# Freeview box for Tivo?



## Parrot of Doom (Nov 23, 2004)

Can somebody recommend a good, basic Freeview box thats compatible with my Tivo please?

I am sick to death of this piece of **** NTL cable box crashing, refusing to change channels, changing channel to 0 overnight, locking up, pile of ****e. I've just missed about 10 hours of television over the last few weeks because of it. I want to throw the thing out of the window.

Just a simple cheap Freeview box will do, or perhaps even one with a HD built in so I can sell the Tivo and have one less box?


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

Parrot of Doom said:


> I am sick to death of this piece of **** NTL cable box crashing, refusing to change channels, changing channel to 0 overnight, locking up, pile of ****e. I've just missed about 10 hours of television over the last few weeks because of it. I want to throw the thing out of the window.


No offence, but are you sure you've had it set up correctly? ie the right code; using the IR wands and the converter if needed?

I ask only because I have never heard of a cable box being so bad. I had TW for ten year (a Pace 2000) and now have NTL (one of the new Samsung boxes) and while the former did screw-up occasionally I have yet to have any problems with the latter; but then it's only been 2 weeks. Give it time 

Which box have you got and which code did you use, if you can remember?


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## Parrot of Doom (Nov 23, 2004)

Yes, I've had it years and it was fine but lately they've 'upgraded' the software on the box, they've changed all the channel numbers with the result that often it won't catch the first digit of the 3 digit channel number.

This wasn't an issue before as I had it set up to send 001 for BBC1, 002 for BBC2 etc. Now its 101 and 102 - and it often doesn't catch that first '1' from the Tivo. Its not the Tivo's fault, its just a really **** NTL software problem.

Add to that the number of times the thign locks up, or the scheduler doesn't work. I'm just sick and tired of it.

Its a silver box, Samsung I think. I have my broadband running out the back of it.

Plus, Freeview doesn't cost a tenner a month. I only have it to record The Bill, Top Gear, Time Team, and any police documentaries.


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

Parrot of Doom said:


> This wasn't an issue before as I had it set up to send 001 for BBC1, 002 for BBC2 etc. Now its 101 and 102 - and it often doesn't catch that first '1' from the Tivo.


That doesn't sound right _at all_. You sure you've not moved from analogue to digital? I am absolutely certain that, for example, BBC1 has never been on Channel 1 (or 001); certainly not on _digital_ cable.



> Plus, Freeview doesn't cost a tenner a month. I only have it to record The Bill, Top Gear, Time Team, and any police documentaries.


Fair enough


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## yungee (Dec 29, 2002)

This thread might help you out Mr. Parrot: :up:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=312888

(By the way, my Pace 4000 box is a total unreliable POS in the summer. It really doesn't get on too well when it's hot  )


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

cwaring said:


> I am absolutely certain that, for example, BBC1 has never been on Channel 1 (or 001); certainly not on _digital_ cable.
> 
> Fair enough


Actually a relative has had NTL Cable digital for several years.

BBC1 has always been on channel 1 on that and BBC 2 on 2 and so on. Eurosport on Channel 43 for instance.

NTL channel numbering was completely different from Telewest numbering before the big merging together started. NTL also used different channel numbers on different platforms supporting different parts of the country.

Coming back to the cheap, simple and reliable Freeview box issue the Wharfedale 832BN box being sold by Argos was highly commended but they are currently no longer listed on their website. There may be some left at their high street branches.


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## Parrot of Doom (Nov 23, 2004)

Yep, for years it was single and double digits for all the common channels. It worked great, never had any problems.

Then they changed it to 101, 102, etc, and everything went to pot. Worlds died. Civilisations failed. The milk went sour. The local butcher ran out of bacon.



I'm very happy with the Tivo but if the freeview STB with recorders are any good, I have a good mind to sell the Tivo and buy one of those. Its completely unmolested, an original Thompson thats been running every day for nearly 10 years now.


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

> Then they changed it to 101, 102, etc, and everything went to pot. Worlds died. Civilisations failed. The milk went sour. The local butcher ran out of bacon.


Have you played around with having the Enter button sending on or off and perhaps forgoing the leading zero setting being on? Also have you tried all possible options of Fast, Medium and Slow. How about having the wands further out from the NTL box IR window etc or further apart.



> I'm very happy with the Tivo but if the freeview STB with recorders are any good, I have a good mind to sell the Tivo and buy one of those.


No the Freeview recorders are all still rubbish presently and you have to set each recording manually like a video recorder with repeat daily or once a week and so on. The only diffference is not being limited by a 3 hour tape.

A system called Freeview Playback that is meant to bring in Series Link along Sky Plus lines (but not as good as Tivo as you rely on the broadcaster to feel like making it available etc) is meant to be getting going some time later on this year on some of the higher end Freeview Playback boxes. It probably won't be in any fit state to use before the start of 2008.



> Its completely unmolested, an original Thompson thats been running every day for nearly 10 years now.


Does it have a Lifetime Sub? If so then it would be worth between £170 and £200 on Ebay. If not then only worth around £60 to £70 on Ebay. Hardly worth selling is it.

You could get yourself a product called www.freesatfromsky.co.uk for £150 with no subscription and you can buy a device to connect the Tivo directly by wires for channel changing to one of those.

10 years is rather an exaggeration. The longest anyone has had their Tivo in the UK is six and a half years.


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

Pete77 said:


> Actually a relative has had NTL Cable digital for several years.
> 
> BBC1 has always been on channel 1 on that and BBC 2 on 2 and so on. Eurosport on Channel 43 for instance.
> 
> NTL channel numbering was completely different from Telewest numbering before the big merging together started. NTL also used different channel numbers on different platforms supporting different parts of the country.


Really? Okay, sorry. I'll sit corrected and will refrain from further comment 

(It's true. You _do_ learn something new every day )


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

Pete77 said:


> No the Freeview recorders are all still rubbish presently and you have to set each recording manually like a video recorder with repeat daily or once a week and so on. The only diffference is not being limited by a 3 hour tape.


 I know this is a tivo forum, but to be fair, most freeview recorders (like topfield) are on a par with, or better than sky+ for example.

They are a quite a bit more advanced than "manual recording like a VCR" 
Still a long way off tivo though.


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

mikerr said:


> I know this is a tivo forum, but to be fair, most freeview recorders (like topfield) are on a par with, or better than sky+ for example.
> 
> They are a quite a bit more advanced than "manual recording like a VCR"
> Still a long way off tivo though.


They are only marginally better than a VCR. The main difference being the lack of a need to rotate tapes and no running out of tape and a nice index of the items you have managed to record.

I also don't think you are correct to say they are comparable with Sky+ at present in functionality. That will happen if and when Freeview Playback manages to launch some models that have Series Link capability.

Anyhow the OP was asking about how they compared with a Tivo - to which the correct answer is that they are rubbish by comparison.


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## Parrot of Doom (Nov 23, 2004)

Pete77 said:


> Have you played around with having the Enter button sending on or off and perhaps forgoing the leading zero setting being on? Also have you tried all possible options of Fast, Medium and Slow. How about having the wands further out from the NTL box IR window etc or further apart.


Its not a Tivo problem. Its a crap NTL box problem. None of the settings above would make the slightest bit of difference, believe me I've tried.

The NTL box is an old man that falls asleep in his chair, you have to nudge him before he wakes up from his slumber. He always misses that first number.


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## Parrot of Doom (Nov 23, 2004)

So, the Freeview recorders are rubbish then.

So, does Tivo control that Sony Freeview recevier well enough? Well enough not to miss things all the time?


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

Parrot of Doom said:


> So, does Tivo control that Sony Freeview recevier well enough? Well enough not to miss things all the time?


The Sony is not a good choice because it can't handle the time share channels properly on BBC Three and BBC Four or any other stations that have them and stays stuck with the overlay saying CBeebies has closed down for the night when you thought you had changed too BBC Four and were recording a program from it.

If your NTL box is so unbelivably bad then tell NTL it has broken dolwn and you want a different model instead as you have had so much trouble with this one.


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## Parrot of Doom (Nov 23, 2004)

Gah.

Is there a hack or mod available to put a Freeview board into a Tivo? It can't be that hard.


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

That freeview-on-a-scart-plug device works ok with tivo if you want to save space:
http://www.currys.co.uk/product.php?sku=106719


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

Parrot of Doom said:


> Gah.
> 
> Is there a hack or mod available to put a Freeview board into a Tivo? It can't be that hard.


The main thing is to buy it from somewhere that will let you take it back if its no good. I think both Sainsburys and Tesco will let you return them free of charge and some new big Tescos now have a large choice of boxes.

www.digitalspy.co.uk has a Reviews section somewhere on it with lots of customer star ratings of each box.


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## Parrot of Doom (Nov 23, 2004)

Well the most important thing is that Tivo can change the channels on it without any problems.

The NTL box always receives the IR signal fine, its just that it needs a kick in the ribs to wake the damn thing up.

When I first got it years ago, it worked perfectly. Never any issues. Then they 'upgraded' this and 'upgraded' that, and it steadily got worse.

I'd love to know if theres a way to hack it so the old channels were reinstalled.


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

Parrot of Doom said:


> Well the most important thing is that Tivo can change the channels on it without any problems.
> 
> The NTL box always receives the IR signal fine, its just that it needs a kick in the ribs to wake the damn thing up.
> 
> ...


What about a Tivo NTL cable adapter (intended primarily for the Pace 1000 and 2000 boxes)? Don't your NTL box understand those different older irDA remote commands too and mightn't that prove more reliable than the current form of IR transmission?


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## manolan (Feb 13, 2001)

Pete77 said:


> The Sony is not a good choice because it can't handle the time share channels properly on BBC Three and BBC Four or any other stations that have them and stays stuck with the overlay saying CBeebies has closed down for the night when you thought you had changed too BBC Four and were recording a program from it.
> 
> If your NTL box is so unbelivably bad then tell NTL it has broken dolwn and you want a different model instead as you have had so much trouble with this one.


But clearly this is only an issue if you use these channels.

I don't have a Sony freeview box, but I do have a Sony DVD recorder that shares this same bug and it never causes me a problem because I only ever record something off one half of the timeshare (e.g. BBC3 and not Cbeebies or whatever is the other half of that).


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## yungee (Dec 29, 2002)

Has anyone had any joy with the serial control ability of the Tivo, and any of the boxes?

It's a real shame we're relying on inherently flakey technology (ie it has to "back off" if anyone dares to use another remote control at the same time).

I'm surprised the manufacturers haven't implemented a standard wired control protocol and interface from box to box.


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## Parrot of Doom (Nov 23, 2004)

Pete77 said:


> What about a Tivo NTL cable adapter (intended primarily for the Pace 1000 and 2000 boxes)? Don't your NTL box understand those different older irDA remote commands too and mightn't that prove more reliable than the current form of IR transmission?


I'm sorry I don't wish to sound rude but I did say that receipt of the IR signals is not an issue  I had the box on the older Pace unit, before they upgraded me to the Samsung box so I could have 10Mb broadband.

No, its just really bad software on the NTL box


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

Parrot of Doom said:


> I'm sorry I don't wish to sound rude but I did say that receipt of the IR signals is not an issue  I had the box on the older Pace unit, before they upgraded me to the Samsung box so I could have 10Mb broadband.
> 
> No, its just really bad software on the NTL box


Surely its just this model of NTL box though.

So why not call them up and explain its incompatible with another device you need to use and see if they will swap it for a different model of NTL box. But then you seem to have decided you want to give NTL the bullet anyway and go to Freeview I think? And of course there is no Freesat option on NTL. If you don't pay they take away your box...........................

You can read customer reviews on all Freeview boxes at:-

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/terrestrial/reviews/

Unfortunately very few of these boxes are made for more than a few months before they get replaced and different customers seem to have different views on many of them.

The Wharfedale 832BN was highly suitable but unless your local Argos has a few left its now deleted on the website for central web ordering.


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