[RickAltman]

Has anyone experimented with the various factors that, on the surface, would influence the speed with which you can transfer a recording?

- Connecting TiVo to the LAN with Cat5 instead of wireless

- Dropping the quality from High to Medium


I know how fast a 1.7G file (typical size of a one-hour show) should move across the network. It should be 10 minutes, not one hour, so there is evidently more to the process than just file transfer. But anything we can do to knock that time down would be appreciated by all, I'm sure.




Rick A.
Pleasanton, CA

 

[dirtypacman]

My transfer speeds with all wired network are as follows:

1 Hour Best---- 50-55 minutes
1 Hour Med----- 30-40 minutes
1 Hour Basic---- 15-20 minutes

 

[MikeMar]

It does encoding as well as transfering, so your network speed and your computer speed plays into this.

 

[BiloxiGeek]

It does encoding as well as transfering, so your network speed and your computer speed plays into this.

The Tivo does the encoding, not the computer during transfer. The computer's speed doesn't come into the mix until you start working with the .tivo file for editing/burning. As far as the computer is concerned during transfer it's just another network connection transferring data to the hard drive.

 

[rad1701]

I use a typical wired 10/100 Cat 5 network. High quality shows take the same time as their length for me to transfer (2 hrs. for 2hrs, etc.). I have to believe TIVO is doing something to the file other than just moving it.

 

[granoff]

The recording quality has nothing to do with it, except that the file size increases as you increase the quality. That is, a 1 hour basic quality recording will consume less disk space than a 1 hour best quality recording.

So, a smaller file will take less time to transfer than a larger file, regardless of what it is.

That said, on my wired network, using USB2 adapters (and I have USB2 hardware) I see about a half-realtime transfer speed for everything. That's TiVo-to-PC as well as TiVo-to-TiVo.

-Mark

 

[rad1701]

Mark - so a high quality one hour show for you transfers from TIVO to PC in 30 min?? I haven't seen anywhere near that speed posted yet. As you stated the file size increases with the quality so you need to state the quality as well when posting speeds - or just state a transfer rate in Mbps.

 

[MikeMar]

The Tivo does the encoding, not the computer during transfer. The computer's speed doesn't come into the mix until you start working with the .tivo file for editing/burning. As far as the computer is concerned during transfer it's just another network connection transferring data to the hard drive.

Ok well it does something other than just straight transfering it, cause if you look at the folder it's going into and keep refreshing, the size increases in chunks for a bit, then not for a few min, then again. This leads me to believe it is encoding SOMEWHERE, whether it's the computer or the Tivo.

 

[RickAltman]

So for the first time in my four years as a dual-drive TiVo user, I will consider switching from High to Medium. The people who staff TiVo Customer Care insist that I will not notice a difference under most conditions, but I'm skeptical.

Who here happily uses Medium, I would like to know? And who here would agree that its differences from High are negligible...?




Rick A.
Pleasanton, CA

 

[dmlove51]

I record everything in High quality. My 3 TiVos are all CAt-5 wired. Transferring to other TiVos is less than 1/2 time (about 22 minutes for a 1-hour show). Transferring to the PC is about 2/3 time (38 mintues for a 1-hour show).

 

[DCIFRTHS]

So for the first time in my four years as a dual-drive TiVo user, I will consider switching from High to Medium. The people who staff TiVo Customer Care insist that I will not notice a difference under most conditions, but I'm skeptical.

Who here happily uses Medium, I would like to know? And who here would agree that its differences from High are negligible...?

Rick A.
Pleasanton, CA

I don't notice a difference on a 27" tube TV. On my 57" HD RP, I notice a huge difference.

 

[DCIFRTHS]

All my TiVo's are wired, and hooked up to a 10/100 Linksys 8 port switch, that is hung off of a Linksys 10/100 gateway/switch. The USB adapters are not 2.0, so I am transferring at 1.1 speeds. But.....

On my night-light TiVo, it takes approximately 1 hour 30 mins to transfer a file that is 1251MB (app. 1.22 GB). On my "normal" Series 2, it takes about 30 mins LESS to transfer a 1,620 MB (app. 1.6 GB).

My numbers are correct. It takes a lot less time to transfer a file from the older TiVo. I am guessing that is because the newer box can't process as fast as the old one.

Anyone else seeing this?

 

[rad1701]

What's a night light TIVO? My guess is whichever is transferring faster either is doing less encoding and/or has a better CPU in it.

 

[maiknyc]

Ok well it does something other than just straight transfering it, cause if you look at the folder it's going into and keep refreshing, the size increases in chunks for a bit, then not for a few min, then again. This leads me to believe it is encoding SOMEWHERE, whether it's the computer or the Tivo.

But if you don't use Tivo Desktop to download but rather log directly into your Tivo and download the file through your web browser it does NOT do that - so I think it's just simply the Tivo Desktop software that slows things down.

 

[rad1701]

But if you don't use Tivo Desktop to download but rather log directly into your Tivo and download the file through your web browser it does NOT do that - so I think it's just simply the Tivo Desktop software that slows things down.

REALLY?? So you're saying at that point it's just a simple network file transfer? Those size files should transfer in like 10-15 min max then for a 2 hour HQ file. Has anyone actually gotten that kind of speed by doing a direct file move? And then can MySonic still use the file?

 

[RickAltman]

But if you don't use Tivo Desktop to download but rather log directly into your Tivo and download the file through your web browser it does NOT do that - so I think it's just simply the Tivo Desktop software that slows things down.

This sounds exciting, but for the unenlightened masses out here, how do you do this?? Does it require one of the hacks about which entire books have been written and over which thousands of TiVo users cringe? Or is it something more pedestrian and approachable? The advantages of this mysterious maneuver are obvious; are there other implications, as well?

You've whetted our appetite -- now tell us more!

Rick A.
Pleasanton, CA

 

[rad1701]

Well, I just downloaded a couple shows to my PC using this method:

Go to

https://<tivo ip>/nowplaying/index.html

using
user: tivo
pass: <MAK>

It gives u a nice web interface to every show on your Tivo!!!!

Make sure to use https and not http. Now the two programs I downloaded this way without Desktop were about 1.3 GB each. Each still took about 45min to download to my PC via a wired network (rate about 450 kb/sec). Now I'm going to try and use them with MySonic. Right now I don't see any speed advantage in transferring in this way.

 

[peggylenox]

Hi; I've tried to do this four or five times and I get an error message "the page cannot be displayed" What am I doing wrong? Do I put in the < and > ? thanks,

 

[peggylenox]

Just ignore that last post!! It still hasn't downloaded the info, but it's working on it.

 

[rad1701]

Hi; I've tried to do this four or five times and I get an error message "the page cannot be displayed" What am I doing wrong? Do I put in the < and > ? thanks,

this is the format if you are still having trouble (no < > are needed, using an example IP):

https://192.168.1.101/nowplaying/index.html

using
user: tivo
pass: MAK

Obviously use your IP (the IP I put in above is just an example) for your TIVO and your MAK. The bad part to me was it didn't seem to speed up the transfer speed any.