# software upgrades w/out phone



## borisivan (Oct 17, 2007)

Hi,

I have a HR10-250, which hasn't been connected to a phone line in ~ 3 years. Still works well, but the response time in bringing up the now playing list and other things can be horrible, like 30 seconds, etc. It's been reset a few times, with no improvement. We also just got the slimline dish installed. The HR-10 works on it, but guided setup gave me a scare (I did guided setup to change it from 2 inputs to 1 input, as it went to another room with 1 input) -- it only had dish selections of 1-3LNBs, was previously on a 3 LNB. I chose that, and when setup was done it claimed it couldn't find any programming. A reset of the device seemed to fix it.

ANYWAY, I digress. I suspect my s/w version is very old. Will a HR-10 upgrade it's software over the satellite, or only over a phone line? I'll try and find out what version it's on and post that tonight, but I've been meaning to ask this question for a long time, so I figured I'd throw it out there.

I suppose the same question applies to series II DVRs (standard def) -- I have 3 of those.

Thanks!!


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## borisivan (Oct 17, 2007)

the reason for no phone line is that we went with Vonage a few years ago, I have no phone service in the various outlets throughout the house. I only have service in my office, which goes to a cordless base that is the hub for 4 cordless phones throughout the house.

In case you were curious.


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## gully_foyle (Jan 18, 2007)

borisivan said:


> ANYWAY, I digress. I suspect my s/w version is very old. Will a HR-10 upgrade it's software over the satellite, or only over a phone line? I'll try and find out what version it's on and post that tonight, but I've been meaning to ask this question for a long time, so I figured I'd throw it out there.


I'm pretty sure the updates come over satellite, but the command to install them comes over phone. You can force a phone call, but it will probably take a while to complete. There may be other housekeeping and "garbage collection" operations that require a telephone command.

So your TiVos may already have the new software, you just need to give it an activation kick with a phone call.

You can also speed up the TiVo by doing a clear & delete everything. You'll lose all your programs and all your settings, and have to run guided setup again, but it will clear out all the garbage and fragmentation that have built up over the years. Very much recommended if you are experiencing slow menus.


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## Tom Robertson (Nov 15, 2005)

KCmurphy88 is correct on all counts: software is likely already on the receiver and a quick call will update that unit.

Cheers,
Tom


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## dishrich (Apr 23, 2002)

You probably have the software on your hard drive, but it does take a phone call to install it. If you can't get it to work with your Vonage service, just take it to a friend's house w/a landline & have it make the call there - you do not need it hooked to a dish to do this.


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## borisivan (Oct 17, 2007)

I'll give it a shot, thanks guys! I think I have a reeeeeeaaally long phone cord that I can hook up for a few minutes if that's all it takes. (would be running up some stairs, etc, ugly).


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## Frostwolf (May 10, 2006)

borisivan said:


> the reason for no phone line is that we went with Vonage a few years ago, I have no phone service in the various outlets throughout the house. I only have service in my office, which goes to a cordless base that is the hub for 4 cordless phones throughout the house.
> 
> In case you were curious.


You can wire Vonage up to the outlets, its not hard, but you have to make sure that the phone companies line is completely disconnected.
Also, you may need to put in a special prefix as I had.

This settings worked flawlessly with mine.

I'm calling area code 212 as suggested by vonageforums.

number is *1-212-277-3895*
Prefix is *,*99,#096*
Callwaiting **70*
*Tone*
Det is *off*
tone det is *on*

The prefix *99 tells the vonage adapter to prepare for data.
The #096 tells tivo to connect at 9600 baud.
The 212 is a location closer to the vonage facilities, and doesn't matter with vonage being long distance.
good luck


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## o2manyfish (Oct 22, 2007)

Hey Guys,

I got my HR20 and moved my H10 to a different room. I did the clear & delete everything. 

My unit has been hooked up to a phone line for a week, and the software has not upgraded. The unit is calling in and getting a successful call each night. 

I checked the status and it does not say "Waiting to Reboot" or anything that gives hope. 


Any idea how to get the software to upgrade. I called D* but all they could tell me was that I should have 6.3* which came out earlier this year. 

I miss my folders...

Thanks 

Dave B


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## litzdog911 (Jun 23, 2004)

o2manyfish said:


> Hey Guys,
> 
> I got my HR20 and moved my H10 to a different room. I did the clear & delete everything.
> 
> ...


A "clear and delete everything" should not change your software version. What version do you have now? 6.3e is the latest version.


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## o2manyfish (Oct 22, 2007)

The software on the machine now is 3.1.5f.

I had folders before doing the complete system reset. Now the folder option is gone.


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## Ricka (Aug 9, 2006)

The folder option will come back after it gets a 6.x update


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## vansmack (Aug 14, 2006)

o2manyfish said:


> My unit has been hooked up to a phone line for a week, and the software has not upgraded. The unit is calling in and getting a successful call each night.
> 
> I checked the status and it does not say "Waiting to Reboot" or anything that gives hope.


Have you forced the reboot?

I hadn't called in on a backup unit in over a year. When I finally made the call a few days ago, the software update didn't load. I decided last night to manually restart the TiVo in the menu and upon rebooting it installed the new software.


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## borisivan (Oct 17, 2007)

Frostwolf said:


> You can wire Vonage up to the outlets, its not hard, but you have to make sure that the phone companies line is completely disconnected.
> Also, you may need to put in a special prefix as I had.
> 
> This settings worked flawlessly with mine.
> ...


Before you did this, would you find that it would get stuck at "negotiating"?

Since I have vonage, I haven't wired my house jacks to it yet, I only have it at the router in the office, which is too far away for a phone cable to get to the 2nd/3rd floors where other tivo boxes are.

I remembered that I had one of those phone-outlet-extenders-over-electric-outlet thingys so that I could get a phone jack in the master bedroom. Basically, it's a box that plugs into an electric outlet, and has a source phone jack (run a wire from the vonage router). Then, you have a similar box that you place elsewhere in a different electric outlet, and run the phone line from that one, to whatever you need (like the HR-10). The phone signals get encoded over the electric wires in the house, and then decoded at the other box. I had used it about 10 years ago for some odd reason.

I dug it out of the garage (live in New Hampshire, garage gets to -20 degrees each year...), and it still worked... for a phone. I heard dialtone and made a call, seemed OK, but a bit static/noise.

Assuming things were good, I wired up the HR-10, and tried to make a call.

It sensed dialtone, said it dialed, and then on 'connecting', it said: "Negotiating" and had the little spinny pinwheel, for about 10 minutes, and gave up. Tried a few times.

I was assuming that the quality of the line was crappy due to my phone outlet extender thingys described above, but maybe I can get it to work as you described above, especially with the #096 option for force 9600 baud, and the *99 to prepare for data, I never knew about those.

Any comments/recommendations?

Why did you choose New York?


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## Frostwolf (May 10, 2006)

borisivan said:


> Before you did this, would you find that it would get stuck at "negotiating"?
> 
> I was assuming that the quality of the line was crappy due to my phone outlet extender thingys described above, but maybe I can get it to work as you described above, especially with the #096 option for force 9600 baud, and the *99 to prepare for data, I never knew about those.
> 
> ...


It would dial up and never get a successful connection. I monitored the phone line and it would be handshaling but never got a connection.

VOIP be it vonage skype or whatever is not made for data communcations. In a phone call you voice is converted to data packets, timing is essential, if timing where off you could hear the last part of a word before the first, so it would discard any late signals. Discards corrupt the data.

A modem sends data as voice then converted to data back to voice then back to data. Not good for computers.

Slower speed 9600 gives it less chance to corrupt it. *99 option tells the modem to change the compression to highest quality, and I've been told that the bandwidth save settings are overidden. That may not be the case with every vonage adapter, so set bandwith saver to highest on vonage.

As for New York, its closer to Vonage data center was one reason ( as I was told, not sure though) and its has been suggested on other sites.

www.testyourvoip.com and connect to boston will test your cable dsl capability.

Gota go, good luck


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