Tivo and converter box on analog TV

[Tivoman44]

OTA, no cable:

If i hooked up a Tivo series 3, XL, or any of the newer Tivo's to an analog TV would I still need a converter box?

[Will]

No converter box is needed, provided you have a composite-in connection.  You would just use that composite (yellow) connection and the RCAs for audio and Bob's yer uncle.  

The HD model also supports s-video if you have that, but the Premeire does not.

[Tivoman44]

On the analog TV I think I only have yellow, red, and white.  That should do.  I think eventually I am going to purchase a 2nd series 3 or maybe XL.  I figure that is for the long run for eventually if I get another LCD someday.  


One quick question regarding the my DVR expanders.  I was going to buy the 1TB eventually as well.  I figure I only need one for the main room.  Let's say I have two series 3, and the 1TB in the living room.  Lets say then that I have way more than 20 hours worth stored using the expander.  Would that affect the second Series 3 in the bedroom if I tried to watch something off of the living room one?  I would think that the living room one would be the main one with the season passes and the other one to be able to watch those.  From what i read on the Tivo site, the expander is not to be meant to be storage to transfer around, in the sense that the expander "marries" the tivo box and from what i understood the shows are spread throughout the box and the hardrive.

[LoadStar]

You are correct; the expanders are designed to be paired with a single TiVo.

On your bedroom TiVo, you would go to the Now Playing section, then scroll down until you see the "folder" for the living room TiVo. Opening that will present you with the list of programs saved on that TiVo - on both the internal hard drive and on the expander.  You could then select as many programs to copy across the network from the living room TiVo to the bedroom TiVo as you have space for.

TiVo only copies the individual recordings that you ask for; it does not sync or anything like that, nor does it proactively transfer files. (Nor is it able to take advantage of available space on another TiVo on the network... once a TiVo is filled up, it's filled up. It cannot record across the network to another TiVo.)

So, the short answer is no, the bedroom TiVo would be wholly unaffected by hooking an expander up to the living room TiVo, aside from the inability to copy all of the programs from it if you have it filled up.

[tbarney]

...One quick question regarding the my DVR expanders.  I was going to buy the 1TB eventually as well..

Whenever you buy the DVR Expander, make sure you also buy a quality esata cable to go with it. Yes, it does come with one, but reviews, including my personal experience, will tell you that it is junk.  Before I went to a better cable my tivo kept telling me that the drive was no longer attached, even though it clearly was.

There are also ways to upgrade the interanl hdd on the tivo units, a bit of googling will get you a ton of information.