My long cable box to Tivo nightmare is over. I’m posting these instructions for those who may go through the same horrid mess. I didn’t find these anywhere.
Comcast in Berkeley — from who I have gotten truly terrible customer service throughout this – is switching to new, digital equipment; independent of but, to confuse things, simultaneous with, the larger digital changeover. I have talked with roughly two dozen people at Comcast (I’m not exaggerating) and gotten every possible story about whether I can, and if so how, still use my Tivo Series 2 and my analog TV with their new box. I have a perfectly good TV and a Tivo box with lifetime service; I had no intention of buying new ones, not just now. I find it annoying enough that I have to pay for cable, but the TV I watch is almost exclusively on cable channels.
Ta-da — here’s how you do it.
1. Get a Tivo IR Blaster. In theory, this came with your Tivo. It enables the Tivo remote control to control your cable box. If I did have one, I have no idea where it is now. I got one at Weaknees.com – they sell other Tivo accessories. I was told to be sure to get the kind where the sensors at the end turn at 90 degree angles, like this you see in this image from http://www.weaknees.com/tivo-cables.php
The purple end plugs into the back of the Tivo, into “channel change – IR”.
Use a flashlight to see the IR receiver behind the dark glass in front of your cable box. The two “boot” ends go over and under the box so that they both shine on the IR receiver, though another images from Tivo suggests you can get away with just one sensor:
2. Run the cables from wall to cable box to Tivo to TV.
3. Go into Tivo settings and have it run setup again. You have to tell it that you’re using a cable box (which I wasn’t before), and it has to figure out which one, which is what the setup process allows you to tell it to do. (There’s probably a more direct route than running setup all over again, but I didn’t think of that in time.)
4. Make sure the Tivo and the Cable Box both require the same TV channel (slider on the back of the Tivo picks 3 or 4) and set the TV to the correct channel.
5. Finally! You can control Tivo and the cable box simultaneously, using the Tivo remote control, and the Tivo can record from cable. Until I did all this, I could (1) set tivo and tv on ch 3 and see whatever channel the cable box was set to, but (2) could not record.
It has taken me approximately a month, two dozen calls, one visit to Comcast, and one visit from a Comcast service person. The latter finally was able to tell me what to do (thanks, Keisha!) but couldn’t get things set up because I didn’t have an IR blaster. And she didn’t tell me that I had to rerun Tivo setup once I got it — I was stumped at why I had all the pieces connected but they weren’t working together.
Update July 28: One more thing: it only records correctly if I leave the Tivo box ON. That’s a waste of energy, but I had trouble recording — it thought it had the right channel, everything looked right, the show listed was the one I asked to be recorded — but the content was wrong; it wasn’t changing channels. It seems that the only solution is to never turn the Tivo box off.
17 responses so far ↓
kk // July 23, 2009 at 6:55 pm |
thank you. I just got a new digital cable box from comcast and have been going crazy all night trying to get Tivo to change the digital channels. I set it up as you said and it works great.
thanks
BS // July 28, 2009 at 12:53 am |
Thanks for the info. I was going mad. Since you seem to have some knowledge, one question–on the channel list, did you select “cbl” or “box” for your channels? I’m having some issues with that.
N. // July 28, 2009 at 2:52 pm |
Box. I don’t know much about this, except what I learned through long, sorry experience, digging around online and, most of all, from Comcast Berkeley’s service rep Keisha. Comcast should give her a raise. She was the ONLY person who actually understood how all this worked and gave me accurate advice.
Tony Reveaux // July 30, 2009 at 7:32 pm |
I have everything, IRs and all, set up, but I can’t get any Tivo menu (I miss it so!) or other page up on the screen to do any of the channel commands, etc. through the Comcast Motorola box.
N. // July 30, 2009 at 9:09 pm |
I suspect you either (1) don’t have the cables set up right, or (2) don’t have the TV on the right channel. Try both 3 and 4 on the TV, and check the settings on the Tivo and Motorola boxes to make sure they require the same channel.
Glad to see that people are finding this useful — as I said, it took me a MONTH to get this right, and I was ready to throw the Comcast box out the window more than once!
Tyrone // August 9, 2009 at 7:13 am |
I should point out that the instruction book that came with my Tivo Series 1 that I have had since 2001 has the complete instructions. As a matter of fact, it has 8 specific setup examples that cover interfacing to digital cable boxes, satellite, DVD & VCR players, etc.
Also, your statement “…it only records correctly if I leave the Tivo box ON.” is puzzling. Your Tivo has always needed to be left on 24/7 in order to automatically record shows. This has been true since the day you got your Tivo.
N. // August 9, 2009 at 5:54 pm |
I went through my manual with a fine tooth comb and midst all the set-ups possible, I didn’t find one that worked for the NEW digital boxes with analog TV — different technology from the old cable boxes. That’s what’s driving everyone in this area crazy. I had a cable box before and never needed the IR blaster.
Also, in the past I could turn the Tivo off (or to stand-by, technically, I assume) — hit the power button, the light went from green to red — but it would still record when it needed to. No longer. Have to leave it with the power indicator glowing green.
Bob // August 28, 2009 at 9:42 pm |
I have an odd feeling that this might be happening because the cable box isn’t staying powered on.
I have my cable box hooked to my Series 1 TiVo with an IR blaster, and it will change the channel and all that no problem, but when I try to record things with the TiVo off, I get just a blank screen.
I figured out that it might be due to shutting the cable box off when I turn everything off at night, and am going to experiment with other settings.
N. // September 18, 2009 at 12:21 pm |
I never turn the cable box off, but I have to leave the Tivo on, too.
Annette // September 12, 2009 at 8:40 pm |
Hi Nancy,
I noticed that you have Tivo Series 2. Are you able to use the dual tuners on Tivo? I am attempting the same set-up as you and Tivo said I would be able to watch one channel while recording on the second tuner. Or I could record two analog channels at the same time or one analog and one digital channel at the same time. Also, can you tell me the model number of your Motorola cable box?
Thanks,
Annette
N. // September 18, 2009 at 12:16 pm |
Don’t have dual tuners. I can’t see how this could work with a cable box, since it’s the cable box that decides what channel is being received.
MLD // September 16, 2009 at 7:34 am |
Have exactly the same questions as Annettte. Haven’t got my Digital box from Comcast yet but it’s on the way.
George // September 18, 2009 at 10:14 am |
Thanks for the instructions, worked like a charm!
valerie // September 18, 2009 at 12:08 pm |
I am going crazy with my series 2. I have Comcast and slowly but surely started to lose channels like Discovery, Animal Planet, etc. I called Comcast and they informed me that it was the Tivo. Now that cable is slowly switching all channels to digital, I had to go to my Tivo setup and change it to digital only and also change my tuner to a single tuner even though my series 2 is dual. You cannot record 2 digital channels at the same time with the series 2. By doing that, I did get the channels back that I lost. My problem now is that my Tivo is terrible at changing channels. Sometimes, it gets stuck on one channel and it is painful to try and get it to change. I am very disappointed since I recently purchased this box. I do have the ir adapters and have gone to the channel changing screen and tested it quite a few times. Does anyone have any suggestions on how else I can resolve this problem?
N. // September 18, 2009 at 12:20 pm |
Comcast blames everything on Tivo — and gave me a variety of different, all wrong, “solutions.” it would be good public relations for them to figure this out and post solutions. But no — they just wash their hands of this.
My Tivo is also now bad at changing channels — changing by moving up and down, rather than going to a channel by #, works best. But it’s annoying!
MLD // October 13, 2009 at 8:42 am |
Got all my equipment from Comcast and connected everything together..
Everything worked out, the only problem that I had was that the remote for the cable box did not work and had to be replaced.
I have the Series 2 Double tuner and am using the TiVo Serial cable connecting the Tivo and the Cable box (9 pin connecter on the box) to change the cable box channels. (Very reliable; has not failed yet changing to the desired the channel)
One very important thing is that not all of my channels are digital–Channels 2 to 22 have not been changed and are still analog. This will be the deal breaker if all your channels have been changed to digital.
I can now do just about all the same things as before:
1.0 Record 2 Analog channels at the same time and watch any channel (analog or digital) using the cable box.
2.0 Record 1 analog and 1 digital channel at the same time and watch any analog channel via TiVo. (Hmm–As I write this I’m thinking maybe I can’t watch anything else at the same time since I’m using both TiVo tuners and the the cable box—Hmmm, need to verify)
3.0 Watch any recorded program while recording any other program, analog or digital.
Of course, you have to bounce between remotes (cable and TiVo) to perform these functions.
The hook-up is essentially the same as the Tivo startup diagram with a box. One adder–I connected a cable from the Cable Box RF Out to the TV RF In. Most of all the other cables are the AV type (Red, Yellow and White end connections). In the couse of viewing etc. you have to use either Remote to choose which input you want to watch–Vidieo 1, 2 etc. In the RF link between the Cable box and the TV I also have a VCR and a DVD Player but that’s for another day.
I’m lucky in that just about all the programs that I typically record on an ongoing basis fall within the analog range and as such will not result in any major disruption in my enjoyment of using TiVo.
Steve // October 14, 2009 at 5:58 pm |
Thank you for the information, this picture was helpful!