ptvnet confusion

[rich47]

I'm a little confused, and I hope someone can help. I installed ptvnet on two upgraded hdvr2 directv tivos. It seems to work well. I can see the tivos on the network and can use tivowebplus. Now that I'm getting into it, though, it seems like I might be out of luck beyond that because I have software version 6.3e. Does this mean that I cannot access Multiroom Viewing, Home Media Option, TivoToGo and other features? Is there anything I can do about this, or am I just out of luck?

Thanks.

[Rick Travis]

Suggest you check out the Zipper.
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=265929
:cool:

[rich47]

Interesting, though the more I learn about all this, the more confused I become.

What's the difference between Zipper and InstantCake?

Is there a way to do this and preserve the recordings already on my Tivo?

Thanks.

[Rick Travis]

Instantcake installs the TiVo image on the drive. the Zipper is a hack to the TiVo image the enables Multi Room Viewing on systems running software version 6.2a or lower. After 6.2a the code for MRV was removed. That is the extent of my knowledge as I don't do hacks.:)

[rich47]

So, would this work with my 6.3e system? If you don't mind taking me step-by-step, I'd appreciate it.

[Rick Travis]

So, would this work with my 6.3e system? If you don't mind taking me step-by-step, I'd appreciate it.No TiVo removed the code from the Directv Tivo software starting with release 6.3e so it will not work.

[Lou Jacob]

I'm a little confused, and I hope someone can help. I installed ptvnet on two upgraded hdvr2 directv tivos. It seems to work well. I can see the tivos on the network and can use tivowebplus. Now that I'm getting into it, though, it seems like I might be out of luck beyond that because I have software version 6.3e. Does this mean that I cannot access Multiroom Viewing, Home Media Option, TivoToGo and other features? Is there anything I can do about this, or am I just out of luck?

Thanks.

It is my understanding that 6.3e does NOT contain the code you need for MRV, however HMO can be enabled. If MRV is what you are truly interested in, check out this article which can be found in the "articles" area of the forum:

Enabling HMO and MRV... (http://www.dvrupgrade.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9)

That article is written with the expectation that you are running 6.2a.

As for one of your other questions... InstantCake is a DVRupgrade product for creating a fresh new hard drive from a blank drive. Full information is also in the articles area. The Zipper is not something I'm particularly familiar with, its not a DVRupgrade product, but its a tool that will allow you to install other enhancements. I don't think it will allow you to do MRV on 6.3e, however.

[rich47]

Thanks for all the info. I'm still a little confused, but I'll describe what I have and what I'm trying to do, and hopefully someone can advise me.

I have 2 hdvr2s:

1. A weaknees upgraded machine with a 40gb and a 160gb hard drive running 6.3e. I recently added ptvnet to this machine. It has many recordings I want to keep.

2. A msflive upgraded machine with a 500gb hard drive running 6.3e. I added ptvnet to this as well but don't care if I keep the recordings.

I would like to:

-- keep the recordings on machine 1.
-- enable mrv and hmo on both machines.
-- use Amazon unbox (if possible) on both machines.

Is this possible? It seems I need to revert from 6.3e to 6.3a to make MRV possible. Can I do this? Is InstantCake the software I would use to accomplish this? I'm assuming that I can use InstantCake on an existing drive but that it would wipe out the programs. Can I do this on Machine #2 and somehow move Machine 1's programs to #2 before running InstantCake on Machine #2?

Thank you for any advice you can share!

[BruceS]

AFIK, no way has been hacked to enable Amazon Unbox on any DirecTV tivos.

mfslive.org does show instructions to copy recordings from an old hard drive to a new one. If I remember correctly, this talks about copying recordings between single drives. Since you appear to want to copy from two drives, it may not work for you.

[rich47]

Thanks, Bruce, but I think this is only a partial answer. I'm more interested in enabling MRV and HMO, which it seems cannot be done with 6.3e. How can I switch both to 6.3a and retain the recordings?

[BruceS]

When I look at the description of Instant Cake for the HDVR2 on the dvrupgrade.com, it says that it still ships with the 6.2a kernel.

I believe that the following steps should enable MRV and HMO in both of your machines:

1. Purchase the correct version of Instant Cake
2. Pull the drive(s) from the HDVR2 where you want to save the recordings to
3. Mount the drive(s) in your PC
4. Use your PTVNet and Instant Cake CD's to install networking and 6.2a on the drive(s)
5. Pull the drive(s) from your other HDVR2
6. Mount them in your PC as well
7. Follow the instructions from mfslive.org to copy the recordings from your source drive(s) to your target drive(s)
8. Remove the drive(s) to which the recordings have been copied from your PC and re-mount them in your HDVR2
9. Boot your HDVR2 and make sure that System Information now shows it as 6.2a
10. Check that you can connect to it via telnet, ftp and tivowebplus
11. Assuming that everything works correctly, use PTVNet and Instant Cake to install networkiing and 6.2a on your other drive(s)
12. Return the drive(s) to your other HDVR2
13. Boot your second HDVR2 and check networking on that one as well

I believe there are additional patches that you need to apply to enable HMO/HME, but I am not sure which ones as I have never done it myself. I would ask questions about that on the underground section of the tivocommunity.com forum.

Make sure that you unplug the phone line from each of your boxes or the 6.2a will be overwritten on them again and you will lose your changes.

Also, if you are going to try this, I would suggest that you buy new hard drive(s) to put back into your boxes, since the hard drive is usually the first thing to fail on any DVR.

This also means that if you do something wrong, you still can re-install the original drives. This would also give you a chance to try the full process again if you do anything wrong.

[rich47]

Thanks Bruce. This is exactly the kind of info I was looking for. I just needed someone else to think it through for me. :)

Here's my question now. If I do Mfslive on the drive that I want to move the recordings to (the one which I've already done InstantCake with 6.2a, won't that overwrite the 6.2a, or am I confusing things?