TiVo and Digital Cable

[suey3b]

Ok, I'm new to the whole TiVo/DVR thing, so please bear with me. My wife and I have what is called 'classic cable' through our local cable company. We wanted to get either DVR service through our cable company or we were offered a TiVo box by my sister-in-law (for free). I am being told that if we upgrade our cable to digital cable that we can't use TiVo. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about this to know whether I can or not, so I'm coming to you as knowledgable users to ask what's what. Any help/advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!

[RonDawg]

In order to use TiVo with digital cable, you must;

1. Have a TiVo with CableCard capability. Currently that is limited to the Series 3 and TiVo HD models. Depending on your cable provider, CableCards cost anywhere from nothing to over $5/month each.

or

2. Have a TiVo that can control a set top box via a serial cable or an IR blaster. All Series 1 and Series 2 TiVo's that are not meant for DirecTV have this capability. You will need to get the set top box (STB) from your cable company and pay any possible rental fees for that on top of the monthly fee for the TiVo.

[windracer]

It depends ...

First, what model TiVo would you be getting? Most of the Series2 boxes can be connected to a cable box (through which you would be receiving the digital cable signal). The newer HD boxes (S3 and THD) support CableCARD so you don't need a cable box.

Also, keep in mind that while they may be giving you the TiVo for "free" you'll need to pay the monthly subscription, unless the unit has lifetime service or is one of the DVD models with TiVo Basic.

[jikan11]

I have a Tivo series 2 and a digital set top cable box. I use the IR blaster feature on my tivo to change the channels on my cable box. It works 100% with no issues. As long as it's a tivo with a IR blaster port you can most likely get it to work! If your sister-in-law doesn't have the IR blaster cables that came with the tivo you can buy them from the tivo store for like $10. It's the same setup I have, no complaints, channels change every time. :)

If your unsure what the IR blaster is, it's basically these things on the end of a cable that shoot out commands like a remote control would do. You configure your Tivo to use your particular cable box and then tivo sends commands through the IR blaster and your cable box thinks a remote control is changing the channels, etc. In other words, your tivo turns into a remote control for your cable box. :)

[nirisahn]

OK, I'm new to the whole TiVo/DVR thing, so please bear with me. My wife and I have what is called 'classic cable' through our local cable company. We wanted to get either DVR service through our cable company or we were offered a TiVo box by my sister-in-law (for free). I am being told that if we upgrade our cable to digital cable that we can't use TiVo. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about this to know whether I can or not, so I'm coming to you as knowledgeable users to ask what's what. Any help/advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!

I don't know who told you that you can't use TiVo with digital cable, but they are mistaken. You absolutely can use TiVo with digital cable. As was already stated, you use the IR emitters (blasters) to have the TiVo control the cable box. You run the coax from the wall to the cable box, and then run cables from the cable box to the TiVo, then connect the TiVo to the TV. Of course, if you don't want the added expense of digital cable, you can use the TiVo with the service you already have. And if it's not an S3 or HD TiVo, it will also work with satellite. I had my TiVo hooked up to a Dish Network box for years.

You will need to subscribe to the TiVo service for the TiVo to work, unless the box has lifetime service already attached to it, which it might depending on how long your sister has had it. These service contracts are transferable.

[jcthorne]

In order to use TiVo with digital cable, you must;

1. Have a TiVo with CableCard capability. Currently that is limited to the Series 3 and TiVo HD models. Depending on your cable provider, CableCards cost anywhere from nothing to over $5/month each.

or

2. Have a TiVo that can control a set top box via a serial cable or an IR blaster. All Series 1 and Series 2 TiVo's that are not meant for DirecTV have this capability. You will need to get the set top box (STB) from your cable company and pay any possible rental fees for that on top of the monthly fee for the TiVo.

I do not know what cable service the OP was on, but on Comcast, it costs FAR more than $5 a month to add a cable card to a Classic Cable subscription. More like an additional $40 a month.

[nirisahn]

Unless the TiVo in question is a S3 or and HD, no cable cards are needed. The S1s and S2s all hook up to the cable system via RCA cables or coax. Could the OP please post what model the TiVo is so we can give better (and more consistent) advice?

[ufo4sale]

Not to high-jack this thread but if you have digital cable, through a box, does it matter what video quality you use, or is it all the same?

[RonDawg]

I do not know what cable service the OP was on, but on Comcast, it costs FAR more than $5 a month to add a cable card to a Classic Cable subscription. More like an additional $40 a month.

That's because you've switched over to some sort of digital tier, possibly HiDef service, that would necessitate the use of CableCards.

If he were to still remain on analog cable, he wouldn't need CableCards.

In terms of price, I'm speaking of just the card itself, and not the other services that would necessitate its use with a TiVo.

[RonDawg]

Not to high-jack this thread but if you have digital cable, through a box, does it matter what video quality you use, or is it all the same?

It still matters because if you are using a separate STB to receive the signal, it's going into the TiVo as an analog signal, not a digital one.

You're probably thinking of how the new S3/THD models handle digital programming, and that's to record it straight to hard disk from the source. But an S1/S2 TiVo using an STB cannot do that.

[xena]

If you have an HD Tivo and receive the cable cards from your cable provider, can you record from TIVO to your DVD recorder?

[RonDawg]

Yes you can, subject to the following restrictions:

1. Your DVD recorder may not record programs that have copy-protect flags
2. Until HiDef DVD recorders hit the market, any HiDef programming has to downrezzed to 480i.
3. Unless you have a DVD recorder that will insert a widescreen flag (and few do), you won't be able to record widescreen programming that will work for both widescreen and standard aspect TV's. If you record in full screen mode, it will come on tall and skinny on a standard TV, and DVD's recorded in panel mode will come out double letterboxed (bars on all 4 sides) on a widescreen TV that isn't in zoom mode.

[TiVo Troll]

A 16x9 image displayed with full 480i resolution presents a very credible widescreen image, as close to hi-def as standard def gets. Commercial DVD's are often recorded anamorphically (http://gregl.net/videophile/anamorphic.htm) to provide the best widescreen images possible from the standard DVD format. DVD's recorded in full screen mode are anamorphic.

DVD's recorded in panel mode lose approx. 25% of their innate resolution so the result isn't standard-def but much worse, with approx. only 360 lines of vertical resolution.