Dual Cable Card Support?

[SpiritualPoet]

I thought only the model 3 had dual cable card slots. Is it true that a HD-TiVo has 2 cable card slots as well? If that is the case, why is the Series 3 Satelite compatible but not over-the-air compatible, whereas the HD-model has no satelite capability but can work OTA or cable? Can't TiVo simply manufacture an all-in-one (over the air/cable/satelite) HD model that has two cable card capability? Jeesh.

[mkwolf1]

You must be confused. No Series 3 tivo, including the HD Tivo, is satellite compatible. They only work with cable, cable-cards, or OTA signals. It's always been that way.

[petew]

I think the OP is mixing up the Series 2 and Series 3.

The Series 2 units are SD only and support sattelite by virtue of a composite video input and IR blasters to control the STB (Cable or satelite) They don't support OTA by virtue of an FCC rulling which prevents any manufacturer from selling an Analog only OTA TV receiver.

The Series 3 and Tivo HD are very similar, both support up to 2 cable cards, both tune analog and Digital OTA (NTSC & ATSC) and both tune QAM cable. Netiher supports satelite as the satelite companies have declined to allow tivo access to the raw digital signal.

[classicsat]

Originally Posted by petew

I think the OP is mixing up the Series 2 and Series 3.

The Series 2 units are SD only and support sattelite by virtue of a composite video input and IR blasters to control the STB (Cable or satelite) They don't support OTA by virtue of an FCC rulling which prevents any manufacturer from selling an Analog only OTA TV receiver.

That is only for the Series 2 DT (it cannot support analog OTA with its built in tuners, due to the terms of that FCC rule). The older Series 2 Single Tuner models can support Analog OTA fine, and nothing regulatory, AFAIK, precludes TiVo from adding support for digital OTA tuners, including the DT model.

The Series 3 and Tivo HD are very similar, both support up to 2 cable cards, both tune analog and Digital OTA (NTSC & ATSC) and both tune QAM cable. Netiher supports satelite as the satelite companies have declined to allow tivo access to the raw digital signal.

Close. It is that satellite providers have not had the Cablecard "format" set to suit their platform (they need QPSK/8PSK tuning, 900-2000Mhz tunable frequency, with voltage/tone/DISEQ dish control).

[classicsat]

Originally Posted by SpiritualPoet

I thought only the model 3 had dual cable card slots. Is it true that a HD-TiVo has 2 cable card slots as well? If that is the case, why is the Series 3 Satelite compatible but not over-the-air compatible, whereas the HD-model has no satelite capability but can work OTA or cable? Can't TiVo simply manufacture an all-in-one (over the air/cable/satelite) HD model that has two cable card capability? Jeesh.

You are confused somehow.
Here are the facts:

Series 2 single tuners can support analog OTA, because they were made before the FCC said analog only OTA tuners could not be made any more.

The Series 2 DT, was made to meet that FCC requirement, although it was manufactured nearly a year before that requirement came into effect.

The entire Series 2 line can record from cable, satellite or IPTV boxes, by virtue of the fact it has an A/V in and serial and IR box control. The Series 2DT supports only one box due to the fact it has only one A/V input and box control circuit.

The Series 3 line (which includes the TiVo HD), only has built in digital/analog/cable/OTA tuners (including cablecard slots), not an A/V in. Being as it has digital OTA capable tuners, it can have analog OTA tuners as well. I can only speculate A/V input was omitted on those models because it would have to be an SD input, than that would confuse or irk customers, or they could not get the A/V and cablecard tuners to work correctly, so eliminated A/V input from the design or build.

[SpiritualPoet]

Okay thanks for the replies. One thing that bugs me is I've owned my series 2 Tivos for a year and never knew they were not compatible with OTA but I realize it's because since the series 2 isn't HDTV compatible it would be useless without cable come next year. Duh.

[ciper]

Originally Posted by SpiritualPoet

Okay thanks for the replies. One thing that bugs me is I've owned my series 2 Tivos for a year and never knew they were not compatible with OTA but I realize it's because since the series 2 isn't HDTV compatible it would be useless without cable come next year. Duh.

Maybe not. Tivo could step up and add support for the OTA converter boxes allowing everyone at least single tuner functionality for OTA.

[Jonathan_S]

Originally Posted by classicsat

You are confused somehow.
Here are the facts:

Series 2 single tuners can support analog OTA, because they were made before the FCC said analog only OTA tuners could not be made any more.

And the key word there is 'only'.
You can still sell a device with an analog (NTSC) OTA tuner as long as it also has a digital (ATSC) OTA tuner.

For the S2 DT TiVo decided (presumably for cost reasons) not to add an ATSC tuner, and because of that decision the FCC rule forced them to disable the NTSC OTA tuner.


(And the old one tuner S2 boxes were produced prior to the effective date of the FCC rule and so they can still use their NTSC OTA tuner)

[dianebrat]

Originally Posted by SpiritualPoet

Okay thanks for the replies. One thing that bugs me is I've owned my series 2 Tivos for a year and never knew they were not compatible with OTA but I realize it's because since the series 2 isn't HDTV compatible it would be useless without cable come next year. Duh.

I'm not sure you're reading what folks are saying.
Your Series 2 Tivos (provided they aren't of the Dual Tuner DT breed, you don't actually say which you have) can accept current analog OTA fine. If your Series 2 is a DT, it can't do OTA now or later, but can do cable, both now, and in the future.

Diane

[scandia101]

Originally Posted by Jonathan_S

(And the old one tuner S2 boxes were produced prior to the effective date of the FCC rule and so they can still use their NTSC OTA tuner)

Except for the single tuner TCD540xxx boxes that were relabeled as TCD542xxx that have disabled OTA tuners. But there aren't very many of these out there.

[classicsat]

Originally Posted by SpiritualPoet

I realize it's because since the series 2 isn't HDTV compatible it would be useless without cable come next year. Duh.

You mean Digital OTA. It will be useful for any service that now has a box, and/or analog cable.

[Jonathan_S]

Originally Posted by dianebrat

Your Series 2 Tivos (provided they aren't of the Dual Tuner DT breed, you don't actually say which you have)[...]

His user profile shows he has 2 S2-DT TiVos.