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Tivoland Hombrew Freeview Tivo Project

Ok, here it is, I got fed up waiting for Tivo to re-launch a new system in the UK, so I decided to build my own Freeview project which is basically a Series 1 UK Tivo with a neat little Freeview receiver built inside.
The Freeview receiver is based on the Hauppage DEC 1100-T. I used this model for the following reasons:

1. Most importantly it has an RF Modulator necessary for a Dual Source Tivo set-up.
2. It has a nice small footprint to fit inside the Tivo.
3. It natively runs off 12 volts making it a doddle to power up inside the Tivo.
4. Hauppage shrunk the unit down by making the scart output (which we don't need for this project anyway) a 9 pin d-type connector. This makes it easy to cut-out the Tivo back plate and fit all the connections into the existing space!





Specifications:
Tivo UK Series 1 PAL System
Media Services: Dual Source offering Sky Satellite on auxiliary input and built-in Freeview
Capacity: 400Gb offering 487 Hours Basic, 139 Hours Best Quality
Network: Cachecard Networked.

Project Stages:

Stage One
The first part of the project involved stripping down the Hauppage Freeview box, this is nice and simple, there are just 4 screws on the underneath and two screws holding the main board onto the plastic base.






Stage Two
You will notice the entire receiver consists of only 5 items.
1. The lid
2. The Base
3. The Main Board
4. The Front IR Perspex Window
5. The cut-out Back Plate

I used item 5 (the Back Plate) as a template for the cut-outs on the rear of the Tivo.





Stage Four
Next I drilled and filed the cut-outs. Notice I removed the Tivo Main Board as this process involves a lot of metal filings which I didn't want to contaminate the main board with. Also, I marked out all of the connections with the exception of the Power Connector. To keep things tidy, I am wiring up the power directly from the Hauppage's main board to the Tivo's hard disk 12 Volt supply. The Hauppage's power connector is nicely seated back so it doesn't interfere with the Tivo's case and can remain hidden. I also didn't cut-out the 9-way connector as it is on the Hauppage's Back Plate, I cut-out the 9-way tight so I could drill out the holes for the hexagonal mounting screws. This allows you to use these to mount the Hauppage main board into the Tivo and keep it in place.



Stage Five
Having tested the Hauppage fits nicely, I am ready to wire up an IR Wand which can be permanently fixed inside to control the Freeview receiver. The IR Wands work in Series, so a small modification to the main board is required to allow an external connection to the IR port to work in-line with the hard-wired one (e.g. another set of IR wands or an RF2Link to control the second Source satellite set-top-box). Pin 2 of the IR port on the underside of the Tivo's main board is where the signal flows through to the IR port. I cut the track going to Pin 2 to isolate it. I then soldered the White wire of the IR Wand to Pin 2 and the Black wire to the other side of the isolated track. The board layout around Pin 2 has some unused components and Pin 2 goes to a solder pad of a (not present) small IC which is really handy as you can use this as the solder point for the Black wire. If I stopped here, I would have working solution for the IR port to control my Freeview receiver using the internal hard wired Wand and the external Satellite receiver via my RF2Link plugged in via the jack socket. The internal wand would however only work when something is plugged into the jack socket to complete the circuit. I was able to take this one step further though because the 3.5mm Jack Port for the IR has the provision for switching (when something is plugged into the connector or not). These are the 6 pins at the rear of the IR port labeled up numbers 7 to 12. By wiring a link wire from the Ground Pin 1 to Pin 11 and another link wire from Pin 2 to Pin 10, I was able to complete The Grounding of the circuit when a plug is removed, thus allowing the internal Wand to continue to operate.

Apologies, the picture below was taken half way through the step 5 process and doesn't represent the finished solution.



Stage Six
With the IR Wand connected, the Tivo's Main Board can be replaced and we can now wire up the power. Again to keep things tide, I have used a standard PC Hard Disk "Y" type Power splitter. I have cut one of the Power connectors off to provide the 12V source for the Freeview receiver. The 12v wire is the Yellow wire, the Red is 5V and not required for this project so I have isolated it and coiled it up. The center pin of the Hauppage's Power connector takes the positive Yellow wire and the Black wire is soldered to the outside of the Power connector. Its easy to identify these positions both on the top and bottom of the Hauppage main board. I chose to solder to the under-side to keep the wires out of th way.





Stage Seven
Next its pretty much just re-assembly. The Hauppage Main Board will mount onto the Tivo's Back Plate using the 9-way's hexagonal screws to keep it in place.



Stage Eight
The hard-wired IR Wand can now be stuck to the underside of the Hauppage Main Board. There is space next to the IR Receiver (located next the Hauppage's Power LED indicator). The IR wand can be stuck to the board just to the side where its nice and flat (no soldered components in the way).





Stage Nine
Thats pretty much all there is to it. I made up a nice short RF loop to connect the RF OUT of the Hauppage to the RF IN on the Tivo. The Sky set-top-box will connect to the AUX IN SCART. The Tivo's TV SCART will of-course still connect to the TV. The Ariel coax cable simply connects to the RF IN on the Hauppage. For control of the Sky box, I am intending to still utilise my RF2Link which connects to the RF2 port on the Sky box and the IR port on the Tivo. You could of-course still use another set of IR Wands in the same way.



Stage Ten
All that is left to do is test the set-up. A re-run of Guided Setup was necessary for me to select a Dual Source configuration (Digital Terrestrial using Freeview + Satellite). During the Guided setup process, you will get a chance to tune the Tivo to your signal for the Hauppage. You can also see what RF channel the Hauppage is set to by checking the Hauppage Set-up menus first. I managed to get reliable channel changes using option 20027 Slow in "Freeview 1 of 3". Another nice feature of the Hauppage is once its been configured, it seems to start up in Powered on mode when I cycle the power of the Tivo so no intervention required trying to aim the Hauppage's remote inside the Tivo



Summary
The whole project only took a few hours to complete and I'm really happy with the results. What would be really nice now is for Tivo to manufacture a system like this for the UK Market. Of-course it would make sense to build in dual Freeview Tuners but it would also be cool if they could keep the AUXILIARY INPUT so a standard Satellite or Cable set-top-box could be connected as a Dual Source configuration. That would give Tivo the edge then over all the cheap Freeview PVR's on the market and the Satellite only options.

Disclaimer:
This is merely a documentation of a project I have already undertaken and decided to post to my forum for interest purposes only. If anyone wishes to attempt a similar project, I will not be held responsible for any damage that may caused. I will however be happy to answer any questions should anyone request more detailed information. You are welcome to refer or link to this information but copying or duplication of the pictures/text from this forum is prohibited. Thank you for your co-operation.


(c) copyright 2006 - http://www.tivoland.com

[healeydave]

Addional Information:

I had to re-tune the Freeview's RF Output channel to improve the picture quality. I settled for RF channel 59 here in the Midlands. I don't know if this is the best option, but I wasn't about to go through all the frequencies.

Obviously the digital picture quality of the Freeview is impaired by being fed back through the RF but the quality is acceptable and at least we now have the Tivo features (Pause etc) available on both the Satellite and Freeview channels so it was definitely a worth while project.

Tivo's has an inbuilt mechanism that should you choose to record on a particular channel, it will automatically use the same channel on the AV/SCART medium. So for example if I was on Freeview channel 1 (BBC1 West Midlands) and I setup a recording, it will automatically use channel 101 (the Satellites version of BBC1 West Midlands) as this is perceived to be the best option from a quality point of view as the satellite is connected to the AV/SCART. This actually works out fine the majority of the time and saves you having to make sure your on the right channel for recording in the best quality.

Another benefit of this project is that ironically whilst I subscribe to Sky under a 2 Mix package (Entertainment & Kids), I cannot watch Sky Sports News through the Sky package although I can watch it through the Freeview package!
Whilst I'm never likely to record anything on Sky Sports News, if I was to record anything, to prevent the automatic channel selection (described above), you need to remove the satellite version through "Customize Channels". The Freeview version will then be recorded as it is the only option and in this case the only viewable option as I don't want to be recording a subscription notice banner
_________________
Keeping the dream alive.

[cb5kla]

Has anyone tried this type of installation with any other STB? I've purchased two Hauppage DEC 1100-T STBs and they've been erratic and unstable. I'm not keen to buy a third 1100T based on my past experience but I'd really like to make my Tivo dual source.

cheers

[healeydave]

Hi cb5kla,

You were right about the DEC 1100-T, whilst its design was excellent for this project, the receiver itself is not great quality.

I am still using this Tivo to this day, but I only tune to on of the Freeview channels occasionally and one problem I have is the DEC 1100-T seems to be in some sort of un-usable state and the only way to recover is to power off the Tivo.

A much higher quality and more reliable Freeview box would have been a better choice.
_________________
Keeping the dream alive.