Paul_Fisher

Question for those who have DirecTivo...

Does the phone line have to be connected for it to work properly? My phone line is totally across the room so it won't be connected to the receiver, is this a problem?

Thanks

Philip_G

Yes, it will stop working if it can't call home every night. You could get one of those wireless phone adapter thingys

Patrick_S

Once the initial setup is complete I don't believe that you need the phone line since all of the guide information is downloaded via satellite.

For more complete information you could try the Tivo Community Forum.

Tivo Community Forum

Edit: I guess I stand corrected.

JamesHl

No, the only difference is it will annoy you with screens to plug it in and you can't watch sports or ppv. Other than that it's exactly the same. I speak form experience.

Philip_G

And the season pass, and general recording functions. they don't call it boat anchor mode for nothin'
TiVo is a subscription service, a daily call is the only way to verify you've paid, otherwise it assume you have not. Unless the V2's have changed it'll nag you for like 30 days then Boom. No more tivo happy fun time.

Paul_Fisher

You can still do this through the web though right?

Philip_G

some good info here.
Linky

Tim Markley

The one thing that pisses me off about the DirecTivo is that it requires a phone connection. I want to completely get rid of my home phone but I can't because of this. I went out and bought a wireless USB connection to connect it up to my wireless network only to find out that the USB ports have been disabled in the Series 2 DirecTivo. Completely unacceptable since the standalone units all have USB ports that work and allow you to use the Home Media option.

Philip_G

Tim, you can buy a PCMCIA adapter for the TiVo that allows a wireless lan card, though come to think of it I don't recall if it works on a V2

oh SUCK! doesn't look like they do, sorry man.
http://www.9thtee.com/tivoairnet.htm

does the V2 have a lan port or anything on it? you can get external replicators, or just use a WAP. Have you researched a bit? it might be possible to load the USB driver
afterall, a TiVo is nothing more than a powerPC chip running linux...

BrianB

We're in exactly the same situation, and have a DirecTivo. We hook it up using a long phone extension once a month to dial-out when the daily nags get annoying. It must be hooked up for the initial setup, but after that, you do not need to be hooked up for day to day operation - just make the occasional call-up.

We don't do PPV though. Even then, I believe as long as it calls out once a fortnight, PPV works okay...

high resolution ipod featuring dlp hd programming is the best, almost as good as playstation 2 with wega windows media on a super cd! ps2 and tivo do dolby tv with broadband hdtv!