Hmmm I think I have an output yes but a pain in the ass to add the cable. :) My graphics card is a GeoForce 5200 I believe.

I'm fairly sure the Geforce 5200 has a TV-OUT.

Why? Is the TV in another room? A lot of people with BTV setups have their computers in another room and run lines to the TVs. I've read of some setups where the s-video is fairly long (30 feet). Remember, you will need to get the sound there as well. Most HTPC'ers have the computer in the same room as the TV but these are usually dedicated BTV servers. There are as many solutions as their are setups for resolving this. Even wireless options to get the signal to your TV. The most limiting factor is money, as usual.

Yah if there is a will there is a way most times but yes my computer is in one room and TV in another. And yes, audio cables are the reall problem. I could boar holes through my wall though but I really don't wanna put holes in them LOL brand new condo here.

I guess I will have to think about things and perhaps in due time I will accomplish this. And yes money too is a factor as always. :D If you have enough money you can do anything and buy anything.

I dunno. Just like everything else changes, I'm sure TIVO would have to change the way they are doing things now should they happen to offer an HD version of their box. They would have to start thinking outside of the box (excuse the pun). The TIVO HD box would need to accept an HDMI or DVI feed and then it would record from that, not from S-Video or Composite. It would not be an HD TIVO if it could not accept an HD feed from the receiver.

The lawyers wouldn't let them though, and it will be costly. The best they can do to make a publically acceptable HD DVR is cablecard direct cable/antenna digital recorder.

The lawyers wouldn't let them though, and it will be costly. The best they can do to make a publically acceptable HD DVR is cablecard direct cable/antenna digital recorder.

How about this to really make the legal folks' heads spin... a satellite tuner pci card (HD compatible of course). I'd far prefer this to a set-top PVR, or a TiVo device. You can get such cards for free to air, though I think they are still only SD. I'd pay some fairly substantial coin for this if *C were ever to come out with one, as all my HTPC can do right now, given my particular setup, is record from the "coax out" signal, which is really not exceptional quality.

It's about time TV providers got in-step with what is happening in the digital living room (a la HTPC's) and found a way to satisfy the copyright holders' issues.

I dunno. Just like everything else changes, I'm sure TIVO would have to change the way they are doing things now should they happen to offer an HD version of their box. They would have to start thinking outside of the box (excuse the pun). The TIVO HD box would need to accept an HDMI or DVI feed and then it would record from that, not from S-Video or Composite. It would not be an HD TIVO if it could not accept an HD feed from the receiver.


Component is also capable of HD just in Analogue format vs. HDMI and DVI digital. So it would be possible to record HD on an HD TIVO through Component but it would require some serious horsepower which would make the box very expensive.

Does anyone have a TIVO & a Starchoice satellite system? Does the combination have the full TIVO functionality, or is it quite limited (i.e. SeasonPass doesn't work, etc.)? Any experience on this would be greatly appreciated.

I have had my Tivo hooked to my Starchoice for over a year now with some fancy hacking to get the guide data. I now paid a lifetime subcription and "went legit". All functions of the TiVo work with Starchoice as long as you have the IR channel changing thinging set up to change the SC Box. Of course the SD channels record fine and HD records fine and plays back fine if you have an upconverting HD TV. (My Toshiba does this). When watching HD through the Tivo on Live TV you get a smaller screen centered in the middle.

One thing not mentioned often is that the Tivo plus Tivo desktop allow some fancy stuff like listening to MP3s and veiwing photos from your computer if you have your TiVo networked. Also scheduling shows from work over the internet is cool and multi room viewing and transfering shows from TiVo to your desktop and burning a DVD for that roadtrip to keep the kids entertained is nice. I can live without recording true HD until some of these perks are available from Starchoice recorders.

Third party desktop software allows me to stream Internet radio stations as well. Hope that helps

How about this to really make the legal folks' heads spin... a satellite tuner pci card (HD compatible of course).


They cannot with a PC, so no such card exists for a PC.

The FTA cards can do HD BTW.

They cannot with a PC, so no such card exists for a PC.

The FTA cards can do HD BTW.

Please correct me if I'm wrong... I realize that no such PCI cards exist, but I don't think that's because they can't produce them (i.e., they are not limited from a technological standpoint). I would think that such a PCI card wouldn't be any more difficult to produce than the FTA ones currently on the market. I was suggesting that if any DTH company _did_ produce them, that they would likely sell a pile and I'd be one of the first in line to buy. Heck, I might even switch to Bell if they came out with one and *C didn't ;)

Haven't seen the HD-capable FTA cards in my web travels, but will keep my eyes open for them now. Thanks for the info. That would support my position that they are well situated (again, technologically) to create HD versions of such cards for HTPC integration.

The HD capable ones were software mode (Eg, Twinhan) and not the more expensive hardware mode (Hauppahe Nexus-S) ones.

Now Bell HD is QPSK, so they used to work until the N2 switchover.
Dish uses 8PSK on their HD and only the new DVB-S2 cards coming out have 8PSK tuners. Hard to find, expensive and not well supported yet.

So the reality today is, nothing is working.

By the time we figure that out, dish will be MPEG4 anyway, so maybe need some new codecs to graph.

I agree it would be way cool if your sat provider made such a card.
Then the PVR would be a slam dunk and different apps could be run and you could choose your features and skins like FTA is now.
With cablecard and DCII being made external now, all the tech limitations are gone.

The QPSK card could never legitimately get BEV, they used pirate software to illegally decode the channel.

The reason there are no pay TV tuner cards is not really technical, but that the studios and provider do not want their conent available on a PC in such a manner, at least not until they are very secure so that the content cannot be pirated. This would inclue CC capable PC tuners.

You are of course correct. Perhaps in the E.U. the content houses and distributers are less anal and allow the cards to be used with the Conditional Access modules.

This way they can maintain the control and the consumer gets what he needs as well.

I think a lot of piracy stems frm the forbidden fruit syndrome.

You are of course correct. Perhaps in the E.U. the content houses and distributers are less anal and allow the cards to be used with the Conditional Access modules.

This way they can maintain the control and the consumer gets what he needs as well.

I think a lot of piracy stems frm the forbidden fruit syndrome.

Agreed. If the MPAA-types had their way we'd only be able to purchase DVD's that self destructed 2.9 hours after removing them from their packaging; there'd be spyware on top of Windows allowing them to secretly tap into our PC's any time they want to scan for pirated mp3's and Divx... O.K., maybe I'm getting a bit carried away, but you get my point. There has to be some way to satisfy copyright concerns while still ensuring consumers get the technology that will integrate (well) into the digital living room.

I have had my Tivo hooked to my Starchoice for over a year now with some fancy hacking to get the guide data.

I started using our TiVo with Starchoice last Oct after TiVo added Starchoice guide data and Canadian postal codes... Was using it with our DSR 315 with no problems at all -- worked great.

I just upgraded to the HD DSR 505, and have it hooked up, but am having some issues with getting the TiVo set to broadcast the right IR/remote codes. After some fidling with it, I found one that seems to work most of the time, but occasionally sends the 505 to the wrong channel.

Anybody else with a 505 that has found a TiVo remote code that works well?

Thanks!!!

Provided you have your receivers themselves set to remote code 0000, the IR blaster codes for Tivo should be absolutely identical between the 315 and 505.

I've used the same IR blaster code from Tivo with a 305, 405 and 505. You might want to check the positioning of the blaster on the front of the 505 or the speed of the IR 'blast' on the Tivo, I do recal I had to change that to accomodate the slower response of the 505 to remote commands.

i hope it wont be delete what i will say. Tivo does sell in canada but if their a manufactured problem well, too bad. that is what i read on their website and received info when i e-mail them to see if they were selling in canada.

TiVo sells the service to Canadians (they don't actually sell IN Canada). TiVo themselves won't directly sell hardware to Canadians (You need to order it with a US credit card and have it divered to some point in the US), but some 3rd party vendors will sell and ship to Canadians.

Well... I fiddled with it some more and it appears to be working now (re-did the remote set-up wizard, and adjusted the IR blasters). Hopefully it keeps working (before it was working 85-90% of the time)...

As for TiVo service / sales in Canada... I'm in the US, but have StarChoice (and they think we live in BC...). One thing I've noticed is that if I actually lived in Canada, I could set the TiVo to record local basic cable and DirecTV or Dish network (they appear in the list of Sat services avail in Canada) -- even though they are illegal... In the US list of Sat services, StarChoice isn't listed. If it was, I could have it programmed for our local US basic cable using the TiVo tuner, and StarChoice over the IR blaster and S-video input. Oh well...

I have a DSR505 and as soon as I found out about the Tivo 7.2 software supporting Canadian providers I immediately got a standalone box. It has worked perfectly since I got it at the beginning of December with a minor guide glitch early on for a couple CTV locals. It was recording the wrong show which didn't match guide. It's not Tivo's fault as StarChoice's guide showed exactly the same information. Season passes work without a hitch.

I have a Humax Tivo DVD Recorder model. I use the Tivo Desktop PC software extensively. The capacity on the Humax is only "40 hrs" and I have it under extended warranty so I'm not going to mess with the hard drive yet. So, I use the Home Media Option to send all the excess programs I don't want to watch immediately onto my PC's extra 300GB hard drive. I have about 100 hours of programs stored on it right now. I also watch BSG and Canada's playing of it is a half season behind the US so I BT the current episode, convert it with a free Tivo conversion utility and send it right back to the Tivo to watch. I'm very happy to be able to archive hundreds of hours of programming to have access to it at any time. I record everything at best quality. Since I can move it off the box at any time I don't have to worry about running the box out of space.

Anybody else with a 505 that has found a TiVo remote code that works well?

Thanks!!!

I don't have any IR issues at all. I'd also recommend that you rerun the IR setup every time you get a new software download on the Tivo. I've seen timing changes between the versions. (Probably to correct any problems in the past.) I'm running 7.2.2 right now.

Hmm, I didn't realise TiVo was comming (or even available in) Canada. I'd have picked up a $99 box in the states had I known!


TIVO is functional here in Canada. But as far as I know you have to buy the box in the US. I heard they will be available here in Canada shortly...you know "shortly" could be a long time or a short time. :D