TiVO is watching me
 

I recently unhooked and then re-connected all the Internet stuff at my house. We have Comcast cable modem, connected to our phone line via the nearest RJ11 jack, also to our wireless access point which connects to the TiVO upstairs among other things.

Imagine my surprise when, while watching a program off the TiVO, a message popped up on the TV screen: "cellphone ca XXX-XXX-XXXX" (my daughter's phone).

Bizarre. I can't figure out why the TiVO knows we're getting a phone call. Has never happened before. I went downstairs and moved the RJ11 from one jack on the cable modem to the other (it has line 1 and line 2). Maybe it will behave normally now. Brrrr.

Did you have the Tivo plugged into the phone line? I believe it has a Caller ID feature.

No, I didn't. But maybe it was connected to the phone line via the cable modem? Maybe line 1 and line 2 aren't simply two otherwise interchangeable voice lines? I hate it when the infrastructure is smarter than I am.

On Cox Cable if you have their phone service and the caller ID option it will pop up any incoming call. I just can't see spending the extra 8 bucks a month to see the phone number of who is calling. $96.00 per year to see a phone number is a total waste of money in my eyes.

dish network boxes have a caller id feature also.
you can go to the menu and disable it if you want.
It even asks you when the calls pop up on the screen if you want to disable this feature by pressing OK

The pop up message got recorded on the TiVO, so at an important part of 2001: A Space Odyssey I have the caller ID message. Irritating.

Bet you it's a overlay on the output and not part of the recording. Like if you pop up the guide whilst watching/recording.