Digital TV

[entreus]

Have done a little reading and frankly there's quite a bit to read about my question.

I just had HD setup and the receiver that was supplied is a Motorola DCT6200.

The tech said to use the bypass to supply the Tivo but I don't get any picture. I even checked the setup and it looks okay, am I missing something?

I've also tried putting a splitter in front of the cable box, but the Tivo picture is very blurry if it shows up at all. I was told by the tech that there is already on split in the cable, is that the problem? Still trying to get up to speed on all the terms and possibilites, if someone could point me in the right direction, I'd appreciate it.

Also, I've done some reading and notice lots of talk about IR changing, does that mean you just set up the Tivo to record and it looks at the program and changes the channel for the reciever? Which I'm assuming is piping a feed to the Tivo, but not quite sure how.

Thanks in advance, a little new to this.....

[entreus]

Would it make sense to set up the IR changing feature and use the S-video and composite outputs on the DCT6200 to the tivo?

[rdrrepair]

It sounds like you need to re-run guided setup.

Did you have a cablebox before? How was the TiVo hooked up before the tech came to your house? How is it hooked up now? How is the TV set hooked up?

The cable box supplies a picture to your TV set - The TiVo Supplies a picture to your TV set

The way it should be hooked up and the way he might have hooked it up is very important to this discussion -

Do you have video inputs on the TV set? These are yellow, red, white nubs that you plug RCA cables into. You could also have something called an S-Video input.

The cable company only wants to feed the TV set and may have hooked your TiVo up wrong. He might even have flipped a switch on the back of the TiVo 3-4 slider.

Can you change the cable box channels with the TiVo remote? Do you have to use both remotes?

Let's try something... Leave the cable box on one of your low channels for a network show. Don't use the cable box supplied remote to change the channels after you find one of the lower network (NBC,CBS,ABC etc...) channels.

turn your tv on and try to watch thru the TiVo - use the TiVo remote and turn the TiVo to Channel 2 first - next try channel 3 - then try channel 4 and let us know if any of the channels came in much better.

I've enclosed a link to the TiVo setup page - tell me what you think was done - the more info the better. We'll try to help you out. What series TiVo do you own? how many tuners does it have?

Single tuner TiVo (http://customersupport.tivo.com/LaunchContent.aspx?cid=dcadf995-410e-407a-8e33-65a0ed6a14fa&anchor=undefined)

Dual Tuner TiVo (http://customersupport.tivo.com/LaunchContent.aspx?cid=30b2ebf7-d3bb-4523-bbe1-3f729ca00aad&anchor=undefined)

[entreus]

Right now it's not changing the cablebox channels, but I haven't tried setting up the remote code yet.

I own a Tivo series 2, but I'll need to look at the model to let you know exactly which one. Not sure which of the two...I'll do that tonight.

I'll also check the slider, but it seems to work okay for the TV, I can watch recordings from before the changeover fine.

"Do you have video inputs on the TV set? These are yellow, red, white nubs that you plug RCA cables into. You could also have something called an S-Video input."

Yes, there are three sets of inputs, plus HDMI and some other inputs....they're everywhere...... It's a Philips "37PF9431D/37"

and before there was no cable box.

I'll look at all the information and answer the rest of the questions tonight.

[gastrof]

To control a cable box (make the channels change) the TiVo either has to be connected to the cable box "hard wired" by a "serial cable" or, use an "emitter" that will give off the same type of infra red control flashes the original cable box remote did.

Using an "emitter", a TiVo can mimic the same control flashes a cable remote gives off, and make a cable box change channels to the one you want to record.

If you don't have a way for the TiVo to control the cable box's channel changes, you can't use that box with your TiVo.

Do you have a serial cable or an Infra Red emitter for the TiVo?

[entreus]

Don't have a serial cable, and only have the IR emittor that came with the Tivo which I haven't setup yet.

Due to the fact that when I split the connection I'm only getting the cable box to work, I'm planning on playing with the IR this weekend.

The Motorola dct6200 doesn't appear to have a serial interface, wll besides the network jack and 1394 interfaces, which I'd have to dig a little to see if they support standard serial communications. Just don't know enough about the DCT.

[classicsat]

Not on the 6200. The only cable boxes that have a serial port the TiVo can use are the DCT2000 series and its FIOS counterpart , that is if the provider even enables the serial poer.

[ah30k]

I don't believe the 'RF Out" on the back of the cable box is an "RF Passthrough" but an RF re-modulation of the STB output onto channels 3 or 4. I would not count on the input being passed through at all on this connector.

You could:

1) Use the cable set top box (STB) as the tuner of choice. This requires the STB output to be run into the TiVo using either the R/W/Y composite connector or the SVideo connector AND using the infrared repeater from the TiVo to the front of the STB.

OR

2) split the cable and feed both the STB and the TiVo with RF sources. Each of these devices would go to your TV independantly. Switch between the two tuners (STB and TiVo) using your TV input selector.

In either case, re-run the guided setup to tell the TV how you are configured.

[ah30k]

Just noticed the title of this thread was "Digital TV". Per my note above, only option 1 will get you digital channel recording on your TiVo.

[entreus]

Thanks, ah30k I'll give that a try. Been so busy lately, haven't had much time to mess with the setup. Thanks.