TiVo Community Forums Archives - Support USB TV Tuner, Record 2 Shows at Once

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Support USB TV Tuner, Record 2 Shows at Once
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Posted by: lascellesl

Hi all, first time poster. Pardon me if this has already been talked about. A big issue seems to be Tivo cannot record two shows at once. Why not allow the USB port to support a USB TV Tuner and record a second show that way? That way you could just split the signal to the Tivo. Send one to the normal tuner. The other to the external USB TV Tuner. I guess it would not work with a cable box. You would need a second cable box but cable ready is not so bad. You may be able to use a video in card instead of a TV tuner. Then use the video in with the cable box and your other signal with the regular tuner. There is only one signal sent from a cable box anyway. No need for tuning. The video ins seems to be a little cheaper. The external TV Tuner can cost hundreds. There are two USB ports so it should not stop HMO users. It would cost a lot but I would get one even two to record three shows at once. All the great shows come on at the same time prime time. I don't know about everyone else but I get a lot of conflicts. I am a big fan of prime time. Want to watch it all the time.

Posted by: Jonathan_S

You would end up with a box that was 80% of a tivo. You need at least the tv tuner (or video in card), a big enough back plate to have all the necessary connections, a mpeg encoder, and power supply because the mpeg chip will draw more power than USB can provide.

So you have managed to save the harddrive and the modem. Plus Tivo would have to do significant software development to integrate it.

It is an interesting idea, but I think we will have collaborative scheduling between tivos long before something like this would be considered

Posted by: peccles

quote:
Originally posted by Jonathan_S
You would end up with a box that was 80% of a tivo. You need at least the tv tuner (or video in card), a big enough back plate to have all the necessary connections, a mpeg encoder, and power supply because the mpeg chip will draw more power than USB can provide.

So you have managed to save the harddrive and the modem. Plus Tivo would have to do significant software development to integrate it.

It is an interesting idea, but I think we will have collaborative scheduling between tivos long before something like this would be considered

Recording 2 shows at once technology is already here. The DirectTV DVR can do it
and Scientific Altanta makes a box for cable providers that can do it. You should not
have to buy 2 machines and 2 subscriptions to do this.

Posted by: Jonathan_S

I wasn't saying that tivo couldn't build a box that did dual recording, obviously they have with the DTivo. I was pointing out that trying to do it by retrofitting a usb device onto existing tivos was unlikely.

My last sentence could have been clearer, but a designed from scratch dual recording SA unit is also something that could be considered way before this proposed add on unit.