Results 1 to 2 of 2

Thread: Tivo in PAL-N

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Buenos Aires, Argentina
    Posts
    12

    Smile Tivo in PAL-N

    Dear All,
    For those that have not been taking a look to the Hardware section, I'm MarianoK, I'm from argentina, and I'm trying to domesticate my Sony 2000 (USA) Tivo and teach him to speak PAL-N.
    A few months ago I found a great match for the tunner, same model TDMH, but in a PAL-N cable box, I was hoping to do a tipical tuner-mod and i got a tech to take a look at the steps (I can not do it myself).

    The tech was willing to do it, but is unavailable for while, so I had plenty of time to work on my Argentinean version of PALMOD that I knew i was going to need.
    I used the latest source i found (3.2) and started playing arround in preparation for when the tuner get's swap.

    The tech mantioned to me a few times that he really did not see the point in swapping the units as PAL-N and NTSC are pretty close to each other (when the transform a TV or VCR from PAL-N to NTSC, they only change the circuity sligtly do the tunner uses a diferent set of crystals).

    I was playing arround, trying to get the best configuration, when i found (in the SAA7114 datasheet) that subaddress 0x0e, bits 6 to 4 would allow me to specify the TV standard

    D[6:4] color standard selection CSTD[2:0]
    000...50 Hz/625 lines: PAL BGDHI (4.43 MHz)
    ........60 Hz/525 lines: NTSC M (3.58 MHz)
    001...50 Hz/625 lines: NTSC 4.43 (50 Hz)
    ........60 Hz/525 lines: PAL 4.43 (60 Hz)
    010...50 Hz/625 lines: combination-PAL N (3.58 MHz)
    ........60 Hz/525 lines: NTSC 4.43 (60 Hz)
    011...50 Hz/625 lines: NTSC N (3.58 MHz)
    ........60 Hz/525 lines: PAL M (3.58 MHz)
    100...50 Hz/625 lines: reserved
    ........60 Hz/525 lines: NTSC-Japan (3.58 MHz)
    101...50 Hz/625 lines: SECAM
    ........60 Hz/525 lines: reserved
    110...reserved; do not use
    111...reserved; do not use
    "This can not work !!!!, o can it ???" I figured that worst case scenario, this would kill the tuner ... and I was planning to change it anyway, so I did the change, compile the version, uploaded to the Tivo and reboot it ... playing that iw was not going to kill it.
    I added
    iicw1(VIDEO_DECODER, CHROMINANCE_CONTROL_1 , 0x22); // set PAL N
    right before writing to the TUNER_INPUT

    Guess what ???? IT WORKS !!!!!!! I have a beautifull color image !!!!!

    I still have a long way to go ... I can only get 1/3 of my local channels (I need to find the correct frecuency range for VHF-L/H and UHF for this NTSC tuner), I have no audio at all, and the PAL-N composite output from the Tivo Looks bad (B&W) in some of my TVs).
    Still, I'm a happy camper.

    I will continue to experiment this path and see if I can avoid going the hardware route.

    Best Regards to all, Marianok.

    P.S.: I hope no one minds that I x-posted part this from the Hardware area, but I'm sure someone here will be interested in my findings, and you can probably help me with the few issues I still have.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Buenos Aires, Argentina
    Posts
    12

    Talking Works !!!!!

    Dear all,
    Just a Follow up on my previous, I finally manage to have my Sony SRV-2000 (with original NTSC tuner) fully working in PAL-N.

    I can only get 1/3 of my local channels (I need to find the correct frecuency range for VHF-L/H and UHF for this NTSC tuner),
    This was actually due to 2 issues, the frequncies boundaries (143000 and 380000, instead of 170000 and 450000 of the PALBG Samsung), and that I was missing some channels in my lineup (easily solved with the add-whole-channel.tlc)


    I have no audio at all,
    This took me longer, until I learned what I needed to send to the mps3430G.
    Code:
    #define BTSC_Stereo  0x0020        // NTSC and PAL-N standard
    #define BTSC_Mono   0x0021        // NTSC and PAL-N standard
    I also needed to change the slave mode of the chip to detect PAL-n sound:
    iicw4(MSP_CHIP, WRITE_DEMOD, MODE | 0x2018); // set device to slave mode 100000



    and the PAL-N composite output from the Tivo Looks bad (B&W) in some of my TVs).
    This one drove me crazy !!!! I've a DELL monitor with video input and it was corectly showing the color image, the info screen stated PAL@50hz.

    But my TV was showing a B&W image with red and blue bars. The TV is NTSC/PAL-N/PAL-M capable.

    After a while of playing with the SAA7120/1 datasheet (and monking with diferent settings and addresses), I realized that the key was in addresses 63/64/65/66. But the examples are for NTSC and PAL-BG ... no PAL-N.
    Thanks to the wikipedia i was able to understand what this was about, and This outdated datasheet gave me the last piece of the puzle.

    Code:
    		iicw1(VIDEO_ENCODER, 0x63, 0x1e);
    		iicw1(VIDEO_ENCODER, 0x64, 0x94);
    		iicw1(VIDEO_ENCODER, 0x65, 0xf6);
    		iicw1(VIDEO_ENCODER, 0x66, 0x21);
    this worked right away !!!!

    So, now my NTSC tuner can tune to ARGentinean frecuencies in PAL-N, has corect color and audio, and same for the output.
    Thanks a LOT to everyone that work on the palmod and the rest of the Hack that allowed me to do this !!!!!

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •