Networked Tivo's Working Together

[steveliv]

is there any hope of the tivo software taking advantage of multiple tivos on the same network to solve conflicts, share season pass lists, etc? i believe this would be a major help to those of us who have supported Tivo and own multiple boxes...

steven

[rsnaider]

Collaborative Scheduling is something many here have asked for.

Still not there, but hopefully one day since I think I read somewhere that TiVo does hold a patent on this.

[stark]

There is a TivoWeb module that does this for hacked Tivos. I haven't used it, so I can't speak to how well it works.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=138225

[tk8329]

Could you folks supply me w/ contact info for someone that could upgrade 2 Series 2 Tivos, one HD, one SD. I am interested in playing with the networking idea.

[bmgoodman]

Collaborative Scheduling is something many here have asked for.

Still not there, but hopefully one day since I think I read somewhere that TiVo does hold a patent on this.

Hey, aren't you glad they gave us KidZone first? :rolleyes:

[classicsat]

Could you folks supply me w/ contact info for someone that could upgrade 2 Series 2 Tivos, one HD, one SD. I am interested in playing with the networking idea.
If you mean upgrade a DirecTV Tivo DVR to 7.x, no one person can enable that.

Howver, you can hack your DVR to add similar features. Search the Underground for the Zipper.

[ZeoTiVo]

Collaborative Scheduling is something many here have asked for.

Still not there, but hopefully one day since I think I read somewhere that TiVo does hold a patent on this.


replay TV had a form of this so if there is a patent I doubt it has much to it. The replayTV collaborative scheduling had mixed reviews. Adn frankly, since I now own DT models shceduling has gotten MUCH easier adn I would rather decide where shows end up than have them pop up on a TiVo that I had niot counted on. If it moved a 4 hour football recording to my 40 hour TiVo it could well knock off a bunch of shows I had not counted on getting knocked off so quick.

I would love to see the ability to delete shows from another TiVo or to schedule recordings from another TiVo with a central interface however. Add the ability to do that from TiVo desktop and it would be TiVo control everywhere which I would prefer over having to deal with some collaborative scheduling rules I did not have control over.

[d_anders]

Hey, aren't you glad they gave us KidZone first? :rolleyes:

No doubt, but they are always going to favor spending time on broad based marketing items like KidZone first.

That said, collaborative scheduling between two Tivo's units would be a sure way to increase in box and sub sales with an already an established customer base.

Since the DT addressses this in some regard, I'm sure it's less of a priority now. However, given the amount of disk required to try cover HD, it's a feature that may do well on the S3's too.

[rainwater]

Since TiVo is moving toward more dual tuner models, it seems cooperative scheduling will probably never be implemented. I can't say I blame them. For such a complex feature, there is becoming less of a need for it.

[MichaelK]

i really dont think it has to be that complex. Take the code from teh tivoweb module and put it in there and allow us to use it via backdoor code.

everyone is happy.

[bryan314]

Why would cooperative scheduling be so difficult / complex? They've already solved it for the DT. One master list and 2 tuners. Just extend it to: One master list and X number of tuners from all the networked tivos. So, One master list and two single tuner networked tivos are the equivalent of one DT Tivo, right?

Bryan :)

[rainwater]

Why would cooperative scheduling be so difficult / complex? They've already solved it for the DT. One master list and 2 tuners. Just extend it to: One master list and X number of tuners from all the networked tivos. So, One master list and two single tuner networked tivos are the equivalent of one DT Tivo, right?

Bryan :)

Yes, but you are talking about code that works on a single machine. If you add Network devices, then the code is no longer the same. It will also require a new protocol to handle to scheduling. I'm not saying its impossible, but why would TiVo do this when the need for it is slowly going away?

[MichaelK]

it's not really rocket scinece (well it doesn't need to be)- if I recall the tivoweb module checks the todo list at something like 20 and 50 past the hour. If it notices a show is supposed to go at 30 or 00 then it asks the other boxes on the network if they have a free tuner. If so it schedules it on their boxes.

Someone above made a good point that you might not want to whipe something out from the other box by recording a movie or something- so have an option to turn iut off, on , or only if the 2nd box has free space currently. (some people might say it might run out of free space tomorrow becasue of it- so those people can turn it off)

Make it a backdoor if they must but just toss it in.

Optionally- make the DVR functions open to HME and let the community built the plug in.

[retired_guy]

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I would love to see the ability to delete shows from another TiVo or to schedule recordings from another TiVo with a central interface however. Add the ability to do that from TiVo desktop and it would be TiVo control everywhere which I would prefer over having to deal with some collaborative scheduling rules I did not have control over.

Couldn't agree with you more on that point; what a pain to have to run upstairs to delete shows I've already seen downstairs. And to have to change floors to schedule something on another TiVo is irritating also, and it's too easy to forget to do it. It should be possible to do this in a very clean, easy to use and understand fashion. It also could generate some additional revenue for TiVo since it would make multi-system environments very easy to work with and hence more appealing for customers to install. With dual tuners, conflicts are a much, much smaller problem than before and the confusion cooperative scheduling could add would seem to significantly reduce its value to users, even though ultimately I think it probably should be added in spite of the confusion factor, perhaps using a "single system image" redesign.