Newbie Questions

I am in the UK but am am visting family in Napier in 3 weeks and want to take a UK TIVO with me (in my suitcase - that might be fun) to give to them to use IN NZ. I have 2 UK tivos and have done basic hacking (upgrading drives & cachecards etc) and so I am prepared to try and hack a machine so it will be NZ friendly. My kiwi friends stayed with me last year and needless to say loved my tivos so it would be really cool to unwrap a nice hacked tivo for them.
I have aquired a cheap UK tivo with a turbonet card so I am hoping it should be fairly easy to sort out.
Can someone confirm this what I need to do:

1. download the install the thompson beta image found here:
http://forums.oztivo.net/showthread.php?t=1167
2.follow this documentation:
http://forums.oztivo.net/showthread.php?t=959

Does anyone have any other pointers that I must do?
Also the tivo I have does not have a subscription on it - I take it thats OK?

Many thanks

I suggest you also read through this thread as it has a few details for UK tivo in NZ:
http://forums.oztivo.net/showthread.php?t=1160

Quote:

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Originally Posted by beastman

I am in the UK but am am visting family in Napier in 3 weeks and want to take a UK TIVO with me (in my suitcase - that might be fun) to give to them to use IN NZ. I have 2 UK tivos and have done basic hacking (upgrading drives & cachecards etc) and so I am prepared to try and hack a machine so it will be NZ friendly. My kiwi friends stayed with me last year and needless to say loved my tivos so it would be really cool to unwrap a nice hacked tivo for them.
I have aquired a cheap UK tivo with a turbonet card so I am hoping it should be fairly easy to sort out.
Can someone confirm this what I need to do:

1. download the install the thompson beta image found here:
http://forums.oztivo.net/showthread.php?t=1167
2.follow this documentation:
http://forums.oztivo.net/showthread.php?t=959

Does anyone have any other pointers that I must do?
Also the tivo I have does not have a subscription on it - I take it thats OK?

Many thanks

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One of the things to consider is what TV connection they currently have.

If you're using a UK TiVo then it will already support PAL .. so they can use the inbuilt tuner to receive Free-To-Air channels.

They may also have (or want to get) satellite TV ... which will mean Sky (www.skytv.co.nz). There are two different Sky options (Sky UHF or Sky Digital). I don't personally have any experience with getting Sky UHF and TiVo interoperating (anyone else comment?). I have Sky Digital (which requires a satellite dish on the roof).

With the Sky Digital service there are a couple (or more??) different decoder boxes. The one I have - a PACE decoder - works fine with TiVo. But I have heard of problems getting the Motorola model working (IR codes for channel changing via the TiVo are problematic - although someone may have solved this by now??).

Something to bear in mind anyway ...

Cheers (and nice present!!)

:D

Mark

Oh ... and should have said that "Yes - not having a subscription is fine".

The (EPG) program data is supplied through the kind services of people from this forum (thank-you, thank-you, thank-you!). There is no TiVo subscription in this part of the world anyway ..

Mark

thanks for your suggestions guys but I think I am biting off more than I can chew.
It would have been great to give a tivo my kiwi friends on christmas day but I think thats unrealistic.......looking at that thread is looks like a real challenge to set it up, especially doing it from back here in the UK.
Would it be viable for me to ask for an image from someone from a working NZ thompson tivo?
I guess if someone has a working setup that would work well in Napier (seems most of you guys are in Auckland) I could copy that across.
Better still, I am actually in Auckland for a couple of days before I get down to Napier and if someone could image it for me and check it works I would obviously pay them and be really greatful. I would be the daddy if I could get this done for them.

I've made a list of the changes needed to make to the NZ Thomson beta image to make it work for Wellington, and it is probably going Ok now. The only issue I see is what region is napier? Other wise should be able to list what you need do to finish the beta off. Can anyone clarify?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TimesOwn

I've made a list of the changes needed to make to the NZ Thomson beta image to make it work for Wellington, and it is probably going Ok now. The only issue I see is what region is napier? Other wise should be able to list what you need do to finish the beta off. Can anyone clarify?

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thanks TimesOwn. I wonder if an Auckland setup would work fine?

We can add an FTA setup for Napier, or wherever else is required. What we need is a list of the channels and their corresponding frequencies for the local area.

Simply post a request into this forum, one of us will pick it up.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DJC

We can add an FTA setup for Napier, or wherever else is required. What we need is a list of the channels and their corresponding frequencies for the local area.

Simply post a request into this forum, one of us will pick it up.

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Thanks DJC - I'm note sure what you mean. I know my kiwi family have sky but I don't know what the channels and their corresponding frequencies for their area are.

For the FTA channels you might be able to guess which transmitter they are near (and therefore the corresponding frequencies) from this site:
http://www.lincrad.co.nz/transmitters.htm

For sky digital the channel numbers are the same all over NZ, so you only need to figure out which brand/model of set top box they are using so you can choose the correct codes for the IR blaster.