[KimJ721]

Hi all,

I recently moved (my very first house!) and am trying to hook up my Series 2 TiVo with my new digital cable. The problem is I get the cable and my DSL from the same company, and they only wired one small office in my house for the DSL. The cable box is also the DSL box so I can't move it to a different room. I gather I have to hook up my TiVo to this cable box via an IR emitter, since hooking it up to the televisions themselves means I have to change the channels manually since TiVo can't. I really want to see TiVo on my main television in the living room -- I don't even have a television in my office. My husband wanted me to look at wireless video senders/receivers, but we also have wireless Internet at 2.4 GHz which I gather interferes with those receivers. (My husband has a laptop that he uses all the time all around the house so it would be a big problem.)

Are there any other solutions besides paying for the cable/DSL company to wire my living room properly, or snaking ugly wires all over the place in my new house?

Thanks,
KimJ

 

[WayneCarter]

What are you using for a TV signal in the living room? (what is connected to the TV's antenna or A/V input? And which input are you using?)

 

[KimJ721]

What are you using for a TV signal in the living room?

They have a coax cable from the wall to an antenna-looking thing, then from the antenna to the TV. The coax cable only picks up Channel 7. The antenna-looking thing apparently communicates wirelessly with the cable box to change the channel with the cable company's special remote. You can have up to three different streams, so I can have three different remotes changing channels for three different TVs. The antenna-looking thing is then connected to the "Ant-1" connection on the TV (just your basic coax input).

The box I have is a Next Level Communication one, and it was from reading some of the stickied posts in this forum that clued me in to the fact that I need to use an IR blaster to hook up my TiVo to the box. But that doesn't help me hook my TiVo to my television.

 

[WayneCarter]

They have a coax cable from the wall to an antenna-looking thing, then from the antenna to the TV.

The "antenna-looking thing" is between the TV and a coax wall jack??

If you cover the "antenna-looking thing" with a box, cloth, hat, or other opaque enclosure, can you still change channels (ie is the "antenna-looking thing" an IR signal repeater?).

It might be easier to tackle one thing at a time - can you temporarily try the TiVo and a TV in the office? If so, can the TiVo control the cable box thru the IR blasters?

 

[KimJ721]

The "antenna-looking thing" is between the TV and a coax wall jack??

If you cover the "antenna-looking thing" with a box, cloth, hat, or other opaque enclosure, can you still change channels (ie is the "antenna-looking thing" an IR signal repeater?).

It might be easier to tackle one thing at a time - can you temporarily try the TiVo and a TV in the office? If so, can the TiVo control the cable box thru the IR blasters?

Here's a picture of the antenna. I used my cell phone so it's a terrible picture. The right hand side is where you plug in the coax cable from the wall, and the left hand side is what plugs in to the coax plug on the TV.

Let me try covering it with a T-shirt to cover those long antenna wires ... No, it still changes the channels perfectly. I think the antenna-thing just tells the TV which of the three streams from the cable box to pull from, and the remote controls the box itself (even though it's in the tiny office).

I don't actually have any IR cords. I gather one came with my TiVo six years ago, but through three moves since then I have no idea where they are since I never used them. I didn't even know what they were until today; previously I've only dealt with coax and the red/yellow/white video cords.

 

[KimJ721]

Arghh, I just noticed that I have no phone jacks anywhere in my living room, so I can't move my Cable/DSL box out there anyway. So I'm stuck with trying to find some way to either transmit from the office to the television out there, or give up TiVo. I guess that will give me more time to mow my lawn.