TiVo Community Forums Archives - Picture In Picture?

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Picture In Picture?
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Posted by: GoodSpike

Any idea if they will be adding PIP in an upgrade to the DirecTV units. They can record two programs while you are watching another previously recorded program. It seems like adding PIP to the mix might not be that hard.

Posted by: BrettStah

The existing hardware most likely will never be able to generate PIP. If you have two different video sources, however (like two Tivos), and a PIP-enabled TV, you can use your TV's PIP. Microsoft's UTV outputs PIP, if you really can't live without it.

Most people who use PIP do so in order to be able to watch two things at once... you obviously have to split your attention between the two pictures, and you only get the audio from one of them.

With a DirecTivo, you can actually watch two things without having to split your attention. For example, let's say that there are two football games coming on at the same time, and you want to watch both of them. You can watch part of one game while the second game is being buffered, and then pause the first game and watch the buffered part of the second game. You can keep switching back and forth like this, skipping commercials with the 30 second skip, and even skipping the time between plays if you want to, and wind up watching the two games in the amount of time it would normally take to watch one game. And you will have seen every single play of both games.

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Brett
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Posted by: TheSimpsons

I believe the new AT&T unit replaced the Standby button with a PIP button for possible software upgrades though. But as mentioned earlier-make use of your dual-tuners, its an awesome function!

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Posted by: HTH

quote:
Originally posted by TheSimpsons
I believe the new AT&T unit replaced the Standby button with a PIP button for possible software upgrades though. But as mentioned earlier-make use of your dual-tuners, its an awesome function!

No, the AT&T unit doesn't have a PIP button, it has a real Standby button. The replacement remote in the same shape of the AT&T remote replaces the AT&T's Standby button with a useless PIP button, IMO because Philips doesn't want us to have a Standby button.
__________________
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Posted by: dperovic

I was checking out the clear peanut in the TiVo store last night and noticed the PIP button too. The discribtion said that the button was there for a possible future feature....Correct me if I'm wrong.

Posted by: Hippster

quote:
Originally posted by BrettStah
The existing hardware most likely will never be able to generate PIP.

Couldn't the MPEG playback software be modified in such a way to combine two data streams into a single picture and pip combination? Since it would be software based... the hardware wouldn't care what it is outputting. The only snag in this though could be processor and/or memory limitations. It does sound like a lot of work but I don't know how else they could do it. Either that or there is a new next-generation TiVo platform coming out soon that will have the PIP functionality built in. It could be the TiVo store wanted to get a new remote out there for Christmas that is compatible with existing units as well as the future models.

Steven

Posted by: GoodSpike

One thing--the quality of the PIP picture could be greatly reduced since it would be smaller.

Posted by: laplaine

Well since receivers like the T-60 have two outputs, allowing an option to set what gets sent out the second output would work for me. This way folks could still use two outputs of the same thing if they hook it through some other A/V equipment, or set it to both receivers that the T-60 has and let the TV's PIP handle the rest.

Switching between the internal receivers could just swap the outputs. So what was previously going out output 1 would go out output 2.

Posted by: iacas

I agree with this last post, and am greatly disappointed that I can't do PiP. Sure, I can FLIP between two things at once, but what if I want to watch one game and keep an eye on the other for a big play? The suggestion of "TiVoing" two games at once is ridiculous - that's not how most people want to watch football.

There _should_ be a PiP function. Of course, that's an opinion and whatnot, but PiP has been around for quite some time, and there are already two cables, so leaving PiP functionality out seems somewhat illogical to me...

Hrmph. :p

Posted by: HTH

You understand that the standalone only has one encoder, right? Well, both the standalone and combo each have only one decoder as well. The hardware can't play back two recordings.

If you want PIP, install a splitter and watch your basic channels via your TV's RF tuner and your TiVo through its line inputs and use your TV's PIP feature to watch them both if you really want to split your attention between two games, one live. But there's no sense in watching two recorded games simultaneously. Watch one, then watch the other, each without interruption.

Posted by: Todd76

quote:
Originally posted by BrettStah
With a DirecTivo, you can actually watch two things without having to split your attention. For example, let's say that there are two football games coming on at the same time, and you want to watch both of them. You can watch part of one game while the second game is being buffered, and then pause the first game and watch the buffered part of the second game. You can keep switching back and forth like this, skipping commercials with the 30 second skip, and even skipping the time between plays if you want to, and wind up watching the two games in the amount of time it would normally take to watch one game. And you will have seen every single play of both games.

(Late reply)

Here's the problem with your suggetion:

Say you're watching Nebraska/Texas Tech on FSN and another game on ESPN. You're five minutes behind live on FSN, but ESPN shows you a highlight of Nebraska scoring. That actually happened to me three times in that game! CBS and Fox do the same thing--they show highlights or at least the score seconds after it happens.

The only way to watch football is live if you're trying to watch multiple games.

Posted by: BrettStah

quote:
Originally posted by Todd76

(Late reply)

Here's the problem with your suggetion:

Say you're watching Nebraska/Texas Tech on FSN and another game on ESPN. You're five minutes behind live on FSN, but ESPN shows you a highlight of Nebraska scoring. That actually happened to me three times in that game! CBS and Fox do the same thing--they show highlights or at least the score seconds after it happens.

The only way to watch football is live if you're trying to watch multiple games.

Good point... although I turn on the 30 second skip for football games, and skip between each play and all of the commercials. Every once in a while I'll see a second or two of a highlight, but I purposefully don't linger or concentrate on that... I can make it through two games with little to no spoilers every time. (You also have to watch out for those little graphics with the scores, and train yourself NOT to look at them. Took me a little time to get used to it, and now it's not a problem for me.

Posted by: kserack

There are lots of uses for PIP, but no-one has mentioned the one I want to use it for!

I want to be able to do TIVO stuff while watching my show. For example, I think of the perfect wishlist search item, and the PIP would allow me to go to the TIVO menus while watching my show.

Ken

Posted by: BrettStah

quote:
Originally posted by kserack
There are lots of uses for PIP, but no-one has mentioned the one I want to use it for!

I want to be able to do TIVO stuff while watching my show. For example, I think of the perfect wishlist search item, and the PIP would allow me to go to the TIVO menus while watching my show.

Ken

That sounds like a great use, if Tivo didn't give you the ability to pause whatever you're watching, do the Tivo stuff, and then continue watching whatever you were watching, without missing anything, without having to split your attention between the menus and what you're watching, without having to watch something in a little window.