Step Zero

I saw your post re: the virtues of the InstantCake and CacheCard combination--you're a lucky man and I hope to be there some day.

Thank you very much for the resources of your post. It's so nice to have clear advice in one place.

My question for you is this: your instructions presuppose a networking capability of the Tivo. I'm not there yet, though. I plug in the LAN cable and the Tivo is not recognized by the router or the network. I've tried rebooting (by turning off and on the power). Is there else I'm missing?

Thanks,
Glen

So basic!

Thanks, Crispian for your reply.

To answer your questions, a Sony SVR-2000 + InstantCake (for the SVR-2000).

The PTVupgrade people were kind enough to push the right approach (despite my purchase of the unsupported InstantCake): "if you're not getting a green light on your router, it is something very basic. Check your network."

The entertainment center requires a bit of disassembly to extract the Tivo, so this was a significant hurdle, but once done and once the Tivo case was opened, it revealed a slightly loose ethernet cable. Once re-set in position, I gained my green light, the Tivo successfully called in with the prefix ",#401" and I was able to link to it from my computer. They were so right! How very simple!

All I really wanted was a Tivo that could call in over the internet (since my new phone service through Vonage now does not support the "fast talking" Tivo). And finally I have that.

But being able to talk to the Tivo through my computer has opened a whole new world, and as long as I have you on the line, I wonder if you wouldn't mind answering 4 questions:

1.) PTVupgrade bundles DVRchive with some kits, but I haven't seen it for sale as a separate, user-installed add-on. Do you know anything about this? Is DVRchive the best way to transfer video to a computer DVD burner?

2.) Is there a way to determine which CacheCARD driver I currently have running? If less than 2.2 do you foresee any benefit to updating? (The prospect of messing up--of taking steps backward from a fully functional Tivo scares me.)

3.) Likewise, should I be scared to replace my TivoWeb with TivoWebPlus?

4.) In that same vein, what risks am I running with your other recommended installatios: mfsstream, TyTool, tivoapp patch, unscramble. Were all of these smooth operations for you or did you meet with obstacles along the path? Were any of the installations more tricky than the others? I really I hate obstacles: because I'm not bright enough to know how to deal with them once they crop up.

Thanks again for your reply.

Glen