The Tivo Mini lives.... - Page 31

moyekj · 02-18-2013, 09:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spotterman26

I'm on Suddenlink cable in Eastern NC, and we have the mini here. I have 2 installed currently. Only had them a week. Have a premiere q in my living room, and the two minis (in a bonus room and a bedroom) <snip>

So how responsive are the Minis compared to Premiere units running HDUI menus and Flash apps? From the demo and other sources I got the impression Mini was supposed to be much more responsive. Is that the case?

spotterman26 · 02-18-2013, 10:00 PM

Hdui response is comparable to the premiere, wouldn't say any faster or slower. Apps are the same. Not much info there i guess, in a nutshell I can't really tell a noticeable drop in response on either from my premiere and the minis.

morac · 02-18-2013, 10:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spotterman26

(the mini is supposed to relinquish the tuner back to the q after 1.5 hrs of inactivity, more on that later).

That goes counter to everything we've heard about Minis, namely that it permanently takes a tuner.

moyekj · 02-18-2013, 11:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by morac

That goes counter to everything we've heard about Minis, namely that it permanently takes a tuner.

Yes, more likely it goes into some kind of screensaver mode after certain about of time with no activity so needless network streaming of live TV doesn't continue indefinitely when nobody is watching.

Arcady · 02-18-2013, 11:36 PM

Why would anyone assume a TiVo device goes to a screensaver? No TiVo has ever done that.

Dan203 · 02-19-2013, 01:03 AM

spotterman26 - what happens if you setup the Q to only allocate one tuner for network devices? Perhaps that's where the 1.5 hour time out comes into play? Maybe after 1.5 hours it relinquishes the tuner so the other one can use it? If that's the case I wonder if simply going into the menus by pressing TiVo would relinquish it immediately. (if it has the little preview window you might need to press Slow to turn it off, or turn it off permanently in settings)

moyekj · 02-19-2013, 07:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcady

Why would anyone assume a TiVo device goes to a screensaver? No TiVo has ever done that.

Because Mini is a special case of streaming "live TV" from a host unit. Would you want the Mini default "screensaver" to be live TV and therefore stream most of the time when not being used and therefore take up network bandwidth and burden the host TiVo all the time with that extra stream? I sure wouldn't.

aaronwt · 02-19-2013, 08:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by moyekj

Because Mini is a special case of streaming "live TV" from a host unit. Would you want the Mini default "screensaver" to be live TV and therefore stream most of the time when not being used and therefore take up network bandwidth and burden the host TiVo all the time with that extra stream? I sure wouldn't.

No big deal about the bandwidth. A TV channel uses a small amount of bandwidth. At most 19Mb/s. The Premiere could do that all day it and wouldn't make a difference. But I wouldn't want a tuner being stolen indefinitely.

spotterman26 · 02-19-2013, 09:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aaronwt

But I wouldn't want a tuner being stolen indefinitely.

My assumption was that the tuner would be allocated to the mini whenever the mini needed it to stream live tv/watch recorded shows from the Premiere. I was aware of the "dynamic tuner sharing" talk and hoped it would function that way. After talking to the tech when I ordered the service, he said specifically the mini would (paraphrasing him here) "go to sleep" after 1.5 hours of inactivity and give the tuner back to the Premiere. Works for me cause I've got 3 overlapping recordings scheduled several nights a week. First instance where there was a conflict, one program did not record/dynamic tuner sharing wasn't very dynamic. I hope that's a software issue they can work on. There is a standby option, I haven't tried that yet. I might schedule something random to record tonight and put one on standby.
Here's a shot of TiVo Central I took this morning. No preview window, and a "Watch Live TV" option. Besides that, the interface is the same. I'll take a shot of the back of the mini when I get home this afternoon.

overFEDEXed · 02-19-2013, 10:14 AM

spotterman26,

Does the Mini have a Bluetooth remote? (fingers crossed)
Sorry if I missed that info earlier.

spotterman26 · 02-19-2013, 10:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by overFEDEXed

spotterman26,

Does the Mini have a Bluetooth remote? (fingers crossed)
Sorry if I missed that info earlier.

Comes with the standard peanut TiVo remote, works with the TiVo app too.

overFEDEXed · 02-19-2013, 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spotterman26

Comes with the standard peanut TiVo remote, works with the TiVo app too.

Does it say anywhere, where you could use a Bluetooth?

I saw that it has a USB, or the pictures that I saw, showed that.
That's why I was asking.

Thanks

spotterman26 · 02-19-2013, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by overFEDEXed

Does it say anywhere, where you could use a Bluetooth?

I saw that it has a USB, or the pictures that I saw, showed that.
That's why I was asking.

Thanks

Ah, gotcha. Yes it has a USB port, I haven't seen any Bluetooth support.

Jonathan_S · 02-19-2013, 10:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spotterman26

Ah, gotcha. Yes it has a USB port, I haven't seen any Bluetooth support.

I thought I remembered reading that minis should work with the (now discontinued) TiVo slide remote. Those use bluetooth (to a USB dongle)...

overFEDEXed · 02-19-2013, 10:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spotterman26

Ah, gotcha. Yes it has a USB port, I haven't seen any Bluetooth support.

Thank you for checking.

I have gotten used to the Slide remotes.
They are a little flakey sometimes, but they are worth it.

puffdaddy · 02-19-2013, 11:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spotterman26

I'll take a shot of the back of the mini when I get home this afternoon.

Are your mini's running the same software version as your Premiere (I'm assuming "20.2.2.1-01-2"), or are they running a different version?

atmuscarella · 02-19-2013, 12:27 PM

I would have thought there would be a good case for an off button on the mini. Why would it need to be powered up when not in use?

P42 · 02-19-2013, 12:30 PM

spotterman26, post more pics please! And if you dare, some of the inside

spotterman26 · 02-19-2013, 12:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by puffdaddy

Are your mini's running the same software version as your Premiere (I'm assuming "20.2.2.1-01-2"), or are they running a different version?

I'll check and get back to you on that. At work for a while longer at the moment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by atmuscarella

I would have thought there would be a good case for an off button on the mini. Why would it need to be powered up when not in use?

No power button, the unit is always on. If it goes into standby on its own, the light on the front stays on. If you manually put it in standby, the light goes off.

Quote:

Originally Posted by P42

spotterman26, post more pics please! And if you dare, some of the inside

I'm planning on taking some more pics when I get home. Anything specific? I'll get the back/connections, front, etc. No promises on the inside, but I'll give it a look.

Dan203 · 02-19-2013, 02:10 PM

I'm 99% sure that dynamic tuner allocation is not functional yet. Which means that your TiVo Q has now been converted to a 2 tuner unit because the other two are allocated for live TV on the Minis.

You should really try my suggestion. If you go to Setting->Remote,CableCARD & Devices.. on the TiVo Q there is a setting for how many tuners you want to allocate to live TV on networked devices. Try setting it to 1 and see if both Minis still work with live TV. (one at a time) That will make your Q a 3 tuner unit and still give you access to live TV on the Minis when you need it. Or if you don't need live TV at all you can actually turn it off completely and get all 4 tuners back on the Q. The Minis will then only be able to stream recorded shows from the Q, not watch live TV.

sbiller · 02-19-2013, 02:25 PM

Spotterman,

What apps are available on your Mini?

Can you launch one or all of the apps and time how long it takes to start up compared to your Q?

As you can tell, there is a lot of interest here on your experience with the Mini!

Thanks,
Sam

sbiller · 02-19-2013, 02:44 PM

Spotterman,

If you could take a video of the Mini in action and upload it to YouTube, I'm sure there might be a few people very interested in that as well.

Thanks again for the info!
~Sam

davezatz · 02-19-2013, 02:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sbiller

Spotterman,

If you could take a video of the Mini in action and upload it to YouTube, I'm sure there might be a few people very interested in that as well.

Thanks again for the info!
~Sam

Yeah, or few photos of the screws on the bottom of the device, the software version screen, and anything that shows the tuner time out. Thanks!

Philmatic · 02-19-2013, 02:53 PM

Spotterman, you basically just became our bitch. lol

davezatz · 02-19-2013, 02:54 PM

I'll make it worth his while.

puffdaddy · 02-19-2013, 03:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davezatz

I'll make it worth his while.

I'm afraid to ask how!

crxssi · 02-19-2013, 06:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aaronwt

No big deal about the bandwidth..

I think it is very poor form to use any bandwidth unnecessarily. All it would take is a few non-friendly devices to ruin a network, especially if it had any wireless components in it.

crxssi · 02-19-2013, 06:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Philmatic

Spotterman, you basically just became our bitch. lol

LOL! You said it before I could...

spotterman26 · 02-19-2013, 06:57 PM

Sorry for the delay, had to get the kiddo to bed. I've got 11 photos, most of what was asked for. I'll take a video of apps and interface tomorrow. I've got them in a flickr set linked here:

http://flic.kr/s/aHsjE3AQr6

spotterman26 · 02-19-2013, 07:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by puffdaddy

I'm afraid to ask how!

Me too..

Quote:

Originally Posted by crxssi

LOL! You said it before I could...

Maybe, but I've got two TiVo Minis.

On a serious note, glad to help, I've been lurking on this forum for a while, joined up in December so I could search, figured I'd contribute what I could.