Chapter 3: Setting Up Your TiVo 37
A household phone line works fine, but a digital “PBX” phone line — like
the multiline systems found in many offices and hotels — will not work
and may damage your TiVo.
Conceal a long phone cord by pressing it into the edge where your
carpet meets with your walls.
If your phone jack is too far away from TiVo, or it leaves an ugly dangling
cord, you have several options:
• Leave the phone cord unplugged. Then, every few days, plug in
the TiVo and use TiVo’s Setup menu option to make TiVo “call
now.” (I describe this in Chapter 11’s “Solving phone problems”
section.) When TiVo finishes, unplug the phone cord and stash it.
Repeat once a week.
• Connect TiVo to your computer’s broadband connection.
Computer savvy folks can connect to their computer’s broadband
connection through a wired or wireless network, described in
Chapter 8. That lets TiVo grab your information from the Internet,
eliminating the need for a telephone line altogether. (You need a
wired network or a phone line to run TiVo’s initial Guided Setup,
covered in Chapter 4.)
• Buy a wireless phone jack. You’ll find them at Radio Shack, Amazon,
Home Depot, and TiVo’s online store (https://store.tivo.com/),
as well as at some of the TiVo accessory stores listed in Chapter 13.
These plug into a phone jack and “beam” the signal through the air
or your power lines to a receiver, which plugs into TiVo’s phone jack.
Make sure the wireless phone jack works specifically with modems
or fax machines, and not just voice.
Connecting TiVo to Your Television Signal
Is TiVo placed near your TV? Connected to the telephone line? Then you’re
ready to connect TiVo to your television signal. The signal usually enters
your house in one of two ways: through a single cable protruding from the
wall, or through a satellite or cable box.
If you don’t use a cable box or satellite box, you qualify for the simplest
installation of all, described in the next section.
If you do have a cable or satellite box, the installation’s a little more difficult,
so it’s described in an upcoming section.