Series 2 DT/Digital Cable question

[sundevil98]

Hi,

Not sure if this is the right place to post this question... but here goes...

I'm looking at purchasing a Tivo. I see now that they're only $30 (for the model I want - the Series 2 DT Tivo).

I have Comcast digital cable, right now. I would like to be able to record two channels at once. I was reading the Tivo website, and it says that this box can only record 2 analog channels at one time, or 1 analog channel, and 1 digital channel.

Does this mean that I need an analog digital signal as well as the digital signal that I already have? Or, does this mean that even though I have digital cable, some channels are "analog" and some are "digital", and because of this, I will only be able to record one "analog" channel and one "digital" channel at a time. If this is the case, how do I know which channels are analog and which are digital?

If I need to have two feeds digital AND analog, I'll probably settle with the single tuner model - I don't need to give Comcast any more money than I already do.

[mrdazzo7]

I'm no expert but i've seen this type of question 100 times on the forums as I've been researching too...

Typically channels 1-99 are considered "analog"--you wouldn't need your cable box to view these channells. Everything above that--like the movie channels and stuff--is considered the "digital" channels. So no, you won't need two seperate feeds. You just won't be able to record say a movie on a HBO and one on Showtime at the same time, but rather an HBO thing and an ABC show, etc.

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong...

[Ruth]

No, you don't need anything you don't already have. For purposes of the DT, "digital" means "any channel you need a cable box to view" and "analog" means "any channel you can see when you plug the cable directly from the wall to your TV w/o a box."

Think of it this way: You will only have one cable box hooked up to the DT, and your cable box can only be on one channel at a time. So you can only record one box-dependent channel at one time. But you can record a non-box channel while the cable box is doing its thing.

Also, you can always watch a recorded show (no matter what channel it came from) while you are recording new shows.

[sundevil98]

I think our cable may be all digital...

When I plug the cable directly into the TV (bypassing the box), I only get a few local access channels (they even seem to be channels that we don't get when plugged into the cable box).

I may call the cable company then to see what's up.

[Ruth]

Yeah, it depends on the cable co. I know a lot of people get ch. 1-99 w/o a box, but I don't. I just get something like 2-20, which are local broadcast networks and community access channels. But most of the programs that are only shown once are on the broadcast networks anyway since cable channels tend to re-run things a gazillion times. I've got a DT and I rarely (in fact maybe never) have a true conflict that causes me to miss a show that I can't catch at a later airing.