Voom and DVR

[rhouston]

Good morning.

I'm a new subscriber to Voom (2 weeks young) and I am somewhat happy thus far. I'm not receiving all of the channels that I'm supposed to (no ESPNHD and a few others).

I can deal with the channels being missing but the wife is on my back about the DVR.

I have a Hughes DVR with tuner that I used with my DIRECTV setup. Before I ordered Voom I specifically asked if I could use my current DVR with Voom and I was told that I could. So foar the past 2 weeks I've asked the installers as well as talking to the folks at Voom but I still don't have the DVR connected.

So I asking for some help. Can I connect up my current Hughes DVR with built in tuner to Voom? Also since I'm new to this technology please explain it in laymans terms. In other words, dumb it down for me. A step by step setup would be helpful as well like connect the 2 coax cables to the DVR, from the DVR connect a component cable to the Voom receiver, etc, etc.

Thanks again for the assistance.

 

[Bruce]

If it is a DirecTV Box with DVR(TIVO?) no it will not work with Voom,if you have a DVR separate from D* like a Tivo or Replay then yes,but I believe you cannot use the boxes(DVR) tuner?

 

[rhouston]

Tivo

Ok, since I can't use my existing DVR, can someone recommend a TIVO box that is inexpensive? I plan to buy Voom's DVR when it becomes available so I want something to tide me over until then.

Thanks.

 

[CDH]

Ok, since I can't use my existing DVR, can someone recommend a TIVO box that is inexpensive? I plan to buy Voom's DVR when it becomes available so I want something to tide me over until then.

Thanks.

This is exactly what I just did. I first tried ReplayTV as it does have the capability to record digital locals via the Voom STB. However, to get this in place requires installation of a program called WiRNS. The procedures are listed in the "Voom and ReplayTV" thread on this forum.

I couldn't get the ReplayTV to work with Voom so I returned it in favor of a TiVo Series 2. This works well except it can not record the digital OTA channels except with some work-arounds. It will record analog locals if you split your antenna signal, and some people have used the Voom Program Planner to record from the STB. The Tivo "40 hour" recorder is $199.99 before a $100 rebate. I think there were some "reduced" slightly older model series 2 players on the Tivo website for 10% off but I bought mine off the shelf at Best Buy. You might find a deal somewhere online.

One note: I was a little suprised to find that at the "Best" quality recording level the "40 hour" unit only can record about 12 hours of material. This is okay for me as a stop-gap, but not great if you want to use the TiVo "wish list" and "suggestion" features. I wasn't going to pay another $100 for the "80 hour" unit. The "140 hour" box is substantially more expensive given that the only real difference is the size of the hard-disk!

The only real annoyance? The TiVo's hard-disk makes an irritating high-pitched noise 24/7. Maybe I'm just sensitive to noise, but I find it quite annoying if I don't have any other noise going on in the room.

CDH.

 

[rhouston]

Tivo

Thanks for the input. My wife just picked up the TIVO at BestBuy, 40 hours for $199. Hopefully the setup and connections are pretty straight forward so I should be able to TIVO shoes again starting this evening.

I appreciate the info about stated recording hours versus actual recording hours. The wife will just have to live with that.

Thanks again.

 

[Ilya]

I'm not receiving all of the channels that I'm supposed to (no ESPNHD and a few others).

rhouston, welcome to the forum!

Tell us more about your problem with those channels (post it in "VOOM Help Desk"). We might be able to help you with that. Check the following threads, see if your problem is similar:

Mixed-up channels: BravoHD+ instead of StarzHD on channel 261
Help! "No signal received"on Sci-Fi and USA (Ch 523 and 522)

 

[JEFFinINDY]

The only real annoyance? The TiVo's hard-disk makes an irritating high-pitched noise 24/7. Maybe I'm just sensitive to noise, but I find it quite annoying if I don't have any other noise going on in the room

You should bring it back if it's still under warranty. I have two TiVOs, and they are both whisper-quiet. The loudest it gets is a very soft "crunching" noise when it's doing a lot of hard drive access (probably maintenance routines), but again it's very soft and not enough to wake someone up.

Jeff

 

[scottie_h]

Thanks for the input. My wife just picked up the TIVO at BestBuy, 40 hours for $199. Hopefully the setup and connections are pretty straight forward so I should be able to TIVO shoes again starting this evening.

I appreciate the info about stated recording hours versus actual recording hours. The wife will just have to live with that.

Thanks again.

I upgraded my 40 hour Series 2 Tivo with a kit purchased from WeekKnees. I'd say the upgrade was darn near an even better investment than the Tivo itself. The upgrades are a snap to install - I don't think it even took me 30 minutes. It's so nice to not have to worry about how much room you have left.

Here's a forum with more info on upgrades. If you're willing to put more time into it, you can just buy a hard drive, and do all of the work yourself.
Tivo Forum

Personally, I didn't want to deal with the headaches, so I bought the 'package' deal, and didn't regret it a bit.

I have both cable and Voom going through a Series 2 Tivo, and it works like a champ!

 

[barth2k]

I fixed my tivo series2 with a dead drive. I didn't use a kit. Just bought a 120G drive at Fry's for $50 (after rebate). Was pretty easy. Now I have 37hrs (vs 12hrs before) on best quality. I always use best quality b/c SD looks ugly enough

 

[CDH]

I fixed my tivo series2 with a dead drive. I didn't use a kit. Just bought a 120G drive at Fry's for $50 (after rebate). Was pretty easy. Now I have 37hrs (vs 12hrs before) on best quality. I always use best quality b/c SD looks ugly enough

This is interesting! Did you then install software onto the new drive? If so, presumably you hooked it up as a slave on a desktop PC. Where did you get the software?

CDH.