Official AVS TiVo HD Topic! - Page 4

Comcast's service options look something like this:

1. Basic cable (locals including HD + gov't channels) - $10-$15/mo
   
   
2. Extended basic (most common nat'l channels) - Extra $35/mo
   
   
3. Comcast Digital (numerous digital filler channels + 5-10 HD channels; also includes one non-HD STB or CableCard ) - Extra $10-$16/mo.

Comcast CSRs are trained to quote all three packages together when you ask about digital service. The first item is required for TV service. However, in many service areas, you can ask for just (1) and (3).


You can use analog cable + OTA with the TivoHD without a CableCard and you'll get guide information for those channels. Unencrypted digital cable channels will show up in the guide too, but they won't have program information.

If you want program information on digital channels, you must have the CableCard. The CableCard tells the Tivo which QAM numbers correspond to what channel numbers in the guide. You would need services #1 and #3 listed above.

[quote=bfdtv;11622771]

You can use analog cable + OTA with the TivoHD without a CableCard. Unencrypted digital channels will show up in the guide, but they won't have program information.

QUOTE]

This (and Turbogadget's message) is what I was looking for, thanks.

Clarification - For the unencrypted digital channels in the guide, does the channel, start time, end time show up properly, and the "program information" that's missing is just the description/title of the show? i.e. can I still set recordings on these shows, and I just won't have the title/description of the show in the recording listing?

I'm primarily interested in the OTA stuff anyway, since my cable hd I can record on the S3.

No.

On digital cable channels, you get no information of any kind without a CableCard. As far as I know, there are no programming slots. Of course, you can still schedule manual recordings, but they won't have program titles.

You do get full guide information on analog cable and OTA channels without a CableCard. All channels are seamlessly integrated into the same guide.

I can confirm that, I just setup a 8300HDC last night, on powerup it displays OCAP before starting. Several bugs so far, which is why I'm in the Tivo forums

This is a slightly off topic question, but I'm using an UHF antenna on my roof to get my HD stations to my Tivo. Once the US goes 100% digital, will I also need to get a VHF antenna? I've heard rumors along those lines, and figure I should put up a new antenna before all of the antenna installers go out of business.

Yes. Some stations will stay UHF and some will go back to VHF.
I know here in DC several statiosn are planning to go back to the VHF frequency their analog channel is on once the analog is cut off.

Noticed an interesting feature on my newly acquired HD.
If the 30 second skip ->| is activated then using this during fast forward > the skip is multiplied. The multiplier varies by the amount of fast forward. Smallest for one >, larger for 2 >> and for 3 >>> it seems to skip 30 minutes.

Also works for rewind. 3 <<< skips 30 minutes back.
Try it, do <<< and then press the skip ->| .

Nice!

It's not multiplied. This is a standard feature called "skip to tick." It skips to the next "tick" on the progress bar.

The actual skip time will depend on the size of the tick. Each 'tick' on a three-hour recording will be much larger than a 'tick' on a one-hour recording.

Tnx for the info. Searched this thread for skip details and found none. Perhaps should have searched the S3 thread instead.

The Tivo HD was returned because it has bugs.

Connected to a Vizio GL52F 52 inch LCD via HDMI4.

Bugs:
On several occasions when switching between a recording and tuner 1 and
tuner 2 there is no sound on tuner 2. Only switching tuner 2 channels
would restore sound.

On one occasion, switching video output format from 1080i fixed to 1080i
hybrid worked but switching back to 1080i fixed (or any format) resulted
in total loss of video although the menus displayed properly.
It required a reset to restore proper operation.
The TV is not at fault, swiching to HDMI1 connected to a Sony HDD250
displayed proper video.

Features:

'Select' should not initiate recording. It is to easy to accidentally start a recording when the user expects 'select' to act as 'enter'
Recording initiation should be reserved for the 'record' key.

The Tivo should have a user selectable skip time, say 15, 30, 20, 120
seconds. like the HDD250/500 recorders. Even my Mits S-VHS tape recorder
has this feature.

Like the HDD250/500 a user selectable record buffer would be handy. The
HDD20 has a choice of 15, 30 min 1 and 2 hours.

Since I only use OTA and TWC analog cable the only Tivo feature useful to me are the dual tuners, the cable card (which the Sony also has) is of no use to me.
For now I am staying with the Sony HDD250 but plan to re-visit the Tivo HD when the promised new software appears by the end of this year.

Perhaps the bugs will be fixed as well.

Interesting, I'm trying to picture what you mean by this. By tuner 2, do you mean analog? I'm 100% OTA with both tuners only receiving digital signals and cannot recreate this problem


I also cannot recreate this problem. I did lose video when I tried sending 480i material from TivoCast via HDMI, but it came back as soon as I went to 720p hybrid. So I wonder if you're having the problem with scaling analog stations. Also, this sounds much more like a HDMI issue - I'd not be so quick to blame the TivoHD for this. I'm not defending TivoHD, but blaming the people who made HDMI so much of a pain in the ass. I've had all sorts of problems with HDMI handshaking and use component except with my HD DVD player.

We'll have to agree to disagree here. The Select button is in the perfect location to start a recording...you can find it without looking at the remote. The record button is like a shortcut for recording, but I have to look at the remote to find it.

They do! I'm a complete Tivo beginner and I set my remote to skip 30 sec at a touch of a button. What I really miss is the go to begining button, and a way to drag the current play location to a specific spot. Here's how you set the skip:


I believe they do, in a fashion. Just change the end time when you setup the recording. I do this all the time with Football games.

I agree that your first two bugs are definite problems that need to be addressed. They may go away if you use a component cable, but you should not have to do that. But the other problems you've listed with the Features seem like things you could get used to. The fact that the TivoHD has dual tuners and zero problems with getting accurate guide data, plus all of the really useful features like accurately recording new episodes, makes it worth while putting up with its minor quirks. With all the new shows starting this week and next, this is the perfect week to have dual tuners.

My wife almost always rolls her eyes every time I bring home a new device for my TV. After we've had the TivoHD for a few weeks, she said that this may be the the first good addition since I brought home a DVD player.

OK.


Not sure how you can pin this on the TiVo. It could just as easily be the display being unable to re-sync with the HDMI stream when the TiVo's swapping tuners (which probably temporarily disrupts the data flow between the TiVo and display).

Swapping to the Sony on another HDMI input also forced the display to sync up with another HDMI device, which probably forced it to start from scratch and thus clear up the problem you were seeing. I can't see how this can be directly attributed to the TiVo.



From where ? The menus, the guide, watching live TV, watching a pre-recorded show ? Where ?

The select operation only serves as a confirmation of a user-initiated process in the first place. The TiVo isn't just gonna decide to record a show for you and query if it's OK or not...



Go complain to the content providers. TiVo has a 30-second skip, which works perfectly well, but they have to keep it disabled by default because the big content guys don't want us skipping their precious commercials. You can enable it by hitting Select-Play-Select-3-0-Select



Whoopee-doo. Good for Sony.


There's likely to be nothing even remotely close to what your complaining about in the upcoming Winter software update. It's going to add features which include sharing video files to/from one TiVo to another, or even between the TiVo and a PC. Your laundry list of complaints simply illustrate your attempted use of the box in a manner that's not consistent with how it actually works.

Don't say the box is faulty just because it doesn't work the way YOU want it to.


Perhaps you'll take a few minutes to RTFM before deciding that the box is faulty. Have fun with your obsolete and End-Of-Lifed Sony box.

......
Not sure how you can pin this on the TiVo. It could just as easily be the display being unable to re-sync with the HDMI stream when the TiVo's swapping tuners (which probably temporarily disrupts the data flow between the TiVo and display).

Swapping to the Sony on another HDMI input also forced the display to sync up with another HDMI device, which probably forced it to start from scratch and thus clear up the problem you were seeing. I can't see how this can be directly attributed to the TiVo.....

Then please explain why all the menus display perfectly, but the video does not. The data all travels the same HDMI connection. Lack of sync would have disabled the connection all together.
Have not been able to replicate this problem after several attempts, it has so far been a one time occurrence.

And please don't tell a (retired) electronics engineer to RTFM. Been there, done that and read the Q&A on the Tivo site including browsing the Tivo community forum and the S3 thread.

Amd as Mark Rubin, AVS super moderater states in his sig, criticize the post, not the poster.

So, you returned the box after it had occurred once ?


Those were basic TiVo operations that are easily found in the manual, or even a cursory search either here or at TCF. You were asking questions that begged an RTFM response...

What you're describing sounds exactly like what would happen if you were sending a 480i signal in Native mode via HDMI. Is it possible that you had the Tivo sending in the Native mode instead of 1080i? It seems likely if you were not able to repeat it. The other possibility was that the Tivo was incorrectly not scaling the 480i signal.

Honestly, I've no idea why anyone wants to use HDMI with a box like this. Yeah, one cable is nice, but HDTV picture quality certainly doesn't warrant it, and all that flashing while sync-ing it so irritating.

Although I'm not sure why Paul was so aggressive about it, the 'Features' portion of your post did sorta seem to be begging for someone to flame you.

Hyrax...
Quote:
I also cannot recreate this problem. I did lose video when I tried sending 480i material from TivoCast via HDMI, but it came back as soon as I went to 720p hybrid. So I wonder if you're having the problem with scaling analog stations. Also, this sounds much more like a HDMI issue - I'd not be so quick to blame the TivoHD for this. I'm not defending TivoHD, but blaming the people who made HDMI so much of a pain in the ass. I've had all sorts of problems with HDMI handshaking and use component except with my HD DVD player.

HDMI has problems alright and is the subject of many complaints on AVS. Perhaps cable/connector problems?
I use mostly cables from Monoprice.
The Vizio 52 has zero problems with HDMI switching so far.
HD DVD on HDMI 3, Sony HD250 on HDMI1, Tivo on HDMI4, Panny S97 DVD and LG-LST4200a on HDMI2 via a Monoprice 4x1 HDMI switcher. All switch seamlessly including switching to a Sony HX900 on component1 and a Mits S-VHS VCR on S-video input.
Despite several further attempts at video format switching the problem has not occurred again. A fluke maybe ?

quote:Interesting, I'm trying to picture what you mean by this. By tuner 2, do you mean analog? I'm 100% OTA with both tuners only receiving digital signals and cannot recreate this problem

Happened twice. As I recall one time both tuners set to OTA DTV and later one tuner to OTA DTV and the other tuner set to analog cable. Has not happened since.

quote: I set my remote to skip 30 sec at a touch of a button.

This is one of the first things I did, thanks to the info on this and the S3 thread. Works fine, but would prefer a 1 minute skip.

Dual tuner is great, but my main interest is in the esata connection and I would prefer to see that enabled by Tivo, rather than having to go trough the 'hack' with Winfs as described on the S3 thread.

Will keep following this thread and when esata is activated will get Tivo HD again.

PS to make it perfectly clear the video loss after format switching happened on when switching back to 1080i fixed. Did not hapopen after switching away from 1080i. Just ran another test, switched from 1080i to native and back, no problem this time. Also tested the 4200A in native mode, again no problem.
Must have been a one time glitch. Perhaps the system reset did the job.

Don't mind being flamed, just don't feel it is constructive to tell posters to read the manual

BTW have not returned the Tivo yet, waiting to see what happens when the week is up since I have not subscribed to the service..
So have another chance at that video switching situation and will specifically try the 480i mode. Had not thought about that since the LST4200A has native among it's many multiple output modes and does not cause video loss.
Did not plan to use the Tivo in any mode except 1080i or 720p, just exploring the capabilities of the box and seeing how all the different settings work. That's what engineers do.

As for my comments on features, I see nothing wrong with comparing a Sony HDD250 or indeed any video recorder with the Tivo. The Tivo has features the Sony lacks and vice versa. My comments were more in the vein of a 'wish list'.

When esata is factory enabled, via a software upgrade I hope, the Tivo will be tried gain.

Peter, I've a LG LST-3410A and it will not send analog (480i) video via HDMI if I'm in Native mode - I get a blank screen with a note in the lower right corner saying "HDMI Unsupported".

And I'm also waiting impatiently for eSATA to be officially enabled. I can easily see the need for more than a couple of TB of external storage. However, it will be almost as useful when they enable the ability to offload video to a network computer.

Oh, and I think you can add a 60 second skip if you want, but many (most) commercial breaks are in half minute increments so you'd be searching backwards all the time.

Comparisons are fine. Calling the normal operations of a device a BUG because it doesn't work the way you want it to is incorrect. Especially if you consider yourself someone who's somewhat related to the technical field.

BUG : The TiVo remote doesn't have a "STOP" button.

Not a bug. That's the intended operation of the box.



Might have to wait until late this year or early next year. Hope you can wait that long...

Thanks for the info.
Had to haul out the LST-4200 manual and DVI does not have the 480i fixed setting and the native (and variable) setting de-interlaces 480i to 480p. No error message, The Vizio reports 480p on a 480i local analog OTA broadcast regardless of the 4200 output format setting. To get 480i I would have to to component/composit/S-video.

Back to the Tivo. Again switched from 1080i fixed to 480i fixed .. OK on 480i broadcast, TV reports 480i. Switched to 'native' looked at FOX news analog cable, Vizio reports 480i.
Back to 1080i, no problem.
So the switched format loss of video is not reproducible so far.

Perhaps I should keep this box after all.

The 3410A is a nice unit. It's a shame LG did not follow up with new versions.

BTW how is a 60 sec skip enabled. I tried using the 30 sec sequence substituting 60 for 30 but no joy.

Ummm.... Hit the 30second skip button twice ?

Of course, but on FOX news for example it takes 5 to 6 skips to get back to the program. Is the skip button rugged enough to take that abuse day in day out?

Hyrax thinks a 60 second skip is possible. Do you have any info on that ?

It's a remote button. It's not like they're over-engineering that particular button on the remote because they knew people would be banging on it more than the others. It'll work 'til it doesn't.

You have a 30 second skip available to you via the TiVo remote, and nothing else. There are no other back doors to enable other values.

If you had a programmable remote, you could set up a macro to repeat the 30-second skip multiple times to get what you want.

It seems I am not alone is experiencing the missing video problem
See here: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb...d.php?t=365824

It happened again today

i am awaiting shipment of the Tivo HD and my cable install is scheduled for next week. i apologize for a newbie question... i am planning to transfer the service from an existing S2. can i go ahead and transfer the service and use the Tivo HD for OTA-only and get recordings ahead of the cablecard install? is there an indication on cablecards if it is multistream? thanks!

I've not tried it yet (the 30 second skip is perfect in my mind), but the sequence for programming the 30 second skip includes pressing the 3 button then the 0 button. I assume that is the duration of the skip...but maybe not. What happens if you press the 6 and then the 0? Do you get a 60 second skip?

A 60 second skip will mean that you'll be pressing the '7 seconds back' button a lot....probably more than you'd press the skip button if you're using 30 secs. So I don't think you'll be saving wear and tear on the remote.

I don't think I can be any more clearer than my original post.

There is only one value that the TiVo will accept for the skip function : 30 seconds.

select-play-select-3-0-select is the only sequence that will be accepted by the TiVo.

To avoid missing something, we occasionally record an OTA show via both NTSC and ATSC simultaneously. This produces two recordings of the same show. The NTSC recording serves as a backup to cover any dropouts in the ATSC recording.

Can the Tivo HD do this? If so, how does one choose the desired (NTSC or ATSC) recording of the same show?

They are broadcast on two different channels, so you just set up a separate recording for each.