Registered: Jun 2002
Location:
Posts: 7

I think I'm going to show my ignorance with this one, but I can't seem to understand why a Stand alone Tivo can't record 2 shows at once... Correct me if I'm wrong but if I use my composites to hook up a cable box and change it's channel with a IR Blaster and hook just a plain cable in the RF outlet and use the internal tuner (I have another Tivo without a cable box which it changes channels itself) to change the channel on that line and with dual hard drives (Which I think it could record 2 shows with 1 hard drive) why we can't record two shows at one time. To me it seems that as far as hardware that it should be possible, am I wrong or missing something here? Is this just a software issue? And why is Tivo not pursuing the possibilities here. And if anything pursue the possibilities of dual recordings for a Series 2 Tivo to give some reason to upgrade from a series 1. I'm sure theres a simple answer but for the life of me I can't get it in my head why not. And I don't want to come off angry because I'm very happy with my Tivo, guess I'm just a little jealous of the Directv folks and don't want to uproot just for that reason.

Any help or direction would be appreciated,
Sikki

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Registered: Jun 2002
Location:
Posts: 7

Remember it was mentioned in the FAQ's and after rereading them I see it mentions the dual mpeg encoders as a reason, so before I get blasted for not reading FAQ's first lemme redirect the question to why aren't the dual mpeg encoders being added to the series 2 Tivo's because looking at the prices of Directivo's and standalones I dont see the big price difference for that extra encoder...

Sikki

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Registered: May 2002
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 62

I think that the DirecTiVo's receive MPEG streams directly from DirecTV, and so there's no need for an mpeg encoder in the DirecTiVo's. So, that's probably why, and dual mpeg encoders must make it quite a bit more expensive or something...

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Registered: Nov 2001
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 1186

As mentioned, MPEG encoders are expensive. A stand-alone TiVo needs one for every source, while a DirectTiVo needs none because the stream is already compressed.

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Registered: Jul 2002
Location:
Posts: 91

Yeah, I also thought, why can't you just put 2 rf inputs letting someone record 2 shows at the same time even if they don't have a cable box. I think you are going to have to wait a year or 2 for this technology to get cheap enough for tivo to make a profit. My tip for now is to just get a cheap 14 hour unit off ebay and put it right above or below your current tivo, this seems to be the only way to resolve conflicts for now.

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Sony Tivo Series2, 80 hours

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