I literally just ordered a series 2 Tivo (the 80 hr. one for $99.99) from Tivo's website, and now, looking over the reviews for the very same one on Amazon, someone mentioned that the Dual Tuner feature will not work if one has digital cable, and that you need analog cable. Well, I have digital cable! So is this true, or . . . ? I'm really new to Tivo and DVRs in general (it kinda has my head spinning), so I'm really worried now that I spent a ton of money for nothing. . . . Please help!
Your cable box will work just fine. However, you will only be able to watch channels 2-99 on one tuner, while you will get all channels on the other. For example, you will not be able to record HBO and Showtime at the same time, because both of those channels are higher than 99, but you will be able to record HBO and NBC just fine, because NBC is going to be a channel lower than 99. DVRs are great fun, and you will wonder how you ever watched TV without it once you have it.
The cable that comes into your house usually has both digital and analog service on it. You can split the signal and run the cable to your Tivo and the cable box. Then your Tivo will record only the analog channels (usually 2 through 99) and you'd use your cable box to watch all the channels. You'd hook up the Tivo to your rca type line in connectors on the TV and the coax cable from your cable box would go to the TV in on your tv. Or some cable boxes can be controlled by the Tivo. You can check the Tivo website to see. In that case you can run the cable box (after you split the signal) to the 2nd antenna input on the Tivo box and one of the tuners would record analog while one was recording the digital, if you were recording two shows on two different channels at the same time. Sounds complicated but it really isn't. There's a nice diagram included with the instructions.
