# Connecting Tivo to Skype



## roffeyb (Feb 27, 2005)

Hi,

I no longer have a landline telephone at home and use Skype for all my phone calls. I was wondering if anyone knows if there is anyway to connect my Thomson 40Gb TIVO to my pc so I can update via Skype?

Thanks in advance!


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## alan_m_2004 (Jan 6, 2005)

Have you looked at *networking* the tivo instead and carrying out the daily call directly over the internet?

I suspect it would be a much easier option especially as I don't think skype (or any other voip service) would provide a suitable connection for reliable modem communication.

http://www.tivoheaven.com/cachecard.htm
(There are other uk sellers of this item including people on ebay, this was just the first link I had).


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## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

alan_m_2004 said:


> this was just the first link I had.


Lucky for me - thanks


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## alan_m_2004 (Jan 6, 2005)

No problem


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## roffeyb (Feb 27, 2005)

Thanks very much Alan, after looking I am not sure this is the way I should go as the machine is around 5 years old.

Can we still buy the latest Tivo's for use in the UK do you know? As this may be a better long term plan for me.

Thanks....


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## chrisd (Oct 24, 2003)

U can get tivo's from ebay, or places such as TIVOLAND

But what difference does it make if it's 5 years old? Mine is about that, and still works a treat.


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## roffeyb (Feb 27, 2005)

It matters because if I spend £90+ on the card and it starts to fail it is a waste of money!

Plus I would like a larger HDD which would put the cost up even more, maybe to the point where it is almost the cost of a new warrented machine.

Thanks for the info though Chris


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## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

You can't get a new warranted machine at the moment I'm afraid - sorry! All the machines on eBay and elsewhere are physically at least 5 years old. 

Adding a network card allows you to do much more than just get your listings via the internet - there's TiVoWeb, hacking and the ability to 'archive' recordintgs to your PC via the network with no loss of quality, allegedly And you can also enable Mode 0 for higher quality recordings too... :up:

If you have a PC then you can create an upgrade drive youself by following the online howto's or using a downloadable utility - there's no need to buy a pre-configured drive if you don't want to.


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

A slightly cheaper option is the Turbonet network card fro the US works about £50 delivered from the US though you may end up paying VAT and customs charges too.
http://www.9thtee.com/turbonet.htm

There is another supplier of the cachecard or search on ebay.
http://www.tivoland.com/networking.html

If your Tivo were to start to fail the box has a second hand value on ebay even not working, likewise the cachecard will recoup most of it's initial cost if sold on there too. It's comparitively low risk and you aren't going to be able to get guide data without a regular phoneline or a network card.


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## iankb (Oct 9, 2000)

roffeyb said:


> ... I am not sure this is the way I should go as the machine is around 5 years old.


So far, our 5+ year-old TiVo's have proved very resilient. The most common fault by far is failure of the hard-drive(s); 'though in a machine that runs 24/7, that's not unexpected, and some machines are still running with their original drive(s). The only other age-related problem that I know of is the relatively-rare failure of the PSU, which only costs around £7 to replace from Tivoland.com. Most other failures are probably due to power surges caused by lightning strikes, and that could happen on a brand-new machine.

Apart from the hard-drives, there are no moving parts, so a TiVo should last longer than a VCR or DVD-player, and be much easier to maintain.


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## kitschcamp (May 18, 2001)

roffeyb said:


> I no longer have a landline telephone at home and use Skype for all my phone calls. I was wondering if anyone knows if there is anyway to connect my Thomson 40Gb TIVO to my pc so I can update via Skype?


Basically, no chance. If it won't work over a proper VoIP connection, it definitely won't over the toytown Skype solution.


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## tefster (Mar 15, 2004)

This question seems to come up more and more frequently lately. Might be worth adding it to the FAQ sticky ?


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## DeadKenny (Nov 9, 2002)

If you were using *standard* SIP based VoIP instead of (as said) ToyTown Skype , then you would at least be in with a chance as there is work on standards of fax and modem traffic over IP.

A bit here on it: http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Modem+over+VOIP

However I suspect you might have to get the modem in the TiVo replaced with one that supports V.MoIP standard (aka V.150.1) though the VoIP hardware and networks might not support it.

You might have a chance if you have a router that will do an uncompressed VoIP codec and the service you use supports it. Skype however is no chance in this regard I suspect (uses it's own standards and codecs and I bet you can't change them).

With Skype can you even physically plug in the TiVo anyway? And doesn't Skype require a PC to be powered on all the time?

If you went with proper VoIP you could at least get a VoIP router or adapter and connect the TiVo to one of the PSTN sockets. The compression issues of VoIP still apply though.


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## kitschcamp (May 18, 2001)

Yeah, I've got a paid-for VoIP provider who provide G711A of a high quality (ie uncompressed stream), and whilst you can get fax to sometimes work over a VoIP line, I've not managed to get a modem connection.


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