FIOS DVR vs TIVO HD DVR

Well, you do own the hardware; the cableco DVRs, to buy them, would cost signficantly more.


Not presently, at least not in HD. There's not a TiVo Extender or anything like that; the closest thing you could do is get a Vista Media Center PC with CableCARD (starting at around $1500 or so) and Media Center Extenders (which I think range around $200 or so per unit) or Xbox 360 consoles ($300+ each); there are no monthly feeds with a Vista CableCARD setup, but the hardware is a lot more expensive up front.


Yes, but once you have one at the full price, you do get multi-service discount; that knocks the additional boxes' monthly subscription fees down to $10/month. (Not a lot, I know...)


Yep. :/

John,

I have a Tivo S3 with 2 cable cards, and another Tivo HD in my bedroom without cable card. I can transfer HD shows from the S3 to the Tivo HD using Tivo's MRV (multi-room-viewing) feature. I don't know why demonfoo says that Tivo does not support this in HD.

I also use TTG (TivoToGo) to pull shows off of Tivo and store on my PC, use VideoReDo to edit out commercials, and run a Tiversity uPnP media server to stream to my PS3. HD material stays HD. That's another way to distribute Tivo shows. There is restriction on what shows are allowed for TTG, most of premium channels like HBO are not allowed. But all other HD channels shows works for me. I use TivoDesktop+, which is a one time $25 fee, that does automated download by series. There are other free softwares out there that would do that too. Also there are other media servers besides Tversity, and they work with XBox360 as well as PS3. If you already have a PC, and maybe an XBox360 or PS3 at a different location as the TV, may worth it to think about it.

I guess I should have been more clear at the time; you can MRV HD content, but there's not a *less expensive* option available (like the Media Center Extender) for just viewing/streaming recorded HD content without jumping to a full-blown separate TiVo HD/S3. Sorry, bad wording...

Sorry I haven't been checking posts regularly. To answer your questions:

yes you do need to have both Tivos on subs to use MRV.

no you can not transfer a show that is still recording.

Like I said in my setup, if you have 1 S3 or TivoHD, have a PC that can run TivoDesktop or Galleon, run VideoRedo or just DirectShowDump to turn .tivo files to mpeg files, and can run a media server like Tversity, and a XBox360 or PS3 that can stream from the media server, then you can distribute shows from the Tivo.

You have some delays since the shows have to finish record on the Tivo, then transfered. you can tell TivoDesktop to automate the transfer. There might even be script that can automate the DirectShowDump process, but I haven't looked. At the least you can probably schedule a batch command to do this on a regular basis. So with a little work this whole process is almost 100% automated.

TivoDesktopPlus and VideoRedo (highly recommended) will cost you a little up front cost, but Galleon, DSDump, Tversity are all free software that work very well. The only mandatory cost in this whole setup is the S3/TivoHD, which is just about the only way one can get (encrypted) digital cable HD content that you can distribute. MCE will only get you the in the clear QAM channels. If you want SciFiHD for example you need the S3. unless if you go with the $1000-1500 PC with cable cards, do those actually work?

John:
There is a relative cheap way to distribute HD video and anything video/audio around your home. The catch is that you need to run at least 2 cat 5e from your source (say the place where you would have your TiVo) to the client.

At home I have one DVR, one Blue Ray, One DVD Player (you get the idea) and I can watch and listen to any of my sources (including my MacBook) in my bedroom (at least I could but I dismantling this for my move).
The work to run 2 Cat5 to every TV location was tough in my current home but not impossible. I did it myself and if I were cheaper I would contract a low voltage guy to do it.
In my new home (also a very old house) I am planning an extension of the same concept. I have access to basement and attic again and I will be runing 2 Cat5e where ever I need TV/Audio. I will place all the gear in a closet and distribute video/audio using HDMI or Component baluns. Quality is excellent and keeping all the gear tucked away, specially when you hang TVs in the walls in bedrooms, makes wifes happier.

Now, if you want to watch 2 different shows from the same DVR in 2 different rooms it get's difficult. You would need another DVR.


Jorge

Adding to my note on video distribution, if you want to watch different shows in different rooms you could combine the video distribution network with a solution like the one mentioned by yunlin12 where you replicate what is in your DVR to say a PS3 or xbox360. You could set up your distribution network to watch and control the DVR only in the main room and the ps3 or xbox360 as sources for the other rooms after automating the duplicating process.

check out component distribution solutions from audio authority, geffen, CE Labs. I use the CE Labs solution, very cheap, very good. If you want HDMI, brand names can get too pricey (geffen). My brother found a much cheaper one from a no-name brand. At the end of the day the technology is not rocket science and easy to copy.