AltEPG

I am still using dialup.

I could not give my TiVo a first birthday as I still have 60 odd hours of programs on disk, but I did clear out channels, and program guides before starting out on the move over.

Started the move to altepg last night and completed this morning after finding out the phone number has changed this morning

TiVo made it's calls, download data etc. Last thing was "please wait 4-8 hours...." which I think was for before setting up program recording.

During the repeat setup guide I did select "remove all channels" as that seemed the logical choice at the time.
I have one channel called NoNag but there is nothing on it and TiVo is saying that it cannot display live TV.

I have gone through the setup a second time and got the same result.
I know the aerial is still working as the DVD recorder/Freeview tuner which is piggybacked through the TiVo aerial still works.

Suggestions / thoughts / comments


Chris

It seems like I am very old skool and we dont use freeview with TiVo so more than a little disappointed after digging around to find the following:

A: You can use Sky, Freesat, Freeview, Virgin Media or TalkTalk cable.

During Guided Setup you can select the following:
For ---> Freeview, Virgin Media orTalkTalk --- select ---> Aerial + Digital Cable/Digital Terrestrial
For ---> Freesat, Sky or Sky HD --- select ---> Aerial + Digital Satellite
For ---> Freesat, Sky or Sky HD + Freeview, Virgin Media or TalkTalk --- select ---> Digital Satellite + Digital Cable/Digital Terrestrial

There is only limited support for analogue-only source - i.e. "old style" terrestrial television. This will be phased out nearly everywhere by April 2012 so you should be looking to switch to Freeview or Freesat. For those people who cannot yet get Freeview and are unable to install a satellite dish (e.g. you have a listed building), a limited number of analogue-only lineups are available. See here.


WHY oh WHY is this NOT in the installation instructions?

I have gone from a TiVo which worked admitted with now manual recording to a Sliver Lead Brick which will be heading with it's friend into landfill.....

Very unhappy!


Chris

I appreciate you may be unhappy, but the AltEPG team doesn't have the time or resources to complete replicate the original service. This is a community thing. People will help you if you ask for help. They don't typically respond well to complaints!

However all is not lost - the link you found will take you to another thread (viewtopic.php?f=8&t=546) which explains what can be done if you have an analogue-only setup.
If you post a request there and provide your details (region/transmitter/postcode/channels you receive) then poppadum may be able to set something up for you.

If that's all too much for you and you really have decided you don't want your TiVo any more then please don't skip it. Sell it on Ebay or free-cycle it. Someone will give it a good home.

I do understand it's a community thing and many TiVo's are customised/tweaked etc but when the installation instructions for a basic almost original TiVo give you basic mis-information, you should understand peoples frustration.

Something like:

If you wish to try AltEPG with an existing TiVo image using Dial-Up, you can try these simple instructions:

Please Note: The AltEPG service does not support analog TV.

1. Register your TiVo to use the service here.
2. From the "System Reset" menu, select "Repeat Guided Setup" and follow the prompts.
3. Proceed through Guided Setup as normal, except you must use 01000 as the Post Code!
4. TiVo needs to make two calls to the AltEPG server, before the first call, you will get a chance to change the Dialling Options.
5. Using the picture below for reference, change the "Set Dial Prefix" to 01274 DECOMISSIONED.
6. Complete Guided Setup as normal.

I even offered to write up install instructions some time ago, but heard nothing back.

I even got a second TiVo in to test this out on before doing it on the "live" system, but I never had the time to get it configured which is a real shame.

I have PM'd poppadum for some hope...

I would really like to keep TiVo going but it's really hard work to dig here / there and pick through postings for the golden nugget of information when all you want is a relatively simple / well documented procedure.
If you want to "go off piste" and install network cards etc great and I am all up for that and I would like to do it, but I dont have the time which is why also TiVo is a great product for me. I can watch TV when I want to..

I guess the next questions should be
How do I get my Freeview DVD player to talk to TiVo to record programs as it's a recorder in it's own way.
What Freeview box do I need - I see the Hauppage DEC 1100-T isnt that stable, but is a great idea. Are there other options?

Regards


Chris

chhym wrote:I would really like to keep TiVo going but it's really hard work to dig here / there and pick through postings for the golden nugget of information when all you want is a relatively simple / well documented procedure.
If you want to "go off piste" and install network cards etc great and I am all up for that and I would like to do it, but I dont have the time which is why also TiVo is a great product for me. I can watch TV when I want to..

I understand your frustration but the whole game has changed now. ALL our TiVos are now way "off piste". TiVo was a great product but this is now a volunteer effort not a business or a charity. Those without network cards are further off piste than those with only modems, or those whose users only watch analogue TV. Regarding the s/n ratio - nothing much can be done shy of some ruthless moderation. I just read everything from start to finish when I first joined, and accepted I had to put that effort in myself.

I'm truly amazed, are you saying your tv was only recording from 5 channels. Since you have a freeview recorder too I guess the death nell for your TiVo was ringing quite a while back.

Your TiVo will still work with a freeview receiver. Long live the TiVo.

I bought the DVD recorder as just that - as I wanted to archive shows from TiVo so I could watch them off my mac while away.
It had Freeview thrown in but I wasn't that worried about it and still not as most of the channels are regurgitated crap - very much like the US TV (sorry if this offends - but I do work in TV).

Where it did help was when I had a program clash then I could put one on TiVo and one on DVD. Death nell for TiVo - not on your life - TiVo program recording/setup is far better.

I would have loved to use it as a recorder but haven't found the codes to get TiVo to change channels - I started at A, and tried every option until S then gave up and bought a Humax freeview recorder with a 1TB drive.
I could have bought just a freeview receiver, and got it talking to TiVo, but the Humax has two receivers and I must say the picture quality is far superior to TiVo even via the DVD player.

Now TiVo is no longer the main recording device at home (we never have watched live TV in years) I have more time to "play" with TiVo before analog is killed off next year and you never know I may get it talking to the DVD recorder!


Chris

Great piece, keep up the terrific work.

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