AltEPG

One thing I've kept to myself until now is that I've reclaimed the "tivoclips" space on my tivo. I did this about a year ago and intended to post about it on tivocommunity explaining how to do it, but never had time to do it. I could do so now. This is the space reserved for video downloads (Showcases containing movie trailers, we never got those) and forced recordings (Dossa and Joe, we had one of those). TiVo grabs disc space for this depending on the size of your disc - I got an extra 8GB back which was enough for 3 movies when I was having a "No free time/full tivo/busy todo list" disc space crisis.

I realise that to mention this is a distraction from the core task . The reason I am now is because I thought that as the less technical users from around the country might be posting tivos and hard drives around it might be nice to give people the disc space back, if there is going to be a standard image and there's only one chance. A far-out alternative is to use this space ourselves and include Showcases with videos every now and then if the emulator supports that part of the service, but i don't think the dial-up users would like it much!

The same principle applies to other little niggles - off the top of my head without having seen the AltEPG image myself:
* flickering selection bar - easily fixed with replacement images (attached). The originals are appalling around the curves even if there was no flicker.
* squashed yellow/green dots in Now Playing (they are circles on PC but not on the TV because PAL pixels aren't square and the guy doing them didn't realise) - again replaceable
* more padding options - just by changing the relevant string in MFS you can easily add more, and they all work. I always hated only having 1,2,5 mins with 3 and 4 missing; and the huge jumps between 1hr, 1 1/2hrs and 3 hrs longer often cause clashes with a later ToDo programme if you're trying to extend an in-progress recording and know that EndPad won't save you (eg F1 race). So I added them. 1 1/4hrs, 1 3/4hrs, 2hrs, 2 1/2hrs, etc. (Half-minutes work perfectly too but might be too much for most.)
* more "Keep at Least" options. And introduce some more Britishness at the same time. Mine is "Until space needed, Until I delete, 1 day, 2 days, 3 days, 4 days, 5 days, 6 days, A week, 10 days, A fortnight, 3 weeks, A month". Works the same way as the padding.
* many typos and spelling mistakes in other MFS strings
* the telephone number for support that is displayed on screen (I suggest changing it to a URL instead, it's only text) for various error messages (some are quite rare and I can't remember how to get to those screens!)
* the telephone number/message on the GSOD
* the mwstate fix (binary patch to tivoapp)
* iicsetw (the nice version posted to the forum one that doesn't lock up) to set the RGB input colour/luminance at startup. The values you need varies from tivo to tivo though but you could perhaps improve on the factory defaults.
* mode0 with LJ's fix and VBR bitrates - I assume the image already does these

Anyway I thought I'd throw it out there and see what people think. I remember TiVoweb's Info+ module and TiVoweb+ got the free space calculations wrong too when I did it, as they made assumptions which weren't right. I hand-hacked my copies to my new fixed value.

from tvlog, BEFORE:
Mar 27 09:55:18 (none) Scheduler[167]: DISK SPACE: Total: 227502 Live cache: 2412 Overhead: 394
Mar 27 09:55:18 (none) Scheduler[167]: TIVO CLIPS DISK SPACE: Total: 9765 Overhead: 53

AFTER:
May 16 18:05:27 (none) Scheduler[171]: DISK SPACE: Total: 236868 Live cache: 1608 Overhead: 280
May 16 18:05:27 (none) Scheduler[171]: TIVO CLIPS DISK SPACE: Total: 400 Overhead: 53

[edit: added v5 selection bars, and dots]

This somewhat echoes what beloved and I have been saying, which is that in an ideal world what we'd like is:

Two new HDDs (one for each of our TiVo-chums)
Decent size
Decent make (Western DIgital would be my favourite)

To include:
Whatever we need post 1/6/11 to make it work
The TiVoweb tools etc.
vi and the various other bits we had to squirt onto these ones to be able to muck about under the bonnet
All the little hacks that are lying about, whether we use them straight-off or not (or ever), but they're there

i.e. the TiVo disk to end all TiVo disks. And we'd happily pay good money for those, to be honest, for the time and effort of someone putting that together.

The altepg build's we are now using are pretty good, they include most of the best hacks and some new stuff like dhcp etc.

P.S.
WD is not a good choice for TiVo's !!

WD is not a good choice for TiVo's !!

Really? Why's that? Genuinely interested, on the grounds I'd put WD in almost anything I got my paws on if I had the chance, based on experience with Seagate (argh!), Maxtor etc.!

Well its been a while since I tried any WD's in a TiVo because when they launched their Green series of drives a few years ago, the firmware made them incompatible with TiVo's.
Now its simply not worth the risk of buying WD only to find that its not compatible and have the hassle of returning them.

I'm not a fan of Maxtor's either, but I have had far fewer problems with Seagate than Western Digital.
Peoples experiences vary, in the last few years, I have predominantly used Hitachi and Samsungs and had very few premature failures with either!

I installed two TiVos with a 1TB WD RE2-GP, product code WD1000FYPS, back in January 2008 and they have worked flawlessly ever since.

These are their enterprise drives with supposedly a longer MTBF (and a 5 year guarantee), so not cheap, but they do run cool and quiet. WD don't quote the spindle speed, but most reviewers seem to conclude that it is 5400rpm, or at least that's its base speed - it's possible the drive electronics varies the spindle speed.

I know these drives get recommended on the other TiVo forums from time to time as good candidate drives, so I imagine that if there was a problem with the first generation Green Power drives it has now been resolved. WD are now up to RE4 - which includes a 2TB drive , though I think 1TB may be the sweet spot for a TiVo - 1TB runs fine in my TiVo with CacheCard (and extra 16MB of RAM as it happens), and a Season Pass list 100s long (although most now expired). The disk runs in a permanently full state - I just let old recordings which aren't set as "Keep until I delete" drop off the end on the basis that if they are that old I am not likely to miss them. I think I have about 80 pages of Mode 0 recordings so plenty really Menus and the Now Playing list are normally very responsive unless I happen to catch it when it is "thinking" e.g. just about to start recording.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=40
http://forums.storagereview.com/index.p ... d1000fyps/

I used an Addonics SATA to IDE convertor, but I see no reason why the cheap ones now available from Hong Kong etc on eBay shouldn't work equally well.

I shall bow to the greater HDD/TiVo experience of the assembled TiVoites and install basically whatever you sell me

The altepg build's we are now using are pretty good, they include most of the best hacks and some new stuff like dhcp etc.

Found the HDDs at the TiVoland site, a couple of questions please?

1. How do I know what to choose in the "Teletext Disable" box?

2. Are these already / are they planned to be ready set-up for using the TyTools on a PC to pull recordings off of them? The install on our last disks is flaaaaakey, and only works when there's an L in the month.

3. I dimly remember when we first networked ours that there was an issue with them having a soft MAC address and being clones they both had the same one, so we had a clash on the network which took a while to iron out and I don't know if the documents to resolve this are still on the net. Am I remembering correctly, and if so can someone remember how to do it and/or send out two HDDs with different ones?

4. Are orders being accepted now, or only after 1/6/11?

I'm seeing this not only as keeping our TiVos alive, but an opportunity to make them a bit whizzier as well, maybe! We never did the Mode 0 change as I recall, so might do that too, that sort of thing. But I'm happy in an -ix environment as long as I've got vi and some decent instructions

Orddu wrote:

3. I dimly remember when we first networked ours that there was an issue with them having a soft MAC address and being clones they both had the same one, so we had a clash on the network which took a while to iron out and I don't know if the documents to resolve this are still on the net. Am I remembering correctly, and if so can someone remember how to do it and/or send out two HDDs with different ones?

In Altepg3 image, if you have a turbonet card (or clone) the MAC address is set in /etc/rc.d/rc.net.turbonet:

Code: Select all

#
#!/bin/sh
#

if /sbin/insmod -f /lib/modules/ax88796.o macaddr=101010 timing=3 ; then
 export DYNAMIC_NET_DEV=eth0
 mkdir -p /var/state/dhcp
 /sbin/dhclient -q eth0 2>/dev/null &
fi


This sets MAC to 00:0B:AD:10:10:10 by default

There is a similar script for cachecards (/etc/rc.d/rc.net.cachecard)

Ah brilliant thank you

Orddu wrote:

The altepg build's we are now using are pretty good, they include most of the best hacks and some new stuff like dhcp etc.

Found the HDDs at the TiVoland site, a couple of questions please?

1. How do I know what to choose in the "Teletext Disable" box?

If you had and required 2.5.5a previously. Basically if your TV's teletext decoder chip was made by philips, it probably could not handle TiVo's teletext functions which results in the TV menu's operating erratically or locking up.

Orddu wrote:2. Are these already / are they planned to be ready set-up for using the TyTools on a PC to pull recordings off of them? The install on our last disks is flaaaaakey, and only works when there's an L in the month.

I think this build has mfsftp installed and may just need to be enabled in the boot-up script

Orddu wrote:3. I dimly remember when we first networked ours that there was an issue with them having a soft MAC address and being clones they both had the same one, so we had a clash on the network which took a while to iron out and I don't know if the documents to resolve this are still on the net. Am I remembering correctly, and if so can someone remember how to do it and/or send out two HDDs with different ones?

NIC's made for the TiVo were initially made by end-users which turned into mini businesses. They were not allocated a range of unique MAC addresses to designate individually to each card produced, This was always the responsibility of the end-user and only necessary if they had more than one TiVo on the same network. It was also always an option in the NIC tools to change the MAC address just as easily as changing the IP address.

Orddu wrote:4. Are orders being accepted now, or only after 1/6/11?

We are taking orders now for the current build which is best used on a networked TiVo. Dial-up users may prefer to wait as final settings are not possible until we have a more reliable DUN connection working.

Tivomas's hosted dialup is working reliably, just may be a tad busy over the coming weeks

1. Don't think we ever had to, so that's OK!
2. Lovely
3. Just some naggling with it then, that's alright.
4. I feel a couple of disks coming on pretty soon then!

Thanks!

Nearly all of this goes way over my aging head ..

don't want to bother folks unnecessarily, but there are so many threads with all sorts of odd bits of info ..

but just one question ..

Will we dial-up tivo owners need to get a new disk drive? .. some entries appear to say not ..

sorry .. two questions

if so, what will be the cost involved?

(if this info is elsewhere on the forum .. sorry to have raised the queries, and please point me to the relevant area)

Thanks

@bandsp

In theory. No you can keep your drive. Change a telephone number and reset the machine.

You will loose existing recordings

There are however benefits to a new drive.

The best in my view been the addition of end pad. Which adds time to the beginning and end of programs if you are not recording anything else, so that you do not loose the end due to minor overruns by BBC etc.

You can always update the drive later, does not have to be done immediately.

tivomas wrote:@bandsp

In theory. No you can keep your drive. Change a telephone number and reset the machine.

You will loose existing recordings

There are however benefits to a new drive.

The best in my view been the addition of end pad. Which adds time to the beginning and end of programs if you are not recording anything else, so that you do not loose the end due to minor overruns by BBC etc.

You can always update the drive later, does not have to be done immediately.

Thank you, Tivomas ..

Will go the non-new disc route for the moment ..

will need to start saving for a new disk

bandsp