FAQ for the Guided Setup with the
New OzTiVo Regional Configuration Files

Warren Toomey, wkt@tuhs.org, August 2004

Questions

  1. Why Is This Change Necessary?
  2. Why Will The Existing Stations Change In My Lineup?
  3. How Will The Lineup Change Be Deployed?
  4. How Can I Find Out More Details?
  5. How Will It Affect Me, an Existing OzTiVoer?
  6. How Will I Know To Do Guided Setup?
  7. Will My Season Passes Be Affected?
  8. How Do I Get To ``Channels You Receive''?
  9. How Do I Know Which Stations Are Gone?
  10. The Lineups Changed but Nothing Happened?
  11. How Do I Redo Guided Setup?
  12. What Will Guided Setup Affect?
  13. Is There A Way To Backup My Season Passes?
  14. My FTA Region is Not Supported, What Do I Do?
  15. I'm A New TiVo Owner, What Do I Do?

1  Why Is This Change Necessary?

The original OzTiVo station and channel configuration only supported Analog FTA for capital cities, and the addition of Digital FTA channels was fragile and cumbersome. We have decided to make this major change in the configuration of stations and channels (known as a ``lineup'' change) for several reasons:

  1. Analog FTA in regional Australia will now be fully supported.
  2. Digital FTA will be supported properly.
  3. TV guide slices will now be smaller: thus, faster to download and to process.
The new approach is also very flexible, and it means that we can make further lineup changes without major disruptions to the existing user base.

2  Why Will The Existing Stations Change In My Lineup?

Some of the existing FTA lineups have both metropolitan and regional stations all rolled in together. This makes the TV guide slices larger than required, and isn't the best way to deal with regional users.

The new OzTiVo metropolitan Analog FTA lineups will not have any regional stations. This means that ALL the regional stations will disappear from the existing Analog FTA lineups, and these will then be ``metro-only''. If you are a regional Analog FTA user, then you will need to do a Guided Setup in order to properly configure your TiVo for regional use.

Digital FTA lineups will be changed to use station names that are state-wide, and this will remain in effect while the Logical Channel Numbers (LCNs) remain constant state-wide.

The names of the stations will change as well. The old ``callsign'' names will be changed to reflect the provider and the area. Thus, BTQ7 will become Seven-Bris, and Channel 7 for regional Queensland will be named Seven-Qld.

More details about exactly which stations will change can be found in the Readme.missing document.

3  How Will The Lineup Change Be Deployed?

The lineup change will be rolled out on a state-by-state basis in this order: Qld, NT, WA, SA, Tas, Vic, ACT and NSW. You will be given 2 weeks warning of the upcoming change, and there will be more warnings just before the change. Once the problems for one state have been fixed, we will move on to the next state.

The state order chosen above means that the biggest existing user base (Vic and NSW) will be informed of the issues and the solutions well before they undergo their lineup change.

4  How Can I Find Out More Details?

Well, read this FAQ for starters. More information about the new lineups can be found on-line. In particular, read the Readme.missing file, and also browse the lineup files for your state.

If you have any questions that are not answered here, please e-mail your questions to the OzTiVo mailing list. You will need to subscribe to the list before you can send in your question.

5  How Will It Affect Me, an Existing OzTiVoer?

This depends on your TiVo configuration. If you are using loadguide, then you won't see a change on-screen, but future FTA TV guide slices will only have data for metropolitan stations: see Readme.missing for details.

If you are using the OzTiVo Emulator, then you will see a change. In the best case, you will need to go back into ``Channels You Receive'' and select your channels again; then you will need to redo some of your Season Passes. In the worst case, you will need to re-run Guided Setup to correctly choose the new stations and channels; then you will need to redo all of your Season Passes. See Section 12 below for this.

If you are using the OzTiVo Emulator, the following is the sort of message that you will see.

Imgs/0061a.jpg

6  How Will I Know To Do Guided Setup?

If your TiVo has a message saying that your lineup has been removed and you need to re-run Guided Setup, then you will need to re-run Guided Setup.

If one of your signal sources is your Antenna, then you will need to re-run Guided Setup.

If you go into ``Channels You Receive'', and you can't find all the channels that you normally receive, then you will need to re-run Guided Setup.

7  Will My Season Passes Be Affected?

Most likely, yes. If you have a Season Pass on a station that is removed from your existing lineup, then the Season Pass will stop working. You will have to set up a new Season Pass for the new station. See Section 12 below for a way to automate the backup and restoration of your Season Passes.

8  How Do I Get To ``Channels You Receive''?

Start at the main TiVo menu (TiVo Central) and follow these screens: TiVo Central -> Messages and Setup -> My Preferences -> Customize Channels -> Channels You Receive.

9  How Do I Know Which Stations Are Gone?

As shown in the graphic in section 5, the lineup change mail will tell you which stations are gone. However, there may be a few OzTiVo users for which this might not happen. In this case, we have tried to rename the missing stations so that you will see a ``STATION HAS BEEN REMOVED'' message when you are in ``Channels You Receive'', as shown below.

Imgs/0058.jpg

If you don't get a TiVo message listing the deleted stations, then the best way to determine which stations will be removed from your lineup is to look for missing stations in the Readme.missing document.

10  The Lineups Changed but Nothing Happened?

I'm a satellite user, the new lineups were announced on the OzTiVo mailing list, I did a Daily Call but I didn't get any message about new lineups. What is wrong?

Due to several weird things in the TiVo (and OzTiVo) setup, satellite lineups can take up to 10 hours to propagate to your tivo. What you should do is wait a day, do another Daily Call and then you should see the message on your TiVo about a lineup change.

11  How Do I Redo Guided Setup?

You need to connect to your TiVoWeb (your TiVo's web server). Select the ``PAL NTSC'' option. Select the ``Set PAL Guided Setup Mode''. After you have selected this, you need to reboot your TiVo. When your TiVo reboots, you can run Guided Setup by going to: TiVo Central -> Messages and Setup -> System Reset -> Repeat Guided Setup. More details on what to do now are given in the new Guided Setup document.

12  What Will Guided Setup Affect?

It will affect your Season Passes and your lineup (i.e. stations and channels), but nothing else. Your recordings will remain intact.

13  Is There A Way To Backup My Season Passes?

Yes. There is a Backup module for TiVoWeb which stores the details of your season passes. When you restore the Season Passes, it can also map missing stations to new stations. The full details on how to use this are given in the manual above.

You will want to do the backup before the lineup change; you will want to do the restore after you have changed channels, or after Guided Setup has fully completed.

NOTE: Before you use this, check that you have version 0013. Version 0010 which is on the OzTiVo image does not work. When you click on the Backup option in TiVoWeb, the version is reported at the bottom of the web page. If you still have version 0010, follow the above manual to install the latest version.

NOTE: The restore only works if you remove all of your existing Season Passes. Obviously, you should only do this after you have done the backup!

14  My FTA Region is Not Supported, What Do I Do?

You need to find out the channel numbers for your Analog FTA stations, and create a lineup file for your region. Several examples of regional lineup files can be found in the new headend area. Once you have created the file, e-mail it to Warren and he will add it to the lineups for your state. More details of how to do this are given here.

15  I'm A New TiVo Owner, What Do I Do?

If you have not yet set up your TiVo, then you will get the new lineups right from the beginning and you won't have any worries. Simply follow the new Guided Setup document and you will be OK.


File translated from TEX by TTH, version 2.78.
On 31 Aug 2004, 11:39.