Networking Two Tivo Boxes

Kinondo · Mar 6, 2012

Hi, sorry if this has been somewhere else but I am just starting out on Virgin Media/TiVo

I have 2 working 500mb tivo boxes both hooked up to their own TV with mutiple HDMI inputs avaialble. I pay the normal fee for the first box, plus the few pounds a month for the extra box. Both work absolutely fine but they are completely independent as one at the back of the house, one at the front => I can only view the shows recorded on each box at the relevant TV.

I am looking for a more integrated solution, at the very least I can view the output e.g. recorded shows form one box, on the other TV or vice versa. This way I can at least e.g. set a film going on the box at the front of the house and watch it at the back.

Even better, if possible, would be to have some control of the front box, when sitting at the back of the house and vice versa, but this is a 'nice to have'.

I have a wireless network in the house and also CaT5 between the rooms in questions where the boxes are sat.

Any help greatfully received.

Tony Hoyle · Mar 6, 2012

VM Tivo's don't support this (although the US ones do)

The closest you could get at the moment is to get rid of one of the tivos and pipe the output of the first with a videosender to the second TV.

wkearney99 · Mar 6, 2012

I don't know VM boxes, the US boxes allow multi-room viewing where you can copy a program from one Tivo to others on the same network. I gather the VM tivo's don't do this?

What you might consider doing is using an HDMI matrix switch that supports IR control. This way you could switch between either Tivo from either location. Check monoprice.com for their solutions. You'd just need to run two CAT5 wires to each TV location. In order to avoid IR remote confusion you'd have to prevent the Tivo's from getting an IR control from anything other than the IR emitters from the matrix switch. This would also require that both DVRs be located with the matrix switch, not in each room with the TV. They could all be with one TV or the other, or in a whole other location like a rack in a utility room (just make sure it has decent ventilation so the DVRs don't overheat).

Using a 2x2 matrix would allow using either one of the inputs on either one of the TVs, or even both simultaneously. A 4x4 switch would allow plugging in other devices like a disc player or a network streamer (appletv, roku, etc).

If you're prepared to be watching the same thing on both TVs you could use just an HDMI extender to feed the second TV. If the local TV can accept component you could use that and then the HDMI over an extender to the other. Otherwise you'd need to also get an HDMI splitter to divide the signal for use in both locations.

The extenders require using CAT5 (or better) wire but it's NOT ethernet and cannot co-exist on the same wire. So you'd be pulling two new wires.

Kinondo · Mar 14, 2012

hi, thanks both for the answers to date... I will investigate

Networking Two Tivo Boxes

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