Sharing 1- t5 line with TivoHD and Xbox 360

[penguinboy]

Hi all-

First post! Been reading here for weeks trying to make the decision to jump on the TivoHD bandwagon and pulled the trigger yesterday and bought it! My wife and I are a rare breed-we have a great HD TV- Samsung HLOS-5087- and we only watch movies and OTA shows. We don't have cable- just an antenna on the roof. New shows start next week and we wanted to start recording them.

I have an Xbox 360 with an ethernet cable attached and we get our DSL from Verizon in MA. I put the Tivo HD next to it in my media rack and used the cable to connect. The cable runs down the cellar, up a chase next to the chimney, across the attic, then down to the office where the Westell Versalink Gateway 327 wirelss/wired router/DSLmodem sits. You can see it's going to be really hard to run a new line and already my wife is sick of unplugging the Tivo and plugging the line in the Xbox, then remembering to switch it back. Other than the wireless G adapter, how can I share one t-5 wire, which runs to 1 port on the router/modem, between 2 devices? Can I get an ethernet switch of some sort? Any advice?

Also, if I leave the wire in the Xbox and forget to put it back in the TivoHD, and Tivo mothership pings my box and gets no response, will it still record the shows for that day/night without disabling any functions? New to the whole Tivo world and all I keep reading in the manuals is WILL NOT WORK UNLESS CONNECTED!!

Thanks for looking and thanks for for posting back!

-Danny

[bkdtv]

The cable runs down the cellar, up a chase next to the chimney, across the attic, then down to the office where the Westell Versalink Gateway 327 wirelss/wired router/DSLmodem sits. You can see it's going to be really hard to run a new line and already my wife is sick of unplugging the Tivo and plugging the line in the Xbox, then remembering to switch it back. Other than the wireless G adapter, how can I share one t-5 wire, which runs to 1 port on the router/modem, between 2 devices? Can I get an ethernet switch of some sort? Any advice?All you need is a switch. It will cost you $10-$20.

I use this one (http://shop1.outpost.com/%7B-ziOuaVWFL8OFmt6vWkC4g**.node3%7D/product/4818270;jsessionid=-ziOuaVWFL8OFmt6vWkC4g**.node3?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG) in my living room. Here's a cheaper one (http://shop1.outpost.com/%7BEgJbjB64XN9tzHdn0W54oQ**.node2%7D/product/4774329;jsessionid=EgJbjB64XN9tzHdn0W54oQ**.node2?site=sr:SE ARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG). Both are very compact.

I like the D-Link consumer switches because they run cool.

Also, if I leave the wire in the Xbox and forget to put it back in the TivoHD, and Tivo mothership pings my box and gets no response, will it still record the shows for that day/night without disabling any functions? New to the whole Tivo world and all I keep reading in the manuals is WILL NOT WORK UNLESS CONNECTED!!The TivoHD will work fine so long as it has guide data. Hence, technically, you should need one connection every 14 days.

[AbMagFab]

1) Go buy a cheap 5-port 10/100 ethernet switch (~$30)

2) Put the switch next to your Tivo and XBox, and plug in the power

3) Connect the one really long cat-5 line to the switch

4) Buy 2 short Cat-5 patch cables (~$5)

5) Connect the Tivo and Xbox to the switch using the patch cables

6) Enjoy

I'm assuming you also have a PC connected to the router (wired or wireless), and that it will give out multiple IP addresses using DHCP. So everything should be fine.

And you want the Tivo connected for things like Unbox and TivoCasts, as well as guide data and software upgrades. So better to leave it connected all the time.

[penguinboy]

Thanks! Real noob with all this tech stuff. Figured there was an easy way! With Halo 3 coming in 2 weeks, there's no way I'm gonna mess with the 360 connection!

-Danny

[Dr_Diablo]

Trust me PB you are far from a newbie, for you have a kick ass system setup up the right way... With the addition of your new toy, the TivoHD you'll going to compliment what you already have...

Welcome to the community bro...

[penguinboy]

Thanks Dr. Diablo! I'm lucky that my wife loves to game- we're beta testing Call of Duty 4- Modern Warfare now and I can't get the controller away from her! We don't have kids, so we have a little more money to spend on the home theatre. Been waiting for 2 years for someone to come to market with a good, reasonably priced HD DVR- got to see Lost and 24 repeats in HD!!

This is a great forum and glad to be here!

BTW- just went to Staples and got a Netgear 5-way switch and it works great! And it's white with green LED lights, so it looks awesome on top of the 360!!

-Danny

[EVizzle]

COD 4 looks amazing, I can't wait to just walk around wearing a ghillie suit! Hopefully it will be available as an online outfit, as I might just put it on and hide! And for the price, I am strongly considering OTA, but I need Discovery HD and ESPNHD... tough decision.

And welcome to the community, Tivo people are some of the most fun and friendly you can find!