OK you TiVO (or similar) geeks

[Rob Littleton]

OK, I do not have TiVO or DVR and I know VERY little about it BUT, I have been asked by a buddy if there is such a cable where he can take the shows from his TiVO hard drive and download them to his PC?

Anyone done that? or doing that?

Thanks

[Matt Meiser]

From what I understand, a real, non-DirecTV Tivo can be connected to a wireless network and you pull the programming off of it. I have a DirecTV one, so I can't.

[Ken Salisbury]

Simply buy a DVD recorder and save all the TIVO programs you want - play em on your pute or TV. I do it all the time - especially HBO and Showtime movies and Alabama football.

[Rob Russell]

Simply buy a DVD recorder and save all the TIVO programs you want - play em on your pute or TV. I do it all the time - especially HBO and Showtime movies and Alabama football.

My understanding is the the DVR's can record multiple shows simultaneously. That's tough to do with a DVD recorder.

[Rob Littleton]

Simply buy a DVD recorder and save all the TIVO programs you want - play em on your pute or TV. I do it all the time - especially HBO and Showtime movies and Alabama football.

This makes sense Ken but I believe the DVD recorder he has is in his computer. I think the step is to download them to the computer to burn to a dvd.

I might suggest (for the price of these things) that he get a DVD recorder and go straight to it.

I appreciate your help.

Isn't Alabama football a game played by men with odd shaped balls?

Just a thought :-)

[John Shuk]

I think Ken records the programs from his TIVO onto a dvd recorder. I have a Directv tivo and it has an option for recording to a vcr. I would think a dvd recorder could be substituted for a vcr.

[Vaughn McMillan]

I think Ken records the programs from his TIVO onto a dvd recorder. I have a Directv tivo and it has an option for recording to a vcr. I would think a dvd recorder could be substituted for a vcr.
Yeppers, I have a DirecTV TiVo hooked up directly to my component DVD recorder...works great.

I also used to have a wireless A/V feed from my entertainment center (the TiVo, actually) to one of the computers in my home office, where I had an All-In-Wonder video card. I've since changed the setup around, so I'm no longer feeding the signal into the computer, but when it was hooked up this way, I could record from the TiVo onto my computer's hard disk, then burn that onto a DVD. Because of the wireless connection, it was only an analog signal, so not quite as clear as an all-digital feed. (I never recorded this way, since I have a better setup using the component DVD recorder.)

Nowadays, I have the wireless feed from the TiVo going into a flat panel TV/computer monitor in my home office. The wireless system also handles the remote control, so I can watch TV in my office, and using the TiVo remote, change channels on the box in the living room.

- Vaughn

[Matt Meiser]

The wireless system also handles the remote control, so I can watch TV in my office, and using the TiVo remote, change channels on the box in the living room.

What do you call this magical device, how much, and where would one find one? On second thought, then I'd lose my excuse for not working out on the elliptical machine. :rolleyes:

[Vaughn McMillan]

What do you call this magical device, how much, and where would one find one? On second thought, then I'd lose my excuse for not working out on the elliptical machine. :rolleyes:
I call mine Buddy. :)

It's made by RF-Link, and it's about $125. Mine took a little fiddling around (2 to 3 minutes) to get a good picture, and I occasionally get little glitches, but it's been a very useful investment. Here's an Amazon link (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002EXJ8Y/sr=8-1/qid=1150338099/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-1558877-9944609?%5Fencoding=UTF8)...I don't recall if I bought mine from Amazon or shopped the web a bit more for a lower price.

The only caveat for some folks is that it operates at 5.8 GHz. In my case, I don't have any other 5.8GHz equipment (phones or wireless computer networks), so it's not a problem. Interference can be a problem if you have other equipment competing for the airwaves.

- Vaughn

[Neil Clemmons]

Tivo offers a free download called "Tivo To Go" that runs on the PC and allows you to transfer shows from your Tivo to a PC via your network. You can watch the shows on your PC. It's offered as a download on the Tivo.com site.

TVHarmony is another useful program - you schedule it to periodically connect to your Tivo, transfer shows, and optionally convert them to either iPod or Sony PSP format. You can watch the shows on your PC, iPod or Sony PSP. It's still in beta but I use it everyday and it works well. It's offered as a download at TVHarmony.com

Both of these products assume your PC and Tivo are on a network - either wired or wireless.

Good luck -

Neil

[Ned Bulken]

I've got a directivo gotta get a dvd recorder, plain and simple. it will come right after I get my shop weathertight... :rolleyes:

[Ken Salisbury]

My understanding is the the DVR's can record multiple shows simultaneously. That's tough to do with a DVD recorder.

Thats true, however the DVR's have hard drives which store the recorded programs until you are ready to transfer them to your DVD recorder. My DVR has a 30 gig drive which holds a lot of programing.

[Perry Schmidt]

Tivo offers a free download called "Tivo To Go" that runs on the PC and allows you to transfer shows from your Tivo to a PC via your network. You can watch the shows on your PC.


Unfortunately DirectTV TiVo doesn't have this feature. They are not running the latest TiVo software, and TiVo and DTV are fighting w/ each other a bit. So DirectTv does the Tivo software support, and you can't upgrade to the lastest REAL Tivo software. Your two options are to:
1) hack your DirectTV Tivo box.
2) Buy TiVo not through directtv. It's more expensive then ($12/month instead of $5/month, and you only get one tuner vs. the dual w/ DirectTV Tivo).

I have DirectTv Tivo and this version issue/fight between DTV and TiVo drives me nuts. The way I do this is I have a capture card in my computer to capture the video 'normally'. This is really no different than going to a VHS or DVD recorder. They're effectively doing the same thing - capturing the input signal and converting it to whatever they want/need.

I don't know what other DVRs do wrt allowing you to copy shows off the DRV disk directly. If you really want to do this w/ DirectTV Tivo, you get great picture resolution, but it require a bunch of work - i.e. Hack your Tivo box. There's a ton of websites that talk about how to do this. I haven't done it personally, but I have friend who has. LOTS of nice extra features are 'available' in a hacked Tivo box.

[Ned Bulken]

i've had my directivo for over a year now, thinking of upgrading my hard drive, but then I'll have to deal with the 'nag' screen. once you ugrade the box, you can't let it call in. :/