Downloading shows to laptop while travelling?

[mcknigal]

Ok, folks... I apologize in advance if this is covered in other threads. I glanced thru some of the headers and didn't find a quick answer. It seems like this must be a common question.

Here's what I want to do -- download shows from my TiVO Series 2 onto my WinXP enabled laptop while I'm on the road . I will be travelling next week and would like to be able to grab shows that come on while I'll be at business dinners, etc.

My idea is that I'd be able to grab them off my TiVo at home -- which is enabled with Home Media Option. I'm sure it can be done by x-ferring the show to our home computer (Mac PowerBook), but that gets complicated for someone (my wife) who doesn't care to get involved in these types of things!

I've also read about Orb Anywhere, and will try this when I get home, but it sounds like it's buggy and also requires an initial transfer of the program from the TiVo to my home Mac.

If the answer is "It's not easy/possible," then so be it. But if anyone has ideas I'd be glad to hear them.

Thanks!

[wgary]

Ok, folks... I apologize in advance if this is covered in other threads. I glanced thru some of the headers and didn't find a quick answer. It seems like this must be a common question.

Here's what I want to do -- download shows from my TiVO Series 2 onto my WinXP enabled laptop while I'm on the road . I will be travelling next week and would like to be able to grab shows that come on while I'll be at business dinners, etc.

My idea is that I'd be able to grab them off my TiVo at home -- which is enabled with Home Media Option. I'm sure it can be done by x-ferring the show to our home computer (Mac PowerBook), but that gets complicated for someone (my wife) who doesn't care to get involved in these types of things!

I've also read about Orb Anywhere, and will try this when I get home, but it sounds like it's buggy and also requires an initial transfer of the program from the TiVo to my home Mac.

If the answer is "It's not easy/possible," then so be it. But if anyone has ideas I'd be glad to hear them.

Thanks!

1. Yes, this is easy... if you want to transfer shows that were recorded before you leave.
- Install Tivo Desktop software on the laptop.
- Set the same Media Access Key as on your Tivo account.
- Transfer shows...
- Play using Windows Media Player.

2. You can also use www.DVREverywhere.com which is built on Orb to watch any show recorded to your Tivo. But your home computer has to have DVReverywhere software installed and be running for this to work. Essentially, it transfers the program to the home computer and then streams the show to your remote computer (these steps can be simultaneous). If you have a decent internet connection, picture quality is pretty remarkable.

3. The program does have to have finished recording on your Tivo, so no watching shows in real time... unless you have a TV tuner in your computer, in which Orb can stream it to you. That has proved to be less reliable for me than watching via DVReverywhere.

I actually use methods 2 and 3 to watch on my Windows Mobile Phone Edition which has a live internet connection.
g.

[mcknigal]

So, this doesn't exactly address my problem. Orb requires a home computer that runs Win XP. My home computer is a Mac running OS X. Therefore, I can't easily run DVRAnywhere from home

Your option 1 doesn't work b/c I'll be on the road when these shows come on. I'd like to be able to pull them remotely (vs. being in my house and downloading them).

Am I screwed?

[Dan203]

There is a way...

http://www.zatznotfunny.com/ttg.htm#remote

Dan

[mcknigal]

Oh boy I can't wait to try this! Thanks... I'll let you know how it works!

[dcahoe]

I don't know if anyone has tried to use TiVoPlayList (http://bellsouthpwp.net/d/c/dcahoe/tivo/index.htm) to transfer files remotely or not, but I have an undocumented (LOL, nothing is documented) way of getting it to work if port 80 is blocked or giving you problems.

First, on your router, map your public (WAN) port xxxx to private (LAN) port 80. Choose a large value for xxxx such as 43000. Then edit the TiVoPlayList.ini file and go to the [Recorder?] section for the machine you wish to access and add the following line:

HttpPort=xxxx

I have found upload speeds painfully slow compared to a local network, but it does work.Make sure you set the IP Address in TiVoPlayList to be the public address of your router at home.

If you don't have a problem with port 80 being blocked, then you don't need to edit the .ini file. But you do need to forward port 443 and port 80 on your router to your TiVo IP on your private network in either case.

I hope that makes sense to anyone needing it.

[louisw]

Note that you will probably be limited by your broadband upload speed at home.

[Joeg180]

Good info thanks