# Real TiVo's with cable companies TiVo's - Do they play together?



## eboydog (Mar 24, 2006)

I'm on Mediacom cable and they are starting to offer TiVo's which appear to be the newer TiVo's that include as they describe "whole house" DVR's using TiVo mini. 

According to them, their TiVo's will not function with the real TiVo as they claim they are flashed with custom firmware which for example that allow two way communication with their cable cards (to enable PPV and on demand features). I find this difficult to believe as the common platform exists and every aspect to of the my case companies TiVo's is identical to the new Roamio using the mini boxes to run off the main unit. I'm not sure if I believe them as they know very little about TiVo and the service that TiVo offers, the last service guy was fascinated with my TiVo last summer when I had a service call to fix a issue I was having with my Internet access, while he knew what cable cards were he didn't know of that TiVo's could utilize them as he was lost when he was confirming my cable service was working as he browsed channels which I showed him the signal meter in the TiVo ui. 

Has anyone expirenced worked with such and can you confirm that Cc branded TiVo service will in fact not function with the standard networked TiVo service? I was pleased to hear my cable company making this change but disappointed that one would have to choose between on or the other and not use both together. 

On a side note, are there any cable companies that have two way communication abilities to allow purchasing PPV and on demand features with their cable card? This is something I always wish I had on my TiVo which I guess I can have now but would have get rid of my true TiVo in lieu of my cable company branded TiVo's.



On a side note, I guess it's been awhile since I logged in here, better update my signature!


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

I see no reason why your Tivo won't work on the same system as Mediacom's. Your Tivos just won't have the same capabilities as theirs with regards to 2-way communication. You may not be able to communicate with their Tivos for multi-room viewing, which sounds like what they're implying. If that feature is important to you then you might want to stick with your own Tivos and get them with lifetime instead of paying Mediacom's monthly fees. It sounds like they're just trying to get you to rent their hardware instead of just a cablecard.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

For TiVos to be able to communicate with each other they have to be on the same account thus having the same MAK id number. 

As fair as I know there is no way for your cable company provided TiVos to be added to your own TiVo account so there is not way for them to communicate with each other. 

That said there is no reason you couldn't be using both.


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## BigJimOutlaw (Mar 21, 2004)

RCN Tivos can be linked to retail Tivos by calling Tivo customer support. Don't know if that's true of Mediacom Tivos, but at least it can be done in theory. That's ultimately Mediacom's decision.

What they said about cableco Tivo's is true. They have some of their own code which can block/allow certain features. For example, cableco Tivos block Netflix, Hulu, etc. but allow access to their own VOD.


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## Bsteenson (Jul 30, 2000)

I've got several TiVo's now and am on Mediacom. I've also got two Mediacom boxes. I'd like to switch to the Mediacom TiVo's but the main reason would be for multi-room viewing. Does anyone know if Mediacom's Minis would work with my Premier or Premiere Elite if their full boxes would not?


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## Johncv (Jun 11, 2002)

Bsteenson said:


> I've got several TiVo's now and am on Mediacom. I've also got two Mediacom boxes. I'd like to switch to the Mediacom TiVo's but the main reason would be for multi-room viewing. Does anyone know if Mediacom's Minis would work with my Premier or Premiere Elite if their full boxes would not?


Just go ahead and switch, why pay for two Mediacom boxes when you can replace them with TiVo's, is it going to cost any more? If I understand it correctly the Minis work using an IP address, so in theory they should work unless their hardwire work only with Mediacom TiVo. The only way to find out is to rent a Mediacom TiVo and Mins and play with it, what I would.


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## eboydog (Mar 24, 2006)

Bsteenson said:


> I've got several TiVo's now and am on Mediacom. I've also got two Mediacom boxes. I'd like to switch to the Mediacom TiVo's but the main reason would be for multi-room viewing. Does anyone know if Mediacom's Minis would work with my Premier or Premiere Elite if their full boxes would not?


I too have Mediacom and their monthly pricing is just about twice of the regular Tivo fees, the only issue of course with the retail Tivo you have to buy the boxes. On top of that to answer your question, no. Mediacom will not allow your TiVo's to work with their's, the Mini's have to be registered under the same account and at this time they don't allow you to combine yours with their's.

Another reason too, the Mediacom TiVo's have all the Netflix and Amazon streaming taken out and replaced with their own vod and PPV which you can buy from your remote control. Since they lock their TiVo down I believe they also disable TTG so you can't use Tivo desktop or Kmttg/pyTivo. At this time they don't permit Apple IOS streaming but claim they will adding that later (for a extra monthly charge of course).

If your aren't convinced yet then you should also know that Mediacom's Tivo is the Premiere based model not the Roamio, all in all considering how cheap the base Roamio is, you are better off with buying a Roamio and having 2014 Tivo hardware.

I'm not very popular with the mods over on Mediacom support forum, I'm personally responsible for at least 10 people not subscribing to Mediacom's Tivo service as I have been actively pointing out the reasons to get a real Tivo instead of their's! My msg threads get deleted often as for example when i offered technical help to someone needing help programming their TiVo remote to control the volume and power of their TV after Mediacom told the person asking that such wasn't possible since they have custom firmware in their "custom" branded Mediacom Tivo peanut remote. I was actually contacted by a Mediacom rep in regards to the complaints I wrote about how odd it was that the same month Mediacom begun offering TiVo, they cracked down on the copy once flag for premium content which upset a lot of Mediacom Tivo users and of all things I was offered a substantial discount if I subscribed to Mediacom Tivo service, in turn of course agree to be less vocal which I politely declined.


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## Johncv (Jun 11, 2002)

eboydog said:


> I too have Mediacom and their monthly pricing is just about twice of the regular Tivo fees, the only issue of course with the retail Tivo you have to buy the boxes. On top of that to answer your question, no. Mediacom will not allow your TiVo's to work with their's, the Mini's have to be registered under the same account and at this time they don't allow you to combine yours with their's.
> 
> Another reason too, the Mediacom TiVo's have all the Netflix and Amazon streaming taken out and replaced with their own vod and PPV which you can buy from your remote control. Since they lock their TiVo down I believe they also disable TTG so you can't use Tivo desktop or Kmttg/pyTivo. At this time they don't permit Apple IOS streaming but claim they will adding that later (for a extra monthly charge of course).
> 
> ...


What the fee compare to a non-TiVo Mediacom box? The only reason one would want the Mediacom box is for VOD.

What the drive space on the Mediacom TiVo and can you add an external drive?

How about TiVo search, can you search VOD? Guild search? Wish list? Recover deleted show? Suggestion? None of this can be done on my crappy DrictTV genie box or any other crappy cable box.

Has the Premiere interface been updated on Mediacom box? Just because it not a Roamio is not a valid reason for not renting Mediacom Tivo. Maybe people don't have the money to buy a Roamio.

Netflix and Amazon work better on any device that NOT a TiVo.

Can you use MoCA?


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## eboydog (Mar 24, 2006)

Johncv said:


> What the fee compare to a non-TiVo Mediacom box? The only reason one would want the Mediacom box is for VOD.
> 
> What the drive space on the Mediacom TiVo and can you add an external drive?
> 
> ...


In my area Mediacom charges $19.99 just for the Tivo service, $12.95 for the Tivo Premiere and $9.95 for each Mini. There is a varying service install fee ranging from $100 to $50 depending on how much is being installed if a tech installs it but they are experimenting with self install kits which are only $25. Compared to Tivo, your single monthly fee is $12.99 unless you have existing and then it might be cheaper, $5.99 I think for Mini.

Not sure what the drive size is but I suspect it's 320gb as it nothing different than than the Tivo Premiere 4 tuner. Customers upgrades would be a no no since it's Mediacom property and all the drive data info gets uploaded to mothership just like regular TiVo's so they will know if you alter their property. This is the same for regular Tivo esp under warranty as it speculated that if you call your normal Tivo in for warranty replacement it could be denied if you replaced the drive with a larger one but at this time I'm not aware of this happening to anyone.

From the Mediacom's Tivo I played with, pretty much everything was the same as the standard premiere for search wishlist, etc just no Netflix or Amazon. Also the settings screen has the fewer options and you can't view system info to see your MAK which I presume is how they lock you out from using using TTG. Only thing really different is the remote four color key are mapped to the Mediacom vod service as that gives you direct access to vod and PPV menus. You can't tell the difference in channel menu unless you hit a vod or PPV button then it's different, most regular Tivo users wouldn't detect any difference.

Netflix is 100 times better on the Roamio, likewise for Amazon. The new Netflix interface is now normal and with the faster box, very likeable. This is why I recommend the Roamio if you chose the retail route. Only catch with Amazon is send PPV down from the website instead of using the Tivo interface, for some reason it won't download very fast if you use the Tivo interface. Login by tablet or PC to Amazon with your Tivo account linked and the download time is a few minutes rather than hours.

The Moca is enabled as that's how they connect their Mini's for multiform viewing, they provide the Adaptec Moca adapter to create their own Moca network, I have no idea if ethernet is enabled or if it will work on an existing home, network. These are usually installed by a field tech and I suspect they use static IP addresses to create their own little network.

I would have tried to find more out but the rep in my local office figured out I was just window shopping and wasn't really interested in getting their TiVo service so she cut my testdrive off short! Everything else I figured out by watching the messages in their support forum.

Mediacom Tivo service suits a purpose, it's cheap to get into and it's very profitable for Mediacom. For those who want a simple Tivo service and don't mind the higher monthly cost, it works just fine.

You can try both, I'm not sure the details of Mediacom 's refund is but you have 30 day refund period with normal TiVo's, in mentioning the newer Roamio, it's just a nicer and faster Tivo interface. If you are use to the regular Mediacom digital boxes or their dvr, even the their "new" TiVo's are much better but the Roamio are yet much better than anything before it.

In some areas they are offering the Pace dvr box which is a cable company dvr running the Tivo software, I have no idea now it compares all I know it uses the same Tivo peanut control and they standard Tivo Mini for remote room viewing over Moca but by all accounts it's a very solid, robust and fast platform. If I had to pick between the two different Mediacom Tivo boxes, I would pick it if you had no interest in the extras the retail TiVo's offer. The retail Tivo simple offers a few more freedom's that the Mediacom service doesn't, it all comes down to what you want and how it works for you.

I have discovered a lot about Mediacom's Tivo since I first asked, for me the retail Tivo suits my needs, your mileage may vary, good luck!


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## fordtruckman (May 9, 2016)

I'm having an ongoing issue that I don't see any end in site. I have had many appointments with Mediacom techs and they've sent 4-5 contractors without any cable cards and even a few corporate techs without cable cards to try to fix my problem. I've spoken to people with Mediacom over the phone and even messaged the twitter account trying to find someone who can fix my issue.

Most recently had an appointment Saturday that no one ever showed up to and I had to reschedule for this Thursday. :down:

Basically my cable card will not validate. They have paired it with my Bolt and I get absolutely no channels. It's been 72% through the channel search process for weeks and stuck on that screen. I bought the Bolt and returned my Roamio because I thought it was the boxes fault. but the Roamio at least got most of the channels but didn't get them all. 

The Bolt gets nothing and I'm about fed up. About to cancel my Mediacom service, return my Tivo, and complete cut the cord..... 

Anyone had this issue or have any idea how to actually get my Tivo paired with the cable card and access my channels....?


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

What screen exactly are you referring to? You can't do a channel search with a cablecard installed. Do you mean 72% loading when the cablecard was installed? Anyways, if the TiVo has been stuck on the same screen for weeks, it will have to be rebooted. If it is stuck on a cablecard loading screen, then the card is most likely dead. Only a new cablecard is likely to work. It sounds like it may not be initialized yet.


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

Don't let the cableco win! Escallate your complaint or complain to the FCC. 

If you cut the cord, the Bolt is the best DVR out there. Why would you return it if you go OTA?


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