Tivo with Comcast digital cable?

[stultus]

I'm looking at getting digital cable with comcast up in the Boston area. IIRC, the digital cable (which I've never had or used, only seen) uses some cable box to change channels. How do people use Tivo with a cable box? Is this where the IR blaster thing comes in to play? How do you go about setting the stuff up?

If it's way too complicated, I'll just stick with regular cable, I guess.

 

[rahvin]

Either IR blaster or serial control, both are a piece of cake to setup.

 

[loup garou]

IR blaster. Not at all complicated. Go for it!

 

[Schadenfroh]

didnt micro$oft have something like a TiVo a while back? does that work with comcast?

 

[royaldank]

I don't use the Tivo to change channels. I plug my cable box output into the Tivo and use the cable box as I always did.

I guess if you had a subscription to TiVo you'd want to hook up the seriel or ir blaster. Neither are difficult and probably not more than 2 or 3 minutes of work.

 

[stultus]

I got the Tivo open-box without any accoutrements. Should I hit egay, or do you think I could get these from somewhere else?

 

[loup garou]

Just hit up ebay. Make sure you pick up a remote too, if it didn't come with one.

 

[Ausm]

Originally posted by: werk
IR blaster. Not at all complicated. Go for it!

That's what I use but I have charter Cable.

Ausm

 

[NakaNaka]

I'm interested in TIVO but I'm a newb. I have Time Warner DTV. I need something else that isn't in the box with TIVO to make it work with my cable box? This IR Blaster?

Thanks

=Phil

 

[murphy55d]

The IR blaster will come with your TiVo, or it should, anyway. Got one with my ReplayTV.

 

[stultus]

Could I use an IR blaster from a replay with my tivo, or are they proprietary?

EDIT: Also, which one is better. I see the serial sets are $10 on ebay, and the IR blasters are $3. What's the difference to me?

 

[royaldank]

Not all cable boxes have seriel inputs for the TiVo to plug into. The IR blaster is a small wired remote for the most part which you position in front of your cable box.

TiVos out of the box have an IR blaster which is easy to set up. There a piece of adhesive and you just stick it near the infrared receiver on the cable box. Piece of cake.

The replays right now are the better units. They have ethernet ports built in so you can throw recordings on your PC for storage beyond the harddrive inside. Sounds like that would eliminate any need to replace the HD inside.