DigiFusion FVRT145

I'm wondering if there are any DigiFusion PVR owners in this group, if so
maybe they can help, someone gave me an old (faulty) DigiFusion FVRT145 dual
tuner PVR which I managed to fix by updating the hard drive in another,
single tuner, DigiFusion PVR.
Everything now works perfectly OK, except that although I've left it
switched on to BBC1 for most of the day the EPG still only shows now and
next (with program information) I'm wondering if it's because the company is
now defunct and there are now no longer any 7 day EPG downloads for that
particular model, although having said that, the other DigiFusion (FVRT95)
recorder EPG fully populates to 7 days within a few minutes of being plugged
in, TIA for any advice.

"CD" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 13 Apr 2010 14:57:13 +0100, "Ivan"
wrote:


Everything now works perfectly OK, except that although I've left it
switched on to BBC1 for most of the day the EPG still only shows now and
next (with program information)

I've had the FVRT150 for years, although it only comes out now on
holidays or if my HTPC is broke. Anyway, I dare say like the 150 it
uses the 4TV guide thing, which it downloads at around 3AM every day.
If you're nocturnal & watching at that time a mesaage pops up to say
it needs to get the epg, but you can cancel it if you wish. If you're
not watching it just goes & does it's thing changing the LED to "EPG"
while it does it.

My FVRT150 went through a few hard drives, I now stick in 2.5" drives
with an adaptor.



Thanks, can I leave it in standby on any channel, or does it have to be left
switched on?

On 13 Apr, 21:50, "Ivan" wrote:
"CD" wrote in message




Thanks, can I leave it in standby on any channel, or does it have to be left
switched on?



In standby on any channel

My 150 was great until its tuners got struck by lightning.

"JohnW" wrote in message
...
On 13 Apr, 21:50, "Ivan" wrote:
"CD" wrote in message




Thanks, can I leave it in standby on any channel, or does it have to be
left
switched on?



In standby on any channel

My 150 was great until its tuners got struck by lightning.


Once again thanks to you and CD for the prompt advice, I did that last
evening, checked it out this morning and the EPG is now up and running, one
thing I like the look of (but haven't checked out yet) is the choice of
three record settings, SP, LP and EP.

"CD" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 14 Apr 2010 09:10:04 +0100, "Ivan"
wrote:


Once again thanks to you and CD for the prompt advice, I did that last
evening, checked it out this morning and the EPG is now up and running,
one
thing I like the look of (but haven't checked out yet) is the choice of
three record settings, SP, LP and EP.

Don't bother, it just does some dodgy compression in the background
after it's done the recording & it looks awful. The idea was to save
disk space, but drives are so cheap nowadays. I believe these PVRs
have a BIOS limitation of 127GB for the drive, put in a bigger one &
it'll only format it to 127GB. To stop you compressing a recording by
mistake enable the recording of subtitles in the menu.

Have a look at this site http://digifusion.jeamland.org/ for all sorts
of hacks & data rippers. I recomend changing the dreadful default
background & turning off scene generation. The adding of a USB port is
a good but fiddly modification.


Looks good, and I have nothing to lose by playing around, especially as it
didn't cost me anything in the first place.

"CD" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 14 Apr 2010 09:10:04 +0100, "Ivan"
wrote:


Once again thanks to you and CD for the prompt advice, I did that last
evening, checked it out this morning and the EPG is now up and running,
one
thing I like the look of (but haven't checked out yet) is the choice of
three record settings, SP, LP and EP.

Don't bother, it just does some dodgy compression in the background
after it's done the recording & it looks awful. The idea was to save
disk space, but drives are so cheap nowadays. I believe these PVRs
have a BIOS limitation of 127GB for the drive, put in a bigger one &
it'll only format it to 127GB. To stop you compressing a recording by
mistake enable the recording of subtitles in the menu.

Have a look at this site http://digifusion.jeamland.org/ for all sorts
of hacks & data rippers. I recomend changing the dreadful default
background & turning off scene generation. The adding of a USB port is
a good but fiddly modification.


I think I've found an easier way of doing the USB mod, I removed the small
board from a spare IDE to USB external drive case, this allows for a 12 volt
plus 5 volt input and a USB output, I didn't have to use the four pin power
plug as the PVRs hard drive is powered internally, I then replaced the
single IDE flat ribbon cable with a dual drive one, the extra plug being
connected to the female on the USB printed circuit board, I downloaded
Syphon (which initially wouldn't work with Win 7, although running it in XP
mode seems to work ok ) after plugging in the USB lead to my PC and
selecting the PVR's drive the files appeared in the Syphon window, I haven't
had time to try and save and play around with them, but if everything works
out OK then it shouldn't be much of a job to fit everything permanently
inside the case.

"CD" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 14 Apr 2010 20:59:36 +0100, "Ivan"
wrote:

I think I've found an easier way of doing the USB mod, I removed the small
board from a spare IDE to USB external drive case, this allows for a 12
volt
plus 5 volt input and a USB output, I didn't have to use the four pin
power
plug as the PVRs hard drive is powered internally, I then replaced the
single IDE flat ribbon cable with a dual drive one, the extra plug being
connected to the female on the USB printed circuit board, I downloaded
Syphon (which initially wouldn't work with Win 7, although running it in
XP
mode seems to work ok ) after plugging in the USB lead to my PC and
selecting the PVR's drive the files appeared in the Syphon window, I
haven't
had time to try and save and play around with them, but if everything
works
out OK then it shouldn't be much of a job to fit everything permanently
inside the case.

I'm reading this after several glasses of cheap Chardonnay so can't
quite comprehend what you've done, but it sounds like it's worked very
well.

I've read it again after another glass & it does now make sense. Good
job & glad to be of assistance. I'm sure you can use this method in
reverse to do the background replacement stuff.

ISTR remember using syphon just the once to rip 20 episodes of Shaun
The Sheep to DVD with the help of some other software from the site
wot I linked.



Sorry about that, but it's one of those things that's simple enough to
comprehend when you can see it, but not quite so easy to explain (especially
after a couple of G & T's maybe it would have been easier to have loaded
some images up to my website and posted the link.
The external IDE to USB drive case and power supply (now redundant) cost
£15.99, there's no soldering - apart from the fact that I may have to add
the miniature toggle switch in series with wire 39 on the ribbon cable - the
additional (3 X 9.5 cm board) has its own USB-B connector and can easily be
incorporated inside the case, in essence all it does is to, when required,
temporarily convert the PVR's internal HD into an external USB one.



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