# Tivo/phone deal



## KAR (Sep 5, 2004)

Just in case someone for Tivo looks here...it would be great if you guys could work a deal with a phone carrier for a mega-cheap Tivo line. I only use a landline for my Tivo which means my real Tivo cost/month is $42. If I worked that out to cost per minute usage the cost would be riduculous (so I don't ).


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## osborn4 (Sep 6, 2004)

They also need a way to activate over broadband. I finally got the thing activated over my Vonage phone, but it took the better part of a day, trying and retrying.

As soon as I had it activated, I had no trouble switching the Tivo connectivity to my broadband connection.

IMO, they should be able to do the setup over broadband/internet and not force us through these shenanigans. I have friends that only have cellular phones. I would recommend TIVO to them, but the setup is sucha a pain in the ***, that I won't.


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## reavesb (Sep 6, 2004)

Hey osborn4 - or ANYONE - Exactly HOW did you accomplish setup/activation over Vonage?

I have Vonage, and am about to go shopping for a Tivo box. Best buy is selling the Toshiba for 199, with a 100 rebate from Tivo. 

If I get that, what codes do I need to stick where in order to be able to do the Guided Setup over Vonage?

No point in my going to the store until I understand how to do this. (I've been programming computers for 30 years, very comfortable with modem settings, call prefixes, etc. Just need to know what codes to enter where on which menu.)

Many thanx!


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## osborn4 (Sep 6, 2004)

> _Originally posted by reavesb _
> *Hey osborn4 - or ANYONE - Exactly HOW did you accomplish setup/activation over Vonage?*


 What I did was 
a) set my Vonage account was set to the highest quality setting 
b) ran a single phone line from my Vonage box to the Tivo, no splitters or couplers (cleanest signal possible)
c) kept trying over and over and over again.

I would *NOT* suggest doing this long term. I would have returned the TIVO, except for the fact that once up and running, I could switch it over to our broadband internet connection.

If you do a google on TIVO and Vonage, you come up with all kinds of interesting ideas. Vonage has some sort of filters they can put on a line for what they call a FAX line. This supposedly helps. I ended up not having to do that.

Others have bought old 28.8 external modems hand hooked them up to the TIVO and gotten them to work, because of the lower speed. I didn't want to spend any money, because I knew I'd be switching to my internet connection, once connected.

Another person had a code that supposedly would use the broadband connection for set up. I didn't see much collaboration of that, so I didn't try it. But I would have, if I wouldn't have gotten my vonage phone to work.

Here's one link


> Looking at the TiVo Community boards, it appears that new TiVos are shipping with the 3.2 OS, which only supports USB-to-ethernet connections, and guided setup can be run through that if you put in ,#401 as your dialing prefix.


[I would post the url of pvrblog.com that I found this on, but I'm evidently too much of a rookie to post a url]

I haven't tried that code. It would be a shame if it actually worked that easily and TIVO was keeping it a secret.

The offical supported answer from TIVO is to take your TIVO over to a friend's house that still has a conventional land line and do the set up there.

yuck. lame. :down:

Can you tell this is a hot topic with me? I think TIVO is shooting themselved in the foot not supporting setup over the Internet. The first download is often the longest one (updates and patches), so why would you want to force that to occur over a dial up connection?

Sorry. Getting off soapbox now.


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## osborn4 (Sep 6, 2004)

Let's see if I can post the URL now that I've got my 3 posts in.

http://www.pvrblog.com/pvr/2003/07/how_to_setup_a_.html


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## reavesb (Sep 6, 2004)

thanx, osborn4! That's EXACTLY the info I needed. And that link is VERY informative. Ya done good


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## osborn4 (Sep 6, 2004)

Let us know how it goes. 

I'd be real interested if the ,#401 works.


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## reavesb (Sep 6, 2004)

Well, I chickened out for almost a year. Then in October 2005 I decided to take the plunge. Got a Vonage fax line and ordered Tivo thru my DirecTV account. The guy came out on Halloween and hooked everything up - except he hooked up the Tivo to my regular Vonage VOICE line. And lo and behold - it worked like a charm! without a hitch! So I canceled the Vonage fax line. Been a happy Tivo-and-Vonage user for two months now with no problems whatsoever.


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## neekoh (Jan 2, 2005)

for the OP or anyone else, you should be able to get a very basic phone line for about $10/month. It only gives you 3 minutes of free local calls/month, but if you don't need a landline it's the best way to go. (I just want a landline to call 911, otherwise I use my cell phone.)


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## HotStuff2 (Feb 21, 2005)

FWIW, I used my buddy's digital phone line (from Bright House Networks) to setup my GF's TiVo (we both only have cel phones, and the HW shipped with old software on it.) I didn't need to do anything special, just tell it to dial out.

You're obviously getting online...if you have broadband, get a router and either plug your TiVo into it, or get a wireless router and a wireless USB NIC for the TiVo. Dialup is SOOOO 1990. :down:


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