Tivo noob here..hopefully a simple question

[allanonBH]

So yes I am new to tivos.. had a 40gig Series2 given to me. So I'm not really interested in signing up with and paying Tivo a monthly charge to use teh DVR as it's intended, but what I would love to do is be able to manually record video. As in all the pausing live tv, manually recording an entire show, etc. But with none of the scheduling, or TV Guide-esqe programming searching or any of that.

Can anyone tell me if what I want to do is possible? I've had the unit setup for a few days and I cannot get around the error message telling me that my unit has not communicated with Tivo since December 30th of 2006. Other than that annoying thing, being able to change channels thru it, and manually recording stuff is very cool.

Thanks in advance.

[LADYBUGBLUE2002]

I don't think you can do what you want without paying for the subscription. I am not familiar with your model so I might be wrong, but I think what you want to do can only be done with some older Series 1 models.

[donnoh]

The series 2 is worthless without a subscription. You can use the 30 minute buffer to pause and rewind, thats about it.

[Forrestalgrim]

Well thats seriously disappointing. Thanks for the replies guys.

[jkalnin]

FYI - I know we are on tough economic times, but the monthly cost of a Tivo is well worth it! That is the beauty of lifetime... I've already forgotten the initial investment and my Tivo is basically free now.

[jlb]

The series 2 is worthless without a subscription. You can use the 30 minute buffer to pause and rewind, thats about it.

Not necessarily. My old AT&TiVo, the first Series 2, continues to function as a manual record almost 2 years after being disconnected from the mother ship. It's nice having that as an extra little analog tuner for those few times 2 HD tuners are not enough.

[restart88]

For what the OP wants to do I think he may be better off pulling the HD and putting it in a new Media Center PC. May be about the only part of the Tivo that will aid in his intended goals. :)

[classicsat]

Not necessarily. My old AT&TiVo, the first Series 2, continues to function as a manual record almost 2 years after being disconnected from the mother ship. It's nice having that as an extra little analog tuner for those few times 2 HD tuners are not enough.

It is not supposed to work that way though. A fluke of circumstances lets it work that way.
Please stop confusing people that way.

[Adam1115]

Let's just answer the question this way.

Your TiVo isn't designed to work without a subscription.

You will be able to do trick play. (Pause live TV, rewind, etc.)

You may be able to do manual recordings. Just give it a shot and see what happens.

[fallingwater]

So yes I am new to tivos.. had a 40gig Series2 given to me. So I'm not really interested in signing up with and paying Tivo a monthly charge to use teh DVR as it's intended, but what I would love to do is be able to manually record video. As in all the pausing live tv, manually recording an entire show, etc. But with none of the scheduling, or TV Guide-esqe programming searching or any of that.

Can anyone tell me if what I want to do is possible? I've had the unit setup for a few days and I cannot get around the error message telling me that my unit has not communicated with Tivo since December 30th of 2006. Other than that annoying thing, being able to change channels thru it, and manually recording stuff is very cool.

Thanks in advance.

It's not supposed to but apparently under some circumstances S2's (and possibly others?) can or will.

Check out other threads at the Coffe House:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=413813
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=413814

[lessd]

It's not supposed to but apparently under some circumstances S2's (and possibly others?) can or will.

Check out other threads at the Coffe House:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=413813
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=413814


After 30 days of not calling home you can't record anything on any TiVo above a Series 1 (some Series 1s will let you). The poster who said he can use his TiVo series 2 without a sub is inconsistent with the facts of what we all know, so don't count on it working. (The poster may have a demo mode or hacked TiVo or some other thing that letting him use it without a sub)

[fallingwater]

I'll bookmark your post and reply as to whether my S2 TiVo still records manually after another month goes by. As I posted, it hasn't successfully called in for close to a year.
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=6991339#post6991339

[fallingwater]

After 30 days of not calling home you can't record anything on any TiVo above a Series 1 (some Series 1s will let you). The poster who said he can use his TiVo series 2 without a sub is inconsistent with the facts of what we all know, so don't count on it working. (The poster may have a demo mode or hacked TiVo or some other thing that letting him use it without a sub)

Since testing an S2DT for full functionality with a DTA is of higher priority, I'm going to swap out the unsubbed S2 I've been testing (for its continued ability to record manually), and replace it with the S2DT to verify dual tuner functionality.

Just for the record, as of right now the unsubbed S2 still records manually after not connecting with TiVo for over a year! The clock is off by 10 mins.

Perhaps being unsubbed after Lifetime Service rather than termed service is the key to continued manual recording.