Question about sharing one cable between 2 DTiVo's...

[coripc33]

I just bought a second DTivo off of eBay. Hopefully everything will go well and I will be able to activate it. Here's my question:

My current DTiVo has both satellite inputs connected fine, so the whole functionality works great. I was lucky enough that the house I moved in had 2 already-wired cable jacks in this room, so all the DTV installer had to do was connect the dish cables to these jacks. No problem there.

However, the room that this second DTivo will go into has only one. I know I can get by with just one plugged in, but I was wondering what would happen if I split one of the cables that goes into my first TiVo and use the same one as a second input to my second TiVo. These units would not have to record or be watched at the same time. I know that you can't split the same dish cable to "fake" the two tuner input on the same unit, but would this work if you use it on 2 different units? I am not quite sure how this works out, but I am hoping that someone who is more knowledgeable about how this 2-tuner process works would tell me whether this is doable or not. I have a feeling that probably not, but I thought I would ask just the same... :)

Thanks in advance for any guidance.

[classicsat]

You'd be missing things. Yuo need a secons coax run to your dish or multiswitch.

[IminMs]

On the new Tivo you can set it up with just one tuner. If you want to use both tuners you will need the second coax. You cannot use a splitter on the coax. The tuner sends either 13 or 18 VDC to the LNB, depending on the channel it's trying to receive. It also sends a tone for some satellites.

[coripc33]

Thank you for your answers. I guess I was hoping that, by using one TiVo at a time, the one not in use would not want to "grab" the coax for itself, this way the cable to the dish would be under the control of whichever one TiVo used at any given time. I guess my idea was that the split cable would still be used by one TiVo (tuner) at one time, not by two tuners "fighting" over it. Does this make sense? I don't know why I thought that this way there would be no conflict on the cable to the dish. Is there any scenario in which this could still work - turn off TiVo not in use or something like that?

Thanks again for any ideas. I just don't want to pull another wire through the whole house - this room is upstairs, totally opposite from where the dish/cable box are. I guess I could get used to having a one-tuner setup, but I'd like to get both working if there is any kind possible way. :)

[JimSpence]

I'll assume that you have a dual output single LNB dish. You could use the stacker/destacker solution for the one line. This would require connecting a stacker to both lines from the dish, then you can split the signal. One line from the splitter goes to each receiver where you connect a dual destacker which will feed both tuners on the DirecTV TiVos. Slightly less expensive solution is to get a 2x4 multiswitch. 2 outputs will go to your TiVo that has two lines and then the other two will connect to a stacker as mentioned earlier. Of course, the least expensive is the multiswitch and running the second line.

[IminMs]

If the room where the new tivo is going, has a direct line to the dish, just set it up as a single tuner.
You wont be able to watch a live show while recording another, but, that would be the easiest/cheapest without having to run a new coax.
Even if you turn one tivo off, it only goes into standby mode(unless you kill power). That way it still updates guide data and records or gets updates as needed.
try the single tuner- run the setup and select the one coax input. If that turns out to be inconvienient then as JimSpence said, youll need stackers/destackers or another run of coax.

[coripc33]

Thank you all - I think I get it now. It sounds like 1-tuner solution for now. It's OK though - better to have a 1-tuner TiVo than the R15 that my dad has now. I'll be a happy camper with 2 DTiVo's. :)

Thanks for taking the time to explain.

Corina