NAS for media storage/streaming

[angelobanjo]

I'm thinking about the ReadyNAS device and would like to be able to do the following:

Archive all photos, mp3's and DVD's to this location, then play it on multiple devices around the house (Macs/Windows, home stereo, etc.).

Can a tivo box do this, or am I stuck going to some sort of 3rd Party software (or dreadfully, Media Center Edition)?

I'm aware of TTG, but I'm not just interested in moving recorded shows "off-line", but accessing a central location for media.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Angelo

[pendragn]

TiVo can't be used for storage of MP3s, photos or DVDs. It can however access the repository on other boxes, given that TiVo Desktop or some other TiVo aware product can get to it.

tk

[angelobanjo]

Originally Posted by pendragn

TiVo can't be used for storage of MP3s, photos or DVDs. It can however access the repository on other boxes, given that TiVo Desktop or some other TiVo aware product can get to it.

tk

tk, thanks for the response.

So, if I archive all the DVD's I've purchased over the years, I can actually access them from the Tivo interface with my remote? If so, any step by step tutorial on how to do this?

Thanks,
Angelo

[emwoods]

Originally Posted by angelobanjo

tk, thanks for the response.

So, if I archive all the DVD's I've purchased over the years, I can actually access them from the Tivo interface with my remote? If so, any step by step tutorial on how to do this?

Thanks,
Angelo

Well sort of. As TK mentioned you are going to have TivoDesktop running on a computer that can access the NAS device as a remote drive and publish whatever content you want to access on your Tivo from that computer. My sense is this is going to be dog slow since it will first have to transfer to your computer and then to the Tivo box.

Secondly, Tivo will accept video only at very specific resolutions. If you rip your DVDs at any other resolution then they will not play on the Tivo.

If you decide to try this you just use the TivoToGo feature. Once you publish the content you want to access from your NAS device the computer running Tivo Desktop will just show up on your Tivo(s) as another Tivo and you can transfer just as you would for normal MRV transfers.

[pendragn]

Originally Posted by emwoods

Well sort of. As TK mentioned you are going to have TivoDesktop running on a computer that can access the NAS device as a remote drive and publish whatever content you want to access on your Tivo from that computer. My sense is this is going to be dog slow since it will first have to transfer to your computer and then to the Tivo box.

True about the dog slow, but with DVDs (since there's no commercials to skip) as long as it transfers faster than real time, you'll probably be okay.

Originally Posted by emwoods

Secondly, Tivo will accept video only at very specific resolutions. If you rip your DVDs at any other resolution then they will not play on the Tivo.

Fortunately most DVD players are more fussy about what they'll play than TiVos are. This URL lists the resolutions the TiVos support. Both standard DVD resolutions are on that list (720x480 & 352 x 480).

Originally Posted by emwoods

If you decide to try this you just use the TivoToGo feature. Once you publish the content you want to access from your NAS device the computer running Tivo Desktop will just show up on your Tivo(s) as another Tivo and you can transfer just as you would for normal MRV transfers.

That is all true.

tk

[windracer]

I have an old Maxtor MaxAttach unit I picked up on eBay about a year ago that I put two 120gb drives in (the largest the older BSD kernel on it will recognize, unfortunately). Then I share it out via SMB (it does NFS as well) to my Linux "server" (an old Toshiba laptop) running Linux and Galleon. All of my video archives (including some extracted DVDs) are on the NAS, so I can pull them to any TiVo in the house at any time.

It took a while to get to that point, but it's pretty cool now that it's in place. I use the ToGo rules in Galleon to automatically download certain shows after they are recorded, which puts them right on the NAS and then accessible elsewhere in the house.

[angelobanjo]

Thanks guys.

I take it you are all talking about a hard wired network? Would this be feasible with g wireless?

Angelo

[EwanG]

Originally Posted by angelobanjo

I take it you are all talking about a hard wired network? Would this be feasible with g wireless?

Yup. That's what I use to access between my TiVo downstairs and my PC upstairs with the 1.2 TB RAID array. You have to give the transfer a minute or two head start for buffer, but after that you can start watching as the transfer is happening.

FWIW,
Ewan

[windracer]

I'm wireless too. The NAS is hardwired to the wireless router (and so is the Linux laptop), but all of my TiVos are wireless. Two are G and the other is B.