Page 1 of TIVO Manual Recording

Does anyone know how to enable a Tivo to manually record a programme for more than half hour if you do not subscribe to the service. The more I used the machine the less I required the service and so subsciption has lapsed, but I would like to record MTV into the night. Any suggestions, other than re-subscribing?

I`d love to know if this is possible. One of the things I dislike about Tivo is that it appears to have been deliberately crippled, so it`s of very limited use unless you subscribe to the "service" (which, to me, seems a bit like paying Dyson £10 a month to make your hoover suck).

Mike

On an un-subbed unit pressing record will only record half hour as you said. If you need to record more than half hour you need to set up a manual recording:
Pick Programmes to record,
Record by Time or Channel
Manualy record time/channel
Enter the date, channel & time.

I use my unit un-subbed and I think it`s great, you can still set up manual recordings to record stuff on a regular basis you just need to know when its on and which channel, the only drawback is the now playing menu just shows the channel and time recorded and theres no way to name the program.
By the way I never let my TiVo connect after my grace period expired so my account status is `not set up` I don`t know if the functions change if you allow TiVo to connect and `find out` that you don`t subscribe.

Hope this helps
Paul

Thank You Fuel Crusher for your reply.
I have previously tried your suggestion, but Tivo will not let me access the manual timer screen, it just comes up "Error, Connection to Tivo Unavailable-Your Recorder has no programme guide" then asks me to call make daily call or call customer services.
Like you, I disconnected the phone line after the initial grace period call.
Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance

"Like you, I disconnected the phone line after the initial grace period call."

OK, so when exactly did you disconnect the phone line. After the first call? If this is the case your TiVo may still be running the old 1.5 version software which didn`t allow manual unsubbed recordings. Check which software your unit is running it wants to be version 2.5.
Let me know.

Thanks again Fuel Crusher for your reply,
I am running version 1.5.1-000.
The phone line was disconnected after the initial call which downloaded the first 2 weeks of program info. I never re-connected it after that.
Any Idea of how to upgrade to v2.5?

Thanx
Fred

I think your best bet will be to subscribe for a month then cancel so it`s only a tenner. Your Tivo will download the latest software within the first couple of days or you could force some calls until it gets it. When I got my Tivo I had to force about six calls before it started downloading new software. You`ll know you have it because you`ll get a message saying `pending re-start` or similar. After a re-boot you should be sorted. Make sure you pull the telephone before your months subscription runs out.
Hope this helps.
Paul

Thanks Paul,
I will give your suggestion a try!

Fred.

Tivo made a call, downloaded V2.5 and now works fine as a manual timer recording Hard disk recorder!

Saves me having to buy a Panasonic HS2!!

Good stuff!
My thoughts exactly, it`s just a shame Tivo doesn`t mach the quality of the panny.