TiVo works fine with your satellite or cable box, if your television signal flows through one. The biggest obstacle is letting TiVo change the box's channels. TiVo also needs a way to grab sound and video from the box.
Letting TiVo change channels on a cable or satellite box
When watching TV through a cable or satellite box, you change channels with the box's remote. That setup presents a problem for the fingerless TiVo, because it must change the box's channel to record your shows. How can TiVo change the channels without being able to push buttons on the remote?
TiVo resorts to one of two tricks: a strange "Serial Control" cable used by some satellite boxes, or an even stranger "mini-remote on a string" called an "IR (infrared) Control" cable that works with both satellite and cable boxes.
Hooking up a Serial Control cable
A few satellite boxes let you plug in this special cable so that TiVo can change its channels. Here's how to eyeball your satellite box for the right connector, and, if your box is one of the lucky ones, how to connect the right cable. (It comes bundled with TiVo.)
1. Examine the back of your satellite box for a "serial port" connector.
This little oblong bump has either 9 or 15 tiny holes.
If you spot a 9-hole connector, rummage around for TiVo's bundled Serial Control cable with the 9-pin connector and proceed to Step 2.
If you spot a 15-hole connector, head to an electronics store and buy a "15-pin male to 9-pin female" adapter and push it onto the end of TiVo's included serial port connector.
2. Push the larger end of the TiVo serial cable into the plug on the back of your satellite box.
The plug's pins should align perfectly with the holes. If they don't, you're plugging it in upside down, or you need the adapter discussed in the previous step.
3. Plug the cable's other end into TiVo's Serial Connector port.
Tell TiVo to use the "serial" connector for changing channels when you run TiVo's onscreen "Guided Setup."
Once you've connected TiVo to your satellite box, hide the box's remote. TiVo's now responsible for changing channels, so stick with TiVo's remote exclusively. If you accidentally press a button on the satellite box's remote while TiVo's recording a show, you might accidentally change channels in the middle of your recording.
If this setup sounds too complicated, or you can't find those connectors, don't worry. Just use the IR (Infrared) Control, described next. It works for all boxes, but sometimes needs a little extra adjustment.
Hooking up an Infrared Control cable
IR Control cable is a fancy name for the "mini-remote on a string" that TiVo uses to change channels on your cable or satellite box. When you fasten TiVo's little IR Control cable in the right place on the front of your cable or satellite box, TiVo uses it to beam signals telling the box to change stations.
Follows these steps to set it up:
1. Locate the IR Control (Infrared Control) cable packaged with your TiVo.
The IR Control cable is black; one end sports a little pointed connector, the other has two angular plastic doodads. (You may spot a little "bulb" on the end of each doodad.)
2. Locate the infrared receiver on your cable or satellite box.
The thing's almost invisible, but it's always on the box's front, usually behind a semitransparent plastic window. It's the flat little receiver inside, usually square or rectangular.
3. Fasten TiVo's infrared controls above and below the cable or satellite box's infrared receiver.
Let the two doodads hang about 1.5 inches past the box's edges. Use the bundled pieces of double-sticky tape to fasten each control to the box.
4. Plug the cable's other end (usually purple) into the TiVo's IR jack.
Routing the sound and video to TiVo and your TV
After TiVo's connected to your telephone line and your cable or satellite box's channel changer, you've completed the hard stuff. Now TiVo needs to grab the sound and video sent by your satellite or cable box. Finish up by connecting TiVo's audio and video outputs to your television.
Follow these steps to send the box's information to TiVo and let TiVo send information to your TV set:
1. Examine your cable or satellite box's Video Out connectors.
2. Connect the best video cable connection between the box's Video Out jacks to TiVo's Video In jacks.
Use S-Video if your box offers it; otherwise, use the yellow RCA/composite cable.
3. Examine your box's Audio Out jacks.
You'll probably use the red and white RCA/composite cables.
Only a DirecTV TiVo can record in Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound. Standalone owners should ignore Surround Sound outputs on their cable box, no matter how tempting, or else their sound won't match the video.
4. Connect the appropriate sound and video cables between TiVo's Audio Out and Video Out jacks to your TV's Audio In and Video In jacks.
Red is for the right channel, and white is for the left. If your TV doesn't have stereo sound, plug in one of the two jacks and leave the other dangling.
If your TV offers S-Video, connect an S-Video cable between it and TiVo's S-Video Out. (Leave the yellow cable dangling.) No S-Video? Then use the yellow RCA/composite cable.
If your TV only offers an Antenna or RF In jack, connect a cable between that and TiVo's RF Out jack. (Only one cable will fit, and it carries both sound and video.) Tune your TV to channel 3 or 4 to see TiVo.
Depending on your brand of cable or satellite box and TV, your setup will probably resemble the one shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: This is one way to connect TiVo to your cable or satellite box and your TV.
