TiVo Community Forums Archives - digi cable and TIVO

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digi cable and TIVO
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Posted by: johnd7

I have a stand alone AT&T series 2 with digital cable. I also split the cable from the wall directly into my tv so I can watch live TV while TIVO records or just to watch sports with better picture. My question is can I split or do anything so that I can use the digi box live also? I have ordered the NBA League pass and want to be able to surf quicker between many games at one time...but the channels are only on the digi cable. The slow channel changes are not bareable for more then a couple times. Also what is the difference between TV Input and Standby? They seem to do the same thing?

Posted by: srs5694

If you're just watching live TV and aren't trying to record a single program on the TiVo, you can use the cable box's remote to change channels, bypassing the TiVo. The TiVo won't know that the channel's been changed, but that's unimportant -- after you're done, even if the cable box is on the "wrong" channel, the TiVo will change the channel itself the next time it needs to do so. OTOH, if the TiVo tries to record something while you're doing this, it'll do so, causing the channel to change without your intervention and/or causing the TiVo's recording to get messed up as you change channels.

If you want to TiVo something while using the cable box for live viewing, you can reconfigure the TiVo to record the analog channels only, but if you want to TiVo digital channels this isn't an acceptable solution. A more sophisticated option is to use a lineup creation tool to enable the TiVo to record analog channels directly (no cable box) while using the cable box only for scrambled or digital channels. This option was impossible on Series 2 units until recently, but now that Series 2 units have been hacked, it should be possible to do it with them. This isn't an easy first hack, though. I don't know if anybody's got an official FAQ or Web site on the subject. I've got a few scripts to do this, but I've no idea if they'd work on Series 2 boxes.

Posted by: stormsweeper

You can also see how much your company charges for a second box. If it's something like $5.month, it might be worth $20/year for you.

Posted by: johnd7

I hadn't thought about using the Cable Box remote...that is good option if TIVO is not recording. Months ago I tried the two digi box setup but was to hard to get to work properly setting up the fort and all that. Thanks for the suggestions.

Posted by: brettatk

I've been using the two digital cable box setup for the last 2 months. I've found it works great and has only missed 2 channel changes. I bought a Xantach emitter and covered that with some electrical tape. I also had to mask off the built in emitter in my TIVO. After I did that it's worked like a charm. You may want to give it another shot.

Brett

Posted by: srs5694

Unless the Earth has been spiralling into the Sun of late, a year at $5/month works out to $60/year, not $20/year.