Glossary

From NLTiVo

To avoid confusion we use this page to define what we mean exactly when using a certain term.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

Area-slice

An area-slice holds dial-up numbers for a specific area. Since most of us will use network connectivity, we don't really use this, but your TiVo can't do without.

B

C

Cachecard

A variant of the TurboNet-card. This card provides ethernet-connectivity. On top of that it contains a slot for a 512MB DIMM. With a cachecard the entire MFS-database is being cached into RAM, which significantly increases the responsiveness in the user interface, especially when using larger harddrives.

Channel

The specific frequency or channel number which is used to receive a Station.

D

Daily Call

Tivo makes contact with the emulator over the internet to get current guide data.

DutchTiVoGuide

A program that automatically converts TV program data into TV guide slices. Information on the design can be found here.

DVR

Digital Video Recorder. TiVo is a type of DVR.

E

Emulator

A program hosted by a web server which a TiVo contacts every day to get new data, and also to do Guided Setup. nlTiVo runs the Dutch Emulator.

F

Free-to-air

Free-to-air (FTA) is a term used to describe television and radio broadcasts which are available without subscription and without decryption (pay-TV). The term usually refers to delivery by satellite television, but in various parts of the world where encrypted digital terrestrial and UHF television channels exist, it can also be applied to those systems.

FTA

See Free-to-air.

G

Genres

Each program in your TV belongs to one or more genres. Genres are one of the most important things for TiVo, since these are used to make suggestions for future recordings. The longer you use your TiVo and the better the genres match a program, the better the suggestions will be.

Green Screen Of Death (GSOD)

A screen with a green background that can appear during boot telling that a severe error has occured. A screenshot can be found here. The FAQ has a more extensive explanation on this subject.

Guide-slice

A guide-slice holds showing-information for a specific lineup. All showings that we know of are enclosed in the guide-slice. The guide-slice tells your TiVo which program is on what channel at what time.

Guided Setup (or GS)

When a TiVo boots in maintenance-mode, a guided setup is being performed. During this guided setup (or GS) your TiVo is being configured for usage in your area.

H

Headend-slice

A slice file which holds all the information on the lineups that can be received for a given provider (zipcode). There should be one headend-slice for each provider.

I

IR

Infrared. Used by devices such as remote controls to send commands to other devices.

IR-Blaster

Small transmitter that allows the Tivo to control an external tuner device such as a VCR, Digital Cable receiver or set top box.

J

K

L

Line-up

A line-up describes which channels can be received on which channel/frequency. Each provider has one or more line-ups.

M

Maintenance mode

When you boot your TiVo for the first time, it will come up in Maintenance Mode. The only time you should see Maintenance Mode is when you are doing Guided Setup, or when you need to change your Infrared (IR) device settings. Live-TV is stuttering during Maintenance mode.

MFS

The internal databse in which all recordings, logo's, preferences, guidedata, lineups etc. are stored. This is the core of the TiVo-system.

N

NTSC

Video broadcast standard used in the United States. NTSC stands for 'National Television System Committee'. NTSC is used by many countries on the American continent as well as many Asian countries including Japan. TiVo uses NTSC. Also see PAL.

NoNag-channel

This is a dummy channel introduced to stop the TiVo from popping up whinging messages that you are running out of guide data and need to make a daily call. With the proper US service, they provide data for at least 2 weeks in advance, and extra data is added on every day/couple of days, so the TiVo always has a couple of weeks worth of data. In our situation with a week worth of tv guidedata would constantly cause TiVo to whinge that it was running out of data. As a result the dummy nonag channel exists, with fake data a few weeks in the future in it, which is enough for TiVo to think it has enough data not to whinge.

O

P

PAL

European standard for video broadcasting. PAL stands for 'Phase Alternating Line'. Since the United States uses NTSC, so does a US TiVo. A US TiVo can do PAL though with a little hacking.

PAL-modification

A hardware adjustment, which replaces the standard NTSC-tuner with a PAL-variant. With this modification it is possible to plug your analogue cable directly into your TiVo. Channel-changes are significantly faster using a PAL-modification when compared to the use of an external receiver.

Palmod

Software module that allows customization of the TiVo hardware and is included on all OzTiVo images. It doesn't make TiVo work in PAL, but is does allow you to make some very useful adjustments and enables a couple of handy features (brightness, contrast, saturation, tunertype, frequency-tables, dual audio output, rf output channel etc.)

Q

R

S

Season-pass

A season-pass is a mechanism used to record every broadcasting of a specific program (serie) on a specific channel, independent of the time it is aired and the duration of the program

Showing

A showing is a TiVo-term for a broadcast of a program.

Slice-file

A special file that can be read by TiVo, which contains data (content). There are different types of slice-files (i.e. headend, area, guide, message, logo, genre, software)

Station

Examples: NED1, RTL4, NET 5, MTV. Whether a station can be received by your TiVo, depends on your provider and the line-up selected.

Stereo-decoder

A device which decodes a combined stereo audio-signal into separate left/right-audio channels. Optional and used in combination with a PAL-modification for stereo output.

Suggestion

Tivo's own recordings based on your previous recordings or preferences. Only records suggestions if feature is selected (under preferences), when spaces is available, and if suggestions do not conflict with a Season-pass or Wishlist recordings. Suggestions will also not be recorded if the TiVo is in use (eg remote buttons have been pressed recently).

T

Time-shifting

The ability to pause, rewind and forward live tv. A program may be viewed without waiting for the "recording" to complete. Comes standard with your TiVo.

Trickey

Trickey is a program for the TiVo that watches your remote control keypresses and does cool stuff when you press certain key combinations. These combinations can be found here.

TurboNet-card

A specially crafted ethernet-card which can be used in your TiVo to provide ethernet-connectivity. A picture of the device can be found here. Also see Cachecard and X-factor card.

U

V

W

Wish-list

Uses key-words to record shows either by title, actors, subject etc. Can be more flexible than Season-passes.

X

X-factor card

A specially crafted ethernet-card which can be used in your TiVo to provide ethernet-connectivity. Compatible with the TurboNet-card, but cheaper. Not always available though, and the US e-bay seller seems to be unreliable. Can sometimes be obtained for a somewhat higher price via members of the OzTiVo-community. Also see Cachecard.

Y

Z