DirecTivo and Vonage

Posts: 27 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: 1058492018 Posts: 27

I just ordered the $99 DirecTV receiver with Tivo.

A few days ago I was looking at a basic Series 2 Tivo and Tivo told me I could hook it into my wireless LAN and avoid having to use the Vonage line for the dialups (no land line at home). Only need a friends landline for intitial setup.

However, I now have the Series 2 in the Directv receiver (will have in a week or two anyhow). Does anyone know if I can hook that receiver to a wireless LAN?

Thanks,
Quinn

Posts: 15 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Apr 18, 2003 Posts: 15

Vonage and TiVo - the final word

-SNT

Posts: 27 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: 1058492018 Posts: 27

As it turns, I cannot hook the DirecTivo (HDVR2) to a wireless LAN. It has a USB port, but the software does not support it (why the heck have the port then?????). DirecTV will not ship the unit to me so I can check it over Vonage before the installer arrives. They will only ship iot to the installer. So, if my Vonage line does not support the initial dial up, I will have to talk the installer into leaving it with me so I can take the unit to a friends for the initial setup.

Also, the woman at Direc told me it has to have a daily call over a land line or it will NOT work at all. However, I believe only a few functions wopn't work (seasonpass for example).

So, when is Vonage going to do something about this? Last spring Cisco said the ball is in Vonage's court.

Posts: 54 · Full Forum Member Joined: May 01, 2003 Posts: 54

My guess is they are not going to do anything about it anytime soon. I'm pretty sure their website says that they don't support modems, which is what your DirecTV uses.

I would suggest that if you want to use DirecTV you keep a minimal land line telephone service.

Posts: 27 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: 1058492018 Posts: 27

I've had DirecTV the entire time I have had Vonage. I don't PPV, so I don't need a landline. My concern is the Tivo. However, it looks like I will only need a land line for the intitial setup. From there, I should be ok (sans a few options on Tivo...but nothing big) aside from an occasional reminder to hook up to a phone line.

Guest

The USB port on the Series II is for "expansion" Tivo sells their own broadband adapter for $100 that you can use to connect to the wireless lan and other Tivos, etc. I don't believe you can use your own.

Posts: 27 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: 1058492018 Posts: 27

Th stand alone Series 2 allows for a USB adapter as it is supported by software and the port is active. On the HDVR2 (DirecTiVo) the USB port is inactive with no way to activate it as code has not even been written for it. Probably so Tivo and/or DirecTV won't have to have call support, etc.

Guest

TiVo does NOT sell a broadband adaptor for any DTiVo. TiVo does not offer aany support for DTiVo at all.

THe DTiVos are ONLY supported through DTV.

However, DTV does not have any support for broadband on the DTiVOs either.

The Series 2 DTiVos will not work over Vonage nut the Series 1s will.

I have 2 series 1s and I use ,#034 in the dialing prefix (to slow them down) and *99 in the call waiting prefix (to put the ATA in fax mode)

Using these I get about 50% sucess.

The call to DTV for PPV etc will not connect at all as it does not use any of he dialing prefixes.

There is a board that can be added to the series 1 DTiVOs that allows connection over broadband and there is a software mod available for the series 2s that enable the USB ports.

They are NOT for the faint of heart and some Linux experience is helpful.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 06, 2003 Posts: 4

My understanding is that Tivo has to dial in the billing info for PPV and software updates... everything else can run over broadband

Several 802.11 devices can work with tivo, there are three books that are pretty good at explaining all that can be done with the Tivo.. but suffice it to say, at this point there is no interaction at all between Tivo and Vonage

Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2003 1:52 pm Post subject:

If you are interested in picking one up, but are concerned about the lack of a phone line, DirecTivo doesn't need it. I took it to work, plugged it into a phone line and a small tv and ran the intitial setup. Everything has been great without the line. Apparently, I will start getting a nag screen saying it needs to call out, but you can just delete the screen. EVERYTHING works (season pass, etc.) w/o the phoneline.