DVD input to Series 1 - where's the switch?!

Textgenie · 01-03-2011, 12:48 AM

I have what I assume is a Series 1 Tivo (40 hours at Slowest speed, records one channel at a time, plays one channel at a time, plays same channel as being recorded) and it has a set of Audio/Visual inputs (red, white, yellow) on the back, clearly labeled Input, as well as a similar trio for A/V Output, as well as Coaxial Cable Input and Output to an old Sony TV with one coaxial input.

This suggests that it can take a DVD player into the A/V input, but I can find no switch on the back. It plays the coaxial TV input fine to the Coaxial output.

Can I switch output to the DVD input, or it is not really a second input, just an alternative? I want to play the DVD thru the Tivo into the TV.

Series 1 40 hr Tivo
Coaxial TV in --> Coaxial output of TV
DVD into A/V in ---> ?????

ThAbtO · 01-03-2011, 04:57 AM

Those Video/audio inputs are generally used for the output from a cable/satellite box, and to get access to them, you have to re-run guided setup, and it may also un-do the setup for the coax.

stevel · 01-03-2011, 11:13 AM

I suggest that what you're trying to do is a bad idea. It is possible to set things up so that the TiVo looks at the video inputs - you'd rerun Guided Setup and specify that you have both cable and satellite. You can pick any satellite lineup and then tune to any "available" channel 100 and up to use the video input. The problem is that this will run the DVD signal through the TiVo record-play process introducing a delay of about 3/4 seconds. It will also seriously deteriorate the picture quality.

I recommend instead that you connect the DVD player to the TV directly.

scandia101 · 01-03-2011, 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Textgenie

I have what I assume is a Series 1 Tivo (40 hours at Slowest speed,

Unless someone upgraded the hard drive, you most likely have a series 2 Tivo.
I have done this dvd thru tivo connection because I got so used to the Tivo controls that the DVD controls just seemed slow and clunky. I'd start playing the dvd and then use the Tivo remote to pause and RW.
It's been a long time since I've done this, but I believe that if you connect the DVD to the a/v inputs and turn on the power (a signal from the dvd play is necessary for the next step) then tune the Tivo to channel 0. Just don't press the record button or you'll lose the ability to tune to channel 0 and you'll have to restart the Tivo to get it back.

eta
and now that you say it didn't work, I seem to remember that they removed this functionality during those few years that they pushed out semi-annual software updates to the S2 models.

Textgenie · 01-03-2011, 03:28 PM

What an amazingly responsive forum, much appreciated. Yes, it may well be a Series 2, I will check - oops, right on the front, Series 2. I had assumed Series 1 because of its gross limitations. How extraordinary that a second TiVo iteration has no simple input for DVD, then. Not even VHS input. You would think...oh, well, maybe you wouldn't. Maybe such an obvious thing is expecting too much. Still, actually providing video input and no switching capability - geek genius.

Yes, DVD inputting into the TV video females would be the first solution. Unfortunately, the Sony 19" TV I am using as a monitor was picked up from the street when a local shrink threw it out,and it is so old itself that it has no video input, just straight coaxial input and that's it. (The previous Sony 19" tube had video but I threw it out because the controls disappeared inside the front casing, and I couldn't work out how to get them back out again).

Have to put in a splitter for the TV cable input and a switch from Radio Shack I suppose. Not so elegant.

Now if I could just get my unused Phillips Tivo from 1999 into action that would be a boon. Darn thing cant be initialized because it is loaded with the wrong tel number to call! A whole 20 hours recording time wasted! Maybe I can get my DVD into that!

PS Yes I will try your Brobdingnagian solution first, though, thanks, Scandia101.

Textgenie · 01-03-2011, 06:22 PM

Scandia, how does one tune the TiVo Series 2 to Channel 0? Not visible in the menus so far. TIA

stevel · 01-03-2011, 08:37 PM

You press 0 and then Enter on the remote. In the past, doing so and hitting Record would complete screw up the TiVo and force you to rerun Guided Setup. Maybe they fixed that. This is an undocumented and unsupported feature.

ggieseke · 01-04-2011, 05:59 AM

On a Series 2, just go to Settings - Video - Video Hookup.

Textgenie · 01-04-2011, 06:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevel

You press 0 and then Enter on the remote. In the past, doing so and hitting Record would complete screw up the TiVo and force you to rerun Guided Setup. Maybe they fixed that. This is an undocumented and unsupported feature.

Scandia, Steve thanks but when I have the Series 2 in series after the DVD and before the TV monitor, and switch on the DVD before the TiVo, then press 0 Enter, nothing happens - the booting display of the Tivo continues unaffected. After it is completed, and I choose Watch TV, it will display Channel 2, and when I then hit 0 on the the remote and then Enter, it reads Channel 0 but displays nothing, and returned to Channel 2 of its own accord.

GG, I have two Series 2 machines and on both Settings-Video gives me only two choices, TV Aspect Ratio and Video Smoothing. There is no Video Hookup Choice. I also have what presumably is a Series 3 (labelled HD and has 160 hrs anyway) and Settings-Video on that gives 5 choices none of which is Video Hookup (Aspect Connection Mode-Letterbox Color-TV Aspect Ratio-Video Output Format-Video Smoothing).

Tivo support says I cant do it, period - hook up a DVD before the Tivo.

TiVo did so much so well initially that it is sad to see that it didn't keep up with obvious simple needs like hooking up a DVD. Maybe they didn't want us to record DVDs (though from what you say, it screws you if you try). Sounds like there is a hack out there but unless I am doing something wrong here I cant find it.

ThAbtO · 01-04-2011, 07:01 PM

You cannot hook a Tivo to the DVD player unless the DVD player has Video/Audio inputs, most only have outputs.

Its best to have separate outputs for each device to the TV and not string them as that can cause interference on your screen.

scandia101 · 01-04-2011, 10:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThAbtO

You cannot hook a Tivo to the DVD player unless the DVD player has Video/Audio inputs, most only have outputs.

Its best to have separate outputs for each device to the TV and not string them as that can cause interference on your screen.

The OP isn't trying to connect the DVD player between the Tivo and the TV, they are trying to connect it so that it feeds into the Tivo.

To the OP,
It can still probably be done depending on your current setup, it just gets to be a pita to set up.

If you have cable w/o a box, you can repeat guided set up and say that you have cable w/o a box and satellite and then just pick any of the satellite options.
You'll have to go into the channels you receive and uncheck a million satellite channels leaving just one that you'll tune to for the DVD player.

Textgenie · 01-05-2011, 02:16 AM

Wow scandia, looks like a possibility then, since I do have direct cable feed and do not use a Cable box at all for anything here. Basically the TV and Tivo are being fed with a raw cable feed from outside, via a splitter to separate it from my other two Tivos.

Looks like I will have to wrestle with guided setup according to your info, choose Satellite and delete all save one to use for the DVD.

Just one thing - does this erase all the channels coming through the cable feed now? Or do I choose them as if they were satellite fed? Or what? Not much use if it just reads the DVD.

gastrof · 01-05-2011, 07:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scandia101

...If you have cable w/o a box, you can repeat guided set up and say that you have cable w/o a box and satellite and then just pick any of the satellite options.
You'll have to go into the channels you receive and uncheck a million satellite channels leaving just one that you'll tune to for the DVD player.

On one of my series 1s, I did something similar, but under 'channels I receive' there was the option of de-selecting all channels at once, and then inputting the ones you actually get.

MUCH simpler.

Oh...

You'd also have to re-input the cable channels that come without the box (or that come in with a box, using RF on cable channel 3).

supersnoop · 01-05-2011, 08:43 AM

What's your end desire here? You want to be able to select between watching a DVD or TiVo by changing the input on the TiVo instead of the on the TV? Or do you need something to convert the DVD player from RCA jacks to coax because your TV doesn't have RCA jacks? Or, do you want to record from the DVD to the TiVo?

There are a number of different options. In order to find a solution, we need to know what you want to do rather than what you've tried but hasn't worked.

Textgenie · 01-06-2011, 01:11 PM

SuperSnoop, my modest goal is simply to make the TV able to switch between DVD and TV input without setting up a cable splitter and switch box. The TV being an old Sony used as a monitor by a shrink doesn't even have video input of any kind, just one coaxial input.

Gastrof, thanks. But what does "2 unsubbed Philips Series 1s-
HDR212, 163hrs, & PTV300, 141hrs" mean? I have a Philips Series 1 that has never been used because by the time I got around to plugging it in the tel number it accessed for SetUp was out of date, and no one at Philips or Tivo knew how to correct that.

Can one use it as a 20hr backup? I am allergic to throwing out good hardware, however out of date. Presumably unsubbed may mean no longer subscribed, and used as backup? But can this be done if you have never connected to TiVo service?