AltEPG

Hi, I am trying to buy a new STB to use with my Tivo as my area is going digital soon so DTV will become reliable (hopefully) looking through the other forum the devices with available codes seem quit old. Is anyone investigating more upto date codes for cheap freeview stb's?

Actually, it would be good to know if we could load some more modern IR codes into future AltEPG disk images (or even download them!). For example, I not too long ago bought a cheap Argos STB and added the codes to my tivo, which I am sure many other people have had to do. I sent them to tivoportal but they never appeared.

Would love to know how you do that as I had a terrible time finding an STB when the last one broke. Even some tips on where it is in the tivo files would help and I can start investigating how to do it.

See http://www.garysargent.co.uk/tivo/stb-unsupported.htm. There are also some notes about this on tivocommunity somewhere.

Note that Gary's page is out of date: nowadays you don't need a Pronto. I got the codes by buying a Logitech Harmony 515 remote from Amazon UK (less than £30 inc P&P). I found notes on the web about how to use the Harmony "IR Analysis Center" to get the Pronto codes from the STB remote, and then entered them into Gary's site. A lot cheaper than a real Pronto!

If anyone knows Gary, it might be worth asking him if we can get a copy of his "Pronto Converter" to host somewhere in case he ever stops hosting it.

By the way, just in case anyone wants the codes for the cheap £9.99 STB I bought in Argos in June 2010 (own brand), the script is attached to this post. Apart from the Argos brand name, the only identification on the STB was "STB101".

It might also be worth looking at this thread:
http://www.tivoland.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=504

gcobb wrote:I found notes on the web about how to use the Harmony "IR Analysis Center" to get the Pronto codes from the STB remote, and then entered them into Gary's site.

I have a Technika STBHDH2010, and a Harmony 515 - I would like to get the Pronto codes for this STB. I have tried to find the notes you refer to but have had no success so far - please can you advise how to get the Pronto codes via the Harmony "IR Analysis Center?

In order to use Gary's script generator you need to get Pronto codes for the remote. I don't really remember the details about how I did that.

I think I found what I needed on the RC Forums (http://www.remotecentral.com/cgi-bin/mb ... y/list.cgi). In particular, http://www.remotecentral.com/cgi-bin/mb ... d.cgi?4442 is useful to get into the analysis center -- follow the first 4 steps.

I am not sure what I did then -- maybe I used the "Detect" button (unfortunately I don't have a Windows PC to hand to try it out). There might have been more info elsewhere on the same forum. I also remember a utility called "makehex" (search in the RC Forums for it) but I can't remember if I used that in the end or if that had been an earlier attempt.

If you get it to work I am sure a post to explain would be useful for others!

Hi,

If you can hold on for a couple of days, I have PM'ed Dave (over at TCF) about a source for new, compatible stb's. I will wait for his answer before saying anything more on his own forum

Martin

I too would be very interested in the facility to add new codes. I've been examining various small, low-power Freeview STB's with a view to integrating one internally into a Tivo similar to daves 1.5 set-up (to satisfy my OCD tendencies!). The ones that take the form of an over-sized SCART plug look particularly suitable. Other then a case or SCART socket mod the only real blocker is the remote codes.

Please don't mention the Sony - I've got one and it's far too big for what I have in mind

R.

I have been reading threads on the official Tivo forum and there seem to be a number of new devices working with existing codes. Would it be a good Idea to get a page is updates Gary's page with the new codes and get it hosted here somewhere?

gcobb wrote:In order to use Gary's script generator you need to get Pronto codes for the remote. I don't really remember the details about how I did that.

OK. I have found the time to test this out. Unfortunately one step in the Harmony process no longer seems to work (at least for me).

• Go to http://www.remotecentral.com/cgi-bin/mb ... d.cgi?4442 and follow the first 4 steps.
• Click on Detect and use the remote and the downloaded application to detect the key. This results in the "Visualize Infrared" page with the bars showing the visualisation.
• You should be able to click on the link labelled "convert" and get the Pronto code. But that gives an error, for me.

I think all the information in a pronto code is on that page: the Frequency and the durations of Carrier and Space are, I think, all that is needed to create the pronto code. But the conversion function seems to be broken.

It would not be hard for someone to read up on the Pronto code (see http://www.remotecentral.com/features/irdisp1.htm) and write a quick bit of perl or tcl which would allow us to copy those numbers off the page and generate the pronto codes. In fact, the Tivo codes themselves are very similar and could also be generated, thus not needing Gary's code generator either!

I don't have time to do that -- I am currently looking into TmsIds, which are currently missing from the AltEPG data. Any volunteers?

@gcobb. Not just you. I also get an error at the "convert to pronto code" stage.

Anyone tried to use their tivo to get codes? Someone posted this link either here or on tivo commuinity, not sure where but I don't have a STB remote to test it with that isn't supported by Tivo...

http://www.oztivo.net/twiki/bin/view/IR ... iceCreator

[Edit] actually thinking about it using one that is known to work and comparing the tivo codes for them might be a better way of debugging things. Hmmm must try make some time to have a tinker.

I was also very keen to get the TiVo to control an unsupported STB and put a lot of effort into achieving it. I did successfully use that site to capture IR codes using the TiVo . It was not easy but in the process I also tweaked the script (irSliceCreator.sh) because it was locking up and required a bit of manual intervention. So if you would like to try the tweaked script here it is.

All this code is from the OZTiVo guys I have just made some minor changes. It has only been tested on an altEPG image but I don't see why it shouldn't work on a standard build.

Download this tar file to your hack directory and expand it

Code: Select all

tar xvf ircodes.tar

It will create a directory called ircodes with all the necessary binaries in it. Read the OZTiVo site in the previous post to get an idea of how to use it. Fortunately there are some steps that are not necessary on a UK TiVo. Then go into the new directory and try it out.

Code: Select all

cd ircodes
./irSliceCreator.sh 43 5 5 29992 mySTB

Attempt to capture one code e.g. the number 5 button in "3 capture one key", go to "6 test remote codes" and if it changes your STB's channel you are well on the way, otherwise select the "2 determine frequency" and it will go through all the frequencies sending out that code. If you find one that works then use that frequency (the first argument). This all requires a LOT of patience and determination.

If you manage to capture and test all the codes then you need to select "7 output codes to device file" which will create a tcl file (mySTB.tcl).

You then do:

Code: Select all

tivosh
%source mySTB.tcl
%mySTB
%exit
dbsetx nnnnn/nnn CableBoxCodeNum 29992
reboot

There is an explanation on the OZTiVo site of how to get the nnnn/nnn values using tivoweb.

Your TiVo will then have total control of your unsupported STB .