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How I briefly hated TiVo.

My ultra-swanky Toshiba RS-TX20 TiVo/DVD-R arrived yesterday, and naturally I couldn't wait to install it. As I went through the process of hooking up the thing, I intentionally removed all of the superfluous cables that have made my life a living hell for the past few years. The whole reason for getting a combination TiVo and DVD player/recorder, is so I can completely remove my VCR, DVD player and TiVo, and replace them all with one simple box. And that's exactly what I did.

Everything was going great. The TiVo was plugged into my TV via a component video connection, the audio was a digital optical connection to my receiver, and the cables from my cable box were all set to go into my TiVo. The problems started when I plugged it in and began Guided Setup.

But of course, it's never that easy. Read on for the whole story.

Now, I love Guided Setup. I think it's a great idea, and makes the otherwise extremely complicated process of configuring a DVR a snap. There's just one teeny problem:

It requires a phone line.

...which I don't have.

Now I knew this going into it, but I had heard of people who got it working using a Vonage VOIP line, and I've managed to send faxes and even once connect to a dial-up internet connection (just for fun) over that line, so I figured it would work just as well. Apparently not, as despite trying about a thousand times, it never managed to connect and download the necessary information to continue setup. I even ran out to Radio Shack and picked up a DSL filter, after hearing from one person who got it to work using that (no dice for me, however). Again, I knew this was going to be a problem, but I had bought a USB wireless adapter for my new TiVo, and that unfortunately can't be configured during Guided Setup. For that, it absolutely needs a phone line.

So naturally, I was cursing my previously beloved TiVo, and made plans to shlep the thing over to my friend's place, as he lives in the general area and has one of those old-fashioned phone lines. But then, the TiVo Community Forum came through for me. Apparently if you use a wired network connection, and the old Series 1 network hack (,#401 as the dial prefix), Guided Setup will still think it's using a modem, but will in fact be directly connected to the Internet to download the stuff it needs.

So I checked my local RadioShack's inventory on USB ethernet adapters, and made a mad dash for the store. I walked in, and asked the guy behind the counter for exactly what I needed.

"We don't have anything like that," he responded quickly.

I kindly explained that I had checked the inventory on-line, and yes, they really did carry such an item, and furthermore, it was in stock at this very store right now.

The employee, clearly suffering from Comic Book Guy Syndrome, replied, "Well, it must have been wrong. We don't carry anything like that."

"Well, can you at least check?" I asked.

Before this jackass could say no, another person behind the counter stepped up and said he thought there was something that was like what I needed. So we went over to their USB section, where he pointed to a USB hub and asked if that was what I needed. I said no, and then turned to my left, where there was a pretty healthy section of ethernet adapters. And what do you know, sitting right in the bunch was the USB one I had asked about.

So I took that back to the counter, and asked the Jackass (as I've now formally dubbed him), about the other item I needed (for a completely unrelated matter), a Female-to-Female DB9 adapter. He was at least slightly more helpful this time, pointing me towards the adapters section, and gesturing towards where it probably was. I thanked him for his graciousness.

Anyway, I bought the adapter(s) and headed home, and then this morning, I tried it out. Sure enough, with the wired connection and the dial prefix, it worked like a charm. Hallelujah!

It's funny how complicated something that was intended to simplify my life became. Ah, well. At least I know for future reference. (And now, so do you).

Posted by jason at December 30, 2004 01:55 PM | TrackBack | Read more: Geek Culture , T.V.