You better double-check on using a Tivo without active service. As I remember, without it, its a doorstop -- no recording at all. A great place to get started with Tivo is ebay. I bought 2 for $40 each. When I activated service, one of them had a lifetime subscription! A extra nice bonus was since I now own an activated Tivo, the second Tivo only costs me $7/month. Tivo's do not have built in Ethernet. They have 2 USB ports. You need to get either a wireless USB network adapter or a wired Ethernet network adapter. Tivo's web site will tell you which ones are supported. Others may work, but Tivo will help you if you have trouble getting a supported adapter to work. A Tivo without a netowrk adapter is just not as much fun. I now have 3 Tivo's (2 wireless, 1 wired) on my home network. This means I can record 3 shows at the same time, transfer shows between them and my computers, schedule recordings on all Tivo's from work or the road, play games with other Tivo users over the Internet, subscribe to Internet only shows (like Rocketboom), and yes, more :) (Curiously, Tivo 3 sits in a closet -- connected to basic cable but with no TV attached. All scheduling is done over the Internet and shows are transfered to Tivo 1 or Tivo 2 for viewing.) You CAN transfer video from your computer to your Tivo. You need to download the free Tivo Desktop software. (I think you also need to enable TivoToGo, but this is also a freebie.) This software announces your computer to your Tivo's and you can "pull" video to a Tivo using your Tivo remote. If the video is not in the correct formnat, you can download a free converter from videora.com. I used this recently when I missed the second half of ABC's "The Path to 9/11." I downloaded it off the Internet using utorrent.com's free BitTorrent client, converted it using Videora's Videora Tivo Converter and copied it to a Tivo for viewing. The recording was from England, which broadcasts PAL instead of NTSC which means different resolution and frame rate, but Videora handled it with minimal audio "slip." Be aware that just because it's available on the Internet doesn't mean you aren't violating copyright. I figure that since it was broadcast and I would have recorded it, no harm, no foul. And finally, yes you can take the disk drive out of a Tivo or other DVR and put it into a computer. They are just plain old IDE drives. The only difference is that they are supposed to be quieter and do seamless spiral reading better, but I've replaced all of the drives in my Tivo's with 300gb drives from Costco or Fry's. 300gb means about 280 hours of TV so it's rare that something "disappears" before I get around to watching it. Since you can get a 300gb drive for $70, I wouldn't bother taking the time to put a used 40 or 80 gb drive from a DVR into a computer.

Here is what I would try: If you have them, use HDMI cables from the TIVO, the Blu-Ray player as inputs to the Sony DH800. (otherwise, component cables will work) The Cable TV cable still runs to the TIVO. You shouldn't need the extra set of component cables on the TIVO (where do the connect to?) I can't think of any way you would wreck anything playing around with it. It will either work, or not (but no smoke will appear). If you havent finished the walls yet, I would strongly advise running a CAT-5 or CAT-6 data cable to the area where your receiver sits for future use. There will be a mad scramble for providers of streaming HD programming delivered via the internet (Netflix, Amazon video etc.) Expecting a wireless network to deliver the bandwidth needed to stream an HD picture is usually asking too much. Good luck!

One of ours (from 13 or 14 years ago!) had to have a phone line to be hooked up and for the schedule updates. Afterwards...and AFTER we had bought the wireless TiVo router thing....we have just had our orignal setup and updates done via our network. We have 4 stand-alone TiVos, not the Comcast or satellite-based ones....

I used to be just "gazania" because I love the plant and it is a 'fun' word to say. Then when Houszz got involved, for some reason I had to reup to the forum. I chose lgmd for the disease that was responsible for the disability I have and added gaz so maybe I would still be recognized by some. However soon after doing that, my disease was reidentified by new available DNA testing. I haven't changed the lgmd part because it seems it would be too much hassle. To be correct I should now be sma3_gaz.