TiVo and Comcast....

[eurosport]

Chatted tonight with an agent, he said if I use my own TiVo series 3 it will get HD but I can't record unless I lease their DVR service. Is anyone here using a TiVo with Comcast that can confirm or deny this?

 

[1400_alucard]

I have the TiVo Roamio Plus and I have a cable card in mine. I pay TiVo for the DVR service and Comcast gives me a $2.50 credit on my bill for owning my own video equipment. It really depends on if your TiVo can use cable cards.

TiVo Series 4 & 5 (aka Premier and Roamio ) can accept Multi-Stream (M-Series) CableCards and those just need the CableCard from Comcast. Once you have those Cards you can access Xfinity On Demand (takes 72 hours after activation for the option to show) and you pay TiVo for DVR Service.

Series 1 & 2 require a digital converter from Comcast to watch the majority of the lineup where Comcast encrypts 99% of their channels now

Some Series 3 can accept CableCards however this is for the S-Series Standard (Single Stream) Series 3 Boxes w/CableCards can record but can not access Xfinity On Demand. In order to access On Demand you need a digital converter from Comcast. If your Series 3 can't accept cable cards of any kind then you need a digital converter.

 

[Mochuf]

Chatted tonight with an agent, he said if I use my own TiVo series 3 it will get HD but I can't record unless I lease their DVR service. Is anyone here using a TiVo with Comcast that can confirm or deny this?

I have a Tivo HD Series 3 connected to Comcast. The Tivo HD was the last version on the Series 3, but all versions of the Series 3 have two CC slots and will record in HD via the CC on Comcast. The original Series 3 models need two cards (one for each tuner), it doesn't matter if those cards are S (single) or M (multiple), it will need two if you want to record two cable channels in HD. The Tivo HD can use one M card to record two cable channels in HD.
I recommend that you visit the Tivo Community forums. You'll find a lot of useful information there.

Some Series 3 can accept CableCards

Wrong, all Series 3 models have CC slots.

If your Series 3 can't accept cable cards of any kind then you need a digital converter.

Series 3 units don't even have a way to control another box like the earlier models do with their IR blasters. So connecting another box to a Series 3 will only work for manual recordings and not for scheduled recordings. Besides all Series 3 models have analog/digital tuners and will record analog (if available), clear QAM (if available) or encrypted QAM with a cable card. No other box needed.

Have you ever even owned a Series 3 Tivo?