AltEPG

I bought two Tivos at the time of the £100 clear out by Dixons et al. One of them I lifetime subbed and subsequently fitted a larger hard drive (a Maxtor 120Gbyte which later failed and was itself replaced by a Samsung 250 Gbyte which is still going strong - touch wood) and a network card. The second Tivo was briefly powered up to check it but was then consigned to the loft where it remains still with its v1.something software. I couldn't justify the monthly or lifetime sub.

Thinking that I might bring the second Tivo into use after the Alternative EPG materialises, my question is should I get it down from the loft now and get the 2.5.5 software on it and do a guided setup before 1 June? Or will everything be possible after then?

I'm really glad to hear that at least some UK Tivos are not destined for the scrap bin yet. Well done!

If you will be re-imaging the disk or getting an upgrade disk with the Alt EPG image pre-loaded, its not necessary.
If you are planning to try connecting directly to the Emulator (with the disk as it is), you might want to get it connected to Tivo before June to get the OS upgraded.

Unfortunately if you don't have a current sub then the TiVo won't do a guided setup. (i.e. just because they've stopped taking money for the monthly subs you still need to have a current subscription to get any data. )

spitfires wrote:Unfortunately if you don't have a current sub then the TiVo won't do a guided setup. (i.e. just because they've stopped taking money for the monthly subs you still need to have a current subscription to get any data. )

I dimly recollect that when getting going with the Tivo that I put into service, there was a 'grace period' (a week or two?) during which everything worked (ie including guided setup) without a sub. Indeed, I've just dug out the 'Tivo Viewer's Guide' and looked at page 3 where it gives 3 steps:
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1. Connecting the Tivo Recorder
2. Guided Setup. Guided setup takes about 20 to 30 minutes of your time plus 2 to 3 hours to download, process and index .......
3. Activating Tivo. Once you have connected and set up your Tivo you must activate it by callings Tivo customer sevice.
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The order of steps 2 and 3 does appear to support my recollection. I'm fairly sure that the second Tivo box has never connected with Tivo's server.

I don't remember if the OS upgrade on the TiVo I put into service happened before or after I subbed it.

Will the Alternative EPG provide only the EPG or will one be able to (re)do a guided setup after 1 June?

I don't know if TiVo will still send the OS upgrade before a subscription is agreed -It might depend on the status of the box - alongside "Account in good standing" and "Lifetime subscription", there are separate codes for "Never set up", "Account closed", "Stolen" etc..

If they do, it might be of interest, for those of us doing the development, to see how it works.... (Has anybody got an image of a 1.3 hdd?)

As for Guided Setup, yes it will be supported - indeed, it's almost certain that you will be required to do it in order to reconfigure your box for the new server.

So I finally found some time to retrieve the virgin TIvo (NB 'v' not 'V' !) from the loft and connect it up. It wanted to go through the initial set up and I let it do so. Selected 'Aerial only', entered my postcode and it made its first call. After that it wanted to do another call to get guide data. At this point it was operational and System Info showed it was indeed still on v1.5 software. I forced a daily call and it was using the phone line for about an hour. After a while System Info showed 'Pending restart'. I restarted it and it is now on v2.5.5001-1-023.

Tivo Account Status: 2: Not set up, 7 days left
Call

There is no phone number after the 'Call' whereas I am sure there was a number there when I looked to see Software Version 1.5. Not that it matters now