Cooperative Scheduling

[Stormspace]

It's been mentioned before elsewhere but thought it was big enough to warrant it's own thread here.

1. Have all TiVo's on your network talk to each other to schedule recordings. If the TiVo you are using has a conflict check the others to see if they have a conflict. If not prompt to set up the recording there.

To truly automate it have the requesting Tivo auto transfer the show from the recording TiVo once the recording is complete, preferably deleting it from the TiVo the show was recorded on after the transfer.

2. Have one master season pass list that lists all the season passes on your network. Priority would go to the TiVo requesting the season pass unless a conflict exists on that box.

3. One master Now Playing list that lists all the shows recorded on all your TiVo's with an icon beside each telling if the recorded program is local or on another box.

[MediaLivingRoom]

Yes, I want this!!!

[petteri]

This would be a great feature to have!!!

[wtb]

A possible alternative would be to allow a PC to get the schedule from the TiVo, let the PC schedule recordings directly, and allow it to delete files on the TiVo.

[20TIL6]

I agree, this would be a great feature.

But there is one wrinkle, and another poster brought it up. If you had scheduling across multiple TiVo's then you'd want to use MRV for flexible viewing. This works great unless any of that content is protected from being transferred. If there was a way that TiVo could know that ahead of time, provide a warning to allow you to specify a particular TiVo for that protected content... I guess that would work.

But all in all, since most of my content is not protected, I would use the crap out of a feature like this.

[petteri]

Does the copy protection prevent you from moving the files or just copying them? If it allows a move, then everything should work fine.

[classicsat]

Since TiVo's transfers only copy, it would be a problem.

[Stormspace]

It would be simple for the TiVo to generate a message telling you the transfer failed for that reason, just as the service update messages happen now. Or just have the message in the to do list history.

[kylen]

A possible alternative would be to allow a PC to get the schedule from the TiVo, let the PC schedule recordings directly, and allow it to delete files on the TiVo.

I would love at least to have it allow me to schedule a recording on one TiVo from another TiVo (I have been able to do this with my ReplayTVs forever).

It would also be nice if I could remotely delete a program on another TiVo (Again, the ReplayTV has had this forever).

Also would be nice to see the upcoming recordings on a remote TiVo to see if I want to set something to record on the current or remote TiVo.

[nathanziarek]

With the new XMPP system in place, the technology is there.

I think the keys for me are:

1. MRV must be able to stream. Image using your living room TiVo to record a program, and that program is offloaded to your den TiVo. You sit down in the living room to watch the program, only to be told that you cannot copy it. Or, worse yet, imagine you can't even find it in the Now Playing list (since TiVo seems to block any programs that are not copy-able. That's bad user interaction, and very to confusing to anyone not on these boards.)

2. Global Now Playing as mentioned above. I don't want to remember which TiVo the program was offloaded to, just show me all the programs I can watch right now. While you are at it, show me the files being served by TiVo Desktop the same way.

3. icon in the guide indicating a program will record. This will be more important when multiple TiVos become the norm (and each are recording different things).

[Fleaser]

all of this would be great, but at the current speed of Tivo software, the process would take a whole evening to deal with.

[tluxon]

I vote "yes" on cooperative scheduling. :up::up: That's one of the things I missed most from our ReplayTVs when I switched to HiDef DVRs.

I'm not so sure on the auto-transfer feature. I would hope it wouldn't automatically force deletions on the recipient TiVo.

Another "yes" on the master Now Playing list.

A master Season Pass list would be nice but not quite as high a priority as cooperative scheduling and master playlist.

[omni555]

Cooperative scheduling would be GREAT! I agree tho that the auto-transfer feature would probably just cause a whole new bunch of problems, especially if one's TiVo's were nearing the max capacity. In general, transferring the prog to the unit you want to watch it on WHEN you want to watch it isn't a big problem.

Being able to delete progs from another TiVo's Now Playing list would also be a very convenient feature. SO many times I have transferred progs to another unit to watch and then just forgot to delete them from the original unit.

Combining the NP lists from all TiVo's networked in a house would make a lot of sense (the Master NP List). Right now, I have to scroll to the bottom of the current NP list, select the folder of one of the other TiVo's, and check THAT NP list for a prog I am looking for. And if it is not THERE, I have to do the whole thing over again for the THIRD TiVo. Not a HORRIFIC situation, but the MNP list WOULD make things more enjoyable.

Some sort of icon next to Guide listings indicating that a prog is scheduled to record would also be a very welcome feature. I recall this feature from a cc DVR that I used a few years ago, so it can't be that hard to implement!!! LOL

As for the cp recordings, it would be nice if there could be some warning when a recording is being set up that this recording will be cp rather than waiting until the recording is complete and THEN discovering that it has to be watched where it was recorded.

[mattack]

I vote "yes" on cooperative scheduling. :up::up: That's one of the things I missed most from our ReplayTVs when I switched to HiDef DVRs.

Nobody else has answered this when I have asked it in other threads.

Isn't the "cooperative scheduling" in Replays *COMPLETELY MANUAL*? In other words, I have read (and seen screenshots) of the ability to set up a recording, and if there is a conflict with an existing set up recording, it will ASK you if you want to set up the recording on the "other" ReplayTV(s).

That is not at all like what people are referring to as cooperative scheduling, but is a tiny step ahead of what we have now on Tivos.

[tluxon]

Nobody else has answered this when I have asked it in other threads.

Isn't the "cooperative scheduling" in Replays *COMPLETELY MANUAL*? In other words, I have read (and seen screenshots) of the ability to set up a recording, and if there is a conflict with an existing set up recording, it will ASK you if you want to set up the recording on the "other" ReplayTV(s).

That is not at all like what people are referring to as cooperative scheduling, but is a tiny step ahead of what we have now on Tivos.Yes, I guess it's "completely manual" in the sense that it doesn't happen without human interaction. But at least it "automatically" prompts you for whether or not you want to set the desired program up on another networked unit when it conflicts with programming already set up on the local unit.

How would "cooperative scheduling" differ?

Thanks!

[magnus]

I like the idea but would add.

The ability to set up a season pass from one Tivo to the other.

Tivo 1
My main Tivo might be busy with both tuners on at the same time and day as another program that I want to record.

Tivo 2
I set up a season pass on it to cover the program that could not be recorded on Tivo 1.

Tivo 1
Set up a season pass for the program that was recorded on Tivo 2 (automatically transfer).

[lrhorer]

A possible alternative would be to allow a PC to get the schedule from the TiVo, let the PC schedule recordings directly, and allow it to delete files on the TiVo.
I see no reason not to have both. The same code in the TiVo could handle both.

[lrhorer]

I vote "yes" on cooperative scheduling. :up::up: That's one of the things I missed most from our ReplayTVs when I switched to HiDef DVRs.

I'm not so sure on the auto-transfer feature. I would hope it wouldn't automatically force deletions on the recipient TiVo.
There is an alternative which I don't believe violates the copy protection, and that is streaming video. The content doesn't get saved on the client machine, so it can be argued the copyright protection isn't violated.

Tivo has probably considered this, but may have discarded it - or maybe just shelved it - for three reasons.

The first is, there might be a legal battle if they do develop the feature, and they may not want to risk the legal battle.

The second is streaming high def video requires a lot of machine resources, especially if it is encrypted, which it surely would need to be. If you've done any high def transfers from your PC, you may have enountered pauses while the TiVo downloads more of the program. If the data is streaming to the hard drive, this is annoying, but not insufferable. With live data it would be deadly to the video. On the other hand, MRV seems to have fewer problems with this, so streaming from TiVo to TiVo might not be so problematical.

The third is related to the second. Not only does the TiVo need to work hard to stream encrypted high def video, but the network and the remote PC (or TiVo) do, too. Lost of people are using wireless networks, and they are liable to be be very problematical. Even wired networks or slow PCs will caue issues. TiVo may not want the support hassle.