Tivo Notes to Self
Looking around the Net for information about Tivo and what to get. Lots of used Tivos available on eBay. Ideally want a unit with a lifetime subscriptions so I don’t have to pay monthly or yearly fees.
The Series2 boxes work with analog and digital cable but not HD. The Tivo HD box seems to do it all, but you need CableCards when going HD. Oceanic/Time Warner in Hawaii offers a monthly rental of CableCards at $2.70 a month, and you’d need two CableCards if you want dual tuner recording. And here’s the biggest drawback – Oceanic’s non support of “premium” HD channels with CableCards. We’re talking no HD versions of CNN, ESPN, Food, TBS, TNT, and more. While available with Oceanic, you need one of their HD DVR boxes in order to see these (of course you’d need to pay for them either way).
But the Tivo HD box currently has an expensive lifetime deal going on for $700 (and includes a wireless adapter).
On eBay, the analog only Series2 DT (dual tuner) can be found for about $460. But once you go HD, these won’t work. Or go for an used, older model?
What to do?
March 11, 2008 @ 11:45 am
Question. I have always had basic service. When I say basic, I mean 01-13, that’s it. A few weeks ago our TV died and we had to buy a new one, we bought a new HD/LCD. Now the interesting part, when I plugged in the cable, we got a HUGE selection of channels (90) or so, some of which were HD. My question is, Do we need to get a cable card if I just have basic service? What does the cable card do if all TV signals will be HD in 2009?
March 11, 2008 @ 7:14 pm
Something sounds weird here… If your old TV’s tuner could only handle channels 1-13, you mighta been paying for the 90+ channels all this time?!?
Not sure if you’re really getting HD. I’m no expert, but I thought you needed an Oceanic box for that? Oceanic’s HD stations are channels 1000+.
If you’re new TV set stretches or fits the 4:3 aspect ratio standard TV to the 16:9 size, you ain’t getting HD.
From what I understand, the CableCard allows customers NOT to get boxes from Oceanic (or other cable companies) and instead lets them get their own box like a Tivo. So instead of renting a box from Oceanic and paying a monthly rental fee, you can buy a box outright and only rent the CableCards from Oceanic.
In 2009, not all channels are going HD. They will be digital with analog being phased out. But I think that only affects customers who were like you getting only channels 1-13. Customers with cable, I think, will be taken care of since the cable company already does the analog to digital conversion??
You only need a CableCard if you want premium stuff from your cable company. And even then you won’t get everything, especially from Oceanic. On-demand stuff doesn’t work with current “one way” CableCards. And with Oceanic, you won’t get the music stations along with stuff I mentioned like ESPN HD. I don’t understand why since other premium HD stuff like HBO and Showtime HD is there. I think Oceanic is playing some dirty pool here…
March 15, 2008 @ 5:41 pm
Checked my last cable bill:
RR Residential (Savings: S9.00) – 35.95
Basic Service – 11.82
FCC User Fee – .06
Cable Franchise Fee – .59
State General Excise Tax – 2.28
Monthly Charge Total = 50.70
My HD channels are 00-199, but here’s the interesting part – I have different channels on the same station. For example, I have 100.1, 100.2, 100.3 etc of which each decimal point is a different channel. I’m really curious how Oceanic does it.
March 15, 2008 @ 8:33 pm
Must be you getting the native Hawaiian hookup! Not sure what the decimal point thing is.