Are cable cards a must for the HD TIVO?

[mharbold]

Hi. We just purchased the new HD Tivo to replace a Series 1 that we had in our den. The series 1 has been hooked up to an HD TV, rigged so it will record on the basic cable channels, but not HD. We were so excited to see the price drop, though I'm a little concerned about only 20 hours. Anyway, I have a question about cable cards for the new HD TIVO. My husband seems to think that we won't need them because he thinks our TV already has them? Is that a possibility? We have Comcast Cable, with an HD box. We also have a DVD and XBOX hooked up to our 42" HDTV. Any advice would be appreciated. Although I'm an experienced TIVO user, I'm a newbie to HD.

Thanks!

[MickeS]

CableCARDs in your TV will not help your TiVoHD.

To receive digital cable channels and correct guide data for them, and use two tuners, you will need either 2 single-stream CableCARDs (S-cards), or 1 multi-stream card (M-Card). 1 M-card will cost you less than 2 S-cards, so if you can, insist on getting one of those.

Remember you can upgrade the internal (and external, soon even officially :)) storage on the TiVoHD.

[mharbold]

I wasn't aware there was an "M" card. I thought that you had to get two cards. Is this something new and do all cable companies have them?

What is the difference in upgrading the internal and the external storage? Could you explain what you mean and how you go about it?

Thanks!

[MickeS]

M-cards are pretty new, yes. Some companies do have them, others don't, and some do but the CSRs might not know it, so try to make sure they know what they're talking about. :)

Internal upgrade = buy a bigger harddrive and replace the harddrive in the TiVo. See the Upgrade section of the forum for how to do it - if you have experience upgrading a PC, you should be fine doing it yourself in the TiVo.

External = connecting an external eSATA drive to the eSATA port on the TiVoHD. It is not officially supported by TiVo yet, but works with some slight hacking. Supposedly will be officially supported soon, which would mean no hacking and no opening the TiVo.

[Dr_Diablo]

I wasn't aware there was an "M" card. I thought that you had to get two cards. Is this something new and do all cable companies have them?

What is the difference in upgrading the internal and the external storage? Could you explain what you mean and how you go about it?

Thanks!

It all depends on whom your cable provider is...

I have Brighthouse here and they "claim" not to have the Multi-Stream cards...

Course, when I purchased my Tivo HD in August was told that they don't have cable cards period...

I had to do a three way call with Tivo and my cable company before they would finally admit they do in fact have the cards...

[mphtrilogy]

quick question:

1) if i hook up an Over the air antenna with basic cable, will this still give me dual tuners?

2) If I just use OTA antenna, will i have dual tuners for two high def channels even though I have just one antenna in?

Thanks!

[classicsat]

1: Yes, as long as you have no or two cards installed.

2: Yes. Each coax input is split to each tuner block, which chooses the antenna or cable connected as directed.

[mphtrilogy]

great thanks.

So you know if Series 1 and Tivo HD use the same infrared signals?

[gastrof]

Pretty sure they do, but you should be able to alter both so they use one of the alternate sets of codes. (See your owners' manual.)

You'll have to alter both the TiVo and its remote.

[classicsat]

All "Peanut" controlled TiVos use the same basic codeset, the Philips Series 1 included. The only ones that don't are the Sony brand TiVos, and the Toshiba SDH-400. The "peanut " remotes and their TiVos can be set for 9 remote unit addresses, to they won't interfere.