Need help from TiVo experts (1 Viewer)

[Henry C]

Hi,

I just got a TiVo and I've been looking around to see how I can watch live TV and record on another channel. I have seen that there is a way to use "standby" mode so that i can watch and record at the same time. How does this work?

Also, if my TV has two inputs, can I split the signal and have it go into the TV and the TiVo, so that I can watch and record at the same time? Or somehow use my PIP to get around been able to watch and record at the same time?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Henry

 

[Dmitry]

Henry,
the best place to look for TiVo answers is TiVo Community
As for your first question -- that is only possible to do with a DirecTiVo combobox with both tuners enabled. What you can do with a regulart TiVo is watch pre-recorded show while recording another.
--Dmitry

 

[James_A]

You can definatly use a splitter to send picture to the Tivo and TV at the same time if you don't have a cable box (or if you don't want to Tivo/Watch premium channels). Basically, with a standalone Tivo, you can watch one channel, or record one channel. You can also watch one thing that you've recorded while recording another. It's got one Tuner (which can either tune basic cable/antenna by itself) or it can use your existing cable box/sat reciever (for either premium channels, or digital) and if it's doing that, then splitting doesn't help much.

Hope that helps, let me know if you got any more questions!

Oh, and the Tivo Community is a great resource!

Jim

 

[Bill_D]

Hopefully we are talking about splitting a cable
feed and not satellite. Outside of cable, you need a
Sony SAT-T60 with dual tuners or a multi-tap, 2 receivers
& 2 available S-Vid inputs on receiver or display.
I opted for the SAT-T60 and had to waits months before the
software for the 2nd tuner was made available at TIVO.
As above, TIVO Community is the best place for options.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Many DirecTV assumptions.

If Henry has cable, he can split it and watch one channel and record another. At least the non-scrambled channels (no HBO, no PPV, no digital tier).

 

[Pamela]

I have have mine set up to watch live TV and record at the same time via a split signal. I have digital cable, so when I watch through the T.V. input, I can only get the analog channels. But it still works great.
Welcome to the TiVolution!

 

[Henry C]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I only have basic cable, no HBO, etc. so I did try and split the cable signal and everythings works well. The signal is not as good, as to be expected, but I am willing to put up with that.

Does anyone know if the signal amps that you get will work well or not?

I LOVE TIVO, this is one of the greatest things ever invented!!

Henry

 

[Frank Anderson]

I did try and split the cable signal and everythings works well. The signal is not as good, as to be expected, but I am willing to put up with that.

Which one is not as good?

 

[Henry C]

I noticed a small decrease in picture quality for both, I can't really say one is noticeably worse than the other. Why?

Henry

 

[Frank Anderson]

Unless you have 4 or more signal splits you should not notice a difference.

 

[FrankC]

Henry C:

I used to have my Tivo set up like yours (using a signal splitter) and noticed that both signals were weaker, too. I think the original signal I'm getting from AT&T is pretty weak to begin with, so the splitter just made a bad situation worse.

So I went back to feeding the cable signal directly to my Tivo, and attaching a coax cable from the Tivo to my TV. Using this setup, you can watch TV and record simultaneoulsy -- but you can't watch live TV with Tivo functionality.

Just put your Tivo on standby mode and switch your TV input to display whatever it's getting on the coax cable.
(BTW, I have a Tivo Series 2 -- I'm not sure if this works with the original Tivos.)

Good luck!

--f

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Not all splitters are created equal. Look for one with insertion loss of 5db or less (smaller is better).

Frank is correct, cable coming into your house should have a signal strength high enough to be split several times. When I got digital cable, they measured my signal and told me that I could split at least 7 times and still stay in spec.

 

[Henry C]

Frank C,

So do you attach a coax and a RF line from the TiVo to the TV?

Henry