[Automan]

Will these and the big channel reshuffle upset Tivo?
http://www.dtg.org.uk/news/news.php?class=countries&subclass=193&id=769

Automan.

 

[sanderton]

What 4 digit channels? No mention of 4 digit channels in that link?

 

[Automan]

Whoops,
http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=205802 claims radio channels will have a leading zero making just them four digits.

Automan.

 

[GarySargent]

TiVo were made aware of this the other day and it is being investigated whether four digit channels can be supported. They can in the current USA software, but possibly not in the UK software.

 

[sanderton]

As part of one of my TiVo-to_Tivo show transfer hacks, I create a dummy recording with a dummy channel. To be sure that it didn't interfere with any real channels, I assigned it a channel number of 1000. If I select it from Live TV, TiVo sends 1-0-0-0 with no problems, so 4 digit numbers are no problem per se

I guess the only issue might be leading zeros?

 

[the_hut]

I guess the only issue might be leading zeros?

Sorry to be dense, but could you elaborate on this?

 

[sanderton]

I don't know if TiVo treats the channel number as an integer or a string. If the latter "0123" won't be a problem, if the former it will be as the database will store 123. There's a TiVo menu option to pad with leading zeros, but I presume it just pads to three didgits.

I can see how to do a Q&D hack if it is a problem.

 

[Automan]

I can't imagine Tivo USA wanting to try and update old / obsolete code.

Also an automatic software upgrade would cause quite a few Tivo owners with modified hardware quite a few problems.

I would suspect
Tivo's with > 160Gb drives would fail to boot after the upgrade.
Loaded extras for web access / auto padding / red dot removal would need fixing.

Two version of the software would also be needed. One with teletext subtitle support and the other without (or a menu option to turn it on).

Automan.

Well it needs to be.

The TiVo service is great at supporting recording of radio programmes, almost as important for me as the TV channels.

If the UK software needs a tweak and a minor upgrade so be it. It needs to be done by Tivo and downloaded to our boxes, not everyone is a computer hacker or IT expert, some of us mortals on here are just Tivo customers.

Remember it's TIVO boxes which are supposed to be unavailable here, not our Tivo service which we're still paying monthly for.

 

[iankb]

... an automatic software upgrade would cause quite a few Tivo owners with modified hardware quite a few problems ...

... Tivo's with > 160Gb drives would fail to boot after the upgrade.

If they had any sense, they would include a large-drive kernel within the update.

 

[OzSat]

It is (99%) confirmed the radio channels will be four-digit - it is not yet confirmed that all tv channels will stay as three digit. Some of the minority channels may also be 4-digit.

Also, Sky currently requires all digits to be sent (including leading zeroes). This may mean that if BBC1 is still on 101 - then 0101 may have to be sent.

Currently, if you want a tv channel on sky that is less than 100 in the EPG - you have to send all the digits. so for channel 051 - if TiVo only sends 51 - then the Sky box times out waiting for the third digit.

 

[sanderton]

Hmm. Every time I try to set up a channel with a leading zero, tivosh interprets the 0 as meaning the number is in hex, so 0200 is stored as 128...

 

[the_hut]

This does not look good. Sanderton's software development has been superior to Tivo Inc's for years (look at endpad!) so if he can't see it working then.......

 

[sanderton]

Double hmm. It seems to store the channel number as an integer, ie 1-32000-ish. So while 4 figure channels are no problem, 4 figure channels beginning with a 0 are. And because the maximum is 32k, my instant though of a workaround sending an eight digit number won't work.

 

[OzSat]

I have been told by Sky on several occasions that boxes can stop receiving software updates as they get older - volitile memory becomes useless.

I guess such boxes will also be unable to use these numbers.

 

[OzSat]

Techically, TiVo should be able to cope even if it means a software download - as they have four-digit numbers in the US.

 

[kitschcamp]

Double hmm. It seems to store the channel number as an integer, ie 1-32000-ish. So while 4 figure channels are no problem, 4 figure channels beginning with a 0 are. And because the maximum is 32k, my instant though of a workaround sending an eight digit number won't work.

Ok, not an elegant workaround, but it could work... Could the IR codes for, for example, 0 and 1 be swapped around, and change all the channel numbers accordingly?

So. for example, channel 0103 would appear to be channel 1013 on the Tivo, and channel 0074 would appear as channel 1174 on the Tivo?

 

[ericd121]

It would be nice if they could only send any software change ('upgrade' ) to TiVos that download Sky listings;
however, I have backed up my /var/hack dirs just in case.

 

[GarySargent]

The workaround would be to change the "Sky" command that is sent before each channel change to send "Sky, Zero" which would allow all four digit channels starting with zero to be accessed. This can be easily done.

 

[sanderton]

Kitchcamp's idea could work, I think. Your won't Gary, as if you tiired to select TV channel 123 or 1234 you'd get radio channel 0123

 

[GarySargent]

Sanderton not sure if you were replying to me, but scenarios are:

1) Normal TV channels still use 3 digits

Solution: TiVo does not change anything

2) Normal TV channels now use four digits, so BBC1 is 0101

Solution: TiVo sends zero before each channel change like it does the Sky command.
Issues: For channel 1001 TiVo would send 01001 which might not work.

As is now, does 0101 change to BBC1 on a Sky box?