# How do I connect a Humax Foxsat Box to Tivo?



## algordon (Apr 1, 2004)

I am a complete satellite novice. Like certain other Tivo'ers, I won't allow Rupert Murdoch products in the house....

So - for the first time ever I now have a satellite dish on my roof - Freesat obviously - and cannot figure out how to get a signal from my Humax Foxsat box into my Tivo. I have to say the Humax manual is not much use, and only talks about SCART connections, without saying how the actual signal is routed through. I see anyway the Tivo itself only has aerial connections on the back. Clearly I'm missing something. I'm guessing I need some sort of connector to get the dish cable to fit in the coax in socket.

I'm sure this is absolutely basic but I'm hoping the old satellite hands here'll forgive me.(And yes, I have searched the forum and have even done a Google search without much luck.)

Help!!


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## pauljs (Feb 11, 2001)

You need to start by confirming which TiVo you have as all the UK Tivo's sold had scart connections on the back


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## algordon (Apr 1, 2004)

I think I've figured it out ( I hope.) The satellite cable terminates with a very thin, sort of sharp pin and it won't fit in the RF in socket at the back of the Tivo. However I suspect the solution is to fit something at the end of the cable so that it becomes a bog-standard aerial-type connection that _will _fit in the Tivo. I'm sure there are technical terms that better fit what I'm trying to say here, but could someone confirm that what I'm saying is right? Presumably I can get what I need from Maplin but can someone tell me what it is I need to ask for?

Re previous post, I didn't know there were any variations in UK Tivos. I got mine on eBay and can't remember what model it is. Does the model matter though, given what I've said above?


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

I think you are trying to put the satellite downfeed cable into the tivo aerial socket.

No no no 

You want to put a scart lead from the humax box into the tivo aux scart socket,

Maybe you don't have a UK tivo ?! 

There is only one model of UK tivo and this is it:















It's silver and says Thomson Scenium on the front,
- any other tivo won't work here.


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## swarrans (Jan 7, 2003)

As Paul said (and Mike since I started posting!), if you don't have scart connections on the back of your Tivo, then you don't have a UK Tivo and you're stuffed I'm afraid.


Simon


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## algordon (Apr 1, 2004)

Thanks, but it is definitely is a UK Tivo - I've had it for years now and it has SCART sockets on the back. My mistake has probably been thinking that the connecting a satellite dish was the same as connecting an aerial. I couldn't see how it would work with just a SCART connection.

Anyway, I'll now try it with just the SCART connected to the Humax and report back - but thanks to everyone for their help so far.


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## Automan (Oct 29, 2000)

dish > Humax (sat cable)
Humax > AUX on Tivo (Scart Cable)
TV on Tivo > TV AV1 (scart cable)

If you have a HD TV with HDMI you can also link Humax to your TV with this as well for watching programs live in real time for when Tivo is not recording something else...

Automan.


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## pauljs (Feb 11, 2001)

algordon said:


> Thanks, but it is definitely is a UK Tivo - I've had it for years now and it has SCART sockets on the back. My mistake has probably been thinking that the connecting a satellite dish was the same as connecting an aerial.


Satellite tuners are a bit more complicated than terrestrial tuners as they use voltage switching for Horizontal and vertical polarities. So you can't easily split and daisy chain the connected equipment, like you can with an aerial.

UK Tivo's have a built in analogue terrestrial tuner only.


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## algordon (Apr 1, 2004)

Thanks again to everyone. I'm ashamed to report that I've had to re-install Freeview as I'd completely forgotten that 5 and its sister channels aren't on Freesat (yet). My partner and I are big _Law and Order/CSI _ fans, and we obviously wouldn't be able to record those on Tivo.

Thanks again to everyone for their help.

One question though - as you all know, I'd though Tivo needed to take its signal from the dish in the same way as it would from an aerial. If it only needs to connect via SCART which is that, and why wouldn't that work with Freeview? I'm not technically minded so you may need to dumb down your answer bit.


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## bignoise (Oct 7, 2000)

algordon said:


> One question though - as you all know, I'd though Tivo needed to take its signal from the dish in the same way as it would from an aerial. If it only needs to connect via SCART which is that, and why wouldn't that work with Freeview? I'm not technically minded so you may need to dumb down your answer bit.


The thing to remember is that TiVo is "just a video recorder" - it doesn't have a digital decoder or a satellite receiver built in. If you want to record from digital satellite, or Freeview, then you need the help of a box which can turn those peculiar signals into a common format which any "video recorder" can deal with. In this case, that's video, delivered by SCART. So your TiVo can merrily record from satellite, cable, freeview, or anything else that might be invented in the future, as long as it has a scart output.


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

algordon said:


> One question though - as you all know, I'd though Tivo needed to take its signal from the dish in the same way as it would from an aerial. If it only needs to connect via SCART which is that, and why wouldn't that work with Freeview? I'm not technically minded so you may need to dumb down your answer bit.


Freeview / freesat / cable should all be connected in the same way to a tivo.

i.e. set top receiver box attached to the tivo via scart,
using the infra red wands to change channel.

If you aren't using the tivo analogue tuner then you don't need to connect any aerial coax to the tivo at all.


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## algordon (Apr 1, 2004)

mikerr said:


> Freeview / freesat / cable should all be connected in the same way to a tivo.
> 
> i.e. set top receiver box attached to the tivo via scart,
> using the infra red wands to change channel.
> ...


Now I'm really confused - I thought you absolutely had to connect an aerial - as the Tivo manual says you do. What would happen if I disconnected the aerial from the Tivo now? And why if it's not necessary to do so does the manual say you should, even when using a digital STB?


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## pauljs (Feb 11, 2001)

algordon said:


> Now I'm really confused - I thought you absolutely had to connect an aerial - as the Tivo manual says you do. What would happen if I disconnected the aerial from the Tivo now? And why if it's not necessary to do so does the manual say you should, even when using a digital STB?


Since TiVo has an analogue tuner built in, the manual asks you to connect the aerial so to keep that function working. You can then also choose to record the Analogue channels instead of the freesat/freeview or cable options via scart.

So if you don't wish to record analogue TV, there is no need to connect it.


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## Sneals2000 (Aug 25, 2002)

My UK Tivo ran fine for a good couple of years with no aerial connection - just my satellite receiver connected to the Tivo via SCART, with the Tivo IR blaster suitably positioned by the receivers IR window.

The advantage of using SCART over the aerial input to connect a set top box (satellite, Freeview or cable) is that you get RGB picture quality (if your STB outputs it) and stereo rather than mono sound.

I think Tivo assumed people would always want to record analogue TV for some reason hence the suggestion to connect an aerial - though it isn't required.

In fact the only reason I connected my aerial to my VHS machine and DVD recorder was for the clock to be kept accurate (as both of them set their clocks to BBC One's PDC/Ceefax time) - I haven't watched analogue TV for about 10 years.


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## Pugwash (May 23, 2003)

You do get stereo sound on Aerial, as they used NICAM.


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## pauljs (Feb 11, 2001)

Pugwash said:


> You do get stereo sound on Aerial, as they used NICAM.


The earlier models didn't work properly with NICAM, mine never did although there was a fix.


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## alan_semple (Dec 10, 2005)

algordon said:


> Thanks again to everyone. I'm ashamed to report that I've had to re-install Freeview as I'd completely forgotten that 5 and its sister channels aren't on Freesat (yet). My partner and I are big _Law and Order/CSI _ fans, and we obviously wouldn't be able to record those on Tivo.


It is possible to record Satellite signals from the SCART socket and have Freeview connected to the RF input.

This "Fix" was added because Sky's radio channels changed to four digits.

The Freeview STB must have RF output or feed into an RF modulator.

Only "Mono" audio on the Freeview source though.

Alan


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