Wanted: "Tivo guru"

[ritchandrew]

Please help !! I bought a Tivo 2 with the intention of using it's hard drive as a recorder for my CCTV cameras, but it's not working out as planned. I can't get passed the sign up screen. Can this even be done? thanks for any help

[classicX]

It would be incredibly difficult to do that, seeing as how Tivo works by scheduling recordings. It doesn't record 24/7 and was not designed to.

That's AFTER the fact that your cameras all have to be multiplexed into a single video stream and then put through a converter that can output the video onto an anlog television channel.


Just use it for TV and buy a true security product for security. Any video pulled off of a Tivo would not be admissable in court anyway, since you would have to be able to prove that it wasn't tampered with.

[Dan203]

A Series 2 TiVo can NOT record anything without a subscription. If you're willing to pay $12.95/mo to record from your CCTV system then set the machine up as if you have digital cable, then plug the CCTV stream into the RCA jacks and setup manual recordings on an unused channel above 125. That will force the TiVo to think it's recording from a cable box, but since it's an unused channel it will have no data so it will label the recordings with simply the date and time of the recording.

If you want to do the same wihtout a subscription, then you'll have to get your hands on an old Series 1 TiVo since they are the only ones that can record without a subscription. However be warned that if you use an old Series 1 this way it will nag you every chance it gets to subscribe.

Dan

[jmace57]

For what it's worth, if you go to the samsclub auction site here (http://auctions.samsclub.com) , I notice that they have been selling samsung digital recorders made to record the CCTV stuff. They generally are going for about $160-$180.

Jim

[bud8man]

You could set up AVCast and use your CCTV unit as a channel and record it, but it seems pointless based on what the others are saying.