# Series 2 cant find screen to specify brand of cable box in Repeat Guided Setup



## js29tiv (Mar 21, 2009)

I have a Tivo Series 2 (single-tuner) and I cant seem to figure out how to find the screen where I can specify the brand of cable box Im using (which is a Comcast DTA aka Digital Transport Adapter, model number DC50Xu). All the Tivo support pages say to go to Repeat Guided Setup and select Cable with box, but I cant seem to find a Cable with box option anywhere.

Here are the steps I tried I went to Repeat Guided Setup, specified my zip code, then it gave me the following choices on the TV Programming Source page:

Cable only
Satellite Only
Satellite & cable
Satellite & antenna
Antenna only

Since I couldnt find Cable with box, I chose Cable only, then specified Internet (for the IP Address), it then completed the Getting Setup Info step. I then answered Yes to Cable Box? and I dont know to Digital Cable? (but also tried Yes which wasnt any better). It then put me on the Cable Box Channel Lineup screen. But this is too late, I need the option to specify what brand of DTA Im using. (I attempted to go thru Channel Lineup anyway just to see what would happen, but it doesnt control the DTA correctly, it ends up just being a black screen, and I confirmed that my DTA is working fine by hooking it up directly to the TV, and the DTA is configured to Channel 3).

Does anyone know what steps Im doing wrong while walking through Repeat Guided Setup that is missing the screen where you specify the brand of cable box (ie. Cable with box, etc.)?

Also, I thought about trying Settings->Channels->Channel Changing, but the Channel Changing option is completely missing. It only has the Channel List option. Im assuming that has something to do with the fact that my Guided Setup didnt complete, but I thought Id mention it in case its relevant to the issue Im facing.

Thanks in advance.


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## ej42137 (Feb 16, 2014)

Try completing Guided Setup using your cable box remote to change channels when needed to determine the lineup. According to my old setup manual, choosing the IR code is the last step before the program data call.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

Fake your way through Guided Setup, telling it whatever lies are necessary, until you get out of it, so that it thinks you're still on analog cable.

Then tune to the channel to which you have the DTA set (if there's a Channel 3 in your old analog lineup, put the DTA switch on 3, and tune the TiVo to 3, if you have a Channel 4 on your old lineup, set the DTA to that, 
and tune the TiVo to 4) 

It needs to be able to see the output of the cable box on the tuner (or, if you had a cable box with the red, white, yellow jacks, on the input jacks) when you're doing setup.


Then go to Settings, Channels, Channel list, read the small print at the bottom of the screen and do what it says, hit Enter (little button, bottom right corner of remote) 

That should let you go through the cable lineup setup again--tell it you have a box and it's digital.


If you get to the what brand page, tell it Scientific Atlanta.

It'll try about 10 different codes (without letting you know which ones) until it finally gets around to 10014, which is said to be the one that works with that box.

The Channel Changing option, where you can actually tell it which code to use, doesn't appear until you've more or less successfully got channel changing already set up.

I've been through this with the Cisco 170HD DTAs from TWC on my s2s recently, so the memories (and the scars) are still fresh.


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## js29tiv (Mar 21, 2009)

Sorry for the delay in responding, but I wanted to say thanks for the tips! They worked perfectly.

In case anyone else bumps into this issue, the summary of things I learned is:

1) if Settings->Channels->Channel Changing option is completely missing, you need to Repeat Guided Setup.

2) Regarding my question about "Cable with box" (which I had read on several forums), there is no such option on Tivo Series 2. On the "TV Programming Source" page, just choose "Cable only", and then later in Guided Setup it will ask "Cable Box?" where you answer "Yes" and on "Digital Cable?" answer "Yes". (see item 4 below for more details)

3) During Guided Setup, on the "Do You See Video?" page, if it's completely black in the background (ie. not showing any TV show), first make sure that the Digital Transport Adapter (DTA) is powered on and has been activated with Comcast Support. Then, be sure that the DTA switch on the back is properly set to 3 or 4 (per unitron's comments above). In my case, I use setting 3 (indicating channel 3). If that's correct (as it was in my case) but it's still black, then fake your way through the rest of the Guided Setup, just answer the questions as if it's working ok until you get back to the main Tivo menu. Then the "Settings->Channels->Channel Changing" option should have re-appeared, and you can use that to setup the IR codes.

4) For Comcast DTA customers in particular, the little black Comcast DTAs are either model number DC50X (the 4 x 5" model) or DC50Xu (the 2.5 x 4" model), and I believe they are PACE brand (although not 100% sure). For these models, you'll want to do the following during the "Channel Changing" steps:
(note I'm not explaining all steps, hopefully most of the other pages are self explanatory)
- on "TV Programming Source" page, choose "Cable only" if you just have Comcast cable (or choose another option as appropriate to your case)
- on "Cable Box?" page, choose "Yes"
- on "Digital Cable?" page, choose "Yes" (since Comcast has moved everyone to digital)
- on "Do You See Video?", hopefully it now shows real TV shows for you. In my case, it just started working when I went through these steps after previously faking my way through Guided Setup.
- on "Cable Box Brand" page, choose "Other...." followed by "PACE" (although it may not matter what you choose for this, since you'll manually enter the IR code anyway, but this is what I did to get it to work)
- on "Cable Box Channel Digits" page, choose "005" (typical for digital cable)
- on "Select IR Code" page, the IR code is 10104. On next page, you then choose either A, B or C to say how fast Tivo should emit each numeral when it issues the code to the DTA. A is fastest, C is slowest. In my case, I needed to use C to get the DTA to reliably change channels, although it's really slow, so I'd recommend you try A or B first and move to C later if you notice it going to the wrong channels. It will let you try out each of them right then, until you find the fastest that works for you, but in my case, B appeared to work well at the time of setup, but over the long haul, a small percentage of shows would record the wrong channel, so I've found option C the most reliable.

Hopefully someone will find this useful.


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