Mode O tutorial - well hopefully this is it!

[beastman]

I have spent alot of time writing up a complete guide to setting up mode O.
This is so I can make sure I do everything correct and perhaps someone else will find it helpful as there are multiple long threads about this.
Can some of you experts check this over for me please - I'm sure I will have stuffed up somewhere!:

This assumes you are networked of course and got ftp running etc.

1/ copy across the LJ file to the tivo to fix the offset problem caused the mode O settings.

LJ file from here:

http://www.ljay.org.uk/tivoweb/tivo_fpga.html

from the bash prompt type:

mount -o rw -o remount /

Change to the /lib/modules directory and backup the original fpga7114.o file:

type this:

cd /lib/modules
cp fpga7114.o fpga7114.o.original

FTP the new file across to the /lib/modules directory (make sure you use binary mode)

Make sure the file has the same size and attributes as the original.

see this webpage again:

http://www.ljay.org.uk/tivoweb/tivo_fpga.html

Copy the new file over the exisiting one by typing this:

cp fpga7114.o.lj fpga7114.o

2/ copy across the script to automatically run the best settings then run the script

script file from here:

www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=3234013#post3234013

ftp the setupMode0.tcl to the /var/hack directory

from the bash prompt type this:

cd /var/hack

then type this to make it executable:

chmod 755 setupMode0.tcl

then this to run the script:

./setupMode0.tcl

hopefully if all goes well a message will pop up saying it has worked!

3/ Fix the RGB issues

FTP iisetw to your my newly created var/hack/bin directory (assuming you dont have one - mine didn't)

iisetw available here:

www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=3088170&&#post3088170

On one of my tivos I have the tivoweb startup editor installed so all I need to do is add this line and save it:

# 0x38 21 = RGB input luminance, 0x39 20 = RGB input colour
(sleep 40; /var/hack/bin/iicsetw 0x8C 0x38 21 0x39 20) &

my other tivo which has no start up editor I need to add the same line using to rc.sysinit.author by doing this:

cd /etc/rc.d
/var/hack/joe rc.sysinit.author

add the manually by typing in the line from there

Hit Ctrl-K X to save and exit

Mount the drive read-only by typing this:

mount -o ro -o remount /

to flush your changes to disk type this: sync

4/ if all goes well with the above reboot by typing reboot.

5/ make sure save disk space is enabled in the tivo set up pages.

Both my tivos are connected to NTL cable but I guess these settings will work automatically for freeview and sky as well?

[Stradlingp]

Hi Beastman,

This is a great idea, the mode0 information is well buried in those monster threads!

What would be a useful addition would be to provide links to the scripts.

e.g. I can't find setupMode0.tcl.

I think I saw it somewhere in one of the huge threads yesterday buy I can't find it today :o

Regards,

Paul

[blindlemon]

here (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=3234013#post3234013)

[beastman]

thats got me thinking about the setupMode0.tcl script as there is a modified one
by Gary here:

www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=3237696&&#post3237696

(Edit the last line in the file to call the right function!)

really not sure what to do here - can anyone help?

[blindlemon]

The end of the file contains a call to one or more of the functions contained within:-#dumpAll
#setDefaultValues
setBobonesBest
You need to use joe to edit the file and comment out (#) or leave in (no #) the functions you wish to execute.

BTW, if you want to set the values I use (as per my original script) then just calll

setCustomValues

instead of any of the others :)

[beastman]

thanks blindlemon.
Actually thinking about this modifed script I take it's main advantage from the ordinary one is that you can change from the DefaultValues and BobonesBest settings but how is this done? Do you have to faff around back in the joe editor or is it via tivoweb?
Also what does dumpAll setting do - does this just reset setting to nil?

[blindlemon]

You can always change individual bitrates via TiVoWeb anyway, and that's what most people do.

The script is just a quick way to set a load of values all at once. The dumpAll function just prints the current value to the console, so you can check them without using TiVoWeb.

[beastman]

thanks for that blindemon - so I will amend my tutorial to point to the original script as that is the easier one to deal with.

Can someone go through my tutorial and check it looks foolproof!

All the links are there for the files and a precise guide as to what needs to
be typed but knowing me theres bound to be something wromg somewhere.
thanks

[The Obo]

It all looks good to me. I just did mine last week and if this post had existed it would have saved me hours of trolling through those HUGE posts!

The question I still have is: Is there a concensus on the best settings to use?

Using setupMode0.tcl with SetCustomValues sets all the qualities (not just Best) to use Variable Bit rates and has BEST as 7500000 - 9000000.

Using setupMode0.tcl with setBobonesBest only sets the BEST quality to use Variable Bit rates and has BEST as 4800000 - 9000000.

Questions:
1. Is it better to use Variable Bit rates for ALL settings? (I assume it is, although I do most of mine at Best anyway)

2. Do most people prefer the Min setting at 4800000 or 7500000?

[beastman]

Hopefully the top post is a good enough tutorial now for someone to follow without any headaches.
One thing that threw me was this bit:

Make sure the file has the same size and attributes as the original.
Do this by runing this command whilst in the
cd /lib/modules directory: % ls -l

I cant remember where I got that bit from now!
If anyone can tell me what to do to test the size and attributes properly I will amend the above post. I didn't find I needed to do this anyhow - both my tivos are running mode now.

Also the instrctions from LJ's page read this for copying over the new file:

cp fpga7114.o_lj_<version> fpga7114.o

but I found typing this worked (but maybe that was obvious to some people?):

cp fpga7114.o.lj fpga7114.o

[leemcg]

Thanks for this beastman. I'm getting my new plasma installed on Thursday, so I'm going to try this. I'll add any feedback for anything that isn't clear.

Thanks in advance for helping with this.

Lee

[Big Jim]

Nice post, shame I only spotted it after working everything out the slow way...

I think I have it all going now, but is there any way of checking if iicsetw is runing? I'm still not happy with the RGB output.

I know mode 0 VBR is going from the logs (edited via tivoweb), and I have no green bar so I assume the edited fpga7114.o went in ok too.

iicsetw is called in my rc.sysinit.author:

# 0x38 21 = RGB input luminance, 0x39 20 = RGB input colour
(sleep 40; /var/hack/bin/iicsetw 0x8C 0x38 21 0x39 20) &

(Why the brackets on the command btw?).

cheers

Jim

[GarySargent]

The brackets group the two commands together, and the group is set to run in the background (the ampersand).

[Big Jim]

cheers, I had wondered!
is there any way of seeing if iicsetw has run? I'm a little worried because I messed up the rw ro stuff a bit while ftping it to the Tivo.

I am still slightly amazed I managed to get my Tivo to it's current hacked/LBA48/cachcard/etc state without totalling it.

[blindlemon]

Watch the grey "almost there" screen during startup.

You should be able to see the change in luminance as the command kicks in a couple of seconds before the "Man on a slide" animation starts.

[Big Jim]

is that even with the extra delay for the cachecard startup?

[blindlemon]

The exact moment at which the command executes depends whether you have put a delay in setrgb.sh or not.

However, as setrgb.sh is normally kicked off from rc.sysinit.author, which in turn isn't called until the end of rc.sysinit, well after the cachecard initialisation, the presence of a cachecard with, or without RAM shouldn't affect it.

If you don't see anything, try changing the luminance parameter to something stupidly low like 10 or 11 - you should be able to see that :)

[hornist]

I think you can tell, IIRC, by putting TiVO to live TV then flicking in and out of Aux bypass.

I'm pretty sure (from before I had the fix) that the difference was very noticeable doing that, and I know that there is no noticeable difference now.

Paul

[B33K34]

Thanks for this tutorial - another satisfied Tivo owner. I'd been putting off trying Mode 0 for ages because there were such enormous, contradictory, threads and dead links. I'd also not messed with bash in an age so statements like 'chmod the file' were unhelpful. This made the process a doddle.

Now just to see how my Tivo reacts over time.

[wadge]

Where can I get 'iisetw' from? The link provided is invalid.

[blindlemon]

Here :)

[simon]

Thanks to all for this tutorial, and all the experimentation it must have took, I'm very impressed with the high bitrate image - it looks great!

Simon

[nbaker]

Mmm my file attributes don't match, how do I change them?

I have tried using 2 different ftp programs & they give the same syntax error message when trying :(

Thanks

Nige.

[LJ]

What error message do you get?

[nbaker]

It was an unknown command error when changing attributes.

[simon]

It was an unknown command error when changing attributes.
If you type in the exact command you are using and the exact error, we may be able to offer assistance....

[Restorer]

Try changing attributes using telnet and not the ftp programs.

[nbaker]

If you type in the exact command you are using and the exact error, we may be able to offer assistance....

This is the message I get using Core ftp or ftp Navigator:

DTM fpga7114.o_lj
500 Syntax error, command unrecognized.
SITE CHMOD 644 fpga7114.o_lj
500 Syntax error, command unrecognized.

[nbaker]

Try changing attributes using telnet and not the ftp programs.


How would I go about that?

[Restorer]

Open up a command window (start/run then type "cmd"). In the window, type "telnet" space then the IP address of your Tivo. Go to your file's directory by typing for example "cd var/hack/bin". Then type "chmod 755 filename".

[wadadli]

:mad: Help! I tried making all the changes shown but when I finished, there is no video. I have tried to reverse all the changes (put fpga7114.o.original back and removed the line from rc.sysinit.author) but still no video. I guess I need to reverse the changes made by the SetMode0 script but I don't know how to do that. Can anyone help me get it back to normal please. Thanks Pete

[simon]

:mad: Help! I tried making all the changes shown but when I finished, there is no video. I have tried to reverse all the changes (put fpga7114.o.original back and removed the line from rc.sysinit.author) but still no video. I guess I need to reverse the changes made by the SetMode0 script but I don't know how to do that. Can anyone help me get it back to normal please. Thanks Pete
Reboot - that'll be back to normal

The settings are all lost on reset (the chips default to the standard TiVo values)

I had to do this after putting a test pattern up, SWMBO was cross because it was during one of her programs.

Simon

[wadge]

How many hours recording at best quality after mode0 has been applied should show for a 120GB hdd? Mine shows 26 hours and some minutes. Is this right?

Before I put mode0 on, it was showing 40-odd hours on best.

[blindlemon]

The displayed number of hours is reduced by the inverse ratio of the upper bitrate you have selected for that quality to the normal bitrate for that quality.

Ie. for "normal" Best, the bitrate is 5960000 CBR. For Mode 0 Best many people use an upper bitrate of 9000000. This gives a ratio of 900:596 or 66% and 66% of 40 is, you guessed it, 26.

However, if you're using VBR (save disc space) then the encoder will "aim" for the lower bitrate - ie. 7500000 or 4800000 and will often use much less than this in static scenes so, in practice, you should find that you get more than 40 hours at Mode 0 Best. Most of my Mode 0 Best recordings at 7500000/9000000 actually take around 20% less disk space than the equivalent at 5960000 CBR - so you could find that you actually have more space, not less :)

[wadge]

^ cool.

Thanks for explaining. I've got it setup to what the install script sets it at. I'll leave it as it is for now and have a play later.

[cashew1970]

Can someone help explain an oddity.

When Checking the TVLOG file, I see that
May 17 08:05:00 (none) TmkMediaswitch::Trace[155]: using VBR, bitRate=4800000, maxBitRate=9000000

However, I have set the Best and Max to 7500000 and 9000000 respectively.

Where is it getting the 4800000 value? I do not have this value set anywhere?

Cheers
Martin

[blindlemon]

Check the script. I would suspect you're using Bobones values rather than mine;)

BTW, you can also check/change individiual bitrates via TiVoWeb if required rather than running the script again.

[nbaker]

Open up a command window (start/run then type "cmd"). In the window, type "telnet" space then the IP address of your Tivo. Go to your file's directory by typing for example "cd var/hack/bin". Then type "chmod 755 filename".

I have tried that but the attributes have not changed they are still -rwxr-xr-x where as the original file is -rw-r-r-- :confused:

[Tony Hoyle]

That's right - 755 is rwxr-xr-x

If you want -rw-r--r-- try 644

(It's octal, btw.).

[cashew1970]

BlindLemon, Thanks for the comment.
I was using the script with the babones settings, but I have manually changed the settings for Best to your settings of 7500000 and 9000000. I have restarted the system, but I am still getting the 4800000 figure appearing in the TVLOG.
That was my initial query, as I was confused as to why my manual change was mot making any difference.
Have I missed something out??

Martin

[Fozzie]

Usual things:

Are you pressing enter, after changing EACH value?
Exactly which values are you changing?

[cashew1970]

Hello Fozzie,
Yes I an pressing enter. The values show correctly in the Bitrates section of the Resourses page, but the TVLOG file still shows the 48000000 value on channel change.

Most of my recordings are done at best. I use SKY, but have chnaged the original 4800000 value on all of the bestvbrBitrates to 7500000 (DBS, CATV and rooftop)

[blindlemon]

Have you clicked the "update resources" link after making all your changes and before rebooting?

[cashew1970]

That would be it then!!! Doh!!

Thanks again...... Will have to wait till I get home to see if I can see any difference on screen...

Cheers

[nbaker]

That's right - 755 is rwxr-xr-x

If you want -rw-r--r-- try 644

(It's octal, btw.).

Tried that too but I then get a read-only file system error :confused:

Nige.

[Bakdraft]

Mode 0 activated

All seemed to go well - no errors, no problems....... EXCEPT..

My original recording time for best was:

38 hours 54 mins

to

25 hours 45 mins...

According to blindlemon it should go up a bit....

so where did I loose the time???? :confused:

[blindlemon]

The reported time goes down because the algorithm used in the System Info screens just divides the available disk space by the upper bitrate for each quality.

In actual fact, if you have VBR enabled, then you will very likely get more recording time - as evidenced by the smaller file sizes you will see in TiVoWeb.

[Bakdraft]

The reported time goes down because the algorithm used in the System Info screens just divides the available disk space by the upper bitrate for each quality.

In actual fact, if you have VBR enabled, then you will very likely get more recording time - as evidenced by the smaller file sizes you will see in TiVoWeb.

Phew! Thanks Blindlemon... you have put my mind at ease... I didn't think I could have done much wrong...

I take it that 25hours is about right for a 120Gb???

Thanks for all your hard work on all the things you do for the forum... :up:

I for one will not give up the use of my Tivo despite getting HD!!!

[blindlemon]

Thanks for the kind words :)

Yes, 26 is around 66% of 39, and 5960000 (the old bitrate) is around 66% of 9000000 (the new one) so it all adds up.

[nbaker]

Tried that too but I then get a read-only file system error :confused:

Nige.

Can anyone help me out with this one?

[Tony Hoyle]

Have you remounted the drive read/write?

That's the essential step right at the beginning of the tutorial.

[WiteWulf]

Beastman, you are a gentleman and a scholar. Got myself a shiny new Samsung LCD last week and was almost ready to give up on the Tivo for regular viewing but this fantastic piece of work has more than redeemed the old girl. Thanks are, obviously, due to all the folks in put in the hard work originally figuring all this stuff out, I really can't thank you all enough.

[andyjayh]

Going to give this a go tomorrow if I get a chance. Must say this is one of the Tivo hacks I have wanted to do for a long time but it seemed far to complicated for me :)

The RGB performance of Tivo has been my one big bugbear since the outset but I have persisted due to the features of Tivo in general. Now I have bought myself a nice shinny plasma I realy need to get this working.

Hopefully my next post will be a thank you rather then a help me :D

[andyjayh]

Right, I have done it :D Now running my Tivo on Mode 0 thanks to the help of this thread. Many thanks Beastman for starting this simply tutorial on mode 0!!

I really got put off by the many long threads on this subject, but this laid it out in a straight forward manor in which I had not trouble following.

Obviously thanks also to the people who put the effort in so that Beastman could pull it all together in one place :up:


Now all I want is a dual tuner HD Tivo :eek: Dream on I suppose, we in the UK are not destined for such luxury :mad:

[Wooky]

Great tutorial, at last I have completed most of this hack (the other thread was far to confusing!). It does look better especially as I've changed from a 26" Samsung LCD to a 40" Sony.

However, after one power failure to many (and longer than the UPS can cope with) the var/hack disappeared. Having reinstalled tivoweb, I'm still missing Joe, could any of you kind people post it for me or provide a link? I had no luck on Google or a forum search. I cant do the RGB bit without it.

The picture is quite a bit darker after the parts of the hack I have done, does the RGB hack remedy that?

Thanks in advance


Wooky

[Pete77]

I'm still missing Joe, could any of you kind people post it for me or provide a link? I had no luck on Google or a forum search. I cant do the RGB bit without it.

Did you try "Joe" "Tivo" "editor" on a worldwide search in Google?

I believe Joe is part of this download set:-

http://tivo.stevejenkins.com/downloads/tivobin.tgz

[Wooky]

Thanks for the clue with the Google search, I didn't try those exact terms.

I'd seen mention of Joe in Steve Jenkins instructions but Joe was not in that download, anyway, reading his instructions led me to the filename joe.tgz, a quick Google for that found a copy.

Thanks for the help :-)

Wooky

[AMc]

http://tivo.stevejenkins.com/downloads/

joe.tgz is in there by itself

[Wooky]

http://tivo.stevejenkins.com/downloads/

joe.tgz is in there by itself

Thanks, that's where Google sent me.

Wooky

[Mike Rogers]

At long last I have installed the Mode 0 hack.
It has gone fine and I would like to thank beastman and blindlemon particulary, as well as all the other contributors to this thread.

I held off for a doing anything to my Tivo for a very long time, waiting for my old Sammy 120 Gb to start to fail, whilst having a HA250JC and cachecard waiting in the cupboard.

I was finally prompted as I just bought a plasma (TH42PH9) and decided to do it all at once.
It looks great with Mode 0.

Many thanks!

[geekspeak]

To do this does Tivo have to be networked, or can you use a linux boot disk to run the commands as per a drive upgrade?

[Raisltin Majere]

No, it needs to done whilst the tivo software is running

[blindlemon]

Or you can restore a backup taken from a machine that had Mode 0 installed... ;)

[Mark Bennett]

OK - I think I've just done this... :o

I had problems when it came to "joe" though. Couldn't remember how to unpack joe.tar :confused:

Joe definitely not on my tivo - and I couldn't really see how it worked using the instructions.

So I found rc.sysinit.author (which was in /etc/rc.d/ on my TiVo) and used FileZilla to copy over to my PC, then NoteTab light to edit it and added the

# 0x38 21 = RGB input luminance, 0x39 20 = RGB input colour
(sleep 40; /var/hack/bin/iicsetw 0x8C 0x38 21 0x39 20) &
line to the end of the file, which was basically empty only having this in it:

# Call the Tivo Package Manager Startup Scripts
/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit.tpm

then ftp'd back to the same directory with FileZilla.

remounted and rebooted and all seems well :up:

So I record at "Best" to get Mode 0?

In Tivoweb this is showing as
DBSBestVBRBitrate = 7500000
DBSBestMAXBitrate = 9000000


Edit:
I don't think iicsetw is running... It should be in the kernel log - right?

[blindlemon]

So I record at "Best" to get Mode 0? Depends for which quality (or qualities) you have assigned a resolution of 0 in TiVoWeb :)

[Mark Bennett]

Depends for which quality (or qualities) you have assigned a resolution of 0 in TiVoWeb :)


Yes - (re)reading around this I see that all the bit rates are changed by the script - so using this it is "Best" that has the highest resolution.

Everything is working - but (you may have missed my edit above) I don't think iicsetw is running...

(Or is this it?:
Aug 11 15:50:41 (none) kernel: IIC 0x8C.0x38 now set to 0x15
Aug 11 15:50:41 (none) kernel: IIC 0x8C.0x39 now set to 0x14
)


However TiVo is recording at the moment (MotorsTV - not exactly a fair test of Mode 0 ! :rolleyes: ) so I'm not touching it at the moment ;)

Looks ok - as far as it would given the appalling source it's running with at the moment! :)


Edit:

And thanks! :) :cool:

[blindlemon]

Yes, that looks like the output from iicsetw :)

[Mark Bennett]

Thanks :)

I muddled through again then :D

[ciper]

Its easier to do this through TivoWebPlus.

[SJC]

When downloading the LJ file via the link, the file opens up to reveal indecypherable symbols etc rather than being simply a downloadable file. I assume (?) that these characters should be copied and pasted into a text file - is this correct?

[Pugwash]

Get the file from the author's site, and right-click the link to get the save-as or equivalent option. I think the discussion boards have something in place to prevent this, but I could well be wrong.
The left -click can be baffled if site and browser character sets are different and you're not in Vista?

[Mark Bennett]

When downloading the LJ file via the link, the file opens up to reveal indecypherable symbols etc rather than being simply a downloadable file. I assume (?) that these characters should be copied and pasted into a text file - is this correct?

Right Click on the file, "Save Target As" some where on your PC, then FTP it in Binary mode to the TiVo.

[SJC]

I am following tutorial but I can't FTP the setupmode 0.tcl to /var/hack/
I am using Flashftp which so far has worked perfectly. If I transfer the setupmode0 directory to Tivo then this appears to work but on opening it only contains the LJ file. Why would the setup file not transfer?

Sorted it.

Changed to Filezilla and set transfer manually to binary, default mode is ASCII

[Pete77]

Changed to Filezilla and set transfer manually to binary, default mode is ASCII

A lot of FTP programs other than Filezilla seem to have problems transferring binary files to the Tivo without modifying them in some way.

Everyone who uses Filezilla with a Tivo seems to report success and has stuck to using that program for FTP.

[Pugwash]

I use WS_FTP, which has a list of extensions for known ascii file types. No problems unless you click the button in the middle that switches between ascii/binary/auto.

[ciper]

Does TivoWebPlus resource module not work on the UK Tivos? I can't figure out why all of you would want to use a pre configured script instead of adjusting the values as you see fit through the web browser.

[johala_reewi]

Thanks to beastman for the mode0 guide - have now got mode0 up and running on my Tivo with no pain at all.

I don't seem to get any of the white flashes that have been mentioned (in the other threads) but, I do get flashes of pixellation at the bottom of the screen (about 1 inch deep across the whole width of the screen) but only on BBC1 (freeview). All the other freeview channels are fine.

I have changed the MinBitRate from 7500000 to 4500000 as suggested in various posts which seems to have made a small difference. Any ideas what could be causing this?

[Pete77]

I don't seem to get any of the white flashes that have been mentioned (in the other threads) but, I do get flashes of pixellation at the bottom of the screen (about 1 inch deep across the whole width of the screen) but only on BBC1 (freeview). All the other freeview channels are fine.

I use a Sky box for most of my Tivo channels (I get a handful from a Freeview box using a dual Sky/Freeview setup) and was sufficiently annoyed by the white flashes problem at the bottom of the screen on BBC Three, BBC Four, Sky News, BBC News 24 and various other channels that I went back to Mode 4 although retaining VBR in the end.

But then I'm only using an old 29" 4:3 100hz tv so didn't seem to benefit much from a significant uplift in quality using Mode 0 anyway.

[johala_reewi]

Have played around a bit and VBRBitrate 5960000 MAXBitrate 7836000 (mode 0) is looking to be OK. Get the odd flash but not as bad as previously. Stream file sizes seem to be much the same as before :)

[Pete77]

Have played around a bit and VBRBitrate 5960000 MAXBitrate 7836000 (mode 0) is looking to be OK. Get the odd flash but not as bad as previously. Stream file sizes seem to be much the same as before :)

I take it that by also trying lower MAXBitrates you were unable to eliminate white flashes altogether?

Mode 4 seems to handle a MAXBitrate of 9000000 without any white flashes at all so I know which I prefer.

[blindlemon]

Just wait until you get a bigger telly - then you'll want Mode 0 :p:D

[Pete77]

Just wait until you get a bigger telly - then you'll want Mode 0 :p:D

Makes mental note not to replace telly until an acceptable replacement for Tivo with genuinely high quality output for HDTVs is available.

To be honest the whole Mode 0 craze strikes me as a bit like people overclocking their PC CPUs to double the original processor design speed and then being surprised when they burn out early............

[blindlemon]

To be honest the whole Mode 0 craze strikes me as a bit like people overclocking their PC CPUs to double the original processor design speed and then being surprised when they burn out early............Clearly written by somebody with a small TV :p:D

On any TV of 28" or greater - and especially LCDs due to the problems with upscaling - Mode 0 makes a very noticeable improvement to the picture. The presence of occasional - and they are occasional - white flashes on contrasty or grainy sources is more than outweighed by the improvements in sharpness and colour separation of Mode 0 over Mode 4 (normal Best).

And even on a small LCD (like the 19" Samsung in the bedroom here) the use of Mode 0 considerably reduces the smearing and other artifacts caused by upscaling from the other TiVo modes to the native resolution of the panel. I suspect this is because Mode 0 is the same resolution as a standard DVD, so this conversion is better handled by the panel's scaling software than the rather random resolutions of the other TiVo modes.

[mrtickle]

To be honest the whole Mode 0 craze strikes me as a bit like people overclocking their PC CPUs to double the original processor design speed and then being surprised when they burn out early............

No it's more like finding that the PC was delivered slightly underclocked, discovering this and clocking it to its rated speed. Nothing is burning out(!), it was just too close to the tolerances for TiVo to use mode0 in the S1 machines. So some people can use it, some can't, it's pot luck whether you get no/some/lots of flashes etc.

[smokie]

Well with the help of this thread I have successfuly implemented Mode 0 and it looks fantastic. However I am having the "white flashes" but, having researched fairly thoroughly, can someone please confirm the exact bitrates (i.e. which variables) I need to change to eliminate them.

I'm on Virgin, so are the values those prefixed CATV? These are the values I currently have set:

CATVBestVBRBitrate 750000 and CATVBestMAXBitrate 900000

Thanks in advance

[iankb]

I'm not sure that, once you've switched on VBR, the bitrate has much effect. The flashes are caused by stretching the component past its operating limits, and varies with each machine. There are no 'correct' values.

[Pete77]

I'm not sure that, once you've switched on VBR, the bitrate has much effect. The flashes are caused by stretching the component past its operating limits, and varies with each machine. There are no 'correct' values.

Is there any evidence this stretching of the components beyond the limit may shorten their expected lifetime due to running hotter etc as a result of carrying more load?

I found the white flashes on BBC Three and some 24 hours news stations wholly unacceptable to live with.

But are you saying that Mode 0 used with CBR does not cause white flashes then?

[blindlemon]

No. Once you have enabled VBR, the encoder will choose its own bitrate (paying attention to the guide bitrates you specify), so the bitrates you choose are not going to make as much difference (if they do make a difference) as they would if you were using CBR.

As an example: If you set 7500000 CBR the bitrate will be 7500000, period. If you change that to 4800000 then the bitrate will be 4800000. However, if you are using VBR and set the target or max bitrate to 7500000 the encoder may never actually use 7500000, ever. Likewise if you set a target or max of 4800000 (although it's more likely to hit the max in this case).

[Richard Loxley]

To do this does Tivo have to be networked, or can you use a linux boot disk to run the commands as per a drive upgrade?

I was in the same situation, so I've just developed a method to do the upgrade without a network connection.

Tried it tonight and it seems to work.

I've written up the process at: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=376446

[ericd121]

Curiosity has got the better of me.

What do the values in the fields labelled
RecordQualityBest
RecordQualityHigh
RecordQualityMedium
RecordQualityBasic
represent?

[mikerr]

It seems to be some sort of sharpness control, has much less of an effect than bitrates though.

[blindlemon]

It's a numeric value which tells the encoder which two qualities need to be the sharpest.

Any set of 4 different values will work with the highest two indicating the "sharp" qualities. There was a lot of discussion over this in the original Mode 0 thread and after some experimentation I eventually proved that the actual numbers are irrelevant as long as they are all different. So you could use 0,1,2,3 or 0,40,75,100 (the defaults) or 0,99,1,100 and in all cases the qualities with the highest two numbers will be sharp and the other two will be a bit fuzzy. If you put them round the wrong way or assign them in a random order it just means that you will end up with sharp pictures at the lower bitrates and fuzzy pictures at the higher ones, which doesn't help anybody very much!

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any way of forcing all the qualities to be sharp - although as I write this I'm thinking that I don't remember experimenting with setting all the numbers to the same value or doing something like 1,1,2,2 so that all the qualities would be within the "highest" two numbers. Might be worth a try...

[ericd121]

How very interesting!
Thanks, guys. :up:

I did read through a lot of Mode 0 posts but amongst the bitrates and the resolutions, this aspect (not a pun!) eluded me. :rolleyes:

[ColinYounger]

I enabled Mode0 and have started suffering from picture freezes when TiVo starts to record - pressing AUX shows the program continuing, but TiVo picture is frozen. Can press buttons, change channels, etc but the picture itself doesn't change.

Known Mode0 problem?

[Pete77]

I enabled Mode0 and have started suffering from picture freezes when TiVo starts to record - pressing AUX shows the program continuing, but TiVo picture is frozen. Can press buttons, change channels, etc but the picture itself doesn't change.

Known Mode0 problem?

Not a problem I have heard of before associated with Mode 0 use but a known problem when accessing some Tivoweb modules and/or using the Yahoo Widgets Tivo desktop icon.

Pressing the 15 minutes back or forwards jump button should get you back to real time recording display mode?

[ColinYounger]

It's not a pause! It just grinds to a halt - FF gives bongs.

Wifey currently thinks I have something against her as it did it twice last night. Recording 'that' program. Dancing on Ice is what I'm doing all right. :D

[Pete77]

Never heard of this before. I wonder if you didn't make the alterations you are meant to make in Resources Editor correctly as the interface is such it is very easy to mess things up.

Did you press enter after entering each new setting then press the back button and click Update Resources at the preceding page and then finally reboot your Tivo?

[ColinYounger]

I have a handy script that my HDD supplier installs with their preconfigured drives. I don't have to think. :) I've switched it out of Mode0 using another pre-supplied script and adjusted my 'play' TiVo instead.

I'm also watching the SMART stats in case it's the drive waving bye-bye.

Can't risk my nads again. ;)

[Pete77]

I have a handy script that my HDD supplier installs with their preconfigured drives. I don't have to think. :) I've switched it out of Mode0 using another pre-supplied script and adjusted my 'play' TiVo instead.

I would refer back to your heavenly supplier than as I am sure he can undoubtedly afford to support you given the self admitted margins generally built in to the prices of his products in order to allow the provision of such high quality after sales support.;):p

[Pete77]

Can't risk my nads again. ;)

That wife of yours sounds vicious. I hope she doesn't have any sharp kitchen knives too readily to hand.

Not to mention scissors.

Snip, snip, snip, snip, snip.:rolleyes::eek:

[blindlemon]

I enabled Mode0 and have started suffering from picture freezes when TiVo starts to record - pressing AUX shows the program continuing, but TiVo picture is frozen. Can press buttons, change channels, etc but the picture itself doesn't change.

Known Mode0 problem?Not one I've heard of. What else are you running?

I would refer back to your heavenly supplier than as I am sure he can undoubtedly afford to support you given the self admitted margins generally built in to the prices of his products in order to allow the provision of such high quality after sales support.;):pThanks for the plug Pete ;)

Of course, as you've never bought anything from me you wouldn't actually know anything about my after-sales service, would you? :p

[Pete77]

Thanks for the plug Pete ;)

Of course, as you've never bought anything from me you wouldn't actually know anything about my after-sales service, would you? :p

Oh I'm sure that its a very good one indeed based on even the excellent free service you have always run via forum message PM for even non customers thinking of upgrading themselves. As I recall it the main difference is that paying customers get your phone number too, which is also open very long hours.

I know I seemed to offend you a while back, which I do regret as I still regard you as one of the gurus of this forum. I was only pulling your leg over pricing but I'm sorry if it somehow touched a raw nerve somewhere. I expect i overstepped the mark.:o

I expect that you won't thank me for also now mentioning the other keen regular forum member who runs an upgrading service alongside your own website as well as that of the somewhat less forum fanatical HealeyDave (tivoland.com) but despite your contention that 160Gb Maxtor drives are hot and nasty etc one has to note they are now owned by Seagate and seem to manufacture at the same plants or at least using the same firmware based on recent evidence.

Also I note that from a consumer perspective that competition has done wonders for the price of fully prepared 300Gb drive upgrade. Having said the price war on 160Gb drives seems to have eased off a little, perhaps suggesting that it must have been a bit of a loss leader for the other firm. Or perhaps that other supplier has switched to using 160Gb Samsung drives now?:cool:

[blindlemon]

I expect i overstepped the mark.:oThanks for that. We have kind of come to expect it, but the apology is a refreshing change of tack. Was being nice to people in forums your New Year's resolution...? :D

On the subject of Samsung drives, all IDE drives are getting hard to source now and Samsung seem to be the worst. Apparently they have been gaining market share in SATA drives and have switched over a lot of their production facilities from IDE to SATA early to meet demand. Currently, 160gb Samsung drives are like hen's teeth, and the 400gb are not much better.

[Pete77]

On the subject of Samsung drives, all IDE drives are getting hard to source now and Samsung seem to be the worst.

Hard to believe this is sensible when there are still so many devices out there using IDE drives and they do need replacing periodically like light bulbs.

Currently, 160gb Samsung drives are like hen's teeth, and the 400gb are not much better.

Western Digital to the rescue perhaps then as they seem to have a wide range of IDE drives including a 250GB 2.5" one. Or would that be a bridge too far in terms of noise or loss of longevity and is moving to using an IDE to SATA converter with Samsung the only sensible way ahead?

[blindlemon]

Samsung do 750gb and 1TB SATA drives and the little IDE/SATA converters work fine in a TiVo so that may be an avenue worth exploring.

[...coolstream]

One thing that I have noticed since moving to a HD display is that pausing TiVo always produces a frame that looks worse than the moving picture. I presume that this is due to it outputting an interlaced output.

Is there any way that mode0 can be tweaked to produce a progressive rather than interlaced recording?

[laurence@key2.co]

Help! After lots and lots of thinking, I decided to hack and do mode 0. Not sure I should have! I think I've done everything right, but now after reboot step, TiVo went into a reboot loop (cachecard installs and caches, almost done, a moment of TV, then reboot) - about 3 times and now I've got the GSOD.
Got same thing when I installed cachecard, but it sorted itself out - not sure if that's related. I edited rc.sysinit.author using SmartFTP Client - not sure if that's related to the problem. Obviously I can't check it now!
Loz

[laurence@key2.co]

Update... GSOD turned back into a reboot loop all by itself. More interesting than watching GSOD I suppose, but I'd still prefer normal telly.

I'm talking to myself! Keeps me sane I suppose. It's finally stopped rebooting and seems to be working ok. Checked tivoweb and the resource editor shows the mode 0 settings correctly, so I'm guessing it must be working ok. Recording time seems lower too. Is there anyway I can check if rc.sysinit.author is working ok? Could that have caused the reboot loop? I copied it to windows and opened it in wordpad - it contains:
/var/hack/tivoweb-tcl/tivoweb
# 0x38 21 = RGB input luminance, 0x39 20 = RGB input colour
(sleep 40; /var/hack/bin/iicsetw 0x8C 0x38 21 0x39 20) &
Does that look right?

[blindlemon]

iicsetw doesn't normally cause reboots. I would suspect you have some drive corruption.

[laurence@key2.co]

Thanks Blindlemon!
Lying awake last night I wondered if it might be hard drive related - particularly because I had a similar experience with the cachecard installation. If it finally did boot, presumably that rules out an error in the hacks?
Is it likely a failing hard drive would cause these problems?
and if so, do you happen to know a reputable supplier of replacements ;)
Loz

[blindlemon]

Yes, a failing drive can lead to corruption that results in a GSOD after a restart. Sometimes it will appear to fix itself for a while, but it is always a bad sign and sometimes a warning of something a lot worse just round the corner :(

If you have the facility to do so I would suggest taking a backup with MFSTools now in case the drive dies shortly - that way you will at least be able to restore your settings and SPs etc. to a new drive. Alternatively, you could send your drive away and have it copied to a bigger one... allegedly ;)

[AMc]

Now you have a cachecard in place search on here for a TivoWeb module to back up your season passes and a script to tar up your /var.
That way if you need to start from a brand new image you can replace most of your settings quite fast.

[laurence@key2.co]

Thanks guys. V useful. Backing up seems the sensible thing to do. Throwing another £100+ on ageing technology (still need a freeview box too) goes against the grain, but there just don't seem to be any better pvr options (in the UK) yet. Been holding out for a decent HD freeview pvr as good as TiVo, but I think we may all be dead before one's released outside the US.
I thought I'd read somewhere in this forum that it was possible to modify a series 2 for use in the uk - but now I can't find the thread. Was it just a happy dream?!

[Pete77]

Throwing another £100+ on ageing technology (still need a freeview box too) goes against the grain, but there just don't seem to be any better pvr options (in the UK) yet. Been holding out for a decent HD freeview pvr as good as TiVo!

www.tivocentral.co.uk is only asking £49 for a 160Gb pre-prepared Tivo hard drive. I think it would cost around £30 to get a non formatted IDE hard drive delivered so that seems something of a bargain.

Surely another way of looking at it is only £49 to get another 2 or 3 years value out of your Lifetime Sub that you already paid £200 for and that would cost £10 per month for those who have to pay?

Theoretically in the end one of the Freeview Playback with Series Link PVRs like the ones from Topfield, Humax and Tvonics may do most of what you can do with a Tivo and more in terms of Series Link, dual tuners and adjustment of Series Link recording times if programs are not running to schedule.

However even then any Wishlist functionality will be much more restricted, the EPG is only for 1 week and there are no Suggestions. Also the Metadata for Series Link is only currently working on the BBC channels. In the end it should extend to ITV, C4 and Five channels.

[blindlemon]

www.tivocentral.co.uk is only asking £49 for a 160Gb pre-prepared Tivo hard drive. I think it would cost around £30 to get a non formatted IDE hard drive delivered so that seems something of a bargain.Maxtor drives. You get what you pay for.

[laurence@key2.co]

Surely another way of looking at it is only £49 to get another 2 or 3 years value out of your Lifetime Sub that you already paid £200 for and that would cost £10 per month for those who have to pay?



That's a really good argument - you've talked me into it! But this really will be the last time I throw more money at the tivo! Surely there'll be something better about in a few years. And actually, you're right, there are some good deals around.

[Pete77]

Maxtor drives. You get what you pay for.
Oddly I notice your 160Gb drives are now Western Digitals. A make you have previously indicated not favouring due to heat, noise and reliability issues.

Whereas Maxtor is now owned by Seagate. A brand of hard drive you have previously indicated a preference for................

[kitschcamp]

That's like comparing an Ford Escort and a Jaguar - both are owned by Ford, but the trim levels and performance are quite different.

[mikerr]

As with most things, brands are not the whole story.
Heat, and noise in hard drives are not really due to brand, but the following :

Number of platters - less platters, less heat and noise
Spindle speed - slower speed, less heat and noise
Acoustic management - slows seeking speed down, for less performance, but quieter seeks.

Historically samsung used to never go above 2 platter designs (they do up to 4 platters now though), hence part of the reason for their quietness.

Maxtor/hitachi have often favoured cheaper 4 platter designs which do produce more heat and noise. Hitachi were until recently the only manufacturer to make 5 platter drives.

Interestingly maxtor have always shipped drives with acoustic management turned off (noisy)
samsung ship with it turned on, and the newer seagates don't have a user level control for it at all.Simply turning on acoustic management on an old maxtor silences it by a huge margin.

A hot drive with insufficient cooling will not last long at any rate.

So, no - I wouldn't use a 500GB 5 platter hitachi drive, but a single platter seagate/maxtor is actually better than 2 platter samsung IMO.

[Pete77]

As with most things, brands are not the whole story.
Heat, and noise in hard drives are not really due to brand, but the following :

Number of platters - less platters, less heat and noise
Spindle speed - slower speed, less heat and noise
Acoustic management - slows seeking speed down, for less performance, but quieter seeks.

As any persual at www.storagereview.com will tend to show.

[blindlemon]

Oddly I notice your 160Gb drives are now Western Digitals. A make you have previously indicated not favouring due to heat, noise and reliability issues.Temporarily, while I find another supplier of Samsung drives. Even so, the small WD are quite nice drives IMHO and I have never said anything about WD reliability - only heat and noise which is not really an issue with any modern 160gb drives.

Whereas Maxtor is now owned by Seagate. A brand of hard drive you have previously indicated a preference for................Yes, I used to supply Seagate drives but stopped doing so due to their various incompatibilities with TiVo use, including aggravating the 'helium sound' problem and not working in pairs.

Even if you think Seagate are great, the fact that Seagate now own Maxtor does NOT mean that when you buy a Maxtor drive you are getting a Seagate with a different badge on. The Maxtor website talks about "entry level", "value for money" and "basic" drives - and a search reveals that they are warranted for only 1 or 3 years, compared to the 5 years you get for a Seagate.

You get what you pay for.

[Fizz]

I've tried this and I get a black line with a green fine stripe down the right hand side of the picture and it's slightly shunted to the left.. what has caused this?

[blindlemon]

I've tried this and I get a black line with a green fine stripe down the right hand side of the picture and it's slightly shunted to the left.. what has caused this?Sounds like you need to install LJs' updated FPGA file (http://www.ljay.org.uk/tivoweb/tivo_fpga.html).

[Mark Bennett]

It sounds like LJ's modified file hasn't kicked in. (See the 1st post in the thread).

Did you copy it over in bibary mode, and set the permissions right?

(Of course I might be wrong, but I understood this was what LJ's file was supposed to fix).

[Fizz]

found the problem... I had typed the instructions in the rc.sysinit.author file (put a - not a = in the first line!!!) it seems to be ok now.. however I'm not impressed. The picture now seems a lot more grainy than before....

[blindlemon]

found the problem... I had typed the instructions in the rc.sysinit.author fileWhat has rc.sysinit.author got to do with Mode 0?

Are you referring to the iicsetw fix for the RGB values? This is not related to Mode 0 in any way.

What bitrates etc. have you specified?

[Fizz]

well I fixed that and the picture corrected itself... I don't know what icsetw relates to but it messed it up.. I was just following the instructions on the first page to get mode 0 :)

Bitrates.. I think, if the I'm looking in the right place on TIVOWEB then I have 7500000 9000000 in the DBSBestVBRBitrate & DBSBestMAXBitrate what's the DBSBestResolution field?

fpga file is present and correct version... BTW

[jennykins]

Just managed to get this working and looks much better on my new tosh 46ZF355. :cool:

Had a bit of prob at first where the iicset changes ended up in rc.sysinit.author~ rather than rc.sysinit.author in /etc/rc.d but all working fine now.

The reduction in garish colour makes an amazing difference on a big screen and that little bit extra resolution looks good too.

Cheers.

Jen.

[jennykins]

Just noticed that since joining in October 2000 I've averaged 0.625 posts per year!

Is this a record?

:rolleyes:

Jen.

[iankb]

Possibly, it could be a little higher.

They accidentally reset the forum counts several years ago, and I lost 5000 or so. :(

[ned_solanki]

Hi All, been reading this thread and I am interested in upgrading my TIVO to a 400gb Drive from the two HDD in the machine. not bothered about keeping the programmes or settings, but I [B]DONT[B] have a network card or serial cable. Can you give me the pointers in getting the machines to Mode 0 and also updating all the icons and hacks etc working it. Most of the thread assume you have the cachecard. Sorry to sound dumb.

Thanks

Ned

[Pete77]

Hi All, been reading this thread and I am interested in upgrading my TIVO to a 400gb Drive from the two HDD in the machine. not bothered about keeping the programmes or settings, but I [B]DONT[B] have a network card or serial cable. Can you give me the pointers in getting the machines to Mode 0 and also updating all the icons and hacks etc working it. Most of the thread assume you have the cachecard. Sorry to sound dumb.

If you don't want to get a network card but do want Mode 0 then buy a drive with Mode 0 already set up on a new pre-prepared 400 Gb drive from either www.tivocentral.co.uk or www.tivoheaven.co.uk

[mikerr]

Yes, you can install mode0 without a network card (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=376446) ... but its far easier with a network / cachecard.

[big_dirk]

Hi all,

I'm late to the Mode0 party, just read through this thread and it seems to implement Mode0 I can either use a script or follow the instructions in the first post of this thread, is that right?

I would like to see better quality output to my new LCD TV but am worried about messing up my TiVo but think if there's a simple way to do it like an automated script, then it will be worth it.

I know this is a stupid question, I havn't looked at any TiVo modding for ages but will it increase the quality of a live picture of TV channels through the TiVo, or will it just increase the quality of recordings I make?

Many thanks.

[johala_reewi]

I know this is a stupid question, I havn't looked at any TiVo modding for ages but will it increase the quality of a live picture of TV channels through the TiVo, or will it just increase the quality of recordings I make?

Many thanks.

Yes.
When you watch live TV on Tivo you are really watching what Tivo has just recorded so mode 0 will improve the quality of both Tivo live TV and Tivo recordings (subject to the flash problem which you may or may not find annoying).

To really watch Live TV (ie. direct from the STB to the TV), you need to use the AUX button on the Tivo remote.

[big_dirk]

thanks for the advice, I had no idea about the AUX button doing that either!

I wonder if anyone could tell me please if I'm to attempt Mode0, which parts of my TiVO filesystem should I take a backup of to ensure I can restore it if I mess up the Mode0 instructions in the 1st post here?

thanks in advance.

[a_tivo_noob]

Open up a command window (start/run then type "cmd"). In the window, type "telnet" space then the IP address of your Tivo. Go to your file's directory by typing for example "cd var/hack/bin". Then type "chmod 755 filename".
hiya

i'm getting my attributes for the new 'fpga' file coming through as
-rwxr-xr-x
instead of...
-rw-r--r--

despite following your instructions above (telnet, cd /lib/modules, "chmod 755 fpga7114.o.lj")


edit: scrap that! just seen a follow up post saying that it should've been 644... worked now :D
any ideas?

[a_tivo_noob]

well... done it :) chuff knows if its working properly as I can't remember how bad it was in the first place :(

(thanks anyways though! :) )

[a_tivo_noob]

bah nuts - i accidently put the iic stuff in the 'bin' directory instead of the /var/hack/bin one - doh! (i was in var/hack, and just did "cd bin" or something - that'll teach me!)

so it hasn't worked (yet!) - i'm getting "permission denied" when i try to ftp into the /var/hack/bin directory... i will persevere though! :)

[warrenrb]

So once you've followed the instructions from the first post... what do you get? :)

i.e. I used setupMode0.tcl to do my settings for me. I'm assuming that recording something in 'Best' now gives Mode 0, whereas 'High' is equivalent to old 'Best', 'Medium' is equivalent to old 'High', and 'Basic' is equivalent to old 'Medium'?

Couldn't find anything in this thread explaining what you get with these set-up instructions.

[Richard Loxley]

Most of the Mode 0 scripts leave Basic, Medium and High unchanged, and change Best to be Mode 0 quality.

I haven't checked the script in this thread, but that was certainly the case with the script I used to enable mode 0 on my machine (detailed in the thread about enabling mode 0 without a network card).

[steford]

Thanks to all. Always fancied Mode 0 but never fancied doing it. Was dead simple (took 5 mins) with this tutorial on my new Panasonic 42PX80. Didn't feel the need for the RGB fix stuff - looks good to me although noticed 1 white flash already. Using the VBR 75/90 settings.

There's life in this Tivo yet.

EDIT: Can anyone tell me what the RGB fix stuff actually does and if it's needed? As I said all looks good to me so far.

[mutant_matt2]

Does anybody have any links to threads where bitrates vs "the white flash" for Mode0 are discussed? I've been searching quite a bit and have failed to actually find any threads where people have reported their results of tweaking the bitrates to try and eliminate the white flashes. I have found plenty of threads stating these threads exist, and recommend to go search for them, which I have been doing, but, have yet to find them.

I have the odd flash, and am running 9.0/7.5 and would be happy to drop them down a little if I could virtually eliminate them, but don't want to compromise if I can help it, on image quality (don't care about space).

If such threads can be found, it would make sense to add them to the original post, as it's a great guide which would be even better with this stuff in it (IMHO) (and would also help me guess at some settings, which I can do by trial and error myself, but it takes time ;) ).

Cheers,

Matt :)

[blindlemon]

Bitrates vs. flashes is a contentious subject. I have not found that dropping the bitrate improves the situation on either of my TiVos, although others claim it has on theirs.

For "high" recordings I use Mode 0 with bitrates of 6000000/3660000 and find that I get few flashes, but then I get few flashes with 9000000/7500000 so I don't know if that means a great deal. However, unless you're recording lots of fast action, 6000000/3660000 is a perfectly adequate bitrate combination so it might be worth a try.

Cheers
Steve

[mutant_matt2]

I dropped from 7.5/9.0 to 6.5/8.0 and if anything it's worse (Mode0, best). I figured, if I drop the rate to anything below 5.96, it'll be a worse picture than the original "Best"? (in fact, theoretically, would I need a higher rate than the original best, due to the resolution it's encoding at now being higher?) I have enough space, so want the best picture I can get, with no flashes, but after reading many (many) posts, still can't quite figure out what to change to what? (BestVBRBitrate vs. BestMaxBitrate).

If the problem is the decoder struggling with the rate, then surely it must be the Max rate, as otherwise, it'd happen most of the time (at least on the type of source that get's it upset in the first place)?

Cheers,

Matt :)

[blindlemon]

If the problem is the decoder struggling with the rate, then surely it must be the Max rate, as otherwise, it'd happen most of the time (at least on the type of source that get's it upset in the first place)?That's why I don't believe that bitrate has much effect on the white flashes.

Even my "medium" recordings (Mode 0, 4.8/3.66 max/target) suffer from white flashes occasionally, and at about the same frequency as "high" recordings (6/3.66) and "best" (9/7.5). With VBR enabled, the actual bitrates for most recordings hover around or below the lower "target" bitrate 99% of the time anyway and very rarely (if ever) reach the "max" rate, so it must be something other than bitrate which upsets the decoder.

[Pete77]

so it must be something other than bitrate which upsets the decoder.

Use of the Mode 0 quality level for instance:rolleyes:

[blindlemon]

Use of the Mode 0 quality level for instance:rolleyes:Well duh! :p

[Andy Leitch]

What are the bitrates for Mode 0, when you key in '53' for option 1 and '54' option 2 when you reboot?

They must be different bitrates/settings but I'm not happy with either of them.
The edge enhancement is driving me nuts.

Due to the ancient hardware we are using :( it'll be impossible to dial EE out completely but I'd like to lessen it if at all possible.

[big_dirk]

what do you set your My Preferences > Video Recording Quality to in order to get Mode0 recordings? highest option on my list is still "best", or will the hacking we've done override this?

[Pete77]

what do you set your My Preferences > Video Recording Quality to in order to get Mode0 recordings? highest option on my list is still "best", or will the hacking we've done override this?

The hacking overrides this.

Look at the settings in Resources Editor in Tivoweb.

[big_dirk]

Great thank you.

What is the consensus on the white flashes at the bottom, its quite an issue on mine - is there a way to make it even slightly less apparant?

[Pete77]

What is the consensus on the white flashes at the bottom, its quite an issue on mine - is there a way to make it even slightly less apparant?

White flashing varies according to the individual Tivo and according to which channels you record most. It is especially bad on anything broadcast on BBC Three for instance.

If you have a lot of white flashes on your particular Tivo you may not be able to live with using Mode 0 and may prefer to return to using Mode 4 (Best) with a higher variable bit rate than the standard constant bit rate Best.

There has been a lot of previous discussion on this if you search the Tivo UK section of the forum for "Mode 0" with an Advanced Search.