TiVo Home Media Rollout

ncstockguy writes "TiVo rolls out its new Home Media option next week. Subscribers with a Series2 DVR box can get some impressive new functions to their TiVos. They'll be able to screen digital photos on their TVs, listen to music stored on their computer hard drives on their home entertainment units, schedule to tape a show "remotely" through the Internet, and watch a recorded show in different rooms on different TVs. Some of the functions will require two or more computers connected either by WiFi or ethernet."

Comments

DIRECTV users left out in cold

[tbdean]

If you are a DIRECTivo user - a DIRECTV user with a TiVo2 box you do not get these features. TiVo has offered them to DIRECTV, but DIRECTV doesn't seem to want them. I'll keep my TiVo1 series box until DTV gets on the ball. When I can get these new features I'll buy two TiVo2 boxes!

Re:DIRECTV users left out in cold

[Anonymous Coward]

Forget TiVo2, go with the Xbox mod!

Re:DIRECTV users left out in cold

[anthonyclark]

Complain!

Corporate types wait for a certain number of complaints before doing anything. If enough people complain (and promise to buy the Home Media Option if DirecTV make it available) then DirecTV will do something about it

Go here and tell them how disappointed you are and how you you want to buy this. Mention that you'll complain to J D Power Consumer Satisfaction Survey which should make them take notice; DirecTV really values their high customer satisfaction rating and use it as a selling point.

Re:DIRECTV users left out in cold

[Anonymous Coward]

Or avoid /. FUD. DirecTV has NOT said they will not offer the HMO. They HAVE said they will eventually offer it.

Re:DIRECTV users left out in cold

[neonzebra]

Yeah this really pissed me off. I bought a DirecTiVo Series 2 box in anticipation of the new HMO features. Now my roommate is going to have a better TiVo than me! (Damn him!)

I can't really blame TiVo, though, it was DirecTV's decision not to offer the feature. TiVo gave complete control of the DirecTiVo featureset to DirecTV some time back.

If you're in the same boat as me, there's an online petition here. From the tone of the DirecTV VP that made the announcement, it looks like if there's enough demand, they might change thier minds and release it anyway. So please do us all a favor and slashdot the petition!

Re:DIRECTV users left out in cold

[tbdean]

You might want to check your sources, they have said quite the opposite!

Here is a thread from TiVoCommunity.com that talks about it.

Re:DIRECTV users left out in cold

[ncc74656]

I'll keep my TiVo1 series box until DTV gets on the ball. When I can get these new features I'll buy two TiVo2 boxes!

Even then, I'm not so sure that HMO makes the upgrade to Series 2 worthwhile. I have a standalone Series 1 TiVo, and I don't plan on upgrading. My TiVo is connected to my network, and I've been ripping/archiving shows from it for nearly two years now. The software to enable this keeps getting better all the time...TyStudio is especially slick. Once it's set up, a few clicks are all it takes to extract an MPEG stream that you can burn directly to DVD or transcode to a lower bitrate for SVCD. (Info on transcoding/editing TiVo video is available here, but it's not yet been updated for TyStudio.) Remote scheduling is handled through TivoWeb, so that's covered...that's really the only HMO feature I'd find useful, as I have only one TiVo (making "multi-room viewing," as they've defined it, useless) and my DVD player plays MP3 CDs.

Maybe HMO is a bit easier to set up for the drooling masses, but you can still do more with a Series 1 TiVo...and it doesn't cost you anything (other than the cost of a NIC for your TiVo, and even that is cheaper than HMO).

Re:DIRECTV users left out in cold

[Caduceus1]

Just to inform people.

The home Media Option is only available to owners of the TiVo Series 2 DVR. There is no such thing as a "Series 2" DirecTiVo. There is the Hughes HDVR2 (and some other brands soon), which is call the "DirecTV DVR powered by TiVo", and is based on the same platform as the Series 2 (faster processor, graphics, etc.), but it has never officially been dubbed a Series 2.

That said, the HDVR2 and others of its ilk could support it (it has the power), but DirecTV is now responsible for the support, not TiVo, and has too look at all software and hardware updates closely. Also, all fees for the service are paid directly to DirecTV, so somehow DirecTV would have to pay TiVo for the added service.

If you want them to support HMO, tell DirecTV. They are the ones who decided, and they do so based on customer demand. Complaining to Customer Satisfaction surveys about not supporting features that have never been announced won't be as productive.

Re:DIRECTV users left out in cold

[karmawarrior]

One of the major problems with most large organizations - be they telecommunication/entertainment powerhouses like DirecTV or consumable food & recreational drug giants like Altria (formerly Philip Morris) - is that there's a natural disconnect between them and the customers they serve. As layers of management increase, giant corporations find it more difficult to sense the needs and wishes of their customers. Usually this ends up being solved through countless customer surveys and marketing, but such research rarely has much affect in at least one major way - it doesn't tell corporations what questions are being asked, what is being expected of them: this type of research merely tells a company whether it is successful at what it believes itself to be successful at.

Getting feedback to companies like DirecTV is a tricky situation as it's rarely easy to determine who the information should go to. As if this isn't enough, for the most part any large company has little chance of telling apart sincere customer requests from background noise. If many customers suddenly demand a product be released, or another dropped, what's to say that this isn't because of a mention on talk radio, or because of the behaviour of a competitor?

This quagmire of companies being unable to ask all the questions they need, and of customers being unable to provide the kind of feedback giant corporations need to continue to provide quality goods and services at affordable prices will not disappear by itself. Unless people are prepared to actually act, not just talk about it on Slashdot, nothing will ever get done. Apathy is not an option.

You can help by getting off your rear and writing to your congressman or senator. Tell them that choice, quality services, and economical pricing is important to you, and that you worry that many businesses are crippled by being unable to understand what it is that their customers want. Tell them that you appreciate the work being done to promote loops of feedback, through clearly marked feedback email addresses and constant customer surveys but that if corporations continue to be unable to supply you with what you want and need because of a lack of awareness, you will be forced to use less and less secure and intelligently designed alternatives. Let them know that SMP may make or break whether you can efficiently deploy OpenBSD on your workstations and servers. Explain the concerns you have about freedom, openness, and choice, and how poor communications, bad feedback loops, and talk radio harms all three. Let them know that this is an issue that effects YOU directly, that YOU vote, and that your vote will be influenced, indeed dependent, on their ability to make giant, unaccountable, corporations provide the goods and services that make this country great.

You CAN make a difference. Don't treat voting as a right, treat it as a duty. Keep informed, keep your political representatives informed on how you feel. And, most importantly of all, vote.

Re:DIRECTV users left out in cold

[Anonymous Coward]

If you're happy with your SINGLE tuner TiVo box, more power to you. As a DirecTV subscriber and a power user of TV, I need the power of a DirecTiVo or UltimateTV (of which I have both) which feature dual tuners. Having had dual tuners for years now, I don't see how anybody could live with just one. I can't believe that TiVo has not yet added a second tuner to it's standalone boxes.

I have no use for viewing pictures or listening to music on my TiVo. I do however have a real need for the multiroom viewing. Time to join the list of complainers to get HMO on DirecTV.

Re:DIRECTV users left out in cold

[Anonymous Coward]

Aren't DirecTivo and DirecTV + a Tivo Series 2 different animals?
DirecTivo is a single unit while I have both a Tivo and a satellite box for DirecTV. From what I understand i can get the home media option.

Re:DIRECTV users left out in cold

[Ed Avis]

(4, Insightful)? Write to your congressman and complain that some companies don't have clearly marked feedback email addresses? Inform your senator that SMP support is a make-or-break issue for installing OpenBSD? Lobby against talk radio?

An accomplished Slashdot parody, karmawarrior - a pity that moderators lack any sense of humour. Or perhaps they just read the first few sentences of each post.

Re:DIRECTV users left out in cold

[bewert]

And it may not happen until the DirecTV ownership issues are straightened out. Hughes Corp. is being sold by GM, with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. the only buyer left standing. A few months from now a lot of things could change...

NY Times (free reg required) article on the latest on this subject
here.

Re:DIRECTV users left out in cold

[Anonymous Coward]

"I have only one TiVo (making "multi-room viewing," as they've defined it, useless)"

Actually I have two Series 1, DirecTiVo's in the basement and pipe them to televisions all through the house. All you need is a multi-channel RF Modulator. I pipe one TiVo to channel 16 and the other to channel 33. Works great. The only problem is that the remote has to be switched from one TiVo to the other on the fly when you switch between them. My wife's TiVo is 16, mine is 33. Thirty hours of Oprah on 16, 30 hours of Tech TV on 33. It's easy to set up (assuming you have all TV's in the house wired to a single point..).

http://www.smarthome.com/7717.html

wifi?

[Anonymous Coward]

finally - support for any USB wifi?

Re:wifi?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Is it just me...

[Jonboy X]

...or is anyone else creeped out by that TiVo icon?

Re:Is it just me...

[Anonymous Coward]

just you.

Re:Is it just me...

[k-0s]

I'd say it's just you but I'd be lying. The TV icon reminds me of some cartoon character from my childhood but I can't place my finger on it.

Re:Is it just me...

[obli]

well, it sure doesen't look too friendly to me :|

Re:Is it just me...

[Anonymous Coward]

Bruhahahahaha. All your TV shows are belong to us!

Re:Is it just me...

[William Fold]

You should see it on the Tivo.

Maybe it's just me, but on my Tivo, its "ears" move. :-)

Re:Is it just me...

[rthille]

Nope, neither does this one:
Obey!

Which you can get on a T-shirt .

Re:Is it just me...

[Joey7F]

I remember my mom being creeped out by TiVo when we first got it, because the IR shield is the size of a camera lense. She swore "they" were filming us...

Yeah, I am glad to have left the house...

--Joey

Re:Is it just me...

[Yottabyte84]

See my All yout tuners are belong: to US! screencap...

Not a photoshop.... On a series 1 SA with 3.0, enable backdoors, and go to system information and hit chdown about 30 times....

Re:Is it just me...

[Yottabyte84]

damnit, I posted in plain old text mode, should have previewed........ http://www.cal.net/~ryan/images/tivotuners-lq.jpg

Re:Is it just me...

[mosschops]

Could you be thinking of Evil Edna from Willo-the-Wisp?

That's who it reminds me of anyway :-)

w00t!

[Anonymous Coward]

Everything my 18 month old ReplayTV has been doing since I bought it, at twice the *current* price.

Re:w00t!

[Anonymous Coward]

Another thing ReplayTV has that Tivo doesn't is a bankrupt company supporting it.

Re:w00t!

[ncstockguy]

Didn't Replay go under? They are selling their assets at auction. I believe Tivo may pick up a few Replay items at fire sale prices..

w00+

[sickboy_macosX]

I wonder what the RIAA and MPAA are going to think of this one. next thing you know, talking to co-workers about the TV Show, the new CD, or the Movie you saw over the weekend is going to be considered piracy. when will the madness end!

Re:w00+

[SaturnTim]

Well, the RIAA probably won't care too much. You can't share them from the tivo, you can't boy them from the tivo. You can only play them on the tivo. So from the RIAA POV, it's less threatening than an iPod.

The MPAA? Well, the tivo keeps macrovision intact, so it's not going to change the way people pirate movies. And tivo is only providing a way to transfer shows/movies from one tivo to another tivo on the same network. Tivo is activly discouraging people from transfering shows over the net.

Tivo is a small company, and they know they can't stand up to the Instrustry lawyers. They are doing everything then can to stay on the good side of the evil empires.

--ST

Re:w00+

[malfunct]

In fact you can only play back movies remotely on another machine with your personal key (or account ID or something of the sort). This means all the machines in question have to be registered to tivo on the same account.

That said I bet its only a few months until the protocol is broken (like replayTV) and you are able to stream movies to an unprotected client.

Computers

[MCMLXXVI]

"Some of the functions will require two or more computers connected either by WiFi or ethernet"
What self respecting Tivo owner has less than two computers?
I am willing to bet some /.ers have more computers than dates in the past 6 months.

Re:Computers

[Anonymous Coward]

You win your bet.
*sniff*

Re:Computers

[Carbonite]

What self respecting Tivo owner has less than two computers?

I'm on welfare, you insensitive clod!

Re:Computers

[DonkeyJimmy]

I am willing to bet some /.ers have more computers than dates in the past 6 months.

so, one computer then.

Re:Computers

[Anonymous Coward]

And surprisingly, the bulk of that demographic owns 0-1 computers. Weird.

Re:Computers

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah yes... the welfare family you always see on Cops. They live in a dump but have 3 directv dishes mounted on their trailer.

Re:Computers

[AntiGenX]

You're on welfare huh? Great to know that my tax dollars went into buying you a tivo as opposed to say... food, lodging, etc.

What was your case workers name again?

Re:Computers

[Savatte]

what's a date?

Re:Computers

[mekkab]

yeah acts of gord is the chronicle of a owner of a video game store that rents video games, and it seems that people who are on welfare decide they have to rent games, keep them out for 3 months, and then never pay up.

Re:Computers

[NoInfo]

No, they have at least i + 1 computers.

Life before the PVR

[dtolton]

It's a little suprising how much your view of Television in general changes when you get a PVR. When I originally bought mine I thought it would be a nifty little gadget, now it's painful to go to someone's home that doesn't have one. I'd forgotten how obnoxious commercial's can be.

I hope they have some solid security built in with the Web Server, I would be devastated if someone hacked my Tivo and deleted all my scheduled recordings.

What do you mean Dragon Ball Z didn't record?!?!

Re:Life before the PVR

[fudgefactor7]

Could be worse...they could hack your Tivo and recored nothing but Dr. Phil episodes of Oprah...

Re:Life before the PVR

[Anonymous Coward]

No need to worry about web server security on your Tivo. You don't contact your Tivo directly to use the web feature, but rather through a Tivo server which then updates your To Do list during the daily call.

Re:Life before the PVR

[whmac33]

So instead worry about the web server security on the Tivo site. Someone hacks one site and wipes out all the scheduled recordings for all Tivos.

Re:Life before the PVR

[Anonymous Coward]

No, Tivo doesn't house the scheduled recordings. Here, it's like this:

Web browser - request recording of Becker (worst show ever) on Tivo's website - Your Tivo goes out to get guide data for the day - Guide data site says, "Hey, your master asked me if you could record this." - Your Tivo says ok, hangs up and schedules it.

So, no, no one's scheduled recordings are stored anywhere public as far as I know ever. They're all on the individual Tivos which are only connected to the service for at most a few minutes a day (after which activity on the network adapter is zero). Ok?

Re:Life before the PVR

[billnapier]

There is no web server on a Tivo (unless you add one). The TiVo "phone home" to schedule the web recordings. For broadband users, this can be as often at every 15 minutes.

Re:Life before the PVR

[Anonymous Coward]

You're not married, are you?

Re:Life before the PVR

[ckuhtz]

I hope they have some solid security built in with the Web Server, I would be devastated if someone hacked my Tivo and deleted all my scheduled recordings.

You would be devastated? Get a life.

Re:Life before the PVR

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, this is how it works:

Go to Tivo Central Online and request a program to be recorded. You can specify whether it should record only if there are no conflicts or cancel any conflicting shows.

Tivo contacts TCO periodically, at least once an hour, may be as often as every 15 minutes, to see if there are any requests. This is why a network connection is important. I'm not sure, but I don't think HMO is even available unless your Tivo is networked.

Anyway, TCO then sends you an email telling you if Tivo can record the show or not (and if not, what the conflict is). That way you can decide if you want to resubmit it and cancel the other recording.

It would be nice if you had full access to your Season Passes and Todo list from the web, but as people have pointed out, it would make your private viewing information less secure.

Re:Life before the PVR

[jmorse]

And then there's the Tivo "wait, I've got to rewind that and see it again" effect. I sometimes miss something that's said while listening to the radio (or, rarely, while talking to someone) and I instinctively reach for the remote to do an instant replay, only to find that there is no remote...

Re:Life before the PVR

[Anonymous Coward]

You listen to the radio and watch TV at the same time? I think that would be very annoying to me.

Re:Life before the PVR

[stonecypher]

> What do you mean Dragon Ball Z didn't
> record?!?!

That's the point at which they become white-hat, and at which you should be thanking them.

But I assume you meant that as sarcasm in your example. /.ers have more taste. ;)

Re:Life before the PVR

[cayenne8]

I hear ya...Tivo has changed my viewing habits more than I thought. I got mine almost 2 mos. ago...since then, I have had 3 DVD's from Netflix sitting around, unwatched. I may cancel my subscription with them...I have so many shows on Tivo to watch, I don't have time for the DVD movies....One drawback, is that I don't see the news and keep up on world/local events as much. After the 9/11 incident, I had the news on it almost 24/7, however, lately, I really haven't watched news on the war in iraq all that much...and I do like to keep up on the news. So, guess I'll need to schedule recording of some news shows.....

Re:Life before the PVR

[Da w00t]

The remote scheduling is done through your Manage My Account on the "My" section.com. You use the same username and password you used to sign up service on your tivo. If you didn't do that and went through the website, then you only need your tivo's serial number. Once you're signed up, you're set.

Re:Life before the PVR

[DaggerWare]

One of my favorite tricks to keeping up with basic news with my Tivo is to set up a manual recording of Headline News for a half-hour just before I normally wake up in the morning. Then I can watch it at my convenience over breakfast and fast-forward through the stories I don't care about.

Re:Life before the PVR

[ebh]

I'd be annoyed if my schedule, etc. were deleted. I'd be devastated if it turned out my TiVo could be 0wnz0red even after making sure my firewall was set right.

ObTopic: The HMO feature I like the best is being able to transfer between two TiVos in the same house (how long before someone hacks that?). The problem is that I have a Series 2 with a lifetime subscription, and a Series 1 from which I took the subscription, and I don't want HMO enough to pay $300 or whatever for another series 2 TiVo, plus another $300 or whatever for another subscription, plus another $150 for two HMOs ($100 for the first one, $50 for the second).

Re:Life before the PVR

[Anonymous Coward]

Riiiiight.... I'm sure that's what you use it for.

Re:Life before the PVR

[sllim]

Every Tivo owner has at one point or another picked up a friends remote and absent mindedly looked for the pause or the fast forward button.

Or when a friend says something to me like 'Damn, I never get to see Southpark, I work that night.'. I tend to look at them blankly and think 'what does that matter?'.
It tends to take me a few minutes to realize that they don't have a Tivo and it does matter.

Or when someone asks me what time or station some program I like comes on. I have had a Tivo for so long that I honestly don't know - or care.

cool

[rf0]

Now if only TiVo was still in the UK. We have Sky+ which can "Pause Live TV". Of course things like MP3 playing/Viewing photos can be done on any modern DVD player but it would be so nice to have an all in one solutions

Rus

Re:cool

[GregWebb]

Exactly. I don't want Sky+ and can't put a Sky dish on my current place anyway. I would pay good money for a TiVo and it would _really_ get used. And then praised from the rooftops to everyone I met, pretty much.

Please, please, start selling them in the UK again. Dropping them was a silly idea.

Re:cool

[mosch]

That's odd, I just checked the back of my dvd player and I couldn't find a network port on it, and it didn't show up on my wi-fi net either. My DVD player must just be a shitty one, right?

Could you show me the dvd player you're talking about, where it'll let me listen to my iTunes library over the net?

wow

[DonkeyJimmy]

I think my heart just blew up from the thought of how great those features are. Now I'm simply staying alive on willpower so that I can live to enjoy them. Man I love tivo.

Re:wow

[IIRCAFAIKIANAL]

I read your post twice. I read it out loud in a serious voice and then in a sarcastic voice. They both made perfect sense.

And people wonder why we use emoticons? :)

Beware the Tivo monopoly--use your PC!

[writertype]

A year ago, I was pretty gung-ho about Tivo--their service makes it extremely easy to find shows that my friends want to watch, and record them. But with Sonicblue selling ReplayTV, Tivo essentially has a monopoly. Add this to the suit that the studios previously filed against ReplayTV asking them to reengineer their product and ask for personal information, and it gets scarier.

IMO, Tivo now offers two services: the ability to find and record shows easily, and the ability to stream information stored on a PC to consumer electronics devices. This last bit will probably be quite useful for those with video clips (*cough*) stored on their PC.

Still, it's worth checking out the alternatives, especially PC-centric ones like ATI's All-In-Wonder cards. Competition is good.

Re:Beware the Tivo monopoly--use your PC!

[UnixRevolution]

And buy into the Microsoft monopoly on Operating Systems... hopefully you'll be using a Mac or a Linux box for this!

Re:Beware the Tivo monopoly--use your PC!

[mrpuffypants]

but TiVo has said that video streaming will NOT be a part of the current feature set. SonicBlue was sued primarily because they had a very "open" video sharing system on their boxes.

TiVo seems pretty gung-ho about not getting sued so they are watching their backs and keeping features down for now, at least.

Re:Beware the Tivo monopoly--use your PC!

[indiigo]

There are many alternatives coming onboard this and next year, watch for Tivo to have an extremely uphill battle and the marketplace getting very hot. XBOX2 and PS3 will *certainly* have PVR features built in, Microsoft to tie it into messenger/passport, etc, and Sony to do who knows what. The cable companies are looking into integrating this into all set-top boxes period.

Re:Beware the Tivo monopoly--use your PC!

[Luckboy]

Tivo doesn't quite have a monopoly. There's always WinXP Media Center. I personally think this is the scarier monopolistic company, trying to get their hands in every market.

Of course, there's Freevo on linux as well, but it would cost more in parts to build a usable PC for Freevo than to get a Tivo. Not to mention the usability and setup factor.

Personally, I'd rather buy a Tivo than either of those options.

Re:Beware the Tivo monopoly--use your PC!

[Mastos]

Are you kidding? If anything, they are the underdog. Where I live, Hawaii, RoadRunner is coming out with a DVR that costs you only an extra $10 a month with no charge for the box. In addition, you can watch one show and record another.

I'm sure many cable companies are doing something similiar or will in the near future.

Re:Beware the Tivo monopoly--use your PC!

[RatBastard]

I hope XBox 2 doesn't have PVR functions. I don't want to have to worry about degraded game performance when it decides to record a TV show, or fubared recordings because I'm playing a game. There are times when discrete units are the best route to go.

Re:Beware the Tivo monopoly--use your PC!

[Anonymous Coward]

ATI's software sucks flacid donkey cock. I tried going that route. What a waste of time and money.

Re:Beware the Tivo monopoly--use your PC!

[wronkiew]

Dish Network offers another option to TiVo and DIY PC PVRs. The DishPVR has fewer features than the TiVo, but also does not require a monthly fee. See a comparison.

Re:Beware the Tivo monopoly--use your PC!

[Anonymous Coward]

...the ability to find and record shows easily...

Yup, that guide data will be worth its weight in gold. That's why I plan to keep my series 1 unit (circa 12/99, with a lifetime sub) alive as long as possible. Then I can use it as a source of data for a free (as in speech) system that doesn't subject me to yellow stars and any other crap they decide to pump at me.

Re:Beware the Tivo monopoly--use your PC!

[Anonymous Coward]

Contrary to popular belief, having a monopoly is neither illegal or immoral. Just because someone owns everything in a particular market segment does not automaticly make them lying evil facist capitalist pigs, it just gives them more power over that market.

What can be illegal and immoral is how this power is used. Using your firm grip on the operating system to elbow your way into the ISP market is definatly an issue. Also, using your power to discourage competition is an issue (oh, you want to introduce people to your OS with a dual-boot system? sorry, our contract doesn't allow that).

To reiterate, you need to distinguish between power and the use of power. They are not the same thing. Until I see Tivo starting in on monopolistic abuses, I will continue to support them.

Re:Beware the Tivo monopoly--use your PC!

[jwilloug]

Sony already makes TiVos, so surely they'd used TiVo software if they were going to add PVR features to the Playstation line.

That could be the best thing to ever happen to them. Cable boxes, even DirecTV's, have only a limited market, but if everybody with a PS2 had a TiVo-capable machine right now...

interesting....

[frodo from middle ea]

Just today i was looking at solutions to stream divx files on my PC to my TV.
I have a Graphics card with TV-Out and i also have a 802.11 wireless router.
Considering this I have two options

• Use a wireless video TX/RX to send the entire desktop output to my receiver. But i don't want the entire output, i just want the audio/video feed of the divx
• Stream the video over 802.11 router and have a receiver that can demodulate the signal and convert to preferably svideo
• • But i am not interested in a subscription based model, I want a one time payment only device. Does any one know how to do this ?

Re:interesting....

[dr_dank]

If you're interested in rolling your own, give these a look:

Freevo

MythTV

Re:interesting....

[schulzdogg]

If you have a PS2 check out www.broadq.com, I bought one this weekend and it play's my family guy Divx files fine, plus MP3's, plus pictures.

Re:interesting....

[Anonymous Coward]

Look into the Sigma Xcard.

Internet

[jeffmeden]

I wonder... will this leap in connectivity finally let TiVo connect directly to the internet via a pc, or will it still be chained to a phone line in order to get the cool scheduling features? I dont have a tivo yet and thats my biggest woe about getting on the bandwagon.

jeff

Re:Internet

[uberdood]

If you RTFA you'll have the answer to your own question.

Re:Internet

[Anonymous Coward]

So, you are a slashdot reader who has internet connectivity but no phone lines in your house???

You don't even need to run cables. There are "over the power line" phone line extenders that work just fine with TiVo.

I honestly don't understand why this continually is an issue! Who CARES when it uses the phone?

Re:Internet

[entrager]

The new version of the software (4.0) allows the use of USB network devices to do your daily calls.

Additionally, 3.0 and above had (un)support for network connections. By setting your dialing prefix to ,#401 the TiVo used the USB network adaptor.

Re:Internet

[Anonymous Coward]

There are some of us that use a cellphone instead of landline.

Beta

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been beta testing the service for a while now...

The Apple Music and photo sharing is awesome, total use of Rendesvous and your iBook, Powermac, etc. shows up immediately in your TiVo categorized down to a "T"

Another feature that a lot of people probably wouldn't expect is to try this: Make a playlist with some internet radio stations and share it out to your TiVo. Access the playlist on your TiVo and you can listen to Internet radio stations on your TV! It's very, very cool and works great!

Re:Beta

[Anonymous Coward]

Sweeeeeeet! This is just in time for Kelly Clarkson's debut CD, "Thankful," arriving April 15th at a store near you. :) Woohoo!

I sold my 50-disc CD changer to a cow-orker months ago (sucker!) and either play MP3s on my computer or use my DVD player. It'll be nice to feed iTunes directly to the good stereo without running audio patch cords across the living-room.

Re:Beta

[billnapier]

For the unwary out there, parent post is full of crap. Ignore it.

Re:Beta

[MediaBoy77]

Um, no, actually, it's not crap. Not being a mac user, I don't know about the iMusic integration, but I do have a playlist of internet radio stations that the TiVo can tune in just fine.

You have to enter the stations manually into a M3U file, but it can be done. It's another one of TiVo's "hidden" features that TiVo includes to make power users feel like they're in on something special, while not having to actually support it for the unwashed masses.

Re:Beta

[Anonymous Coward]

And I imagine you're both quite seriously in violation of your NDA for even revealing the fact that you were in the beta, no less further information about it.

Re:Beta

[NDA Enforcer]

You TOO!

WOW ;-

[Y2K is bogus]

So Tivo users will have the same functionality as Replay 4000+ users do? It's a damn shame that SonicBlue is in the toilet. With the exception of playing music, my 4580 does all the things Tivo just announced. What's even better is that the line protocol has already been hacked and I can watch recorded programs from any computer in the house with mplayer. Also, I can share with my buddy across the country if he ever gets a 4k series.

Truely a damn shame about Replay. Heck, I've been TCPdumping all comms with it since I heard so that I can disect how to emulate the replay server if it comes to it.

Re:WOW ;-

[uberdood]

So Tivo users will have the same functionality as Replay 4000+ users do?

Not exactly. Our functionality includes a non-bankrupt channel guide service.

Re:WOW ;-

[Anonymous Coward]

MOD PARENT DOWN! It's not interesting, it's flame-bait for a disgruntled Replay owner!

Re:WOW ;-

[sogoodsofarsowhat]

Funny My series 1 Tivo does all that and more. Seems like maybe some of you TIVO owners should go over to www.dealdatabase.com and check out what can be done.

Re:WOW ;-

[Zathrus]

So Tivo users will have the same functionality as Replay 4000+ users do?

Leaving out the music bit is rather big - this is replacing a SLiMP3 or a Rio Receiver after all. That pays for HMO by itself.

But, hey, let us know when your Replay will be able to do things TiVo does, like Season Passes, Wishlists, etc.

After all, they might be able to add this kind of basic functionality before they go bankrupt for a third time.

Re:WOW ;-

[GregGardner]

Don't waste your time TCP dumping. Todd Larason already documented pretty much every protocol the ReplayTV 4xxx series uses in great detail here

Re:WOW ;-

[Y2K is bogus]

Season passes are just another name for Theme channels. I can tell the replay to record any show named "Law & Order" at any time, and it'll get Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, and Law & Order: CI. I use this feature for half of my recordings because some stations move their content around a lot (like TNN).

I haven't a clue what a Wishlist is.

With any luck my 2 replays won't be obsoleted; I paid for the lifetime subscription, therefore I feel I'm owed the balance of the $200 back for each of them if they go under, not to mention the ability to "unlock" the machine to use with a third party channel guide.

Re:WOW ;-

[McSpew]

Season passes are just another name for Theme channels. [...] I haven't a clue what a Wishlist is.

Actually, Wishlists are TiVo's equivalent of Replay's theme channels. TiVo Wishlists allow TiVo to record anything on any channel that meets the the Wishlist criteria, such as a specific title, actor, keyword, director, genre, etc. Season Passes are a completely different story.

Season Passes allow you to record all episodes of a particular series on a particular channel, skipping duplicates and reruns. Unlike Replay's show recording feature, a Season Pass will follow your favorite shows to their new timeslots, even on different days or nights and it also catches bonus episodes the network might be throwing in because another show bombed and they need to fill the slot. A Season Pass will only record on the assigned channel because first-run shows frequently are syndicated and run on different channels than the network affiliates where new episodes are aired. In my city, The Simpsons reruns are aired on a WB affiliate. If I want first-run-only Simpsons, I can put a Season Pass for it on my Fox affiliate's channel and set it for no re-runs.

TiVo also offers a terrific conflict-management engine for dealing with the occasional collisions between Season Passes. Auto-record Wishlists can also be prioritized in the same engine. This way, if tonight's episode of The Sopranos interferes with a show that only airs once a week, you can give The Sopranos a lower priority and the Season Pass will pick a later showing of it and will record your higher-priority show on its night.

Replay also doesn't have anything approximating TiVo's To Do List, which not only shows you what's going to be recorded in the future, but more importantly, what won't be recorded and why not.

Not such a great deal.

[brocktune]

It costs $99 just to unlock the software. You still have to buy a USB ethernet adaptor. And for the old-timers like me, you have to get a series 2 TiVo. (And pay for a new lifetime subscription)

All I wanted was to dump the crappy built-in modem that has died twice in 3 years and use my internet link to get the guide information.

Stuff like this makes me want a roll-your-own PVR. (Gratuitous MythTV link)

Re:Not such a great deal.

[purplebear]

Ok, I'll bite. Why are you still using the modem? TurboNet cards have been out forever. They are extremely easy to install.

Re:Not such a great deal.

[dreamt]

Tivo had a deal to upgrade Series 1 units to series 2 units while keeping lifetime subscriptions. Also, a USB ethernet adaptor is dirt cheap. I bought a couple of 3C460B adaptors for about $7 a piece as soon as I heard that 3.2 (and 3.0?) un-SUPPORTed them.

Re:Not such a great deal.

[uberdood]

All I wanted was to dump the crappy built-in modem that has died twice in 3 years and use my internet link to get the guide information.

You mean this, this or even this? Ethernet-based guide data has been available for the Series 1 TiVo for well over a year now (probably more like two years by now). Sure, these options cost you $70, but they do give you that functionality you crave so strongly.

Now if you're strapped for cash, there's a free way to get guide data without buying an ethernet card (you still must have a subscription of course). It's called ppp over serial - all Series 1 have a serial port and came with a serial port adapter (9pin to your PC). The procedure is well documented here.

Re:Not such a great deal.

[ryanr]

Yes, I wasn't impressed either. That's $99 per Tivo. You really need to have 2 to make it worthwhile. If you just have one, then all the $99 buys you is the ability to display pictures and play MP3's off your computer. As you point out, you have to buy the USB adapters, as well. So, $200-$300 on top of buying 2 series 2 Tivos, for a feature that I'm guessing most owners think should have been included in the first place. Note that you can't play movies stored on your PC. Note that the Tivos have to be on the same account, so no sharing with neighbors, roommates, etc.. let alone across the 'Net.

Tivo really needs to quit gouging their customers. They're just begging to have some competitor come along and eat their lunch. There have been some very visable failures in that market, but I think there's lots of room for competition. At the price that all the features of a Tivo net add up to, I could pay someone to build me a custom HTPC.

Re:Not such a great deal.

[evil_qwerty]

You can get an ethernet card (wireless to) for tivo. Go here for tivo ethernet drivers already in the 3.0 software. Just plug it up, run an ethernet cable to a dhcp router/switch whatever, and change the dial in to something like #401.

Re:Not such a great deal.

[zsmooth]

It's $99 for the first Tivo, $50 for all subsequent. It doesn't really change your argument, but still...

Re:Not such a great deal.

[ryanr]

Thanks for correcting me. You're right, I saw that it was a $99 option, and that you needed 1 per Tivo. This link clarifies it, and the pricing is as you say:

http://www.tivo.com/4.9.1.asp#3

I'm glad to see that it's a little better than I thought... but I still think it's a bit much that they want to charge for the hardware AND the service AND new features that I think belong there in the first place... Sure, they can charge for whatever they like, I'm just saying it makes them a lot less attractive when other options are available.

Re:Not such a great deal.

[rthille]

Not sure if the deal is still available, but Tivo had an offer out to Series 1 lifetime owners to move their lifetime subscription to a new Series2, but you had to buy direct from them, and I think it ended last month (but maybe this month).

Re:Not such a great deal.

[e40]

My calculation went like this, assuming you have 1 tivo series 2:

2 tivo series 2's ($250 for an additional one)
2 $99 payments (= $200)
2 usb wireless nics or 2 usb nics and wire (~ $120 for wireless)

for a grand total of $570 just to watch programs in recorded on one in 2 rooms. Sheesh, that's absurd!

Re:Not such a great deal.

[Anonymous Coward]

>Tivo really needs to quit gouging their customers.

Well, gosh. I feel pretty stupid since I don't recall them saying the rest of my functions would suddenly stop working without the Home Media OPTION. I wish we lived in a free market society where I could choose not to buy it if I didn't want it. *Sniff*.

Re:Not such a great deal.

[phillymjs]

I put this card in my Series 1 TiVo about 2 weeks ago. Installing the card and getting the software onto the TiVo HD (reinstallation is necessary if you want to change the default network settings) was a breeze. The optional step, making a hole in the back panel and installing an RJ45 jack in it, was a bitch and a half.

The end result of having a TiVo I can extract video from and control via a web interface was well worth the effort, though.

~Philly

Re:Not such a great deal.

[Zathrus]

And, of course, let's not forget that you can use an external modem on TiVo's as well.

The OP was too clueless to look up any of this himself though, so I suspect he'll just continue bitching.

Homebrew

[luzrek]

Dang, and I thought I was ahead of the curve with my homebrew PVR. The main use of it right now isn't actually for television viewing, but for music. We have put our entire CD collection onto it and actually listen to the music much more than we did before hand. We might make more use of the video recording functions if there was more to watch. As things stand now, there are about 10 hours of television that I'm interested in (if nothing is in re-runs) each week. It is great fun to put the whole CD collection on random and try to be the first to identify the song.

Re:Homebrew

[IIRCAFAIKIANAL]

I use my DVD player to play MP3 cd's myself. Since I never watch TV, I was never really interested in getting a Tivo. And since I have a portable MP3 player that plays CD's, I can use the CD's on the road too.

Unforutunately....

[hawkstone]

1. Viewing files from your home computer (photos, music) requires Windows or a Mac. Their "TiVo Desktop" software is not (yet) available for linux as far as I can tell.

2. The ability to share your recorded shows requires you to buy another Series 2 TiVo and buy (yes, it costs money) the Home Media upgrade for it as well. You cannot "share" the file with anyone else's Series 2 either, only ones registered under the same household account at TiVo HQ. You can't "share" with your computer either, BTW, only another TiVo.

Maybe some of these will be improved over time, either by TiVo or someone else.

Re:Unforutunately....

[billnapier]

You cannot "share" the file with anyone else's Series 2 either, only ones registered under the same household account at TiVo HQ

And on the same subnet! So you can't (easily) share between your home and your cabin, even if you own both devices.

Re:Unforutunately....

[mrpuffypants]

no, but tivo is using open technologies and will most likely have some type of developer kit

Re:Unforutunately....

[zsmooth]

1. Viewing files from your home computer (photos, music) requires Windows or a Mac. Their "TiVo Desktop" software is not (yet) available for linux as far as I can tell.

Maybe not the Tivo Desktop, but they have released developer resources on writing a Music and Photos Server including a reference Apache module with instructions on how to use it (go here). The protocol is spelled out very well and undoubtedly there will be many easy to use apps out in the next few weeks for people who don't know how to/want to set up their own apache server for it.

Re:Unforutunately....

[dreamt]

Actually, you are wrong. Check out this post below. Tivo has already released an apache module! Very cool thing of them to do, and answers your question. As far as sharing goes, see Reply's various lawsuits. Tivo seems to want to cooperate w/ the networks, not piss them off.

Re:Unforutunately....

[Anonymous Coward]

And on the same subnet! So you can't (easily) share between your home and your cabin, even if you own both devices.

Not true. If your Tivo's have public IP addresses, just enter them in the Music and Photos section and they'll see each other in Now Playing. Streaming will take forever, but you can still do it.

Re:Unforutunately....

[Anonymous Coward]

+1 informative pls mod thx

recording remotely from internet

[sixdotoh]

so does this mean hackers will be able to fill your TiVo with hours of Telletubbies?

Re: mindless ReplayTV praise

[markv242]

Congratulations! Your hardware may be useful for perhaps another 6 months, depending on how Sonicblue's bankruptcy proceedings go!

Dear TiVo.. (Vorbis)

[Joseph Vigneau]

Dear TiVo-

I would gladly buy your service if you included Ogg Vorbis support. Any hardware that is capable of decoding video can easily decode Vorbis as well. I am not about to re-encode my CD collection to an inferior proprietary format for this feature.

P.S. FLAC support would be great too, while you're at it.

Re:Dear TiVo.. (Vorbis)

[Dahamma]

> Any hardware that is capable of decoding video can easily decode Vorbis as well

This is definitely NOT true... TiVo does its MPEG2 encoding and decoding with SPECIFIC hardware that will only encode/decode MPEG. While they could be using it to decode MP3s as well (since MP3 is MPEG1 layer 3 audio) Vorbis is a totally different (and more CPU intensive) audio codec...

Still, this doesn't necessarily mean that the CPU on the TiVo would not be able to handle Vorbis decoding, just that it has nothing to do with the box's ability to decode MPEG2.

Re:Dear TiVo.. (Vorbis)

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear Loser:

We are not about to redesign our product just becuase you used some obscure encoder for your CD collection, and are too lazy to reencode it.
Besides, what kind of stupid name is Ogg Vorbis anyway?
If you don't like it, go design your own DVR.

Sincerely,

TiVo

P.S. Is that enough flack for you?

Re:Dear TiVo.. (Vorbis)

[Anonvmous Coward]

"Dear TiVo-

I would gladly buy your service if you included Ogg Vorbis [vorbis.com] support. Any hardware that is capable of decoding video can easily decode Vorbis as well. I am not about to re-encode my CD collection to an inferior proprietary format for this feature."

Dear TiVo,

I'll buy your product if you support Ogg Vorbis. I know you won't meet this demand because a.) it's frivolous and b.) because not enough people are using it, but I intend to rack up a good deal of karma whether you support it or not.

Re:Dear TiVo.. (Vorbis)

[ncc74656]

Any hardware that is capable of decoding video can easily decode Vorbis as well

This is definitely NOT true... TiVo does its MPEG2 encoding and decoding with SPECIFIC hardware that will only encode/decode MPEG. While they could be using it to decode MP3s as well (since MP3 is MPEG1 layer 3 audio)

Maybe not even MP3, since the audio format (on a standalone Series 1 TiVo, at least) is 32-kHz stereo audio stored as 192-kbps Layer 2 (not Layer 3). If the MPEG decoder happens to support Layer 3, MP3 playback would be possible through it. If it only groks Layer 2, MP3s won't play.

(Then again, Series 2 might use a different MPEG decoder with more features than was used in the Series 1 design.)

Re:Dear TiVo.. (Vorbis)

[schnell]

No offense intended to anyone ... I just see these Ogg letters all the time and I think they're hilarious. ;-)

Dear TiVo -

I would gladly offer to buy your service if you included Ogg Vorbis support. (As you know, Ogg Vorbis is currently used by upwards of several people, many of whom are doing so on an operating system you don't support with your software right now. So I think you can see your economic imperative here.)

Notice that I did not say that I would actually buy your service if you spent the time to include Ogg Vorbis support. Much like the letters I keep sending to Apple about the iPod, if you did support Ogg then send you a letter saying I would gladly buy your service if you made your software open-source. Assuming you somehow did that, my next letter would assure you that I would buy it if it used open hardware. This series of letters would continue until finally I offered to gladly buy your service if you gave it to me for free and sent a supermodel to my house to deliver it.

My fellow technologists who don't like to pay for anything are eagerly awaiting your efforts to satisfy our statistically insignificant needs. So please don't ignore this potentially incredibly unlucrative market and give us Ogg support today!

Re:Dear TiVo.. (Vorbis)

[Anonymous Coward]

Keep on keepin brotha!

+1 Gratutious Ogg Vorbis demand

Re:Dear TiVo.. (Vorbis)

[Anonymous Coward]

Keep on Keepin' on, brotha!

Re:Dear TiVo.. (Vorbis)

[dreamt]

All you have to do is write it. Check out This post below . Tivo has released their protocol, and if you read it, as long as Tivo receives the stream as MP3, it will play it. You can therefore write a server which will convert your OGG file to MP3 on-the-fly and it will play it. Might not be ideal, but it will work if you have 200GB of OGG files. Remeber, Tivo's CPU is not much more than a 200MHz CPU, if that, and htat handles ALL operation. Tivo has a dedicated MPG hardware encoder/decoder.

Re:Dear TiVo.. (Vorbis)

[cayenne8]

Well...I do believe Tivo runs on Linux....

Re:Dear TiVo.. (Vorbis)

[NanoGator]

"I'll buy your product if you support Ogg Vorbis..."

My question is, why would he buy a set top box to do that if his collection's already encoded? Doesn't he have a computer already to play these on?

"...I intend to rack up a good deal of karma whether you support it or not."

I agree, it smells like karma whoring to me.

Re:Dear TiVo.. (Vorbis)

[mgs1000]

While you're at it, why don't you ask for a pony, too? :)

Re:Dear TiVo.. (Vorbis)

[Anonymous Coward]

The people who make MediaCenter have integrated a TiVo Music/Pictures backend into their product. They are working on real-time format conversion, and their Jukebox supports OGG and APE.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread. ph p?postid=1115498#post1115498

They haven't said whether or not these formats will be available real-time conversion on TiVo, but if you want it, ask them for it.

http://www.mediajukebox.com

Re:Dear TiVo.. (Vorbis)

[gateley]

Media Center from J. River will play Ogg Vorbis songs on the TiVo (starting tomorrow morning).

Just what we've been needing

[esconsult1]

to blow all the feeble open source attempts out of the water.

Honestly, I'm just as gung-ho about wanting to setup a Linux box with all the trappings to duplicate the Tivo service... but a $99.00 one time fee? Dont think I will be typing "lsmod" anytime soon to see if the drivers for that video capture card's working.

Certain posts have occured on slashdot recently that shows that we need to pull up our socks in terms of making things "Just Work" in the Open Source world.

Alternatives

[Anonymous Coward]

MythTv and products like it could use development. Fuck subscriptions, get some code flowing.

i was just about to sell my audiotron

[asv108]

When I looked at this page, the music player requires the Tivo desktop software, which you can only use on a PC or Mac. It might work with wine, but the interface doesn't look very intuitive. I will wait till the reviews come out before forking over $99 for functionality I thought was going to be included for free at a later date with my series 2 purchase and lifetime subscription.

Re:i was just about to sell my audiotron

[Anonymous Coward]

The software is written in Delphi 5. I wonder how hard it would be to recompile under Kylix...

They sure charge a lot...

[h4x0r-3l337]

For multiroom viewing, you need two tivos, both with active service AND home media option. That's a LOT of money for something that doesn't even seem all that well integrated: the "other" TiVo shows up as a single entry in the "now showing list". It would have been better if the lists of both units were consolidated. I don't really care which unit a show is stored on. What I would like is to be able to simply add another tivo, and have all of them work as a single multi-tuner unit. Now *that* would be nice...

Not ready for prime time

[MediaBoy77]

I was a beta tester for 'HMO', as it's known at TiVo. I've been living with it for the last month--and I'm not going to shell out the $99 to purchase it. Why?

1. Lack of format support. TiVo plays MP3s. That's it. No OGG, no WMA. My collection is mostly in WMA. If I were to start again, it would be into OGG, not MP3.

2. No playlist control. You can create M3U playlists on your computer and play those, but if you don't create playlists ahead of time, you're stuck playing individual songs or folders (which in my case are sorted by artist). You can't switch songs without stopping the current song from playing. That makes it pretty much useless for parties where you'd like live control over what will play next.

3. No photos simultaneously with music. The feature is named "Music & Photos". But it's actually "Music OR Photos". So if you want to play music during your party, your guests get to see a box with song info onscreen, and that's it. If you want to put a slide show up on your TV, your music has to come from somewhere else. Similarly, there are no other visualization toys to play with.

As for the other features, I "only" have one TiVo, so multi-room viewing isn't useful to me.

And in the month I've been using it so far, I've never had the need to schedule programs for my TiVo remotely.

Even if I had, the conflict-resolution options are minimal: record this program if nothing conflicts, or or record it regardless. You don't get to see what may be conflicting, because TiVo connects to the mother ship every 15 minutes or so to check for new orders.

In short, it's a 1.0 feature set, competing against computers in a 3.0 world. If I want music & photos on my TV, I'll just plug my laptop into my AV system and be happy. So sad.

Re:Not ready for prime time

[Anonymous Coward]

Good job on the NDA there, pal.

Re:Not ready for prime time

[Anonymous Coward]

.wma ?!?!?! You frickin' IDIOT!!! Use mp3 or ogg like everyone else. Not everyone can play your proprietary crap!

Re:Not ready for prime time

[billnapier]

The feature is named "Music & Photos". But it's actually "Music OR Photos".

So I can do Music and Photos at the same time? I think you meant: "Music XOR Photos"

Re:Not ready for prime time

[Anonymous Coward]

Congratulations, you just guaranteed you'll never participate in another TiVo beta.

Re:Not ready for prime time

[NDA Enforcer]

What a loser. Do you not know WE can find out who you are? Be afraid. Be VERY afraid.

Re:Not ready for prime time

[Anonymous Coward]

Um, is there anything in the parent post that hasn't been publicly disclosed by tivo?

The guy's posting his opinion, not corporate secrets.

Re:Not ready for prime time

[Anonymous Coward]

You think HE was the Loser? You are the one who created an "NDA Enforcer" user id just to respond to a post.

Re:Not ready for prime time

[stevel]

No, he's fine. Once HMO was made public, he's free to discuss what he does and doesn't like about the feature. What he can't discuss is anything not public, such as bugs uncovered during beta.

I was not a beta tester for this (and in fact my TiVo units aren't eligible for it), but I did beta an earlier software release and thems the rules TiVo made.

Re:Not ready for prime time

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, I believe that you aren't allowed to discuss that you were in a beta program either.

RTFNDA.

Re:Not ready for prime time

[Anonymous Coward]

Not true. One of the things explicitly forbidden in the NDA was publicly announcing you were part of the Beta. His first line violated that.

You don't HAVE to buy a new sub

[Anonymous Coward]

TiVo offered (still offers?) a subscription migration service for Series1 users that buy a series2 box. They'll transfer your Series1 subscription to the Series2 box gratis. Of course, you'll then have an unsubbed Series1 box, but, well, there's always Ebay for that...

Believe me, once these Series2 features hit along with the 4.0 upgrade, you won't be able to GIVE away the Series1 boxes.

Re:You don't HAVE to buy a new sub

[telstar]

The offer ended in mid-March unfortunately.

Interesting Footnote

[da' WINS pimp]

From the article:

*You can turn Multi-Room Viewing off on any DVR. You decide which DVRs can share programming. Television programming is not under TiVo's control. Programming providers may restrict or limit the transfer of particular programs. TiVo does not guarantee access to or transfer of any particular program.

Does this mean they have DRM biult in or does it just mean that the rights issues are your own problem?

Re:Interesting Footnote

[count_dooku]

For multiroom viewing, there is some DRM, it's called TiVoGuard. It basically encrypts the transfer. To decrypt to it:

1. The TiVos must be under the same user account; and

2. The TiVos must be located on the same subnet.

There have been talks about defeating requirement #2 by using a VPN, however, that still wouldn't get around requirement #1.

Let me get this straight...

[b.foster]

At the bottom of this page:

You can turn Multi-Room Viewing off on any DVR. You decide which DVRs can share programming. Television programming is not under TiVo's control. Programming providers may restrict or limit the transfer of particular programs. TiVo does not guarantee access to or transfer of any particular program.

They're asking us to pay $100 per unit to let the content providers decide what shows we can transfer? I like how they blame "programming providers" for crippling their software.

My TiVo is a great toy, but it's looking like it's time for this company to die. First they fire RB, and now they snuggle up to the content industry? Screw them, it's time to cancel my subscription and start hacking my box. They had a chance to earn their subscription fee from me, but they blew it when they decided that they were going to give Hollywood control over my own equipment.

Re:Let me get this straight...

[NerdSlayer]

My TiVo is a great toy, but it's looking like it's time for this company to die. First they fire RB, and now they snuggle up to the content industry?

Yes, lord knows that telling content providers to fuck off and die worked well for Napster. I'm sure it will work just as well for Tivo.

Re:Let me get this straight...

[b.foster]

They're damned if they do and they're damned if they don't. Remember what happened to the fee-driven, content provider friendly Napster?

People buy TiVo for the freedom it gives them to control their viewing patterns and to skip commercials. When that freedom goes away, people will stop buying the units. It's as simple as that.

Re:Let me get this straight...

[ilsie]

My TiVo is a great toy, but it's looking like it's time for this company to die. First they fire RB, and now they snuggle up to the content industry?

Geez, give them a break for chrissakes. They have to do that to cover their ass. Would you want the networks & the MPAA breathing down your neck? What do you expect them to do? Not put in the security stuff? Why dont they just do that and call it "instant lawsuit?"

But in all seriousness, I have a buddy who works for one of the major PVR companies (it's not TiVo, but it is one that allows you to do stream sharing). In the close caption stream, there is a bit (that's part of the CC spec) that, if set by the content provider, denotes that the content cannot be shared. All they are doing is following spec, which I am sure is FCC mandated (IANAFCCE). So get off their backs, and cancel your subscription. Good riddance.

Re:Let me get this straight...

[indiigo]

It's working well for kazaa, limewire, edonkey, DC, DC++, freenet, gruntella(s), ftp, http, bittorrent, etc. They are *evolving*. Tivo doesn't do the same, it'll wither and die quite nicely as well.

I personally think napster should have just gone offshore at first legal trouble.

Re:Let me get this straight...

[no_such_user]

First they fire RB

Wait -- they fired him? I was under the impression that he left on his own will and went to work for Sonicblue/Replay. Does anyone know if he left, or if he was fired?

Re:Let me get this straight...

[Anonymous Coward]

So does that security bit disable the "eject" button on a VCR too?

Didn't think so.

Face the facts: they're pandering to Hollywood.

Re:Let me get this straight...

[Anonymous Coward]

RB - "Tivolutionary" - was TiVo's biggest fan. Do you really think he left on his own will?

They got rid of him because he drew the "wrong type of crowd" to their product (he drew tinkerers but TiVo wanted drooling idiots).

Hackers

[DarkHelmet]

No! No TiVo for me! I don't want any hackers breaking into my machine, and program which shows to record.

Knowing them, they'll probably make the TiVo think I'm a gay, pregnant male.

Beware the Google monopoly, too

[anonymous loser]

Why don't you stop using Google, too? They have a "monopoly" in the search engine market. I don't know anyone who uses another search engine anymore, except as a last resort.

The reason Tivo and Google have a "monopoly" as you put it is because they sell a good product, and others have yet to introduce another product that can compete with it effectively.

Nobody is locked out of the PVR market at this point in time, especially since this is a brand new market, and anything can happen. Several big players (e.g. Microsoft, with UltimateTV) have already gone up against Tivo, and failed. It could be in near the future that the perfect PVR will appear that completely destroys Tivo's current dominance, but telling people not to use a product because there are no decent competitors is just wrong. It's still a free market, not a monopoly.

Re:Beware the Google monopoly, too

[Alric]

There is merit to your point, but I think you are misconstruing the intent of the original parent post.

...telling people not to use a product because there are no decent competitors is just wrong.

I understood his point to be that people should consider not using TiVo, because there ARE decent competitor products. The only issue is that all of the current good rival products are computer-based and less user friendly.

Your post reminds me of many arguments for why people use Windows.

Re:Beware the Google monopoly, too

[sootman]

Remember when Apex came out (intentionally or not) with the DVD player that let you turn off Macrovision? Now Apex is a decent company (they make a tv with a built-in DVD player that has a pretty good picture; saw one running as a demo/kiosk at Home Depot, of all places) but before that device, no one knew who they were. As much as I love (my) Tivo, I'm willing to bet (and hoping!) that some little company who doesn't care about hollywood's feelings/DRM/etc will come out with some little box that does everything a tivo does and more--save shows as files, move them over a network, let you edit them, burn to CD or DVD, etc. The technology cannot be stopped. Same with MP3 players. For a while, no one wanted them to exist, then the Rio came out, now everyone from Apple to Sony makes them.

and yes, I know about homebrewed tivos, but they're still pricey, take luck to assemble, and have relatively clunky UIs. but that's the thing--just like everything else, they'll get smoother, cheaper, etc. and either people will start making them commonly and easily or someone will start OEMing them.

Re:Beware the Google monopoly, too

[Rob Simpson]

some little box that does everything a tivo does and more--save shows as files, move them over a network, let you edit them, burn to CD or DVD, etc.

Doesn't the Tivo let you do that? I can do all those things with my All-in-Wonder 9700 (but only in my Windows partition, unfortunately).

Re:Beware the Google monopoly, too

[sootman]

>>save shows as files, move them over a network, let you edit them, burn to CD or DVD, etc.
>Doesn't the Tivo let you do that?

Save shows as files--by that I meant, save it as an editable file that could be opened in Premier/VideoWave/whatever. Nope. They're stored in some secret format.

Move over a network--well, now, yes, and before, sorta, if you hacked it. ReplayTVs could do that, I think.

Edit--see above.

Burn--gotta be a file first, right? Unless you pipe the signal via S-Video to one of those DVD burners they're selling now.

I've been pursuing this for years. My last ATI purchase--a PCI TV Wonder (non-VE) came sorta close--captured 352x240 MPEG1 and could make VCDs (70 minutes, OK for shows, bad for movies). That was the last in a line that started with a 7100/80 AV Mac, then a 7600/120 AV, an ATI All-In-Wonder (4 MB PCI), 300 MHz G3 AV, and an ATI All-In-Wonder Pro (8 MB AGP). My quest continues...

I'm just happy the DV camera I have now acts as a bridge (AV in, Firewire out in real-time) before everyone started removing that feature from their cameras. TV -> Camera -> PowerMac w/ DVD burner is good enough for now. All I want to do is skip that digital -> analog -> digital step. :-)

Re: mindless ReplayTV praise

[deanj]

Six months? End of this month, actually. And the D&M deal fell through. They might still buy it at the asset auction, but nothing will be known until after the end of this month.

Develop Your Own TiVoServer

[CraigEagle]

Tivo has released Developer Resources including an API for creating your own TiVoServer as well as an Apache module to get you started. For a company that is frequently trashed in this forum, they seem to be throwing the /. crowd a rather large peace pipe. - Craig

Re:Develop Your Own TiVoServer

[Anonymous Coward]

How peaceful are encrypted file formats on content I have a right to legally timeshift.

without a bankrupt company supporting it!

[Anonymous Coward]

Super! Sign me up for Replay!

More like a total rip-off

[swb]

I love my Tivo and don't think any PC-based solution can touch it for ease of use or "home entertainment" integration (formfactor, UI, etc).

However, this Home Media option is a total ripoff. I can play MP3s now. I can look at JPGs now. Remote scheduling? Not important. Multi-room viewing would be cool, but not cool enough to spend another $500 on another Tivo and another subscription.

Why haven't they fixed some of the obvious needs, like batch-save-to-vcr? Bring back "Teach Tivo" so I don't get just SNL reruns recorded? Figure out how to enable the "power button" feature of cable box IR (yes, I know its a single signal that toggles state, but they can tell when I'm getting video on the inputs -- put it together!!) and all kinds of other annoyances.

This is just a cash grab for Tivo, does nothing to the basic TV-watching aspect of it and its overpriced. No thanks.

Mac version easy as pie

[Frobozz0]

The Mac version is about as simple as it gets. Check out the PDF for screenshots if you're not lucky enough to have a Mac with OS X 10.2 to run the software.

Does anyone think they will bother with a linux version, seeing as this is a consumer box? Consumers don't buy Linux. Don't get we wrong, it'd be great and I'm not against it if they do... but I seriosuly doubt that's in the cards. However, a third party could probably do it.

Re:Mac version easy as pie

[asv108]

Well considering the main consumer of this box is the "techie segment" and the fact that Tivo runs off of Linux, I wouldn't consider it vo vw much of a stetch if Tivo supported Linux for the desktop software. Why do you need to have a program at all? All I want is the tivo to read my mp3 collection stored off samba. The only way I could do this now is to have a win box, map a network drive and run the tivo software on the windows box or try wine.

I haven't had a date in 8.5 years.

[RatBastard]

Of course, I've been married for 8.5 years...

Re:I haven't had a date in 8.5 years.

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course, I've been married for 8.5 years...

You ARE a Rat Bastard. Take your wife out on the town now and then! Being married does not mean that you can't (or shouldn't) date anymore.

Re:I haven't had a date in 8.5 years.

[Lemmeoutada Collecti]

Make us other geeks look bad!

Seriously, though, set the TiVo and take your wife on a date NOW!

Re:I haven't had a date in 8.5 years.

[Anonymous Coward]

Man, your wife must hate you. Take her out dude! :)

Looks like "No Face" from Spirited Away

[mao che minh]

Take the gold!!!

New (going out of) Business Model

[YetAnotherName]

1. Piss of the MPAA with movie/TV viewing capability
2. Piss of the RIAA with new music playing capability
3. Fend off huge hordes of lawyers
4. ???
5. Death!

Re:New (going out of) Business Model

[danielobvt]

Not quite... Tivo seems to be one of the more savy companies out there in this regard. They are hyperconsious about avoiding lawsuites. 1. They place certificates on your machine, the only other Tivos that can see yours are also registered on your account. The others have no way of decrypting information. Additionally it will only talk to others on its local subnet. 2. Like the RIAA cares about a new playing capability. If this were a new file sharing system they might go after them.. Is sony or the others sued each time they release a new music player? 3. Let your lawyers go on that golfing trip as they have nothing else to do. 4. New revenue stream.... 5. Life!!!!

TV Watches You

[Michael_Burton]

Time once again for my obligatory alarmism about TiVo's anti-privacy potential. Unless you opt out, your TiVo can send info about every button you've pushed on your remote back to the mother ship.

Because it can do this, I don't trust it not to do this, even if I have opted-out. And under the Civil Liberties Nullification Act, if TiVo can get this data, the gummint can get it, too.

I was young and impressionable when I read 1984, and I still don't like the idea of my TV watching me.

Re:TV Watches You

[GQuon]

What? You forgot to include "In Soviet Russia".
That is what the Preview button is for. OK?

Sharing between houses

[cacheMan]

What's to stop everyone from registering under the same household address? Then we can all share our shows. All Tivo has to do is overlook the fact that a few thousand people with Series 2 Tivos live at my house. Seriously though, how are they controling which Tivos can share their digital media?

Re:Sharing between houses

[Anonymous Coward]

TiVo is using DRM to make sure that only TiVos under the same account are able to send each other videos. Other than that, the TiVo will only scan the local subnet to find other TiVos capable of sending videos (Sorry, No Open Internet Capability)

Re:Sharing between houses

[Anonymous Coward]

>>and 2 Home media options (99 each!) >>
1st HMO is $99, all others thereafter are 49$/box.

Re:Sharing between houses

[st. jude]

Only boxes on the same subscription (i.e. billing) account, AND the same network, can share, and there's a limit of 10 boxes that can share any one account. So you could share with the neighbors, but only a few, and you'd have to pay their monthly fees. Or get them to pay yours - hmm, I smell an opportunity...

DVD recorder w/ hard disk is $500 and dropping

[Anonymous Coward]

Tivo will crash and burn when these get to $300.

So you get a dvd burner with a built in 40gb hard disk + video encoder/decoder + scheduler for $500 with no strings attached.

Let's see,
record show to hard disk
record from hard disk to dvd
rip to mpeg

Re:DVD recorder w/ hard disk is $500 and dropping

[Anonymous Coward]

So you get a dvd burner with a built in 40gb hard disk + video encoder/decoder + scheduler for $500 with no strings attached.

Which machine are you talking about? The Panasonic DMR-HS2, which fits that criteria, is still around $750 online?

Hack away...

[Upright Joe]

I can't wait for somebody to come up with a hack that will trick the TiVo into streaming video to computers instead of other TiVo's using this. That would probably prompt me to buy a TiVo Series 2.

I'm still thinking about putting one of these into my TiVo and trying to stream video via samba or whatnot. I really want to be able to watch shows that I've recorded over WiFi via my laptop and burn VCD's for archive purposes.

Re:Hack away...

[steppin_razor_LA]

That doesn't allow for streaming -- it does allow for digital video extraction. So you can take the content off of the tivo -- get it converted to standard MPEG2 and then do what you want with it later..

If you use MFS_FTP, you can download a stream from one tivo and send it to the now playing list of another. (I've never tried this though)

chilling

[pz]

As anyone who is familiar with the MythTV project will attest, the feature list trumpeted by TiVo is precisely what is available for MythTV, an open source, volunteer effort (although MythTV supports more, and more diverse features). Isn't competition grand!

Re:chilling

[Anonymous Coward]

A knoppix mythtv distro would be perfect...

Re:chilling

[mblase]

Isn't competition grand!

You mean "isn't open source grand". When I can order a MythTV box to stick in my entertainment center that does everything this software can promise, it'll qualify as "competition".

Re:chilling

[an_mo]

I checked the mythtv screenshots and was blown away! Can somebody tell me what tivo has that mythtv doesn't?

Re:chilling

[no soup for you]

Can somebody tell me what tivo has that mythtv doesn't?

I'm an avid supporter of MythTV, but you can purchase tivo and have no installation. An installation of MythTV can take weeks to get it working

Re:chilling

[msimm]

Thank you. I've been working on my new HTPC for weeks, involving custom scripts and custom gui pop-up and LOADS of open source software. Its awesome, but really time consuming. Half the time I end up feeling like a mechanic with my cordless keyboard trying to fix something so we can watch a movie (Xine's dvdnav pluggin isn't doing css right now, have to set up ogle, etc).

Anyhow, when I hear someone say "well we've got that!" and blithely dismiss some for profit project, I cringe. Prefab is good and right now Mythtv is for hackers (and debian users?).

Re:chilling

[mosch]

• accurate, legal guide data
• season passes
• a well-designed remote control
• a short setup time
• tech support
• a case that fits in with your other a/v equipment

MythTV isn't competition yet, that's just well... a myth.

Re:chilling

[/dev/trash]

Yeah, MythTV, will be great when it actually WORKS.

...in Roviet Sussia

[Anonymous Coward]

You are incredibly stupid. I'll continue to spell out messages with the fucking number pad on my Tivo until they're bleeding raw. I *want* them to know which programs I thumbs up and thumbs down and what channels I'm watching and what I'm recording and how many times I turn my TV on and off so shut up you paranoid douchebag.

samba remote root exploit

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, how about reporting that. I've been upgrading the Open Source machines about as often as the Windows ones recently for security fixes. That's right, an anonymous Samba user can gain root. Where are the 600 anti-OSS "this is what happens when anyone can view the source" messages?

As a fan of Genre TV, i don't think this is so bad

[OctavianMH]

Case in point: Farscape. It's cancelled now, but I'd be _happy_ if somehow Tivo is letting nielsen or some network know that I watch that show religiously.

Same goes for Buffy, Angel, Gilmore Girls, etc.. Shows that are GREAT whose ratings don't reflect their quality.

But, this is the only good thing I can see come of Tivo's tracking my viewing habits.

Liar, liar, pants on fire.

[ckuhtz]

You can sign up for Home Media Option right now @

http://www.tivo.com/4.9.asp

And for which option do you need two computers or more?? Horsesh*t.

Argh. What did I expect. Accuracy in a /. story?

Married

[Anonymous Coward]

I am willing to bet some /.ers have more computers than dates in the past 6 months.

Hey, I'm married 12 years now, so no dates at all.

That said, I think I might have more computers than I've had sex in the last six months. Hmmm... almost.

Guess why I'm posting anonymously?

Re:Married

[Anonymous Coward]

I'll be impressed when I hear a slashdotter say he has more computers than masturbated in the last six months...

Of course that maybe apropo of nutting...er nothing :D

--AC

Re:Married

[Joey7F]

I don't know if you are a troll or just plain hilarious

Well done

MythTV

[Begin2See]

Just like M$ TIVO is a proprietary, closed source solution. We all need to get behind the open source solutions like freevo and mythtv. Free as in beer, free as in speech is still a better solution. Who wants to pay $10 a month to a copmany whose financial future is in doubt anyway.

Re:MythTV

[Rude Turnip]

I have a TiVo Series 2 and love it. I think out of all the open source solutions, MythTV has a good chance of being a good alternative to TiVo. All it needs is a drop-in ISO image and a known-good set of supported capture cards, sound cards and remotes to gain some real momentum.

However, I think anybody who thinks they'll be able to get a complete TiVo alternative without paying anyone is having a pipe dream. In the end, the real value is not in the software or the hardware or the GUI, it's in the value of getting a consistent and reliable program guide that gives you fine-grained information like actors, episode names, directors, producers, genres, etc. BTW, nobody is going to provide such a valuable service for free.

Oh great, just great....

[DjMd]

So this option lets you listen to MP3s? Not that bad, but unless you do creative wiring I imagine that means that your TV has to be on. And there are other ways of doing that.

You can share between two TiVo Series2 DVRs? Well that would be nice, except...

Multi-Room Viewing is available exclusively on TiVo Series2 DVRs. To transfer recordings between two DVRs, each must have active TiVo service under the same account name, and must be on the same home network. Home Media Option must be purchased seperately for each DVR.

So to do this you need:

-2 Series2 TiVos

-2 active accounts (for 2 that 25/month or 598 lifetime)

-and 2 Home media options (99 each!)

I can't believe that they require both Tivos to have both the active accounts and the media options. Does SonicBlue's ReplayTV require that double charging??

Re:Oh great, just great....

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, the 2nd HMO only costs $49. And the 3rd is $49, etc.

Still...I'm not sure I'd buy another TiVo2 just for the MRV feature, but... if I already had 2 of them, and/or I wanted 2 units anyway, the $49 is not so bad.

Re:Oh great, just great....

[Wordplay]

The second Home Media option is $50, but yeah. It gets expensive.

Re:Oh great, just great....

[MortisUmbra]

Nope, they sure don't.

And what's more, you can use DVArchive to copy content over to your PC, and not only that you can stream it to your PC.

Between my ReplayTV 4xxx and my modded XBox I am a very happy camper.

Cable cos will ultimately slaughter them

[swb]

...if the the cable cos can pull their heads out of their asses long enough.

AOL-TWs SA PVR, while not a Tivo, offers "good enough" performance for most people and rents from AOL-TW in my area for $5.95 per month. I have to keep my Series2 w/lifetime for like 5 years to make that work.

Cable Cos are already making you have a box if you want certain channels, they'll be all digital soon enough requiring EVERYONE to have a box. If PVR is part of it, WTF would anyone spend nearly $800 on a Tivo?

I love the way my Tivo works, but they are way too expensive. If I had to do it over again, I might have bought a Panasonic DVD-R w/HDD.

TiVo has a one-time payment model

[Anonymous Coward]

Tivo has a one-time payment model. That's what I got, along with a new Series 2 80 hour unit.

Beta testing new TiVo software

[ahkbarr]

I'm a beta tester for TiVo, and I have to say I've not been this enchanted since my laser eye surgury.

In particular, there's a new feature allowing one to watch programs on any other TiVo connected to the same LAN using any opther TiVo. This suggests something similar might be done with software running on some PC on the sam eLAN as well, allowing video extraction.

Now this would be VERY cool. You could stream over the internet using transcoding filters in between, etc..

Go TiVo!!!

TiVo with HMO does more than ReplayTV

[McSpew]

Everything my 18 month old ReplayTV has been doing since I bought it, at twice the *current* price.

Your ReplayTV can do *some* of those things, but not all of them. Your ReplayTV can't use your broadband to check every 15 minutes for updates from your web-based programming account. TiVo with HMO can do that. Your ReplayTV can't play MP3s stored on a Windows-based PC or a Mac. TiVo with HMO can do that. ReplayTV can't show you photos that aren't stored on its own hard drive, taking up valuable space that could be used for shows. TiVo with HMO streams photos from a PC or Mac without taking up space on the TiVo.

In short, ReplayTV has some nice features and is great for people who care more about those features than about real-world usability. TiVo owners already know they have the easiest-to-use DVRs available and the new features in HMO bring TiVo up to par with any DVR on the market from a feature standpoint.

A question

[MousePotato]

Pardon the ignorance here but can any explain why these devices aren't being used as consumer video edit decks? With all the digital camcorders and the like out there seems like an obvious feature for such a device. Perhaps its in there. I don't see any info on it :(

I don't think so...

[march]

Tivo will crash and burn when these get to $300

I don't think so. The #1 use for everyone I know who has a TiVo is manipulating LIVE tv (pause, rewind, etc.). You are not going to get that with the setup you propose.

The recording functionality (wishlists, season pass, etc.) is really nice. The HMO is really nice. MRV is really nice, BUT... hitting pause when you've got to take a leak is priceless.

Re:I don't think so...

[uradu]

> I don't think so.

I think so. These units do everything TiVo does, plus DVD recording. Sony just announced one, though only for Japan so far, and the price is still a bit high. Regarding thumbs up/down, bah, I've had my TiVo for almost three years and I still find the unit highly useful without ever using that feature. Let's face it, if you like Wings or whatever, it's not like TiVo is going to surprise you with that OTHER Wings-like show that you never knew about. I know exactly which shows I like, and what other shows like them there are out there, and I have season passes for all of them.

Re:I don't think so...

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think so. The #1 use for everyone I know who has a TiVo is manipulating LIVE tv (pause, rewind, etc.). You are not going to get that with the setup you propose.

Wow, that's about the least interesting thing I'd want to use one for. I want a PVR to record shows while I'm away or am occupied so I can come back and watch them. I also want something that doesn't require me to spend half my day reading the TV Guide to track where the shows are. The MythTV setup I installed this weekend seems to do that fairly well. I may have to even invest money in buying dedicated hardware for a PVR box for it. I should be able to get a fairly full-featured PC system to use as a PVR for under $500 so it'll be much cheaper than a TiVo in the long run (no fees).

Re: Chicken and the Ogg

[Zero Zero]

Thanks for the pointer. BTW, according to the bullet list, these tools and docs can be used to "Create plug-ins for TiVo Desktop to add support for additional music, playlist and photos file formats"

ReplayTV 5000-series

[mrbrown1602]

I can do almost everything this pay service from TiVo provides with my ReplayTV 5040. I can't play MP3s with the ReplayTV, but I'm in a freggin dorm room, so I don't have much of a home entertainment center. I can, though, stream programs to other ReplayTVs (or to DVArchive on my computer), store photos and view them, and program it via the Internet.

Re:ReplayTV 5000-series

[vaylen]

You're wasting your time. Tivo users don't understand that this is old technology. Let them be happy with their "breakthrough". Let them revel that SonicBlue has sold ReplayTV to Marantz. Tivophiles who derive so much enjoyment about SonicBlue's troubles are like a guy who laughs at another guy on the Titanic "haha, your end is sinking". The PVR market is in trouble. Tivo may be on the end of the Titanic that isn't sinking right now, but soon they'll be swimming around like rats just the same. It's too bad that brand loyalty turns people blind to innovation and the health of the very market that they are supporting.

[Q] When Will TiVo Be Hi-Res?

[4of12]

I've got a TiVo, upgraded the disk drives and love it.

This weekend, though, I was looking at various HDTV options and was informed that PVRs are generally not yet ready to record high definition shows.

Does anyone know what kinds of offerings when will permit me to record HDTV (say 1080i) on my PVR?

TIA

Re:[Q] When Will TiVo Be Hi-Res?

[testify]

The long-awaited TiVo HDTV is on it's way.

You can view the press release here:
TiVo HDTV DVR press release

I'd also recommend checking out the various forums at the TiVo Community Forums, where discussion about the HDTV models has been underway. There are some very knowledgeable folks there.

Re:[Q] When Will TiVo Be Hi-Res?

[JustaGiga]

http://customersupport.tivo.com/tivoknowbase/root/ public/tv451619.htm?

HD support from TiVo is coming RSN... I think I heard rumors on the community forums about HD support by year end, but who knows if that's accurate? (And they never said which year ending....)

Dave

Yawn.

[Johnboi Waltune]

I can't backup stuff to my PC? Fuck it.

Re:Yawn.

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't illegally make copies of programs that were provided to me via an advertiser-supported free or flat-rate service, so that I can exchange those copies over the Internet and in so doing personally contribute to the demise of broadcast television forever? Fuck it.

Now you've done it!

[uradu]

The Tivo zealots will be after you for slamming Tivo. You're supposed to ooh and aah over the features and NEVER question their motivation and pricing. Remember, they used Linux and can do no wrong!

Re:Now you've done it!

[sogoodsofarsowhat]

You all are just mad you didnt get a DTIVO series 1. With the right modifications everything and more is possible that you all are belly-aching about. Now i challenge any one of you to compare the PICTURE PERFECT recording of a DTIVO to any of the other GARBAGE (read REPLAY etc) out there. The DTIVO didnt have to encode the video so it stored the already very well encoded video signal directly to its drive. This results in its ability to record 2 programs and play a third back with NO LOSS OF PICTURE QUALITY. I mean come on people dont just slam a technology until you understand it. If you would LEARN about this stuff you would see why the DTIVO (series 1's) still sell for more then RETAIL on EBAY cause they are GOLD!!!!!

Re:Now you've done it!

[uradu]

> you would see why the DTIVO (series 1's) still sell
> for more then RETAIL on EBAY cause they are GOLD

That's funny, because I can pick one up for $199 at several places. The price of gold must be dropping. Or eBay shoppers must be getting even more clueless.

Re:TiVo with HMO does more than ReplayTV BUT SLOW

[jackb_guppy]

http://www.tivo.com/4.9.1.asp#23

Can I use a USB 2.0 network adapter to connect my Series2 DVR to my home network?

At the present time, you may only use USB 1.1-compatible network adapters to connect a Series2 DVR to your home network.

At least Replay can use a home network at speed.

I've had SOME of this already... and more!

[RevRagnarok]

I got an ethernet card from 9thtee a while back, it is great! I then got a program called "tivoweb" which lets me remotely record, and even search future listings with a REAL keyboard (I like to compare it to my NetFlix list every now and then and queue up movies on the TiVo that I don't care about all those DVD goodies).

Then there is my e-mail on my TiVo with the shameless plug of tivo_mail that I found a while back and people seem to like it. ;)

- RR

i'm watching you too

[Anonymous Coward]

i just reviewed the last 10,000 keystrokes you entered on your PC. looks like you've been visiting some pretty sick-o websites.

What? you thought that linux didn't monitor keystrokes? think again. have -you- read the code?

Re:As a fan of Genre TV, i don't think this is so

[prator]

I completely agree. Maybe a larger pool of viewers being tracked will keep shows like Firefly and Farscape from being cancelled.

Also, I hate to admit it but it looks like I'm going be watching some Gilmore Girls if Jane Espenson is writing for it next season.

-prator

Caller ID

[Michael.Forman]

I'll be waiting for the DirecTiVo version of these services as well.

I was surprised to see that caller-id display on the screen isn't a standard feature yet. I've implemented on-screen caller id by means of the ncid daemon, which receives broadcast information from my Linux server. It's a very useful feature.

If you're interested, you can even see what I'm watching on my TiVo right now.

Michael.

Re:Caller ID

[Johnboi Waltune]

I'm currently watching: Sanford & Son

Someone's unemployed.

Re:Caller ID

[Anonymous Coward]

That was really funny. I actually laughed out loud.

I'm currently taking a four-day weekend and have been coding all day.

Unfortunately, the TiVo will report I'm watching something even when the TV is off. Although I do enjoy watching Sanford and Son, when I have the time. :)

Michael. (Posting anonymously to keep my Karma high.)

Bug DirecTV!

[EvilStein]

Found this link on another posting that didn't get modded up yet. Seriously, folks - bug the hell out of DirecTV and let them know that you want this (if you actually do)

And in Canada??

[Anonymous Coward]

Please....TiVo.....Canada....urglssdegrf....please ....

Re:And in Canada??

[agallagh42]

I second that. Must... have... tivo... gah

Re:As a fan of Genre TV, i don't think this is so

[danielobvt]

And you havent been watching it yet? GG is one of the best written shows on TV. One of only 2-3 shows that NEVER gather dust on my Tivo.

Re:Unfortunately....

[hawkstone]

Nice to know about the module, actually. I was almost surprised there wasn't anything official from them yet, but their FAQ seemed pretty clear on the "Windows or Mac" options they've made available.

There still doesn't seem to be any "consumer level" linux options, though I suppose that shouldn't scare us geek-types. We're used to having to use apache modules instead of some point-click-install interface that Windows users have to suffer through. </sarcasm>

And I fully understand TiVo's position on sharing with non-official devices, and I don't blame them for it. There has been speculation that they were waiting to see how SonicBlue's legal troubles panned out before allowing such things.

Nevertheless, I have one TiVo. If I bought one new Series2, I could look at pictures and listen to mp3s on my TV, as well as program remotely, and all for the low price of ~ $600 when you include the price of a new subscription. If I wanted to watch my shows in a second room, up that to $1200.

All I really want to do is save some movies / shows to VCD or DVD so I don't have to waste TiVo space on them, and to watch them at a friend's house (all very easy and legal with VHS tapes, of course).

Make no mistake: I love my TiVo, and I think the company is fine, and I don't blame them for avoiding legal issues, especially since they "look the other way" very often with respect to the available hacks. However, the only way I can do this now is by an end-run around their operating system and install a bunch of hacks on the TiVo unit itself. What they offer for the home media option is just not worth the money at this point in time, especially if you'd have to upgrade to a Series2 first.

Freevo does (some of) this now.

[Oscar_Wilde]

Freevo does some of this now and should be able to do more in a few months. Plus its got that open source roll your own feel to it. What more could you want? (don't say "a finished product now", that would be obvious...)

Re:Freevo does (some of) this now.

[Servo]

This looks pretty interesting. I'm assuming you're using it now?

How does the TV guide work? Does it support being able to record entire sets of programs like the Tivo?

It seems to me that unless you plan on using an existing system, this really would let you save any money. If you build a box specifically for this application, I know you are going to spend at least the $299 going rate of the Tivo. The only item I could see you really saving money is on the monthly fee.

Sounds great... but DishNet?

[ultramk]

I've been teetering on the edge of getting some kind of PVR... but I have an old Dish Network sat thing (that I don't want to upgrade/change). Can you use this sweet Tivo goodness with an old DishNet box?

Hoping the answer is yes...

and no, I don't like the dishplayer.

m-

Re:Sounds great... but DishNet?

[Zaphod B]

As long as you have some kind of audio and video out, and a phone line handy, and your DishNet box has an IR remote, you can use it... now granted, you may end up connecting with yucky coax, but you can do it. (Don't know what the back of a DishNet box looks like.) The Tivo accepts coax and RCA in, and gives coax, RCA, and s-vid out.

Re:Sounds great... but DishNet?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you just want a PVR upgrade for Dish, check this out: http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/customerCare/of fers/501_upgrade/index.shtml

You pay just $200, no lifetime or monthly subscription fee (other than subscribing to Dish programming which you already do anyway.) Keep in mind that the 501/508 doesn't have fancy network abilities or anything like that, but for a cheap PVR solution you can't beat the price. And no this isn't the same as Dishplayer which is being phased out.

Reverse Engineer

[caffeinex36]

Has anyone reverse engineered this and posted a hack yet? Come on you TiVo hackers....I know who you are!@!

/evil grin

-caffeine

Xbox...

[steppin_razor_LA]

It sounds nice -- but I get much of this functionality + more via my Xbox.

I love my Tivo. I already have a web server for it -- and use tools such as Tystudio for video extraction.

I use the Xbox to watch archived movie content (MPEG,DIVX,etc), my music collection, and internet radio stations via the excellent Xbox Media Player.

It gives me more flexibility (i.e. I don't think that the Tivo will be playing DIVX content anytime soon) + there has been a constant stream of updates.

That said -- I'm rooting for Tivo. I love my DirecTivo...

Hacking the Hughes HDVR2

[Borg#9]

I have a Hughes HDVR2 and I *thought* I would be able to get PIP on my TV with it because it has 2 tuners. My TV requires 2 separate sources for PIP. However both outputs on the TiVo unit output *both* channels so I *still* can't get PIP because when I swap sources on the TV each source only picks up the output from the 1st tuner. Does anyone know how to fix this? Is it possible? If you have an answer, please e-mail me at robinsiebler@321.net

Thanks!

Re:Hacking the Hughes HDVR2

[Caduceus1]

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "both outputs" and "output both channels" in your message, but:

- There is only 1 MPEG2 decoder in the unit. It has two tuners and can record two things at once, but it can only play back one thing at a time;

- Live TV counts as "playback" - the DirecTV signal is MPEG2, and thus requires decoding;

- All the outputs of the TiVo (S-Video, both composites, and RF) output the same thing. The dual-composite outputs allow for hookups to mutiple pieces of equipment. Not sure if it is standard for DirecTV receivers - my non-TiVo receivers also have it. My standalone TiVo has the same outputs as well;

- Thus, you will never get PIP on your TV from just the TiVos output.

There have been rumors about this useless "Window" button, but there haven't even been hints from TiVo that I know of as to what it is for. Some speculate a future PIP built into the TiVo.

For MP3 Streaming off of the network...

[GreenKiwi]

Why not get SliMP3. These are fantasic little devices that work extremely well for MP3 streaming. My friend has two in his house and I'm planning on getting a few myself. Just run cat5 around the house and get music from anywhere... they even have a nice LCD display.

Does TiVo Work with Cable?

[Anonymous Coward]

I have Time-Warner digital cable. Is TiVo able to record off of digital cable properly? I haven't seen this discussed and would get a TiVo if it would work with my current setup.

I want a Pony

[weaknees]

...but will it recognize drive sizes >137gb?

OGG, WMA, & WAV support -- NOW !!! I have it .

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone with HMO might want to consider grabbing a copy of MediaCenter from J. River --> http://www.mediajukebox.com/mc

Their latest build 90145 (You have to grab this build from their FTP, its the latest)has OGG, WMA, MP3, and others (I havent found a file it wldnt stream) support built in (it does on the fly conversion to stream to the TiVo, you choose the bitrate ... this thing is pretty sweet) ..

Oh yeah .. It does Pictures too ... Its a nice "TiVo Server" replacement ...

And, for privacy nuts out there .. The Media Server TiVo Extension runs on port 80 or 8080 ( i recommend the latter, and putting in a firewall) .. The regular Media Server (Yes, you can listen to your music collection from work) runs on whatever port you want it to .. and you can setup a login/password ..

Tivo service now free

[Atomic Anvil]

Tivo - when your goal in life is to be a fat, diabetic slob.

Last Post!

[alpg]

Standards are different for all things, so the standard set by man is by
no means the only 'certain' standard. If you mistake what is relative for
something certain, you have strayed far from the ultimate truth.
-- Chuang Tzu

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