I'm new and have a question.

[Carygep]

If I buy a tivo , can I get rid of my cable STB. I'm trying to save some money from renting their box for all these years with nothing to show for it. I'm thinking of getting rid of digital all together since next year it will all be digital anyway. Can somebody with Tivo experience please enlighten me?

[DrWho453]

If you purchase a Tivo series 3 (which has now been discontinued) or tivo HD, you can get rid of your cable box. The Series 3 and the HD replace the STB. Without cable cards, you will be able to get all the analog cable channels and most clear qam channels. With cable cards you will be able to get all of the digital and HD channels that you could get from a STB with the exception of VOD and PPV Channels.

Having said that, cable companies are starting to implement SDV on some of the cable channels. The series 3 and HD can not get those channels at this time but a usb tunner resolver is coming out that will allow the series 3 and HD to pickup those channels. View this link for more information on sdv:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=357703&highlight=sdv

The HD and series 3 will not work with a cable or satellite box but it will work with a TV antenna to pick up the local HD channels.
I hope this answers your question and welcome to the tivo forum

[jjberger2134]

You can look at a TiVoHD. With a TiVoHD you can eliminate your STB, since the TiVoHD is designed to replace your STB.

For HD or digital programming you will need to still rent cable cards from your cable operator, the cost varies by cable company. Further you will need to buy the hardware (approx. $250 - more or less depending on deals), and pay TiVo for serivce (approx $13/mo, also depending on the length of contract).

If your ultimate goal is to save some money, I do not think this is the way to go. If your goal is to enhance your viewing experience by using a DVR then I highly recommend TiVo.

[gastrof]

You can look at a TiVoHD. With a TiVoHD you can eliminate your STB, since the TiVoHD is designed to replace your STB...

Please see reply #2.

There are some cases where the TiVo HD or Series 3 will NOT fully replace a set top cable box, tho' it seems a solution is coming, as explained.

[BruceShultes]

Please see reply #2.

There are some cases where the TiVo HD or Series 3 will NOT fully replace a set top cable box, tho' it seems a solution is coming, as explained.

If your cable supplier is TW, you won't be able to receive any SDV channels until the new solution comes out.

[bicker]

That was my understanding as well, i.e., that the impending "solution" is not industry-wide. I don't know specifically about TW, but do know that there are many areas where the tuning resolver won't address the SDV issue anytime soon.

[Carygep]

You can look at a TiVoHD. With a TiVoHD you can eliminate your STB, since the TiVoHD is designed to replace your STB.

For HD or digital programming you will need to still rent cable cards from your cable operator, the cost varies by cable company. Further you will need to buy the hardware (approx. $250 - more or less depending on deals), and pay TiVo for serivce (approx $13/mo, also depending on the length of contract).

If your ultimate goal is to save some money, I do not think this is the way to go. If your goal is to enhance your viewing experience by using a DVR then I highly recommend TiVo.

I have Mediacom cable. I have been paying their fees for a DVR since they came out, and I have nothing to show for it. Their signal is very fuzzy looking. I thought digital cable was supposed to be better than basic analog. I figured with Tivo I would still have a DVR and maybe a better picture. I bought a Series 2 DT and think it said that you don't need the Cable box anymore. I'm just tired of paying good money year after year for poor quality cable. It also looks pretty bad on my new 65 inch screen.

[JaneiR36]

At the time I worked for a cable company (at least six years ago), only the movie channels were digital. Everything else was just passed through your box at the quality is was received (ie, analog). The only way your in-coming signal gets better from here on out is if the CC's DVR was somehow screwing it up to begin with.

I don't have digital and I think this helps TiVo work without much additional hardware. There's no digital signal to interpret and I can record two channels at once and watch a third (pre-recorded) show. I've even seen a recommendation to downgrade to basic-basic cable if one hasn't already, because TiVo is so awesome at finding and recording shows you'll like that you won't need that many channels. But people still do...haha :)

[Stephen Tu]

I have Mediacom cable. I have been paying their fees for a DVR since they came out, and I have nothing to show for it. Their signal is very fuzzy looking. I thought digital cable was supposed to be better than basic analog. I figured with Tivo I would still have a DVR and maybe a better picture. I bought a Series 2 DT and think it said that you don't need the Cable box anymore. I'm just tired of paying good money year after year for poor quality cable. It also looks pretty bad on my new 65 inch screen.

With digital cable, for many years, the only actual digital channels were the additional channels you get, channels #s typically > 100. It did absolutely nothing to the channels you watched before upgrading to digital cable, because those were still the exact same analog signals you received before, being tuned with analog tuner in the STB. With a S2DT, w/o cable box, you are still using analog reception.

Only recently in the past few years have cable companies started simulcasting digital copies of the analog signals in preparation for eventual switchover to all digital (which will not happen next year for most w/ cable; the government mandate only applies directly to over-the-air broadcast. Cable companies may or may not switch to all digital, based on their own business considerations, market pressures). In this case, if so-called "ADS" is deployed in your area, the digital simulcast channels will often be better quality than analog. But not necessarily, if the analog signal is clean, and the digital channels overcompressed. HD channels, however, will always look a lot better. Since you reported fuzzy looking signal w/ their DVR, probably they are NOT using ADS in your area. It should not have looked fuzzy on the actual HD stations.

The S2DT can only receive analog channels w/o a box. To truly not need a cable box for both analog & digital channels (excluding VOD), you need a S3 or TivoHD. With TivoHD, you will get digital reception of at least the digital SD & HD channels, + possibly ADS simulcast channels if available in your area.

If you want good quality on a 65" screen, you pretty much have to watch the HD channels almost exclusively if you are close to the screen (within ~12 ft). And that means TivoHD or the cable company's HD DVR. Return your S2DT if possible, it's not a good fit for your TV. S2DT is for people planning to hang on to their old standard TVs for years.