It works. I don’t have a phone line, but I was able to do the initial setup through my cable modem with a USB Ethernet adapter. You just have to enter a special dialing prefix.
Indeed. People have experienced these flags on syndicated reruns that were broadcast over the air. Everyone says the flags were put there by mistake, but I don’t want some TV station’s foulup or a burst of static telling the equipment I paid for to delete the shows I chose to record. TiVo is supposed to be better than a VCR, not worse.
Luckily, my TiVo is running an older version of the OS that doesn’t use those flags, and I’m not going to let it upgrade.
You can copy shows from TiVo to your PC and watch them there, so your computer already has the decryption filters if you install TiVo Desktop - you can find programs that’ll use them to turn .tivo files into unencrypted .mpg files, or do it by hand with a free tool from Microsoft’s DirectX SDK. You don’t need to crack the encryption; TiVo gives you the decryption code.
If you’re willing to open your TiVo’s case and void the warranty, you can perform all kinds of hacks, from installing a bigger hard drive to disabling the encryption.
If you have satellite TV, you can use DirecTiVo, or if you have digital cable, your cable company’s DVR might be able to record two shows at once. Standalone TiVos can only do one at a time because they only have one MPEG encoder, but digital satellite and cable are delivered to your home as MPEG streams already.
Excellent! I just scoured the TiVo website the other day, and there was no mention of this. It keeps me from looking into TiVo more seriously, because I haven’t had a land line since February (and the website refrain of “no land line? well, remember that you only need it once!” makes me want to smack someone).
Their site does say that you can do the setup anywhere and then bring the unit back to your home to use with the network, but I didn’t find that particularly helpful: like I’m going to take my TiVo box to a friend’s house and hook it up to their TV and phone line, only to have to disconnect it all? And, from what I understand, the initial setup can take a few hours. Uh-uh.
However, get me a system that can be completely set up without a land line, and I might just have to finally give in – though what I really want is playback on any TV in my house, not just the one I have TiVo hooked up to.
Any version after 3.x can be set up without a land line. Just put “,#401” in the dialing prefix field, and it’ll use your USB network adapter instead of the phone line.
Au contraire! They tell you that you need a phone line, however, mine is never connected until the receiver tells me it’s been like 45 days since I’ve connected. I hooked up a little 12" phone cord to the receiver and pull my regular phone line from the actual phone and hook it up. Depending on the amount of time since previous connection, updates can take from 5 minutes to about 20.
I, like you, didn’t want another phone line mucking up my floor and providing yet another “pull-toy” for my toddler.
The problem with that method is your program guide information will be less than “full” much of the time, and possibly inaccurate, if program schedule changes have taken place.
You might want to look into one of the wireless phone jack systems. That might solve your problem, if you don’t have a home network you can connect your TiVo to.
Ah, the workaround that everyone else only alluded to … thanks.
I don’t think that’s what I want: don’t those require the program to be playing on the TiVo set first? I’ve always thought that those things are for watching one show on two TVs. If I hook TiVo up to my living room set, I don’t want that TV to have to be on and playing something in order to watch it upstairs in my bedroom (for example).
