Voom and Tivo

[Ken Thompson]

Since we can't seem to get a definite date on when the Voom DVR will be released, I've been thinking about picking up one of the cheaper Tivo boxes to tide me over until that time. I realize it doesn't record in HD. Would I be wasting my money? How does the Tivo program guide work with Voom?

 

[scottie_h]

Works like a champ. I have both cable and Voom going into a Series 2 Tivo, and can browse through all of the channels for both seamlessly.

The only thing to be aware of (unless I've missed something explaining otherwise, which is certainly possible) is that you can't get the program guide info for the OTA channels. You could still do a manual record on those OTA channels, but you wouldn't be able to record season passes, etc.

 

[Scotty]

I have the vhf/uhf ant split from my diplexer to the voom box for digital ota's and to the tivo for analog ota's. My tivo is set for ant and voom. The program guide shows the analog ota's program info just fine. In fact, it's a better program guide than Voom's. It shows way more info. On rave, it even tells who is playing.

I have a composite cable between the voom box and the tivo. The tivo is a series 2 from toshiba with the 80 hour drive, and a progressive scan dvd player. It has component outputs, and the composite upconverts to the component outputs. So I have component and digital optical from both the voom box and the tivo, going to a sony a/v receiver. It works nicely, but some of my analog channels come in crappy. I may switch the tivo over to cable and voom. There is no way to get the ota's from the voom box to the tivo. It just doesn't down convert them to the composite or something. Only 100 and up do. You have to rely on an ant or cable to get the locals.

I love the tivo. I wish it were going to be combined with the whole house software on the voom dvr. As it is, I'll probably give the tivo away to a relative when the voom dvr comes in.

The worst problem with using Voom and Tivo together, is that the channel flipping is next to impossible. The IR transmitters on the Tivo, for some odd reason, type the 3 digit code of a channel number when you hit channel up and down, instead of broadcasting the channel up/down code. I can see it should do this to get right to a channel when changing it for recording, but when flipping it is useless. I was changing cables by hand between a single component input on my tv, between tivo/dvd and the voom box. So sometimes I would stay in tivo so I wouldn't have to change cables. But I broke down and bought a newer a/v receiver that lets me switch between them easier. Now I never flip on Tivo. I just watch recordings there.

I try to catch as much of my favorite shows live, in HD on voom, but for when I'm not home to see something I really enjoy, the tivo is the next best thing.

 

[CraziFuzzy]

VOOM and SageTV (almost ultimate PVR solution!)

If you are more comfortable with computers, I am using SageTV to do my Voom recording. It is a VERY good tivo-like software suite, with a great interface. It requires a MPEG2 capture card, but i was able to pick one up for about $100.

Setup was fairly easy at first, the hardest part was actually configuring my video cards timing for proper display at my TV's resolution (1280x720). Getting it to display both VOOM and OTA channels requires using both the SVideo and te Composite inputs on the capture card, both coming from the VOOM box. Then set each input (SVideo as the VOOM, Composite as the OTA) up in voom, and they end up being displayed on the same program guide. I m even able to connect my local cable up to the capture card's tuner and have all my program inforation displayed at the same time. This gets a little more confusing, as this adds just WAY to many channels, but it does provide my cable for recording, which is in a different time zone, so it avoides programming conflicts.

The program has some very impressive features, such as being able to run a client on any PC on your network, allowing viewing of any live or recorded material from anywhere in the house. A feature that i use quite often, as my main workstation is not in view of a television. I am working on some sort of script for archiving the files, as i would like to be able to use a format other than MPEG2 for the archives, but for now I just have it set to SVCD quality MPEG2, so archiving just requires burning it to CD. Eventually, I'll own a DVD recorder, so i can up the quality, and archive length.

 

[scottie_h]

There is no way to get the ota's from the voom box to the tivo. It just doesn't down convert them to the composite or something. Only 100 and up do. You have to rely on an ant or cable to get the locals.

I can get the OTA channels via my Series 2. I actually discovered it quite by accident though. Because I also have cable, all of the OTA channels have a cable channel on the same channel number. As I'm clicking through the channels, channel 11 (for example) displays the cable NBC channel 11 with all guide info. While I'm watching that channel, if I key in channel '11', it changes channel to OTA channel 11 - however with no guide info. For the most part, this is of no use to me, but during the Olympics, I could go back and forth between the two NBC feeds (which is what I was watching when I discovered this).

The worst problem with using Voom and Tivo together, is that the channel flipping is next to impossible. The IR transmitters on the Tivo, for some odd reason, type the 3 digit code of a channel number when you hit channel up and down, instead of broadcasting the channel up/down code.

I have no such problem with my Tivo Series 2/VOOM combo. Using the channel up/down button acts just as you would expect it to.

 

[Scotty]

I have no such problem with my Tivo Series 2/VOOM combo. Using the channel up/down button acts just as you would expect it to.

hmm, maybe its just the way my toshiba series 2 tivo does it. What brand is yours?

I can get the OTA channels via my Series 2.

What connection from the voom box, to the series 2 tivo, is carrying OTA digital? When I try to tune the voom box manualy to an ota below 100, I get a blank screen on my Tivo. As soon as I hit 100 and above, I start seeing a picture from the voom stb on my tivo stb again. Are you sure you are not seeing your cable input? If you were seeing voom picture, you would be able to press info on the voom remote, and see the voom program guide, I'd think.

I have a composite cable running between the two. I tried an s-video cable between the two, but it didn't work. Voom box has two video outs on the back. I'm using video 1 I think.

 

[scottie_h]

hmm, maybe its just the way my toshiba series 2 tivo does it. What brand is yours?

I have a stand-alone Series 2 - can't remember the brand off hand.

What connection from the voom box, to the series 2 tivo, is carrying OTA digital? When I try to tune the voom box manualy to an ota below 100, I get a blank screen on my Tivo. As soon as I hit 100 and above, I start seeing a picture from the voom stb on my tivo stb again. Are you sure you are not seeing your cable input? If you were seeing voom picture, you would be able to press info on the voom remote, and see the voom program guide, I'd think.

I have a composite cable running between the two. I tried an s-video cable between the two, but it didn't work. Voom box has two video outs on the back. I'm using video 1 I think.

Yes, I know I am pulling the OTA signal for sure. For example, when the Olympics were on, if I turned to 11 (our NBC channel), then I got the cable feed. If I then manually entered '11' again, it then tuned to the HD OTA feed. If I then used the back button to switch back and forth, I received two different feeds, but on two instances of the same 'channel' (11 cable and 11 OTA). This is the case with both cable AND Voom going into the Tivo - I've never tried without the cable hooked up. Not sure why that would make a difference though.

I'm not sitting near my Tivo at the moment, but I believe I have Voom running through S-video to Tivo, and S-video from Tivo to the TV.

 

[Voomster]

HDTV PC Monitor on my system

I guess I don't like to told what I can't do, I using a DVD Xpress Video Capture Card (box) with S-Video from Voom Box recording at 9 MB/S quality
with 5.1 surround audio to a 1/2 terabyte SATA / 7200 rpm Western Digital drive system to a Media Center HP 1090 computer with XP Pro Media Center 2004 Edition viewed on a ATI X-600 Pci-Xpress Video card with a Sony GDM 5411 Professional Flat black Screen Monitor with a resolution of 2048 x 1536 @ 75 hz

It's as close to HD recording and viewing as I can get without it being HD

By the way for those of you who want a Monitor for your PC and near or beyond HD

I suggest you check out :

Http://www.accurateit.com go to 21" monitors and check out the

Sony GDM 5411 Professional Black Monitor 2048 x 1536 / 0.24 mm dot pitch
list is about $ 2500.00 but they sell it for about $ 400 with SGI logo on it brand new , I had mine for 6 months, no better resolution monitor made

Voomster bow

 

[T2k]

I guess I don't like to told what I can't do, I using a DVD Xpress Video Capture Card (box) with S-Video from Voom Box recording at 9 MB/S quality
with 5.1 surround audio to a 1/2 terabyte SATA / 7200 rpm Western Digital drive system to a Media Center HP 1090 computer with XP Pro Media Center 2004 Edition viewed on a ATI X-600 Pci-Xpress Video card with a Sony GDM 5411 Professional Flat black Screen Monitor with a resolution of 2048 x 1536 @ 75 hz

It's as close to HD recording and viewing as I can get without it being HD

By the way for those of you who want a Monitor for your PC and near or beyond HD

I suggest you check out :

Http://www.accurateit.com go to 21" monitors and check out the

Sony GDM 5411 Professional Black Monitor 2048 x 1536 / 0.24 mm dot pitch
list is about $ 2500.00 but they sell it for about $ 400 with SGI logo on it brand new , I had mine for 6 months, no better resolution monitor made

Voomster bow

I wonder why do you recommend that when on the very same list you can find the GDM-W900 which is far better than yours: 24" big, widescreen 16:10 monitors for $699 only or you can get its newer version, the "uber-CRT", the GDM-FW900 for only $1249 - I have te latter (HP A7217 branded) and hands down beats the old, discountinued GDM5411.

Not to mention the fact Sony literally doesn't make any more CRT since last year: the last big modell was mine, the 24" GDM-FW900 and now they don']t list anything under CRT except an Artisan Color Reference System monitor, that's it.

 

[CDH]

Okay, so I gave up on ReplayTV and bought a TiVo Series 2. It doesn't want to access locals via the Voom STB, so I am running in analog OTA which isn't nearly as clean as the digital signal on some stations. Over the weekend I am going to try to remove the diplexors and split my antenna signal next to the TV rather than up near the antenna. Hopefully that will give a stronger overall signal.

Only problem so far: it says it can't record both Lost and West Wing on Wednesday evenings because Lost "overlaps" West Wing by a minute. I could find ways to tell it to record longer (by starting earlier and ending later), but nothing to tell it to record Lost until 9:00 instead of 9:01. How annoying! Does anyone au fait with TiVo have a solution to this?

Thanks!

CDH.

 

[Scotty]

You can set up a manual recording for season pass. I do this for ER because the guide has that funky 1 minute before stuff ( I think ER actually does start 1 minute before, because I watch csi, and when it's over, I switch to ER, and its always already started).

I forget exactly how to do it, but i'm pretty sure, in pick shows to watch, I found the title, by asking to record by time, then there was some option to add it as a season pass with my time settings. It can be done.