New to Tivo. Lend me some expertise.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 13, 2005 Posts: 2

So Tivos have never been cheaper and now that I'm living in a new place and no longer able to leach off my old roommate's DVR, I'm finding life without it is pretty dismal. As you can already tell, I have a flair for melodrama and thus I thought I would thoroughly research this whole Tivo thing as the house I'm living in now does not have a land-based phone line, only a broadband connection and Vonage.

So, I'm thinking of purchasing a TiVo TCD540040 Series2 40-Hour Digital Video Recorder. My question for all you qualified experts out there, is what kind of difficulty am I going to run up against? I should tell you that I live in Washington D.C. and so access numbers shouldn't be a problem. There is a Vonage phone jack and broadband jack near the TV but there is no wireless connection in the house and as luck would have it I used a Linksys USB100 TX network adaptor on my old laptop so I could use that.

From what I've been reading, I'm hearing that there is an 1) Initial Setup that seems to be a major obstacle and then 2) daily calls. I was hoping that since I'm buying the unit brand new, that perhaps the software would be up to speed at least to the point that I could get this thing up and running without having to take it to a land-based line. What are your thoughts on this? I'm in my early 20's and all my friends have cell phones. I suppose I could take it into work on the weekend but that would just be a huge pain since I'd have to take a TV in with me too.

Any advice you can throw at me would be great Wink

Keep in mind this would not be a DirecTV Tivo, just a Tivo-manufactured Series 2. I'm fairly technically savvy so I would be comfortable with messing with settings, connections, etc.

Thanks in advance !

Posts: 1424 · Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2005 7:09 am Post subject:

I want to throw something out here. If you are in DC are you getting cable service from Comcast?

If so, are you aware that Comcast will be offering TiVo in 2006. Supposedly it will be a software upgrade to their current DVR boxes. In the long run this would be a better solution because of dual tuners and since the digital programming will be recorded directly and not encoded from an analog source.

On to your questions:

Bravo56 wrote:

I was hoping that since I'm buying the unit brand new, that perhaps the software would be up to speed at least to the point that I could get this thing up and running without having to take it to a land-based line.

Based on my web searches I think you are going to be OK since you plan to use Ethernet and not wireless. Remember to add ,#401 as a dialing prefix during setup. But I have a DirecTiVo so no first hand experience.

A great source of information is the Tivo Community Forum.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 13, 2005 Posts: 2

scerruti wrote:

Based on my web searches I think you are going to be OK since you plan to use Ethernet and not wireless. Remember to add ,#401 as a dialing prefix during setup. But I have a DirecTiVo so no first hand experience.

Thanks for your reply.

Just as a follow-up, I did go ahead and purchase a Tivo Series 2 at Costco for a great price and attempted to set it up. I thought I would try the original method of going through Guided Step using a "land line" which in this case was my vonage line but that did not work out so well. The first call (2-3) minutes completed fine but the longer 20-30 minute call would not complete. I tried changing the dial-in number (there are 4 with a D.C. 202 area code apparently) and changing the dialing prefix to try and adjust the speed of the modem to no avail. I just couldn't get the call to stay on longer than about 5 minutes at the most.

I reset the Tivo box by entering it into "Demo" mode and then unplugged it and replugged it in. After it had finished clearing, it prompted me to unplug/replug it again. After unplugging, I hooked the Tivo up to my USB/ethernet adaptor and unplugged the phone line. It started up again and this time I used the dialing prefix ,#401 (notice the comma, per your suggestion) and it worked like a champ on both calls (less than 3 minutes each). I would advise anyone in a similar position to avoid the hassle and when you first set up your Tivo, to NOT plug in a land-based phone line and plugin a USB ethernet adaptor before you plug the unit into the power (make sure it's on Tivo's approved list) so that the unit can recognize the adaptor and initialize it prior to making the two phone calls.

It's now regularly updating itself on my home network and I can't believe I ever watched TV without it !