Powered by i.TV
February 11, 2012
 
CONNECT    

Tivo: A cautionary tale

by Adam Finley, posted Dec 9th 2005 4:54PM
I tend to be wary when it comes to technology. I don't get excited about new gadgets, and even as they become more ubiquitous I still stay away from them until I'm convinced there's really a need. This has served me well, I think, but it can have its disadvantages. I shall explain:

About one month ago I bought a Tivo. It's a great device, and I pretty much watch all my programs through it now. At least, I did until about two weeks ago when the unit was suddenly unable to maintain a connection to my phoneline. I made many calls to Tivo tech support, and they walked me through every possible solution to solve my problem: unplug the unit and plug it back in, call the phone company to make sure the line is clear, throw the Tivo against the wall, etc. Finally, they determined the problem was with the unit itself, so they sent me a new one.

To make a long story slightly less longer, the problem was never with the Tivo itself. The problem was that I didn't have a filter on the phoneline coming from the Tivo, which caused my Tivo and DSL to interrupt one another. I found this out not through Tivo, but through my DSL provider. It was a simple solution that took all of five seconds to resolve, but my inherent technophobia turned it into a two week ordeal. If you have DSL and you're planning on getting Tivo, I hope you will heed my story. Or, if you're more tech-minded than I, then I hope you enjoy laughing at me for not knowing this in the first place. Either way is cool.

Add a Comment

*0 / 3000 Character Maximum

14 Comments

Filter by:
Bruce

Why would anyone use Series 1? Well maybe instead of throwing it away after I upgraded to Series 2 I put the Series 1 on a second TV in the basement instead?

December 10 2005 at 11:47 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
MegaZone

Sorry to hear about the trouble. The problem with DSL is that the frequencies used to carry the signal can bleed into the high end of the band used for modems. So DSL on the line can mess up the modem, even if it isn't audible to the human ear on the phone. The filter basically blocks anything above a specific frequency, cutting the interference off from the modem. But it can also limit the speed the modem connects at. If you have a Series2 TiVo you'd be much better off connecting it to the broadband. That would allow you to listen to music and view photos across the network, schedule recordings online (via TiVo's website, AOL, and Yahoo!), access Home Media Engine applications, transfer video to and from a PC (TiVoToGo), and use the new broadband applications from Yahoo!, Fandango, and Live365. See http://www.tivo.com/getready for more info. And for TiVo resources, see http://www.tivolovers.com/info Akbar, since 7.2 was released a couple of months ago the phone line isn't required at all. Units have been shipping with 7.2 for a while, but the retail channel is still full of a lot of pre-7.2 units so you may not get 7.2 if you buy one now. But even with pre-7.2 you could do Guided Setup using a wired Ethernet adapter if you use ",#401" as the dialing prefix, it is a backdoor.

December 10 2005 at 10:45 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Kel

I agree that this (DSL Filters) is a technology problem, but it's a DSL one and not TiVo. As much as we want technology to be user (grand parents) friendly, it's usually not. That's just the price we pay for all that tech-sweetness. BTW: DSL is also known to mess with burglar alarms that connect to the phone line, so consider yourself warned.

December 10 2005 at 10:25 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Kel

I still love my Series 1, so much that I am in constant fear of the day when my S1 DirectTiVos die. It's not that I don't want S2s, but I just don't have to time to re-learn hacking series 2 devices, and the hard core tend to get p!ssy with "Hey, would someone give me a step by step to hack my Series 2 DTiVo, because I don't have the time to do the research myself." `Shields up No. 1`

December 10 2005 at 10:15 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Dorv

Unfortuately the Series 2 TiVos that come from DirecTV (and assumably Dish) are NOT able to use the internet. Which bugs the heck out of me, b/c I pay 13 bucks a month (with all the taxes, add-on fees) for the phone, on top of my TiVo fee (only 5 bucks or so) from DirecTV. I've heard that they are THINKING about finally upgrading the software, b/c the hardwares all there. But, DirecTV isn't pushing TiVo anymore, so I doubt that rumor.

December 09 2005 at 10:58 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Measure

It's not so much that I WANT to be using a series one, it's that I lack the capital at the moment to buy a series 2 plus lifetime sub, or even monthly payements for a regular sub. I think at this point, however, I'm going to hold out for the Digital-Cable-Ready-HD-Tivo that will come out in the next year or two.

December 09 2005 at 7:36 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Akbar Fazil

Hey GD, ive got an answer for you. A series 2 tivo unit has a usb port on it. You can buy a USB network adapter to use for the tivo. You then run a network cable into your router. You can then use the internet through the router to get updates from tivo and to transfer programs off with tivotogo as well as using tivos home media options. You will however still need to do the initial setup over a land line. You can use a friends phone to do this, it need not be at the location where the tivo resides.

December 09 2005 at 6:57 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Akbar Fazil

a network card was the very first thing I put in my old series 1. Why anyone would still want to be using a series 1 however still boggles my mind.

December 09 2005 at 6:54 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
gd

slightly off topic, but related - I'm using the Dish PVR and trying to find away around the phoneline requirement (extra $ charge each month). I happen to be living in the modern age and do not have a landline, cell-only. L'Emmerdeur, you say your Tivo connects via your cable modem. Is this something particular to Tivo, or is there a phone/cable modem path I should know about?? Thanks for allowing me to break into the Tivo discussion...

December 09 2005 at 6:49 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Akbar Fazil

a network card was the very first thing I put in my old series 1. Why anyone would still want to be using a series 1 however still boggles my mind.

December 09 2005 at 6:48 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply

Follow Us

From Our Partners