Question About HD Tivo and Digital Conversion

[TivoZorro]

Okay I have an HD Tivo connected to an analog TV. Time Warner says that as long as I'm connected to cable (which I am) that I will have no problems.

Channel 5 (WRAL-TV, CBS) has been running a crawler on all the major prime time shows stating the following:

On June 12th at 1 PM they will no longer be broadcasting analog on Channel 5. They will begin broadcasting the new digital frequencies on Channel 48. All you have to do is rescan your TV or converter box and you are set. They say they have information on their website but I can't find it anywhere.

1. Channel 48 on our system is CMT. Probably will be different channel here.
2. From what I've read I will need to have the cable cards installed on the HD Tivo. Is this true? If I don't need to have digital cable to get the channel why would I need the cable cards, is it for guide data?
3. I take it that even if I give Tivo the new channel that the Series 2 Tivos will not pick it up?

Thanks for any help in advance. This is starting to stress me out.

[jrm01]

The crawler is intended for antenna users only. It has nothing to do with the TW channel numbers. The June 12th change over to all digital concerns only antenna users. It will have no affect on your TW usage.

There is absolutely nothing to stress out about. You, as a TW user, will not be affected in any way. Conserve your stressing for the national economy.:D

[johnny99]

And even if you do have antenna, you don't have to worry because TivoHD can receive digital channels. You would just need to rescan your antenna channels to receive your digital channel 48.

[ewilts]

Okay I have an HD Tivo connected to an analog TV. Time Warner says that as long as I'm connected to cable (which I am) that I will have no problems.

2. From what I've read I will need to have the cable cards installed on the HD Tivo. Is this true? If I don't need to have digital cable to get the channel why would I need the cable cards, is it for guide data?

Do you have CableCARDs today? Is your only input the TWC cable signal or do you also have an antenna.

If you do not have CableCARDs and no antenna, then you're receiving analog signals from TWC. It's up to TWC to determine if they're going to do the digital to analog conversion for you. For channels that are over-the-air today, they very likely will.

If you do access the channel via an antenna and not TWC, then this affects you.

In all cases with a TiVo HD, your best signals are provided after you add CableCARDs. Until you do, you will not receive digital signals from TWC.

3. I take it that even if I give Tivo the new channel that the Series 2 Tivos will not pick it up?
The Series 2 boxes can not take an incoming digital signal. End of discussion. They can be front-ended with digital to analog converters, but the end result is that the S2 must have an analog signal.

Thanks for any help in advance. This is starting to stress me out.[/QUOTE]

[TivoZorro]

No I don't have CableCards. My only input is the TWC cable signal which by the way is great now. We finally got a technician to come out that knew what he was doing. We have 9 or 10 tvs and our signal has always been crap. I was always convinced that we needed an amplifier put on the house beause the feed from the line is fine. So he put in an amplifier and things are much better. It took him several hours but it got done.

Been leery of getting the CableCards mostly because of our crappy signal but also because I've read that people have problems getting them installed and working probably. If I could get that same guy to come back I'd probably do it. Don't know if things have gotten any better with the Cards or not.

Hopefully Time Warner will continue to do the digital to analog conversion. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

[Bierboy]

....Been leery of getting the CableCards mostly because of our crappy signal but also because I've read that people have problems getting them installed and working probably. If I could get that same guy to come back I'd probably do it. Don't know if things have gotten any better with the Cards or not....

Actually, I think it has gotten to the point where most cablecos have a better working knowledge of CabelCARDS and their proper installation. If your TiVo is early in the "daisy chain" of TVs in your house (so your signal degradation would be at a minimum), I would certainly consider CableCARDS. Worst case -- they can't get them configured properly or the signal is too weak and you go back to where you're now at. But they should test your signal before installing them to make sure they would work (my cableco did that and replaced some cable lines and splitters to make sure). Best case -- you get a LOT of HD channels.

[jrm01]

Best case -- you get a LOT of HD channels.

Which won't do him much good since it's connected to an analog TV.

[dvdguru]

TWC is getting better at Cablecards compared to a few years ago. You still have to be persistent and find someone who knows what they're doing. I had to do this recently to get an Mcard and just today to get an SDV tuning adapter. It took 3 emails and 3 calls to get the right guy to come out but he just left and said he'll have my sdv tuning adapter tomorrow. Fingers crossed for it to show up ;)

[ThAbtO]

The newly dated June 12th Digital transition is solely for Over the Air analog to digital conversion. Since you have a Tivo HD, it will continue to receive stations Over the air. It does not pertain to cable, but they may have their own digital conversions where the HD will require cable cards as well as tuning adapters.

[mattack]

Which won't do him much good since it's connected to an analog TV.

Won't do *much* good, but will do *some* good.

(1) receive channels he can't receive now
(2) *if* there's a good signal, he will have a better picture even on his analog TV.

I say this as someone *without* cablecards (who uses S3 & TivoHD on an analog TV currently), and definitely prefer the graceful degradation of analog signals compared to digital.. But even I am 'playing' with recording the one set of channels I can get well on small indoor OTA antenna I have installed... because when the recordings are good, they're much better than the analog recordings. (It's mostly Austin City Limits & a new PBS concert show.. live from the something.. that I am experimenting with recording. Sometimes they have glitches.. If it shows up as the full recording time [not partial] and I don't notice glitches in VERY quick skims, then I'm recording them to DVD.)