# Setting Time & Date manually?



## zerajera (Dec 12, 2007)

Hi,

I'm using my Thompson TiVo manually at the moment until I move (no phone line).

How do I set the Time, as it's running 10mins slow at the moment...

Cheers.


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## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

Take it round to a friend's house and do a test call. That will set the clock AFAIK.

Alternatively, if you have network access, telnet in and run *settime*


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## zerajera (Dec 12, 2007)

blindlemon said:


> Take it round to a friend's house and do a test call. That will set the clock AFAIK.
> 
> Alternatively, if you have network access, telnet in and run *settime*


Cheers for that.. I hadn't thought of either idea. I do have a PCI NIC for it, never plugged it in!!!


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## Fred Smith (Oct 5, 2002)

zerajera said:


> I do have a PCI NIC for it, never plugged it in!!!


Won't fit in a TiVo.


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## dvdfever (Jun 2, 2002)

blindlemon said:


> Take it round to a friend's house and do a test call. That will set the clock AFAIK.
> 
> Alternatively, if you have network access, telnet in and run *settime*


I was going to ask the same question regarding my old TiVo which is now in the bedroom, and which is unhacked and which I didn't want to connect to the phone line because then TiVo will think I'm using two machines on the same subscription (the other being my hacked one). I don't want to risk getting the account nilled, in effect, so will it be forever... er... timeless? 

It wouldn't be the end of the world, although it's a pain as it gets slow quite quickly and I had to pad the manual recordings I do with a few mins to still catch the shows I want to record. Ta.


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## TCM2007 (Dec 25, 2006)

I don't understand; either they have two separate serial numbers, in which case there's no problem, or you've hacked them to have the same serial number, in which case there's, er, no problem?


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## dvdfever (Jun 2, 2002)

They both now have the same serial number, the idea being that I use the sub on the new box, and if I do a test call on the box that's long since stopped having updates, surely it'll download the new listings (as well as 2.5.5a since that box is still on 2.5.5) and I don't want them to think I'm running two boxes from one subscription?


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## TCM2007 (Dec 25, 2006)

Test call doesn't update listings, but yes, having one on 2.5.5 and one on 2.5.5a is a possible problem.


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## dvdfever (Jun 2, 2002)

Ta for the info. Does anyone know if the software situation will cause a problem, please? Ta.


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## lcsneil (Jun 18, 2002)

Obviously if you can telnet in and get a command prompt (and it's connected to the Internet ) then 

/bin/ntpdate -b 204.176.49.10

sets the time rather well as well. 

204.176.49.10 is a time server on the Internet - nowt special there are loads of 'em.


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## dvdfever (Jun 2, 2002)

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately this is the TiVo without any internet capacity 

It's just a bog-standard one but with a bigger hard drive put in.


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## lcsneil (Jun 18, 2002)

dvdfever said:


> Thanks for the info. Unfortunately this is the TiVo without any internet capacity
> 
> It's just a bog-standard one but with a bigger hard drive put in.


In which case as blindmon said, just do a 'test call'.

All that does is dial and set the clock.


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## dvdfever (Jun 2, 2002)

And it won't cause a problem re: 2.5.5a vs 2.5.5? (My new TiVo is on the former, but my old one is on the latter, but I don't want the old one to pick up the software update along the way). Ta.


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## TCM2007 (Dec 25, 2006)

If it looks like it's downloading something, pull the plug!


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## dvdfever (Jun 2, 2002)

lcsneil said:


> In which case as blindmon said, just do a 'test call'.
> 
> All that does is dial and set the clock.


Gave this a go today (thought I didn't have a spare phone extension cable as the main one is round the back of everything and I didn't want to unplug that) but the time's still out. Before, it was about 5 minutes out and now it's 3 mins out.

According to the TiVo it was a successful test call, but when I did it this afternoon, it ended up 3 minutes faster than the time on teletext, whereas my main TiVo is spot-on 

It's an odd result as the time has changed, but isn't correct.


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## lcsneil (Jun 18, 2002)

dvdfever said:


> Gave this a go today (thought I didn't have a spare phone extension cable as the main one is round the back of everything and I didn't want to unplug that) but the time's still out. Before, it was about 5 minutes out and now it's 3 mins out.
> 
> According to the TiVo it was a successful test call, but when I did it this afternoon, it ended up 3 minutes faster than the time on teletext, whereas my main TiVo is spot-on
> 
> It's an odd result as the time has changed, but isn't correct.


Actually I concur. Test Call isn't currently setting the clock even though when making the test call. "Setting Clock" & "Checking Account Status" flash up.

Tested it on my Lifetime Tivo by forcing the clock out by 15 mins (using Tardis as an NTP Broadcast source and then telnetting in and "/bin/ntpdate -b myntpsourceIP" and then forcing the tivo to make a test call.

No change to Tivo clock!

Hmmmmmm......


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

You can actually set the clock manually, even on an unhacked tivo using backdoor codes:


> C-C-E-E stands for "Clear Clear Enter Enter". The following codes must be entered in the "System Information" screen.
> 
> C-C-E-E 2 - Turns on or off "Special Mode: DEBUG" (Note: you have to leave the "System Information" screen and re-enter it to see this flag turned on.) Starts sending debugging output to the /var/log/tvdebuglog file. This setting will STAY ON after a reboot. Not advised to leave this on for long periods of time.
> 
> ...


(from http://archive2.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=26530)

I've tried the above, and can confirm it works fine on our UK tivos 

So full procedure is:

Turn on backdoors by entering " B D 2 5" in the "search by title" screen
Go into debug mode by pressing Clear-Clear-Enter-Enter-2 on the system information screen.
Go back into the "search by title" screen, and press Enter-Enter-Tivo
Type the date/time e.g. now is 200804301029
Press Enter-Enter-Tivo to store that date
Turn off debug mode by pressing Clear-Clear-Enter-Enter-2 on the system information screen.

Note that you may have to put in a time one hour behind as I did above, as we are in british summer time.


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## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

That's a very cool piece of info


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

blindlemon said:


> That's a very cool piece of info


That seems a very large complement to be paying to your main commercial rival.

Next I thing I know you guys will be proposing corporate marriage.


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## dvdfever (Jun 2, 2002)

I'm very appreciative of the info, but is there another way to turn on the backdoors, please?

As I'm over 30 days without a connection on my old TiVo, it won't let me go into the 'Search by Title' screen


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