TivoToGo - Anyone using?
 

So is anyone out there using TivoToGo? I got my version 7 upgrade over the weekend.

Loaded all the software. It worked straight out of the box for me. The only major thing missing is a fast forward button in WMP 10.0? Makes it hard to skip the commercials.

I think this is great. I am stock piling movies on the large external hard drive, then will load a few movies as needed on laptop for travel. No DVDs to mail back to Netflix.

It does require advance planning, but so does Netflix.

The transfers between Tivo and PC are lengthy - slightly greater than amount of time recorded. Other than that, I think it is pretty slick.

I'm using it, I take stuff with me to hotel rooms during the week.

My fast forward button does work, sounds like you have a problem with your codec, you might want to get your hands on a better one.

I'm also interested in the DVD-burning process. Besides keeping the movies on a hard drive this could be a reasonably inexpensive way of archiving Tivo'd programs. Does anyone have experience with this process (via Tivo-to-go, not via a DVR-DVD recorder)?

I'm among the un-assimilated so far...

It works, it just isn't very fun to do. I tried the TiVo offered SonicDVD but that application is terrible. I ended up burning them with Nero Vision Express.

As for the slow transfers, I have VNC on my desktop at home, so before I leave the hotel heading back home I start all the transfers. I'll usually transfer around 20 hours of stuff, that way I'll have a good selection when I get home.

Part of this problem is that TiVo, in their infinite wisdom, only enabled USB1.1 drivers on all of the TiVo boxes. Thus, even with a wired connection, you can't exceed 12 Mbps (1.5MB/sec) transfer to your desktop.

However, TiVo did actually include USB 2.0 drivers on most Series 2 boxes (if your Tivo service number starts with a 2, you should have USB 2.0 hardware). If you're enterprising enough to figure out how to get shell access on your box (it can be done in less than 30 minutes, unless you have one of the new "nightlight" boxes), you can get faster. I can extract video from my box at around 2.5 MB/sec (at that point, it's more a limitation of the TiVo's processor power) - but I'm also using third party tools, as opposed to T2G, since I've got one of the DVD-burning TiVos (Pioneer DVR-810H) that doesn't support transfers yet. The best I've heard of has been 3.0 MB/sec under ideal conditions.

If you're not so enterprising, TiVo's probably going to enable USB 2.0 at some point this year in an update (it's as simple as changing *one line* in the startup scripts).

I have actually been pretty pleased with the transfer rates over the wireless network - not super fast by any means, but not as painfully slow as I expected it to be. I queue up a few shows on Sunday night and just grab my machine and go on Monday. I have been a big fan so far. I like my battery will last longer than if I used the DVD player on the machine.

I am just plain happy they finally released it. Nice to know there is always something I want to watch on my laptop, with no worries about a "bumpy ride" making a DVD unwatchable. And sure beats having to catch up when I get home.

external hard drives with TIVO to go?
 

Is anyone using an external hard drive with TIVO to go and their laptop? I was just looking at a Maxtor external drive with 80gig for $100 (haven't really price shopped, so this is just a starting point). Rather than purchase a new laptop, could I just as easily store programs on that and bring it along? Looks small enough to just toss in the carry on bag. I only have 12gig free on my laptop, and this looks like a good workaround instead of buying a new laptop with a bigger hard drive. I could move programs onto the laptop as space clears (or I guess I could view them directly from the external hard drive if I'm parked in a hotel for the night). Is this workable?

Sure, I got myself a 40Gb 2.5" hard disk for my notebook. It powers off USB so I don't need any other adapters.

No reason it shouldn't work. I thought a lot of those external drives required some kind of AC adapter to operate, though, so you'd need to be at an outlet. I don't own one though, so I could be mistaken...

If it's a Firewire drive, it could draw power from the bus with a powered Firewire card (they've got a +12V pin, USB only has +5V).

nevermind, looks like ScottC beat me to it...2.5" drives can be bus-powered. I'm pretty sure a 3.5" drive needs a +12V pin, though.

External USB Storage: Better to roll your own
 

Tom, Keep and eye on Bens Bargains and build your own external usb storage system for less.

For about $20 you can get a light, quiet 3.5" aluminum usb 2.0 external enclosure like this one: http://www.bensbargains.net/ktalk/11...3,93261,.shtml

Then for $60 pick up a nice big 160 gig ide drive like this one: http://www.bensbargains.net/ktalk/11...9,47014,.shtml

So for around $80 you can get 160gb of light, quiet external storage. the key is quiet, as most prebuilt external storage units have noisy fans. I've got a 160gb drive in an aluminum enclosure like the one above, and it doesn't run very hot at all...

Ben's has deals on drives all the time, you can go as big as 300gb in that same $20 enclosure if you want...

Do you really need 160Gb? At 1Gb per hour you can't really have all that much to frab off the tivo...

160gb is a decent price point and can be used for other data (mp3's, pics, etc).

You can easily go 80gb for $30 or 120gb for $40

As Scott mentioned: a somewhat pricier route is to drop down to a 2.5" enclosure for $12 and a 2.5" notebook drive. Dell has a 80gb Toshiba 2.5" drive for $127 or a 60gb for $90. This option runs off of the usb port (no need to carry an extra power supply), and is tiny! I'd guess about 1/8 the size and weight of a 3.5" enclosure...

I don't think I'm tech-savvy enough to build something of my own, no matter what the price, so I'd be looking at something that I can just plug in. I hadn't thought about the USB powered idea (was just thinking of something I could plug in at a hotel or airline club to move programs from the external drive to the laptop if I was out of programs to watch, or wanted to just watch something on the external drive instead). Lots of ideas here. I'll look around and see what products out there might fit my needs. 160gig is probably lots more than I need to take on the road with me. The 80gig $100 model was just the first one I looked at, and I'm sure there's something out there better price wise. I can't see that I'd need more than that.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to comment. I think I'll try to get another year's use out of the laptop and get the external drive as a short term workaround.

The laptops I've been looking at with 80gig hard drives and 14 inch displays or less have all been over $1,100. I can see getting something down the line on sale with a smaller hard drive if I'm happy with the external drive to hold the TIVO programs.

Tom, I'd be more than willing to put together a 2.5" USB powered drive for you. Drop me a PM if you want some more info...

Here is an example:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...161653445&rd=1

Right .. I call mine an iPod. :) (Though, I suppose it's a bit pricey for use as just a usb hard drive .. but if you already have one ...)

-David

okay, NOW we can tlak
 

So, I can now say that I have been using it "a while"

the transfers are indeed the killer/bane of the whole system, but I don't think I would want to make TOO much of a sacrifice with quality.

I did do a trick though, I have a cloned laptop drive of my laptop drive, cost me another 100$ for another 60GB drive. all my data is on that drive, and all my files and settings.

I have an external enclosure connected to my home pc, which is connected to the 100base network that the TIVO is on. I put that drive in there, and setup the transfers, usually from work, or while traveling. when I get hoem, everything is already transferrred, I pop out the drive from the enclosure, sync the differential betwene the drive in my laptop, and stick it back in.

instant portable TIVO and all my data.

Oh, and with the tivo web interface and a few open ports on my router I can also remotely download them from anywhere in the world :D

that and,
 

that, and oh about 10 hours of time to kill.

I tried to do a one hour show from a wireless connection in a hotel, repeater in the room with me, so the connection was great, to the repeater.

12 hours later, in the morning, it still wasn't done.
that was painfull.

Not here, downloaded Malcolm in the Middle, medium quality in around an hour.

Can't wait for the Slingbox to be released :D

Using MFS_FTP (the 'unofficial' software some folks concocted before T2G came out), I did a 30-minute show in Extreme Quality in 12 minutes. :D

TiVo (w/ USB2 drivers) -> Linksys USB200M -> WRT54G (client bridged) -> WRT54G -> PC

i'll keep you posted

:-)

Keep in mind that my setup was:

TiVo ->> USB Microsoft adapter ->> Linksys router ->> The big bad Internet ->> STSN Hotel adapter (DSL) ->> DLink pocket router ->> PC :D

So will I ;)

I've been awaiting a beta position for some time now...

What codec would you suggest using? I can skip ahead in a program, but only by using the slider bar.

BTW, this IS a great way to archive stuff off of the TiVo. I save the raw .tivo files to DVD-R. Then I can either watch them directly from the archive DVDs or copy them back to the hard drive and watch them from there.

I'm having pretty good luck with MyDVD for making series DVDs. I've only been using the trial version though and I hear there are some features missing on the full version. So I'm not purchasing until I have to.

Look at this thread on the TIVO board. I downloaded the codec last night and the 30 second skip button seems to work OK and get around the commercials. Haven't spent much time playing with it, though.

I still get an error when trying to play the files. It recorded them as Windows Media files. But it won't play tehm with Windows Media 9 or if I try to play them with codec. I just get an :unexpected error. :(

Aren't you supposed to use WMP10 with TIVO? Is it supposed to work with 9?

When I installed the Core Media Player, I set it as the default media viewer, so when I click on a program in the TIVO desktop library it brings it up in Core instead of WMP. Might that make a difference? Again, haven't played with it too much, but it's driving me crazy trying to work around the commercials by hand, so the 30 second jump feature in Core might be what I'm looking for.

Could you give me more information on the specific requirements needed to get this to work?

I live in Tokyo and would like to be able to watch some TV shows from back home in the US. Installing a TiVo in my parents house and hooking it up to their broadband connection, and downloading shows to my desktop and/or laptop in Japan would be very nice. Would this work for me?

Thanks

It's actually very simple:

1) open ports 443 (ssl) and 80 (html) on the router and setup port forwarding to the IP of the TiVo

2) Go to: https://<tivo ip>/nowplaying/index.html

3) You will be prompted for a username and password, the user is tivo (lowercase) and the password is your media access key.

4) Through the webinterface you can simply download anything off the TiVo like any normal download. You will still need the TiVo desktop on the PC you are downloading onto and will have to enter the MAK just like on a normal PC.

Getting TiVotoGo content onto my PSP, THAT is cool :)

Hmm. My be a bit of trouble running a web server - I'm not sure what their ISP's terms of usage are.

What sort of bandwidth is needed?

You don't really "need" any kind of bandwidth, the faster the upstream, the faster the download. Tivo itself can't upload faster than around 700-800 anyway.

When I tested this on a 256 upstream it took around 3 hours to transfer one 30 minute show, I now have an upstream 3 times faster and still need to test it.

If you are handy, you could setup a VPN to the house and bypass having to open those ports. Just VPN and then download locally. Another option is to have someone at home save the content and put it on an FTP server on the home PC with some weird port assignment the ISP won't look for...

You can just use ssh port forwarding.

-David

Unless something changed recently then that doesn't work for the downloads. It seems to use SSH for the web, and regular port 80 for the video download itself.

I don't see why that can't work. You simply forward two local ports (443 and 80, if you must use those specific ports) through your router, onto ssh on a local server at home and forward them to 443 and 80 on the tivo. Why won't that work?

On your notebook ~/.ssh/config add:

Where tivo is an entry on /etc/hosts on your sshd host. (or you can use the local IP in your .ssh/config file)

Then you just open the connection with 'ssh tivo-fwd' and browse to https://localhost. When done, exit from ssh. Why won't that work, Scott? (You might want to do 'ssh tivo-fwd bin/busy-wait' so the remote shell doesn't timeout and close the connection in the middle of your transfer. ~/bin/busy-wait is an executable file containing:

-David

Any similar options to TiVo?
 

Hmm. It doesn't sound like it will work too well for me, if it takes 3 hours to get a 30 minute show at 256kb - based on that, I assume it is using MPEG2. I've got 12mbit down / 1 mbit up on my connection, but they only have 512k down / 256k up on theirs.

Is there any similar sort of system that would do MPEG4, which would hopefully allow for acceptable quality at smaller file sizes? Preferrable a system that I could plug in and forget as my parents are not technical at all.

I forgot one thing .. it's a PITA to forward priviledged ports.

-David

SEA-Flyer, I have an older, hacked Series 1 Tivo that I use to do this (the hacks render it very similar to the newer Series 2 with TivoToGo.

I just got back from two weeks in China, and was able to stay current with The Amazing Race and the Apprentice by transferring them from my Tivo in San Francisco. Here's how I did it:

I have an old, slow laptop on my network which stays on 24/7 (I use the old laptop because it consumes very little power). My internet access is via DSL through a Linksys router that supports VPN.

First I establish a VPN connection to my router. Then I use VNC to get to control my laptop (which is loaded with a VNC server). The laptop is connected to an X-10 controller, which I use to turn on those machines on my network which don't respond to wake-on-LAN. Fortunately, my primary computer does recognize WOL, so I issue the WOL command from the laptop (I have little batch files for all of this).

While the primary computer is booting up, I telnet in to my Tivo and start the server software (the program is called Tserver). I also use Internet Explorer in combination with more hacked Tivo software that lets me control the Tivo remotely and start whatever show I want to transfer playing on the Tivo (a necessary step to unscramble it before transfer -- TivoToGo doesn't require this).

Though I could, in theory, transfer video directly from the Tivo to my remote travelling laptop, I prefer to transfer it to the primary computer at home first. Unlike TivotoGo, this is a very quick process on a hacked Series 1 -- it takes about 15 minutes to transfer 2-hours of programming. Once it's on my primary comptuer, I convert it to mpeg (another 3 minutes or so) and it's ready for the long haul data transmission to wherever I am. Using telnet, I shut down the Tivo server.

Using rather crappy hotel high-speed connections in Beijing and Shanghai, it took rougly 6 hours to transfer 1 hour worth of video, which averaged a little over 1 gigabyte of data.

Once on my travelling laptop, I shut down the primary computer at home using either VNC, or a remote shutdown program from the old laptop at home. Then, I can watch the transferred mpeg in WinDVD.

It works great, and the video quality is fantastic.