Watch Your TiVo Program On Your Pocket PC

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=225409">http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=225409</a><br /><br />Earlier this year, TiVo started rolling out their TiVoToGo feature which allows you to watch recorded programs on your Windows based PC. One of the TiVo Community members has posted some additional steps to get that TV show on your Pocket PC.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/hansberry/2005/20050228-tivotogoppc.jpg" /><br /><br />For this to work, you need a Series 2 TiVo box, a network (wired or wireless) and the the 7.1 software update. You can read more about <a href="http://www.tivo.com/4.9.19.1.asp">the specifics here</a>. Next, you'll <a href="http://www.divx.com/divx/drdivx/">need Dr. Divx</a>, which is $29.99. Finally, you <a href="http://?">need BetaPlayer 0.5</a> to actually watch it on your Pocket PC. .

[jasondearyou]

ok, could someone like put up a sensible write up on that, i don't want to read all that stuff from all kinds of posts.

get a move on ppc thoughts.

0X

[fishfuzz]

Let me also note that DTivo's do not have this functionality.

And why use Dr. DIVX when PocketDIVXEncoder is free and works like a charm?

[Anjuan Simmons]

Maybe i"m a Tivo Luddite, but I use the following process to watch recorded TV on my Pocket PC:

- Schedule TV program using Guide Plus which came with my ATI All-in-Wonder PCI tuner on my desktop in MPEG-2 format
- Once the program has been recorded on my desktop, I use PocketDivxEncoder to encode and reduce the file to AVI format
- Copy the AVI file from my desktop to my SD card using my card reader
- Insert the SD Card into my PDA and fire up Beta Player to watch at will

I believe this (admittedly homegrown) approach is superior to what Tivo provides and considerably cheaper. It may not be as elegant and seamless, but it definitely adheres to the Principle of Good Enough (POGE).

[ricksfiona]

Maybe i"m a Tivo Luddite, but I use the following process to watch recorded TV on my Pocket PC:

- Schedule TV program using Guide Plus which came with my ATI All-in-Wonder PCI tuner on my desktop in MPEG-2 format.

Yes, I was thinking the same thing... But my p.c. draws enough voltage the way it's setup.. I'm getting an 800W power supply for my workstation, so I REALLY don't want to leave it on if I don't have to.

The Tivo device is going to be on my list of devices to purchase. The more I use my ATI card, the more I watch tv that I actually enjoy. Cheap entertainment!

[ricksfiona]

BTW, wasn't there a Tivo box that allowed you to access it's content via the LAN?

[Ed Hansberry]

Maybe i"m a Tivo Luddite, but I use the following process to watch recorded TV on my Pocket PC:
You are getting into a philosophical discussion about recording TV on a PC or having a toaster do it for you. Having done both, well, let's just say I have two TiVo's and zero PCs capable of recording a broadcast signal. :wink:

You are right though. If you have a PC recording programs, the steps may be easier and more straight-forward.

[Ed Hansberry]

BTW, wasn't there a Tivo box that allowed you to access it's content via the LAN?
All series 2 devices can transfer content to other Tivos on the LAN and have been able to do so for years. It is the new TivoToGo software that allows you to transfer and watch on PCs. Now, there may have been Tivo hacks that allowed it before, but that is another issue entirely.

[Anjuan Simmons]

You are right though. If you have a PC recording programs, the steps may be easier and more straight-forward.

Well said. To your point, the process I use works well if you already have a TV tuner in your PC. Vice versa, if you already have a Tivo box, then TivoToGo may be the way to go.

[beq]

There are still advantages with the older 4xxx-series ReplayTV's (remember them?) :)

- LAN remote streaming playback from the get-go (though I realize TiVo had since added this capability too)

- Internet sharing (send/receive)

- Commercial Advance (a blessing for broadcast-network content without having to manually skip 30 secs at a time)

- DVArchive (http://www.dvarchive.org/) (gotta be seen to be believed -- like the video server function)

[willowpc]

IMHO Snapstream's BeyondTV is still the simplest way to record tv from a pci card without a separate encoding step. I set mine to record directly in .wmv format to play on a pocket pc using WMP. All the other options are much more inconvenient.

[Solarix]

Once again getting screwed over for getting the DirecTivo box instead of a stand alone a year and a half ago. I have to transfer stuff real time to my PC through Svid/Composite audio cables.

Too much work for regular usage. just stuff I really wanna save or give to a friend.

[zoomie]

If you have a TV card and Windows XP, and would like to remotely stream TV to your laptop or handheld for free, then here you go:

Create a directory on your computer called C:\tv

Download
-Windows Media Encoder 9.0 (free)
-Web server software if you do not have any like abyss (free) from
http://www.aprelium.com/abyssws/index.html
- two files from my server, place in C:\tv:
http://flyusaf.no-ip.com/download/
mediastream.exe creates the web pages (it is a CGI program that also starts and stops the media encoder)
connection text is used by mediastrem to set up the web site.
Give the directory, c:\tv "executable" ability from the web server software.


Set up your web site:
- create your URL, get one for free from
http://www.no-ip.com
works great if you have DSL and no static IP address



Create some media encoder files
-With media encoder create one file for each TV channel you want to stream. I use FM Quality encoding which seem to work best for my laptop. I have created different encoding for my handheld for each channel.

Edit the connection.txt file with your specific information. You should only have to edit the mms://... line

Surf to your web site
http://yourname.no-ip.com/tv/mediastream.exe
select your media file to start streaming
use the second page to remotely shutdown the encoder.

Use at your own risk, it works but it is not pretty.

[JayM]

Maybe i"m a Tivo Luddite, but I use the following process to watch recorded TV on my Pocket PC:

- Schedule TV program using Guide Plus which came with my ATI All-in-Wonder PCI tuner on my desktop in MPEG-2 format
- Once the program has been recorded on my desktop, I use PocketDivxEncoder to encode and reduce the file to AVI format
- Copy the AVI file from my desktop to my SD card using my card reader
- Insert the SD Card into my PDA and fire up Beta Player to watch at will

I believe this (admittedly homegrown) approach is superior to what Tivo provides and considerably cheaper. It may not be as elegant and seamless, but it definitely adheres to the Principle of Good Enough (POGE).

I belive its better too. Plus I've been doing it for years now. I do (almost) the same thing you do. You know you can make a custom capture setting to remove the second encoding step and save some time. In case you record some show's you'll only watch once....like "Who's the Boss" re-runs...heheheh :mrgreen:

[beq]

Has anyone tried MythTV (http://www.mythtv.org/)?

John C. Dvorak 2/16/2005: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1763041,00.asp

[Jerome Carney]

You are getting into a philosophical discussion about recording TV on a PC or having a toaster do it for you. Having done both, well, let's just say I have two TiVo's and zero PCs capable of recording a broadcast signal. :wink:

You are right though. If you have a PC recording programs, the steps may be easier and more straight-forward.

Or have your toaster and eat it too... BeyondTV (http://www.snapstream.com/products/beyondtv/default.asp). Turns your PC + Tuner Card into a Tivo clone. Shows I watch on my PC or plan to burn are recorded in WMV high-res (about 400 meg / hour). Shows I copy to my MDA III are recorded in WMV lo-res (about 100 meg / hour). I really can't say enough good things about BeyondTV (http://www.snapstream.com/products/beyondtv/default.asp)... then again, I have a PPC Phone and not an Ipod.

[adamz]

Uhm.. my Media Center does all this while I sleep. How's that for easy?

http://www.pocketnow.com/html/portal/reviews/0000000541/review/imateJ4_small.jpg

Just set which TV shows I want synced to the Pocket PC with my remote control, then as the shows are recorded they're also re-encoded for my small-screened Pocket PC Phone. When I wake up in the morning, the episodes of Trigger Happy TV that were on at 2am are on my Pocket PC Phone. The only thing I have to do is connect it to the USB port.

Didn't I read somewhere that TiVo2Go was supposed to be compatible with Media Center and Win Media Player 10. If so, why not just set up an autosync with Media Player 10?

[Anjuan Simmons]

Uhm.. my Media Center does all this while I sleep. How's that for easy?

Show off . . . :lol:

Seriously, I think Media Center is probably the best (and possibly most expensive) solution of them all.

[adamz]

Show off . . . :lol:

Seriously, I think Media Center is probably the best (and possibly most expensive) solution of them all.

Haha! Yeah, it is expensive compared to a TiVo, but not so much compared to a regular desktop (which it also functions as). Still it is so totally worth it for all the things it can do.

[ToddJ]

Too bad i can't get Windows Media Player 10 for my Pocket PC

[dlinker]

I can't believe this topic appeared today when I just decided to look in to this yesterday.
I came across a couple of other options prior to reading this PPCT article:
etivo lets you automate the "archiving" of your shows from the TiVo to your PC. Pocket Etivo lets you then take the shows to your PPC.
Haven't tried it yet. http://prish.com/etivo/pocket_etivo.htm

Use TyTools to extract the TiVo shows to your PC then proceed as per normal for getting video from your PC to PPC

[DuallyDave]

I have a ReplayTV 5516 and DVArchive, can I use Dr. Divx and Betaplayer with this?

[fivepetpalace]

I'm just starting to look into DVR... Here's a page that shows how to go from TiVo to MPEG2 using directshow graphedit ( i guess it is part of the Dirext X SDK)

http://www.evillabs.net/tivo/