stupid questions (1 Viewer)

[Steve Hill]

i'll start off by saying i know absolutely nothing about tivo or replay tv.
1st question:
can i watch one channel and record another using a direct tv reciever?
2nd question:
how?
it's not worth it to me if i can't do this. my vcr already can't do it! i work nights and want to record YANKEE games, but my wife is home at night and has no desire to watch baseball. so if there is some device that can record the games and allow my wife and child to watch whatever they want, i need it
thanks
steve

 

[Don D]

TiVo lets you do something that your VCR doesn't -- and that's watch any previously record programs while you're in the middle of recording a new show.
Thus, in your scenario, while the baseball game is being recorded your wife and kids can be watching ANY program that has previously aired. A TiVo DirecTV receiver can hold up to 35 hours of programming -- that's a lot of Oprah and Blues Clues.
-- Don

 

[Mike Lang]

The DirecTiVo will do that this summer when the 2nd internal DTV tuner is activated via a software update.
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[PaulG]

After you have TiVo for awhile, you notice that you very seldom watch live TV anymore. You will be watching something TiVo recorded. I dislike watching movies from the middle, before I had TiVo, I had no premium movie channels. Now I have quite a few, and my blockbuster card is getting dusty. If you already have a DirecTV box, get a DirecTiVo, and then you will be able to watch live TV and TiVo (record) shows at the same time. Then when the 2 tuners get fired up, you will have a DirecTV box for another room.
The only stupid questions are the unasked ones.

 

[Steve Schaffer]

I bought the standalone tivo a couple of weeks ago and within a few days stopped watching live tv except for the morning news.
If it's recording something I don't want to watch at the time, i've always got a bunch of other stuff already in the box that I can watch.
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Steve S.
I prefer not to push the subwoofers until they're properly run in.

 

[george kaplan]

No one seems to want to answer the question
The answer is no, with the current tivo and replay tv you can NOT record one thing and watch another (live) channel, although you can watch something you've already recorded.
From what I've seen of ultimate tv on the tv commercial, with that unit you can record two things at the same time, so possibly you can record one and watch one, although I don't know for certain.
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"That audience - 12 to 19 year old pimply faced, mean spirited males - came, watched and went on to whatever god-awful other pursuits" USA Network CEO describing professional wrestling fans

 

[Jeff T]

The answer is MAYBE. It depends on your TV set and component configuration.
If you have two antenna inputs on your set, one can be for over the air signals (local stations) and the second can be for sat/cable with TIVO connection. A splitter for the Ant 1 signal is needed.
I sometimes watch local stations while TIVO is recording another program. But as others have stated, I am usually watching a previous TIVO taping while the system is recording.

 

[Rod Martin]

I know practically nothing about DirectTV, so correct me if I am wrong. I believe there are single tuner and dual turner DTV receivers, right? If so, I'll bet you need the dual tuner DTV as well to be able to eventually record/record or record/watch programming from DTV.

 

[Danny R]

Ok, with TIVO you have 1 active tuner. There is a 2nd tuner in the DirecTivo model, but since its not activated yet we really can't say what it will or will not allow.
The UltimateTV does have a 2nd tuner thats active, and this model will let you record and watch 2 shows simultaneously through their unit. However that doesn't mean its always a better product. For one thing it only comes with a satellite version. No standalone models exist, thus making it useless with cable/OTA customers. Also I find the TIVO controls are more robust and allow better control. UTV for instance missed back to back episodes of shows. TIVO doesn't.
So with the current TIVO, you can tell it to record one show. So if you have another show on simultaneously that you want to watch, you will have to get that signal from another source and pipe it to your TV. The TIVO output doesn't just pass through all the channels, so you can't just hit the TV/VCR button and let your TV control the other channels.
However as someone said, you can watch a previously recorded show simultaneously while another show is recording, something VCR's currently can't do. Likewise you can watch the show currently recording on a time delay. During kickoff of the Super Bowl, a local radio host here in Atlanta set his PTV unit recording, and then went to Outback and found the place empty. After enjoying a nice meal, he got back home and started watching the game. By skipping commercials and halftime, he was caught up to the live broadcast by the 4th quarter. Try doing that with a normal VCR!