TIVO without Subscription

[PPP]

Hi guys, this is my first post so be gentle!

I am interested in getting a Tivo and have seen many for sale on Ebay UK, a lot of people mentin the £10/month or £200/lifetime subscriptions and i was wondering is it possible to use Tivo without a subscription, kind of like a fancy video recorder. I understand i would not get the schedule updates, but just wondered if it was possible or not.

Many Thanks

[Glesgie]

You can use an unsubbed TiVo as a dumb VCR, but you are limited to manual
recordings without even the reapeat every day/week extras.
Also it will nag you constantly about having no program data.

Usually know as Boat Anchor Mode because that is about all it is good for.

LIfetime sub of £200 is my recomendation if you have the cash.

[PPP]

cool ta

[iankb]

You can get a new single-tuner, hard-drive Freeview recorder for as little as £100 nowadays. They are all a bit buggy until they sort the firmware out, but are probably a better long-term bet than an unsubscribed TiVo. However, a subscribed TiVo is a much more sophisticated and useful machine, and doesn't really have any bugs to speak of.

[worm]

Until you start fiddling with it

[ericd121]

Originally Posted by Glesgie

You can use an unsubbed TiVo as a dumb VCR, but you are limited to manual
recordings without even the reapeat every day/week extras.

This is incorrect. One of my Tivos was unsubbed for a year.
I could, and did, set up Manual Recordings that repeated Weekly, Daily and Mon-Fri.
They are unhelpfully labelled; e.g. Manual Recording: Friday 13/1 7:00pm

Also it will nag you constantly about having no program data.

True.

LIfetime sub of £200 is my recomendation if you have the cash.

I agree. Well worth the money.

[bigwold]

Originally Posted by ericd121

They are unhelpfully labelled; e.g. Manual Recording: Friday 13/1 7:00pm

But you can rename them once recorded if you have tivoweb.

[aerialplug]

I agree - an unsubbed TiVo will allow you to set up repeating manual recordings. I hesitated to post as my second TiVo is a US TiVo with a lifetime subscription - it's just that it doesn't get any schedule data when I dial up so has reverted to boat-anchor mode.

In fact, it's quite useful for regularly recurring programmes.

[Glesgie]

Thanks for the corrections.
As I do not have an unsubbed TiVo, I could not verify the bit about repeated manual recordings.

[tdenson]

Originally Posted by Glesgie

Also it will nag you constantly about having no program data.

I believe there are ways round that by setting the Linux system date back.

[liveround]

Hi

I have used my tivo without a sub for 3 years. Can heartily recommend it, I wouldn't be with out it.

Unfortunately the system clock is getting faster, it was 10 minutes fast and is now 12-13 fast. It's a problem if you want to record two different programmes on different channel consecutively as the start or end of the programme is on a different recording.

I believe there are ways round that by setting the Linux system date back.

Does anyone know if there is a way to adjust the internal clock ?

Thanks
lr

[ericd121]

Originally Posted by liveround

Does anyone know if there is a way to adjust the internal clock ?

Make a daily call; the clock will be set to the correct time.

[einstein]

Originally Posted by Glesgie

Also it will nag you constantly about having no program data.

if you search the forums and google you can get round this issue and the nags will be gone forever.

[ywu]

I had dilemma recently having been running a spare tivo in a second room without sub and using the digiguide+manrec tool instead. I've spent c.£300 on getting an old pc set up with Windows Media Centre 2005 thinking it's a better overall system, and whilst that's true (e.g. it plays/records dvds) the depth of the user experience is nowhere near Tivo. I now can't help thinking that spending £200 on a lifetime sub plus a Freeview/DVD/HD combo might have been a better investment.

[liveround]

Make a daily call; the clock will be set to the correct time.

Surely I cannot make a daily call when I don't have a sub ? I seem to remember something that if you make a daily call without a sub it will remove the manual record mode, anyone know ?

Thanks
lr

[browellm]

Originally Posted by liveround

Surely I cannot make a daily call when I don't have a sub ? I seem to remember something that if you make a daily call without a sub it will remove the manual record mode, anyone know ?

Thanks
lr

Nah! If Tivo wanted to really block the manual record feature, they would set it to time out after so many days without a daily call.

[healeydave]

Extracted this info from somewhere a while back, thought it might come in useful one day.

From a TiVo bash session, type the following:


bash-2.02# export TZ=GMT

Substitute GMT for your timezone if in the USA for example

bash-2.02# date MMDDhhmmYY.ss


MM = 2 digit month
DD = 2 digit day
hh = 2 digit hour (24-hour format)
mm = 2 digit minute
YY = 2 digit year (optionally, 4 digits long)
ss = 2 digit seconds

Choose the right date/time and set it accordingly. This will set the proper time on your TiVo.

[liveround]

bash-2.02# export TZ=GMT

What is required to do this ? Is this a linux command ? What software / serial lead etc is required ?

Thanks
lr

[ericd121]

Originally Posted by liveround

Surely I cannot make a daily call when I don't have a sub ? I seem to remember something that if you make a daily call without a sub it will remove the manual record mode, anyone know ?

I can confirm what browellm said.

A daily call does not affect an unsubbed TiVo's functions (being unsubbed does);
as stated by me above, it will do repeating Manual Recordings.

If you re-connect the phone cord, and make a Daily Call, it will reset the clock.

If you leave the phone cord connected, the TiVo will call in once a week, thus keeping its clock accurate.

[liveround]

My tivo has an account status of 2: Not setup. When I bought the Tivo I only used the grace period and never had a sub.

Can I assume that there is no difference from this and a machine that had a sub and subsequently had it canelled ?

Thanks
lr