I have a Hughes DirecTV DVR Tivo SD-DVR80, although I think my questions apply to any duel tuner DVRs.

1) Is it possible to disable duel recording? It has duel tuners, so it can record two things at once, but I don't like it when I go to watch something and it's already recording two things. It does not inform you when you choose things to record that are on at the same time. So is it possible to make it not allow programming that would result in recording two things at once, therefore always leaving one of the tuners free for casual viewing?

2) Some shows repeat several times during a day. Like Stargate-SG1 is on at 5:00pm, then Atlantis at 6:00pm, and then Battlestar at 7:00pm, then the three shows all repeat at 8, 9, and 10pm. When I create season passes for these shows, it selects the earliest showing as the one to record. It does not record the second showing because it realizes it's the same episode. But since it is the same episode, can it be told to record the second showing instead of the first (without creating a manual recording)?

1) Yes. But then it is completely disabled and you can't watch on it, either. Why do you want to watch live TV, anyway? The whole point is so you can watch when you have time. Tune to Now Playing instead of the guide. If you need more than 2 things recorded at once, get another Tivo. Sounds like you have too many SPs to be watching live TV.

2) Nope. You could set a repeating timed recording that would accomplish this, but if they ever change the times, you won't get your show. So you'd lose the name-based recording of Tivo.

Yeah, the answers you gave me are pretty much what I expected.

To answer your question: It's because I'm not the only person living in this house. :) While anything the Tivo might be recording would be what I want to be watching, on Sunday night it might be recording American Dad on Fox and Robot Chicken on Cartoon Network and the someone who doesn't like either wants to watch Cold Case or something. But the lineup on Cartoon Network is repeated three hours later, so if I could just tell it to record the second showing instead of the first, then that problem goes away.

Oh, couple more question:

3) When a Season Pass is made, you can look at a list of the scheduled recordings for that show, along with the showings that won't be recorded. So I can manually tell it to not record the first showing and record the second showing instead, but that doesn't change it for the following week. Is it possible to make this change permanent? (I think this is just a different way of asking my original second question, but oh well.)

4) Some shows have pretty complicated schedules. For instance, Stargate is shown a ton on SCIFI. They show four episodes in a row on Monday. Then those four episodes are shown again during the week in the same order, the first of which is repeated on Monday, with the following three on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. These episodes are all always repeats and just start at episode one and go up to the end of the previous season and then start over. All the current season episodes are on Friday.

Is there a way to make the Tivo see the difference? In other words, can I set up a Season Pass that includes repeats and first runs but is exclusive to Friday showings so that repeats will only be current season repeats? Again, I think I sorta asked this already, but oh well.

zytrex,

I believe you understand your TiVo well enough to know this answer:

You can make the TiVo do whatever you want, but the ease of use may decline. If you don't set up season passes, and you choose individual shows to record, you have full control over when they get recorded.

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Can you imagine how complex the user interface would be for accomplishing this. Heck... I'm not sure what you said above ;-)

Why bother disabling the 2nd tuner. If someone wants to watch the TV while 2 shows are being recorded, when the user tries to change the channel, the TiVo will ask is you really want to stop recording of the program on that tuner. If the user says yes, recording stops. What I haven't checked, is if the program is again placed in the ToDo list. You could try this, and if it puts it in the ToDo list, this is a very simple solution.

Yeah, like I said, I was pretty sure these things couldn't be done the way I wanted. I just didn't want to start making manual programs before I knew for sure it was the only way.

As for someone wanting to watch the TV while two shows are being recorded, that's fine for me, I can deal with it, but no one else in this house can. If someone else tries to use it and it starts telling them things like "I'm busy, go away" then they're gonna freak out, get pissed, and I'll hear about it later. How would someone else know which program is okay to cancel?

So yes, as you start adding manual programming, ease of use goes down. But if you think about it, but not having the options I talked about, that also makes ease of use go down. The Tivo should tell you when programs require it to use both tuners at the same time. The only way I can find out is by going through the To Do list one by one. It's a great feature to be able to record two things at once.

If there are two people in the house that want to record something at the same time, they can. But since it doesn't tell you when it's set to record two things at once, one person may accidentally set it to do that, and then the second person can't do anything at all. Bah.

Ok... then attack this from a different direction!

Since people want to be able to watch no matter what, you need another tuner. Buy a tuner and hook that up. Yes, it going to cost you the money for the tuner, and I'll but DirecTV will charge the $4.99 fee for another tuner, but this will solve your problem.

You set up a macro that when they want to channel surf or watch live TV to select the tuner, and if they want to watch prerecorded programs to watch the TiVo!

So, this gets down to the real question, How much is it worth to fix this problem?

I recommend another tuner as well. Better yet, get two. Add another directivo to your main viewing area and you will always have an available tuner. We have two directivos in the great room, and a standard box in the master bedroom and in my office. There is always a free tuner available, as well as extra capacity for recording.

Well all four outputs on the multiswitch are being used. (I thought each cable from the dish can only split into two, therefore the two cables from out dish are split into 4. Is that the most I can get?) So adding another tuner isn't really an option. And again, the problem isn't so much that I have so much I want to record. I'd be happy to record less stuff so that a tuner is always available. The problem is that the Tivo does not tell you when it's programming will use both tuners. So I can choose a few things to record from the search and then later go to watch something and discover I can't because both tuners are being used. Or worse, one of the other people in the house who can barely turn the equipment on will see a msg saying they can't watch tv because it's recording and then things are down hill from there.

But yeah. I guess that's pretty much the end of it. Unless someone has an idea, it sounds like I'm just gonna have to check the To Do list every now and then so I know when a situation like this is going to occur.

You are a bit mistaken. What you want to buy is a 2x8 cascadeable multiswitch. If you also want an over the air antenna for AM/FM and local stations, buy a 3x8 cascadeable multiswitch.

Here's the link: [Link: hometech.com]

Wow, I didn't realize they could be split so many times. What is the limit? And what exactly creates the limit?

There isn't a real limit to how many times it can be split. The multiswitch contains an amplifier. How many times you can split the signal without degradation has to do with the specs of the amplifier. The noise figure and gain of the amplifiers both affect how many times the signal can be split. The multiswitches are designed to support the number of outputs with no real signal quality issues.

The biggest single multiswitch I've seen is 5x16. I know apartment buildings and other locations take this to extremes, but these are not single box multiswitches, but arrarys of amplifiers and switches to distribute the signal.

Really..... so then I could take the two cables leading to my D*Tivo and with a 2x4, split them into four cables?

Actually, hmm. The multiswitch that our dish leads to is a 3x4 (one input is for cable). Would an additional 2x4 used at the D*Tivo care that the 3x4 feeding it mixed in the cable signal?

They aren't really split. One cable is assigned to handle half the transponders, the other cable handles the other half of the transponders. The signals for these two groups of transponders are sent down with different polarity...this is getting complicated. Let's just say that you can take the two leads and by putting them into a multiswitch, get out as many receiver signals as that multiswitch can handle.

No. It would ignore the cable signal, in fact, not let it pass. You would want to put a diplexer in one of the lines and separate out the cable signal before that line went into the 2x4 switch.

Incidentally, it is slightly better to have a larger multiswitch at the central location than to add a second multiswitch further downstream, but try it your way and if the signal quality stays high, don't worry about it. It is a LOT easier to add a multiswitch as you describe it than to add another two cable runs from the central location!

Don't worry about it getting complicated. I think I'm a pretty smart guy and I find it fascinating. I've always wondered exactly what the transponders were. I wondered why they would have different signal strengths. I thought maybe different transponders were on different satellites and handled different groups of channels.

But, if a multiswitch splits up the transponders like you described (and from what I gather can be done again and again as long as noise doesn't get too bad), does this mean that each transponder is like a channel for communication for a single receiver? In other words, with the proper equipment, can a single dish feed 100 receivers (or however many transponders there are, which I think is 100)?


Or 3x4 to be combined again, but yeah, I understand. What's the word on degradation of the cable signal as it's going through multiswitches?

Just FYI, I don't actually use the cable signal at this point. It's used for a cable modem in another location in the house.

Oh, and if you're wondering, yes, the setup is a little weird because of the cable modem. At the multiswitch, the street cable is split, one going into the multiswitch, and one going to a diplexer. Then, the cable coming from one of the multiswitch outputs is fed into the diplexer which is connected to the cable for the room where the cable modem is. The other rooms all have the cable signal too from the multiswitch, but the cable modem installer had to do this so the cable modem could communicate in both directions.

What's funny though is when he first installed it, he didn't have any actual SAT/Cable diplexers. All he had was a regular metal splitter. But it worked for some reason, so I left it alone. Over a year later, the cable internet just stopped working. I took one of the real diplexers from another room which was feeding cable to a VCR, although we never watched cable, and replaced the metal splitter at the multiswitch. That fixed the cable modem. Fortunately, the receivers don't seem to care when the coax cable has both the SAT and cable signal in them. However, I tried to hook up the VCR to the cable using just the regular splitter, as soon as I did, the signal going to the adjacent receiver dropped to 0. Weird.


That's for sure. My transponder strengths are all in the high 90s. How low can they get before there are noticeable problems? Is there a predictable amount of loss for each additional multiswitch? What differences are there between a regular and external powered multiswitch?

Sorry for all the questions, but like I said, I find this fascinating.