Latest News!

[pemills]

Hello Dave,

Really appreciate the heads-up on what is in the pipeline, must say I am salivating at the prospect of the new life you plan to breath into our machines, any thoughts on what the process will be to reconfigure the TiVo's or is it too early to say out aloud what may be required

[Teepee]

Well done chaps, thanks for all the great work that is being done. Like other users, I find the Tivo interface one of the most user friendly and intuitive when compared with other PVRs. It looks like we have the opportunity to make this great product even better. Perhaps we might have a thread for non technical users to offer suggestions on tweaks to the system. Keep up the good work, thanks again.

[asantaga]

just curious, a friend of mine has given me a Sony S1 tivo, would this new image work on that too? I doubt it, but wondering..

Alternatively is it possible to tweak it to work in the uk?

[healeydave]

Yep, another benefit of the Alt EPG Service will be its ability to provide data to any (hackable) Tivo including the USA S1's.
As the USA S1's were so cheap to get hold of, this is what most of the other countries like Australia used, it was just too expensive to import UK S1's when they could USA S1's for a fraction of the price.
The only downside to the USA S1 is they of-course don't have Euro-Scart, they have composites on the back.

[Brother52]

The only downside to the USA S1 is they of-course don't have Euro-Scart, they have composites on the back.

Lack of RGB in/out is a pretty major downside - CVBS only <shudder>

[Tcm2007]

As an update, things seem to be picking up pace behind the scenes at the moment after a brief lull due to people's work and other commitments. I'm very optimistic based on what I've seen!

[asantaga]

thanks guys,

I've got his Sony S1, and its already hacked + network card so happy to hook it up and give it a go... Worse case scenario I have a S1 network card

[johnscott99]

Can I be really cheeky?
Go on let me? Please don't ban me!

Could we have an update, please?

Is there going to be an Alternate EPG?

Is it going to be as simple as changing the dial-up prefix?

Will we need to re-image our TiVo's (mount the HDDs into an old PC chassis etc)

What features will be kept going? (EPG, wishlists, series passes, Keyword auto record etc)

What features will be lost?

Will there be crowd sourcing? (do you want us to volunteer to edit information?)

Will there be an 0845 number to dial? (it could pay for the running costs and we could add it to our list of number that our phone companies give us free/ friend and family etc).

[healeydave]

Can I be really cheeky?

Of-course, this isn't the tivocommunity forums you know

Go on let me? Please don't ban me!

Ok

Could we have an update, please?

Is there going to be an Alternate EPG?

There sure is!

Is it going to be as simple as changing the dial-up prefix?

We hope so, but its too early to answer that for sure, so your next question might be Yes.

Will we need to re-image our TiVo's (mount the HDDs into an old PC chassis etc)

If we can't push out the modifications to un-hacked Tivo's then yes, but there will be lots of other options for those that are not technically minded or simply prefer not to have the hassle. For example an upgrade drive pre-configured to just drop in will always be an option.
There will be a new CD image too which I will make available when we are ready to roll out testing to make it easier than ever to do you own DIY tivo upgrade!
Also, bear in mind that even if a customer never added a network card or did any serious tivo hacking, chances are by now, they would have bought one of our Upgrade HDD's (or a previous owner probably did!), so their Tivo may be better prepared than they realise!
Since 2003, I doubt there are many unaltered Quantum HDD tivo's out there

What features will be kept going? (EPG, wishlists, series passes, Keyword auto record etc)

At this stage I believe all existing features will work.

What features will be lost?

Not aware of any at the moment, perhaps a better question will what additional features will be added

Will there be crowd sourcing? (do you want us to volunteer to edit information?)

This will be one of the new features, again its a bit too early to know how much (if any) volunteer work will be required for the new EPG to be representative of what you've been used to via Tivo & Tribune but enabling the community to improve the sourced data will be a welcome feature that was not available previously which was a tad frustrating when often we knew well in advance that there were flaws in the data and had to manually intervene because Tivo never seemed to update schedule changes.

Will there be an 0845 number to dial? (it could pay for the running costs and we could add it to our list of number that our phone companies give us free/ friend and family etc).

Still under investigation

[johnscott99]

Marvellous!
Truly marvellous!
When you mention

"bear in mind that even if a customer never added a network card or did any serious tivo hacking, chances are by now, they would have bought one of our Upgrade HDD's "

I don't have a network card in my TiVo, but I did an upgrade using Tinsdales guide about 8 years or so back.
Will I need to install that network card that I have in a cupboard?

[nicrae]

Hi
just reading the last few posts and it's great to think that i won't have to chuck out my Tivo in a few weeks. The only fly in the ointment may be that I have had my Tivo from the very start and have done absolutely nothing to it at all!!! It has worked brilliantly and i haven't needed ( or been able!) to do anything technical to it. Will this prevent me from accessing the new EPG?
I'll give doing techy stuff to my box a go if there could be super simple, step by step instructions (preferably with pictures!) available, although the words CD image and pre-configured upgrade drive fill me with horror....or if anyone technically minded lives in Central Scotland to give me a hand that would be fabulous
Should i keep checking these threads to see what's happening, or will Tivo users be contacted somehow? I'm happy to add my contact info to a list if there is one?
Cheers
Nic

[healeydave]

Hi Nic,
If the current plan goes accordingly, the migration process might be as simple as just entering in a new dial-code from your remote!!

From a tivoland point of view, its a bit like shooting one's self in the foot, because since Tivo's announcement, the small amount of business we still got from spares & accessories has completely evaporated as understandably, people don't generally buy anything for a product that might have been redundant in a few months. So whilst this feature will be excellent news for the end user, it means those that normally can't be doing with the technical side of things and would consider buying a pre-configured disk for less hassle, might not even need to do that! Double Whammy, but hey,ho, it's all for the good of the community, heheh.

As for communication, I will most likely run a mass email from the forum when we have significant news, so everyone might want to make sure they have tivoland in their safe "white list" from any spam filter settings they might have set-up on their email accounts

Ok, this is probably a good time to add some news.

Today Chris and myself made some great progress on some minor teething troubles that had been bugging us for a few days.

Although we've been using Tivo for several years now, its strangely satisfying and exciting to see the Tivo performing exactly the same as we are used to, yet of-course the satisfaction comes from seeing it do this via our server and not Tivo's

The development team have discussed the desire to extend testing beyond ourselves and we hope to do this soon but there are a few more things we want to get set-up first.
Please don't plague us with requests though as thats a sure fire way to make it to the bottom of the list
....Only joking, when we are ready we will ask for volunteers and if we get over subscribed, we will probably let the good ol' computer choose randomly.

[spitfires]

I don't think the lost business is as great as you may at first think. If a replacement disc was the only way to get the new service then I am certain that other people (no not me!) would have jumped in and offered replacement discs at almost cost price. Considering the volumes I am sure someone would have been happy to make a mere £3 or £4 on each one for the volume business (think Amstrad!). Fleece-u-bay would have been flooded with them! (and probably still will be...)

[marsmail]

I would like to add my thanks to all of you who are working to "keep the dream alive", but I do have a question.
The main way of getting to the new EPG seems to be emerging as changing the dial up number to get to the new server and one way suggested for that to be achieved for us "non-technical" types is for a preconfigured hard drive to be substituted. The question is this, how am I going to be able to access all my existing unwatched recordings if I have to put a new disk into the machine?
Have I missed something or should I be worried?

Marsmail

[healeydave]

I would like to add my thanks to all of you who are working to "keep the dream alive", but I do have a question.
The main way of getting to the new EPG seems to be emerging as changing the dial up number to get to the new server and one way suggested for that to be achieved for us "non-technical" types is for a preconfigured hard drive to be substituted. The question is this, how am I going to be able to access all my existing unwatched recordings if I have to put a new disk into the machine?
Have I missed something or should I be worried?

Marsmail

The process of changing the dial-up number will be the simplest method (using only the remote) and will allow you to use your existing disk and hence have your existing recordings. Testing on this is still underway.
Installing a new disk already configured is another easy option, but will of-course be a fresh start but no different to those wanting to upgrade or suffering a disk failure.