DirecTiVo --> Cable Tivo

[caseyk]

I recently aquired an RCA DVR40 Direct TV receiver and DVR. I currently have time warner Cable. The DVR has a USB port but no ethernet port. Also it only seems to have a sat in coax. Is there any way to make this work? I looked at the zipper links and wasn't sure if this was going to work for me. Basically i would like to be able to use it as a DVR without the tivo channel support. Be able to watch cable (with or without my current digital cable box) and be able to record my favorite shows, or even pause / rewind. Simple basic functions. my question is, is this possible with my setup and this box? If so would zipper be the tool to use?

[Luv2DrvFst]

Nope. DirecTiVo boxes don't have the hardware to handle cable. They can only handle an MPEG2 stream coming from the satellite. Check this thread for a few laughs.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=294006&highlight=cable+tv

[eboydog]

Without subscription to Directv, you won't be able to record TV or have the basic Tivo functionality. The only thing you can possibly do is to hack the DVR40, add a a USB to ethernet adapter and make the box a HMO type appliance to listen to MP3's and view pictures from your local PC but with out subscribing to directv you can't use it with your existing cable service, the antenna in and out is just passive, even with Directv service there is no way to record the signal from the cable system (on a Directv receiver). The only Directv receiver that a allows you to record OTA signals is the HR10-250 which is a high def receiver and even then you need DirecTv service to use the Tivo service and record the signal from the antenna (in HD). The SA Tivo allows you to record from cable but there is no DT Tivo that allows such.


In a nutshell, the answer is that you can't do what you are trying to do, there's no way around getting Tivo service, sounds like what you really need is a standard Tivo.

If you are a real tech geeky, you might find some better funtionality over at deal database com in their forums for your DVR40, you can get "some" functionality from it using TivoServer if you have content on your PC and are willing to do a little hacking on the box but I don't believe further discussion of such is permitted on this forum. But over there you can find more details about superpatching it and running something called tivoserver. :)

[caseyk]

Awesome thanks for the replies, so basically i can take out the HD and reprogram the OS to run it on the network as a video / music / picture server instead of using my laptop and changing the display every time. I will look into that, since that would be very nice atleast. Thanks.