Comments on: TiVo HD Lifetime Transfer Arrives

By: Kelly

Kelly — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 17:47:04 +0000

I agree with the others in this post. We NEED support for HD and satellite!!! There’s NO excuse for TiVo not to provide a solution, instead we’re left hanging out in the wind. This is so upsetting as a ‘customer’. I guess they don’t need the money. They’re bound to be losing 30%+ of the market!
Ashame they don’t realize this.

So, we have to go with DirectTV or use Dish’s DVR (crap)……

By: MegaZone

MegaZone — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 03:23:00 +0000

Ah, you have DSL. Yeah, your provider is almost certainly looking to move you to VOIP. They could drop the voice termination on your line and run VOIP over the DSL right into the DSLAM (Digital Subscriber Line Access Module) in the CO (central office). It’d make their life easier, which is why they’re pitching it.

By: Traci

Traci — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 03:14:00 +0000

One more thing, we did have DSL filters on the phone line. That seems to be a very common problem that people have. We did have filters in place and still no luck.

By: MegaZone

MegaZone — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 03:10:57 +0000

Traci – Who is your phone provider? In the US ‘digital phone line’ is almost *always* market speak for ‘VOIP’. There are the obvious VOIP companies like Vonage, but if you get phone service from a cable company – that’s VOIP under the covers. Some of the telcos are using VOIP technology too, because it is cheaper to backhaul voip than a dedicated copper pair.

If you can still use the normal phones you have, and they still call it digital phone service – it is likely VOIP. They’ll either install the interface box in the service box on your house, or it could be in a local junction.

But, in any case, the odds are, VOIP or not, your S1 will NOT be able to continue to call home. Modems really do not get along well with any form of digital voice lines, unless the service is explicitly designed to support them. So, again, the best thing you can do is ask your service provider if their digital service supports modems. They may have something on their website about it.

Modems’ says are numbered in the US as more and more of the US phone network goes digital. Someday you may not be able to get any service that supports a classic modem.

By: Traci

Traci — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 02:40:21 +0000

Actually, I wasn’t referring to VOIP, just a basic digital phone line. When my dad switched from an analog phone line to a digital phone line so that he could subscribe to dsl he was no longer able to dial up Tivo to download the tv schedule. We tried everything for days to get it to work for him. Talked to customer service for hours and mever did find out what went wrong. We brought his Tivo back to try at our home to see if it would work with our analog phone line and it works fine. However, our phone company wants us to switch to an all-digital plan and I’m afraid that the Tivo will no longer be able to dial-up the tv schedule. Since we have the lifetime subscription on it, we don’t want to risk not being able to use it. I just assumed the the series 1 Tivo could only be used on the older analog phone lines, not the more current digital lines. If that isn’t the case, is there a reason that anyone knows of why the Tivo would not work once his phone service was switched?

By: MegaZone

MegaZone — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 18:37:56 +0000

Actually, if you have a modem work over VOIP you’re lucky. Most of the time modems and VOIP just don’t get along – unless your VOIP provider offers service that specifically works with modems, or FAX machines (which use modems), and that usually costs more if it is available at all.

The issue is spectrum. An old fashioned POTS line allows for quite a broad spectrum of frequencies, which modems take full advantage of. But VOIP is optimized for the human voice, which is actually quite a narrow frequency band. To reduce bandwidth requirements the first thing a VOIP codec does is drop all signals above and below a certain range. Then it digitally compresses the remaining signal and that’s all that is sent into the network.

Unfortunately, the data it throws away is rather important to the modem connection. Best case is that the modem manages to negotiate a slow connection by using just the reduced signaling spectrum, worst case (and very common) is that it can’t negotiate a solid connection at all.

Even if you manage to get a modem connection over VOIP, all it takes is a firmware upgrade from your VOIP provider and it can stop working – and that’s happened to many people. They do something to ‘optimize’ the service to improve voice quality, and that means playing with the sampling and compression.

It may work, but it usually doesn’t. And if it does work, it could stop working at any time.

The best thing to do is ask your provider if their VOIP service *explicitly* supports modems. If not, don’t rely on it.

By: Dave Zatz

Dave Zatz — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 18:14:37 +0000

Traci, what do you mean by digital? As in a VoIP line or like the lines you find in many business offices? If you switch to VoIP, it’s likely that you’ll be able to connect – though you may need to run the phone line directly into the VoIP router, which could be messy. In the past, I’ve successfully used Vonage with some dialup boxes (like TiVo and Moviebeam)…

By: Traci

Traci — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 17:49:11 +0000

I have the older series 1 Tivo with the lifetime subscription and am fine with not having the HD Tivo, however, my phone service is insisting that I switch to a digital phone line. My Tivo only seems to be able to download from an analog phone line. Is this correct or is there a way to use a digital phone line with the old Tivo?