Official AVS TiVo HD Topic! - Page 8

I was surprised as well. I have a perfect southwest exposure, too.

You could try to move your antenna a foot left,right, up or down.
Also make sure the direction is correct since UHF antennas are very directional. Moving my antenna even a few inches can cause lower reception on one channel or another. Destructive interference is a big problem with UHF. Even big flat areas with open exposure can be a problem as the signal can reflect off big flat areas and interfere with the direct signal. Nodes are created, so moving a little bit can avoid a destructive node. It might be worth trying.

With Insight right now I have basic cable and the HD package. Basic is $13.33 (mostly local channels in HD) and currently the HD package ($7.99) includes everything they offer in HD. With Comcast taking over next year I'm sure it will be dropped real quick and I'll go back to DirecTV. Anyone want to pre-order two slightly used TiVo HDs?

Don't be too quick to jump. Some/all of your current package will probably be grandfathered in, as long as you don't modify your services. I've been on the basic package with the hddvr for a couple years (paying about $25/month total). This combination of services is no longer availabe, as they now require digital cable to get the dvr.

So, as I understand it, tivo doesn't work with clear QAM channels (without a cable card) in the sense that you can't get any listing information for them.

But, does anyone know if there are any plans in the future to support manual channel mapping? If the box can accept a channel map from a cable card, it should be easy to add a human interface to create a map in cases where no cable card is being used.

I am actually considering a Tivo HD (even though the subscription thing really rubs me the wrong way), but not being able to get listings and do recordings for my clear QAM channels is a non-starter.


Mitch

There are no public plans to support channel mapping. Sorry.

YEAH, WHICH IS PRETTY &#$^#$&@ ANNOYING TOO!!!

ahem...sorry...one of my hot buttons...

"You can get your local HD stations from your cable company without paying for the HD tier - all you need is the most basic cable tier. They all arrive in clear QAM format. Unfortunately, TivoHD doesn't provide any QAM mapping, so you have to use the TivoHD like a dumb VCR to record these stations.[/quote]

Wow, that is a major design flaw for me. My old Sony HD DVRs do QAM mapping with TV Guide. It is clumsy, but it works and is free. How about the mapping with OTA broadcasts? Lew Black

I am in the OTA and basic cable camp. I just don't watch that much TV. When I do I like a great picture, but I always have a book that I am reading, I listen to music, and work out a lot. If I watch 4 or 5 hours of serious TV a week (a Broncos game, a Sunday TV show with the wife, a PBS show) I can't see paying more than that. When I watch a movie it is a rented DVD. The only thing I miss is some sports broadcasting that is only available on cable or Satellite, but it isn't worth an extra $40 or more bucks a month for a few shows a month that I am missing.

Others use TV for much more of their entertainment than I do. When I retire I can see broadening my content to add more as I will have more time to view. Of course I will have less disposable income then! Different strokes... I remember when cable first came out my reaction was "who would pay for TV???" The answer, to my surprise, was most of us. Lew

Let me ask this: My Sony HDD250 allows me to go to an analog station and manually change the number. Thus I can go to analog 4 and put in 89.1 for the station number. This way, when cable remaps I can make the changes manually rather than do a search. I have also had trouble finding some of the new QAM stations when I search for new stations, so I added them this way.

Is it possible to change an analog OTA to a digital one this way and thus get the program guide? Lew

With a bit more googling after asking my question above, I found that there's no solution to this problem. There's a long thread about this on the tivocommunity forums. The tivocommunity thread got very heated at times and I would hate to see this thread go that way.

So, bottom line is that there is no way to get guide data for clear QAM channels unless you get a cablecard. For this cheapskate basic cable guy who doesn't want to pay the extra $ for a cablecard and can't get CBS OTA with my current antenna, this means no Tivo in my foreseeable future.

And, FWIW, I also have the Sony DHG DVR and so understand how it works. The Tivo doesn't support the mapping like the Sony does.


Mitch

Lew -
No, you cannot do that either. In another thread, on the TivoCommunity forum, I read a post that not only is there no QAM mapping, there are no plans to support it. I'm not sure if that is true or not, but I would not be surprised if it were.

If you need QAM mapping, just hold onto your Sony HDD250. I kept my LG 3410A for that reason. But I find that I never use it...the Tivo is so much easier to use.

It has been made pretty-clear that it was deliberate. Remember, TiVo had to placate the MSOs to get CableLabs approval for their device. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that channel mapping was one of the casualties of that. Political reality; not design flaw.

I got the go ahead from our finance department.

She had a good question though. She asked when would we need a new one? Granted I've had the same Comcast box for 4 years but if something new came along it's not hard to upgrade with no cost, which I can't do here. So which of the two are better suited for future changes?

I really like the larger HDD in the Series3 but with Tivo2Go, that might not be such a big factor. I don't archive much but I do tend to record things and never get around to watching them until 6 months later.

I went with the TiVo HD. The internal hard drive on the HD is easily replaceable and the eSATA port is now enabled to be able to connect approved external storage devices. So, the extra space on the S3 isn't in my opinion. There are some other niceties of the S3 you might consider which were not important to me either... additional display information on the front of the unit, backlit remote and maybe some others. None of this was worth the additional cost of the S3 over the HD to me.

When will you need a new one? Hmmm - unless you have a board-level hardware failure, probably not for a long time.

- It's been suggested that there's a workaround in progress for when SDV becomes a reality, so that's not too big a concern.

- You can replace the internal hard drive fairly easily, so you have an upgrade path and don't have to worry about hard drive failure.

- Maybe when then 'next-big resolution' comes along? Can't see that happening for a while, and you don't really have to live on the bleeding edge

Buy the add-on extended warranty, or buy it from somewhere that offers an 'unconditional satisfaction' guarantee with all their items and you should be set for many years

I'll be using my Harmony 880 anyway so that's a non-issue but the display would be nice. Does the THX cert make a difference or is it nothing more than an expensive sticker?

With the Series 3 having a $200 rebate and easy to find discounted price at places like Circuit City or Amazon, I'd buy the Series 3.

I don't put much stock into THX certifications. It is what it is. Lots of information through the forums, I won't rehash here.

I'm not sure of what information is displayed on the front of the S3 that is not on the HD. I don't look at the front of my equipment, so I didn't bother to check that out.

That was my thought too but putting out that initial $550 hurts. Plus, didn't I read that the TivoHD has better support for some new cable card coming out whereas the S3 they're still figuring out how to implement it?


Here's an example:

I won't diss the S3 on this point because I don't know, but I did hear that the TivoHD would have support for MCard or multi-card which is like using one cablecard for multiple feeds instead of using two cablecards for two tuners, for example.

Sure, the discounts on the S3 sound good, but then you have to compare that against discounts for the TivoHD. Someone can't say that the S3 is comparable in price to the TivoHD without first applying sale prices, coupons and discounts on the TivoHD, too.

What discount is available on the TivoHD? All I've seen is the $200 off for the S3.

You can easily find the Tivo HD for ~$250. Some have been able to leverage B&M sales/coupons and price matching to get it down around $220.

I got my HD for $249.

The picture you showed of the S3 is pretty nice. Hmmmm....

Personally, I hate dealing with mail in rebates. I'm not good at tracking and making sure I actually GET it.

If I hadn't been planning on replacing the internal hard drive on the HD, I may have gone for the S3, but, buying the S3 and then replacing the internal hard drive seemed crazy.

If the initial outlay in price was only $100 difference between the two, I wouldn't hessitate and I'd go for the S3.

If you look around the net you can find the TivoHD for $40-$50 less than the list price. If take the effort and are patient, you may also find the same deals at big box stores. There is no rebate for it.

I was actually saying that it was a mistake to compare the list price of the S3 to the list price of the TivoHD. I figured anyone could do the math and compare the final numbers (the S3 ends up costing $90-100 more than the TivoHD after the rebate).

Agreed - even the S3's hard drive is too small for real men but I do like that sweet, sweet OLED and the backlit remote... hmmm...

I think the TivoHD is great. However...it drives me nuts when I see it is recording two shows, but there is no indication which shows they are. That OLED display strikes me as almost a required feature.

Yeah, go for the S3 then. Now you're making me wish I had. LOL

Never thought of that. Yeah, I agree! The only way now is to turn on my projector and the info screen shows what is recording. Having that on the front of the TiVo would be cool.

Hmmmm... maybe worth a call to return this.