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[FeedMeAStrayCat]

I just recently got a TIVO this past Thursday or Friday and I have a few problems with it so far.. here's what I have (just so you know):
TIVO Series 2 with 40 gig HD (the cheapest TIVO available off their site, pretty much)
and
I'm using Comcast Digital Cable (so yes, I have a cable box)

Today, when I looked on the Now Playing List, one of the shows I put on my Season pass list recorded on Friday night (Threshold, in case you care). When I went to play it today though, it was just a black screen I could fast forward and rewind through. What happened? It didn't delete it automatically because of space requirements or anything, I checked that. And it's not that all the shows I record are like that.. I just tried recording a few today and they all showed up fine.

Also, can I watch another channel while recording? It keeps giving me this message about not being able to change the channel while recording, and that does pretty much suck. I noticed in the instruction manual that if you use a cable splitter and another cable, you can bypass that.. but this was only for non-cable box users.

Can I turn my comcast cable box off and still have TIVO record?

Do I need to be on the correct channel before something is getting ready to record or does it just change channels itself?

 

[Stuggernaut]

Comcast sucks.

That is all.















Joke!

Well the "That is all" part was...Comcast does suck.

As for your problems. The black screen seems odd...sounds like there was no signal from your cable box when it was set to record (yes it has to be on ;P). I use DirectTV and my Tivo IS my box...so not sure why you need two.

Two record TWO shows at once, you need to have two lines coming in, so in your case YES a splitter will let you watch one while recording another. So you have digital cable I imagine and you need the decoder box for decode the signal? If I were you, I'd put the cable from wall to decoder box, then from box to Tivo (split for two lines) and from Tivo to your TV.

Done.

Oh, and Comcast sucks ;P (At least in my area it does, WAY too expensive, and shitty service)

 

[FeedMeAStrayCat]

Comcast sucks.

That is all.















Joke!

Well the "That is all" part was...Comcast does suck.

As for your problems. The black screen seems odd...sounds like there was no signal from your cable box when it was set to record (yes it has to be on ;P). I use DirectTV and my Tivo IS my box...so not sure why you need two.

Two record TWO shows at once, you need to have two lines coming in, so in your case YES a splitter will let you watch one while recording another. So you have digital cable I imagine and you need the decoder box for decode the signal? If I were you, I'd put the cable from wall to decoder box, then from box to Tivo (split for two lines) and from Tivo to your TV.

Done.

Oh, and Comcast sucks ;P (At least in my area it does, WAY too expensive, and shitty service)

Ok, thanks for your help.. yeah, it'd be even better to record two shows at once, but I know that's not possible with this TIVO box. And I need two boxes because this isn't some sort of Comcast TIVO thing. I have my Comcast digital cable box (box #1) and the TIVO box which I just bought recently (box #2). I don't have Comcast's own DVR thing.

 

[FeedMeAStrayCat]

Also.. I have another question. This may sound dumb, but.. is it possible for TIVO to record and just skip over the commercials? I thought I remembered reading about that a long time ago about it being a feature of TIVO, but perhaps I was wrong..

 

[Phoenix]

Also.. I have another question. This may sound dumb, but.. is it possible for TIVO to record and just skip over the commercials? I thought I remembered reading about that a long time ago about it being a feature of TIVO, but perhaps I was wrong..

No, the TIVO unit can't skip over them while recording... at least not the base default unit.

 

[FeedMeAStrayCat]

No, the TIVO unit can't skip over them while recording... at least not the base default unit.

Thanks very much!

 

[cubanb]

Also.. I have another question. This may sound dumb, but.. is it possible for TIVO to record and just skip over the commercials? I thought I remembered reading about that a long time ago about it being a feature of TIVO, but perhaps I was wrong..

well sort of.....


watch live tv or one of your programs off the now playing list. While watching the program PRESS SELECT - PLAY - SELECT - 3 - 0 -SELECT. You should hear a noise indicating this worked.

What that does is enable the ->| button that previously brought you from earlier in a program to live tv to turn into a 30 second advance button. I use this and press it a few times and it gets you pretty damn close to the return of the program, skipping the commercials well. Sometimes it goes a little too far and I use the 8 second back button.

I love it!

 

[maynerd]

well sort of.....


watch live tv or one of your programs off the now playing list. While watching the program PRESS SELECT - PLAY - SELECT - 3 - 0 -SELECT. You should hear a noise indicating this worked.

What that does is enable the ->| button that previously brought you from earlier in a program to live tv to turn into a 30 second advance button. I use this and press it a few times and it gets you pretty damn close to the return of the program, skipping the commercials well. Sometimes it goes a little too far and I use the 8 second back button.

I love it!

Actually you can NOT be watching live tv when doing this you must be viewing a recorded show.

 

[cubanb]

yea you are right. My bad.

Its a great feature though. Ive thought of changing it to 20 or 25 when I watch recorded football games. I have tried using the 30 second skip to skip from the end of one play to the start of the next 30 seconds is a little too much on most plays if you want to do that. It is close, but goes a little too far. If i pressed S-P-S 2-5-S would that work?

However for commercials, this 30 second skip works great.

 

[AirBrian]

I just recently got a TIVO this past Thursday or Friday and I have a few problems with it so far.. here's what I have (just so you know):
TIVO Series 2 with 40 gig HD (the cheapest TIVO available off their site, pretty much)
and
I'm using Comcast Digital Cable (so yes, I have a cable box)

1) Today, when I looked on the Now Playing List, one of the shows I put on my Season pass list recorded on Friday night (Threshold, in case you care). When I went to play it today though, it was just a black screen I could fast forward and rewind through. What happened? It didn't delete it automatically because of space requirements or anything, I checked that. And it's not that all the shows I record are like that.. I just tried recording a few today and they all showed up fine.

2) Also, can I watch another channel while recording? It keeps giving me this message about not being able to change the channel while recording, and that does pretty much suck. I noticed in the instruction manual that if you use a cable splitter and another cable, you can bypass that.. but this was only for non-cable box users.

3) Can I turn my comcast cable box off and still have TIVO record?

4) Do I need to be on the correct channel before something is getting ready to record or does it just change channels itself?

I have a TiVo with Comcast...

1) When you first install your TiVo, it can take 2 days to download all the information. The same thing happened to me, but it worked perfectly after about 2 days.

Also, like it's already been said, make sure your cable box is on at all times. One more point on this: do you have a VCR connected as well? Depending on your setup, the VCR will override the cable signal. TiVo isn't smart enough to tell where the TV source is coming from, so it'll still record (this has happened to me a couple of times).

2) You can split the cable to watch something else while the TiVo is recording. The only drawback is that you lose the TiVo functionality (pause, rewind, etc.). Here's my setup:

Cable (from wall) --> cable box --> A/B switch --> TiVo --> TV
                                         |
                                         |
                                          --> TV

So when TiVo is recording something and I want to watch something else, I flip the switch to B and change the TV channel (not the cable channel).

3) No. The cable box must be on.

4) TiVo will change the channel for you. The Series 2 has two options: the IR and the serial port. Check the back of your cable box for a serial port. If it does not have one, call up Comcast and get one that does. They should do this for no charge.

Use the serial port because the IR way sucks.

EDIT: And listen to cubanb. The 30-sec skip feature is TV gold!