Lost some local channels - Page 3

GusMan · 04-19-2012, 01:51 PM

Let me ask this... if people are upgrading to new receivers, are they making any special offers? Any extra fees to consider? Concerned that having to upgrade will result in a good jump in my overall costs.

What can I say, Im spoiled by MRV.

stevel · 04-19-2012, 02:20 PM

No special offers in general, though some have reported getting discounts. There's a new $5/mo TiVo fee for the THR22. No MRV in the THR22 either. With HR24 and the like, you can do MRV streaming between boxes (I think there's a $3/mo fee to add that feature oer account. I don't have it.)

tward_biteme1 · 04-19-2012, 04:02 PM

My two hacked ones lost channels today.... This is just sad.

Pete_C · 04-19-2012, 05:00 PM

I called regarding any deals. Only deal that DTV mentioned relating to TIVO was an upgrade for $100 plus $21 installation fee, leasing instead of owning the reciever and a $15 extra charge/month for HD.

That said; wife really cares less about HD versus the content and I already have Comcast and don't even watch TV.

markis · 04-19-2012, 06:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevel

Probably will take 24 hours or so for the guide data to reset.

Ok, thank you. I've had it on most of the day, so I'll keep it running overnight and check back again tomorrow, before I make any more changes. I also have one more unit that I haven't even touched yet which also has lost locals.

Whipl50 · 04-19-2012, 07:30 PM

It's been so long since I messed with any of this. I don't care if I lose all of my zippered options, this is the last zippered unit in my house so no big deal. I've hooked a phone line back up to the unit, but it is failing to call in. I've placed my area code in and it says that the service is not answering the call.

I don't want to mess with hacking this any further.

litzdog911 · 04-19-2012, 08:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pete_C

I called regarding any deals. Only deal that DTV mentioned relating to TIVO was an upgrade for $100 plus $21 installation fee, leasing instead of owning the reciever and a $15 extra charge/month for HD.

That said; wife really cares less about HD versus the content and I already have Comcast and don't even watch TV.

Not a bad deal. That's half the regular $199 THR22 price. Probably includes a new Slimline dish install, too.

litzdog911 · 04-19-2012, 08:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Whipl50

It's been so long since I messed with any of this. I don't care if I lose all of my zippered options, this is the last zippered unit in my house so no big deal. I've hooked a phone line back up to the unit, but it is failing to call in. I've placed my area code in and it says that the service is not answering the call.

I don't want to mess with hacking this any further.

The v6.4a software is not currently in the satellite stream. DirecTV is working with Tivo to get it activated again to help folks with this problem. Stay tuned.

Captain 80s · 04-19-2012, 08:20 PM

I don't think it will negotiate the call with your hacks in place. I think you'll have to image a drive with stock firmware. Or maybe it's the "upgradesoftware=false", don't know for sure how to disable that (or if that's what prevents it). I just imaged a drive with my instantcake 6.2a on one of my units and am waiting. If they start providing 6.4a in the stream again, I'll start swapping them out one by one after transferring anything I want off of them. I can stream my files extracted with tysuiteJ to my WDTV media player. Then re-zipper them. Well... least it's a great opportunity to run SpinRite on all of my drives.

Whipl50 · 04-19-2012, 08:39 PM

I'm calling DirecTV tomorrow, see what they'll offer to fix this. I really don't want to go for another 2 years, but if they give me a free HD dvr upgrade I may.

litzdog911 · 04-20-2012, 12:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Whipl50

I'm calling DirecTV tomorrow, see what they'll offer to fix this. I really don't want to go for another 2 years, but if they give me a free HD dvr upgrade I may.

Let us know what you find out.

Pete_C · 04-20-2012, 02:47 AM

During my call with CS/Sales over at DTV they said if I wanted to keep the monthly price identical with no new incurring costs was to switch over to their DTV DVR box. I said no.

I did download the slices but still haven't installed them. I do have the original TIVO drive somewhere and I could probably install that drive and do the download via the telephone line and be done with it.

It really doesn't matter to me and is making me rethink about keeping Direct TV anyways.

Pete_C · 04-20-2012, 05:35 AM

So I purchased slicer and updated. Painless. While updating I choose to restore my mods.

My Tivowebplus is still there but can't utilize the rest of my hacks. I can telnet though. I don't even remember what I had on the box.

Looking through the directories I see some stuff and don't see other stuff.

Any suggestions relating to running a do all script such that I can get all my mods back?

A bit of this and that modding the original script I was able to install the mods back. During the update removed TivoWebPlus. I reinstalled the newest one and changed profile such that it would load on boot.

Just noticed that my rc dot sysinit dot author is still the old one with tivoman (which is gone now) stuff in it.

Only issue now is that wife is complaining that the LCD keeps going back to the 4:3 display for whatever reason. It wasn't doing this before.

Zuggel · 04-20-2012, 08:42 AM

I have the same issue with 2 non-hacked D-Tivo units in different houses (Detroit metro area). Local channels are black with the guide download error at start up. When my mom call DTV she was told it was a wiring issue in the house and that there would be a $50 fee for the technician to come out. I don't know what is better, that they don't know what is going on or that they are charging to fix something that isn't even broke.

markis · 04-20-2012, 10:07 AM

I think I've now managed to manually patch and reinstall most of my old hacks from scratch after the unexpected 6.4a installSw.itcl reboot wiped them out.

I'm still not seeing any missing locals yet. I was working on it last night, so I'm not sure if it got the nightly update data. I'll give it another night to see if the channels come back before I try to put 6.4a on my other box.

Pete_C · 04-20-2012, 01:38 PM

I updated manually early this morning and I have all of my locals back this afternoon. I am near Chicago.

I have all of mods back and now wondering what's the easiest way to image the drive to a backup drive?

Before today I would just create a second "virgin" DTivo drive with my mods.

wishbone4401 · 04-20-2012, 02:17 PM

It seems that most of the people that contribute solutions on these blogs are knowledgeable hackers that have the time, patience, persistence, high tolerance to frustration and the inclination to run slicers, zippers and other software on their TIVO drives to solve this problem. I don’t - so I solved it by getting a new hard drive for one of my HR10-250’s from DVRupgrade for $140. I figured I would have saved about $20 by doing it myself by buying a blank hard drive, SATA/IDE adapter and instantcake software and it wasn’t worth it. The new drive came with 6.4a software already installed and with the included instructions, it was easy to replace the old hard drive and it solved my local channel problem.

wishbone4401 · 04-20-2012, 02:29 PM

I sent a letter to Directv corporate headquarters complaining about the longevity of this issue and the fact that the tech support and customer service representatives have not been told about this problem nor have they been given a consistent answer about our options. I received a call this afternoon from a corporate representative and this is what I was told:

Directv engineering was unaware that the updates to the old TIVO software were not being made available for download.

As has been mentioned elsewhere they are working to get the updates re-started.

They said they would call me next week to let me know the status about when and how updates will be available.

markis · 04-20-2012, 03:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pete_C

I updated manually early this morning and I have all of my locals back this afternoon.

Good to know, thanks. I'm not sure why mine aren't back yet.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pete_C

I have all of mods back and now wondering what's the easiest way to image the drive to a backup drive?

You could try dd or use the backup options in MFSLive or WinMFS.

GusMan · 04-20-2012, 03:52 PM

I wouldn't say that we are all versed in hacking. But I will say that the resources found on this site have been very valuable and provided by some very intelligent and generous people.

In my opinion, hacking the Tivo to give it more functionality has extended its useful life for sure.

The bad part is that the "fix" kills off one of the best features of a hacked Tivo- MRV. Well, thats my opinion since it was the sole reason why I hacked it in the first place.

l2bengtrek · 04-20-2012, 05:44 PM

Hello All!

It has been a LONG time since I have been on here. My hacked Tivo has been serving me well..up until this missing local problem. I bought my Tivo already hacked..but I am pretty decent with computers and build them myself. Over the years I have browsed through the ZIPPER thread and am somewhat familiar with how it works. Like others though, I'm not real patient..but I am willing and I believe able to do this so here goes...

Can I do this to get my locals back and still have all the hacks?

1. Get the 6.4 image and networking cd's from DVRupgrade.com to enable the usb ports for networking.
2. Run them on a new drive. (or the original drive)
3. Once installed back in the Tivo, open up TELNET and run the script.

I would do all of this in accordance with the instructions on the original ZIPPER thread.

Would this get me back in business? I've never used the MRV feature so I'm not worried about that...but other features...including an "unmentionable" one I don't want to live without if I can help it..

Thanks!

stevel · 04-20-2012, 06:22 PM

As far as I know, MRV is the only thing you lose. But from indications I have seen here, 6.4a is "back in the stream" and it may be sitting in your MFS database ready for installation if you follow the correct instructions.

I've never been a fan of "Zipper" and other script-based tools for hacking as that means when something goes wrong, you're unable to recover.

l2bengtrek · 04-20-2012, 06:28 PM

Thanks Steve...saw your comments about this local channel topic over at DBSTALK and that led me back over here..don't quite know what you mean about MFS and "in the stream" though...are you talking about DirecTV putting it back out for download? I have read about that..what are "the instructions" you're talking about?

Thanks!

texasbrit · 04-20-2012, 06:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevel

As far as I know, MRV is the only thing you lose. But from indications I have seen here, 6.4a is "back in the stream" and it may be sitting in your MFS database ready for installation if you follow the correct instructions.

I've never been a fan of "Zipper" and other script-based tools for hacking as that means when something goes wrong, you're unable to recover.

I haven't seen any indication that 6.4a is available again....yet

l2bengtrek · 04-20-2012, 07:09 PM

Guys,

looking a little further into what I need to do..in regards to my previous plan of attack...if I run the DVRupgrade cd's to get myself running again...All I have to do is open up a telnet window and type in the command for the script? Where does the script come from? Little fuzzy on this part...

tward_biteme1 · 04-20-2012, 08:06 PM

downloaded 6.4a-01-2-301.slices.tgz since -301 is the current active 6.2a, but now -101 for 6.4a is showing, does it matter if I use that one with the slicer?

Directory of /SwSystem starting at ''

Name Type FsId Date Time Size
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
6.2a-01-2-101 tyDb 196612 02/17/07 08:41 700
6.2a-01-2-121 tyDb 196616 02/17/07 08:41 700
6.2a-01-2-151 tyDb 196617 02/17/07 08:41 700
6.2a-01-2-301 tyDb 196618 03/09/07 23:12 724
6.2a-01-2-321 tyDb 196619 02/17/07 08:41 700
6.2a-01-2-351 tyDb 196620 02/17/07 08:41 700
6.2a-01-2-381 tyDb 196621 02/17/07 08:41 700
6.2a-01-2-3F1 tyDb 196622 02/17/07 08:41 700
6.4a-01-2-101 tyDb 8567752 04/20/12 20:34 780
ACTIVE tyDb 196618 03/09/07 23:12 724

dewdogger · 04-20-2012, 09:24 PM

I live in Chicago and lost channels 2, 5, 7, and 32 two days ago along with a lot of other people. I saw the post re: upgrading to 6.4a to fix this problem. I was on 6.2 and was told by DirectTv that is what was required. I used the link from page on one this thread(Thanks by the way) to download the 6.4a slices which worked fine. I bought the Slicer tool and ran it without any problems that I could see. WHen the system was rebooted, it came up on 6.4a, I got channel 32 back but not 2, 5, and 7. I have tried reprogramming from satellite several times without success. It's been almost 24 hours since I upgraded and still no 2, 5, and 7. I saw one post that said it may take 24 hours for these to come back but 32 (Fox) was back immediately. Do I need to delete my guide/season pass/etc and let that rebuild? I don't want to a clear and delete but that may be next. As others have posted, I don't want to have to do the pain of rebuilding another drive. It may be time to bite the bullet and retire these old antiques. I have an RCA 40 and Philips 80 Series 2. I've gotten a lot of mileage out of them. Anybody else have issues with local channels after upgrading to 6.4a? Thanks.

wetchemistry · 04-20-2012, 09:37 PM

I also downloaded slicer and upgraded both my DSR704's to 6.4a and got channel 11 back immediately on both, but not 2,5,7. I'll wait to see if they come back by morning.

markis · 04-20-2012, 09:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dewdogger

Anybody else have issues with local channels after upgrading to 6.4a? Thanks.

Yes, I'm still missing locals more than 24 hours after upgrading to 6.4a. I also ran the satellite setup again today and the channels still are not in yet. I do see the channels and descriptions in the guide, but when I tune to them, I just get a blank black screen.

I'm sure that the machine is running 6.4a, but I'm wondering if there's anything I can do over telnet to confirm that the machine is now compatible with DVS. Or is there a shell command to force a full download of new guide data?

Whipl50 · 04-20-2012, 10:40 PM

Called DirecTV and was told that I need to attach a phone line and upgrade to 6.4. Can anyone point me in the direction of a thread that will explain how to do this? I can still telnet into my Tivo. I get a bash prompt, but it doesn't look like my /var/hack files are still there. It's been years since I messed with this, do I need to ftp back into the Tivo and put the files back?

I'm just looking to force an upgrade at this point, either through a phone call, or through telnet.

Thanks!