The Official AVS TiVo "Series4" Premiere topic - Page 60

Hi all,
I will soon lose use of my Sony DHg's and may soon buy a Tivo. Since I'm OTA only which Tvio do you recommend? I read the series 3 has a better tuner than the new preimere. Is that true?
Also can you change the order of channels in guide like in the Sonys? Where is the best place with price in mind to buy?

Thanks
SS-Stingray

stingray -

You need a Premier or a Premier XL, or an older used model. The Premier Elite or XL4 doesn't have an OTA tuner.

I have three XL's and have no problem with the OTA tuners. My broadcast towers are about 40-45 miles away. I've never tried to chnage the order of the channels, so I don't know the answer to that one. I bought all of mine from Amazon last December.

I'm an OTA-only Sony DHG refugee myself. My TVGOS listings ended last week. I just finished provisionally setting up a new Premiere. I did the channel scan with my rooftop antenna aimed towards my "main" city, with stations mostly 50-80 miles away. All of them come in fine as far as I can tell now.

I went to the Channels section in Settings, and found that my master channel list contains not only the "main" city's stations, but also stations from two other cities that I can get if I rotate the antenna. TiVo presumably decides this according to my ZIP code. The "main" city's stations are checked (which gives me guide listings for them), and the others are not. Does the channel scan simply check/uncheck boxes, or does it also enable me to tune the stations? To put it another way, if I check the box for one of my "other" stations, and rotate the antenna so I can receive it, will I actually get it? Or do I have to do another channel scan which will presumably wipe out some of my current stations?

(I could try it, of course, but I'm in the middle of a football game that I don't want to lose. )

I am OTA only and have 3Tivos an Original Series 3, a Tivo HD, & a Premiere. They all work fine for OTA but the Premiere can not deal with multi-path issues as well as the other 2. Note multi-path issues are not necessarily related to distance from the towers so a person 50+ miles from the towers could be having no reception issues and another person 25 miles from the towers could be having lots of multi-path reception issues. Which to buy depends allot on you. Do you mind the risk of used equipment and limited future support? Or do you want a warranty and the latest and greatest? What ever you get I recommend getting life time service, the older Series 3 units are near worthless without lifetime so I wouldn't even think of one of those without lifetime already being on it.

Good Luck

Hi Joe

I see lots of familiar faces here.
No, still receiving the TVGOS in my market. It's just time to upgrade.

James

Thanks to all who answered. I have been leaning to a new premiere. Lifetime also. I read don't buy the lifetime until the second month. If you put in a cupon code I can save 100 bucks on lifetime.
Can anybody verify that? I will see if tvio has a black friday sale. If anybody sees a deal ,let me know.

Thanks

SS-stingray

Yes!

No!

Every tuner I've used before has used the PSIP data in the RF channels that it actually finds a signal on, to build the table of virtual channels versus RF channels. TiVo apparently provides this table as part of the guide data downloaded via the Internet, based on your ZIP code. So in my case, even though the TiVo's tuner had not yet actually "seen" e.g. virtual channels 36.1 and 36.2 on RF channel 22, they were in the guide data for my ZIP code. After checking the boxes for 36.1 and 36.2 in Settings --> Channels --> Channel List, and rotating my antenna, I was able to tune to those channels and see their guide data.

I was worried that I'd be "stuck" with being able to tune and get guide data for only one city at a time. But it looks like I can get guide data for all the stations that I can actually receive at least semi-regularly. Now I'm a happy camper.

Of course, if a station changes its RF channel, I'll have to depend on TiVo to update its data, but that won't happen very often.

buy lifetime upfront no advantage to waiting a month. No idea about you being able to get discount, if you know someone with a TiVo who qualifies for the Multi service discount they can buy a lifetime unit for you and transfer the unit to you after you are sure everything is working.

Good Luck,

With TiVo desktop you initiate the transfer back to the TiVo from the TiVo. TiVo desktop runs as a server so the published folders appear in the TiVo playlist menu.

I used to use kmttg for TiVo --> PC transfers until I set up a media-PC that runs 24x7. kmttg is great for manual TiVo-->PC transfers. Now I run TiVo desktop as a server which I find much more effective on a media-PC. TiVo desktop allows you to tag series for automatic transfer to remote storage as soon as the recordings complete. Information earlier in this thread indicates that transfer from PC-->TiVo Premier is fast enough to be able to play the title within a minute of starting the transfer. Its really pretty cool.

Thank you. I never thought to look at the TiVo. I was going to expand my unit with a bigger HD, but I might just let my laptop be the server. It runs WMC and doesn't do much except act as a nice Win7 backup. The box I'm using now is an old Dell XP and I have it lean and fast. I appreciate the help.

My so-called media-PC is a 9 yr old Dell XPS with an old single core Pentium and only 1GB RAM, a Gbit ethernet card and 4TB of storage. An old XP box but it has plenty of power to do the following: It runs TiVo desktop server to automatically pull over episodes of about 6 series. It runs NextPVR to record several more from a dual tuner HD Homerun. It serves HDTV and DVD video files to my media streamers and TiVo recordings back to my TiVo. It runs Mezzmo on occasion for DLNA server. Turns out you don't need a lot of CPU power for these media tasks as long as you don't use the box for playback. Rendering for playback is where the power is needed.

I'm OTA only.

I might as well mention that I had a problem getting my TiVo wireless-N adapter to connect to my network. I have two of the old "wall-wart" type Apple Airport Express wireless routers. One is connected to the DSL modem in my bedroom/office at one end of the house and configured to "Create a wireless network;" the other is about halfway across the house and configured to "Extend a wireless network." My A/V system and TiVo are at the other end of the house, which gets a good signal from the second AE. The network is protected by both a WPA2 password and MAC address filtering.

Even after entering the MAC addresses of both the TiVo and the adapter into both AE's (and restarting them), and putting the adapter a few feet from first one AE, then the other, I could not get the adapter to connect to the network when configuring it via an Ethernet connection to my MacBook. Finally I turned off MAC address filtering and restarted the AE's. Bingo! The adapter connected!

After I was satisfied things were working OK, I unplugged the power from the adapter, re-enabled MAC address filtering on the AE's, restarted the AE's and then the adapter, which connected without a hitch. The AirPort Utility on the Mac in my bedroom shows the TiVo as connected to the second AE, as it should be.

At the bottom of your now playing list on the TiVo itself, you will find your computer as well as any other TiVo units on your network.
You "Pull" from the Tivo rather than "Push" from the computer.

Thought I would stop by and say "hello". I'm another refugee from the Sony DHG world and I see some familiar names here. Just got a Premiere XL set up today. Looks like it will be very nice once I get used to the differences of how to do various things. I intend to keep one of my DHGs going until TVGOS disappears so I've got lots of time to make friends with the TiVo.

Welcome to the world of Tivo Like Apple the the only people that don't seem to like Tivo are the people that don't own a Tivo I was in the "I'd never own a Tivo" group for many years until like you I purchased one, now it along with my HDTV is the center of my TV watching.
Not sure how your paying for your guide but I went for lifetime right of the bat and don't regret it one bit. Coming from a Sony my guess is you hold onto things for quite a while, if this is the case lifetime is probably your best bet(if you can swing the high $500 up front cost). I've never had a issue with my TIvo and even if I do I figure the parts most prone to fail are easy and relatively cheap to replace, just a thought
Edited by jjeff - 11/20/12 at 2:34pm

Thanks for the welcome Jjeff. The unit already has lifetime on it (I purchased a pre-owned one on eBay). It has a brand new 2TB WD HDD in it, so I think it should be good for some time and I've already been exploring Weaknees just in case.

I do have one stooopid newby question. The DHG has an on/off switch where "off" puts the unit in standby. Do most TiVo owners just leave the unit on all the time? I know there's a standby setting by going into the menus, but that isn't like a convenient button.

It runs 24/7. I tried the internal Standby function to kill the red circle, but there's a bug in my unit that doesn't like me to do that. So I learned here that I can kill the front panel lights. I need more lights like more clocks. There is no standby button like the DHG and the TiVo HDD runs 24/7. But it's silent too. When not in use I just put the remote out of harm's way. I have found the "TiVo" button needs a little more help than the others and I already bought a spare remote.

I second what Joe said and I also have my lights turned off. Coming from DVDRs it was really against my thinking to not turn my Tivo off but mine has been running constant for years with no issues whatsoever. Mine is on a UPS, something I might suggest but not required by any means, if the Tivo loses power it just takes ~10 minutes to come back online.
Joe, I use my Tivo a ton and the remote is still working like a champ. Most all the white lettering on the buttons have worn off but it still works great
Personally I never use the hard to push "Tivo" button, don't know why but I just use other buttons to do what that funny little Tivo button does

The remote works, and it is the low end remote. But it does take me several tries to get in. The unit is not more than 5 degree from straight on. It's not a big deal, and I must have heavy fingers so I always buy a spare remote once I decide to keep a unit. I am pretty bad with little things. I have put my cell phone through the washing machine twice. Pouring wine into a remote can be a problem too. At least it was a dry white wine.

The TiVo and everything else is on a 1500VA APC UPS with a battery pack. I have a pure sine wave inverter in case I need it.

Although my TiVo remote doesn't have a "Power" or "Standby" button so you have to go into the menus to put it into standby mode, there is a functioning PowerToggle command in the Harmony database. I set up my Harmony remote so it normally leaves the TiVo on, but I can go into Device mode and put it in standby if I want.

The Tivo Premiere runs a lot cooler than the DHGs. I can't feel any heat when I touch the case.

Yeah, I rarely use the TiVo button, but I may wear out the left arrow button as I use that constantly.

I do most of my housekeeping on my iPad or iPhone. It's nice to be able to do searches, scheduling and what not while still watching the TV.

To JoeK- I find the remote to be highly responsive, more so than remotes for other my other equipment.

Well I waited for a tivo black friday but no sale!! The only thing offered is free 3 month service. Nothing for lifetime sub. At least Tampa Fla is sending out TVGOS. Looks like a long wait.I would buy a channel master 7400 but the reviews are terrible...........SS Stingray

I noticed (both). You can change to 00000 zipcode and practice manual recordings. A UPS would help too.

I just got an email with Black Friday deals starting now. There are a few that combine the Tivo and Lifetime for a total of $100 off OR Save even more on our clearance DVRs.

I just got an email with Black Friday deals starting now. There are a few that combine the Tivo and Lifetime for a total of $100 off OR Save even more on our clearance DVRs

I would take that deal but I haven't yet found that on lifttime.

SS-Stingray

The TiVo emails always seem to be a bit misleading. They claim "Lifetime" for $399, but that's always for the second Lifetime. The first is always still $499 . . .

How did you find a power toggle for the Premiere XL?

Harmony remotes are programmed using an online database that contains remote-control codes for bazillions of devices. I ran the Harmony remote software that I have on my computer and asked it to search for the TiVo Premiere. I had to go through a few more steps because there's apparently more than one TiVo remote that might be used with the Premiere. Eventually I ended up with a collection of commands that I downloaded to my Harmony remote via a USB cable. It has discrete PowerOn and PowerOff commands which don't work, so I deleted them. It also has a PowerToggle command that works; I mapped it to one of the Harmony's "soft buttons" whose configurable labels appear on the remote's LCD screen.

In my experience, it's fairly common for the Harmony database to contain commands that don't correspond to actual buttons on the original remote. Sometimes they do something useful, sometimes they don't.

I bought the Premier today for $60 on the Black Friday deal, was looking at swapping the HD for a bigger drive but discovered it has an eSata port for HD expansion so even the XL is unnecessary - unless the tuner is better. They did charge tax on the pre-sale full retail price of $299 though. It was $101 out the door with 1 month service, free shipping. I will probably upgrade to lifetime later.

I too am a DHG conversion. I must say though, I am looking forward to the remote scheduling option from my android, I will miss my Sony DHG but all good things come to an end, but as they say, one door closes and another opens up.

Greg.

Would you remember the specific model TiVo you found the Power toggle on? I've tried the Premiere XL and the Series 3 models without success.