Possible Tivo?

[Techiejustin]

Howdy folks! I'm considering getting a Tivo for use with my Comcast digital cable.
Comcast offers a service but from what I understand its less than mediocre, despite Tivo and comcast crawling in bed with each other.
I looked on the back of my cable box, and there is no sort of digital connection. No USB, DVI or firewire.
Would I be able to ask COmcast for a firewire enabled cable box and buy my own Tivo unit?
Is this comcast's way of locking me into their service?

[gastrof]

TiVo doesn't need a firewire.

TiVo takes RF and audio/video inputs from cable boxes.

Supposedly in a few months some Comcast DVR boxes will have TiVo software as an option.

There's a new TiVo, the series 3, that will sub for both a digital cable box and DVR by way of having cable cards installed. Expensive, but it'll do digital cable and be able to tune all standard digital cable channels, as well as any additional ones you subscribe to, provided your install goes correctly.

Other TiVos can also work with digital cable boxes, but in the case of high def digital programming, such earlier TiVos need a downconverted output from the box, since they're analog and standard def television devices. They can record the digital programming, but not in High Def.

You have to find out about the different options available to you, and decide which one strikes you as the best.

[Techiejustin]

TiVo doesn't need a firewire.

TiVo takes RF and audio/video inputs from cable boxes.

Supposedly in a few months some Comcast DVR boxes will have TiVo software as an option.

There's a new TiVo, the series 3, that will sub for both a digital cable box and DVR by way of having cable cards installed. Expensive, but it'll do digital cable and be able to tune all standard digital cable channels, as well as any additional ones you subscribe to, provided your install goes correctly.

Other TiVos can also work with digital cable boxes, but in the case of high def digital programming, such earlier TiVos need a downconverted output from the box, since they're analog and standard def television devices. They can record the digital programming, but not in High Def.

You have to find out about the different options available to you, and decide which one strikes you as the best.

So there's no digital input option for non-HD tivo?
Screw it then... I'm not converting from digital, to analog, and then back again. That's totally pointless.
My goal was to extract some of that video and stick it on a DVD-RW, and watch it when I'm on vacation or on the road.
Yes, I could get a DVD recorder, but again Ihave the same problem - bastardizing the video by converitng it to composite.

[FlaUsa1]

I love my Tivo. My kids are using a Bright House (Time Warner?) DVR. My daughter, used to my Tivo, comes by to use the Tivo guide to program her DVR. Once Tivo came out with the Series 3 with the access cards, (I only have a 2) I think they took away any reservations that the Tivo's are far superior to Cable TV DVR's. And you hook the Comcast cable directly to the Tivo. Digital signal comes across the Coax just like Internet is Digital and comes on the same wire. And the kids are paying $2 more per month for their DVR than I'm paying. It's just you have to pay more up from to get the Tivo. Hope this is helpful.

[mick66]

Would I be able to ask COmcast for a firewire enabled cable box and buy my own Tivo unit?


Yes, you can ask them anything you want and yes, you can buy your own Tivo.

[mick66]

So there's no digital input option for non-HD tivo?
Screw it then... I'm not converting from digital, to analog, and then back again. That's totally pointless.
My goal was to extract some of that video and stick it on a DVD-RW, and watch it when I'm on vacation or on the road.
Yes, I could get a DVD recorder, but again Ihave the same problem - bastardizing the video by converitng it to composite.

You know that this is just TV, right?

[Techiejustin]

You know that this is just TV, right?


Um... Yeah.
I'm not getting your point, sorry.

[Techiejustin]

I love my Tivo. My kids are using a Bright House (Time Warner?) DVR. My daughter, used to my Tivo, comes by to use the Tivo guide to program her DVR. Once Tivo came out with the Series 3 with the access cards, (I only have a 2) I think they took away any reservations that the Tivo's are far superior to Cable TV DVR's. And you hook the Comcast cable directly to the Tivo. Digital signal comes across the Coax just like Internet is Digital and comes on the same wire. And the kids are paying $2 more per month for their DVR than I'm paying. It's just you have to pay more up from to get the Tivo. Hope this is helpful.


Not really.
The reason I want to get my own tivo and not rent one from the cable company is because I want to screw with it... Do some of the things those "underground" guys on here do.

[classicsat]

So there's no digital input option for non-HD tivo?
Screw it then... I'm not converting from digital, to analog, and then back again. That's totally pointless.
My goal was to extract some of that video and stick it on a DVD-RW, and watch it when I'm on vacation or on the road.
Yes, I could get a DVD recorder, but again Ihave the same problem - bastardizing the video by converitng it to composite.

Good luck, there are no DVRs that directly record digital cable AND make digital video form the source directly available for a useres pleasure.

The TiVo encoding isn't half bad really. I am okay with it,although have older dispays.

IMO, just get an older Series 2 TiVo, you can hack them, however if your goal is to take recordings with you, hacking isn't needed, as the Series 2 already transfers to the PC.

About the D-A-D conversio. There is a point to that. First it can work with all kinds of sources. Second, you have a lot of freedom as to what you can do, due to a phenomenon called "the analog hole", compared to recorders that record cable directly, which have to cow-tow to the signal providers wishes (which is essentially why some features are disabled on the Series 3 right now).

[Techiejustin]

Good luck, there are no DVRs that directly record digital cable AND make digital video form the source directly available for a useres pleasure.

The TiVo encoding isn't half bad really. I am okay with it,although have older dispays.

IMO, just get an older Series 2 TiVo, you can hack them, however if your goal is to take recordings with you, hacking isn't needed, as the Series 2 already transfers to the PC.

About the D-A-D conversio. There is a point to that. First it can work with all kinds of sources. Second, you have a lot of freedom as to what you can do, due to a phenomenon called "the analog hole", compared to recorders that record cable directly, which have to cow-tow to the signal providers wishes (which is essentially why some features are disabled on the Series 3 right now).

I understand the analog hole, I also understand quality loss hole.

I called Comcast and in this area they don't even offer S-video let alone firewire/USB/ethetnet for anything other than HD.