Watch one Tivo from another Tivo; How's performance? (1 Viewer)

[Rob White]

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."

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

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

 

[Rob White]

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

 

[Stephen Tu]

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.

 

[Rob White]

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

Thanks,
Rob