[bjohn55]

I want to get a Tivo for my Families Cabin and was wondering if I have the TiVo on my account with my TiVo at home, is there anyway to transfer programs? Initially the fact that they are on different networks, I would say no but maybe there is something out there that would allow this to happen so here I ask.

 

[kmitchell]

First the legal part...

What you want to do is a violation of Tivo terms of use. Units on the same account are supposed to be at the same physical location.

Now the technical part...

There are a couple of ways to do this, one is fairly complex. What you would need to do is create a VPN (virtual private network) connection between the two locations. This requires a router on each end with VPN capability and reasonable speed broadband connections as everything going between the two locations would be encrypted.

Since you're talking multi-room viewing I'm assuming you already have a Series 2. Another way to do it would be to use TTG and transfer the shows you want onto a laptop. Then you could take the laptop to the cabin, connect it to the other Tivo, and use Tivo Desktop Plus to make the shows available to the other Tivo. The MAK would need to be the same on both Tivos and the laptop in order for this to work.


Hope this helps,
Ken

 

[retired_guy]

What I did in this situation was burn the shows I expected to watch to DVD. Since I had a TiVo with a DVD recorder, it was trivial to do, but without one, transferring the shows to a PC and burning there can always be done. Then the cabin only needs a DVD reader and a connection to the TV; cheap hardware these days.

 

[ciper]

I have an alternate suggestion. Why not consider using a slingbox? That way you dont even need a second tivo and you can also watch live tv in addition to the recorded shows.

 

[bjohn55]

I didn't realize there was a legal aspect to this though it makes since. Thanks for the warning. Some interesting solutions though. I have messed with VPN's in the past for other things so thats an idea. I have never been able to successfully transfer a show using TTG to my computer even though I can transfer shows TiVo to TiVo flawlessly. Slingbox is a name I've heard of before but never looked it up to see what it was.

Thanks for the suggestions and the legal warning.

 

[classicsat]

Slingbox is essentially a box that plays a TV, and streams the video fed to it over the internet to a client PC, also connected to the internet. Slingbox also has a kind of soft remote relay system. You have a virtual remote on the client PC which you can emulate real remote at the Slingbox end, kind of how the TiVo and its blasters emulate a cable or satellite remote.