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Re: Tivo Bolt can't see Readynas but Readynas backs up the Bolt

GRS1
Tutor

Tivo Bolt can't see Readynas but Readynas backs up the Bolt

It's pretty much as simple as the description.  I am upgrading my Tivo Series 3 to a Bolt.  The Readynas backs up both the series 3, and the Bolt.  The series 3 can see and download from the Readynas.  The Bolt can't because it doesn't see it.

 

Both the Bolt and the Series 3 can see and download from each other.

 

Readynas Pro 6, latest firmware.  (I don't know if its a V2 or not.)

 

Name: RAIDiator-x86  
Version: 4.2.30 
Date: Fri Aug 19 18:25:23 2016 
Size: 54 MB
Model: ReadyNAS RNDP6000|ReadyNAS Pro 6 Chassis only
Message 1 of 5
JennC
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: Tivo Bolt can't see Readynas but Readynas backs up the Bolt

Hello GRS1,

 

ReadyNAS Pro 6 is one of the legacy units. The developers are currently checking on Bolt to work with ReadyNAS.

 

For now, let's see and wait for other users who might get the same concern and chime in.

 

Regards,

Message 2 of 5
JennC
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: Tivo Bolt can't see Readynas but Readynas backs up the Bolt

Hello GRS1,

 

Typically, when it works on ReadyNAS OS4 it should and would also work on ReadyNAS OS6. The engineering is already aware that ReadyNAS' ReadyTiVO does not work with Bolt. So, I guess this is something that we would have to wait for updates from engineering.

 

To close the topic, you may click Accept Solution on one of the responses.

 

Regards,

Message 3 of 5
GRS1
Tutor

Re: Tivo Bolt can't see Readynas but Readynas backs up the Bolt

I am rather technical and have been hacking TiVo for about 15 years, including a chapter in a book about hacking TiVo written about code I produced to run on it.  I only say this so that perhaps some credence will be given to my observations below that may be helpful to your engineering team.

 

The first thing is that the downloading of shows from the Bolt to the readynas seems to work.  The Bolt cannot see the Readynas so I can't try uploading.  However, I pushed forward and installed pytivo on my Mac, and uploaded a .TiVo file from the Bolt, and it works.  I cannot comment on why this would work on a newer OS with the readynas and not the old OS if it does.  I don't have the tools to investigate.

 

I have run into an interesting problem with my legacy .TiVo files that were downloaded from my series 3.  When I upload these to the Bolt, they sometimes work, and sometimes don't.  Sometimes when they do work they are grouped in the appropriate folder in "My Shows" (formerly "Now Playing List") and sometimes they upload outside the folder.  In the latter case the show "artwork" that shows up when you click through to the show is always wrong, sometimes the title is wrong, sometimes both.  I believe I saw an old episode of "Sleepy Hollow" upload with the name "College Basketball" with artwork from "Scooby Doo and Scrappy too."  Obviously a suboptimal solution.

 

I have further determined a solution to this problem, although not tested to the point where it is assumed completely robust -- In fact, it isn't with some minor annoyances.

 

Within the .TiVo files, there is metadata for the show.  Things that include description, Title, Actors, etc.  Two of the items shown are a "seriesId" and "EpisodeId."  I have found that these are different in the old legacy series 3 .TiVo files than in newly recorded episodes of the show downloaded from the Bolt with the readynas (.TiVo files).  This seems to cause conflicts when reuploading which seems to explain the earlier behavior described.  I'm not saying its 100%.  But I have had good luck in the following workaround.

 

Using components of pyTivo and writing a few scripts, I was about to split the old legacy .TiVo files into two components, the metadata, and a mpg of the episode. pyTivo can upload these two files back to the TiVo as a show, in this case uploading to the Bolt.  Without some intermediate effort, this has the same result as uploading the .TiVo file with pyTivo.

 

So I wrote some scripts that I ran on a folder of about 50 legacy .TiVo files with the "old" seriesId and episodeId.   Additionally, on extraction of the metadata, I substituted the new seriesId for the old one from the .TiVo file, and eliminated the  episodeId.  (pyTivo doesn't use this) Also, I haven't figured out how to find comprehensive lists of these to substitute, which could very well be an enormously laborious task as it may have to be done manually.

 

I then reuploaded the mpg version of the show with the new metadata and it appears to work as it should -- in the correct folder with the correct artwork.  The one caveat is that the season and episode number for the uploaded shows do not display -- likely a result of not having the correct episode numbers in the metadata.  Annoying, but a 90% plus solution.

 

I have also determined (apparently!) that if a show (any episode?) has been uploaded to the Bolt with the old seriesId, the Bolt refuses to upload some files (mpg/metadata) to the Bolt with an error #86 on the Bolt.  (File or TiVo on network has disappeared.)  Neither has actually disappeared.  I have also seen odd dates show up as show dates (1687) for a football game.  I'm guessing that’s wrong, or we got it wrong on who actually invented television.

 

None of this would explain why the Bolt can't see the series 3, but that certainly could be due to some recent release of TiVo software, particularly if this used to work on the Bolt.  Did it originally?  I have no idea here.

 

TivoToGo used to support pushing shows from a PC to the TiVo.  It seems that a recent version of TiVo software broke this (past 6 months?) and it is opined within the technical community that TiVo does not intend to support that going forward.  The last 2 paragraphs are speculation, to be clear.

 

It would be very disappointing if netgear decides not to make all of this work seamlessly, even for legacy models.  I purchased the pro6 to archive TiVo shows, its only purpose.  I still run a 600 for other purposes, and it continues to run fine, albeit with a couple of fan replacements, and a power supply replacement.  The readynas TiVo solution just becomes less compelling for me if I am perhaps going to have to convert everything myself offline the next time TiVo makes a change.

 

I hope this is helpful to the engineering staff and that management commits to keeping this add on working for old models so I can see the readynas as being a continuing solution.

 

Regards.

 

Message 4 of 5
GRS1
Tutor

Re: Tivo Bolt can't see Readynas but Readynas backs up the Bolt

Minor correction.  The metatag removes for the episode is "programId" not "episodeId"  Note that these always start with a lower case letter which is also in error at least once in my prior post.

Message 5 of 5
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