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Opinions on Free HMO trial
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Posted by: killed4nada
I know it hasnt started yet but as of May 10 there is supposed to be a free 30 day HMO trail so if you can hold out until then you get to try it before you buy it. And you dont have to worry about giving out your credit card number
Posted by: KermitTheFrog
You can always try it for 30 days and get a full refund if you don't like it anyways.
*Shrug*
KC
Posted by: C_A_Jones
I own two TiVos, one Series 1 and one Series 2, both have lifetime subs. I bought the S2 when TiVo had a similar offer last year. Much to my chagrin, I discovered HMO doesn't work with HPNA. I wasn't about to buy replacement network hardware just to try HMO.
Although I will soon change my network to wireless, I still won't go for HMO. Having had time to think about it, the only HMO feature that would be of value to me is R2R, and that's not going to happen unless I get a second S2.
If I could transfer the subscription from the S1 to a new S2, I'd buy a new S2 and pass the S1 on to one of my friends. Since I can't transfer the subscription, I'll be sitting on the sidelines until the S1 dies.
Bottom line: There's no compelling reason for me to even try HMO at the present time.
Posted by: Gregd33
I think it is a great idea.
I was considering buying it, but this way I can try before I buy.
Though.. I did not know about the 30 day money back guarantee..
Posted by: hutchca
I'm glad I got a chance to try it.
I have only 1 tivo so show sharing isn't an option.
The only feature I would use is the Music and Photos and that's not worth the $99 price tag.
There are better dedicated devices to play music, pictures AND VIDEOS over the network and they are around $99 or less.
Posted by: MickeS
The remote scheduling is great though. I used it a lot the last trial period. I will probably get HMO now that I have JavaHMO running.
/Mike
Posted by: Gregd33
I reeived an EMail(not a TiVo message, but a real EMail) from TiVo about the trial and that I should see Music and Photos on TiVo Central.
Since this is not officially starting untill the 10th, can I just ASSume this EMail was sent out a few days early for those lucky enough to receive it already?
I really wanna try these options out. :)
Posted by: TiVoBill
quote:
Originally posted by Gregd33
I reeived an EMail(not a TiVo message, but a real EMail) from TiVo about the trial and that I should see Music and Photos on TiVo Central.
Since this is not officially starting until the 10th, can I just ASSume this EMail was sent out a few days early for those lucky enough to receive it already?
I really wanna try these options out. :)
We send each e-mail as we turn on the trial for a particular DVR, so if you got the e-mail, you can activate the trial on your DVR by making a connection to the TiVo service.
Posted by: drewbenson
Just tried HMO. I'm using a wireless network adapter with my TiVo, so certainly that contributes to this my negative impressions, but here they are anyway:
1- First, I had read about HMO before, and since I only have a single series 2 tivo, I didn't think I wanted it.
2- However, when I tried it, I started to think about my 200 CDs of audio I've got on my PC, and since my Tivo is hooked to my home stereo, I thought that could really be worth something. Much to my chagrin, though, the audio thing wouldn't deal with WMP files (from Windows Media Player). Since there's zero chance I'm going to convert all my files to mp3 or rerip them all, I dismissed this HMO audio/music option as worthless.
3- Thought the pictures could be cool -- so I hooked it up to My Pictures. It seemed to recognize those, but it was VERY slow. Certainly part of that is related to the wireless. But it was too slow to be useful, particularly reading directories/folders.
I fooled with the pictures for a few more minutes and tried to do a slide show. The TiVo then told me it lost connection with my PC.
I've now uninstalled TiVo Desktop and am quite done with HMO. I'd reconsider it if they could work out a seemless integration with all my WMP files though. That would be worth something.
TiVo should focus on something that matters though, like a multi-tuner cable box DVR. I'm sure their standalone unit sales are on the decline by now, and DirecTV alone won't be enough to keep the company afloat.
My criticisms aside, I love my TiVo and really wish for them to succeed. However, my history (Apple and Sun, for example) is to pick people with great products and lousy marketing schemes.
Posted by: Gregd33
quote:
Originally posted by TiVoBill
We send each e-mail as we turn on the trial for a particular DVR, so if you got the e-mail, you can activate the trial on your DVR by making a connection to the TiVo service.
That was how I thought it would go.. However, I have made TiVo call 4-5 times and nothing.
No big deal. Just thought I might get to play around with it today instead of during the week/next weekend.
Thanks for the reply.
Posted by: TiVoBill
quote:
Originally posted by drewbenson
Much to my chagrin, though, the audio thing wouldn't deal with WMP files (from Windows Media Player). Since there's zero chance I'm going to convert all my files to mp3 or rerip them all, I dismissed this HMO audio/music option as worthless.
Home Media Option currently supports only the MP3 file format. There are however several third-party add-ins that do support the WMA format that Windows Media Player uses. There are a couple of WMA plug-ins mentioned here:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-v...threadid=124778
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-v...threadid=139027
quote:
Thought the pictures could be cool -- so I hooked it up to My Pictures. It seemed to recognize those, but it was VERY slow. Certainly part of that is related to the wireless. But it was too slow to be useful, particularly reading directories/folders.
You might check out the article on our support site:
http://customersupport.tivo.com/tiv...blic/tv2061.htm
You might want to pay particular attention to the size of the photos and how many are in each directory to make the transfer speed as high as possible.
Posted by: skanter
I took a chance on HMO about a month ago before the trial option -- and never looked back. I use a wired network, and it's very fast, even for 2MB photos.
Having -all- my MP3s ( about 30G) instantly available streaming into Tivo and my stereo system and on my screen is worth the price of admission alone. I've been listening to my music collection much more since I got HMO. Also, putting up MP3 streaming radio stations is easy, I now have about 100 stations on my TV screen along with other music. I use only high-bit rate stations, and they sound great.
The photo option looks much better than I thought it would -- it's totally replaced gathering around the computer monitor for family slide shows.
The remote scheduling is extremely useful, and I've caught many shows that I wouldn't have scheduling from my work computer. I think that option is available without HMO, however.
I tried javaHMO, which seemed like a great idea, but could not get many features to work, and photo viewing was slowed down too much. When my whole system started acting flaky I uninstalled it and went back to the Tivo server.
I do hope Tivo will update features in HMO as it is still pretty basic, but well worth the $99 IMHO.
Posted by: Gregd33
Still no HMO today.. Hmm.. Any ideas why?
Posted by: Cgrisamore
As an experiment I tried remote scheduling and earlier today from work I selected a show this afternoon to record. After saving the request, the website said that it'd be added to my "to do" list the next time my machine connected to the network. I was skeptical that a request for this afternoon would be processed in time but to my surprise the program was on my Tivo when I got home this afternoon.
Not having so good luck with the music and photos though. I've installed desktop, published music and photos and yet my Tivo can't see the server. I've triple checked the IP address and I'm not running any firewall software or anything mentioned in the troubleshooting guide and yet my Tivo still can't see the machine running the Tivo desktop software. Tivo desktop appears to be able to see the tivo as it shows up in the access control tab.
Anybody else having this problem?
Posted by: Gregd33
quote:
Originally posted by Gregd33
Still no HMO today.. Hmm.. Any ideas why?
Ahhh HA!
As I suspected.
I have 2 TiVos in my account. One is mine, at my house. The other is my Moms, at her house. Even though I am the one that has the broadband connection, my Moms TiVo is the one that has the Music and Photos menu item.
How silly of TiVo. They sent the HMO trial to a TiVo that is not even connected to Broadband.
TiVoBill,
Can this be corrected? I sent you a PM with MY TiVos serial number.
Thanks.
Posted by: TiVoBill
The HMO trial is going out to all Series2 DVRs with active service (no broadband required). The rollout is still in progress -- the 10th isn't over yet :)
Bill
quote:
Originally posted by Gregd33
Ahhh HA!
As I suspected.
I have 2 TiVos in my account. One is mine, at my house. The other is my Moms, at her house. Even though I am the one that has the broadband connection, my Moms TiVo is the one that has the Music and Photos menu item.
How silly of TiVo. They sent the HMO trial to a TiVo that is not even connected to Broadband.
TiVoBill,
Can this be corrected? I sent you a PM with MY TiVos serial number.
Thanks.
Posted by: pparadis2
quote:
Not having so good luck with the music and photos though. I've installed desktop, published music and photos and yet my Tivo can't see the server. I've triple checked the IP address and I'm not running any firewall software or anything mentioned in the troubleshooting guide and yet my Tivo still can't see the machine running the Tivo desktop software. Tivo desktop appears to be able to see the tivo as it shows up in the access control tab.
I was having this exact problem. Try this... go into the tivo desktop software, and check under "Tivo Server Properties". Under "network identification" check to see if you have multiple network choices. Mine was defaulted to the wrong setup, once I made that change, it worked perfectly.
I'm loving HMO. Been wanting to be able to play my music collection through the stereo for some time, and with 2 young kids, its nice being able to view all the pictures on the TV. My wife who wanted nothing to do with HMO fell in love with it within 5 minutes of being able to scroll through the pictures. Now if I could just get that offer for $40 off again, I would jump right on it!
Posted by: Cgrisamore
quote:
Originally posted by pparadis2
I was having this exact problem. Try this... go into the tivo desktop software, and check under "Tivo Server Properties". Under "network identification" check to see if you have multiple network choices. Mine was defaulted to the wrong setup, once I made that change, it worked perfectly.
Thanks for the idea, I don't have more than one network but after rebooting the machine running the desktop software, Tivo finally saw the server. The file sharing works ok but the music feature isn't going to be of much value to me as although I listen to a lot of music, I don't do it in the great room with the TV. Picture viewing was more useful as I've had a digital camera since 2001 and all of my photos are on my upstairs computer. Browsing through some vacation photos was pretty cool as it's nicer on a 46" tv versus a computer screen. My test of remote scheduling worked but as I generally run my wishlists every few days, the only thing I can come up with where I'd use it was if somebody at the office told me about an upcoming program and I wanted to immediately go schedule it (in short - doubt it'd get used frequently).
Bottom line assessment: it's not priced right for the value I'd get out of it. Wonder how many others would jump on it at $50 instead of $100?
Posted by: Gregd33
quote:
Originally posted by TiVoBill
The HMO trial is going out to all Series2 DVRs with active service (no broadband required). The rollout is still in progress -- the 10th isn't over yet :)
Bill
OIC. I thought it required broadband... Ooops! :)
Thanks Bill.
Posted by: mcarleton2000
My HMO free trial activated on the 10th as promised. I tried JavaHMO
first but could not get it started on my XP home system( java command line options the JVM did not like). The TiVo desktop
is working though. I'm using a wired 10/100 network so photo viewing is
fast. The MP3 files play OK too. Like others, I wish I could have the music playing in the background while looking at photos. The result of the slide show is that I now have a to-do list from my wife of digital photos that
I need to print out. I would be nice if TiVo could partner with an internet photo printing service so my wife could order prints using the TiVo remote.
You could even plug a photo printer into the USB port an print the photos directly. The request could also go back to the TiVo desktop but that would require me to load photo paper in the printer.
I tried remote scheduling as well and got both emails for each program with about a 30 minute lag between the request and the confirmation emails.
With only one DVR in the house, I can't try the multi-room viewing. I wish I had the option of sharing with the TiVo owner across the street. I'd share my broadband via WiFi to his house to get that.
So far, I don't think I can justify the $99 cost. I might go for the next $59 special though.
Posted by: psc_Tivo_addict
With the increased competition in the DVR arena, i.e. cable companies and computer companies and the general technology convergence. I think Tivo will have to offer the HMO free to ad value to the service and help them compete. Don't get me wrong I love my Tivo's, But considering I pay Almost $30 a month just for the programming, and Time Warner offers a DVR for only 8.95 a month.
Yes I agree it's not as good as a Tivo. But I have to tell you considering there is no hardware investment. It's good enough and like any other technologies it will improve. Certainly Tivo must know this. I certainly think the home media option is worth something but certainly not $148.00 for 2 Tivos. I would consider either a $79.00 per household fee, or and addition $2 per month per Tivo. But in the end it's all about adding value. It should be free for people owning more than one Tivo.
Posted by: Tivortex
quote:
Originally posted by drewbenson
2- However, when I tried it, I started to think about my 200 CDs of audio I've got on my PC, and since my Tivo is hooked to my home stereo, I thought that could really be worth something. Much to my chagrin, though, the audio thing wouldn't deal with WMP files (from Windows Media Player). Since there's zero chance I'm going to convert all my files to mp3 or rerip them all, I dismissed this HMO audio/music option as worthless.
So let me understand this. YOU were a dumbass and bought into Microsoft's proprietary compression codec WMP, with it's "user pleasing" DRM, instead of the universally used MPEG3 and now somehow it's TiVo's fault you can't do jack with your music files ? BWAAAAHAAAAHAAA!!!
Posted by: melgar
Anyone know what these dedicated devices for under $99 are? My main desire for HMO is for playing the mp3's on my PC over my network. Is there a way to connect a network, via ethernet to your typical pre-amp or stereo receiver?
Thanks...
quote:
Originally posted by hutchca
I'm glad I got a chance to try it.
I have only 1 tivo so show sharing isn't an option.
The only feature I would use is the Music and Photos and that's not worth the $99 price tag.
There are better dedicated devices to play music, pictures AND VIDEOS over the network and they are around $99 or less.
Posted by: skanter
quote:
Originally posted by melgar
Anyone know what these dedicated devices for under $99 are? My main desire for HMO is for playing the mp3's on my PC over my network. Is there a way to connect a network, via ethernet to your typical pre-amp or stereo receiver?
Thanks...
Perhaps, but I don't think you'll see all the MP3 info on your TV screen...
Posted by: melgar
I don't need the mp3 info on the screen, just the ability to play the mp3 on the pc and route it to my home stereo via my ethernet nework.
Posted by: skanter
quote:
Originally posted by melgar
I don't need the mp3 info on the screen, just the ability to play the mp3 on the pc and route it to my home stereo via my ethernet nework.
You'd be surprised how nice it is to navigate your MP3s with remote from listening position on couch, rather than going to the computer -- depending on how your room is set up. Very cool...
Posted by: Bobby Soprano
After playing with HMO for a few days ... I will say this:
It's unreliable ... sometimes my server shows up, sometimes it doesn't. Half of the times that it does, the mp3's either freeze, or play extremely choppy. I have no problems on my network with any other connected devices, only TIVO.
If I try to publish and view a directory with a certain amount of music or photos in it ... it crashes my computer. What the *magic number* of files is ... I haven't figured out, because I got tired of rebooting my machine.
Remote scheduling doesn't work for me either, giving me an error that it can't find the program data for my DVR ... and to call.
JavaHMO ... I haven't been able to get running, after way too much putzing with it.
After having the pleasure of turning many friends on to TIVO ... I would be embarrassed to show them the HMO. It's just too flaky (for me anyway) ... and I wouldn't pay 2 cents for it.
Oh .. BTW ... I still love my TIVO ... just not HMO.
Posted by: skanter
quote:
Originally posted by Bobby Soprano
After playing with HMO for a few days ... I will say this:
It's unreliable ... sometimes my server shows up, sometimes it doesn't. Half of the times that it does, the mp3's either freeze, or play extremely choppy. I have no problems on my network with any other connected devices, only TIVO.
If I try to publish and view a directory with a certain amount of music or photos in it ... it crashes my computer. What the *magic number* of files is ... I haven't figured out, because I got tired of rebooting my machine.
Remote scheduling doesn't work for me either, giving me an error that it can't find the program data for my DVR ... and to call.
JavaHMO ... I haven't been able to get running, after way too much putzing with it.
After having the pleasure of turning many friends on to TIVO ... I would be embarrassed to show them the HMO. It's just too flaky (for me anyway) ... and I wouldn't pay 2 cents for it.
Oh .. BTW ... I still love my TIVO ... just not HMO.
I've had none of the problems you describe. In fact, HMO has operated perfectly on my system. You might do some PC troubleshooting. Are you using a wired or wireless network? A wireless could be the problem.
On the other hand, I could not get JavaHMO to work correctly on my system.
Posted by: jmX
BobbySoprano, the Tivo HMO software for the desktop pc is pretty useless I found. I too couldnt get it to use my fairly sizable amount of mp3s, it'd crash every time.
I switched to JavaHMO, and while it took some effort to actually get working, it paid off in the end. The HMO service would be 100% totally and utterly useless to me if it hadnt been for JavaHMO.
Posted by: Bobby Soprano
quote:
Originally posted by skanter
I've had none of the problems you describe. In fact, HMO has operated perfectly on my system. You might do some PC troubleshooting. Are you using a wired or wireless network? A wireless could be the problem.
On the other hand, I could not get JavaHMO to work correctly on my system.
That's the nature of the beast I guess (computers & software). What works on one machine flawlessly, will have another user tearing his hair out. I AM on a wireless network, but have absolutely no problems with any other machines, or even xbox live ... which is even further away than the TIVO. I also show a *very good* signal strength when I check the setup.
Posted by: Bobby Soprano
quote:
Originally posted by jmX
BobbySoprano, the Tivo HMO software for the desktop pc is pretty useless I found. I too couldnt get it to use my fairly sizable amount of mp3s, it'd crash every time.
I switched to JavaHMO, and while it took some effort to actually get working, it paid off in the end. The HMO service would be 100% totally and utterly useless to me if it hadnt been for JavaHMO.
Like I said ... I tried to get JavaHMO running ... and everything looked fine EXCEPT ... I couldn't see it running on the TIVO no matter what I did. I've got LOTS of software installed on this particular machine, and I'm not about to start disabling all kinds of other java stuff just to get JavaHMO running. Also ... even though I have more than enough RAM ... I don't know if I want to allocate 50 megs to something that I probably wouldn't be using that often.
Posted by: skanter
quote:
Originally posted by Bobby Soprano
That's the nature of the beast I guess (computers & software). What works on one machine flawlessly, will have another user tearing his hair out. I AM on a wireless network, but have absolutely no problems with any other machines, or even xbox live ... which is even further away than the TIVO. I also show a *very good* signal strength when I check the setup.
You're right. Trying to figure out this stuff can be frustrating.
As I said, Tivo HMO on my XP wired network works flawlessly and fast.
The photos come up in about a second, and my 40G of MP3s play immediately.
I tried javaHMO, and it -kind of- worked, but the MP3s and photos were much slower. The feature I wanted, audio organizer, did not work despite my sending logs to the developers, and the weather and movies worked for one day but then stopped. JavaHMO seemed to be affecting my whole system so I decided to take it off. I might try it again in the future as more features are developed. I certainly hope Tivo is developing more features
for HMO, as it is pretty basic at this point.
Posted by: thehepcat
well I'm thoroughly frustrated. I keep getting two errors on the TiVo Server.
1. The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.
2. TiVo Connect Beacon is not available!
The problem is that TiVoServer.exe, TiVoPublisher.exe, & TivoBeacon.exe are all running processes.
I'm just glad this is a free trial.
Posted by: skanter
quote:
Originally posted by thehepcat
well I'm thoroughly frustrated. I keep getting two errors on the TiVo Server.
1. The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.
2. TiVo Connect Beacon is not available!
The problem is that TiVoServer.exe, TiVoPublisher.exe, & TivoBeacon.exe are all running processes.
I'm just glad this is a free trial.
Maybe a call to Tivo tech support...?
Posted by: tv_danny
Enjoyed the HMO trial. Unlike others, really had no problems setting up. Like others, really underwhelmed with the feature set, especially given the price add.
o Pictures and music -- limited formats. Ok performance, but nothing special here;
o Remote scheduling -- cool, but much easier to do on the Tivo itself; I guess there are times when doing this remotely would be useful, but I have better things to do in the day than to think about what to record on Tivo -- I got Tivo to simplify my life, not to add to the daily tasks;
o Multi-room viewing -- don't have multiple Tivo's -- though a better way of transferring video information through to different TV's is clearly a need. I don't think having multiple machines + multiple subscriptions is practical.
BTW: Just picked up a different Media Center device -- a Go Video networked DVD player -- $115 shipped from eCost : look for D2730 at GoVideo site for details.
Cool device; price is right, and streams video + pictures + music in lots more formats than Tivo (w/o any tie to a monthly sub..)
Bottom line: make HMO a standard feature, don't charge for multiple Tivo's, and use this feature to enhance attractiveness over the cable supplied DVR's.
Don't get me wrong... still a big Tivo fan -- had a couple of additional sales to my credit of friends/family... but Tivo still needs to work on the value-add from this thing over other solutions to keep this puppy rolling....
>
Posted by: Xab
Can I get the HMO trial if I just have the Tivo Plus trial on my new Toshiba SD-H400?
Posted by: TiVoed4Life
I just tried out HMO for the first time via the free trial. I got the e-mail days ago, but just kinda let it be (since I was too lazy to set up my TiVo again after moving..until last night).
Anyway....initially I was having issues. I kept trying to manually set up the TiVo to see the IP address of my work laptop PC. NOTHING would work!, and I was almost ready to say *Boston accent that I do not have* 'Fuggit about it!' But being the patient person I am, I went to the TiVo site for clues. It states:
quote:
If you have Virtual Private Networking (VPN) software such as Cisco VPN or IBM Netstructure installed on your PC, you may need to adjust your settings or turn off your VPN software in order to use Music & Photos. This is necessary because the VPN software masks the actual IP address of your PC and makes it impossible for your DVR to see TiVo Desktop.
If you have a software-based firewall such as Black Ice, Norton Internet Security, or McAfee Personal Firewall installed on your PC, it may be necessary to adjust your settings to allow the TiVo Server to broadcast the beacon signal to your DVRs. The following ports must be open to allow your PC to communicate with your DVR:
TCP Port 2190
UDP Port 2190
TCP Ports 8080-8089
Yes, I have the oh-so-convenient VPN software and firewall utilites on my work computer.
So I just walked across the room and downloaded the Desktop on my personal laptop, and everything went smoothly. I was suprised to see that It even had listed "Paige's Music on Ispo" and "Paige's Pictures on Ispo", which I saw nothing similar in my previous attempts. *Again, I thought I had to manually add the IP address*
I'm running it wirelessly, and the picture transfer is not slow at all for me.
I dont download MP3s and I rarely even use my personal PC. The Picture sharing feature is nice, but I doubt I would even use it. I have all my WishLists and Season Passes set for all my shows on my ONE and only TiVo so I probably wouldnt use Remote Scheduling much at all. So, for $99, I think I'll pass on HMO.
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