You can definitely do that, but would you gain any channels? I would think that you already get the antenna channels through your cable line, no?

I would gain a few channels. All of the OTA -1's are available on cable, but the -2 through -5's variously offer some new programming. Another reason I'm interested in the OTA channels is for quality reasons. The digital signal is rock solid clear with my attic antenna, while the cable equivalent of the same local channel is a bit fuzzy. I know it shouldn't be, but it is, and I won't go into why because that's another subject.

Since there are certain cable channels only on cable I want, and the quality of OTA digital broadcasts is better than the equivalent cable signal, I wish to combine the two. But I'm not sure of the hookup and setup required to accomplish this. Would I connect the converter box composite & audio out to the RCA inputs on Tivo, and keep the RF input connected to cable? Then rerun the guided setup channels to recognize both? Is that possible? My software ver is 9.3.2a-01-2-140. I have the IR cable to control other boxes, but I've never used it.

Yup - you've got it right. Keep the cable on coax in, and use the red and white audio for the converter. For video from the converter, you can use yellow (composite) but you should get better quality from S-video.

Converter +cable option not in setup

I'm all hooked up (DTV converter to Tivo) but I don't see the appropriate option in the Tivo guided setup. It asks for the "TV Programming Source" and the choices are:

cable only
satellite only
satellite & cable
satellite & antenna
antenna only

None of these would seem to direct Tivo to the correct guide information. What to do? I need a "cable & antenna" selection, but it's not there. Any ideas?

According to the document below, you should be seeing "Antenna with box" but I don't see anywhere in the document that would suggest you can do basic cable + antenna...it should be possible, but maybe TiVo figured few if anyone would need that combination?

http://www.tivo.com/assets/pdfs/prm/...structions.pdf

Pretty sure I didn't see "Antenna with box" on my TV screen during guided setup. I believe the menu choices were just as I've listed above. You can have cable and satellite, or antenna and satellite, but you cannot have cable and antenna.

I called Tivo customer service to confirm this limitation, and they did, you can't do that with the Tivo software as it stands now. The customer service representative speculated that they just didn't see the need for that combination because both OTA and cable signals would be all digital soon. When that happens, I'd have to have a cable box to receive cable programming, and Tivo can only control one box.

But my Cox Cable service is regularly running messages that all of us analog TV subscribers don't have to do anything when the digital switch occurs. We will continue to receive our regular channels just as we always have, so we're already set for the digital age. Because my cable provider is assuring me of continued analog service, I've put in a feature request with Tivo to please include an "antenna with box & cable" option in the setup. It seems to me that this feature could be included with a simple software update.

Maybe there are others out there that will read this post and call Tivo to request the antenna + cable option. If enough subscribers request that same feature, it just might show up!

cable + antenna into Tivo(s)

I've figured out a setup that accomodates both analog cable and a digital converter box. It works for me, though it's a bit clunky.

I had an old Series 1 Tivo (Philips) in a bedroom, under-utilized recording old TV series reruns. So I relocated that one to sit beside the existing Series 2 in my main viewing room, and used a VCR for the bedroom recorder. Two Tivos on one TV. The series 1 was already setup for analog cable. The Series 2 was setup (by doing the guided setup again) for controlling an OTA digital converter box by selecting "antenna only". Then you setup the remote to operate a Tivo #1 and a Tivo #2. I had to re-do most of the season passes on both Tivos, setting up one Tivo for cable shows and the other for broadcast shows. But amazingly, some of the season passes on the broadcast Tivo found their new places on the broadcast channels and needed no revision.

Now when I want to watch something, I have to remember which Tivo has the show I want. A bit clunky, but it does work! And I got what I wanted: the new over-the-air broadcast channels with rock solid reception, plus cable networks, all into Tivo's super-friendly user programming.

I know there may not be a lot of households with a spare Tivo laying around. But if you DO have one, you might consider a setup like this to get cable + broadcast into Tivo DVR's.

Sounds like a good plan, but don't you get those OTA channels through your analog cable feed also? Is it just for the higher quality of the signal through the OTA feed? Or the extra sub-channels?

It is for both reasons. The OTA sub-channels are not available on the cable feed, and the main OTA channels just look consistently better through a converter box than their cable copies. The cable feed quality is just a little variable, some good days, others a little noisy. But I get a great OTA signal through an attic mounted antenna about 10 miles from the towers, so there's never any dropout issues or picture quality variance. The broadcast signal is utterly noiseless on every channel I receive.

But there's another reason that was quite surprising to me. The dolby digital audio is clearly superior coming out of the Tivax STB-T9 OTA converter box. The audio is routed to a high quality audio system that I also use for music, so that may partly account for my ability to distinguish the audio quality improvement; I'm not listening through tinny TV speakers. I would liken the cable TV audio to FM radio quality, and the OTA DTV converter audio to CD quality. It can make a huge difference on program material with complex audio content.

Makes sense. The OTA broadcasters have a lot more bandwidth to play with for their three or four stations than the cable companies do with hundreds of stations.

Did Tivo ever do this? I don't even see antenna with box (series 2 54) much less it and cable.

Yes - your TCD540 unit can use antenna with box, but not that and cable.

When I first got it about a year ago there was no antenna with box option haven't tried since, has it been added since then? Does the guide you get have sub channels?

Yes, antenna with converter box is an option. It will get the local antenna guide data and allow you to control the box. I believe that the sub-channels come in as well.