Series 3 TiVoHD & TivoToGo (A Rant)

[TokyoShoe]

Ok... reading directly from my TiVoHD box:

- Share home videos with friends and family on their TVs.

Apparently I cannot do this at this time, purely because the TivoToGo service is NOT enabled on Series 3's yet. Add to the confusion the fact that the TiVoHD manual actually has the following section listed in the table of contents:

Chapter 4: TiVo(r) Desktop & Home Media Features 37

Now this Chapter 4 comprehensively covers the downloading and installing of TiVo Desktop for the purpose of publishing your "Music & Photos, as well as other features!" . You follow the book's instructions and go to the TiVo Desktop website, to download the software. In super super small print at the bottom of the page it lists this detail:

-TiVoToGo and Web video downloads are not yet available for Series3.

Honestly I never even SAW this so called "warning", due to it's very small size. It took me days to get it working on Vista, and when I finally got it working on Vista it wouldn't even access my DVR. Come back to the forums and post questions, what do I find out?

No TiVoToGo for the Series 3's. After discovering this I am not only frustrated and more than a tad let down, I also feel more than a little lied to. I go back and forth between reading the box sell points, the manual's tips, and the TiVo HD Website itself. What does the TiVoHD website, what detail do I find as being touted in the "advertised features"?

"Home Movie Sharing" !

I'm sorry but this is false advertising straight from the box, much less poor presentation of limitations on the website you're pointed towards from the manual. Heck, even the TiVoHD Website advertises a feature you can't access on the unit, AND posts no disclaimers about this! TiVoToGo needs to be enabled on the Series 3, and NOW.

Anything else is false advertising.

[megazone]

Share home videos with friends and family on their TVs. - Yes you can, this refers to the One True Media HME feature, not TTG. And that does work on the S3.

And TiVo has never claimed MRV/TTG/TTCB support for the S3 or TiVo HD.

BTW, TiVo has said they'll be adding those features later this year.

[TokyoShoe]

Share home videos with friends and family on their TVs. - Yes you can, this refers to the One True Media HME feature, not TTG. And that does work on the S3.

And TiVo has never claimed MRV/TTG/TTCB support for the S3 or TiVo HD.

BTW, TiVo has said they'll be adding those features later this year.

Odd that I can't find One True Media HME listed anywhere in the manual, much less the websites the manual actually points to. Heck, the manual for the the TiVo HD actually mentions TiVoToGo and aims you at a website for more details on the feature. Does said website have any mention of One True Media? Not that I can dig up. AND said website has only a microscopic disclaimer regarding that feature and Series 3 Tivo's.

Sorry, but I'm just getting a tad frustrated by this. I really want to keep my TiVoHD because of the OTHER features, but I cannot get past this nonsense of having TTG disabled on Series 3's.

Where is there more info on One True Media that I can actually read through?

[TokyoShoe]

Just a quick follow up frustration:

The manual points you to the website http://www.tivo.com/guides/ for information regarding the Home Media Features Guide. Go to the website, you have to pick out what DVR you want a guide for. This means that the guides are custom tailored per series/unit , right?

Wrong. I get a guide for the TiVo HD DVR that tells me about the wonderful features of "TiVoToGo Transfers" and "TiVo Recordings on Portable devices". Even if you read the guide very carefully, it only mentions in one location that this features works for Series 2 TiVo's. Never does it actually state a LACK of this function on the Series 3 units.

Seems like maybe they should update their documentation to provide more accurate listing of details, and what units these details may or may not work on.

[gonzotek]

http://www.onetruemedia.com/otm_site/tivo

You use a PC to upload and edit a video with One True Media's web service, then are given an access code to provide to TiVo-using friends or family who can download and play back your finished video from their Now Playing screens.

[jordanz]

Is this announcement (http://cablelabs.com/news/pr/2007/07_pr_dtla_082307.html) the news we've been waiting for? I don't understand the details but this seems to open the door for Tivo-to-Go (or at least Multi-room-viewing) on the Tivo HD.

[Dr_Diablo]

It's all about the all mighty dollar... Legal rangling by the Tivo hired guns/attorney's to ensure that their profit margin remains just that, positive... and not paid out in lawsuits

Anything else is secondary...

[ccoulson]

I'm with the OP on this one... I can understand the technical and legal difficulties of sharing S3 content with other devices, but I truly don't understand why Tivo cannot enable allowing accessing SD content on S3's. Even S3 to S3 shouldn't pose a problem.

[classicsat]

It is technical. The current released(able) version of transfers is an all or nothing affair. Since they cannot enable "all" of transfers at this time, they have to enable "none", until they can release a workable version that they can enable "some" transfers.

[Dr_Diablo]

Question is, why offer a service that does not function ...

Rather to state, in the near future we "Tivo" will be offering a new feature, TTG ???

[classicsat]

The service is the TiVo service. Transfers are a feature of that service, and they are clearly not offering that part of the service at this time, for the DVRs that directly record digital cable. They are offering the hardware and the service that way to get them out there, rather than hold off on the hardware release until they could support support the features they want, which would further put them behind in getting HD-DVRs in customer's homes.