What will I need?

[kieran]

Hello and thank you in advance for your help in this fairly boneheaded question.

After many years of faithful service I am going to retire my very old Series one Tivo.

I have a Panasonic CT34WX50

http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-CT-34WX50-HD-Ready-PureFlat-Screen/dp/B00005BIDG

I have told Comcast that I would like to upgrade my basic cable service to HD. (no premium ordered or desired at this time)

I instructed them that I do not want the box that they were going to send me in favor of two cable cards.

I ordered my new Tivo HD series three with lifetime subscription transfer.

I will hook up a DVD recorder to this as well but it is of course not high def.

http://www.amazon.com/Zenith-ZRY-316-Recorder-Format-capability/dp/B000B53A88

Is there anything else I will need? Is there anything not straightforward about configuration I should be aware of? Cables? I think HDMI.......

Thank you again.

I love Tivo!

[mattack]

I have told Comcast that I would like to upgrade my basic cable service to HD. (no premium ordered or desired at this time)

You likely do not have to "upgrade" to HD. The cablecards (which you may have to pay a monthly fee for, depending upon your cable company) will do the 'mapping' of the local "broadcast" HD channels, which are already on your cable. (via the 'qam' tuner)

If you plug the cable into the Tivo series 3, you'll be able to see the channels by tuning manually, you just won't be able to use the tivo functionality. (This *could* be fixed in a future software update but for now you'll need the cards.)

In other words, you don't need any change in your cable subscription unless you want premium channels or *extra* HD channels (though I'd consider them premium, just not HBO..)

[kieran]

Thank you Mattack for your response.

Are you saying I do not need the five dollar option listed here to obtain HD?

http://www.comcast.com/shop/buyflow/default.ashx

Is there any advantage to buying a new DVD recorder that would have HDMI as the one I have now does not have this input?

Thanks again!

[jfh3]

Thank you Mattack for your response.

Are you saying I do not need the five dollar option listed here to obtain HD?

http://www.comcast.com/shop/buyflow/default.ashx



Nope, don't need it.

Still surprised Comcast is charging that, given a fairly recent interview with the CEO who said they don't charge extra for HD programming.

[HomieG]

Nope, don't need it.

Still surprised Comcast is charging that, given a fairly recent interview with the CEO who said they don't charge extra for HD programming.

They generally don't charge extra for the LOCAL HD programming, but they do for a box rental, and for the national cable networks in HD. If you're HDTV has a QAM tuner (or S3 which does), the LOCAL HD (DTV) channels should be "in the clear."

[IJustLikeTivo]

Nope, don't need it.

Still surprised Comcast is charging that, given a fairly recent interview with the CEO who said they don't charge extra for HD programming.

How do you know which channels it sees? I tried letting the tuner check them all and it found hundreds but there is nothing on the channels. All appear to be digital e.g. 4.1, 4.2 etc but when I tune them there is nothing on them. When I set the box up using guided set up and tell it my provider, I also get no digital in the clear. FWIW, I have not installed the cablecards yet.

[ashu]

IJLT, 4.1, 4.2 etc are OTA channels. If you're close enough to DC, your S3's excellent tuner may be picking them up WITHOUT an antenna! Not unheard of. Go into the Channel/Signal strength screen and pick Antenna channels, and navigate using Up/Down to verify this (I may be wrong, and maybe your local Comcast maintains those same numbers ... but I seriously doubt that!).

Or, you could go into channel list and see whether some of these smaller-numbers digital chanels are labelled 'ant.'

ps: So I asusme you DID buy an HDTV? I must have missed it :)

[kieran]

They generally don't charge extra for the LOCAL HD programming, but they do for a box rental, and for the national cable networks in HD. If you're HDTV has a QAM tuner (or S3 which does), the LOCAL HD (DTV) channels should be "in the clear."


OK thanks. I do want the national cables networks in HD so I will pay the $5 fee.

Does anyone see any advantage to buying a new DVD recorder with HDMI connector or just use the S-video conector on my current one?

[IJustLikeTivo]

IJLT, 4.1, 4.2 etc are OTA channels. If you're close enough to DC, your S3's excellent tuner may be picking them up WITHOUT an antenna! Not unheard of. Go into the Channel/Signal strength screen and pick Antenna channels, and navigate using Up/Down to verify this (I may be wrong, and maybe your local Comcast maintains those same numbers ... but I seriously doubt that!).

Or, you could go into channel list and see whether some of these smaller-numbers digital chanels are labelled 'ant.'

ps: So I asusme you DID buy an HDTV? I must have missed it :)

Food for thought. You know the answer to the last part..... ;-)