# NCID not displaying Caller ID info



## owlhooter (May 29, 2005)

I installed NCID with rbautch's enhancement script. I noticed the Caller ID info wasn't displaying on screen so I started checking it through the telnet session.

When testing NCID in Debug mode it comes up with this:

RING
CIDINFO: *LINE*-*RING*1*

RING
CIDINFO: *LINE*-*RING*2*

RING
CIDINFO: *LINE*-*RING*3*

CIDINFO: *LINE*-*RING*0*

Then the cidcall.log file shows this text

MSG: Started 11/13/2005 20:06
MSG: Terminated 11/13/2005 20:08


So it appears that NCID isn't picking up the Caller ID information for some reason or another. It's doing the same on both of my HDVR2's. I was just assuming that maybe the modem in it for whatever reason wasn't CID capable.. But could never find anything saying that, and all I could find is that it should work. But after hours of working with it I still have been unable to get it to pick up the CID info, yet all my phones can pick it up fine. 

If anyone has any suggestions I'd be happy to try it out and see what I come up with...

Another thing I think I should add is that I do have Verizon FIOS so I have the ONT on the outside that translates everything from the Fiber to Copper. I've been wondering if it's possible the CID signal it is sending for some reason can't be read by the internal modem, but since it is working fine on all my phones I have discounted it up until now, but I figure, the more information everyone has, the easier it may be to figure out the cause.

Thanks


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## Diana Collins (Aug 21, 2002)

Check the config file /var/hack/etc/ncid/ncidd.conf (NOT ncid.conf).

There are three lines of TiVo modem settings that should read as follows:

set ttyclocal = 1 # TiVo requires CLOCAL
set ttyport = /dev/ttyS1 # TiVo Modem Port
set lockfile = /var/tmp/modemlock # needed for TiVo Modem Port

Make sure these are correct. Did you edit or copy any files outside the script's actions? If you see a "#" at the end of every line when you edit the file on the TiVo using vi, then you the file got converted to DOS format. Run:

dos2unix -u *.conf

in the /var/hack/etc/ncid directory.

FIOS shouldn't have any effect...I have FIOS as well and NCID works fine for me.


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## owlhooter (May 29, 2005)

Yep, that would be my ncidd.conf file line for line in the Tivo Section. I let the enhancement script install the file and I've only tried modifying it through VI on the tivo so it's not converted to a DOS format.

Also, glad to hear that FIOS isn't the problem with it. As it seemed to be the only thing I could think of that would be out of the norm from other users. I had tried modifying the init strings for the modem just to see if that would work, but I have since restored the original ncidd.conf file.

Also, the Debug mode should display the Caller ID info and it should also show in the log correct? I've read a lot on this, but I keep trying to second guess myself.


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## WhyMe (Jul 12, 2005)

Mine is tha same also...


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## Diana Collins (Aug 21, 2002)

Okay, since NCID is running (it detects the rings) but does not pickup the actual caller ID info, there are only a few possibilities...

A problem with the TiVo modems - unlikely that two units in the same house would both have a CID problem.

A problem with the CID signal - how many devices are there on the line? Perhaps the signal is too low for the TiVo modem to pick it up.

A cable problem - try changing the phone cord connecting the TiVo to the phone jack to a known working cord.


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## owlhooter (May 29, 2005)

Sounds good.. Thanks for the help Dan.. I'll check that when I get home tonight. I was actually thinking maybe there is something with the cords, I'm honestly not sure if I removed my DSL filters on the tivo's when I got FIOS, so maybe the filter isn't allowing it to pass through.. I'll post back after I check and let you know the status.


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## owlhooter (May 29, 2005)

Ok, so I've checked all my connections.. I have changed out the phone cord, removed the DSL filter that was left on one of the connections, and I still get the same result on both of the units.. I have the 2 Tivo's on the phone line and 2 cordless phones, so only a total of 4 jacks hooked up. I tried disconnecting 1 of the Tivo's and still no go on the CID. I tried one of the Caller ID boxes at the jack and it worked fine just NCID (I had the same trouble trying to use Elseed too so I'm sure it's something with the Tivo's and not the NCID software) still won't pick it up.. 

If you or anyone else has any more suggestions I'm more than willing to try.. If not, that's fine too.. It's not that big a deal, just would be nice to have the feature working 

Thanks again for all the help...


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## Diana Collins (Aug 21, 2002)

Well it sure looks like a problem with the TiVo modem...odd that two receivers would have the same problem. It might be a tty configuration problem, but I'm not sure how to procede to debug it. Let me think on it a bit.


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## WhyMe (Jul 12, 2005)

If you need to know my model numbers, they are both DSR7000. Thanks


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## owlhooter (May 29, 2005)

Dan Collins said:


> Well it sure looks like a problem with the TiVo modem...odd that two receivers would have the same problem. It might be a tty configuration problem, but I'm not sure how to procede to debug it. Let me think on it a bit.


Well it would be my luck that both receivers have the problem  Thanks again for all the help. I'll be checking back to see if you come up with something that can help diagnose the issue...


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## willardcpa (Feb 23, 2001)

Just throwing out my personal experience. Twice now I have had one DTivo "loose" the CID capability. I have three total enabled and when the one didn't work (wouldn't you know it would be the "main" one  ), I would check the other two and they were working fine. I found that if I rebooted the one acting up that it once again started displaying CID.


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## merlincc (Nov 5, 2001)

Another thing to check:

If you have DSL you might need a filter on that line. I have DSL and was experiencing the same problems. I put the filter on the line and it works great.


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## owlhooter (May 29, 2005)

willardcpa said:


> Just throwing out my personal experience. Twice now I have had one DTivo "loose" the CID capability. I have three total enabled and when the one didn't work (wouldn't you know it would be the "main" one  ), I would check the other two and they were working fine. I found that if I rebooted the one acting up that it once again started displaying CID.


Well unfortunately it's never worked, even after a fresh reboot, I tried that last night when I was playing around with one of the boxes..



merlincc said:


> If you have DSL you might need a filter on that line.


I actually have FIOS for my internet service, so I have a direct CAT5 connection from my ONT to my router, it doesn't send the signal on the phone line in the house. I did remove one of the DSL filters I had in place when I had DSL previously and still got no change on it. NCID can tell the phone is ringing, it just can't pick up the CID info. To me it sounds like for some reason the chipset isn't supporting CID like it should.

Anyone know if there are any HDVR2's out there that have a different modem chipset than others? That possibly don't support CID? As I do find it strange I have 2 doing the same thing.


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## austin61 (Jun 3, 2005)

Are you subcribing to caller id from your phone company? I'm guessing that's a requirement for it to work on you Tivo.


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## owlhooter (May 29, 2005)

austin61 said:


> Are you subcribing to caller id from your phone company? I'm guessing that's a requirement for it to work on you Tivo.


What? You've mean I've got to pay the phone company to get this to work? I thought this was a hack (meaning I didn't have to pay) What a joke..

/sarcasm

If you would have read the original post I do mention that it works on my phones just fine, just not on my tivo's. I realize it's a valid question, but it was already answered. Yes I do have the caller ID service on my line.


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## austin61 (Jun 3, 2005)

owlhooter said:


> What? You've mean I've got to pay the phone company to get this to work? I thought this was a hack (meaning I didn't have to pay) What a joke..
> 
> /sarcasm


What? You mean I'm supposed to read the whole thread before I give advice?
/sarcasm.

Be sure to post you're solution. It's likely to save someone a lot of trouble.


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## Diana Collins (Aug 21, 2002)

owlhooter said:


> ....Anyone know if there are any HDVR2's out there that have a different modem chipset than others? That possibly don't support CID? As I do find it strange I have 2 doing the same thing.


Unfortunately, that it starting to seem likely. Given that WhyMe's problem TiVos are also first generation Series 2 DirecTiVos, I'm wondering if there was a mobo run with problem modem chips.

I've changed my opinion about tty problems - that would show up in the log.


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## mgmrick (Aug 28, 2002)

This is one hack I have alot of problems with also. Right now after sunday nights reboot I no longer have the log file in twp (3 out of 3 tivos)

However they still show up on tv screen

Thanks
Rick


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## owlhooter (May 29, 2005)

Dan Collins said:


> Unfortunately, that it starting to seem likely. Given that WhyMe's problem TiVos are also first generation Series 2 DirecTiVos, I'm wondering if there was a mobo run with problem modem chips.
> 
> I've changed my opinion about tty problems - that would show up in the log.


Yeah, I might crack the case open on one of them this weekend if I feel up to it to see what chipset it's using.. Just see if maybe they used a different one.. And if so see if I can find any init strings for it.. But maybe it's just a bad batch, and since it was never a supported feature if they knew about the problems they just never worried about it. I know I was reading that some Series 1's didn't have the CID features and had to have hardware mods done to get CID to show up, so maybe this would be the same, but I'm not into hardware mod'ing myself


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## rbautch (Feb 6, 2004)

One more suggestion. Remove all NCID directories and binaries, download a fresh copy from the NCID website, and install it manually per the directions. I wouldn't rule out some random occurance during the enhancement script run that may have mucked it up. This is one feature I was never able to test myself since I don't have an analog phone line.

One more question....are you subscribed to callerID with your phone company?


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## owlhooter (May 29, 2005)

Funny man..  I tried Elseed prior to NCID, and it had the exact same trouble.. But it won't hurt to try, so I may try removing and reinstalling from the NCID site just to make sure your script didn't hose it up.. LOL


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## owlhooter (May 29, 2005)

Well I've tried downloading NCID from their website and got it installed with the same troubles. I also ran version .50 just to test it out and they both do the same thing. Still no CID. Oh well, I think I've given it enough of a try, the chipset looks to be the same as everyone else has I believe the Si2433. Still don't know why it's not seeing the caller ID info, but at this point I'm ready to give up. If anyone else has any other suggestions, I'll give them a try, but after running through all the init codes I can find for this chipset I don't know what else there is to try. 

Thanks again everyone,
Tom


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## austin61 (Jun 3, 2005)

Are you subcribing to caller-id? I think that's a must.


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## WhyMe (Jul 12, 2005)

Could I run NCID on my PC/modem and have it just send the info tothe networked Dtivos? Could somebody help me with the commands to set it up? Thanks


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## merlincc (Nov 5, 2001)

I don't think NCID will run on a pc. But I do know YAC runs on a pc. Do a search on it for more info. 

NCID is much easier since it is already included in Rbautch's enhancement script. If you install cron for the daily fakecall run, hooking up the telephone line is no big deal.


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## rbautch (Feb 6, 2004)

With NCID, you can also have one Tivo function as the "server", sending callerID info to all other Tivos on your network. Only this "server Tivo" would need to be connected to a phone line. More info on the NCID website, and in the readme file in the /docs directory of the NCID install.


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## WhyMe (Jul 12, 2005)

I did do the enhancement scripts but can't get NCID to work on neither of my DSR7000's. Thats why I was trying to come up with a different program or way to do it. Thanks


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## Diana Collins (Aug 21, 2002)

WhyMe said:


> Could I run NCID on my PC/modem and have it just send the info tothe networked Dtivos? Could somebody help me with the commands to set it up? Thanks


The NCID server only runs on Linux, UNIX, and the Macintosh. There is a client for Windows, but that doesn't solve your problem.


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## Tivo user (Feb 20, 2005)

i have NCID installed and working on my dsr7000 6.2 version software
but the problem is i have a 67 inch widescreen and i can barely see the caller id info
its so far to the yop it covers about half of the cid is there any fix for this


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## sandpj (Feb 10, 2004)

That is controlled in /var/hack/etc/out2osd.conf. The line and column parameters control the location (default is line 1, column 6).

"Zoom" modes on big screen TV's cut off the top of the image. Change the line value to 2.

Paul


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## Tivo user (Feb 20, 2005)

where can i find instructions on how to make this change thanks


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## shutterfriend (Aug 10, 2005)

Has anyone been able to get NCID working with 7.2.1 yet?


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## Diana Collins (Aug 21, 2002)

Tivo user said:


> where can i find instructions on how to make this change thanks


That WAS the instructions. Edit /var/hack/etc/out2osd.conf and change the line that says "line=1" to "line=2" and save the change - end of instructions.

Of course, you'll have to restart tivocid - probably easiest way is to reboot, since I doubt you're familiar with ps and kill, based upon your question.


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## Tivo user (Feb 20, 2005)

thanks for the info but im lost when you say Edit /var/hack/etc/out2osd.conf how do i do that thanks and sorry for being a newbie


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## sandpj (Feb 10, 2004)

I'm learning myself, so use my advice at your own risk.....

You can either telnet and use "joe" (assuming you selected it as default to replace vi) as follows:

cd /var/hack/etc/
joe out2osd.conf

(can probably do the same with one command)
joe /var/hack/etc/out2osd.conf

edit the following section

# Line can have a value from 1 to 16
# Line Default: 1
set line = 2

I do not like to use joe, so I ftp the out2osd.conf to my PC and make the change with Metapad (freeware), and ftp back.

Don't forget to telnet and enter rw at bash prompt to make the files rewritable. Enter ro to return to read only after making the change.


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## Tivo user (Feb 20, 2005)

ok ive done the "line=1" to "line=2" and and restarted the tivo still no change in the display i can barely see it half still cover at the top of the screen when i telnet back in it shows to still be at line=2 what may my problem be thanks


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## rbautch (Feb 6, 2004)

The best way to mess with out2osd settings is to type test messages right from bash, and pipe them to the out2osd binary. For example, try this from bash:

```
echo 'THIS IS A TEST FOR OUT2OSD' | /var/hack/bin/out2osd -c1 -fblack1 -byellow -d3
```
Once you find a combo that works for you, copy the settings to the configuration file.


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## sandpj (Feb 10, 2004)

tivo: If I remember correctly, the Line=1 had a # at the beginning of the line. The # needs to be deleted. Any lines that begin with # are just "comments" and not active.


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## rocketman24 (Jun 21, 2004)

I just upgraded both of my tivo's to 6.2 and installed Zipper. What I found was that only 1 of the 2 boxes would display caller id.

There seems to be a problem when running 2 servers on the same network, thus, I commented out the ncidd line in the startup script (rc.sysinit.author) on one of the 2 boxes. On the box where server was now not running, I modified the "ncid.conf" file to give it the IP address of the tivo box running the server.... I then rebooted that tivo, although I'm not sure if that was necessary.

All works great now.


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

Yep, I have several units and only one actually has a phone line connected. They all get caller id info from that one tivo.


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## jamoke (Oct 5, 2003)

NCIDPOP Question:

Got 4 Tivos running NCID. One is Master with a phone line attached. The other 3 are clients and recieve caller ID info just fine. All Tivos are FINE.

The Master has run rbautch's script and reboots itself via cron twice a week. The client Tivos will reconnect the NCID client after the reboot. (I seen a setting for this in the config file)

I am running NCIDpop on a few windows machines. They are clients also and register to the Master Tivo. All is well until the Master reboots.

NCIDPOP does not resync automagically on the windows boxes. I must kill the client process and re-launch. I can find no help or a config file.

Any ideas or work arounds?


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## dnemec123 (Jan 25, 2004)

rocketman24 said:


> I just upgraded both of my tivo's to 6.2 and installed Zipper. What I found was that only 1 of the 2 boxes would display caller id.
> 
> There seems to be a problem when running 2 servers on the same network, thus, I commented out the ncidd line in the startup script (rc.sysinit.author) on one of the 2 boxes. On the box where server was now not running, I modified the "ncid.conf" file to give it the IP address of the tivo box running the server.... I then rebooted that tivo, although I'm not sure if that was necessary.
> 
> All works great now.


I've done the same thing with my two DirecTiVo's, but I'm seeing a delay on the client tivo machine... a call will come in, it displays on the server tivo between the 1st and 2nd ring, but it can take up to 30 seconds for the caller id information to show up on the client tivo.

I've checked the ncid.conf file, but there's no delays set. Most of it is commented out.

???
D


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## owlhooter (May 29, 2005)

Well I finally got it working and just thought I'd share. Recently I got an HD Tivo and was noticing the same problem with it, it would give the *RING* but not actually pull the CID info, so I decided I'd give up on it. As I mentioned before I have FIOS at home and have my phone coming over that, today I had my phone switched over to Vonage, and switched all my lines in the house over (including the Tivos), the CID now works on the Tivos. So apparently it would seem like the Tivo's don't like the CID info that the ONT sends out from the FIOS line, it was working on all my phones before just not the Tivo, but now that Vonage is in it is working on all.


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