify an Australian one.
Peter.

This is looking unlikely for us, NZ is using MPEG4 H.264 and AAC for audio.
Unless the AUS Series 3 has this functionality, haven't been able to verify till they are released.

[David Stott]

Looking to buy a new decoder since can't find appropriate codes for my old one and it has other problems anyway. It seems clear that the Strong is the way to go since at least two people on this thread have got it going, but noticed a reference to some issues around the four digit code. Since the GS asks for 2 or 3 digit options only, is this a real problem?

And what do people usually answer to the question about the decoder needing Enter? It seems to me that answering Yes to this would have the TiVo creating an Enter code after however many digits are created by the programme change which should result in a speedier change. Or am I missing the point?

David

[Darren King]

While I can's speak for any particular model of STB, generally what happens is that pretty much all STB will work fine if they do not receive a full compliment of expected digits as they use a process known as "code completion" where they simply make a best guess. Furthermore STB usually disregard leading zeros.

Therefore if the channel number on the STB is 0009 and the TiVo outputs the code 009 or 09 or even a single 9 then more often than not the STB will figure this out OK.

On the subject of an "enter" key I have always picked "no" and let the STB take care of it. STB also generally have a timeout of some sort (usually a second or so) to automatically add an "enter" key. This is also part of the code completion that STB have.

Or if you are unsure if two or three digit combinations will work then see if you can demo the STB with it's own remote in store before you buy it, and press the keys on the remote yourself and see what happens.