Fiber (Centurylink) / Tivo Question

geoduck no quahog

not particularly consistent
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Nov 8, 2002
13,024
Seattle, WA
Please help.

I signed an intention to switch from Comcast (TV, Internet, Phone) to Centurylink (Fiber / Cat6) and have 3 days (until 30 May) to cancel the order. This will save me about $100/month (for the first year). Here's my quandary:
  1. Centurylink claims their internet service is miles ahead of Comcast's Blast Pro (up to 150mbps...yeh, right)

  2. I have a Tivo XL4 Premium, which is critical to recording baseball games across channels (due to "key word pass"). I do not believe the Centurylink DVR has this function (Comcast's doesn't).
  3. Centurylink states they bring fiber to the house and then distribute via cat6 ethernet to all devices (I already have a cat6 into the Tivo for update downloads). They stated that providing Prism cable cards and hooking into the Tivo would "be no problem". When I asked how, given that the Tivo only has a coaxial cable input for video signals, they said not to worry (which makes me worry).
  4. I find absolutely no useful information on the internet about this. I can't even find appropriate information about Fios.

  5. Savings aside, does anyone know how their technology works for hooking up a fiber/ethernet feed to a coaxial input (not the ethernet input for updates) and achieve any improvement in quality? I keep thinking Centurylink is yanking my chains. Although I'm no fan of Comcast, everything currently works perfectly:
  • Coaxial Cable input modem/router/WLAN
  • Ethernet distribution (via powerline) to wireless extender and to Tivo update input
  • Coaxial Cable into Tivo for A/V
  • Kodi/Amazon stick into A/V Receiver for free stuff
In a nutshell, I can't find anything on line (including the Tivo forums) that confirms Centurylink (or even Fios) is compatible with Tivo. All I can find from Centurylink is discussion about DirecTV and Tivo.

{BTW, a speed test on Comcast Blast Pro (testmy.net) indicated 25.5 mbps Download and 9.4 mbps Upload...so why the hell am I paying for 150mbps?}