[skywise]

My mom has MTS TV and I'd like to give her a TiVo for her birthday.
I brought over an old series 2 of mine to give it a try and while MTS TV was listed in the selection of providers, the TiVo couldn't change channels.
MTS TV is a DSL TV solution and uses motorola set top boxes.

Does anyone here use MTS TV with their TiVo?
What remote ID/code did you use?
What set top box do you have? (MTS seems to use the 2200, 2400 and 3000 boxes)

Any suggestions for what I can do to make this work?
(it shouldn't have been an IR issue, I had both blasters aimed right in the remote area of the box)

Sky

 

[classicsat]

Try General Instrument or GI codes. Qwest might even be listed (Qwest uses the same gateway boxes as MTS)

 

[skywise]

Has anyone managed to ever get TiVo and MTS working yet?
Anyone have the code set?
My mom has the big old Motorola box.

Sky

 

[alansh]

It sounds like it's the Next Level/Motorola VDSL box. Use Next Level as the box mfgr. It's code 10005-Fast, or use Slow if you have a problem.

Qwest has a page on hooking up a Tivo to this box.

Note that Tivo can only control and record the TV-1 stream; it can't control the other two streams.

 

[skywise]

Yeah, it'd be nice if it could hide in the background and use channel 3 but last I noticed TiVos don't do RF remotes.

 

[skywise]

Got ahold of a useful MTS person finally, he suggested nortel or next level.
I'll give it a try in the next few days and let everyone know.

 

[alansh]

Actually, the Next Level box will respond to IR signals for all three streams, but Tivo only has the codes for stream #1. There's an IR pickup on the front of the box.

When I had the Qwest service, I actually was able to hook up a second Tivo but it was a real hack. I had a computer to translate the IR signal to the stream 2 codes, and used an old VCR to translate the channel 7 RF output to channel 4.

Directions for setting the remotes to IR rather than RF are here, which is how I learned the alternate stream IR codes.

 

[skywise]

Hmmmm, interesting.
I wonder if I could get my mom's super logitech remote to control one of the other streams, then the TiVo can have the first stream all to itself.

Thanks for the hint, I'll investigate that..

 

[classicsat]

You probably can.

A lesser (or greater) hack would be a microcontroller that receives one IR control command (can be hardwired from the TiVo IR blaster port, to eliminate interference concerns) and converts it to another (or simply changes the unit address), as well as running a tuner module.

 

[skywise]

Actually, I do something like this already..
I have my Home Automation system watching my IR-ing and when I hit the TiVo button and the TV isn't on the TiVo's video input, it'll switch the TV to the right input along with adjusting the sony receiver to the right audio port.
If I switch to the other TiVo, it flips audio/video as needed.
I use the PIP button on the TiVo remote to switch to Xbox or Wii.

Wouldn't be too hard to tape the IR blaster of a TiVo to an IR receiver of the HA box and have it just spit out converted IR signals to a cable box...

Sky