# Installing second tuner



## drruth2 (Mar 22, 2009)

With the demise (officially today) of digital (Verizon FIOS went all digital several months ago) are there any kits/mods being thought up to install a second tuner into a Series 2 device?


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

Directly no.

Indirectly, yes. The kit is called a TiVo HD.


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## trubel (Sep 6, 2008)

Drruth2, I would like to know the same thing.


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

As I have said, there is no such thing.

Such an expansion would not be practical for most experimenters, let alone as a turnkey solution, for there is no expansion connector at all.

If there were such a kit, there would be one by now.

If you have a Series 2 DT, there could be possibility, either in making your own analog cable system, or by intercepting channel changes on the second tuner to change channels on an extenral box, and forcing the second tuner to CH 3, or bypassing it entirely for an A/V input. Either relies on your lineup having analog channels.

.


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## drruth2 (Mar 22, 2009)

Thanks for the responses. Let me try again. There are two tuners. One analog and one digital. What I'm looking for is the work factor/difficulty in changing out the analog tuner for a new digital one. I've never had a TiVo box open, but I've built/rebuilt about 5 computers and one radio (in the distant past). If the tuners are integrated into a board then the answer is into the 'too much work' category from the get go. However if it a discrete component then it might possibly be in the 'maybe' category.

That said and not having open the case I think I also detected another problem from the answer Classicsat wrote. The two tuners didn't interfere with each other because they were working off different scheduling (that is the analogue tuner only tuned those allocated to it). If both tuners are digital then there will probably have to be a complete rework to the code associated with scheduling to decide if one of the tuners is 'available' etc. Hence the short answer of 'get the HD box.'

Would appreciate confirmation of my guess.


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## JamieP (Aug 3, 2004)

drruth2 said:


> ... There are two tuners. One analog and one digital. What I'm looking for is the work factor/difficulty in changing out the analog tuner for a new digital one. ...


An S2DT has only analog inputs (RF and Composite) and cannot deal with digital video input. Adding a second Composite video input and a second IR blaster output would be a big project and would involve software as well as hardware changes. The software is closed source and proprietary. IMHO, this is not a practical project for a home hobbyist.


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## Soapm (May 9, 2007)

JamieP said:


> An S2DT has only analog inputs (RF and Composite) and cannot deal with digital video input. Adding a second Composite video input and a second IR blaster output would be a big project and would involve software as well as hardware changes. The software is closed source and proprietary. IMHO, this is not a practical project for a home hobbyist.


Isn't that a HD like Classic said?


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

A TiVo HD does not support external boxes at all. Instead, it tunes digital cable or antenna directly.

And yes, the Series 2 DT has no digital tuners inside, only analog tuners.

The basic design of the DT is this:
Encoder 1 (makes analog video/audio digital MPEG2), has analog tuner and A/V input from digital box.
Encoder 2 has a tuner only.

There is a an IR blaster and a serial port to change channels on the box input.

Yes, if you want full dual box support, the work will mostly be in software, and yes, which is closed.


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## drruth2 (Mar 22, 2009)

Thanks all. Confirmed my suspicions.



classicsat said:


> A TiVo HD does not support external boxes at all. Instead, it tunes digital cable or antenna directly.
> 
> And yes, the Series 2 DT has no digital tuners inside, only analog tuners.
> 
> ...


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