Virgin Media Community

[SSLondon]

My TiVO box was playing up, and today an engineer finally came to change it. When I spoke to customer support on the phone prior to today's engineer visit however, I asked what would happen to my recorded shows on the TiVO and was assured these could be easily transferred to the new box.

When the engineer came, he informed me that this was not the case, and I would lose the shows and series links. Annoying - if I had known this, I would have at the least noted down the series links and investigated what to do about the shows before the engineer came.

However I have been allowed to keep my TiVO box to watch the recorded shows on it, and the engineer kindly gave me an additional HDMI cable to do this. I was informed that I just plug the HDMI into my laptop and the other end into the old TiVO box (no longer connected to the cable system, but still has power plug) and the TiVO storage folder should show on my laptop.

However this did not happen, and I had the TiVO connected to my laptop for a few hours at least - it doesn't register.

Has anyone tried to watch the shows on a deactivated TiVO box using a computer connected via HDMI before? 

From looking at other internet forums it seems I might need additional hardware, or there may be encryption preventing me from seeing what is on the TiVO box onmy laptop. Not sure why - I only want to watch the shows that I recorded, I don't need to transfer them or use the TiVO box for anything else.

Any help much appreciated!

[sjp123]

You should be able to log into your "my VM" account on https://my.virginmedia.com/home/index and copy your SL's and Thumbs data over. Unable to provide much more help as this option is only available when a box swap takes place.

As to the TiVo > Laptop issue, never tried it but if you have an available HDMI socket on your TV it might work there, I believe you should be alble to view your recordings for a while though this isn't something I've tried recently.

[nodrogd]

Laptops are a copying medium, which is not allowed under HDCP protocols. You will only be able to use equipment not capable of copying.

You also have to continue renting the old box or it will cease to operate anyway.

[Tavis75]

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@nodrogd wrote:

Laptops are a copying medium, which is not allowed under HDCP protocols. You will only be able to use equipment not capable of copying.

You also have to continue renting the old box or it will cease to operate anyway.

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And even more fundamentally, the HDMI port on the laptop will be an output not an input.

[SSLondon]

Thanks to both responses. So it seems I was given bad advice from start to end.

So could I just clarify - Essentially I should have copied the shows over online before my old TIVO was deactivated? and now I can't watch the shows without re-attaching it to my TV which doesn't have a copying function (do I have to take the cable out of the new V6 and reattach to the old TiVO for this also?) and I only have two weeks to do this for free, otherwise I have to pay for my TIVO as a second box?

[SSLondon]

Sorry I didn't realise that marking an answer as 'helpful' meant that my question was answered! urgh this forum is so annoying. I was acknowledging that Tavis75's response about the type of HDMI port in my laptop was useful to know, but my overarching question is still not fully answered.

[BenMcr]

You can't copy recordings at all - to watch them you need an active box connected to a TV or to your home network so you can use the TV Control app or box to box streaming.

You can copy the Series Link data that allows the TiVo software to plan future recordings. This is backed up to the cloud and remains available for 14 days after a box is replaced.

[SSLondon]

Hi Ben thanks -I don't want to copy anything, just watch the outstanding shows. Not bothered how/where I do this, my only issue is that when I requested an engineer on the phone, I wasn't provided with appropriate advice about how to move my shows to a new box or watch them (or what to do about my series links), and then when I brought this up during the engineer visit I was told that I could easily watch them if I had a computer with an HDMI port.

If I re-attach my TIVO to my TV, can I see and access  My Shows to watch them even if the Virgin cable remains attached to the new V6? You say that my Series Links data is backed up to the cloud, If someone could provide step by step information on how I do this via https://my.virginmedia.com/home/index, I'd be very grateful.

If this is not something the community can solve, not to worry, I'll ring Virgin... again!

[BenMcr]

If you've had a new box due to a fault then the old one will be deactivated and you cannot do anything with it or the recordings on it.

In fact the engineer should have take it away with him as they're supposed to do that for any kit swap.

[SSLondon]

Very disappointing! Nonetheless thanks for all the responses. Shay