How to connect TIVO to existing setup?

[fatty boy]

Just got my impulse buy tivo S1 philip from ebay without manual.
I'm kinda a guy needs step by step guide when connecting things :D so, I'm kinda need help big time here. I did a search regarding this topic and couln't find any - if there is pls forgive me then :p.

I've got optus cable box, dvd player and tv atm.
optus stb has got a few connections - cable input, antenna, tv/vcr and 1 goes to dvd player.

What's the best way to connect tivo to that setup?

TiA

[Darren King]

Hi and welcome.

Well, even if you did get the manual with the TiVo you could pretty much throw it away as a fair chunk of it relates to a TiVo in the USA which they are definitely NOT the same here. I guess the "quick connection" guide might help you here and I might consider putting that on my website one of these days but then again TiVo might not like that so I'll have to think about it first :)

I sincerely hope that your "impulse" didn't mean you bought one and then wondered how they work in Australia because unfortunately they are definitely not a "plug in and play" device. At best they are an experimental device that does require a little effort on your part to get one functional.

Anyway, all that aside I guess the first thing you are going to have to do if you have not done so already is get the OzTiVo software onto a hard disk otherwise the TiVo is not going to do much here. And while you are at it you might consider how you are going to hook up the TiVo to your internet connection otherwise it is going to be a hard job even getting it ready for use because the bulk of the configuration requires the TiVo to connect to the OzTiVo server. This does not mean you can simply use the internal modem either as there is no such thing in Australia as a dialup number that automatically does everything like there is in the USA.

As for actually connecting it up to your Optus box that depends on the type of connections you have on the Optus box. You are at minimum going to have to have left/right audio out of the Optus box fed into the left/right audio input on the back of the TiVo. To get picture if the Optus box has an S-Video type of connector then you can feed the video signal out of that into the S-Video input connector on the back of the TiVo, or alternatively if the Optus box does not have S-Video then you are going to be limited to the RCA style connector for getting video into the TiVo.

After you have imaged the hard disk and then connected the cables then you can plug the TiVo into the power point. When the tivo greets you with the "Welcome to Guided Setup" you then follow the directions here: http://minnie.tuhs.org/twiki/bin/view/Install/GuidedSetup30

Oh, and it will help if you plug in the IR Blaster and put the little emitter head at the front of the Optus box. That way the TiVo can change the channels you receive from your Optus box. This is a must if you want the TiVo to auto record your programs!

As hinted, the OzTiVo website (from the link above) has more information and FAQ for beginners. The shortcut to the main page of that website is www.oztivo.com

Good luck and happy ozTiVo :)

[fatty boy]

Thanks for reply Darren.
The tivo I bought is from aus ebay and apparently it's been configured to use in aus - so, I don't think I've got much to do. :)

Anyhow, I haven't got much time to play around with it yet. So far I'm as far as disconnected the cable from vcr, which I forgot that it is still there, and connected them to tivo. So far I can still watch the tv - but cannot use tivo yet.

I'm gonna move the entertainment unit and get behind to find out how they are wired at the back this weekend. As far as I know my optus stb hasn't got svideo out, only rca. My dvd player got svide out, and 2 rca in and out. I'm not sure about my tv yet though :)

Btw - do I have to tune my tv for tivo or something once I connected everything - like my dvd to video1, vcr was on video2 etc?
Sounds like really newbie :)

[Darren King]

The tivo I bought is from aus ebay and apparently it's been configured to use in aus - so, I don't think I've got much to do. So far I'm as far as disconnected the cable from vcr, which I forgot that it is still there, and connected them to tivo. So far I can still watch the tv - but cannot use tivo yet.

Define "cable": Antenna? A/V cable? Does the TiVo have an internal PAL tuner or not?


As far as I know my optus stb hasn't got svideo out, only rca. My dvd player got svide out, and 2 rca in and out. I'm not sure about my tv yet though.

Btw - do I have to tune my tv for tivo or something once I connected everything - like my dvd to video1, vcr was on video2 etc?

Well, usual connection is to put the A/V output from the TiVo to an A/V input on the TV so yes you will have to "tune" your TV to whatever input you use (ie "video1", "video2", etc).

So.... This TiVo you bought from eBay: Yep it might be "configured for use in Aus" but that does not mean it is "configured for use in your local area for your intended inputs". So it may need some software reconfiguring which leads me back to my question in the post above about how you intend to connect the TiVo up to the Internet to do the reconfiguring and for downloading guide data?

[fatty boy]

Hi Darren,
How do I check that whether the tivo got pal tuner?

Tivo comes with the network card, so it will connect to the switch, which is connected to the my internet gateway.

This afternoon I decided to give some time for my tivo - so moved the entertainment unit - looked at the all the connection and took some photos.
http://www.onlyif.net/gallery/Tivo

At the moment, optus cable comes into STB. From the STB one cable goes out from the splitter to my forgotten, VCR. Then from VCR to TV. Also, DVD player RCA cables are connected to TV's connector.
Now, I tried to directly swapped VCR with tivo - taking the connection from the VCR and then connected to tivo. I can watch all the channel from optus STB, DVD is ok.
But, I cannot get my tivo working. I can see the green light and whenever I click on tivo remote, it changes to orange briefly, but nothing else. I changed the channel on tv, changed the video mode1 and 2, still the same.

What should I see when everything is connected ok?
Also, how can I get into maintainence mode?

thanks.

[Darren King]

How do I check that whether the tivo got pal tuner?

It's got a PAL tuner - and one of my installs at that. Just looked at your picture gallery and saw it.


Tivo comes with the network card, so it will connect to the switch, which is connected to the my internet gateway.

OK that's easy then. Your switch (router maybe?) should be able to dish out DHCP assigned IP addresses which will make your network connection a snap.


Now, I tried to directly swapped VCR with tivo - taking the connection from the VCR and then connected to tivo. I can watch all the channel from optus STB, DVD is ok.

So if I understand you correctly you have taken the RF antenna cables out of your VCR and plugged them into the antenna input and output connectors of the TiVo, yes? If so then this is fine. Most people use the A/V video and audio output connectors from the TiVo to the TV (like you have for your DVD player) but if you want to do it via a UHF antenna signal then that is your decision.


But, I cannot get my tivo working. I can see the green light and whenever I click on tivo remote, it changes to orange briefly, but nothing else. I changed the channel on tv, changed the video mode1 and 2, still the same.


Well, if you have simply connected the TiVo for where the VCR was in the antenna cable chain I'm not surprised you are not seeing anything. As the white sticker says on the back of the TiVo "UHF 60" and by default the software on the TiVo outputs the RF signal from the TiVo on just that: UHF channel 60. You will have to tune your TV into this channel to see anything.


What should I see when everything is connected ok?

The greenish coloured "TiVo Central" screen once it has finished booting up. A smallish picture of this is in the picture on the front page of my website where you see the text "WELCOME" (link is in my signature).


Also, how can I get into maintainence mode?

With a freshly installed hard disk? It will automatically boot into Guided Setup.

With an already installed and already set up hard disk (I'm tipping this is what you will have given you have purchased it already working from eBay)? Ahhh, THAT is where you are going to need to follow a procedure which assumes you already have your network connected AND you know how to obtain your IP address from the TiVo:

1. Gain access to TiVoWEB by pointing your web browser at the IP address of the TiVo

2. Go to the PAL/NTSC tab

3. From within this menu pick "Set PAL Guided Setup Mode"

4. Reboot TiVo

5. When you get the main menu appear on the TiVo, go into "Messages And Setup" and then "System Reset" then "Repeat Guided Setup"

Then follow the instuctions here:
http://minnie.tuhs.org/twiki/bin/view/Install/GuidedSetup30

*DO NOT* try and skip directly to step 5. It does not work while your TiVo is in normal operating mode, only in "Maintenance Mode". You can try, but you will keep getting kicked back to the main menu.

Cheers
Darren

[fatty boy]

It's got a PAL tuner - and one of my installs at that. Just looked at your picture gallery and saw it.
I thought so :)


OK that's easy then. Your switch (router maybe?) should be able to dish out DHCP assigned IP addresses which will make your network connection a snap.

Yeah, according to my dhcp log and network scan - tivo got an ip address and active port 80 and 21. :)
http:///www.onlyif.net/gallery/Tivo/networkview_01



So if I understand you correctly you have taken the RF antenna cables out of your VCR and plugged them into the antenna input and output connectors of the TiVo, yes? If so then this is fine. Most people use the A/V video and audio output connectors from the TiVo to the TV (like you have for your DVD player) but if you want to do it via a UHF antenna signal then that is your decision.

Yeah, I'm gonna grab av cable tomorrow and connect it up.
Edit - bought a pair of av cable today, and connected it - now I can see tivo logo starts up on video 2 :D. I followed your instruction, getting into tivo, changing to pal guided setup mode, and rebooted it.
On boot up, I got a message setup will take about 35min to complete, press select to continue. When I pressed select - instead of program source like in the guide, I got tivo central with now playing, watch live tv, programs to record and new tivo messages and setup.
When I choose new tivo messages and setup, I got recorder & phone setup, sys info, sys reset with a few other menu items.
Somehow I cannot select recorder and phone setup, it doesn't go anywhere.
I choose system reset, repeat guided setup - three thumb downs, enter. still, it goes straight to tivo central.
Did I do something wrong?

thanks for the help so far :) really appriciated.

[Darren King]

Yeah, according to my dhcp log and network scan - tivo got an ip address and active port 80 and 21.

Good-o. You have done well :)


Edit - bought a pair of av cable today, and connected it - now I can see tivo logo starts up on video 2 :D.

Excellent!


I followed your instruction, getting into tivo, changing to pal guided setup mode, and rebooted it.

So far so good......


On boot up, I got a message setup will take about 35min to complete, press select to continue. When I pressed select - instead of program source like in the guide, I got tivo central with now playing, watch live tv, programs to record and new tivo messages and setup.

That's not so good. And quite honestly I have no idea why. You are not the first to say you get to the initial Guided Setup screen and then get kicked back but for me it works EVERY time.

Pete.... are you out there and can offer any advice as to why or what Fatty Boy can do here (and me for that matter?).

What you CAN do is totally nuke the hard disk with a fresh install of the image if you download and burn the CD image from the OzTiVo website and just set it up from scratch, but it don't solve why a redo of Guided Setup isn't working like it always does for me.


thanks for the help so far :) really appriciated.

Hey no problem! I try to help as much as I can and it sounds like you are 99.999% there. Now if you could initiate a Guided Setup you will be home and hosed :)

[petestrash]

Pete.... are you out there and can offer any advice as to why or what Fatty Boy can do here (and me for that matter?).

Hi, I've been following this thread, but have had nothing to add to the advice Darren has offered :-).

I haven't seen a TiVo go from the first setup screen to "TiVo Central" after pressing select either.

I would like to try something though.

After setting Pal guided setup again and rebooting (using Darrens instructions).

Assuming it still doesn't work go back to the PAL/NTSC screen in tivoweb: http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/pal_ntsc/ and let us know what is listed as the boot parameter (this is just for our peace of mind).

After that try using the TiVo remote and select Messages & Setup > System Reset > Clear and Delete Everything.

If you have a wierd software glitch, this may fix it without you having to re-install the image from scratch.

Peter

[fatty boy]

Hi, I've been following this thread, but have had nothing to add to the advice Darren has offered :-).

I haven't seen a TiVo go from the first setup screen to "TiVo Central" after pressing select either.

I would like to try something though.

After setting Pal guided setup again and rebooting (using Darrens instructions).

Assuming it still doesn't work go back to the PAL/NTSC screen in tivoweb: http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/pal_ntsc/ and let us know what is listed as the boot parameter (this is just for our peace of mind).

After that try using the TiVo remote and select Messages & Setup > System Reset > Clear and Delete Everything.

If you have a wierd software glitch, this may fix it without you having to re-install the image from scratch.
thanks for the suggestion Pete.
Peter

Ok, I've decieded that this weekend is for tivo - I'll try to iron out things and try to up and running this box. I've got a few things to record and this thing is not up to that task yet :(

[fatty boy]

.. using the TiVo remote and select Messages & Setup > System Reset > Clear and Delete Everything.

If you have a wierd software glitch, this may fix it without you having to re-install the image from scratch.

Peter

Ok, I did that I'm getting the terms and services etc and can choose program source now.
I had a slight problem with setup call, getting couldn't dial messages. I double checked all the info were correctly put in, make sure that tivo is getting ip - according to my dhcp log tivo got an ip, and I can putty'ed into it without any problem. Finally, I decided to restart the tivo, and it is connecting ok now. Currently, it's doing importing thing and left about 7mins left :)

[Darren King]

Sounds like you are on your way. Well done!

[fatty boy]

Sounds like you are on your way. Well done!
Yeah, so far so good:D. Without your and Peter help, I wouldn't be at this stage :)
Now, I'm waiting for the guide to become available. I'm not sure why, black on tivo is not as clear as straight from my stb for the same channel.
I'm no sure it's make sense or not - right now I can watch my optus on channel 1 and tivo is tuned to video2. When I'm on ch1 and switch to tivo on video2 - I can really see the difference in background color.

Anyway - I'm gonna rest for now :) Thanks to all.

[Darren King]

Excellent. Not long to go.


Now, I'm waiting for the guide to become available.

Should be fine by now. If you want to see if it is ready, go into TiVoWEB and click on the "Phone" tab. Look at "last call status" and see if it still says "loading data" or "indexing". If it says "succeeded" then you are done BUT you will still be in "maintenance mode" and you will notice the clock is probably wrong. Do a reboot and see if you still boot in "maintenance mode" (you probably will first time) and when the TiVo finishes booting to the menu do another reboot. This time instaed of it saying "maintenance mode" it should say "Starting Up....."

You're done.


I'm not sure why, black on tivo is not as clear as straight from my stb for the same channel. I'm no sure it's make sense or not - right now I can watch my optus on channel 1 and tivo is tuned to video2. When I'm on ch1 and switch to tivo on video2 - I can really see the difference in background color.

Reason why is that the Optus signal is going through the TiVo and therefore being routed through the analogue to digital (mpeg encoding) circuitry, being written to the hard disk, being read from the hard disk and then being converted from digital (mpeg decoded) to analogue. Yes - even if you are not recording anything the TiVo is still writing a 30 munite live buffer which is why the TiVo can claim the title of "being able to pause & rewind live TV" that you might have heard it can do.

This however introduces a SMALL amount of loss of course. The other thing you can do is adjust the brightness, contrast, etc by accessing a telnet session from the TiVo via your network and typing at the command palmod_config and then following the prompts.

[fatty boy]

Excellent. Not long to go.



Should be fine by now. If you want to see if it is ready, go into TiVoWEB and click on the "Phone" tab. Look at "last call status" and see if it still says "loading data" or "indexing". If it says "succeeded" then you are done BUT you will still be in "maintenance mode" and you will notice the clock is probably wrong. Do a reboot and see if you still boot in "maintenance mode" (you probably will first time) and when the TiVo finishes booting to the menu do another reboot. This time instaed of it saying "maintenance mode" it should say "Starting Up....."

You're done.

Haha, yeah, I thought what ? the time is wrong :) It's all ok now.



Reason why is that the Optus signal is going through the TiVo and therefore being routed through the analogue to digital (mpeg encoding) circuitry, being written to the hard disk, being read from the hard disk and then being converted from digital (mpeg decoded) to analogue. Yes - even if you are not recording anything the TiVo is still writing a 30 munite live buffer which is why the TiVo can claim the title of "being able to pause & rewind live TV" that you might have heard it can do.

This however introduces a SMALL amount of loss of course. The other thing you can do is adjust the brightness, contrast, etc by accessing a telnet session from the TiVo via your network and typing at the command palmod_config and then following the prompts.

Yeah, it's kinda make sense.
thanks.

[fatty boy]

Ok, I've got some more problems. Overnight - my tivo is recording on it's on - not the one I scheduled. And the one it recorded are not on the channel I programmed, but the one currently playing, when I left.
This morning I tried to get into tivo via web, couldn't get in, so I tried ftp, telnet same thing. It replied ping though, so definitely there is a connection. I turn on my tv and I can go into tivo by clicking tivo etc. Deleted the programs, press watch live tv - I've got live tv cannot be displayed or similar effect message, and ask me to check connection, directly connecting the source to tv, resetting the tivo etc.
Check the connection, connected the source from the optus stb to tv directly , still doesn't work. And definitely, I haven't changed any connection and it was playing ok, it just suddently, just broke :(
Now, I'm back to square one - I'm getting the same problem as in the beginning :)

This is the current status of pal/ntsc
root=/dev/hda4 runideturbo=false TV_STD=PAL GS=0

This is the status after selecting set pal guided setup mode
root=/dev/hda4 runideturbo=false TV_STD=PAL GS=1

I've expreineced a few times, that I cannot get into tivo via web/ftp/telnet. IIRC, it was a known problem that tivoweb stop functioning after a few days?
Is that still the case?

Hopefully, I can sort this out, I promise one of my friends, I will record the cosmopolitan episode tonight :D :D

[fatty boy]

Somehow, I restarted the whole process again. I thought, I was doing guided setup, but got the whole she bang. Anyway, I did, everything ok and waiting for the tivo to be ready again.

[fatty boy]

Ok, instead of rushing like last time, I'm taking time and start everything from the clear all data again.
Now, I'm stuck at IR setup for my optus stb - according to the info from the stb it's General Instrument. But the guide is to make sure to choose the oztivo manufacturer. I tried all the xxxx oztivo and codes, nothing works.
Does that mean I've to program my own IR for remote?

[petestrash]

according to the info from the stb it's General Instrument. But the guide is to make sure to choose the oztivo manufacturer. I tried all the xxxx oztivo and codes, nothing works.
Does that mean I've to program my own IR for remote?

There is no specific OzTiVo IR code for Optus. just scroll down and use the US General Instrument code #10006.

Peter.

[fatty boy]

There is no specific OzTiVo IR code for Optus. just scroll down and use the US General Instrument code #10006.

Peter.

thanks Peter. It's the same one as I was using before. Seems I can't still change the channels using the tivo remote.
The setup I have met the all requirement, though. Vidoe is connected - ok, infra red is mount ok etc.

[petestrash]

Have you tested the IR output with a video or digital still camera?

You should see the IR lamp flicker when commands are being sent

Peter.