Find what you've been missing. TiVo thread!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Find what you've been missing. TiVo thread!

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Aatrek: Jul 19, 2004; by Fistgrrl

# ? Apr 17, 2012 14:40

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# ? Jun 10, 2024 18:42

chemosh6969

Jul 3, 2004

code:
cat /dev/null > /etc/professionalism

_{_{I am in fact a massive asswagon.

Do not let me touch computer.}}

Fid posted:

I have a Premiere on the way, it's going to end up saving me a little per month over the local company's oh so terrible DVR.

I've seen mentions online of a way to stream video files from a computer or media server, but the info seems pretty outdated. Can anyone point me at a good way to do this?

Depends on what kind of equipment you have hooked up to your TV for the other end of streaming.

# ? Apr 17, 2012 16:32

complex: Sep 16, 2003

Fid posted:

I have a Premiere on the way, it's going to end up saving me a little per month over the local company's oh so terrible DVR.

I've seen mentions online of a way to stream video files from a computer or media server, but the info seems pretty outdated. Can anyone point me at a good way to do this?

I use pyTivo.

# ? Apr 17, 2012 16:39

chemosh6969

Jul 3, 2004

code:
cat /dev/null > /etc/professionalism

_{_{I am in fact a massive asswagon.

Do not let me touch computer.}}

complex posted:

I use pyTivo.

Dur, I forgot I was in a tivo thread. Yes, pyTivo is the way to go.

# ? Apr 17, 2012 17:55

General E: Aug 25, 2003

The official TivoDesktop software costs money, but works with just about anything (even .mkv files). It's a piece of cake to have it monitor your video folders and either auto-transfer or manually transfer over things that you want.

# ? Apr 17, 2012 18:35

Gynocentric Regime: Jun 9, 2010; by Cyrano4747

General E posted:

The official TivoDesktop software costs money, but works with just about anything (even .mkv files). It's a piece of cake to have it monitor your video folders and either auto-transfer or manually transfer over things that you want.

Just FYI if you're on a Mac it's included as part of Roxio Toast.

vvv Not if you have an iOS device, otherwise it's pretty good. vvv

Gynocentric Regime fucked around with this message at 18:57 on Apr 17, 2012

# ? Apr 17, 2012 18:37

Fid: Dec 2, 2010; 'Bout time this town had
a new Sheriff

I don't mind paying a little to have things go smoothly, but I'll try out the free one first.

Thanks guys.

One more question, is the slide remote worth it?

e: scratch that, two more questions. Any word on streaming to an iPad? I see some old rumors but that's it. It's kind of frustrating being so late to the TiVo party, but I've been with Dish for a long time.

Fid fucked around with this message at 18:57 on Apr 17, 2012

# ? Apr 17, 2012 18:54

Dogen: May 5, 2002; Bury my body down by the highwayside, so that my old evil spirit can get a Greyhound bus and ride

They are supposedly working on a separate box add-on dealie that does this. I think they showed it off at CES. They ask a question in the tivo advisor's survey about something like that practically every month.

The slide remote is nice if your line of sight to the box is terrible or really need a keyboard and don't want the hassle of using an iOS device as a remote.

edit for streamin' box link: http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/10/2697812/tivo-shows-off-streaming-dvr-content-to-ipad-with-prototype

Dogen fucked around with this message at 02:41 on Apr 18, 2012

# ? Apr 17, 2012 19:36

chemosh6969

Jul 3, 2004

code:
cat /dev/null > /etc/professionalism

_{_{I am in fact a massive asswagon.

Do not let me touch computer.}}

You can also plug in a regular usb keyboard, preferably wireless, as another option.

# ? Apr 18, 2012 01:52

Aatrek: Jul 19, 2004; by Fistgrrl

Using an iPad for the Tivo remote is great when you need a keyboard.

# ? Apr 18, 2012 02:47

Fid: Dec 2, 2010; 'Bout time this town had
a new Sheriff

Nog posted:

Using an iPad for the Tivo remote is great when you need a keyboard.

This is probably what I'll do. The regular Premiere remote can control TV functions (power, volume) too, right?

# ? Apr 18, 2012 02:51

Golbez: Oct 9, 2002; 1 2 3!
If you want to take a shot at me get in line, line
1 2 3!
Baby, I've had all my shots and I'm fine

Fid posted:

This is probably what I'll do. The regular Premiere remote can control TV functions (power, volume) too, right?

Yep.

The android app isn't bad either.

# ? Apr 18, 2012 04:38

Deathlove: Feb 20, 2003; Pillbug

Well, since I'm feeling pretty faithful that there's not going to be another TiVo for a while, I'm thinking about finally jumping from my S3 to a Premiere.

My big sticking point is, no KidZone, or, at least, not without switching off the HD menus, which, well, why bother upgrading if I'm not going to get the full experience? Are the tablet/phone apps *that* compelling? The extenders in the future aren't up my alley (only the one TV in the house), no HD menus, I can get all of the extensions (Amazon, Netflix, etc.) on different consoles. I've had a TB drive for 140 hours as long as I can remember, so I don't need more space.

Am I missing something?

# ? Apr 18, 2012 18:40

Dogen: May 5, 2002; Bury my body down by the highwayside, so that my old evil spirit can get a Greyhound bus and ride

Doesn't really sound like it, honestly. 4 tuners if you wanted to get the expensive one?

I got it mine for MRV streaming, and I thought I would use Hulu/Netflix more but it's so bad I switch to the PS3 (which is pretty great) or in the bedroom the blu ray player (slightly less terrible than buggy, buggy tivo). Hopefully the netflix update that is imminent will make this better.

# ? Apr 18, 2012 20:09

Fid: Dec 2, 2010; 'Bout time this town had
a new Sheriff

Got everything set up today and working great. It still keeps trying to record reruns of things I specified as new-only but I imagine that'll work itself out.

I'm surprised by the lack of control over specifics of recording, such as "Only record this show when it's on at 11pm" that I've seen on other DVRs. I would have thought TiVo would do it the best since they invented the thing.

pyTivo is awesome though, and painless to set up. My poor PS3 can go back to being a games/disc media machine. Well, and I guess Netflix since I REALLY don't lke the implementation on this box.

Overall, not as refined as I expected from the well-known name, but leaps and bounds better than what I had from the local company (and about $5 less per month)

# ? Apr 20, 2012 05:58

General E: Aug 25, 2003

Fid posted:

I'm surprised by the lack of control over specifics of recording, such as "Only record this show when it's on at 11pm" that I've seen on other DVRs. I would have thought TiVo would do it the best since they invented the thing.

You can record shows at certain times manually, but I never do. I actually prefer this feature, as if a show is "new" at 10 then reruns at 12, Tivo is smart enough to put it off and record the 12 o'clock one if the 10 conflicts with something else.

What channels are you seeing it record reruns on? Tivo has been VERY good for me in this regard, but there are a couple of channels (MTV is a big offender) that seem to not provide Tivo with episode descriptions in a timely manner, so Tivo doesn't know which eps are new and which are old.

# ? Apr 20, 2012 14:53

Dogen: May 5, 2002; Bury my body down by the highwayside, so that my old evil spirit can get a Greyhound bus and ride

The shortly coming update is supposed to update the netflix client

# ? Apr 20, 2012 15:09

Fid: Dec 2, 2010; 'Bout time this town had
a new Sheriff

General E posted:

You can record shows at certain times manually, but I never do. I actually prefer this feature, as if a show is "new" at 10 then reruns at 12, Tivo is smart enough to put it off and record the 12 o'clock one if the 10 conflicts with something else.

What channels are you seeing it record reruns on? Tivo has been VERY good for me in this regard, but there are a couple of channels (MTV is a big offender) that seem to not provide Tivo with episode descriptions in a timely manner, so Tivo doesn't know which eps are new and which are old.

Specifically Daily Show/Colbert, The Soup, Mad Men, and The Killing are the big ones

# ? Apr 20, 2012 15:27

Deathlove: Feb 20, 2003; Pillbug

Fid posted:

Specifically Daily Show/Colbert, The Soup, Mad Men, and The Killing are the big ones

Daily Show/Colbert are notoriously bad, ever since the series 1. I want to say it's something to do with the way ComCen updates their metadata.

I also have season passes for The Soup and Mad Men, and haven't had that kind of multiple-recording problem, though.

Recording extra episodes of The Killing is just TiVo being a vengeful bitch.

# ? Apr 20, 2012 18:06

General E: Aug 25, 2003

Deathlove posted:

Daily Show/Colbert are notoriously bad, ever since the series 1. I want to say it's something to do with the way ComCen updates their metadata.

Yeah -- I used to have this issue too, back when I had these shows as Season Passes.

I have season passes to The Soup and Mad Men and haven't had any issues there. That's weird. Try to force it to connect to the Tivo Service and see if that helps?

# ? Apr 20, 2012 20:20

Fid: Dec 2, 2010; 'Bout time this town had
a new Sheriff

From what I gather online, it treats anytihg with an airdate of the last month or so as "New", so for series' like Mad Men where they frequently re-run this season, it'll grab all the episodes.

# ? Apr 20, 2012 20:39

Dogen: May 5, 2002; Bury my body down by the highwayside, so that my old evil spirit can get a Greyhound bus and ride

I think the cable company has a lot to do with this. Living in Houston I got like 5 eps of the daily show every day on Comcast there, but on Time Warner in Austin it doesn't give me any trouble.

# ? Apr 20, 2012 21:02

chemosh6969

Jul 3, 2004

code:
cat /dev/null > /etc/professionalism

_{_{I am in fact a massive asswagon.

Do not let me touch computer.}}

Fid posted:

From what I gather online, it treats anytihg with an airdate of the last month or so as "New", so for series' like Mad Men where they frequently re-run this season, it'll grab all the episodes.

It's when the specific show description isn't filled in and it's just the generic placeholder. The 30 day comes in if you also have it setup to record new and reruns. In that case if it's already recorded it within the 30 days, it'll skip it.

# ? Apr 20, 2012 21:07

Fid: Dec 2, 2010; 'Bout time this town had
a new Sheriff

pyTivo is just wonderful. I am in total awe of how much better this is than anything else I've used for media

# ? Apr 20, 2012 22:31

chemosh6969

Jul 3, 2004

code:
cat /dev/null > /etc/professionalism

_{_{I am in fact a massive asswagon.

Do not let me touch computer.}}

Fid posted:

pyTivo is just wonderful. I am in total awe of how much better this is than anything else I've used for media

The only downside to pyTivo is if there's multiple audio tracks and the one you want is the second one. It'll only get the first one.

Subs are the other issue. If it's a srt file, you can get it to work if you make an .avs file that looks like:

code:

loadplugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\Combined Community Codec Pack\Filters\vsfilter.dll")

DirectShowSource("C:\icheckmovies\Vicki\Vicki.avi",convertfps=true)

TextSub("C:\icheckmovies\Vicki\Vicki.1953.srt")

Then instead of streaming the avi file, you stream the avs file.

If it's any other format, it's hit or miss, usually a miss. I know you change "TextSub" to something else but it's been so long since I've done it I don't remember and even then it rarely works for me, so I end up streaming it another way.

# ? Apr 21, 2012 16:43

Three Olives: Apr 10, 2005; Not a single fucking olive in sight

Aatrek posted:

Using an iPad for the Tivo remote is great when you need a keyboard.

I just want to echo this, the TiVo app for the iPad is loving awesome. Trying to find a channel, just launch the guide in the iPad and type in the name of the channel, click the program in the guide and your TV jumps to it. The integrated search works flawlessly, scheduling recordings and season passes, etc.

Basically by far the worst thing about TiVo is it's sluggish UI, with the iPad app you get everything you love about TiVo and it's interface with a second display and high speed. It has access to everything you would need for normal ues on all the time without the live video, with a touch display, you can even do awesome things like drag the little green slider in real time.

Three Olives fucked around with this message at 01:28 on Apr 23, 2012

# ? Apr 22, 2012 21:37

Fid: Dec 2, 2010; 'Bout time this town had
a new Sheriff

Three Olives posted:

drag the little green slider in real time.

I will sometimes sit there for 5 minutes just playing with the slider. So awesome.

# ? Apr 23, 2012 00:20

HolySwissCheese: Mar 26, 2005

1. I've been Googling for an hour but can't find an official list of wireless adapters guaranteed to work with a TiVo Premiere. Is there a resource for this somewhere?

2. A TiVo Premiere with 45 hours of dvr space (320gb) can be had for about 85 bucks on amazon, but the newer (500gb) model costs $150. Is there any difference besides harddrive size? I don't need the extra space, but would be loathe to miss out on extra ram or processor speed.

Thanks!

HolySwissCheese fucked around with this message at 06:48 on Apr 26, 2012

# ? Apr 26, 2012 02:39

kitten smoothie: Dec 29, 2001

HolySwissCheese posted:

1. I've been Googling for an hour but can't find an official list of wireless adapters guaranteed to work with a TiVo Premiere. Is there a resource for this somewhere?

The official branded wireless adapter is just an 802.11n <-> ethernet bridge. It has an ethernet cable that plugs into the back of the TiVo. So any ol' "gaming bridge" or "media bridge" would work.

And actually for what it is, it looks like at $65 on amazon and that's not a bad deal. There's a TrendNet and a Netgear bridge for $10 or $20 cheaper but neither work on the 5GHz band, and the TiVo one does.

I use an Apple Airport Extreme configured to have a separate SSID on the 5GHz band. That way my wife's old laptop and our cell phones that can't do 802.11n don't cause the whole network to slow down to accommodate them. I get much better performance when trying to stream shows between my two TiVos this way; it's fast enough that it feels like you're not even streaming at all.

# ? Apr 26, 2012 06:31

Fid: Dec 2, 2010; 'Bout time this town had
a new Sheriff

With the N adapter on a 5Ghz band, I can stream a full-HD quality .mkv movie immediately and never have to wait for it to catch up. It's magical.

# ? Apr 26, 2012 13:57

Dogen: May 5, 2002; Bury my body down by the highwayside, so that my old evil spirit can get a Greyhound bus and ride

kitten smoothie posted:

The official branded wireless adapter is just an 802.11n <-> ethernet bridge. It has an ethernet cable that plugs into the back of the TiVo. So any ol' "gaming bridge" or "media bridge" would work.

And actually for what it is, it looks like at $65 on amazon and that's not a bad deal. There's a TrendNet and a Netgear bridge for $10 or $20 cheaper but neither work on the 5GHz band, and the TiVo one does.

I use an Apple Airport Extreme configured to have a separate SSID on the 5GHz band. That way my wife's old laptop and our cell phones that can't do 802.11n don't cause the whole network to slow down to accommodate them. I get much better performance when trying to stream shows between my two TiVos this way; it's fast enough that it feels like you're not even streaming at all.

I did this with an N bridge in our old apartment that wasn't wired. Now everything is gigabit and it is, indeed, magic. Especially with the new MRV streaming, it really is like having 4 tuners.

# ? Apr 26, 2012 17:18

HolySwissCheese: Mar 26, 2005

kitten smoothie posted:

The official branded wireless adapter is just an 802.11n <-> ethernet bridge. It has an ethernet cable that plugs into the back of the TiVo. So any ol' "gaming bridge" or "media bridge" would work.

And actually for what it is, it looks like at $65 on amazon and that's not a bad deal. There's a TrendNet and a Netgear bridge for $10 or $20 cheaper but neither work on the 5GHz band, and the TiVo one does.

I use an Apple Airport Extreme configured to have a separate SSID on the 5GHz band. That way my wife's old laptop and our cell phones that can't do 802.11n don't cause the whole network to slow down to accommodate them. I get much better performance when trying to stream shows between my two TiVos this way; it's fast enough that it feels like you're not even streaming at all.

Cool. Thanks for your help. ~~I think I'll end up buying an Airport Express to be my bridge, since I can get a refurbished-by-Apple one for $70.~~ edit: Actually am now reading that an Airport Express won't extend a Netgear router over wifi. I'll probably need to find a bridge/repeater that can connect to my Netgear via WPS OR I can buy an Airport Extreme and an Airport Express.

Now all I need to do is decide between the the 320gb and the 500gb Tivo Premiere models. I can't find any resource that says if there are any differences in RAM, processor, etc, or if it's just the HDD. If it's just the HDD then the 320gb one at $80 is the way to go.

HolySwissCheese fucked around with this message at 19:51 on Apr 26, 2012

# ? Apr 26, 2012 19:34

Dogen: May 5, 2002; Bury my body down by the highwayside, so that my old evil spirit can get a Greyhound bus and ride

I can't say with absolute certainty that it will work, but you don't have to do any fancy WDS/WPS stuff to use an Airport Express as a bridge. It has a setting that's just "connect to wireless network" that you can use to distribute a wireless connection through its ethernet port (the annoying thing there being if you want to connect more than one thing to the Airport Express, you need a switch as well).

I'm doing this with a Time Capsule as my main base station/router right now, but I don't see why it wouldn't work with any other sort of modern wifi router thing.

# ? Apr 26, 2012 19:56

HolySwissCheese: Mar 26, 2005

Dogen posted:

I can't say with absolute certainty that it will work, but you don't have to do any fancy WDS/WPS stuff to use an Airport Express as a bridge. It has a setting that's just "connect to wireless network" that you can use to distribute a wireless connection through its ethernet port (the annoying thing there being if you want to connect more than one thing to the Airport Express, you need a switch as well).

I'm doing this with a Time Capsule as my main base station/router right now, but I don't see why it wouldn't work with any other sort of modern wifi router thing.

From what I read, it only works if the main router is an Apple one.

You can get a refurbished-by-Tivo wireless N bridge for $60 direct from Tivo that can connect via WPS to my router, so that looks like a good solution.

HolySwissCheese fucked around with this message at 21:05 on Apr 26, 2012

# ? Apr 26, 2012 20:31

lament.cfg: Dec 28, 2006; we have such posts
to show you

Every time I try to stream a show from my bedroom DVR, I get "The TiVo box was not able to record this program because there was no video signal on the channel", BUT, I can watch all the recordings just fine IN the bedroom. Ideas?

# ? May 4, 2012 15:50

Dogen: May 5, 2002; Bury my body down by the highwayside, so that my old evil spirit can get a Greyhound bus and ride

Have you tried copying instead of streaming to see what happens?

# ? May 4, 2012 19:52

lament.cfg: Dec 28, 2006; we have such posts
to show you

Just did the copy & start watching function, works fine.

# ? May 4, 2012 20:05

Dogen: May 5, 2002; Bury my body down by the highwayside, so that my old evil spirit can get a Greyhound bus and ride

Hmm. Rebooting one or both of them would be the only further idea I would have. I have gotten that error once or twice, but it only happens once and then I try again and it plays normally :iiam:

# ? May 4, 2012 20:17

Weird Uncle Dave: Sep 2, 2003; I could do this all day.; Buglord

Anyone thinking about picking up a TiVo should head over to Woot today, where refurb TiVo Premiere units are only $44.99 (plus $5 shipping).

# ? May 5, 2012 18:08

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# ? Jun 10, 2024 18:42

kitten smoothie: Dec 29, 2001

Weird Uncle Dave posted:

Anyone thinking about picking up a TiVo should head over to Woot today, where refurb TiVo Premiere units are only $44.99 (plus $5 shipping).

FYI - Last fall I bought a refurb premiere from Woot to put on my second TV. I was able to get $399 lifetime on it under the multi-service discount. Doesn't look like there are any strings attached with regard to service pricing ("you got a refurb, you get to pay more").

edit: TiVo has refurbs for $79.99 every day if you miss this deal.

edit 2, with a question for the thread - is the Western Digital DVR-labeled hard disk still the only external drive that will connect to a Premiere, or has TiVo loosened up on that?

kitten smoothie fucked around with this message at 02:38 on May 6, 2012

# ? May 6, 2012 02:35

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Find what you've been missing. TiVo thread!

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