Request for palmod developer - user defined channel numbers

[Tomek Swiecicki]

Hi!

I am struggling alone to get my Tivo working in Poland. I have just made Samsung tuner mod and thanks to Thomson and his nz palmod it started to receive TV from RF source. OZ palmod's did not work for some reason. It seems they kept ignoring "finetune".

What I would like to ask for is:

FineTuneFrequencies could be modified to add a new channel number if it is defined in /etc/palmod.conf, even if it is not existing in normal channel table in tuner_chans.h. Currently FineTuneFrequencies ignores finetune values if they are not present in tuner_chans.h, so I cannot use channel numbers 12-20.

Alternatively a new tuner type e.g. "Samsung - user defined" could be introduced with all channel numbers 0-200 filled with bogus values. All channel - frequency mapping would be done in /etc/palmod.conf.

I would make the mod myself, but I do not have experience with cross-compiler nor a linux machine that I could use for the task. I hope you find this suggestion useful.

Tomek

[thomson]

FineTuneFrequencies could be modified to add a new channel number if it is defined in /etc/palmod.conf, even if it is not existing in normal channel table in tuner_chans.h

Okay... there are a few problems you may run into. Firstly the CCIR settings do have the missing channels, but seem to be setup for the Philips tuner. However you will still run into problems as there is a limit to how long the Finetune options can be. You would need to split these up over multiple lines (so could not use palmod_conf to create palmod.conf).

The best option I would suggest would be to alter the tuner_chans.h file to include a new definition for Poland along with all your frequencies and post it here... I will then alter my current palmod.o/palmod_config to include these.

If you do not want to play with the tuner_chans.h file (do not worry about syntax as I can fix that up) then just post all channels along with frequencies and I will fix it up.

[Tomek Swiecicki]

I think it will be the easiest if you could just compile palmod with modified tuner_chans.h. I am afraid that analog cable networks in Poland do not always use the same channel frequencies, so there is no point in defining fixed channels.

I am attaching a tuner_chans.h with all holes filled with bogus frequencies. Previously defined are left unaltered. All tables have channels 0 through 98 just in case. (I noticed that altered parts have DOS CR/LF's, but compiler should ignore it)

If you could recompile palmod.o with this tuner_chans I would be very grateful.

I do not use palmod_config for entering finetune. I prepare a list from Cable company website using excel, open palmod.conf in vi and just paste the whole set in the telnet window. It works for me.

Thanks,

Tomek

[thomson]

I think it will be the easiest if you could just compile palmod with modified tuner_chans.h

Done. This should work fine for what you are doing.

[Tomek Swiecicki]

Thanks Thomson! Works just fine - all channels are tuned and I have full flexibility in channel numbering.

Tomek

[Tomek Swiecicki]

Hi!

I noticed I cannot receive Discovery Travel with my Tivo with Samsung tuner. All other stations are ok ( 62 stations in analog cable). What I have found is that Discovery channel is broadcasted at 447.250MHz. According to Samsund pdf this frequency belongs to UHF band. However in palmod.c band switch between VHF high and UHF is located at 450MHz. I changed bandswitch frequencies to 143MHz and 426MHz which should fix the problem

I am attaching sources for palmod.c and 99 channel version of tuner_chans.h. I you could recompile it one again I would be grateful.

The moded section:

else if (tunertype == NZ_SAMSUNG) {
for (i = 0; nz_tv_chans[i].freq != 0; i++)
if (chan == nz_tv_chans[i].chan)
break;
if (nz_tv_chans[i].freq == 0)
return -1;
f = (nz_tv_chans[i].freq + 38900) + adjust * 125 / 4;
f = ((f * 16 + 500) / 1000) << 16 | 0x8e00;

if (nz_tv_chans[i].freq < 143000)
f |= 0x01; // VHF-Lo
else if (nz_tv_chans[i].freq < 426000)
f |= 0x02; // VHF-Hi
else
f |= 0x08; // UHF

[thomson]

What I have found is that Discovery channel is broadcasted at 447.250MHz. According to Samsund pdf this frequency belongs to UHF band. However in palmod.c band switch between VHF high and UHF is located at 450MHz.

Correct... I have made the code modifications for the Samsung tuners (I have left the Philips ones as I do not have a datasheet to check the figures on). The attached includes both the module and modified source.

[Tomek Swiecicki]

I confirm that the problem with reception on 447MHz has been resolved by the last revision.

Regarding Philips tuner there seem to be different band switch frequencies for different models. Palmod has correct frequencies for FI1216 (170,450), but FI1256 has slightly different (165, 468). I do not know if this difference is critical. I cannot attach datasheets, because they are to large.

[thomson]

I do not know if this difference is critical. I cannot attach datasheets, because they are to large.

No worries... both of the Philips models are pretty close so I doubt that this would affect many people. Most have the Samsung/ALP's tuners as the Philips does not support RF out. I will make a mention in the code of the differences just in case somebody has trouble in the future.

[thomson]

I have a new version (3.0.2) of palmod that separates the single "tunertype" parameter into both a "tunertype" and "freqtable" to allow any frequency table to be used with any tuner.

All frequency tables have all channel slots (0-99) available for programming, and there is a blank frequency table for those that like to create their own using the finetune arguments :)

Both the new palmod.o and palmod_config binaries are backwards compatible with the single tunertype values (ie they will read old palmod.conf files).

Binaries and sources to the old (3.0.1) and new (3.0.2) can be found here (http://www.forums.oztivo.net/showpost.php?p=2164&postcount=45)