Basic Qs: using Series 3 on analog system

[thenightfly42]

I'm slowly working on the switch to a fully digital system, and I know that a TiVoHD, 2 cablecards, digitial/HD cable, and HDTV will work just fine when I've completed the upgrading. However, that won't be happening all at once.

I'm thinking about picking up the TiVoHD first, hooking it up to my analog television, and using the analog cable straight from the wall that I've been using with my Series2. I have two questions regarding this:

1. The Start Here Poster (PDF) (http://www.tivo.com/assets/kdb/TiVoHD_StartHerePoster.pdf) is very emphatic about not using the video out with the RCA cables (see Step 6). I assume this is just because you wouldn't get a HD signal through it, and it would be no problem using RCA cables for my analog setup?

2. As I mentioned above, the input source will be analog cable from the wall, with no cable box. Will I be able to record two shows at the same time from that single source?

[Gregor]

1. Should work fine, just tell Tivo your tv is 4:3
2. Yes, you should.

[lastdeadcat]

This is what I did with my TiVoHD and and HDTV. I had no digital signal for several months on my cable. I connected the TiVoHD to my analog cable with no box, just the coax to the cable in on the TiVoHD. I had no cableCARDs installed until the cable went all digital.

I had the HDMI connected direct to the TV, since my A/V receiver doesn't do HDMI, but the audio at first was from the TV's optical out to the A/V receivers optical in. That audio set up only allows two channel audio. That as fine with the analog signal that I believe isn't stereo anyway. Later I took audio direct from the TiVo to the A/V receiver.

I got a good service with this setup until I lost analog on the cable. I just had the TiVo record analog in the best quality and got a decent picture on my HDTV. Of course it was SD not HD. I did have my TiVo output a 480p video signal since my TV could use it. I was getting about the best picture you could get with original analog input from the cable.

Since the cable went all digital last month, the quality got a little better with SD 480p output. I now have one channel of HD that is awesome. I'm waiting for the local stations to start broadcasting in HD.

I still have a Series 2 TiVo connected to that HDTV with S-video at 480i and it looks really good as well. I have a cable box for that TiVo.

I never had my TiVoHD connected to a SDTV.

[DeathRider]

You should only need one Multi-Stream Cable Card with your TiVOHD...unless your cable company is telling you they only have Single-Stream cards...

[thenightfly42]

Cool, thanks. I think Comcast in my area only does singles, but I'll certainly try once I get the new TV.

[mattack]

That as fine with the analog signal that I believe isn't stereo anyway.

Not exactly relevant, but the analog signal definitely can be stereo (and I would suspect MOST channels have been stereo for a long time now). At least some of our PBS stations weren't stereo for a very long time, and I don't know if their analog channels ever went stereo..

It's called MTS. The one caveat, that isn't relevant regarding S3/TivoHDs, is that coax output does not reencode stereo, so if you used coax output with a VCR for example to go to the TV, then the TV itself was always getting mono. It's only the original cable/broadcast signal that's stereo.

[vstone]

Our local ABC station never went to stereo. But the owner's flagship station in the DC market doesn't appear to be doing news in HD yet. Some stations will not invest in anything that they don't have to.

I'm pretty sure that our PBS is stereo.