TiVo HD trasfer to Series 2

[dustbuster29]

We currently own a TiVo Series 2. We are thinking about getting a TiVo HD DVR not for the HD capabilities but for the added SD storage AND the ability to use it as a cable box (we currently have basic cable and want premium channels but do not want to deal with the generic cable provided dvr).

We want to put the HD DVR in the living room as our main dvr and put the Series 2 in the bedroom.

Question 1: Would we be able to transfer the SD recordings from the HD DVR to the Series 2?

Question 2: We just want to watch transfered shows on the Series 2 and do not want to record anything directly to it because we don't want to pay for service on the Series 2 - Is this possible?

Any help is appreciated!

[Yoav]

Question 1: Would we be able to transfer the SD recordings from the HD DVR to the Series 2?


If it's a recording from an analog channel, yes. If it's from a digital channel transmitting the show in SD, no. If you attach the tivo to the cable box, all channels you will be recording will be analog.

IF you plan on using it as your cable box, you will need to get cable cards from your service provider. This means that many channels may end up being digital anyways. And I'm fairly certain the premium channels will be both digital AND marked copy-protected, which I suspect will prevent it transferring between tivos.



Question 2: We just want to watch transfered shows on the Series 2 and do not want to record anything directly to it because we don't want to pay for service on the Series 2 - Is this possible?


You need to activate service on both to enable transfers between tivos.

There are other solutions to viewing shows from your tivoHD that you can run on any computer.. but if you're using a tivo2, then you need to activate service and you won't be able to watch HD stuff.

[dustbuster29]

Yes, we were planning on getting cable cards from our cable company and using the TiVo as a cable box. I understand the movies from premium channels being transfer protected. I didn't realize that the Series2 couldn't record from a digital signal. If I tried to transfer a digital recording to the Series2 would it just not recognize it?

Would I still be able to transfer most shows from the TiVo HD DVR to my PC or Mac and watch them that way?

[westside_guy]

Comcast channels that are less then 100 (here in Washington state anyway) are still analog. We're able to transfer these shows from our Tivo HD (with cablecard) to our Series 2 box just fine. My wife does this regularly - our S2 Tivo is connected to an older television out in our exercise room.

FWIW you probably wouldn't want to transfer the digital versions of these shows from the HD to the S2, even if it were technically possible. The file size is 5-10x bigger, and given how slow the S2's network connection is... :p