We can’t have a media extender conversation here at ZNF without mentioning existing TiVo boxes. Though, at this point, it’s really a tale of two cities: Series2 and Series3 units.
Networked Series2 units offer multi-room viewing (MRV), allowing the transfer and playback of recorded shows from one TiVo to another within the house. While we’ve been able to send MPEG-2 to Series2 units for some time now, the public beta of TiVo Desktop v2.4 software now bundles video transcoding functionality (.wmv, .mov, .mpg, .mp4) for $25.
TiVo Desktop software (for PC and Mac) also publishes photos and music from computer to both Series2 and Series3 (now in HD). If your particular audio file format isn’t supported by default, there are various methods (PC, Mac) to get past that. Now that TiVoCast has been enabled on the Series3, both they and the S2 should support Amazon Unbox video rentals and purchases in the near future.
I limited my focus to moving media *to* the TiVo, rather than also exploring the various methods to get content off. Additionally, I didn’t want to confuse the issue (or myself) by bringing up the various hacks for moving content on/off Series2 units.
Anyone thinking of heavily using a TiVo as a media extender should check out Galleon. Though it’s no longer being developed, it’s still quite powerful and useful.
Dave,
Check out tivo.net it will transcode/stream almost any video file from your pc to your tivo…
It really makes the tivo feel like a TRUE media extender..
Thanks Chris, I’ve been meaning to check it out and haven’t stayed on top of it like I should have. When I’m back home next week, I’ll fire it up.
For some reason none of my WMV files are recognized by TiVo.
The only files that show up in My TiVo Recordings are MPG.
Would also be nice if it recognized my desire to keep things in folders.
But ultimately, it’s a great step in the right direction!
What does 2.4 do with protected wmv files like from Vongo and unBox?
Protected files are not converted. Can’t we all just get along?
@Chris Mas:
Thanks for the suggestion. That is exactly what I was hoping TiVo would make to go along with their software. I tried it last night and it worked pretty smoothly. Although this morning the TiVo didn’t see the TiVo.net server anymore. Hopefully Pipkin will keep up on the improvements.