how to test a used TiVo

[ajahearn]

I recently purchased a used TiVo off of craigslist. I needed a replacement remote and this was cheaper than buying a new remote. As fortune would have it I found my old remote. Now I've tried to hook up this TiVo but I'm not sure it really works. The menus all work fine but it complains about not being able to detect a single on the cable in jack. I'm afraid I was sold a unit whose tuner has failed. Any ideas on how I could verify this without having to buy a month's service plan? Thanks.

[stevel]

You should rerun Guided Setup and make sure that the proper input is selected. Also, I have seen it reported that Guided Setup reports no signal, but it in fact works fine, so complete GS with the proper input selected and then see if it works normally.

[jjberger2134]

Further, you would not need to have an active service subscription to use some of the most rudimentary functions of the TiVo.

Without a subscription you should be able to:

playback programs that are already on the hard drive
use the 30 minute buffer, including FF, RW and Pause
Watch Live TV through the TiVo tuner (provided you complete Guided Setup - as noted above)