TIVO to FTA?

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A few weeks ago I ran across a TIVO box for sale. Am I correct in the assumpion that these are recording devices? If they are, are they adaptable to FTA? I didn't buy it because I know less about it than I do FTA, which isn't much. I didn't know if it has some kind of controlled access than only the major sat providers offer, or if it somehow might need to be authorized or card-controlled. If it willl work on FTA, would it need to be driven by a PVR-enabled receiver, or can it be installed between a regular FTA receiver and TV like the VCR I have? Any information would be helpful if I ever run across one again. Thanks,
Sky

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[Iceberg]

TIVO Units need a subscription to work. The only ones that will work without a subscription are the Series I units. They usually have a lifetime sub. I learned that the hard way. I bought a Series II from a goodwill and couldn't get it past the "welcome" screen. It would just say "starting up" and wouldnt get past that

It can be hooked between the TV and the FTA box. They have an coax & a/v inputs

[swampman]

[quote=Iceberg;2141434]

I bought a Series II from a goodwill and couldn't get it past the "welcome" screen. It would just say "starting up" and wouldnt get past that

When it gets hung up on "Starting up", or "almost there" its usually a good sign of a bad hard drive. Something I also found out the hard way.

[B.J.]

TIVO Units need a subscription to work. The only ones that will work without a subscription are the Series I units. They usually have a lifetime sub. I learned that the hard way. I bought a Series II from a goodwill and couldn't get it past the "welcome" screen. It would just say "starting up" and wouldnt get past that

It can be hooked between the TV and the FTA box. They have an coax & a/v inputs

I have 3 of the series I TIVOs, none of which have a lifetime sub, and all work fine as a "dumb" VCR. They're only "dumb" with respect to not being able to give you the program guide, and functions that require the program guide. Actually, the Canadians figured out a way to import your own program guide into the thing, back when they weren't allowed to subscribe, but I never bothered to to try that.
I've been using mine for years, and for SD content, they are great. TIVO will still let the series I unsubscribed units log on and get channel lists, and set their clock, etc, and it's very easy to set up programming manually by time/channel, and actually that's more reliable than using the program guide anyway. Most people with subscribed units complain about things like NFL games being cut off at the end, when they go overtime, etc, or recording the wrong game. Doing it manually, I just added a half hour of recording, so I'd get everything if the game went long.

Anyway, series I are usable units, but if you want to use it with FTA, I'd get a standalone (SA) unit, and not one of the DTV/TIVO units that have a built in DirecTV, because the SA units have RCA A/V inputs. If you tell it that you have DTV or DN AND OTA, it will configure the upper channels to take input from the A/V, and the low channels to take input from the RF input, so you could conceivably have input from two different FTA boxes that way.

Also, if you buy a turbonet adapter from 9thtee, you can set up the TIVO to communicate with your computer via network, and you can download video to your computer and edit with a few different programs to create mpg files. You can also control the TIVO from your web browser. Adding the turbonet, and the various programs just mentioned require a bit of manipulation, usually involving pulling the HD, and mounting it in a computer while booting on a floppy or CD with a small version of Linux on it, but there are lots of directions on the web that makes it fairly easy to do if you are comfortable with changing hard drives and have even a slight knowledge of linux commands.

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Thanks to all of you for your input, I'm glad I passed on it, sounds more involved than what I want to get into.
Sky

[classicsat]

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For the record:
Most Series 1s can manually record without a sub. It seems the change in policy was applied to manufacture around October 2001, where TiVos need a sub to record*.

*it seems sometimes a Series 2, when disconnected from its modem/network connection before it subscription is canceled, can sometimes retain the ability to manually record for some time, at least until it is allowed to call home again. BTW, amongst the honorable members of the couple TiVo boards I belong to, making a TiVo that ought to get service have subscribed features without subscription, is considered theft of the TiVo service, and there is no justification to do so.

Toshiba and Pioneer DVD combo units come with a free TiVo Basic level of service, but can optionally be subbed to the full service.

All Series 1/2 Standalones can manually work with most FTA receivers. TiVo doesn't have IR codes for most, if any FTA receivers. You can hack in IR codes for your FTA receiver, if you know how.

I have a Series 2 primarily set up for my pay satellite service, but has a fake cable lineup I use to manually record from my FTA box on the RF in.

DirecTV TiVos cannot be hacked to do FTA, or at least nobody has tried that I know of them.