hd and series 2 stand alone tivo

[seymour]

I'm really confused please help
1. I have comcast cable. If I buy a plasma hd receiver I realize I can't tivo hd programs in hd but can I tivo them and still see them in regular quality?

2. will hd programs come in as hd with my tivo in the "loop" In other words won't the incoming signal have to be through the tivo and will this degrade it?

3. Am I making any sense?
Thanks

[txfeinbergs]

1. No. The series two can only accept analog inputs. Even regular SD "Digital" channels the series 2 won't be able to make any sense of.

2. You can't pass a digital signal through the TIVO (at least I don't think you can anyway - I don't own a series 2)

3. No. Oh wait, yes - it was a trick question.

[seymour]

Ok Just so I fully understand. If I buy a plasma t.v. and subscribe to comcast digital then my tivo is of no use on that set? Sorry to seem dense.

Thanks

[swifty]

You could use two inputs on the back of your TV, one for watching live HD, the other for recording things on the TiVo. This would mean one cable box for the HD and another one for the TiVo.

[Eben]

I'm not familiar with the cable companies' offerings of HD boxes, but do they only have HD (HDMI, component) outputs? Might they also have SD outputs (coax, composite, s-video)? If so, you could connect the cable box to a SA tivo with a SD connection and connect to the TV using an HD connection. May not be possible with most/many/all boxes?
(You'd also connect the tivo to a SD input on the TV. And be aware that you may be fighting with the tivo over control of the cable box, so a dedicated tivo cable box may not be a bad idea.)
Just a thought.
Good luck.

[lflorack]

You could use two inputs on the back of your TV, one for watching live HD, the other for recording things on the TiVo. This would mean one cable box for the HD and another one for the TiVo.

I'm kinda doing that on my setup. I'm using DirecTV and have the dish's cable going to DirecTV's HD reciever. The analog outputs of the reciever are then fed to my Tivo. It then feeds to the TV. Also from the back of the reciever, I use the HDMI output to go to the HDMI input on the TV. I change the TV input I'm viewing dependant on the source I want to view. Works OK except that when Tivo is recording, I have to watch what the Tivo tunes the receiver to. It can be an HD show I'm watching on the TV but the Tivo will record it as standard. Hope this helps the OP.

If I add the 2nd reciever as you suggest, it'd work a bit better since I'd basically have two seperate feeds from the dish. However, I'd have to string another cable from the dish (I'll wait until winter is over!) and then pay monthly for the 2nd reciever. Again, not a big deal. I'll have to consider it.

[quillbert]

So with your set up above, does the TIVO control the channel selection of the Direct TVs receiver? The TIVO remote works with the HD receiver?

Thanks.

[lflorack]

So with your set up above, does the TIVO control the channel selection of the Direct TVs receiver? The TIVO remote works with the HD receiver?

Thanks.

Yes, Tivo controls DirecTV HD receiver channel selections (via IR blaster). Works fine (technically). However, it's a bit of a pain since if I'm watching the HD reciever directly (via the HDMI connection) and Tivo decides it needs to change the channel to record something, it does it -- and because I'm not watching the Tivo connection, I get no warning.

That has become a bit more of an issue than I thought it would be. So, rather than waiting until winter is over (and sine the weather was so nice today), I added the 2nd feed from the dish and and a SD reciever. Now Tivo can do what it wants and so can I.

[quillbert]

Thanks for the info...IR blaster was what we were also considering.

[abobrow]

I believe the Comcast HD box also has an S-video output which could go to the Tivo. The Comcast HD DVR has this option, but I don't know about their non-DVR HD box.

From what I've read, HD downconverted to S-video looks better than what you're used to. But you would have to use the ir blaster to change channels.