Registered: May 2004
Location:
Posts: 5

this may actually be possible WITHOUT tivo, but i can't quite figure out how it would happen, so:

since the home media option allows you to listen to mp3s that are on your computer's hard drive and look at pictures stored there as well, it would be really super cool if you could watch video/movies that are either stored on your hard drive or via the dvd-rom drive on your computer (since i don't have a dvd player and would rather not have to buy one)

now, if this is somehow possible already, there is no need to rip into me for not knowing. i would, however, be grateful for an explanation of how it's done (if it's possible)

thanks
p˛

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Registered: May 2004
Location: Medway
Posts: 1

Tivo HMO is fine for viewing pictures and the like, but I just had a child, and bought a digital camcorder to take home movies. Currently, I have no way to get those movies onto Tivo for viewing, so I have to use my computer. Also, while being able to put home video on my tivo would be a short term solution, I can imagine as hard drives get cheaper (and I don't want to produce dvds except for family), that I will be storing all of my media on some sort of network hard drive, and tivo currently doesn't let you specify networked storage either.

I love Tivo, but this limitation is going to force me to buy a windows media center pc or build a barebones system with snapstream beyond media on it. Since I cannot dump tivo shows to external hard drive for these computers to reach, eventually I think tivo will have to go. It's too bad. Great interface, and easy to use. I really love it for what it does, but why would I want to have multiple digital media centers?

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Registered: Jul 2001
Location: MA
Posts: 466

Hear hear. I'll second all that.

-Mark

__________________
Mark H. Granoff
TiVo 80hr Series2, v4.0.1b, unmodified, Lifetime Subscription
TiVo 40hr Series2, v5.3, unmodified, Monthly Subscription
100Mbit Wired Ethernet w/ Netgear USB 2.0 FA-120 Adapters
Waiting for PC-to-TiVo video capability and true web-based access...

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Registered: May 2004
Location:
Posts: 11

Agreed.

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Registered: Jan 2004
Location:
Posts: 4075

There are some technical limitations that prevent this.

1) The TiVo processor is too slow to convert anything locally
2) Converting on the fly might cause PQ problems that would cause people to complain
3) MRV is slow to transfer MPEG2 files. Think how long it'd take to send your own MPEG2 files.

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Registered: Feb 2003
Location:
Posts: 4

All the conversion could be done on the PC. You'd push the final movie to
the TiVo in a format that's easiest for the TiVo to display and/or easiest in
terms of storage requirements on the box.

If you're familiar with Apple's "iLife", think of the existing HMO as the TiVo
interface to iTunes and iPhoto -- now we need the interface to iMovie.

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Registered: Jan 2004
Location:
Posts: 4075

I don't see that happening because people want it to happen fast and TiVo probably doesn't want to say that you have to have a fast computer to use that aspect.

But, you never know...

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