Cable line to Tivo series 2 without cable box?

[NewYorkLaw]

When I connect my cable line to my television, I get a lot of channels, mostly regular network ones, but not in their correct numeric places. When I connect that same cable to the tivo, It sees a signal. I went through the entire setup process (from zip code forward) and told it I had cable with no box. But, when i got to the end, there was no picture.

The tivo has a tuner, right? Shouldn't it be able to find the signal and show me channels just like the television did?

Is there any way - without the additional cable box ($10/month I don't have right now) to have tivo find channels? The tivo is networked with our other two tivos that have cable boxes, so at least this one (in basement) can watch transferred shows, but I thought it would be nice if it could also do some of the recording on those channels that it can (theoretically) receive, so as to alleviate some of the programming from the other two tivos.

What about an analog to digital converter box? Would that help at least for the "over the air" channels?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Pete

[ThAbtO]

You may not have all the available channels selected in the Tivo Menu, Messages & settings / settings / channels / channel list.

In there you can press select for each channel you can receive and press Thumbs up for each you want marked as favorite.

[RonDawg]

The OP's TV is likely a newer model that has a built-in ATSC/Clear QAM tuner, and that is why it is picking up channels that the Series 2 (with its analog NTSC only tuner) cannot.

The big clue is his TV is picking up "mostly network ones, but not in their correct numerical places." That is a characteristic of digital cable systems, where the channels are in all sorts of places, but it is up to the cable box or CableCard to map them to where they are expected to be.

The only way for the OP to make it pick up the digital channels is to do what he does with his other TiVo units, and that is use an external cable box provided by his cable provider.

Another, albeit more expensive, option is to purchase a Series 3/TiVoHD/XL which will pick up the channels just like his TV, but will not have the proper guide data for them. Adding CableCard(s) (and possibly an SDV adapter if required by his provider) will provide guide data, map the channels to their proper places, and also allow the OP to pick up other digital cable channels to which he subscribes, but currently can only be picked up through the cable box.

The analog to digital converter box will pick up any OTA channels that he can receive, but there are a couple of TiVo models (the Series 2 Dual Tuner, and the last of the single tuner models) whose software will not allow these units to use a converter box.

[NewYorkLaw]

Thank you for this helpful answer.
Pete

Originally Posted by RonDawg

The OP's TV is likely a newer model that has a built-in ATSC/Clear QAM tuner, and that is why it is picking up channels that the Series 2 (with its analog NTSC only tuner) cannot.

The big clue is his TV is picking up "mostly network ones, but not in their correct numerical places." That is a characteristic of digital cable systems, where the channels are in all sorts of places, but it is up to the cable box or CableCard to map them to where they are expected to be.

The only way for the OP to make it pick up the digital channels is to do what he does with his other TiVo units, and that is use an external cable box provided by his cable provider.

Another, albeit more expensive, option is to purchase a Series 3/TiVoHD/XL which will pick up the channels just like his TV, but will not have the proper guide data for them. Adding CableCard(s) (and possibly an SDV adapter if required by his provider) will provide guide data, map the channels to their proper places, and also allow the OP to pick up other digital cable channels to which he subscribes, but currently can only be picked up through the cable box.

The analog to digital converter box will pick up any OTA channels that he can receive, but there are a couple of TiVo models (the Series 2 Dual Tuner, and the last of the single tuner models) whose software will not allow these units to use a converter box.