# Time to Play!



## Davyburns (Jan 7, 2004)

Hi,
I have been sitting on (not literally) my Tivo for the last 4 years, and have just decided to get more out of it. It currently has 2x250gb seagate drives and a 512mb cachcard. Can somebody point me towards a comprehensive guide to accessing the tive wirelessly from a pc?
I have a bit of knowledge on pc's but next to none on the Tivo
Also, is there a maximum hard disk size that a Tivo will accomodate?

Thanks
Davy


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## Davyburns (Jan 7, 2004)

ref the wireless bit, I already have a wireless network at home, and it would only be a matter of linking the Tivo Cachecard into it, but quite frankly, I dont know where to start. I see terms like tivonet ect, and it baffles me a bit because of contradictory posts. What I am looking for is a step by step guide for dummies!
Thanks for the input
Davy


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## ColinYounger (Aug 9, 2006)

Your CacheCard will have all that's needed to connect to your network as far as TiVo is concerned. Since the CacheCard wants a wired connection to your network, all you need is a device called a wireless bridge which you plug in via a wire to the CacheCard, and it converts the wire signals to wireless and talks to your network:

[TiVo+CacheCard] -> [Bridge] -> ~~~~~wireless~~~~~

It really is totally simple. It took me about 30 mins!

There are two WGE111's on EBay right now (nothing to do with me). They're rare-ish now and tend to go for £30-£40. There may be other cheaper devices out there that others can suggest.


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## Davyburns (Jan 7, 2004)

ColinYounger said:


> [TiVo+CacheCard] -> [Bridge] -> ~~~~~wireless~~~~~
> 
> It really is totally simple. It took me about 30 mins!
> QUOTE]
> ...


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## ColinYounger (Aug 9, 2006)

Davy,

No worries - we'll help you. As I said - more specific questions result in specific answers. 

What took 30 mins was configuring the bridge, plugging it in and checking it all out.



> How do you configure the Tivo?


The Tivo should sort-of be configured already. It's default settings are for your router to be 192.168.1.1. If that's not your router's address you need to get an ethernet cable between you and your TiVo - ask if that's the case.



> Is there 3rd party software involved?


The cachecard drivers. I presume your cachecard shows a splash screen when you boot your TiVo? If so, you're likely to be configured up already.



> how do I find the Tivo's mac address?


Once you have a connection to your TiVo you can find it. You might need to relax security for a little while when the first question has been sorted out.

Bear with us. We're trying to help. Asking 'how do I drive a car' doesn't get you an advanced driving certificate. Nor does 'how do I network a tivo wirelessly'.


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

Davyburns said:


> I have mac address fitering enabled, how do I find the Tivo's mac address?
> 
> I did say I knew nothing at all about Tivos.


Go to the command prompt on your PC then Telnet to your Tivo on your wired network with for instance "telnet 192.168.0.4" or whatever wired IP address you used to use on your Tivo when you last used it?

Then at the resulting "bash-2.02#" prompt type "nic_config_tivo" You now get a series of menus that let you look up the MAC ID assigned to your Cachecard. You can change the MAC address under Option 1 for "Ethernet options" if you need to. Probably the default MAC ID will be adequate for your purposes.

Turn off wireless security on your router and let the wireless bridge connected to the Tivo connect to it. Then with wireless security still off make sure the MAC ID of the Tivo has been added to your list of authorised MAC IDs on your router. Then turn security back on.

Check out the guides at www.steveconrad.co.uk/tivo for more help or come back and ask questions here. Do you know the IP address your Tivo is presently set for with a wired connection to the Cachecard though? You are going to have connected by a wired connection to start with to set the MAC ID or check what it is.

There is no upper limit on hard drive size with the new Tivo Kernel for larger hard drives above 137GB installed on your Tivo and provided you use an IDE to SATA adapter to support SATA (which all the very largest recent hard drives now use). A couple of forum members are successfully using the Western Digital Green Power 1TB (1000GB or so) SATA drive in their Tivo and report it is very cool and quiet. At 1000GB you are going to have around 350 to 400 hours of recording time and the Tivo processor does not handle much more than this efficiently even with a Cachecard and 512MB of RAM. There is a thread in the forum on the installation of a 1TB Western Digital Green Power Drive although it may take a while for me to find it.

Ask more questions here as required.

When you were sitting on your Tivo previously did you use it at all? If not how did it come to be in your possession?


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## Davyburns (Jan 7, 2004)

ColinYounger said:


> Davy,
> The Tivo should sort-of be configured already. It's default settings are for your router to be 192.168.1.1. If that's not your router's address you need to get an ethernet cable between you and your TiVo - ask if that's the case.
> 
> '.


The routers default is 192.168.2.1,
and by the way, I am overwelmed with the speed of the help so far - Thanks
Davy


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## Davyburns (Jan 7, 2004)

Pete77 said:


> Go to the command prompt on your PC then Telnet to your Tivo on your wired network with for instance "telnet 192.168.0.4" or whatever wired IP address you used to use on your Tivo when you last used it?
> 
> Then at the resulting "bash-2.02#" prompt type "nic_config_tivo" You now get a series of menus that let you look up the MAC ID assigned to your Cachecard. You can change the MAC address under Option 1 for "Ethernet options" if you need to. Probably the default MAC ID will be adequate for your purposes.


telnet? I havn;t used any ip address with the Tivo.

As I said, I know nothing about the internal workings of the Tivo.

pretend your talking to a 10 year old (I feel that way at the moment - wish my body did!)
Thanks for your patience
Davy


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

You can use Telnet on your Windows PC by going to Start then Run then typing cmd. You then get a black screen box where you can type telnet 192.168.0.4 or whatever the IP address of the Tivo is.

Where did the Tivo come from. Surely whoever had the Cachecard fitted originally knows what its IP address is? Or why did you put a Cachecard in four years ago and then sit on it? Sounds like it used to be someone else's Tivo to me that you have inherited in some way?

See the guides at www.steveconrad.co.uk/tivo re Cachecard etc. They are all written in layman's language and not jargonese.

This page explains about the Cachecard and Telnet:- www.steveconrad.co.uk/tivo/cachecard.html


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## martink0646 (Feb 8, 2005)

Davyburns said:


> telnet? I havn;t used any ip address with the Tivo.
> 
> As I said, I know nothing about the internal workings of the Tivo.
> 
> ...


Hi Davy,

Pete's info was the next stage....after you are connected. The key to this is post #5 from Colin in that you need to have the TiVo connected to your wireless network.

Firstly, where is your router? Mine happens to be near the TiVo so I could simply plug an RJ45 (ethernet) cable into it & I was away. If you can do that then post back & someone can take it from there.

Secondly, your TiVo is nowhere near your router. If this is the case you need to buy a wireless bridge or gaming/game adaptor or a homeplug system, plug it in to the RJ45 cable you have coming out of your TiVo (plugged into your Cachecard) & post back & someone will take you to the next stage.

Pete is giving the next stage on. When you have a physical connection you will need to find the IP address that TiVo is on. There are all kinds of little apps that search for IP addresses on your network but I just go to my router (192.168.0.1 in my case), log on & look at the 'Attached Devices' screen where I can work what equipment has what IP address. Again at this point, post & someone can give you the next stage.

A problem I think you are definitely going to run into is your 'non-standard' subnet. The majority of networks (I think) use x.x.0.x with x.x.1.x being less popular. You are using x.x.2.x & TiVo almost certainly won't be configured for this. When you are connected, wired or wireless, you will need to change the subnet to your network to x.x.0.x then connect to TiVo as Pete suggested, using telnet & your TiVo's IP address that you have found out & run the config like Pete says (bear in mind that when you change the subnet you won't be able to connect to anything else on your network & have no internet access till you change it back. There you can change the TiVo's subnet to your (non-standard) x.x.2.x format, then change the router back & voila. Then all you have to do is sort out any MAC issues & firewall issues

It sounds complex but for me it was simple as I had no problems of any kind & no issues with connecting to the PC. It took me some time because I had no clue but the people on this forum, ALMOST to a man, have great patience & will be prepared to spoon feed you the info. i.e. ask a specific question & someone will respond v.quickly. Apply the answer & then ask another etc.

If any of this is wrong, I'm sure someone will be along to correct it shortly good luck because connection opens up a world of possibilities.

Martin


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## Davyburns (Jan 7, 2004)

Pete77 said:


> Where did the Tivo come from. Surely whoever had the Cachecard fitted originally knows what its IP address is? Or why did you put a Cachecard in four years ago and then sit on it? Sounds like it used to be someone else's Tivo to me that you have inherited in some way?
> [/url]


I bought the Tivo as new on Ebay, then had some trouble with it a year down the line, I had it repaired at a company in Ireland, and asked them to fit a chachecard, as I had been told then, that the memory (512) in the Cachecard would help a lot of other functions, at that point I had intended to take it further, but business kind of got in the way. The 2 seagates were purchased from a dealer on ebay, ready to plug in.

Davy


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## ColinYounger (Aug 9, 2006)

Davy,

OK - let's go back a bit. Martin's got good advice.

Have you got an ethernet cable poking out the back of your TiVo?

While Steve Conrad's page on cachecard upgrade covers installing the card and memory (which you've already got), have a look at section 11 at the bottom - he's explaining exactly what you want to do, and what I've tried to cover.

If you've not got an ethernet cable poking out the back of your TiVo, you can use the same page to see what your cachecard looks like, and how you can connect an ethernet cable to it - which involves taking the case apart (hardest bit).

Once we've got the cable poking out of the back. you need to answer Martin's questions about how you can connect it to your router.

Ask away any questions you like. We've all been down this road of feeling a numpty.


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

So you had the Tivo repaired by www.keshelectrics.co.uk and also bought and had installed a Cachecard from www.keshelectrics.co.uk then bought upgraded hard drives later on Ebay? There is a danger those hard drives don't have the software for the Cachecard unless they came from www.tivoheaven.co.uk or www.tivocentral.co.uk.

The drivers to support the Cachecard can be added now, even if the drives from Ebay in the Tivo do not have them on already but then you have to pull the drives from the Tivo and connect them to a desktop PC (having removed its normal hard drive first). Do you have the Ebay upgraded drive seller's details any more. I don't suppose you bought them from a chap called Mike in the St Helen's part of Liverpool or perhaps from Dave at www.tivoland.com

Are you anywhere near to Malmesbury in Wiltshire or St Helyn's on the outskirts of Liverpool where tivoheaven and tivocentral are based. As a worst case you could probably drop your Tivo with them and have them get it back in working order for connecting to your network wirelessly.


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## Davyburns (Jan 7, 2004)

Pete77 said:


> There is a danger those hard drives don't have the software for the Cachecard unless they came from www.tivoheaven.co.uk or www.tivocentral.co.uk.


I think they must be - when I rebbot the Tivo, I get 3 Silicon Dust splash screens, one after the other, with a progress bar on each of them



Pete77 said:


> I don't suppose you bought them from a chap called Mike in the St Helen's part of Liverpool or perhaps from Dave at www.tivoland.com


No, I bought them from a chap under the psuedenymn doctorpocoloco
they were easy to fit, and worked right out of the box

Davy


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## Davyburns (Jan 7, 2004)

Right, first things first. If I get a long RJ45 cable from work, and plug it into my Tivo, and my router, what do I do next?


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## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

Disable MAC filtering, change your router's IP address to 192.168.1.1 and disable and re-enable the Local Area Connection on your PC to pick up an IP address in the 192.168.1.xxx subnet which is the default used when installing TiVo network drivers. 

Connect the RJ45 lead between your router and cachecard and reboot the TiVo. Once the "writing...verifying...cachingg" has finished, you should get 2 green lights on the cachecard (and a flickering red). 

Open a command window on your PC and type

ping 192.168.1.200

If you get a reply then the TiVo's IP address is the default and you can type

telnet 192.168.1.200 

to connect. Then use nic_config_tivo to find out the MAC address and add that to your router's list before re-enabling MAC filtering. 

Then introduce the wireless bridge into the equation. You will probably need to plug it directly into your PC or router first and use the supplied configuration uility to configure it to be on the same 192.168.1.xxx subnet and give it an IP address of its own. You should then be able to disconnect it (physically) and browse to it via its new IP address to confirm it is present on your wireless network. Then plug the cachecard into the bridge (instead of the router) and attempt to connect to 192.168.1.200 again from your PC.


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## Davyburns (Jan 7, 2004)

I'm fairley sure I have a spare Netgear Wireless router at work, could I use this instead of a bridge?
Would the two routers work together?
The other ones a Belkin
Where can I get the software to do things with the Tivo when I get this done? surely its not all done on the command line?
thanks
Davy


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

Davyburns said:


> I'm fairley sure I have a spare Netgear Wireless router at work, could I use this instead of a bridge?


Most Netgear ADSL routers (especially cheaper ones) won't work as a wireless bridge due to restrictions in their firmware. Several Linksys routers do have a firmware option to run them as a wireless bridge instead.



> Where can I get the software to do things with the Tivo when I get this done? surely its not all done on the command line


See www.steveconrad.co.uk/tivo/tivoweb.html

Also enter tivoweb on www.wikipedia.org for the add on modules.


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## Davyburns (Jan 7, 2004)

Hi all, tried the Steve canrad site you gave me, and theres a link to http://tivo.lightn.org/ but for some reason I cant access it. Is there anywhere else?
Thanks


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

Davyburns said:


> Hi all, tried the Steve canrad site you gave me, and theres a link to http://tivo.lightn.org/ but for some reason I cant access it. Is there anywhere else?
> Thanks


You can get the twinst.zip package file that includes Tivoweb 1.9.4 from www.tivoheaven.co.uk/download or you could also consider installing TivoWebPlus 2.1

This is in theory better than the original Tivoweb and works with our UK S1 Tivos but some of us old stick in the muds who got used to Tivoweb 1.9.4 don't like some aspects of the new interface or that some add on external modules for Tivoweb 1.9.4 are not supported. You can actually run both Tivoweb 1.9.4 and TivoWebPlus 2.1 on your Tivo and swap between them using the www.tivohackman.com module.

You can get TivoWebPlus 2.1 at http://thomson.tivo.googlepages.com/TivoWebPlus


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## Davyburns (Jan 7, 2004)

Thanks Pete, I got them

WOW

I dont know what I expected, but I didnt expect the setup to be quite as complicated. I have never even seen some of the file extensions

"This file assumes you have FTP'd everything from tivoweb\inst (or twinst.zip) to /var/hack in binary mode."

Is there anyway I can get an explaination of this without running it through BabelFish?

and the first line says 
AUTOMATIC TIVOWEB INSTALL
I am used to setup exe and win.ini files, this is a whole new ball game.
Davy


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

Davyburns said:


> I dont know what I expected, but I didnt expect the setup to be quite as complicated. I have never even seen some of the file extensions


I sympathise.

As a reasonably knowledgeable person at using PCs and installing software but not a programmer or Linux bod I also found some of the install procedures rather cumbersome. It does all work when you can finally figure it out though.

At the end of the day though this is quite impressive hacker developed software rather than a product developed for commercial sale in a mass consumer market so sadly all the nice easy install routine bells and whistles are not there. Once installed though Tivoweb does run like a normal web browser service.

Unfortunately www.steveconrad.co.uk./tivo is as good as it gets for help guides on upgrading the Tivo. Anything else is far more incomprehensible and harder to understand.

Things get better later as the learning curve gets less steep is the only thing I can offer.


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## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

Davyburns said:


> "This file assumes you have FTP'd everything from tivoweb\inst (or twinst.zip) to /var/hack in binary mode."


Basically, unzip the contents of twinst.zip to a folder on your hard drive - eg. d:\temp

Open a telnet session to your TiVo (eg. Start->Run *telnet 192.168.1.200*) and type

*mkdir /var/hack
*
Leave the telnet window open.

Open a command prompt on your PC and type
*
cd d:\temp
ftp -i 192.168.1.200
*
then at the FTP command prompt type

*bin
cd /var/hack
mput *.*
*
You should see the progress of the files being transferred. Once this has finished, type

*quit
*
and close the FTP command window.

On your PC, open the file *tw_setup* in Wordpad (not notepad) and press CTRL-A to select everything, then CTRL-C to copy to the clipboard.

Go back to the telnet window you left open earlier and right-click to paste. You should see all the commands from tw_setup rush past in the telnet window. When it has finished, type

*reboot
*
at the bash prompt to restart the TiVo and then go to http://192.168.1.200 in your web browser to use TiVoWeb 

_nb. The above assumes you have used 192.168.1.200 for your TiVo's IP address. _


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## Davyburns (Jan 7, 2004)

Thanks Blindlemon, and, of course Pete, It wasn't as difficult as it first seemed, thanks to concise instructions.
It seems that the bloke I bought the hard drives off must have put all of this on them, cos it asked me if I wanted to overwrite some files
and the sub directories already existed. But I am glad I went through it.
Is Installing modules the same? 

next hurdle is the wireless bit, but that shouldn't prove a problem.

Thanks Again


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

Its good to hear that you are now making progress.

See www.ljay.org.uk for various Tivoweb module extensions for Tivoweb 1.9.4, although possibly some of these may have been installed by the guy who sold you the hard drives.

Also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tivoweb for further modules for Tivoweb 1.9.4, although a handful of these only run on US Tivos. But this is usually obvious from the related forum discussion topic.

TivowebPlus 2.1 is in theory more up to date but does not support all of our various UK related module add ons or indeed any module that has not been specifically rewritten to work with it. I also don't like its user interface compared to Tivoweb 1.9.4 but that's clearly a personal thing.


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## Davyburns (Jan 7, 2004)

Hi,
Yeah, have got some modules, but I dont know what to do with them. they all have an O file extension, and I cant find any reference to them


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

Davyburns said:


> Yeah, have got some modules, but I dont know what to do with them. they all have an O file extension, and I cant find any reference to them


Tivoweb 1.9.4 modules should go in the /var/hack/tivoweb-tcl/modules directory and be transferred by ftp in binary mode. But modules normally end with the extension itcl.

These files ending in 0 sound like they are to do with the various related improvements favoured by those also upgrading to Mode 0 recording. They are the only ones I can think of that have a 0 file extension

See www.ljay.org.uk/tivoweb/tivo_fpga.html


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## Davyburns (Jan 7, 2004)

I'd like to enable mode 0, make a backup of all the wishlists ect, enable sorting, are these possible without modules, or is there a different module for each?
re uploading via ftp, I will have a go when I get home, Thanks
Davy


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## Davyburns (Jan 7, 2004)

This is helping me to remember the old command line DOS 5 from 15 years ago!

I'm starting to enjoy it!

I've got a module (is & Ps) From http://www.boygenius.co.uk/tivo/ that will back up season passes, but they dont appear to have any file extension, do i upload these in ftp?
if so, the command line would be a help

Davy


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## Davyburns (Jan 7, 2004)

What are the main differences between Tivoweb 1.9.4 and TivowebPlus 2.1 ? Is the latter more functional? as a newbie who hasn't got used to either interface yet, would I be better off with TivowebPlus 2.1? If so, could I install it over the top of Tivoweb 1.9.4?


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

Davyburns said:


> What are the main differences between Tivoweb 1.9.4 and TivowebPlus 2.1 ? Is the latter more functional? as a newbie who hasn't got used to either interface yet, would I be better off with TivowebPlus 2.1? If so, could I install it over the top of Tivoweb 1.9.4?


TivoWebPlus's developers are rather gung ho and keep coming up with new versions that make the basic program run faster and allegedly make it more stable (not my personal experience of it though) but that disregard keeping third party modules written by other individuals supported,

You must not install TivoWebPlus 2.1 over the top of Tivoweb 1.9.4 You must install it in its own subdirectory of /var/hack that is separate as the file structures are completely different.

With the greatest of respect there are a huge number of threads on the forum and in the archive under the Subject's Tivoweb and TivoWebPlus discussing this but you don't seem to be looking for any of those and don't always seem to take in some of the comments I made in my previous posts.

If you Search I think you will find most of your questions were previously answered.


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## martink0646 (Feb 8, 2005)

Hi Davy,

Your best bet is to install both as per instruction in the distribution & also install hackman. This can then be used to swap between the two. That way you can decide which you prefer. Personally, I prefer Plus for looks (it's got some great themes) & speed & I use the original for using certain modules.

Martin


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## Davyburns (Jan 7, 2004)

Pete77 said:


> With the greatest of respect there are a huge number of threads on the forum and in the archive under the Subject's Tivoweb and TivoWebPlus discussing this but you don't seem to be looking for any of those and don't always seem to take in some of the comments I made in my previous posts.


Thats the problem, there are so many threads, its difficult to know which ones to put together. I have spent several hours reading posts that are double dutch to me, including 3 hours today, and am not really that much further. 
Most dont say which version of Tivonet they are for, some warn that you can "Fry" your tivo, so at my level, I dont have the confidence to try them.

If its going to take that amount of time to get nowhere, it not surprising people get disheartened!

Thanks anyway
Davy


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## Davyburns (Jan 7, 2004)

Can anyone tell me what modules are installed on my Tivo from this?

Bash / #cd /lib/modules
Bash /lib/modules #
Bash /lib/modules #dir
ax88796.o fpga7114.o.original oslink.o
ax88796_debug.o fpga7114_p15.o pxmpegdecode.o
cachecard.o fpgacombo.o scartmux.o
fan.o i2c.o therm.o
fpga7114.hacked ideturbo.o turbonet2.o
fpga7114.o mixaud.o
Bash /lib/modules #
Bash /lib/modules #

The reason I'm asking, is I just dragged up the original order for my two seagates, and the vendor said he would enable mode zero, but I've never seen it.
Thanks
Davy


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## martink0646 (Feb 8, 2005)

Hi Davy,

Without being an expert (confirmation will arrive soon from someone who is) you have Mode0 enabled but no other modules.

Martin


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## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

Yes, you have mode installed - or at least the correct FPGA module.

To check whether Mode 0 is _enabled_ look in TiVoWeb at the Resource Editor->Bitrates page and see what the value for DBSBestResolution is - if it's 0 then Mode 0 is enabled.


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## Davyburns (Jan 7, 2004)

Thanks Martin, You wouldn't happen to know how mode 0 is accessed, do you

Davy


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## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

Change your TiVo to record in Best 

ps. My name is not Martin.


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

There is nothing to "see" when mode 0 is enabled, other than an improvement in picture quality,
and possibly the occasional white flash at the lower left of the screen - try it on a BBC channel -
some tivos are more affected than others.


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## Davyburns (Jan 7, 2004)

blindlemon said:


> ps. My name is not Martin.


Sorry, I was answering MartinK0646. Must have been writing the reply when you posted.
Thanks to you also
Davy


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## Davyburns (Jan 7, 2004)

mikerr said:


> There is nothing to "see" when mode 0 is enabled, other than an improvement in picture quality,
> and possibly the occasional white flash at the lower left of the screen - try it on a BBC channel -
> some tivos are more affected than others.


In that case, I have been using mode 0 for 3 years, ever since I got my plasma, never seen a white flash though.

Davy


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