Home Theater Forum › Home Theater Forum › Home Theater Hardware › Blu-ray, DVD, LD, Tivo, Satellite and Other Playback Devices  › Watch one Tivo from another Tivo; How's performance?
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Watch one Tivo from another Tivo; How's performance?

post #1 of 5
12/9/08 at 7:59am
Thread Starter 
Hey Folks,

Bought a Tivo in the first few months they were available (7 years ago). Wife loves it. Comcast phone just went digital line and so our Tivo no longer works. Looked into Comcast DVR, but we're going to buy 2 Tivos instead.

Wondering what the picture quality is like for using one Tivo to watch stuff from another Tivo through the wireless network. Will it still look HD? Or would it only look HD if it's coming from the Tivo in the room?

Thanks in advance for your help,
Rob

p.s. I liked the post someone had here that made it sound like "Tivo---> Mac computer ---> iPod Touch" would make it possible for me to watch shows on my Touch for "free."
Reply
post #2 of 5
12/9/08 at 8:36am

Re: Watch one Tivo from another Tivo; How's performance?

Never had a Tivo HD (too pricey), but at one time I had 3 Tivo series 2s networked and routinely transferred and/or watched shows recorded on different units. I found it best not to watch the stream "live", because the trasnfer rate couldn't always keep up with the playback rate. I suspect you'll find this to be even more the case with an HD signal. So I would start the transfer and let it go for a few minutes, then watch it from the beginning, or else transfer the entire show to the target unit ahead of time and watch it later. Watching it "live" could lead to frames freezing and breaking up, or sound glitches, something like watching streaming video on the internet on a slower connection. Chances are if you back up a bit and rewatch the "bad" part it will be fine, but why bother?

Regards,

Joe
Reply
post #3 of 5
12/9/08 at 10:56am
Thread Starter 

Re: Watch one Tivo from another Tivo; How's performance?

Hey Joe,

Interesting idea. Wonder if it is significantly worse with HD?

I read some of your stuff over the weekend when I searched for "Tivo" posts. I appreciate all your comments.

Rob
Reply
post #4 of 5
12/9/08 at 6:15pm

Re: Watch one Tivo from another Tivo; How's performance?

You are getting two TivoHD units right? Tivo -> Tivo is lossless digital transfer so you don't lose anything, if you recorded in HD it's identical quality on the other one also. (HD recordings can't be transferred to a series 2 at all; I wouldn't recommend anyone buy a series 2 at this date).

Transfer time for HD is probably close to real time, e.g. almost 1 hour to transfer a 1 hour show. So you probably want to start the transfer, watch something else for at least 20 minutes then start the show to give some buffer to skip over commercials.
Reply
post #5 of 5
12/16/08 at 4:17pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Watch one Tivo from another Tivo; How's performance?

Gotcha Stephen. So you can't just start the show immediately and skip commercials.

Thanks,
Rob
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
Home Theater Forum › Home Theater Forum › Home Theater Hardware › Blu-ray, DVD, LD, Tivo, Satellite and Other Playback Devices  › Watch one Tivo from another Tivo; How's performance?