Any updates on the NICAM issue?

**Professor Yaffle** · 12-06-2007, 08:02 AM

I have just taken delivery of a US Tivo, and I was going to be using it with an STB but for various reasons, this isn't going to happen for at least a couple of months. So, I have been looking at PAL modding it, and while I would be happy for dual mono for a few months I am curious as to whether anyone had got any closer to getting NICAM working.

A few months back there was talk of solving the problem by using a 3410D or STV8216 on a daughter board as a sort of hybrid mark 1 mod. Did anyone give this a go in the end?

Also, is there anyone in the Wellington area who has some desoldering equipment I could use, and possibly has some experience of doing the PAL mod. I have only just arrived here from overseas and I literally only have a set of screwdrivers at the moment! ;-). Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

**catdog** · 12-06-2007, 10:28 AM

Yes I managed to get NICAM working using a STV8216 on a daughter board - the original prototype has been running for a month or two now without any issues and sounds much better/clearer than the mono sound from the tuner.

I ran into an issue that the default settings were all fine - except the outputs are muted on startup! The tivo I2C bus *should* have been capable of turning the mute off, but for some unknown reason it refuses to communicate with devices at normally unused addresses. I have just completed writing code for a PIC microprocessor which turns the mute off instead, which is a simple workaround for the problem (the original prototype used a larger micro).

I will tidy up the schematic and post it to the original thread asap.