Setup

Setting up the TiVo Series2 DVR consists of three major items:

1. Activating your TiVo service - either via the Internet or via a toll-free phone call
2. Hooking up your TiVo DVR to your PC
3. Completing the Guided Setup program on the TV screen

There is an optional Home Media add-on package from TiVo that turns your DVR into a media receiver capable of playing back digital audio files and digital photographs. We will cover that package later on.

It is important to note that the user documentation for the TiVo Series2 DVR is excellent. The documentation will show you various ways you can connect your DVR to your home television set. If you are not familiar with hooking up electronic devices, then take some time to look through the manuals. They're an excellent resource to use.

Step 1 - Activate

The easiest method to activate your TiVo DVR is to go online and setup a new user account on the TiVo website (unless you already have an account). You will be asked to pick a subscription plan which currently consists of the following options:

I chose the lifetime membership plan which makes the most sense for those who see themselves using TiVo for quite a long time.

Once you've configured an account, you need to register your TiVo DVR with the service by providing the unique 15 digit TiVo service number located on the back of the DVR. This allows TiVo to find and validate your DVR on the network. You can also have multiple DVRs in your house but you must register each DVR to the TiVo network.

The online setup takes only a few minutes to complete but the actual registration process could take a few hours to finish on TiVo's end. While you're waiting, you can go ahead and connect the DVR to your home theater system and cable/dish box.

Step 2 - The Hardware Setup

Setting up the TiVo Series2 DVR consists of installing the hardware into your television or home theater arrangement. There are a number of different ways to install the TiVo Series2 DVR. Typically, the DVR will be located between the cable/satellite box and the television set. Others may connect the DVR to a home theater system which will then output to a television set. Make sure to refer to the user manuals to find different installation setups.

For my home, I connected the cable box S-Video output to the TiVo DVR and then the DVR to the A/V Receiver. The receiver acts as a big multiplexer in my home theater system providing video feeds directly to the television and audio feeds to the speaker system. If your cable box and your television supports S-Video, it's best to use that connector for higher picture quality. Unfortunately TiVo Series2 DVRs do not support HD content (another reason why you won't see component jacks on the rear of the DVR). Since my cable box does support HDTV, the component video is still being fed to my receiver directly from my cable box - which then provides the signal back out to the television set.

Now how does the TiVo DVR control your cable box you might ask? If you happen to have a cable box that supports the serial control interface of the Series2 DVR then all you need to do is to connect the cable box to the DVR with the serial cable provided by TiVo. However, most users will probably not have a compatible cable box so you'll need to use the included IR blaster. Connect the IR blaster to the front of the cable box and to the back of the DVR. TiVo provides some adhesive tape to keep the IR blaster in place on top of your cable box. Later on, you will get a chance to program your DVR to send the appropriate IR commands from the DVR to the cable box. This will allow the DVR to control the cable box via external IR commands similar to how a user controls the cable box via the remote control.

Once you are done with arranging the DVR into your particular home setup, you will need to connect the DVR to your phone jack. This step is necessary even if you plan to use the USB port on the DVR to connect to your broadband network. The TiVo DVR will make two phones calls to the TiVo service: one phone call to initialize your service and a second phone call to get all the television schedule information for your particular cable or dish provider. The second phone call can take up to 20-30 minutes to process. If you plan to connect an Ethernet or Wi-Fi adapter to your DVR, then you can remove the phone cord after the second phone call. The DVR will utilize the network connection from that point on to update it's guide information.

It's important to note that the TiVo Series2 DVR does not have an Ethernet port. You need to purchase a USB Ethernet adapter or a USB Wi-Fi adapter that is compatible with TiVo Series2. You can find a list of compatible adapters on the TiVo website. It is disappointing that you're required to spend even more money to allow your set top box to communicate on a network. It's a good thing that the USB Ethernet adapter is usually only around $20-30 dollars. For my DVR, I purchased a Linksys USB adapter which worked immediately upon connection. The DVR leased an IP from my router and everything was good to go.

Step 3 - Guided Setup

The TiVo Guided Setup is a set of on screen (television) instructions for you to wade through while setting up your TiVo DVR. It is during this process where the DVR will be dialing up TiVo twice. At the end of the Guided Setup, you will be ready to begin recording shows for later usage.

(Optional) Step 4 - Home Media Option

You can skip this section if you are not interested in the TiVo Home Media Option. The Home Media Option is a service add-on supplied by TiVo for users with home networks. The option allows you to view digital photographs and listen to your MP3 music collection via the DVR set top box.

In order for you to utilize the Home Media Option, you will need to go to TiVo's website and download the TiVo Server software. You can find the download page here. The service add on fee is 99 dollars on top of the plan that you're subscribed to with TiVo.

Setting up the TiVo Server software is painless. Run the installer application and then once it's finished, execute the TiVo Server application. You'll get the following user interface:

The TiVo Server is based on a publishing system. Using the TiVo software user interface, you select the files or folders that you want to make available to your TiVo devices on your network.

A TiVo Series2 DVR automatically detects TiVo servers on your home network. From the TiVo user interface, you can then select a file for playback.

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