If I were to go away for 3 weeks and left my Toppy on standby, would MyStuff still record successfully using Control Timers over that period?

As the Freeview EPG is only for 7 days, you would either have to ensure that the Toppy is out of standby (either recording or on wa watch timer) long enough for the EPG to fully populate, or load up some other EPG data derived from an online resource such as the Radio Times.

But, assuming that is the case, then MS will take care of its Control Timers (assuming that you have the necessary parameters set of course).

Yes, but with a few provisos...

1. Make sure you have an overnight EPG scan timer set. If you are using eit2mei for EPG gathering, set a 30 minute timer at 03:30am. Make sure this timer is named 'EPG'.

2. Make sure you have the firmware modded with the PowerRestore patch, otherwise if there is a power cut, the Toppy's clock will never get reset to the proper time and you will lose all subsequent recordings.

3. [Optional] Put the Toppy on an electronic timer which removes the power for a 5 minute period once a day (usually during the night, but don't clash with the EPG scan!). This hard bootup fixes any 'funnies' which can occur on a Toppy over an extended period.

Late last year I was on holiday in Oz and NZ for over 7 weeks and my Toppy performed flawlessly using MyStuff/eit2mei and Control Timers. It even found some programmes I wasn't expecting, such as the Dr Who Christmas Special.

Best of luck...

Geoff

As mossy says, ensure that in the intervening time you are set to record something and you should be OK. The only other recommendation I'd add is to leave the default channel as BBC1 (or record something on a regular basis - say, the 10 o clock news) because EPG population seems a bit more "solid" if it's tuned to one of the BBC muxes.

K

OK. Thanks for the various replies.

Am I reading this right - does the EPG re-populate and MyStuff control timers update the timers while a recording is taking place?

Yes it does. Well, it does for me, as long as that recording is not soon after midnight (the broadcasters don't seem to send the updated EPG covering the new "day 7" until a bit later, hence the suggestion of an EPG timer at 03:30. But you need to ensure that eit2mei in enabled for background scans (I think that's the one, it's so long since I set mine up my memory is a bit hazy).

You don't say how your MyStuff normally gets its EPG data. Do you use eit2mei or another method?

If you use eit2mei then beware; there may be a setting in the eit2mei.ini file which prevents background scans from taking place during recording and/or playback. If this is the case, you will never update your EPG without a separate, overnight scan.

For your information, here is my eit2mei.ini data...

[Control]
ActivationKey=65547
BackgroundScan=5
ManualMode=0
ScanTime=330
ScanWindow=20
ScanChecksForPlayback=1
ScanChecksForRecording=1
PowerOffAfterScan=2
EnableLog=0
MaxLCN=29

This set of options does not allow background scans during recording or playback (ScanChecksForRecording etc.). The PowerOffAfterScan=2 setting ensures the Toppy goes back into standby after the scan; otherwise it stays on 24/7 which is not, I suspect, what you want.

Geoff

I do use eit2mei. I can't see a .ini file. Where is it?

If it exists, it's in the ProgramFiles folder, not AutoStart. (Assuming you're using Altair?)

Geoff

The file isn't there. The corresponding .mei file is there but not .ini. The only thing I've done is install MyStuff as per the instructions.

Then I assume that you have not changed any settings in eit2mei, in which case eit2mei would probably not create an ini file.

There is much more information about the eit2mei/MyStuff setup on the www.toppy.org.uk website. Look in the MyStuff thread on the forums.

Geoff

How do I change the settings? It doesn't do anything if I click on it.

Apologies for the delay in replying; only just got back to reading this thread...

It's supposed to be possible to bring up the eit2mei menu by pressing the Recall key on the Toppy remote, but I don't find this very reliable - it usually just changes back and forth between the last two channels viewed.

So I always use Tap Commander (TC) to get into the menu. I make TC the last TAP to load in my AutoStart folder. Then, to bring up TC, you press the Menu key twice - once to bring up the Toppy native menu and a second press to invoke TC. Then you can scroll down to where eit2mei is listed and press Enter, which brings up the eit2mei menu. The keys you can use to change the defaults are listed in the menu.

Geoff

OK thanks