Cablecards & Series 3 Question

[rhroyse]

Greetings all,

I have both a Series 3 and a Tivo HD, and I am getting ready to make some equipment swaps, so before I place the request for a truck roll (Damn you, Charter) I want to confirm:

That even with the latest software updates (11.0c?) the Series 3 units require both card slots to be populated? At the moment, through mostly luck, the Series 3 in the living room has two S cards, and the HD in the bedroom has 1 M card. The original install was about 1.5 years ago and that just happened to be what the installer had with him at the time of the service call. The monthly rental on the cards isn't very expensive, but if I could get away with an M card in the Series 3 also, that would free up one of the S cards for another device or reduce the number I am renting. The other voice in my head tells me just leave well enough alone with the Series 3 regardless of its capabilities, as it has worked flawlessly since install and I suppose there is also some redundancy in the event one of the cards were to fail?

Interestingly enough, the equipment swaps are due to the addition of a Windows Media Center PC I built that is going to include a cable card tuner. In some informal testing I did, when I would pull a cablecard from one device to insert in another, I didn't have to call Charter (St. Louis metro) for another activation hit. It seemed I could swap the cards around freely without incident.

I am also thankful that I am able to transfer content (even Premiums like HBO) via Tivo Desktop. A friend in Las Vegas (Cox?) can't transfer because the flag is set, I would assume?

In any event, if someone could confirm, I would appreciate it.

Thanks again,

-Rob

[alansh]

Yes, the Series3 (non-HD) can only do one stream per slot. You can use M-cards, but they'll be used in S-card mode. For two streams, you need two cards.

The HD can use one M-card for two streams.

[pl1]

Originally Posted by alansh

Yes, the Series3 (non-HD) can only do one stream per slot. You can use M-cards, but they'll be used in S-card mode. For two streams, you need two cards. The HD can use one M-card for two streams.

Just an FYI. All Series 3 units are HD.

[Bierboy]

Originally Posted by pl1

Just an FYI. All Series 3 units are HD.

You are correct, but I think he actually meant to say not a TiVo HD but the original S3.

[alansh]

Exactly. The problem is that the TiVo HD is part of the Series3 line, so it's hard to distinguish between the original Series3 and the HD models.

[bkdtv]

Generally, on this forum we use "Series3" to refer to the original, discontinued model and "TivoHD" to refer to the current high-definition TiVo model.

Both products are high-definition TiVos and both are part of the "Series3" family which denotes a certain feature set (dual tuners, CableCards, HD, etc). The DVR functionality on both products is identical, but the hardware inside each box is completely different.