Caller ID on you’re TV Screen

This is a simple guide to displaying Caller ID information on your TV via the Tivo. This setup requires the following:
- A Networked Tivo
- A Caller Display Compatible modem (see below)
- Caller Display service on your phone line
- A running PC to feed the Caller ID data to the Tivo.

Modem
Few manufacturer seem to admit that their modems provide Caller ID data (Dynalinks NZ support desk told me the have NO modems that will – though other sourses tell me they do…), and most retailers don’t seem to have a clue. To this end I borrowed a $20 PCI card modem (Pragmatic 56k modem F00 Smartlink V.90 v.92) from a local retailer and gave it a try.
Sure enough, it worked, and just using the supplied driver too.

I used YAC – Yet Another Caller ID Program from http://sunflowerhead.com/software/yac/ which provides software for both the PC (server) and the Tivo (listener). Full instruction are provided with the software including changes required to run at startup by editing the /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit file, so I won’t go into these here. You can read the Tivo install instructions http://sunflowerhead.com/software/yac/yac-0.15-tivo-readme.txt

The PC Server software allows you to create an address book allowing name as well as number to appear on your screen.

The software works well, and documentation is good – and with a total cost of $20 for the modem – why not?

Thanks

Neil