AltEPG

I'm currently trying to use Tytool to archive some shows over the home network. Extract speed is excrutiatingly slow, whether extracting using a machine with Turbonet card, or using a Cachecard. I've seen postings elsewhere that say that the timing variable needs to be set to "5" in rc.sysint........ before I start messing around, can anyone advise me the best way to change this variable, or if it is wise, or if the slow upload is due to other issues?
I assume that the start-up process of the ALTEPG image would detect which internet card was installed in the TiVo, and set the timing variable appropriately?

I've never heard of a timing variable in rc.sysinit related to tytool. In fact there aren't any settings you can configure on the TiVo end at all - it just runs tserver. (The only thing that springs to mind is a priority setting, for mfs_ftp not tytool, for inserting recordings not extracting them. That's controlled in mfs_ftp's config file)

You should set Tytool to "double socket" mode - Preferences, networking. Make sure the correct IP address for your PC is in the list shown and selected.

You can sometimes speed up transfers slightly (but not by much) by giving tivoapp less to do. Tune to a channel with no signal so that the MPEG encoder has no work, and pause playback of a recording (don't leave the menu clouds running) so that the MPEG decoder has no work.

I get 2.5MB/s with a cachecard, and I think you should get around 1.4MB/s with a Turbonet card. For extracting, tytool is the same speed as mfs_ftp, and also the .ty files are slightly different between the two sometimes. So as I want to make a DVD anyway without re-encoding, I normally use tytool for extracting.

The only other tweaks I can think of are
1. ensuring that ideturbo is turned off (unless you're using the original 40GB Quantum drive!) - check with

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bootpage -p /dev/hda

the result it should contain

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runideturbo=false

2. hdparm commands to set the drive to full speed. I use

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/var/hack/bin/hdparm -a255 -A1 -c1 -d1 -m16 -S0 -u1 /dev/hda

but YMMV and you need to be careful what you do there.

If you're using the AltEPG image then both of those should be done anyway.

Mr Tickle - Thanks for the quick reply. This is certainly a mystery to me. I'm using the vanilla ALTEPG image on a 160 gb Maxtor drive. I've tried toggling between single socket and double socket and the speed difference is negligible. I've put TiVo into standby and pause on a black screen, and I'm getting 0.11 meg/sec on transfers.

I've also tried using Mfsstream via TiVoWeb, having installed the tyhttpd module (could not locate it in the ALTEPG image), and am getting similar miserable transfer speeds. I did see a posting on the Dealdatabase that seemed to imply that the "timing=5" parameter should be set in the nic_install process, but since I understand that nic_install is not invoked in the ALTEPG start-up, perhaps that is not relevant.

Any ideas on how to find out if the upload speed from the TiVo is the problem, or whether its the router? The router a Netgear router from SKY .

Thanks

The timing variable you mention is actually a speed parameter to the network driver. However since you have installed the AltEPG image this is unlikely to be wrong. In any event you would never gets speeds that slow with *any* of the possible settings, so we'll discount that.

I get a rock-solid 1.8 Mb/s on a Turbonet. You ought to see similar - as you are not, then we need to look at your home network for the cause of the slow transfer rate.

1) Are you using a Homeplug? (There seem to be issues with using these with a TiVo)
2) Are you using wireless?
3) Are you sure there is no clash of (i) IP address (ii) MAC address with any other device on your network?
4) If your router has flashing lights are you getting excessive data collisions?
5) Have you tried a different ethernet cable? (They do break )
6) Have you tried disconnecting *everything* else apart from the TiVo and the target 'puter?
7) Try dropping the internet connection (but leave the router switched on)?

spitfires wrote:The timing variable you mention is actually a speed parameter to the network driver.

Oh right - that!

Agreed with the rest and the checklist, it does sound like something else more fundamental if it's that slow. (but when it's working normally, you should see a difference between single and double socket. So when it's fixed, leave it on double ).

Chaps - thanks for the pointers. Problem fixed - the TiVo in question is linked to the router via a Homeplug, routing the internet along my in-laws house wiring. Having circumvented it by a long CAT5 cable for the purposes of tytool extraction, transfer rate went up from 0.11 to 2.2 !
Thanks again.

I can confirm that tytool + homeplug (even 1G ones) is a no go. For some reason, the transfer speed is bad.
The fastest way for me is hardwired connection (cat5) and open up the double socket mode.
Homeplugs are OK for daily calls and tivoweb but tytool seems to swamp them.

FWIW - in case it affects anyone else, I've also been having real trouble with slow tserver transfers. I tried the hdparm stuff, ideturbo etc with virtually no difference. We don't use homeplugs here, but do use Wifi (not for the TiVo, but for my laptop). Plugging my PC into the home wired LAN made the speed go from 0.3 megs up to 2.6 megs. So, I'm not sure what tserver is doing, but it seems to like working with wired ethernet rather than anything else