[pipjack]

hello

i aquired a pvr10uk about a week ago and know absolutely nothing about it. it did not come with any user information or handbook. i have just recieved a brand new remote by post this morning. i have switched the reciever on and it put message up saying to connect phone line and it may take 35 minutes in which the reciever would make two calls. the reason for the post is is there anything i need to know before i follow this proceedure as i have no idea if the box has any subsciption attached to it and would not like to make any mistakes that could be costly if subsciption is valid. do i let the box update yet

i have read about life time subscription and how one of your members may have made a mistake and is now paying when maybe he should not be. i think the box is unmodified but not sure it has a 15gb hdd and another which i am not sure about
need some help to get started.
thanks guys
pipjack

 

[blindlemon]

If it has a lifetime sub you will find out once you have completed Guided Setup

There's nothing you can do before then (other than calling TiVo CS!) that would void it.

 

[pipjack]

hello blindlemon

thankyou for your reply. i have let the receiver dial tivo takes quite a while now have some info on system information
one of which said tivo account status 5: lifetime service is there anything else i need to know to keep this subscription safe does this actually help me i did get a message saying it may take hours for the active channel guides to be available.it also said because the box had not made a daily phone call for more than 30 days it would need to do this also
can anyone of you guys explain what all of this means. without a user guide it is quite difficult to set up regarding scart and rf settings etc. in have motorised sat dish freeview and dvd recorder only 2 scarts on my tv.
any help would of course be very welcome.
regards from
pipjack

 

[martink0646]

Hi Pipjack,

It looks as though you have the good fortune to have acquired a lifetime machine. As someone who is ashamed to say that I am still on a monthly payment since day one you have had a result.

As far as connection goes, this is my set up.

STB (Freeview Box) SCART Out => TiVo AUX SCART

TiVo TV SCART => DVDR Input SCART

DVDR Output SCART =>TV

If I'm wildly off one of the real experts will correct me, but this set up works for me.

A logical way of doing it would be;

STB (Freeview Box) SCART Out => TiVo AUX SCART

TiVo TV SCART => TV

TiVo VCR SCART => DVDR

Don't be tempted to do this as the VCR SCART only out puts composite which is fine for VHS recordings but no good for DVD recordings which need the RGB signal from the TV SCART.

Hope this helps.

Martin

 

[pipjack]

hello to you martin

i picked up the reciever at a local refuse site for 3.00 and invested 8.50 in a new remote so 11.50 total box is in good clean condition without any scrapes or scratches. it seems to be working fine as lots of top gear episodes and red dwarf already on the hdd it is original as far as i can see not sure how big the drives are one is 15gb the other i do not know. i would like to get hold of a user manual if possible. it says it is going to phone at 153am in the morning and has updated about 97% with 3 mins to go forchannel guide.


any futher help would be very well recieved
pipjack

 

[Nebulous]

Hi pipjack

Welcome to the wonderful world of Tivo.

I'm sure I'm not the only one here green with envy over your jaw dropping bargain.
£3 for lifetime subbed Tivo

If that had been common knowledge, you'd have been crushed in the stampede

The link below will download the .pdf manual.

http://www.uk.tivo.com/255SSUG.pdf

Enjoy!

 

[katman]

i picked up the reciever at a local refuse site for 3.00

me thinks of a scene in Monty Pythons Life of Brian.....

"You lucky lucky ....."

Wish I could stumble across such goodies

Definately the best bit of AV kit I have ever bought

 

[pipjack]

thankyou Nebulous

it would seem i now have access to channel list as it has let me set a timer recording for tomorrow which it would not earier today. so when i get all the scarts and cables connected i might be able to learn a little more. i must say the help i have had as a new user has been great and very helpfull. i am not sure if i need any ir senders or any other equipment to enhance the recievers performance if i do what make or type would i look for
people do throw away the strangest things. thanks again for all the help maybe i can return the favour in the future
pipjack

 

[aerialplug]

The IR wand is a help as it gets the signal straight to your set top box - but as I've discovered this week, not essential as mine seems to have stopped working due to some heavy handed rewiring (yanking) behind the boxes last week. I've had to change to front IR blaster and so far I haven't missed a single channel change. Thankfully, I have a spare from an old Philips US TiVo but that requires hours of box opening so I'll make do for now!

As you say, people do throw away the strangest things, but the chances are what you got was a house clearance where the person clearing the house didn't have a clue as to what a TiVo was - I mean look at it - it doesn't have any buttons or knobs, and nowhere to insert anything so how can it possibly be useful?

I'm sure you'll be using your TiVo soon and wondering how you ever got by without it (I know I did when i started using mine - but that was way back in the past now at the end of 1999.

And if you don't think it's your cuppa, you'll easily turn a tidy profit on the bay of e's if you chose to shift it on.

One word of advice (probably useless but hey): If you ever want the TiVo in the RF chain, make sure your Freeview box is the first after the aerial and then pas it's output to TiVo. It was the other way round in the sheet provided by TiVo in their initial distribution and caused no end of problems with Freeview signal degradation.

One other point that you may have picked up in other threads already - currently for some reason, TiVo's automated suggestions, which used to be incredibly accurate (for me anyway) has recently, for no explainable reason turned into a pile of dɐɹɔ - so suggestions may not be the killer selling point that it used to be...

 

[pipjack]

hello katman

there is some really good stuff at my local refuse site i have had laptops, towers, tv's etc. all needing a small amout of work. i have a dell black tower 1.5 pentium 4 processor dvd rom with seperate cd writer 120gb hdd 256 memory keyboard speakers and a 14in flatscreen monitor optical mouse. cost me approx 35.00 total and 20 of that was for the hdd. its for sale in my local asda superstore for 90.00 ono. the tivo i am going to try and use as i seem to have got a bargain. one mans trash is another mans treasure
i should really have picked stig as a user name he! he!
regards
pipjack

 

[Nebulous]

..i am not sure if i need any ir senders or any other equipment to enhance the recievers performance if i do what make or type would i look for.. pipjack

If you are using a freeview or satellite set top box, then the Tivo will need to control it using IR. This can be done in two ways:

1. Using the internal IR Blaster
2. Using an IR wand.

The IR blaster method (selectable during guided setup) simply blasts high power IR from the front of the unit, which reflects around the room and hopefully lands on the IR receiver of your set top box.

The IR wands method is slightly more reliable in my opinion, but I gather you didn't get any with the unit. So you'll have to source one from somewhere.

I'm sure one of the regulars here sells them, but I can't remember who. In fact I seem to remember hearing that you can even scrounge a new one for free from Tivo customer service if you ask the right question.

I'm sure someone will be along shortly to advise further.

 

[pipjack]

hi aerialplug
this post is very helpfull thankyou for taking the time to write your comments i will take on board your commemts. i know it will take some time to learn to use the system but rome wasn't built in a day. so they say. at least if it dosn't suit me it will not have cost much but as i have motorised sat system if it can be used on that it will be worth its weight in gold well maybe. technomate 1500 super+ nearly as good as ruperts system and free
pipjack

 

[pipjack]

hello Nebulous
can i say sorry some of my posts are a little out of sync but the reason is by the time i reply one of the guys has responded to me.
nebulous your reply is very interesting regarding the ir wand comments if anyone has knowledge of where to get hold of one or the RIGHT question to ask tivo would be better still
cheers guys great site
pipjack

 

[katman]

hello katman

there is some really good stuff at my local refuse site i have had laptops, towers, tv's etc. all needing a small amout of work. i have a dell black tower 1.5 pentium 4 processor dvd rom with seperate cd writer 120gb hdd 256 memory keyboard speakers and a 14in flatscreen monitor

Whatever you do..... dont let slip where you live or I will be driving to your tip !!!!

I joined Freecycle a couple of year ago to get rid of a load of stuff which I decided finally had to go, no one wanted it because it was so old so it ended up at the tip anyway, however reading all the messages on Freecycle resulted in me gaining more than I got rid of !!!

Enjoy your Tivo

 

[pipjack]

hello katman
its not a secret i live near newcastle n/e england have two local refuse sites within 4 miles i am long term sick so have lots of time on my hands and very little money i pay full morage and always have. have not worked for nearly 10 years oweing to ill health. i can walk only a short distance. use a powerchair at times but have an interest in tv and satellite. dabble with computes and my latest find was an old dell laptop cpx have replaced memory put 20 gb hdd in it and found an adapter on the e site its now working just fine. cost approx 35.00 total battery is very good

just hope my tivo turns out to be all it seems to be.
you guys are great
thankyou again
pipjack

 

[ColinYounger]

Welcome pipjack!

See this thread about IR wands - as you can see, you can call customer service (run by Sky) and ask for replacement wands.

The wands are a long lead that plug into your TiVo with two 'sticks' on it. These sticks you place near your set-top-box (STB) and TV (if required) to get TiVo to control your STB.

Tivo CS:

Phone number: 08702 41 84 86
Hours of operation:
Monday - Sunday, 08.30 - 23.00 GMT.

 

[Nebulous]

This is the thread I was thinking of:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=4849817&&#post4849817

 

[pipjack]

hello and thanks

if i ring the number you gave me . they are not going to ask for details of the reciever which i may not know. as i did not purchase the box it is not registered to me. i do not have sky so ringing sky and asking for ir wands may break an australians heart. if you now what i mean.
is the subsciption always in the box owners name
regards
pipjack

 

[blindlemon]

Your best bet if you want to avoid calling TiVo CS is to buy some IR emitter wands on eBay or from any of the other places that sell them . Shouldn't cost you more than a tenner...

 

[AMc]

I would try using the blaster before you shell out. Ours is 100% reliable using the blaster. It may have to do with the Freeview box sitting on top of the Tivo behind a glass door but there is no cost in trying.