location of xmltv2tivo ?

[sfalvey]

Sorry if this is in the wrong area of the forum.

Can someone PM me the location of or send me the xmltv2tivo package, parsexmlguide? I cant seem to find a location for it other than tivocanada and that seems to have been taken down now that TiVo are selling into Canada.

Cheers

Simon

[petestrash]

I'm sorry, but we don't send this file to countries that have access to the real TiVo service. The UK in your case.

Peter.

[sfalvey]

I completely understand and support the community's basis for this. TiVo is such a good product that I would gladly go out any buy a brand new one tomorrow, I certainly would not want to effect their revenue given how big a loss they already make. It is the one gadget I've bought that my wife actually likes and can use!

Do trust me when I say I would much rather pay for service than waste
hours of my time trying to produce a second rate service, but what choice do I have? Buy a SKY+ system ?!?!? :eek:

Here is my issue: Regretably TiVo will not allow the subcription of US TiVos in the UK. Since its now over 4 years since the hardware was last on sale in the high street and my UK TiVo with lifetime sub has starting showing signs of failure I want to see if I can get the US TiVO running for that fateful day when I am TiVo-less.

Given the circumstances I have trouble understanding the difference between someone using a TiVo in Australia where no guide data is available (from TiVo) and someone in the UK having no option but to use a modified US model and hence not be able to get guide data.

I am not expecting this to change your mind, just wanted you to know this isn't about service theft.

Simon

[petestrash]

Here is my issue: Regrettably TiVo will not allow the subscription of US TiVos in the UK. Since its now over 4 years since the hardware was last on sale in the high street and my UK TiVo with lifetime sub has starting showing signs of failure I want to see if I can get the US TiVo running for that fateful day when I am TiVo-less.

Generally the majority of TiVo hardware failures are simply hard drives giving up. Serious circuit faults are much less common on UK TiVo's. Hard drive replacement is not very difficult and there are even kit's available on ebay.co.uk with software preloaded. Simply plug in the new drive.


Given the circumstances I have trouble understanding the difference between someone using a TiVo in Australia where no guide data is available (from TiVo) and someone in the UK having no option but to use a modified US model and hence not be able to get guide data.


But you do have a choice, there are always plenty of UK TiVo's for sale on ebay.co.uk and most of these are newer than the series 1's for sale in the US.

I am unaware of anyone who has a successful PAL implementation running on a Series 2 or 2.5 TiVo, so these are not suitable for use in the UK.

I'm not trying to be difficult, but xml2tivo was developed in Canada before the TiVo service was made available there. We promised not to distribute it to any countries where tivo still sell their service. We would all like to see TiVo stay in business, and possibly eventually actively return to other countries like the UK and even expand beyond. The only way this can happen is to protect their revenue.

If you are still keen, I suggest contacting the tivocanada forums directly and ask them for a copy.

Peter

[sfalvey]

Thanks for the tip Peter. My problem seems to be the system board going, I have changed the HDs, software image and PSU. Even added a UPS. Started going down following a power cut. :(

Keep up the good work!

Simon

[petestrash]

What are the actual symptoms you experience.

We have a very experienced technician in the group who has repaired most circuit faults on both US & UK TiVo's, perhaps we can help.

Peter.

[sfalvey]

Thanks for the offer I appreciate it.

The problem is that as often as once a day my TiVo starts to suffer from a terminal slow down. Its completely unhacked and unmodded apart from recently replacing the 2x80G Maxtor HDs (which failed diags) with 2x120G hitachi. It has been recovered using a backup copy of UK image 2.5.5 which I took from it before I replaced the original HDs with the Maxtors 2 1/2 years ago.

The symptom is that when this occurs it stops responding to Remote input immediately and the lag between pressing a button to it doing something about it gets longer and longer until the whole box freezes up and It reboots itself. Using the TiVo backdoors code to view the log after the reboot I see messages relating to the real-time events occuring "late" followed by "VERY_LATE" and eventually the TiVo recognises it has a problem and forces a panic.

Given that this is a lifetime subbed box I have been resisting the tempation to hack it. Why tempt fate? Given the circumstances I would be prepared to install ppp/tivoweb or whatever to gather more info if you think its worth it.

I have tried restoring from backup but to no effect. I am confident in saying that my backup is OK as I was running for 2 1/2 years on it since the original upgrade.

Very annoying, we had a power cut which screwed the Maxtors and it failed to boot entirely. I replaced them and got this in its place. I have replaced the PSU with a brand new one just in case. Posted it on the tivocommunity forum but no-one has responded.

Any assistance or advice very much appreciated.

Also: I have a second unsubbed UK unit which wont boot at all. Using a serial cable I can pause it on the boot up to enter the factory password. It displays the banner showing the processor, etc however the enet addr is all zeros and the unit immediately reboots again without going into the normal boot menu. I am guessing that this one is a gonner and planned to use the PAL tuner to mod my third unit which is a US Phillips TiVo running 3.0 which I am having fun hacking at the moment :) Before I do this however if there is anything I can try to resurrect this unit that would be fantastic.

I'd be happy to have just one working TiVo!

Thanks for the help

Simon

[petestrash]

The symptom is that when this occurs it stops responding to Remote input immediately and the lag between pressing a button to it doing something about it gets longer and longer until the whole box freezes up and It reboots itself.

Strange I would normally associate this with a software or hard drive issue getting the system bogged down.

When you changed drives 2.5 years ago, did you actually restore using the same backup as you have now used?

Also when this starts to occur does it effect the picture quality, and is there any pattern to how often or when this occurs.


Given that this is a lifetime subbed box I have been resisting the tempation to hack it. Why tempt fate? Given the circumstances I would be prepared to install ppp/tivoweb or whatever to gather more info if you think its worth it.

You don't have much to loose, you have already opened your box and changed drives at least twice :D ...all the hacks are software based, so as long as you have an unhacked backup image you should be safe. It may narrow down the causes if you can access all the logs live via PPP over serial.


Also: I have a second unsubbed UK unit which wont boot at all. Using a serial cable I can pause it on the boot up to enter the factory password. It displays the banner showing the processor, etc however the enet addr is all zeros and the unit immediately reboots again without going into the normal boot menu.

Have you tried this without any hard drives (or IDE cable) attached, and do you get the same result ?

I have also dropped a note to our local soldering legend Darren to see what his thoughts are.

Peter.

[Darren King]

I'm with Peter in that most lagging performance issues are software and/or hard disk based. However given you are saying that it has different hard disks (I'm assuming new) and been restored from (I'm assuming) a previously known good backup and you have replaced the PSU then it is motherboard related. The chip controlling most system info exchanges and the hard disk is the ASIC chip with the "TiVo" logo on it. At the very least I would be getting a can of freeze spray from an electronics repair outlet and seeing if cooling any parts down helps sniff out the faulty parts.

The TiVo that reboots on startup and showing weird factory diagnostic information sounds like either a scrambled system BIOS or something seriously wrong with the processor section of the motherboard.

[sfalvey]

Strange I would normally associate this with a software or hard drive issue getting the system bogged down.

When you changed drives 2.5 years ago, did you actually restore using the same backup as you have now used?
Yes I still have the original HDs so use them as the source for the images.


Also when this starts to occur does it effect the picture quality, and is there any pattern to how often or when this occurs.

Yes the longer the slowdown runs for the more the picture turns to cheap stop motion animation :p



You don't have much to loose, ...........It may narrow down the causes if you can access all the logs live via PPP over serial.
OK I will see what I can do.



Have you tried this without any hard drives (or IDE cable) attached, and do you get the same result ?
Yes doesn't seem to make any difference. Unfortunately this is what you get when you buy a UK tivo from ebay :p



I'm with Peter in that most lagging performance issues are software and/or hard disk based. However given you are saying that it has different hard disks (I'm assuming new)
Yes they were new but I guess I can always try another set of disks if you think that it is a possible culprit. I will see if I can get a freeze spray as well. I guess the other one is really dead then.

Guys this is really helpful I honestly appreciate your advice.

All the best

Simon

[Darren King]

No problems glad to be of assistance.

Well, yes they are "dead" (or more accurately: "dying") but can be repaired however I'm guessing that shipping costs of the motherboards would be a limiting factor :(