• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Taping shows on digital cable

V

vchimpanzee

I have an old TiVo. It appeared to me when I bought it that it could deal with digital channels. Actually, it could be adapted to do so. I described on other threads my nightmare in getting this set up for digital cable, though how to do it made much more sense when I saw a drawing and realized why I could do what sounded physically impossible.

I haven't switched the newer TiVo yet because the big change happened on June 2 only for those with lots of channels. I got my cable box because of the phone message and the letters. Some letters specifically addressed my situation and said August 11.

But when a show starts recording and the channel has to change, the "old" channel gets recorded for a fraction of a second. Then, while watching the show I taped, I see the channel number and station appear in the lower right corner as the channel changes to the correct one.

I don't know yet if that channel appearing in the lower right corner is something everyone sees when they record, but I never saw anything for the analog channels. Apparently there is a slight delay as the TiVo figures out the channel must be changed and then tells the IR cable to do it.
 
Have the TiVo listing begun to track the new channels that represent the post conversion lineup? If not, this is likely because the cable company is still feeding the prior channels and will do so until the final conversion gets closer. At that point, your cable compnay will send TiVo the new channels and the delay should disappear.

I'm glad this seems to be working for you.
 
vchimpanzee said:
But when a show starts recording and the channel has to change, the "old" channel gets recorded for a fraction of a second. Then, while watching the show I taped, I see the channel number and station appear in the lower right corner as the channel changes to the correct one.
Click to expand...

You've nailed it. I have a very similar setup with an old Tivo using a cable box. Sounds like you're using a DTA. Anyway the TiVo starts recording and sends the channel change information at the same time, so for a few seconds, you're seeing exactly what you'd see if you switched the cable box or DTA on your own.
 
umfan said:
Have the TiVo listing begun to track the new channels that represent the post conversion lineup? If not, this is likely because the cable company is still feeding the prior channels and will do so until the final conversion gets closer. At that point, your cable compnay will send TiVo the new channels and the delay should disappear.

I'm glad this seems to be working for you.
Click to expand...
For everyone but people with the most basic package, the change took place June 2 so it should have already happened.

The delay varies in length. I was assuming it had something to do with the fact that several steps have to take place, though the signal going over the IR cable should be moving at the speed of light.

With OTA TV there's always a noticeable delay when I change channels through the converter box.
 
The recordings always start a little early. What I'm afraid will happen is I'll miss the start of the show due to this delay. If it's a show that gets rerun, I'd see that part again anyway if I watched the episode for long enough to find out if I had seen it. I almost always miss the end of a show. I should have thought to watch all of those online but watching just part of any show online is a major pain. You end up watching so many commercials.

This is related. I never saw this message before but during a commercial break (fortunately) it said Time Warner detected an interruption in service and said i might need to call them. It lasted just seconds and when the show, and the cable, came back on, that station ID was in the lower right corner.

I'm going to the mountains this week and as I recall, the same thing happens when I change channels manually with the remote. If I go to the same hotel, assuming they haven't gotten new TVs, the TV has to be on 3 and then I use the remote. If they have new TVs, there's one remote and no concern about being on 3. I forget which place, whether the mountains or the beach, said new TVs would solve the problem of channel 3.

Anyway, the old joke about walking to the TV and changing the channel if you lose the remote is no joke these days.
 
This is frustrating. All the shows I watch on this one TV with a converter box are on one channel. But I was making sure I could easily plug in some items when I return from the mountains next week, and the converter box got unplugged. I plugged it back in and I was on the wrong channel!

I don't unplug my cable box since I want to tape shows while I'm gone, but it makes me wonder. The converter box doesn't come back on manually. And TiVo has to restart, as it did when my lights went out for a brief second several weeks ago.
 
Vchimpanzee, was you referring to a video cassette recorder or the TiVo itself as the device "taping shows off digital cable"? (if it was the TiVo, then you must have been using "taping" as a synonym for "recording" since I don't believe your TiVo is capable of recording onto video tape).
 
Last edited:
Mario500 said:
Vchimpanzee, was you referring to a video cassette recorder or the TiVo itself as the device "taping shows off digital cable"? (if it was the TiVo, then you must have been using "taping" as a synonym for "recording" since I don't believe your TiVo is capable of recording onto video tape).
Click to expand...
I call it "taping" regardless. People still have dial-up Internet but they probably have push-button phones. And my TiVo refers to what it is doing when retrieving listings as "dialing".

Sometimes I don't see a delay. That's weird.
 
Say, Mario500, have you ever referred to a compilation of songs on a CD, cassette or LP as an "album"?

If so, you're part of the "problem." The term dates back to the 78-RPM era, when individual 3-minute-per-side discs were bundled in .... albums.

--Russell
 
I have sent a PM to Mario500 which explains the repercussion if he continues to "correct" the posts of others.
 
vchimpanzee said:
I call it "taping" regardless. People still have dial-up Internet but they probably have push-button phones. And my TiVo refers to what it is doing when retrieving listings as "dialing".
Click to expand...

And I sometimes say I am "dialing" a number when I'm using my cell phone, which never had a dial in the first place! :D

This would make a good off-shoot thread in ABB ... terms we still use from old technology which make no literal sense with the new technology, but our usage is so ingrained, the old terms prevail.

Like "taping" on a DVR, as Vchimp says above. Or "dialing" a phone or a non-broadband Internet connection.

We still call what we do on our computer keyboards "typing" even though there is no actual typewriter.

... etc., etc., etc.
 
And back on topic. I am in Time Warner territory but the motel where I spent much of the past week was on Charter. The box was similar to mine at home (apparently no one is "resting" them on a flat surface) and has what looks like an "on" button lighted in green. Not the same yellowish green so often used with computer technology, but more like a stop light. The TV looks old-fashioned. So I have been told to use the remote to change channels. This year I actually noticed that when I press the first number or the up or down button, everything usually freezes on the screen and a light blue box appears in the middle of the right side of the screen with either that first digit or the full number, depending on how I changed.

Yet another Charter subscriber is the hotel where I watched my pastor being ordained on Saturday night. The screen looks very modern so it must be digital. We used a remote to change channels and I think the channel number appeared in a corner. I don't remember whether the action on the screen froze.
 
Okay, it wasn't technically on topic, but these topics wander off topic anyway.

One thing I noticed is that my TV at home has everything letterboxed since the change, while in the motel room, everything looks as it did and some details are cut off on the left or right. While where I watched the ordination service, the screen had the right shape to show everything.

I should mention that I was lucky my pastor's name starts with B. Only five or six others were ordained (the bishop and others lay on hands, and then the bishop says words that begin with "Take thou authority") before he was and I was able to leave early. It was going to be dark soon and I'd rather not drive at night. I have also attended a Baptist ordination service where it was all done for the one man, in case anyone was wondering.
 
From what I can tell, most people have had a cable box. I never had one before June.

So they have likely experienced this. I came home to find my clock radio blinking. It is supposed to have a battery in it. I thought I had gotten one and put it in. I'll do it tomorrow. Do I have a similar option for my cable box? Because certain programs didn't record. Although the green light was on, unlike on my converter boxes, I realized I'd have to turn the thing on. Since I did this in the middle of a show I was supposedly taping, I got the message stating I could have the rest of the show too. I don't pay for this privilege but somehow it gets done in some cases.

Luckily, I was told not to upgrade my other TiVo until closer to the time. It taped everything. And that includes "Jeopardy". Why I have a backup copy of each episode, I don't know, but in this case I'm glad I did.
 
Last edited:
I forgot to get the battery for my clock radio, but over the weekend I literally had to tape shows. I did this mainly for backup since I can tape almost anything on the other TiVo.

The cable box did turn itself on without my help. I discovered this when I was following the directions trying to find out why I STILL wasn't taping anything.

I called TiVo the next day, since tech support is only during certain hours. I was finally told that the hard drive was corrupted and it might have happened because the power went out. It most likely would have happened when I was recording, but I wasn't. So I don't know why. Only that because it's old, it needs a new hard drive and that would require sending it somewhere. Better to get a new one, and I did (used, actually). It'll come later this week. It can record four shows at once. That's IF it works with my Internet, which I was told the last time wasn't possible. Back then someone from TiVo helped me find an appropriate one on Amazon. It only needs a phone line to get listings. I don't even know if I could have done the same thing again, but the second one might go out someday. In the meantime, the broken TiVo changes the channels when it is supposed to and if I manually tape, I get to have a VHS copy. Now the VCR isn't working really well (not used for six years), but it's supposed to be a temporary solution. Should I choose to do so, the broken TiVo will also let me watch live TV and back up and see something I missed a few seconds or minutes earlier. I can do both of these after the new one comes, with a better VCR (well, hopefully better). The other TiVo can work with an antenna so I might as well use it for that, since I have no other way to record off the antenna. I have the cable box and went to the trouble, so I might as well keep the TiVo. I paid for lifetime service--just over $5 a month, much less than normal, as it turns out--so it's free.

If I was technologically savvy, I could find a way to put the channel being changed, along with TiVo's warning that the channel needs to be changed, on YouTube or something. And people could also enjoy "rolling". Some of us aren't old enough to remember when a knob had to be turned to stop that from happening. Plus the color keeps going out. A poor black and white signal and rolling--the good old days!
 
Well, I lost the tape of the channel changing, along with the warning the channel needed to change.

That's what happens when you reuse a tape, forgeting you were going to try to find a way to let others see it.

But upgrading has proved much harder than I expected. The new TiVo was delivered by UPS and didn't have the parts I needed. I couldn't even connect it to the TV, so I'm waiting for another part. And I'm not even sure I got the proper tuning adapter. Whatever it is doesn't work right. I dropped it and now it's like I'm on channel 2 when I'm supposed to be on channel 3. Someone told me to get the remote and make the menu come up. I can't even see a menu. Furthermore, why do I need a remote when the TiVo does its own channel changing? If this adapter is used for people who have a TV that doesn't need analog channels, wouldn't you use the remote that came with that TV? Besides that, I asked for an M-card after sitting in the office for three weather reports. I was given one box. Okay, they ave this package for those who need an M-card and a tuning adapter. I forgot about the M-card until someone mentioned it in the many calls I had to make. I already have to have someone from Time Warner come to my house because the digital adpater isn't working. And in the most unbelievable example of incompetence ever, I may have found the employee of Time Warner everyone gets so upset about, or maybe she's trained by whoever trains the ones everyonegets so upset about. Either she was seriously mentally ill or I talked to three people who sounded alike. How do you forget everything you told me and come up with a completely new version of my problem and how to solve it? And she didn't solve anything. At one point I couldn't hear anything and had to call again. I got one of the Asians this time and when you get them, everything will be all right, eventually. I had been switched to this other person because I needed billing. I don't think I did, because the Asian girl knew exactly what to do and got it done. Only I have to wait for the person to come to my house before it gets done. The more people I talked to, the more I found out what needed doing. They should have told me all this stuff when I first asked. At least now I think the man will know what to do when he gets here. But he can't come until I get my part. Because he can't see what's going on without a connection to the TV.

And none of this considers my Internet access. I have to wait for the part for that, too. They SAY wireless will work and that I have it, thanks to a misunderstanding when I had trouble plugging in my old modem. We will see.

No, I'm not upgrading my equipment. Unless I absolutely positively have to. The TVs work. My Internet access is good enough for what I use it for. One Series 3 TiVo which I had to get from Amazon (no guarantee I'd get lucky again) which records two shows at once isn't enough.

And of course I was told about all the fun stuff I'll still have to do with the Roamio. Whether I want it or not, it can do Netflix and Hulu. I have to tell it not to. With my Internet, it probably wouldn't matter. I'll be lucky to get listings.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom