Dual external input, dual Foxtel digital STB

[ksteele]

Hi,

I've had a S1 112 Phillips tivo for a few years, did the 2nd audio input mod a while ago.

I've now got the opprtunity where I live to get Foxtel again, figured go all out, get a 2nd STB, and go 'dual tuner' using two external inputs.

I have not gone to the trouble of doing a PAL tuner mod yet, as I use digital FTA anyway...

I am in Canberra.

I just cannot get it to handle 2 external foxtel STB's.

I've got the IR working fine, I can see both STB's in guided setup, chosen sat & cable. Selected the composite and svideo inputs.

However.

There does not seem to be an option (at least selecting ACT), to choose a 2nd Foxtel Digital guide data. Only Free to Air and Transact.

Since transact is there, my guess is that the box will happily do two external inputs (eg foxtel and transact), and those channel numbers are probably different.

How can I setup two external foxtel boxes? Do I choose a different region? And when setup, given the channel numbers will be exactly the same for each, how will it handle switching to the 2nd input?

I picture it working the same as MCE, if you tell it to record one channel, if you then switch to play another, it lets you (and can record it) without giving you the "stop recording this channel message", it just switches to the 2nd source.

At the moment it is just one list of channels and some FTA. I am presuming I need it to at least show double channel lists with (sat) and (cab) alternating or something.

Help?

Cheers,

Kieran

[petestrash]

I think you may be a little confussed.

The S1 TiVo can only record from one source at a time, so there would be no point in connecting 2 Foxtel boxes.

the 2nd input mod is meant to give you extra 'different' sources, like digital FTA + foxtel.

Peter.

[ksteele]

I had this feeling you were going to say that

There was always hope. Thanks for clearing it up.

So I either get another Series 1 (and see how people are dealing with multi tivo situs), or use an MCE box with dual analog tuners and inputs, or get a series 2.

It's been a while now since a few people are running S2 in Oz.

Is it working well for you, and can you record two external foxtel STB with it?

Cheers,

Kieran

[petestrash]

So I either get another Series 1 (and see how people are dealing with multi tivo situs), or use an MCE box with dual analog tuners and inputs, or get a series 2.

There is no problem using multiple TiVo's in the same room, you just select a different remote code for each unit.

As for the S2 see below.

It's been a while now since a few people are running S2 in Oz.

Is it working well for you, and can you record two external foxtel STB with it?

Again, the current S2 standalone units have only one input can only handle one stream at a time. The next generation TiVo's are rummored to have dual inputs, but these have not been released yet, and most likely will only run on the current software, which means you will need a paid TiVo subscription even to use it here.

I think you may be getting confused with directivo satellite units, which have twin satellite tuners. But I am not aware of anyone converting these for use in Australia.

Peter.

[ksteele]

Bugger.

I should of course search the forums again for this one, but just in summary :-

I notice a bunch of tivo's in your tag line - are they linked together in any way in terms of programming or anything else? Shared to-do list? Or do you just record one sort of program on one and others on the others, and then each hits your tv/plasma/projector on a separate input?

In other words for what reason / what are the pro's / con's of multiple tivos...

Feel free to point me to a thread or tell me to search on this on...

thanks again.

Kieran

[petestrash]

You are probably getting the latest TiVo software mixed up with what we run here in Australia.

The features you are talking about are part of the TiVo to Go package. This requires a paid subscription to the real TiVo service to work. I think there are only 1 or two people in Australia with Paid S2 service and they are using these machines for experimenting.

Most people run S1's with V3 and a few of us use v4.01b with the S2's.

As standard the S1's do not talk to each other, there are hacks that can start FXP transfers from one to the other, but I have not found them practical.

The S2's could in theory be interfaced to each other via the "multiroom viewing" function, but since I only have 1 I have not tried it.

Personally I only use the S2 as a backup unit in case of a missed channel change or some other issue on the most watched shows. The picture quality is not good enough for regular use.

All the S1's are setup with different SP's and I manually resolve conflicts. They all feed into a whole house RF modulator system, so any tivo can be watched and conrolled from any room.

Again there are patches for automatic conflict resolution, but I have not found them to be reliable, so I don't use them.

So, as you asked the pro's are I can record all six FTA channels at the same time. But mostly they record shows that run after each other on the same channel, but using different TiVo's. This way each show recorded is only one file, even if the stations are running very late. I have variable endpadding of between 5 and 25 minutes depending on time of day and channel.

Con's: conflict resolutions take about an hour a week to sort out. a bunch of extra remotes on the coffee table (now using a Harmony).

The only things to read are really on oztivo.net, reading elsewhere will discuss features not used here and just add to the confussion.

Peter.