3 tivos, 2 with service?

[edwardjanderson]

I have 2 series2 Tivos with tivo service paid monthly - If I add a third to my home network but with out service will I be able to transfer between the three? Using the two with service to record and the third as a satellite to watch on? with this work or will it violate TOS?

Thanks

[pdhenry]

You won't be able to transfer shows to the unit without service.

[dwit]

It won't work. A Tivo without subscription will only allow you to watch TV. You will not be able to do any type of recording or any thing else but watch TV.

A Tivo that is not on subscription, ie unactivated, can not be added to a home network. The one exception of course is to connect to the Tivo Service, via internet, to obtain activation.

[C_A_Jones]

It won't work. A Tivo without subscription will only allow you to watch TV. You will not be able to do any type of recording or any thing else but watch TV.
--snip---snip---snip---

Will the 30 minute buffer still be active? I ask because we have 6 TiVos in the house, and on at least a couple of them we'll drop service as people leave the household. If the 30 minute buffer remains active without a subscription, that would be a darn good reason to keep the units.

[dwit]

--snip---snip---snip---

Will the 30 minute buffer still be active? I ask because we have 6 TiVos in the house, and on at least a couple of them we'll drop service as people leave the household. If the 30 minute buffer remains active without a subscription, that would be a darn good reason to keep the units.

Buffer still works.

[LifeIsABeach]

After the subscription expires you can also continue to watch any content which was previously recorded so start filling up those hard drives with movies, children's shows (if you have some young ones), etc.

[Tom White]

I am going to take a guess that the program guide information would not be there either, so you could not even use it for the on screen TV guide. Is that correct?

[timckelley]

I am going to take a guess that the program guide information would not be there either, so you could not even use it for the on screen TV guide. Is that correct?

True. At least with a series one, you can record without a subscription, but even on the series 1, there is no guide without a subscription.

[classicsat]

Correct. The guide data is part of the paid service.

[snitm]

You won't be able to transfer shows to the unit without service.

My co-worker has a Series2 that was previously subscribed to the tivo service. He later cancelled the Series2's service and firewalled it from being able to connect to the internet (presumably before it could call home to learn it was no longer subscribed?). But the Series2 still had connectivity to his local LAN. He picked up a TivoHD and can still transfer programs he records on the TivoHD to the firewalled Series2.

Have others had success doing this?

[timckelley]

Wow. That's pretty nifty. I can especially see how with the multiple tuners of a TiVo HD how some people might not feel they need a 3rd tuner, but being able to route programs from the family room to the bedroom is certainly a good reason to have two TiVos, and if you only have to sub one of them, that's pretty nice.

[C_A_Jones]

My co-worker has a Series2 that was previously subscribed to the tivo service. He later cancelled the Series2's service and firewalled it from being able to connect to the internet (presumably before it could call home to learn it was no longer subscribed?). But the Series2 still had connectivity to his local LAN. He picked up a TivoHD and can still transfer programs he records on the TivoHD to the firewalled Series2.

Have others had success doing this?
A couple of months ago my cable modem started to fail and needed to be replaced. Prior to replacing the modem, my home network would quite often be without internet access. As long as my router was working, all TiVos on the network were able do anything that did not depend on internet access... including program traansfers.

I think your co-worker was brilliant to recognize such a simple solution!

[dt100]

Hi. I have a similar situation. Two of my tivo’s are hard-wired to the router. I would like to hard-wire a third tivo to the same router so that I can transfer recordings to that third tivo, but I do not need a subscription on the third tivo. I do not know how to set up a firewall on that router to block only one tivo from connecting to the tivo website. Would this work: I get a month-to-month subscription for the third tivo, and then after a short time cancel it. I then configure the third tivo to connect via phone connection, but I don’t connect a phone line. I do leave the ethernet connection so that I can transfer shows to it from the other two Tivos.
Thanks

[scandia101]

In my experience, An S2 Tivo that does not connect with the mother-ship for 30 days loses it's MAK and becomes unable to MRV, but will still record manually.

[wrecklass]

Does TiVo and Pioneer still offer the free service? When I bought my first TiVo it was a Pioneer with built in DVD-R which was great for recording movies directly to DVD. It originally came with a TiVo free service. It had no wish list and limited search capability and only a 2 day schedule was downloaded. Still it was very useful until I decided to subscribe to the full service.

Just wondering if they are still offering that kind of service on third party DVR's.

[classicsat]

The Pioneers still work on the TiVo Basic service, if that is what you want to know. The don't make/sell new ones though, you will have to buy a used one, or if you are lucky to find one, a NOS unit. Same for Toshiba units, TiVo basic works on machines you can get, but there are now new ones. Toshiba and Pioneer were the only manufacturers to offer the TiVo Basic service, so no, there are no current units that have that service, nor any 3rd party manufacturing partners at this time.

[alyssa]

I thought S2 became a doorstop after service was stopped-

neat idea tho; to not allow S2 to connect & learn it's a door stop

[classicsat]

The device is supposed to stop working when service is canceled, however it has been reported that they may manually work if they are physically disconnected from the service connection before service is canceled.

[alyssa]

How much of an issue is time drift?

I was able to go a year or so with my S1 not connected without a major issue about time drift. Does the S2's keep time better?

[timckelley]

I had enough time drift with my disconnected S1 that I felt a need to connect every month or two. I think it was every month, actually.

If it's even 1 or 2 minutes off, it could make the difference of missing the ending of a show.

At one point, I had my S1 in a room without convenient access to a phone line, so I kept a coiled up 50 or 100 foot phone cord next to my unit and hooked to it, and so when I needed to I uncoiled it and hooked the other end to the nearest phone outlet, and forced a call.

Those days are over, because my S1 has died (RIP, S1 :) ). I kept it alive as long as I could by changing out its hard drive and power supply, but when its motherboard went bad, I could no longer save it. But TiVo inc, generously suprisingly, and to my extreme pleasure, allowed me a one time only free transfer of my lifetime sub (which I had later on purchased for my S1, after using it unsubbed for a year), to a brand new TiVo HD. I think was during the period of time when no lifetime subs could be otherwise purchased, IIRC.

[ZeoTiVo]

My co-worker has a Series2 that was previously subscribed to the tivo service. He later cancelled the Series2's service and firewalled it from being able to connect to the internet (presumably before it could call home to learn it was no longer subscribed?). But the Series2 still had connectivity to his local LAN. He picked up a TivoHD and can still transfer programs he records on the TivoHD to the firewalled Series2.

Have others had success doing this?

is it still working to transfer shows to/from it? How long has it been?

as you may note in other posts - chencging the TiVo to connect via phone service will keep it from conacting mother ship while still leaving it connected on the LAN.

Of course once the versions get enough out of sync that MRV will not work from the older version then the game is up for that reason as well.

[DrewTivo]

How much of an issue is time drift?

I was able to go a year or so with my S1 not connected without a major issue about time drift. Does the S2's keep time better?

Time drift doesn't matter much since you can't set it to record, as there's no guide data.

[timckelley]

True for S2's, but not for S1's.

[alyssa]

Time drift doesn't matter much since you can't set it to record, as there's no guide data.

manual record--
we use our s1 in the dining room to record the news via a manual request. if the S2 never learns it's a door stop can you still do manual recordings?

[classicsat]

It has happened to some people.

[DrewTivo]

as you may note in other posts - chencging the TiVo to connect via phone service will keep it from conacting mother ship while still leaving it connected on the LAN.


Is this right? Set to connect by phone, but leave the ethernet port connected and MRV continues to work (so long as service update hasn't rendered useless)? Couldn't find any other posts on this, but maybe my search-fu is weak today.

[ZeoTiVo]

Is this right? Set to connect by phone, but leave the ethernet port connected and MRV continues to work (so long as service update hasn't rendered useless)? Couldn't find any other posts on this, but maybe my search-fu is weak today.

yes. The TiVo keeps trying to dial via phone line which is not hooked up. of course nag screen will appear fairly regularly.

MRV is not concerned about contacting TiVo service or not - it jut cares how the flags are set on the Tivo. At some point of not being able to contact the mother TiVo ship the flags are supposed to set to no sub until you do call in successfully. no longer sure what that time period is.

[jrm01]

The device is supposed to stop working when service is canceled, however it has been reported that they may manually work if they are physically disconnected from the service connection before service is canceled.

Several years ago I did this with my S2 (cancelled service, but had phone line disconnected first) and I was able to manually record for many months. Subsequently I re-activated it for another year.

Last month (after the S2 was updated to 9.3) I decided to cancel the sub again, and pulled the phone line before I did). It worked without service (no guide data, manual record only) for a month. However, last week it quit. There is no option for Find Programs or Record Programs in the menus. No way to do a manual record. I have a feeling they made a software change sometime recently to disable this capability.

[timckelley]

Several years ago I did this with my S2 (cancelled service, but had phone line disconnected first) and I was able to manually record for many months. Subsequently I re-activated it for another year.

Last month (after the S2 was updated to 9.3) I decided to cancel the sub again, and pulled the phone line before I did). It worked without service (no guide data, manual record only) for a month. However, last week it quit. There is no option for Find Programs or Record Programs in the menus. No way to do a manual record. I have a feeling they made a software change sometime recently to disable this capability.

:D I guess they're on to us cheapskates.

[alyssa]

hey, for me the main thing is to be able to transfer shows off the disconnected unit. I can't imagine explaining to my 8yearold, what happened to all the StarWars & IndianaJones movies.

[scandia101]

hey, for me the main thing is to be able to transfer shows off the disconnected unit. I can't imagine explaining to my 8yearold, what happened to all the StarWars & IndianaJones movies.

Recordings on a Tivo don't disappear or get locked down when you cancel the subscription. They can be viewed forever or at least until the Tivo dies.

[alyssa]

Recordings on a Tivo don't disappear or get locked down when you cancel the subscription. They can be viewed forever or at least until the Tivo dies.

yes, but MRV does. I want to transfer programs off the S2 & decommission it asac, which might take a week or two given my schedule <grin>. Hey, I'd pay tivo for a month overlap to have the time with full functionality to move into my new unit if they'd let me. I know there's a 30 day money back guarantee on service plans & I could sign up for a plan & cancel. I just don't like doing that sort of stuff.

[scandia101]

yes, but MRV does. I want to transfer programs off the S2 & decommission it asac, which might take a week or two given my schedule <grin>. Hey, I'd pay tivo for a month overlap to have the time with full functionality to move into my new unit if they'd let me. I know there's a 30 day money back guarantee on service plans & I could sign up for a plan & cancel. I just don't like doing that sort of stuff.

Prevent the Tivo from connecting to the mothership, and you have 30 days to transfer recirdings using MRV before the MAK is automatically removed.


asac???

[RonDawg]

Hey, I'd pay tivo for a month overlap to have the time with full functionality to move into my new unit if they'd let me.

How come you didn't do that when you got your new TiVo?

[alyssa]

because I transferred the month to month $6.95 rate to my new unit. I intend to decommission my S2 as soon as i can (asac ;)). The trick of disconnecting the network/phone line is a nice work around.
I'd rather not start a new contract & then rescind it within the 30 day window-just one more thing to keep track of-cancel by dates, charges on the CCard etc.