UK PAL tuner setup

[Ray]

My next task is to get the tuner working on my UK Thomson TiVo. I've read a lot of posts that have totally confused me. I guess I'm ok hardware wise, but need to reconfigure it? I've seen lots of references to Palmod but have anly seen it when installing the image, can't find it on the TiVo.

So does anyone have a link to a straightforward howto to set it up?

[Dave Hatt]

Pardon me for asking, but why woudn't you just connect a cheap Digital TV box to the Thomson?

If you've gone to the extra trouble and expense of a UK Thomson with the high-quality Scart inputs, then matching it with a Digital TV box with Scart RGB outputs will give you a far superior picture than using the inbuilt tuner. (I use a DGTEC DG-T90SD on mine, and the quality of the recordings is impressive, second only to HD recordings.) Less work to set up too, imho.

[Ray]

Good point and something I will get round to eventually. I brought the TiVo with me from the UK so was no 'expense'. Got a shelf full of TiVo's, Sky, DVD-HDD, UK-DVD players etc so was trying to save space! Mainly to record crappy RF programs for viewing, leaving the DVD-HDD to record quality from Skybox if needed at the same time.

[catdog]

If you have installed the NZ version of the Thomson software then you just choose the postcode for your region during guided setup (assuming there is one for Invercargill). Palmod is for the Philips Tivos with a PAL tuner modification.

[Ray]

Well in that case can someone advise why I get poor or no sound from the RF connection to my TV? Set to numerous channels and get the picture but sound has a lot of interference. Is the same with my UK Video recorder on RF output so either my TV is dodgy (new!) or the UK PAL RF output is not compatible. Any ideas anyone?

[Darren King]

Any ideas anyone?

Yep. Different PAL standards. While the TiVo can tune in NZ television signals without issue I feel that, like your VCR, the RF modulator is outputting the wrong sound standard. UK uses PAL-I with a sound subcarrier offset of 6.0MHz and a NICAM stereo offset of 6.552MHz while NZ uses PAL-B/G with a sound subcarrier offset of 5.5MHz and a NICAM stereo offset of 5.85MHz

In short, what this is akin to is a mistuned radio thus the distortion as that is how it sounds when FM is not tuned properly.

Try checking if your TV can handle PAL-I standard or if it has a menu setting to change the type of signal it is trying to decode. If that don't work then the only quick fix is not to use the RF output but instead use the direct A/V output socket from the TiVo into the A/V input of the TV.

If you want to read more about how PAL is not simply "PAL" (and the same is true for SECAM and NTSC!) then look at this page: http://www.videouniversity.com/standard.htm

[catdog]

I would have thought that the latest NZ image included the settings to change the sound over to PAL B/G. Which version of the image did you install from? Does the sound problem only appear with recorded shows (i.e. a problem with RF input), or also the sound effects in the tivo menus (so a problem with RF output)?

If it is the RF output you could give this a try:
http://forums.oztivo.net/showpost.php?p=8440&postcount=82

If it is a problem with recording the RF input, there might be a problem with the version of ukchan-2.5.5.o you are using
http://forums.oztivo.net/showpost.php?p=8228&postcount=57
http://forums.oztivo.net/showpost.php?p=8234&postcount=62

[Ray]

I used nzTiVo-Thomson-Installer-Dec06RC1.iso downloaded just recently. System says Oztivo 1.3. Is this the latest?

I ran the RF output fix below, sound ok now. Not looked at inputs yet, save that for another day. Guess I need Invercargill channel data. Is there a postcode set up for this or am I alone down here?

[catdog]

Yes, that is the latest installer.

Good to see the sound output problem is fixed.

The postcodes can be found here:
http://forums.oztivo.net/showthread.php?t=912
It doesn't look like Invercargill exists so you'll need to figure out what the frequencies are down there and ask DJC to create a new postcode for you.

[TimesOwn]

Ahh, now I understand why the RF output from one of my TiVo's has no sound, (Loud hum actually) and another does, one TV is newer and more compatible, the other is an old NZ TV, no doubt with minimal PAL compatibility, thank you. (I was thinking the RF section of the TiVo hardware was sick...!) However I have not been able to get the script to run, I created new file in /var/hack/, (in rw mode), Win SCP says the file is executable, yet for some reason the file won't run to run the fix. Dir says file is there but can't bash TAB it out either.... Can anyone guide me from here please?

[Darren King]

Ahh, now I understand why the RF output from one of my TiVo's has no sound, (Loud hum actually)

On an unrelated note I was playing with a digital STB last night after giving it some TLC (dead caps in the power supply) and this model has RF output capability. I happened to change the output format from PAL-B/G to PAL-I and got the same as you: perfect picture but loud hum on the sound. So yes, there is a difference in PAL standards.

[TimesOwn]

Wow, Darren, I see it as very related and relevant! Thank you.

I hope someone can advise me what I have missed out and how to get the UK TiVo to kick in PAL B/G!

[catdog]

I hope someone can advise me what I have missed out and how to get the UK TiVo to kick in PAL B/G!

I don't quite understand your problem. The script wont execute? I guess you could try:
dos2unix set_RFOutputChannel
chmod +x set_RFOutputChannel

(the first removes any "dos" carriage returns which may exist if you created the file on a windows machine or if ftp was in ascii mode, the second makes sure the file is executable).

I assume you also copied the i2c binary file to the tivo?