In the Spring of 2019, TiVo ended support for dial-in connections. TiVos for cable or antenna must use broadband internet to connect to TiVo’s servers from now on for guide updates and OS upgrades. So if your TiVo had been dialing in and is now complaining that it can’t get guide data, this is why.
Here’s a list of the impacts on TiVos that were dialing in, per TiVo generation, starting with non-DirecTV units:
Series1 (Philips HDR and Sony SVR-2000 models): These already haven’t been able to dial in for a few years, so they really aren’t impacted by this change.
Series2 (TiVo, Sony, Humax, Pioneer, and Toshiba models, some with DVD capabilities): If you have one of these and were using a phone line, you now need to switch to broadband. You have two options:
- G Wifi Adapter – this will connect to your home Wifi network
- Wired Ethernet Adapter – this will connect to an ethernet cable that runs to your router
Series3 TiVo HD (TiVo brand): Series3 units all have ethernet built-in as well as the ability to use a separate Wifi adapter. If you were using a phone line, you need to change to an ethernet cable, or this G Wifi Adapter.
Series4 Premiere (TiVo brand): Series4 units were the first TiVos that didn’t ship with internal modems. If you were using these to dial-in, you would have had to have a TiVo USB Phone Line Adaptor connected (and this didn’t work with the four tuner Premieres). Now you either need to plug an ethernet cable into your unit (all Series4 units have ethernet ports) or add a G Wifi Adapter.
Series5 Roamio and Series6 Bolt units were never able to dial in, so this change doesn’t affect them.
DIRECTV TiVos
Series1 and Series2 DirecTiVos, and the HD DirecTV HR10-250: If you have one of these units up and running, it should continue to work fine for now. It may give you a ‘nag screen’ telling you to connect to a phone line (don’t bother) but it should continue to get guide data off the satellite dish. But if you redo Guided Setup, change your hard drive, or try to set up a previously unactivated unit, you won’t be able to. In these situations, the unit needs to dial-in to DirecTV, and that’s no longer possible.
DirecTV units cannot use the broadband wired or wireless adapters mentioned above.