Quick intro..

[brucer]

Hi there, Just thought I'd introduce myself briefly, My name's Bruce, I live in North Canterbury and I develop software for a living. I've had my Tivo up and running for about a week now it is:

Phillips Series 1 /80GB
Turbonet card connected to DLink wireless bridge (wireless bridge was about the same price as a wireless PC -Card for the airnet and a more flexible option I think).

I bought the TIVO w/drive off ebay (www.tekgems.com) and the turbonet card from 9th Tee.

I've had a lot of fun (and a wee bit of hair pulling) getting it all going, but it works great now (at least until the latest slice ;) ) thanks entirely to Tim's Tivo pages.

I have a Zenith Sky decoder and created an IR-Code file from my pronto remote (www.zitafarm.com/zenithSky.tcl)

one issue I had was "stoppling" or random pausing and/or pixellation when watching recorded material, to cut a long story short after researching all the probable causes I stuck a UPS on it and it seems to be cured (AC power is pretty bad out here), I'm guessing the tiny Tivo power supply doesn't have much leeway to handle spikes/dips etc.

Well that's it.. I look forward to seeing the Tivo "cult" develop in NZ :D

[Benji]

I'm also a newbie, I'm from Auckland and work as a Technology Mgr. I had been talking to Tim for a couple of months on and off prior to Russell Browne's Listener article and then decided to get off my butt and order my Tivo. Imported a Series 1 Philips SA from PowerOn in a no hard drive state. I've since installed an 80 Gb drive and a Cachecard (Rev 2.2).

I only really started setting it up today at work :) but seem to have everything running after about 2 hours on and off.

I'd also like to thank Tim for his excellent work on helping the newbs :)

Cheers

Ben

[timmy]

Hi Bruce,

Good to hear from ya, I really appreciate hearing from people who have gotten Tivo up and running. Nothing worse than being in the dark about who the 'community' really consists of :)

I hope you and others can stick around and help contribute to NZ Tivo.

[timmy]

heh its funny how tivo nz is bringing in all the techie types like you guys who work in IT, likewise with myself, Jaidev, and numerous other people I have talked to. LOL fringe computing...

certainly wont find many chics this way guys but might have some talent to draw on, answer questions, etc.

good stuff, love it...

TiM

[zollymonsta]

Time for me to introduce myself?


*coughs and looks at shoes*

I'm in Wellington and a technical officer. Got my TiVo on Sunday and got it all up and running in a couple of hours. It's a Phillips series 1 with a 120gb HD and turbonet card. In the middle of another re-image now, seems to have worked but I think I'm having the same problem with the slice.

Working well with a Saturn 3300 decoder.

Already addicted to TiVo, I can see why everyone else has too ;)

[jaidev]

Introductions huh? errrrrrrrr ok then...

Hello my name is Jaidev (lol feels like school)
I have been using TiVo for 3 years now...... now I'm not going to get all nostalgic and tell you all about running a TiVo with the 1.3 image...no guide data, and stuttering PAL :)

Anyway things have come a long way since.....

I'm the person who makes the guide slices and uploads them...also I'm only human so *rarely* a bad slice may slip through.
If you find any issues with the guide please direct all guide data issues to the NZ guide data area. Or to the NZ Tivo Mailing list.

Since TiVo hacking is kind of an art, please read the HowTo's and the NZ newbie section (work in progress) (http://forums.oztivo.net/showthread.php?t=24)
Happy TiVo'ing

thanks

Jaidev

[timmy]

ok fine i'll do my intro too, mind u i already did a big one on my website.

yeah basically i'm 24, studied computer science for four years at Waikato. Have always been very interested in TV recording. I have this dream for 'World TV' (which I think is a better idea than Jaidev's Internet Toilet idea but thats another story).

Have been very interested in the whole open source ideology but have been and probably always will be a windows man tho I love the unix command line.

I love coding but still consider myself very amateur (although I'm employed as an systems analyst/application developer). I make the grabber code for Jaidev to run. I think I've got grabbing down to a fine art tho it's not considered a particularly difficult programming task, just laborious mostly.

Got very angry when I heard others were using Tivo in NZ and hadn't told anyone, after using it for a six months or so decided enough was enough and put up some pages to get others started.

[Fuzion]

Hi,

Ive just come back from London, had a Tivo the day them came out there and found it hard comming back last year to no "Tivo Service", had to stat thinking for myself again.

Just being using it a gloryfied VCR until last week, now has new HDD's and Turbonet etc.

Didn't reimage, kept the Uk 2.5.1 running on Thomsun Series 1, added required scripts etc, also have put location of codes for IR for STB Motorola DTH325-4 box in IR Codes thread.

Living in Wanaka, run a computer sales/service business.

Steve

[Grant]

Howdy! fyi intro..

I'm in Ohoka near chch and do IT/Comms project management

I saw the tivo launch at Las Vegas CES a few years ago and have wanted one ever since so was stoked to read Tims site info!

I have just got a series 1 with 2x120gb drives, from servicedvr.com for US$209 ! :~)

and even managed to get a mate to bring it back from NY in luggage! so no freight either , happy happy... :D

Thanks for the help so far and I'll be nominating Tim, Jaidev & Ed etc for president /PM /ROU ...


Grant

[ehintz]

Mmm, intro time I guess.

34, living in Wellington, with wife and (rather loud) 6 year old son. New arrival to NZ, came over from San Francisco in November. Just got a job offer yesterday, which means that all I need to do now is get NZIS approval and I can stick around for a while. Background is twofold, long time mac user (worked for Apple for about 2.5 years), and for the last 4-5 years unix sysadmin. The job offer is to pimp Mac OS X at unix guys, so I guess I'm moving from the OpenBSD crowd more into the mac camp again(10.3 was the first relase I've thought was really ready for wider serverroom use). Anyway, my first Tivo came home with me on 24 Dec. 2001, a series 1 DirecTivo, and of course we couldn't live without it now. Going to a standalone is a bit of a step down, but it beats the hell out of nothing at all. I got my SA up and running here back in Dec or so, with a lot of excellent assistance from Daniel. I was rather keen to get the DTivo running, but I'm not terribly optimistic, sounds like Sky uses a few different hardware bits so it's unlikely.

But, being a nutjob, I have other wacky ideas for the DTivo now... I understand the sat guys can pull in the DTV sat over Hawaii with a 16ft dish in Brisbane, so once I buy a house and all I figure I may look into this. Having a DTV/DirecTivo feed would seriously kick ***. Probably the most immediate project once NZIS gives me a work permit is to get a second decoder box and Tivo, and setup sanderton's (http://www.beaconhill.plus.com/TiVo/tivohacks.htm) excellent conflict resolution hack.

[gurti]

I am the newest of newbies... just joined today! I live in Auckland, and have absolutely no puter training. Acutally work in the health profession. Can fix most of the nuts & bolts things that go wrong with my puter & OS myself, but know virutally nothing about writing code.

Have been toying with the idea of tivo for a year of so, but having just got back from the UK and seen it promoted over there, am keen to do something about it.

Am still in the deciding stages... would hate to get all the gear and find it goes in the "too hard" basket when it comes to installation.

Nice to meet you all... are there many other girlies on this site??

[David]

Hi all! I am a IT Mrg in Palmerston North and am in the process of setting up a Thomson’s (UK) Tivo.

It was Tim’s excellent website that convinced me that I must have one of these. Like a kid at a toy shop, I read through Tim’s website and the oztivo website. Finally, in a frenzy of techno-lust I purchased the Tivo off ebay in the UK.

A few months ago I picked the Tivo up while on holiday. I have since purchased a 200gb hdd and have installed the UK image downloaded from oztivo.

I had a small issue getting the UK image onto the boot cd from oztivo. I finally managed to add the image to the ISO file using MagicISO.

My CasheCard arrived last week from 9thtee so my current task is to install the drivers. I am just getting over another slight hitch … I haven’t used my FDD for 2 years so forgot that it was broken. Who uses these things anyway?

Anyway I’m having a lot of fun with this. It reminds me of the day I got my first computer. An Apple in 1983.

I would be very interested in hearing from others that have set up or are in the process of setting up UK models in NZ.

[thomson]

I have a UK TiVo up and running. I am using the standard v2.5.5 installation that came with the unit and have patched it up myself. I do not run Sky or Saturn so am only interested in FreeToAir (FTA) channels.

I have recompiled the ukchan-2.5.5_nz.c tuner module so that I now have perfect nicam surround sound - do not listen to the oztivo posts that say the MP3 encoding removes the surround channel... The sound is encoded at a constant 192kbps which is more than enough. The issue in Australia could be related to them only having PAL-B/G Stereo and not PAL-B/G Nicam. Either way it works fine over here.

The RF (antenna) video output works well in the UK TiVo, but you will find that the audio comes out on a 6MHz offset (PAL-I) which is fine if you have an older TV that can handle this (PAL-B/G uses 5.5MHz). I have an old 33" Mitsi Diva that handles it fine, but the audio is not being recognised as nicam stereo, so I am using the left/right RCA audio connectors instead. I have available a Scart->Svideo adapter, but wanted to play with the RF first.

I have attached a few programs that I have found handy... they are:

Manual Record
This is a plugin to TivoWeb/TivoWebPlus that allows you to manually record programs via a web interface. I have modified it slightly to allow you to set a recording for up to 2 months in the future. This removes the need to have the slice information working correctly and allows you to use the TiVo as a VCR until you are happy with slice updates.

Tivo Title
This is a small application that has the ability to rename/alter the program title information. I use it to change my manual recordings (made with the above tool) into "special" recordings - this stops the Tivo UI from prepending "Manual:" to all of my recorded shows.

EndPadPlus
This is a great little module that automatically pads your recordings so that you can have recording start 5 minutes early and run 10 minutes late if there are no other consecutive recordings scheculed.

ukchan-2.5.5_nz-nicam.o
This is a loadable module (loaded via insmod) that allows you to tune into PAL-B/G Nicam broadcasts using the UK Tuner supplied with the UK TiVo (which by default tunes to the UK frequencies and looks for PAL-I Nicam).

NZ6001-headend
This is a simple headend slice that I used to get the standard v2.5.5 software to tune to the Free To Air (FTA) channels in Wellington (NZ6001). It is unlikely to be of much use unless you are in Wellington and only want access to the FTA channels. Used in combination with the ManRec plugin it can turn a freshly-reset Tivo into a VCR in a short period of time.

[Lurker]

Excellent! Some tivo life in Godzone....

I am a 38 year old IT lawyer from Titirangi. I have been living in the UK since 1987 and have at long last dragged wife and 2 kids back home in December.

Have 2 Thomson SA Tivo. the original one I upgraded to 120gb hard drive and left it in the UK so when my wife was "commuting" back and forward every couple of months she could record Smallville/Angel/Dead Like Me/Firefly. The other one I got from a friend who deserted to Sky plus once they remove the subscription charge so that one came over in my luggage (64kg per person via the States so all of a sudden the essentials such as computer, Tivo, DVD Xbox and PS2 all got squeezed into suitcases - oh yes and a bottle of sherry for the sheila :p )

Have been running that one using the output from an NZ sourced VCR (ahh grasshopper the circle is complete - a VCR feeding a Tivo) to get the FTA channels. Have been hunting for NZ specific info to get the damned thing up and running properly for years - looking good for getting channel data now once the container with the serial lead makes the trip over.... now all I need is a cheap way to network the darned things!


Cheers

Chris

p.s. Timmy - you might find "chics" this way, show them your Tivo. Most intelligent women who have seen a Tivo working think it is way easier than programming a video :D

[ehintz]

p.s. Timmy - you might find "chics" this way, show them your Tivo. Most intelligent women who have seen a Tivo working think it is way easier than programming a video :D"Hey baby, c'mon over to my place and I'll show you my TiVo..." :D

[zollymonsta]

Hmmm might have to try that myself. :D The 'Show you my etchings' line doesn't work very well. :rolleyes:

[number6]

I have a UK TiVo up and running. I am using the standard v2.5.5 installation that came with the unit and have patched it up myself. I do not run Sky or Saturn so am only interested in FreeToAir (FTA) channels.

I have recompiled the ukchan-2.5.5_nz.c tuner module so that I now have perfect nicam surround sound - do not listen to the oztivo posts that say the MP3 encoding removes the surround channel... The sound is encoded at a constant 192kbps which is more than enough. The issue in Australia could be related to them only having PAL-B/G Stereo and not PAL-B/G Nicam. Either way it works fine over here.


Did you change any of the code in the ukchan-2.5.5_nz.c module to enable NICAM? As I understood that this module enabled NICAM decoding on the MSP chip already?

If you did, have you posted the changes/new version back to the oztivo list so that it can be kept up to date?

If you didn't, then why did you have to recompile the module? a .o version should already be there on the oztivo website somewhere.



The RF (antenna) video output works well in the UK TiVo, but you will find that the audio comes out on a 6MHz offset (PAL-I) which is fine if you have an older TV that can handle this (PAL-B/G uses 5.5MHz). I have an old 33" Mitsi Diva that handles it fine, but the audio is not being recognised as nicam stereo, so I am using the left/right RCA audio connectors instead. I have available a Scart->Svideo adapter, but wanted to play with the RF first.


Yes, thats a problem. I have tried to obtain the info [e.g. a PDF manual on the tuner] on how to change the output sound frequency of the RF antenna to 5.5MHz from software so thats its all 100% PAL B/G compatible, but no one has one of those that I've seen.

And of course, even it did I don't think the NICAM signal will be there in the RF signal so you'll still need a hook up from your Tivo using Video,Left/Right Audio input on your TV/Stereo to get the proper stereo [surround] sound.
I have a Panasonic TV that lets me select the sound carrier frequency and it doesn't show NICAM in RF mode either, so I doubt NICAM is there at all in the RF signal].


BTW: I have two UK Tivos I sourced from the UK in late 2002 when they were selling for about 120UKP each as "run out" models.
I think Daniel has [at least] one UK model also.


Note: For folks with more than 1 Tivo, get one of the new remotes that Tivos online shop sells. Not only does it come in "transparent" colours [which are better than dark purple/black or silver] it also lets you control two Tivos from the one remote, removing the problem of always have the wrong Tivo remote in your hand...

The Tivo online store only accepts US credit cards [as per billing address on card] and they'll only ship to the US, but if you've got someone over there to act as an agent you'll be able to source one easily.

Either that or check out ebay - they pop up there often enough.

[thomson]

Did you change any of the code in the ukchan-2.5.5_nz.c module to enable NICAM? As I understood that this module enabled NICAM decoding on the MSP chip already?

I noticed that the object (.o) module that was provided was not compiled with the NICAMSTEREOMODE defined. So it did not include the section in the source code that flicked the tuner into PAL-B/G NICAM Stereo only. I must admit that I have yet to compare the two modules as I stopped when I found that the NICAM only module worked correctly. It could be that by setting PAL-B/G Stereo (as broadcast in Australia) it will automatically detect NICAM, but I prefered the hardcoded option.

I have remapped the channels in the source so that I can use the numbers on the remote to jump to a channel. Previously I had to use 1-TV1, 2-C4, 5-TV2, 11-TV3, 60-Prime... by changing the mappings I can now use 1,2,3,4,5.

[number6]

I noticed that the object (.o) module that was provided was not compiled with the NICAMSTEREOMODE defined. So it did not include the section in the source code that flicked the tuner into PAL-B/G NICAM Stereo only. I must admit that I have yet to compare the two modules as I stopped when I found that the NICAM only module worked correctly. It could be that by setting PAL-B/G Stereo (as broadcast in Australia) it will automatically detect NICAM, but I prefered the hardcoded option.


I think you'll find that with NICAMSTEREOMODE defined it only enables NICAM mode, whereas in the "default" mode it enables both NICAM and whatever the Aussies use and lets the chip work it out for itself.



I have remapped the channels in the source so that I can use the numbers on the remote to jump to a channel. Previously I had to use 1-TV1, 2-C4, 5-TV2, 11-TV3, 60-Prime... by changing the mappings I can now use 1,2,3,4,5.

There is a capability in the US Tivos to remap the channel numbers without changing the channel numbers in the module like you did.

The US Tivos have a field called "FCCChannelNum" in the MFS Station object in the MFS which is I gather the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) official assigned "number" for the channel.

I am not sure which of Number and FCCNumber when both are available provides the VHF/UHF channel number and which is the number you key into your Tivo remote to select that channel.

e.g. in your case you had to key in 11 to get TV3, thats because against your TV station object in the mfs you had Number=11.

What I'm not sure of is if you added a FCCChannelNum=3 would that mean that you can enter "3" to get to TV3?
Or should it be setup with FCCChannelNum=11 and Number=3? to make that work?
Note: In your case, you've changed the UHF channel numbers so this wouldn't work on your current palmod.o file but would work on original (unmodded by you) palmod.o file.

Also what I don't know is does the UK Tivo software support this feature (FCCChannelNum) [the US Tivos do/did].

As far as I can tell in the UK Tivos the Station line ups don't use the FCCChannelNum field in the Station Object and so you have to enter the UHF channel number of the channel you want to watch. However that doesn't mean you couldn't use it.

Note: When if/when you do enable the ability to just enter "3" for TV3, and you have a TV3 setup on your Sky decoder then you will find that whenever you select TV3 (by just entering 3) your Tivo will generally tune into the Sky channel TV3, if you enter 3 again it will then flip to the TV3 channel on UHF and will toggle between them as you keep entering 3 (enter) on the remote.

This is due to the Tivo always selecting the highest quality source available by default for any given channel where multiple channels with the same number (station ID) are available. But will then cycle to the next highest quality when selected a second time etc.

Also, when a Station is on a Settop box [e.g. controlled via IR], then you may be able to control which "numbers" are sent to the settop box to select that channel as compared what you key on the remote to select it using the same technique (setting FCCChannelNum).

If you do experiment and it works, please report back what you find.
[both here and to the OzTivo forums]

[thomson]

I think you'll find that with NICAMSTEREOMODE defined it only enables NICAM mode, whereas in the "default" mode it enables both NICAM and whatever the Aussies use and lets the chip work it out for itself.


Actually no... you need to ignore the comments in the file. Without NICAMSTEREOMODE set it uses 0x00200003 which selects Zweiton analogue stereo - which results in mono in New Zealand. If you want it set to automatically detect then you need to use 0x00200001. This will recognise the format and switch to it within 0.5 seconds.

I however prefer to force it to Nicam using 0x00200008, as all our channels use Nicam. If you wish to test this for yourself then you can use the following:


# iicset4 0x88 0x10 0x00200001
# iicset4 0x88 0x10 0x00200003
# iicset4 0x88 0x10 0x00200008

You will notice that the first and the last will sound the same, but the second line will switch your whole system into mono (it may also increase in volume slightly).



I am not sure which of Number and FCCNumber when both are available provides the VHF/UHF channel number and which is the number you key into your Tivo remote to select that channel.


The UK TiVo (v2.5.5) uses Channel/Number setting for the UHF Channel frequency and ignores the Station/FccChannelNum. When I use the numbers on the remote, it tunes directly to that UHF frequency - there does not seem to be any translation or mapping happening.

The ChannelMap.itcl plugin alters the Channel/Number field and as such results in setting the UHF channel mapping... so for me (as a programmer) it was just easier to make changes to the ukchan module. :)

[thomson]

I have tried to obtain the info [e.g. a PDF manual on the tuner] on how to change the output sound frequency of the RF antenna to 5.5MHz from software so thats its all 100% PAL B/G compatible, but no one has one of those that I've seen.

This can be done via the ALPS tuner I2C interface. I have provided a small function that will perform the setting, or you can do it from the command line using: "iicsetnosub 0xca 0x8a481df4" which will set it to UHF22 (5.5MHz).

This is only a mono output... so unless you have a TV that is not capable of handling the 6.0MHz carrier, then I would not bother - as the system will startup on this carrier and only switch when the module is loaded, or the above command is performed.

You will still need to use the RCA or SCART outputs to get stereo/surround.



void SetRFOutputSystem(int ch) {
/* Need to set bit 19, and clear bit 20. This will set select
* 5.5MHz for the RF output sound carrier (PAL B/G). The default
* sound carrier is 6.0MHz for the UK (PAL I). This is only not
* a NICAM output, so if your TV is happy with a 6.0MHz carrier
* then you may as well leave it alone.
*
* The problem is that we do not seem to be able to read the
* existing value, so we must set the output channel at the
* same time. If we could read the existing value then we
* could just use the following to set the sound carrier:
* rfo &= 0xFFE7FFFF;
* rfo |= 0x00180000;
*
* If you are using the RF output feature (rather than the
* SCART plugs) then to ensure the best signal quality for
* both the TiVo output and existing TV channels you should
* (as a rule of thumb) avoid any channel that is (+/-) 1,
* 5 or 9 away from any other channel.
*/

if (ch >= 20 && ch <= 69) {
unsigned rfo;

rfo = 0x8a480004;
rfo |= (303+(ch*8)) << 4; // Ch22 = 0x8a481df4

I2CWriteNoSub(0xCA, (u8 *)&rfo, 4);
printk("ukchan: Tuner output set to Channel %d (5.5MHz)\n", ch);
}
}

[watling]

Hello, I the new Tivo guy here in Christchurch. Got that UK model off trademe, and happy so far, just trying to get my head around what's involved to get the tuner doing what a tuner should.