ukchan: How to ....

[jph116]

We are trying to set a TIVO-community in Denmark with some ( actually a lot!!) of help from a Dutch guy ( Dennis van Onselen). At the moment we are 8 members with 4 us – and 2 uk-tivos – 2 more Thomson’s on the way.

The Thomson tivos is giving us some problems – the channel provider is altering the frequency of the channels from time to time. Until now we have had some great help from your community on building the ukchan-file – but we can not keep pestering other people with our problem - Is there any way we can chance the frequency of a channel on a Thomson tivo like it is possible on a us-tivo in palmod.?

If not - we have learn to make and compile the ukchan.o.- file our self. Any link to information on this is appreciated – as will any other info that can help us.

Sincerely
joergen

[thomson]

Is there any way we can chance the frequency of a channel on a Thomson tivo like it is possible on a us-tivo in palmod.?

It is possible, although I like keeping code (particularly kernel modules) as small as possible so prefer to hardcode it

If not - we have learn to make and compile the ukchan.o.- file our self. Any link to information on this is appreciated – as will any other info that can help us.

Okay... I have attached the code for the ukchan module and have uploaded a cut-down (minimal) gcc compiler for the UK Tivo here

You just need to extract both these into a directory on your Tivo and then you will be able to compile the module yourself. Should be able to do something like the following:

# mkdir /var/hack/UKChan
# cd /var/hack/UKChan
# unzip /tmp/ukchan-2.5.5_dk-nicam.zip
# tar xvfz /tmp/ukchan-gcc.tgz

<edit the ukchan code>

# ./bin/make

[jph116]

Hi Thomson

It seems as you are always there to help us out – you have given us some ting to work with now.
Thank you so must - We really appreciate it.

Sincerely
Joergen

[jph116]

Every ting is going great, I am compiling like a professional – at lest I was until a friend of mine wanted to chance the software on his UK-thomson from ver. 2.5.5 to ver. 3.0.

At first I tried to use the ukchan-2.5.5. File on ver. 3,0 – but that just made TIVO go into a constant reboot. Then I tried the ukchan30 from Oztivo – it worked – in mono – but it worked – except from one ting: I can not get my channel 3 to work on 502250 HZ. It seems as if there is some limits to what frequency the differed channels can use – if I move 520250 to channel 5 it is working OK – unfortunately that would give us some trouble with setting up the emulator, TIVO and tv – I have the same problemwith channel 16 - is there a way around this ?

I have been working with this problem for the last 8 – 10 days and I stock now – any ideas is welcome – and an other ting - is there a nicam-version of ukchan30 out there ?

Joergen

[thomson]

a friend of mine wanted to chance the software on his UK-thomson from ver. 2.5.5 to ver. 3.0.

I do not see any reason to use v3.0 over v2.5.5... There are a few things that v3.0 does that are not ideal (such as rename manual recordings). In my opinion v2.5.5 is by far the better choice (particularly for the UK Thomson).

Then I tried the ukchan30 from Oztivo – it worked – in mono – but it worked – except from one thing: I can not get my channel 3 to work on 502250 HZ. It seems as if there is some limits to what frequency the different channels can use – if I move 520250 to channel 5 it is working OK

Sorry I can't really help with this one... I do not know of any restrictions that would cause problems. I am sure that this can be got to work, but I would still suggest sticking with the v2.5.5 image (it is more reliable than the v3.0 software). I have the latest packages up and running on this version without any issues: AutoSpace, Links, SliceUtils, Tpip, EndPadPlus, Logos, SlideShow, TyServer, FanControl, MFS_FTP, TCS, UKChan, BufferHack, Games , TCTimeOut, CheckSchedule, MonitorIP, Teletext, Compiler, HDefRec, NewText2OSD, TivoFTPd, ZX81, Cron, Html2Txt, NoFlicker, TivoPOP, DNS, IIC, TivoTitle, DST, IRTools, DailyMail, InetUtils, ScreenSaver, TivoWeb, EditTitle, JPEGwriter, TivoWebPlus. I am more than happy to upload any or all of these if you are having trouble getting something working - in addition to this, if you are having trouble with a particular package then I am happy to have a shot at getting it working.

is there a nicam-version of ukchan30 out there ?

Change the following line (at the bottom of getFreq_x):
iicw4(0x88, 0x10, 0x00200003); /* B/G Dual FM Stereo */
to read:
iicw4(0x88, 0x10, 0x00200008); /* PAL B/G NICAM Stereo */

[jph116]

Hi Thomson
It seems as the problem is related to the frequency table – if I change the frequency in f = (freq-471250)*1000 + 510150000; to the Danish start frequency for the UHF area ( 470250 ) channel 3 is working - but then 5 and 6 is not.

Not knowing how the setup around the frequency table is working – I convinced my friend to take your advice and go back to ver. 2.5.5 - Thank you so must – again

[petestrash]

Can't help you on the UK chan thats Thomsons baby.

But as for TiVo in Canada & HK, TiVo launched in Canada a couple of years ago providing full guide data, but for some reason did not retail boxes in Canada. The recent announcement is just that TiVo's will now be available for sale at a few big box retailers in Canada.

As for Hong Kong, it is the supposed to be the next Market TGC (TiVo Greater China) expanded into this year. But there seems to have been lower than anticpated demand for TiVo in there current markets of Taiwan and China, which has slowed or even stopped there expansion.

Their websites are currently offline (http://www.tgc-usa.com, www.tgc-china.com.cn), which doesn't bode well for the planned HK & Singapore expansion.

Peter.

[Bill Agee]

Thanks!

Your post made me dig deeper and I found a Micronas MSP34x0g_4pd datasheet that provided an additional option for PAL I as follows:

iicw4(0x88, 0x10, 0x0020000A); /* PAL I */

I'm guessing this will work as well though not sure whether it is stereo or what, and am throwing out in case it helps anyone else.

And you were absolutely right, a reboot caused the Segmentation Fault issue to go away.

A couple things I'm not too clear about though.

First, you mentioned I should comment out the code related to RFOutputChannel. There were two sections in the .c file that refer to RFOutputChannel, one long and one short. Should I just delete both sections between the #ifdef/#endif? Why is this important? Something to do with the SCART connection?

Second, the MakeFile includes the following - sorry but I don't understand it - seems to include some references to NICAM and NZ channels that I've highlighted:

PATH=/bin:./bin
CC = gcc
CFLAGS = -D__KERNEL__ -I./include -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -O2 -fomit-frame-pointer -mcpu=403 -msoft-float -DMODULE -DEXPORT_SYMTAB

all: ukchan-2.5.5_dk-nicam.o

ukchan-2.5.5_dk-nicam.o: ukchan-2.5.5_dk-nicam.c
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) -DNZTVCHANNELS -DNICAMSTEREOMODE -c -o ukchan-2.5.5_nz-nicam.o ukchan-2.5.5_nz.c

clean:
rm *.o

Thanks!!!

[thomson]

First, you mentioned I should comment out the code related to RFOutputChannel. There were two sections in the .c file that refer to RFOutputChannel, one long and one short. Should I just delete both sections between the #ifdef/#endif? Why is this important? Something to do with the SCART connection?

It's just not required if you are going to be running the standard PAL-I system. And yes you just delete everthing between the #ifdev/#endif or just make sure you do not have the "flag" defined (see below)

Second, the MakeFile includes the following - sorry but I don't understand it - seems to include some references to NICAM and NZ channels that I've highlighted:

$(CC) $(CFLAGS) -DNZTVCHANNELS -DNICAMSTEREOMODE -c -o ukchan-2.5.5_nz-nicam.o ukchan-2.5.5_nz.c

The -D<flag> options just set the two flags NZTVCHANNELS and NICAMSTEROMODE which means that the code that lays between the #ifdef <flag> and #endif will be included when compiled. As you are running in PAL-I you probably don't need to do anything other than change the channel frequencies (and you can use either the Australian or the NewZealand channels as a basis for this).