# Clever Little Gizmo



## PaulWilkinsUK (Mar 20, 2006)

I dunno if this is off topic or not... 
_(I'm sure the "Moderators" will quickly despatch it to where it should belong)_

I thought I'd let you all know that I watched my *TiVo* from my hotel room in Belgium last week. The SlingBox gizmo I bought a little while back worked a treat, didn't need to remember IP addresses or anything, it just worked! Pretty good picture, good sound (ok, it was in a small window on my laptop). None the less a damn good useful thing to have when you only get the choice of BBC1, BBC2 and a load of other stuff in French, German and Dutch.


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## ciper (Nov 4, 2004)

Slingbox is so 2005! 
In the past the stream was unencrypted and could be viewed with third party software. There is a story about how Sling screwed its customer base and a software company that developed a tool to use with it.

Have you noticed that if you reboot the Tivo while watching it with the slingviewer the picture sometimes comes back out of center?
edit: (still using the original slingbox with my SVR-2000)


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## PaulWilkinsUK (Mar 20, 2006)

ciper said:


> Slingbox is so 2005!
> In the past the stream was unencrypted and could be viewed with third party software. There is a story about how Sling screwed its customer base and a software company that developed a tool to use with it.
> 
> Have you noticed that if you reboot the Tivo while watching it with the slingviewer the picture sometimes comes back out of center?
> edit: (still using the original slingbox with my SVR-2000)


And is there a modern alternative ? If so, perhaps I should get one of those...


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## ciper (Nov 4, 2004)

None that I have seen unfortunately. I tried really hard to find a way to downgrade the firmware but no one would help. There are new models of slingbox that are for specific needs (from very low end reduced price to ultra high end with many inputs). I see no difference in performance between the original unit and the new ones though so no need to upgrade (especially since they all use the same client).

It bugs me that you cannot create your own remote control skin. The default Tivo "peanut" remote looks nothing like my Sony remote. The layout is completely different and some of the buttons do not even have the same label.

I have a suggestion for you - enable authentication on TWP and Telnet and put them on some random ports and forward it through your router. Combine those two with the slingbox and you have complete control of the Tivo remotely! I do this and have often been installing hacks (also forwarded FTP) from a hotspot at a tea shop.


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## Automan (Oct 29, 2000)

I had the slingbox and the sony equivalent.

Can't even recall now where I put them 

Also if I recall thumbs down key on the virtual remote never worked making a retstart of tivo tricky.

Automan.


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## PaulWilkinsUK (Mar 20, 2006)

ciper said:


> I have a suggestion for you - enable authentication on TWP and Telnet and put them on some random ports and forward it through your router. Combine those two with the slingbox and you have complete control of the Tivo remotely! I do this and have often been installing hacks (also forwarded FTP) from a hotspot at a tea shop.


Ooooh How saucy !
I did have TiVoWeb running too... until my IP address changed (thanks BT!) first time in months !


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## ciper (Nov 4, 2004)

I wrote a script that automatically updates a DynDNS account that could help with that. Look on the other forum in series 1 development.


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

Slingbox is now down to £99 at pc world ....


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## Fred Smith (Oct 5, 2002)

And at Dixons and Tesco Direct but at Amazon £95, including free delivery.

And from John Lewis for £90.45 (with 50p biro to get free delivery and a first time order £10 discount code) plus possible Quidco so could end up as little as £85.43 (can't claim credit for this is on HDUK). Just ordered one we shall see.


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## ciper (Nov 4, 2004)

Mikerr and Fred smith: If you are talking about the new model then the 99$ one only has rf input


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## Rob Nespor Bellis (Feb 17, 2001)

Erm, if you haven't worked it out this is the UK forum, we are in the UK discussing Slingbox in the UK. There is only one model of Slingbox available in the UK and that is the original one. Oh, by the way we use £ GBP Great British Pounds here not the US Dollar.

Rgds,

R.


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## ciper (Nov 4, 2004)

I forgot there was a forcefield around the UK which prevented electronics from other regions to function. Sorry for the mistake.


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## Pugwash (May 23, 2003)

It's a SCART force-field of course, and we run on 240v 50Hz electric trickery. That keeps most of your foreign malarky away.


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## ciper (Nov 4, 2004)

+
The AC adapter takes voltage from 100-240


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## martink0646 (Feb 8, 2005)

ciper said:


> +
> The AC adapter takes voltage from 100-240


Giving only composite output as opposed to the glorious RGB we are used to.


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## ciper (Nov 4, 2004)

The UK Tivo is outputting RGB? I'm definitely jealous if thats the case! Best we got was SVideo.


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## martink0646 (Feb 8, 2005)

ciper said:


> The UK Tivo is outputting RGB? I'm definitely jealous if thats the case! Best we got was SVideo.


Thats the benefit of the almighty SCART & PAL as opposed to *N*(ever)*T*(he)*S*(ame)*C*(olour Twice)


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

martink0646 said:


> Thats the benefit of the almighty SCART & PAL as opposed to *N*(ever)*T*(he)*S*(ame)*C*(olour Twice)


What about SECAM

Is that better or worse than NTSC or PAL?


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## TCM2007 (Dec 25, 2006)

SECAM and PAL are pretty closely related.


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

TCM2007 said:


> SECAM and PAL are pretty closely related.


Secam L seems to be used in France and Secam K elsewhere in former French Norh African territories from what I can recall. If you try to tune a PAL tuner to a SECAM signal all you get are some waivy colour lines.


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## BrianHughes (Jan 21, 2001)

Pugwash said:


> It's a SCART force-field of course, and we run on 240v 50Hz electric trickery. That keeps most of your foreign malarky away.


It's about time we changed all the standards again and upped the voltage a bit more. 20,000V ought to keep Johnny Foreigner at bay - Eh! Why, I remember during the war ...


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## ciper (Nov 4, 2004)

Can anyone confirm the Tivo can output RGB? It seems to me that the inclusion of SVideo on US units sort prevents RGB use without adding cost to the unit.



martink0646 said:


> Thats the benefit of the almighty SCART & PAL as opposed to *N*(ever)*T*(he)*S*(ame)*C*(olour Twice)


You can't be serious that you prefer PAL over NTSC... If so I can tell you aren't a gamer.


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## martink0646 (Feb 8, 2005)

UK TiVo's have 2 output SCART sockets, the Aux SCART outputs RGB or Composite & the VCR SCART outputs composite, that being good enough for VHS. Obviously no thought given to future proofing for DVD-R.

This is the second time I've said this & you obviously didn't believe me first time  I have tried to post a specification link but tivo.co.uk is down at the moment. If I find a link elsewhere I'll edit this post or someone else will be along shortly with 'confirmation'.

Martin


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

Yes, we all use RGB here.

tivo.co.uk is down at the moment, so here's a google cache of it:UK Tivo specs


tivo.co.uk said:


> Inputs: Cable-Ready Tuner, RGB and Composite Video
> Outputs: RF, RGB and composite video


[edit] I forgot uk.tivo.com is now a mirror of tivo.co.uk:
http://uk.tivo.com/1.1.asp


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## martink0646 (Feb 8, 2005)

ciper said:


> You can't be serious that you prefer PAL over NTSC... If so I can tell you aren't a gamer.


To be honest, I don't view much NTSC material, but the resolution specs speak for themselves.

PAL= 625 lines
NTSC= 525 (486 visible)

As far as color is concerned, the NTSC tint control in practice means that the picture is different on practically every set you will see. Not a problem to me personally as my screen is set up properly with test cards etc.

So in practice, with a minimal amount of NTSC viewing I honestly have no preference either way, but will lean to PAL for the higher resolution & lack of NTSC material.

I was also never one of those people that could see the 50hz flicker. I accept that they exist, just I was not one of them.

Martin


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## Nebulous (Nov 28, 2005)

ciper said:


> You can't be serious that you prefer PAL over NTSC... If so I can tell you aren't a gamer.


Well we may not get as many Hertz as you (59.94 > 50) , but we get more lines (576 > 480) 

The original UK tivo site at www.tivo.co.uk does seem to have disappeared, but www.uk.tivo.com is still hanging in there. :up:

RGB proof can be found here:  
http://www.uk.tivo.com/1.1.asp

[Edit:] Sorry Guys, two posts appeared while I typed this.


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## TCM2007 (Dec 25, 2006)

ciper said:


> Can anyone confirm the Tivo can output RGB? It seems to me that the inclusion of SVideo on US units sort prevents RGB use without adding cost to the unit.
> 
> You can't be serious that you prefer PAL over NTSC... If so I can tell you aren't a gamer.


Yes, we prefer our higher resolution and superior colour rendition, not to mention judder free (if slightly shorter) films. Odd that! PAL games are fine so long as they are written as PAL games, its bad NTSC conversions that are poor.

TiVo, like pretty much all UK equipment, runs RGB PAL as it's highest quality mode. S-Video is rare here outside of older tape descs.


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## ciper (Nov 4, 2004)

Don't get the wrong idea I believe you guys. I was just surprised  

The "being a gamer" comment was related to the terrible job titles/systems have been ported. Some common PAL problems - games not filling the entire screen (like pillerbox/letterbox), games running at a reduced speed (tied to the refresh), titles being released months after the rest of the world (sometimes never), lack of svideo support (since the RGB pins share).


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## katman (Jun 4, 2002)

ciper said:


> You can't be serious that you prefer PAL over NTSC... If so I can tell you aren't a gamer.


The acronyms speak for themselves

NTSC = Never The Same Colo(u)r

SECAM = System Essentially Contrary to American Method

PAL = Perfect At Last 

I think the differences between NTSC and PAL are now far less than was apparent 30 years ago due to advances in technology. Modern TV sets give far better pictures than sets designed in the 70s and 80s.


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## ciper (Nov 4, 2004)

AMc UK: I've created a new version of the Automatic Dynamic DNS Update script for you. Its tested and works perfectly with the "new" DynDNS site and will allow your Tivo to automatically check its IP every half hour in stock form and with a minor change it is also suitable for use with cron! You won't have to worry about remembering the IP or installing strange binaries to get access to your Tivo over the internet. 

The updated version is posted at ddb/forum/showthread.php?t=51840


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

OOOhhh loverly I must go and have a look - hopefully I can find that copy of Netcat - and some instructions that explain what the dohecky it does.
The only thing I'm really confident of in Linux is that I don't know enough to do things safely 
See you in the other place...


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

Were I not paying for an ISP that gives me a static IP address as standard I would use the DynDns IP address updating feature built in to my Netgear DG834G router's firmware.

I suppose for those of you who have neither a static IP address nor a router that automatically updates DynDns if the IP address of your connection changes then this may perhaps be a useful additional facility.


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## PaulWilkinsUK (Mar 20, 2006)

Pete77 said:


> Were I not paying for an ISP that gives me a static IP address as standard I would use the DynDns IP address updating feature built in to my Netgear DG834G router's firmware.
> 
> I suppose for those of you who have neither a static IP address nor a router that automatically updates DynDns if the IP address of your connection changes then this may perhaps be a useful additional facility.


Pete, that is the single most useful piece of advise I have ever heard from you  . Thank you, my life is now complete and my wandering IP address is now traceable via DYNDNS.


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## lcsneil (Jun 18, 2002)

katman said:


> The acronyms speak for themselves
> 
> NTSC = Never The Same Colo(u)r
> 
> ...


I prefer the

SECAM = Seems Extremely Complicated And Messy

which if you look at how it works isn't far from the truth!


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

PaulWilkinsUK said:


> my life is now complete and my wandering IP address is now traceable via DYNDNS.


Have I really been of assistance to you on this occasion. There's always a first for everything. 

To be honest I had thought that everyone with a router and with a dynamic IP address probably already knew about www.dyndns.org

If you want a broadband ISP with a static IP address and quality service you could do worse than to consider the following:-

(a) For up to 1Gb per month at £9.50 per month - www.newnet.co.uk - or up to 3Gb per month for £12.99 per month from the same company

(b) For up to 30Gb per month peak (weekdays before 8pm) and another 300Gb off peak (after 10pm Mon to Fri and all weekend) for £20 per month try www.ukfsn.org or www.adsl24.co.uk


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

ciper said:


> AMc UK: I've created a new version of the Automatic Dynamic DNS Update script for you. Its tested and works perfectly with the "new" DynDNS site and will allow your Tivo to automatically check its IP every half hour in stock form and with a minor change it is also suitable for use with cron! You won't have to worry about remembering the IP or installing strange binaries to get access to your Tivo over the internet.
> 
> The updated version is posted at ddb/forum/showthread.php?t=51840


Just a note to say Ciper was a tremendous help in getting this to work including a couple of IRC chat sessions! I now have a free DynDNS domain forwarded from a non-standard port to my Tivo without having to leave my PC on. Details and links to the necessary in the other place as per Ciper's quote.

Works well with my Sony Ericsson K800i on vodafone - very happy bunny!

Kudos to Ciper for the script.


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