Tivo Humax (03-20-2023) DRT800 Pwr Supply, Capacitor List

Replaced the capacitors in the Power Supply with these, proactively, some were swelling, but Tivo Humax DRT800 was still working.

 

This was a lot more capacitors, but they looked in much worse shape than before. Clear signs of bulging and heat stress. Removing the white (charred) stabilizing caulk around the caps holding them or attaching them to the PC board took a lot of effort. I had to use a dental pick like tool to gradually and carefully chip away at the compound.

Finally got it done however. I took a pic of the main filtering capacitor.. but don't have that pic handy right now. This power supply seems common between the DRT800 and DRT400, not entirely certain yet.. I have a DRT400 I plan to proactively re-cap as well.. its caps look even worse than the DRT800. 

Seems the older and further back in time I go with my Tivos the worse off the capacitors are.. most are Capxon or OST.. I'm sticking to mostly replacing with Nippon and Rubycon.

Tivo HD (02-14-2023) TCD652160 Pwr Supply, Capacitor List

Replaced the capacitors in the Power Supply with these, proactively, some were swelling, but Tivo HD was still working. 

Soldering isn't my best skill, but I was slow and careful and got it done. There was a surface mounted capacitor or resistor very close to the through hole for some capacitors, so I might have considered cutting the existing leads and tagging the replacements to the old leads sticking up from the board.. but I desoldered and succeeded at replacing them. I left them standing a little higher than normal away from the board to help with possible cooling by air and heat reflection from the caps to the pc board and back to the caps. I did not use non-corrosive silicone caulk to hold them still.. its kind of expensive, but I did leave them widely separated to keep them from vibrating into each other. I think this is a risk with the heat and cooling cycles and possible physical harmonics, be that fan vibrations, hdd vibrations, or some other vibration from the caps themselves. The electrolytic caps have a fluid between the paste and the wrapped internal planes and expansion and contraction can possibly generate an internal vibration of the cap itself and have adverse side effects if coupled to the pc board or neighboring caps.

The Tivo HD is a Series 3, but there were two or three models in that series, and in the Tivo HD I have apparently there were two different power supplies.

If it helps any my Power supply had the following label on the Input Filter Capacitor

My read is -

Model No: YM-3081A OP AR

3Y Power: CP-1319R2

TiVo P/N: SPWR-00011-000 

These are clearly not related to the Capacitor itself or its value and voltage.

There are other markings on the pc board itself.

Installing Windows 7 and updating in 2023

 

I had to install Windows 7 to support some older capture hardware with drivers and editing software that only worked under Windows 7, no Windows 8 and no Windows 10.

I got a few unfamiliar errors.

The first was I mistakenly used a Windows 7 (no Service Pack) install ISO image and then when I tried to install Windows Updates I had saved manually.. I got one to install and then all subsequent said "Not applicable to your version of Windows)

You have to install with a Windows 7 with SP1 slipstreamed ISO to succeed at Updating it with saved Updates.

So Windows updates meant for Windows 7 with SP1 , barely, or will not work with Windows 7 with no SP1 installed.

Same thing happens if you use a Windows 7 32 bit ISO and not the Windows 7 64 bit ISO, but that's easier to recognize.. I think it might have even a more specific error message hinting at the architecture not being right.

Then once you are installing the Windows Updates there are several critical de-marcations that really should have been Service Packs.. but since the culture had changed they couldn't use old terminology.

01 - 2015 April Servicing Stack Update 

- windows6.1-KB3020369-x64

02 - 2016 April convenience-rollup (Windows 7 Service Pack 2)

- windows6.1-kb3125574-v4-x64

03 - 2016 July and August Update Rollup

- windows6.1-KB3172605-x64

- windows6.1-KB3179573-x64

04 - 2019 March Servicing Stack Update and SHA 2 update

- windows6.1-kb4490628-x64

- windows6.1-kb4474419-v3-x64

After all of this.. amazingly.. Online Activation "works"

Until now I had to activate using the phone app.. but apparently its a matter of certificates and algorithms for online communications.

There are other Updates, but for various reasons.. you might want to not install them since they start monitoring or nagging the user about Updating to Windows 10 or later.

You also need to consider using this for "a specific purpose" rather than "general purpose" since it will be less secure than other operating systems and no longer receives security updates.

Origin of the name Ty Files

Tivo Ty Files were an exported version of the database oriented FSID files from an early version of the Tivo operating system. This is purely speculation.. but

T could stand for Tivo

Y could stand for 'Yellow Dog Linux'

Early versions of the Tivo recording box were based on the IBM PowerPC PPC cpu.

A version of Linux compiled for the PowerPC cpu was called 'Yellow Dog Linux' which is where the fancier YUM command later used in RedHat Linux came from. Its was more the Package manager to the package format, as APT was to the debian dpkg file relationships.

Anyhoo.. that the original Tivo operating system probably had some similarities or origins to the Yellow Dog Linux, might explain the inclusion of the letter 'y' in the name.

And since the FSID objects in the storage system were a type of non-file, file which held an entire recording, calling them Ty files .. might make a nice play on words or 'pun' attractive to program writers at the time.

Setting up Airpods Pro on Windows 7 - eliminating Yellow Exclaimation Cones Error 28

Airpods Pro are nice, and will pair with a Bluetooth Adapter on Windows 7, however there will be one Unidentified Bluetooth Device

BTHENUM\{74ec2172-0bad-4d01-8f77-997b2be0722a}_VID&0001004c_PID&200e

Checking the device manager under Other devices will have an unmatched device for which there is no driver and Error 28

I do not know if this is proper, its based on 

Airpods windows 7 conection error "Bluetooth Peripheral Device Driver Not Found"

Basically (this does work).

You have to find a source for the install package, for 32 bit or 64 bit Windows 7 for;

"Windows Mobile-based device support"

1. Install that

2. Then find that device and right click to update its device driver

3. Choose to navigate the Local system device drivers and wait for a complete list to compile

4. Scroll down to "Microsoft Corporation" and ignore the other surrounding "Microsoft" collections

5. Find "Windows Mobile-based device support" and choose that one to install for this device. Click on dismiss to continue to install it no matter what the warnings.

It will install a new service under the Device Manager : Bluetooth Radios, with no error or warning cones.

And it will decorate the "Devices and printers" object (for me); "John's AirPods Pro Properties" in the Hardware tab

With a new Device Function - Windows Mobile-based device support

And the Airpods Icon in "Devices and printers" will no longer have a Yellow Cone, and "Device Manager" will no longer have an un-associated device with no device driver.

The Key thing is the "Windows Mobile-based device support 6.1" which has been de-supported and Microsoft has removed the download install packages from its home websites. This was the replacement in Windows Vista for ActiveSync for Mobile devices like iPods, iPads, iPhones, Windows Mobile devices and Android devices. (2007)

The final install packages are archived all over the Internet.

EDIUS - AJA, Blackmagic, Matrox, Canopus/Grass Valley. DV, HDV

Getting a copy of EDIUS is expensive and rather hard for the older versions. Being as its basically from Japan and I understand it I can understand there would be some challenges.

But I kind of like it.

I have EDIUS Pro 6.5, following the "Pro" model - this includes a software waveform and vectorscope feature. The non-Pro version effectively leaves that feature out among other things.

Its got a fast, snappy response and a proxy system for pre-render that speeds up the editing process on lower powered machines.

But what really makes it interesting for me, is that EDIUS seems to work well with AJA Kona, Blackmagic Intensity Shuttles, Express USB3.0 and Thunderbolt devices, and the entire line of Canopus capture devices.

There are some quirks depending on the device, some only play sound in preview, while capturing, some don't at all.. but by the time of this type of software, it was more common to also output the incoming signals through a second set of jacks to an analog monitor setup like an LCD monitor or TV and speakers or headsets.

EDIUS 7 was the last version to support Matrox mini and MXO2 hardware, but I think that may be because either Matrox desupported them, or because of the lack of 64 bit device drivers for some older gear. Its seems Adobe Premiere Pro went through something similar between CS 4 and CS5.5 where CS5.5 was 64 bit only and offered a gratius copy of CS4 for 32 bit operating systems.

EDIUS 10 (X) is available for Windows 10 and Windows 11, but I am not sure if it retains the ability to support older capture gear.

TiVO sharing between TiVOs in a Household - Making that work in 2022

 

The old TiVO ToGo feature is no longer officially supported and the ability to turn on sharing seems to have been removed from the My Account page on the TiVO Account management site.

But at least for TiVO Series 2 and Series 3 HD, it still does work.

One curious bit of information, it seems if a TiVO is Reset using Guided Setup the sharing TiVOs "must" be in the same ZipCode. 

If they are not, it appears this is one measure for them not being in the same household and sharing will not work. TiVOs reset with the guided setup and in the same Zip Code can "share and see one another" but TiVOs setup in different Zip Codes cannot see one another even if on the same local LAN in the same household.

TiVO Desktop for transferring recording to a desktop, also works between PC and Mac with the proper software installed, and licensed for the PC or Mac.

Presumably this also means the same thing for PyTivo.

UPDATE: different day, different Tivo HD

The New TivoHD had to get added to my account, then it had to update its MAC Key to mine by contacting Tivo.. but the other Tivos on my subnet could see but not share videos, and the New Tivo could see them but not see videos on them. Turned out the other Tivos had to contact Tivo and then they could see each others videos. I initiated a Tivo network update, and only after it went though all but the last step of loading guide data.. di they start to see each others recordings.

So its not just that the New Tivo needs to contact Tivo and update its MAC key.. and that it have Tivo sharing turned on.. but also needs for the other Tivos.. even if they have the exact same MAC key.. both sides need to contact Tivo and then sharing starts working.

I wonder if the MAC key is more a pointer to a table or permission list held at Tivo.. that downloads a list of Tivos for the end user Tivos that says its okay to share recordings between them. So basically.. when they contact Tivo Central.. they download the updated recording share lists for your subnet.

It also seems to be mac address based, since I had a burned out ethernet port on one Tivo that never shares.. but it seems the Tivo share list won't update to include it.

Ironic is the "MAC" key refers to a user table like a hosts or DNS list of Tivos on the local subnet that are allowed to share. They can "see" each other by MDNS or some type of Bonjour.. but don't have permissions until the updated MAC list is downloaded into each Tivo.