New TiVo Owner - Multiple TiVos, etc.

[convergent]

I am in the middle of a meltdown trying to figure out how to get what everyone in my 6 person family wants. A year or so ago, I switched to DISH and was using their dual tuner DVR which I liked. It would drive 2 TVs and you could record and/or watch anything from either TV. Very cool. Well, during baseball season, my wife discovered that DISH didn't have the YES network (Yankees) and I was dead. I have recently switched back to Time Warner cable, and after a couple days with their DVR, remembered how bad it was and decided to give TiVo a try.

I bought a dual tuner TiVo from Best Buy and got the 3 year pre-paid service plan. I got it setup and working on one of my TVs and its so far, so good. Now, my second TV is HiDef, but I think I understand what I'd give up to go with using a Series 2 TiVo on it. If I got a second TiVo for that TV, can I somehow network them together so that I can watch content recorded from either TiVo? If not, is there a way to do this through a computer, NAS, etc.? I have a couple of NAS boxes, and several computers on my network and could setup something for this if that were an option. What I want is to replicate the DISH dual set/tuner environment for now, being able to record on either TV, and watch on either TV. I couldn't find anything on the forum about this.

[Seattle]

Yes, You would be able to move shows from one TiVo to the other.

[TriBruin]

I am in the middle of a meltdown trying to figure out how to get what everyone in my 6 person family wants. A year or so ago, I switched to DISH and was using their dual tuner DVR which I liked. It would drive 2 TVs and you could record and/or watch anything from either TV. Very cool. Well, during baseball season, my wife discovered that DISH didn't have the YES network (Yankees) and I was dead. I have recently switched back to Time Warner cable, and after a couple days with their DVR, remembered how bad it was and decided to give TiVo a try.

I bought a dual tuner TiVo from Best Buy and got the 3 year pre-paid service plan. I got it setup and working on one of my TVs and its so far, so good. Now, my second TV is HiDef, but I think I understand what I'd give up to go with using a Series 2 TiVo on it. If I got a second TiVo for that TV, can I somehow network them together so that I can watch content recorded from either TiVo? If not, is there a way to do this through a computer, NAS, etc.? I have a couple of NAS boxes, and several computers on my network and could setup something for this if that were an option. What I want is to replicate the DISH dual set/tuner environment for now, being able to record on either TV, and watch on either TV. I couldn't find anything on the forum about this.

Search MRV (Multi Room Viewing), plenty of threads.

Currently you can network any Series 2 (Single Tuner or Dual Tuner) together and this will allow you to tranfer shows between the Tivo (and then watch them at that TV) Please note this actually transferring the shows (not streaming), so you will end up with two copies of the show.

You can also use a computer and the Tivo Desktop to copy shows on to your desktop (or NAS) for achiving purposes and then move them back to the Tivo whne you are ready to watch them again, thus saving space on your Tivos.

You mention that one of your TV is an HDTV, current the Series 3 (HD) Tivos do NOT support MRV in any form. Tivo has stated (FWTW) the MRV is coming to the Series 3 once certain licensing converns are resolved. If you want more infomration on the Series 3 and MRV, visit the Series 3 forum on TivoCommunity.

Welcome to the Tivo world and enjoy your Tivo! :)

[convergent]

Thanks for the assistance on this. After I posted the question, I found the info on MRV on the TiVo website. I guess I'll be getting another TiVo today... :)

As much as it would be very cool to get rid of the cable box all together, I am thinking I'll pass on HD recording for now. TW only has a handful of channels for that, and it may be worth paying their $5.95/month to get one of their DVRs just for HD content. No one else in my family cares anything about HD anyways... they like it when they see it, but don't miss it when its not there. So then everyone else could use the regular TiVo on both TVs and have a similar experience.

Streaming would be way better than copying, but I guess that's OK too. Anyone know what speed the NIC is on the TiVo? My home network is 100% GigiBit switched at this point, so I could easily support streaming... even if it were HD. I am guessing that the NIC is 10Mb based on the fact that I found a 100Mb upgrade option at a site advertising here.

I assume the monthly fee for additional TiVos is $6.95/month?

One final question on rebates.... I just bought my first TiVo yesterday at Best Buy and plan to get the $180 rebate. Anyone know if you can do this twice? It would seem like you should be able to since they have to be activated, but who knows what they are thinking. If I can't get that one twice, could I get a single tuner Series 2 and do the $220 rebate?

Thanks for all the help.

[jtlytle]

One final question on rebates.... I just bought my first TiVo yesterday at Best Buy and plan to get the $180 rebate. Anyone know if you can do this twice? It would seem like you should be able to since they have to be activated, but who knows what they are thinking. If I can't get that one twice, could I get a single tuner Series 2 and do the $220 rebate?

Thanks for all the help.

Yes you can.

[convergent]

Thanks for the quick answer... I've been hosed by rebates so many times, and these are big ones. I read in the Rebate questions on their website that they limit you to 2 per household. That's good. I assume that the "new service" mumbo-jumbo works for the lower priced second TiVo service as well.

I just checked the paperwork that I got with the thing from Best Buy, and they gave me a Best Buy rebate form which looks like it may have different T&Cs. I am guessing I'd be better off using the TiVo rebate instead and not getting involved with trying to get the Best Buy rebate. They may go to the same place in the end. The Best Buy form does say two per household. Now to decide on single tuner or dual tuner.... decisions, decisions.

One good thing was my first one was an open box deal at Best Buy, so I got a $40 gift card that I'll now use to buy the second one. With the rebate, I could get a single tuner model and get back $40.... or get a dual tuner for $30. I guess I'll get the dual tuner so they are both the same. I wish they had the 180 hour units in the stores. Incidentally, I am getting them at Best Buy because their 4 year replacement plan is only $29.

[classicsat]

The ethernet adapter built in to the DT and Series 3 is 100 Mbit, although the lesser TiVo CPU brings that down. The Series 2s other than the DT supports numerous 10/100 USB adapters, some with USB2.0.

[DancnDude]

Also to be clear, even though the TiVo doesn't stream the data to the other recorder (it's really just copying), you CAN watch while it is downloading and most of the time you'll get better-than-realtime downloads so you can still FF through the commercials. The difference is that you can delete it when you are done and the original is still going to be on the old TiVo.