Telling TiVo's Apart!

[tenwiseman]

Hi,

With my 2nd Tivo now attached to the same TV as the 1st I'm now having problems telling them apart due to use of the same blue floating clouds background.

Are there different backgrounds up somewhere I can install, or can I add something to the TV display like "Tivo 1","Tivo 2".

At the moment, I've got the 'bing bong' sound effects enabled on one to tell them apart... that noise is slowly doing my head in...

--
Adrian C

[cwaring]

Hi,
'ello!

Are there different backgrounds up somewhere I can install
No.

or can I add something to the TV display like "Tivo 1","Tivo 2".
Yes, but you will need Telnet access to both units. I'm sure someone will be along shortly with the details. I hope so, anyway, as I can't remember which hack it is you need :)

[mikerr]

How to change tivo menus (http://archive2.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=220018) which needs dbget and dbget from this thread (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=278781)

[britcub]

... or get a different coloured remote for one of them, and use that to tell which is which!

[tenwiseman]

Thanks folks,

I've got telnet to both - so I'll be fine doing some message editing.

For the moment, The 2nd TiVo remote has got some sticky tape on it - until I can find some yellow car paint. :)

[ozsat]

One the TiVo Central button - it is raise when you get them.

The raise bit comes off the reveal a flat TiVo button.

You can remove the raise to have different buttons on the two handsets.

[mikerr]

...or buy one of those tivo remotes which have a switch on them the flip between tivos:


http://ftp1955.com/tv2125_000note.gif


Look at Number 26 .. DVR switch.

[Pete77]

Install autospace.tcl on one of them and not on the other.

The words Now Playing will then be replaced by the Autospace number of recordings graphic on one machine and not on the other one.

Also most tvs let you assign different names to each Scart input if you have more than one and show the name of the one you are now on for a second or two when you change between them. My Philips tv, which has three Scarts, certainly does that.

[Richard Loxley]

Years ago I thought I saw a hack that displayed the menus in an italic font, so you could distinguish it from another Tivo.

But I haven't come across anything like that in years, so I might be imagining it.

[Pete77]

Years ago I thought I saw a hack that displayed the menus in an italic font, so you could distinguish it from another Tivo.

But I haven't come across anything like that in years, so I might be imagining it.

It is shown on the Contents page in this Tivo guide:-

www.pearson.ch/Informatik/Hardware/1471/9780789731951/Leo-Laportes-Guide-to-TiVo.aspx

[blindlemon]

How to change tivo menus (http://archive2.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=220018) which needs dbget and dbget from this thread (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=278781)I've used this for my TiVos and they now say "Now Playing One" and "Now Playing Two".

You can also change just about any menu item, so I've changed "ToDo List" to "ToDo One and "ToDo Two" as well.

Never any confusion, especially with my snappy Glo remote (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=5304703&&#post5304703) and its handy "dvr" switch :)

[cyril]

It seems my list of menu items seems to have gone from the archive:

From Eric:
Whilst I was floundering about trying to get delmanual.tcl to work, I found a post by Cyril referring to dbget and dbset. The thread he linked to was unavailable, but I tracked down the info needed to change text on the TiVo!

Warning!!
I don't know how dangerous this technique is.
Make sure you have a backup just in case.

With that caveat, here's what to do.

Download dbget.tcl & dbset.tcl from
http://public.planetmirror.com/pub/tivo/tridge/

Telnet into TiVo and make it READ/WRITE

FTP the files to /tvbin

Back in the telnet window cd /tvbin

chmod 755 both files.

tivosh

dumpobj /SwSystem/ACTIVE
This will write about a dozen lines to the command window. Look for Resource Group = 9163/-1 9164/-1 9165/-1 and so on about 50 times (your numbers will be different).
Make a note of the second value, in my case 9164/-1.

Remember to substitute your four figure number for 9164 for the rest of these commands.
<Optional Step>
dumpobj -depth 2 9164
This will dump all the text strings for the tivo menus to the command window.
Not so useful in itself as you can only see the last 60-odd (there are 678 and it takes about 30 seconds to write to screen), but if someone knows how to point it to a file from within tivosh, could be handy.
</Optional Step>

dumpobj 9164/18 will produce
{
Id = (131095)
String = {Tivo Central}
}

dbget.tcl 9164/18 String will produce
{Tivo Central}

dbget.tcl 9164/17 String will produce
{Now Playing}

dbget.tcl 9164/134 String will produce
{Manual: %s}

I have two TiVos so I've used this command
dbset.tcl 9164/18 String {Tivo Two} to change TiVo Central to TiVo Two
and
dbset.tcl 9164/17 String {Tivo Two Programmes} to change Now Playing to TiVo Two Programmes

exit to exit tivosh.

Fire up TiVoWeb.
Go into Resource Editor
Choose the last option Update Resources
Then reboot your TiVo.




----


I will try and find out where I put the list -on an old hard drive somewhere!

[Pete77]

I have two TiVos

Cyril,

I'm sure that you used to have at least four Tivos, if not more.

Have you slowly been getting rid of them in favour of Windows MCE V+, Sky+, Sky HD or other such sacrilegious devices? :eek:

[Raisltin Majere]

Cyril,

I'm sure that you used to have at least four Tivos, if not more.

Have you slowly been getting rid of them in favour of Windows MCE V+, Sky+, Sky HD or other such sacrilegious devices? :eek:

I think he was quoting the instructions of somebody else (from Eric: )

[Richard Loxley]

Years ago I thought I saw a hack that displayed the menus in an italic font, so you could distinguish it from another Tivo.

But I haven't come across anything like that in years, so I might be imagining it.
Just found it here: http://tivo.drosoph.com/

Unfortunately it looks like it's only available from version 3.0 onwards - I guess that's why I haven't heard people discussing it round here!

[mikerr]

Since the above is far too much like hard work, I made a nice tivoweb module to let you edit the text of all the tivo menus:

edit menus in tivoweb (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=365484)