The Official AVS TiVo "Series4" Premiere topic - Page 43

ABC can be a problem sometimes. I've been searching all weekend for a good OTA tuner and I'm approaching information overload. Which TiVo's, without subscription, can I use as an HD tuner with HDMI out?

Forget it. A new premiere is less than a used series 3.

I picked up a "price-matched" Premier at BB today to try out. The SNR values reported by the Premier were about 3-4 dB lower than the HD I already have. This was running the 14.9.2.2 software and getting values in the 22-33 dB range. Before I updated to that version, the values were all sub-20s. Also, 20.2 is supposed to have some OTA updates that improve reception, but I cannot confirm that personally. I have requested the update from Margret, but I have not activated the box yet, so I am not sure if she will fulfill my request.

One thing I noted was uncorrected errors reported in the DVR diagnostics were lower than the HD reports on the same channels. Makes me wonder if Tivo somehow ramped up the error correction settings on the Premier which results lower SNR values. I am not sure how the demodulation chip works or is programmed, so that is just a shot in the dark.

In any case, the Premier is doing better than expected for OTA for me. MRS is a killer feature which is making me reconsider my decision to stick with HD over Premier. I can't wait to hear how it works.

-Ted

sorry wrong sub

I'm not really surprised. My 3 new Premiers have no problems at all OTA. I'm about 40 miles from the transmitters, and I used to have issues from time to time with my CBS reception. So far with the TiVo's, no problems.

Just ordered Premier to test.

Needs fixin' : "now" -> "no". You might scare people.

^^^

Yes, I saw a comment you made a day or two ago that indicated you had ordered one. I think you'll be happy with it, as long as you can make the QAM part work for you with your goofy channel numbers. I haven't had any problems, and some of the features are pretty neat. Like.. I scheduled some recordings the other day over the internet from my office, and I transferred some recordings from one DVR to another over the local network. I think I'm supposed to be able to transfer to my computer too, but I don't know how.

I've requested the early update to the new Guide/Software being released this month... I "think" that will address some "Kinda wish this screen was more like the DHG" things . . .

I see TheRatPatrol sold his DHG's too. I still have mine at the moment.

google "kmttg" -or- download/install TiVo Desktop.

You're gonna like the GUI and overall experience a lot better than the 7400 I bet. Did you get a cable card in advance?

No, I decided to get the smaller Premier. First I'll see what I can do without it. If it's not good, I'll get the card and turn in my STB. I already have the HD service and no shortage of h/w at the moment. Thanks for asking.

Root canal would be a better experience than the 7400.

Thanks, I think..

Which is the recommended software?

The TiVo Desktop seems to have a pretty long list of "may not work with.." things?

The kmttg software seems to have about a dozen things to download. Not clear what I really need?

I use both.

The simplest to set up by far is the TiVo Desktop software. The free version is sufficient for standard transfers, the pay version is only necessary if you want to transcode for mobile devices. TiVo desktop runs as a service and allows bidirectional transfers to and from your TiVo. It is most useful if you want to collect a full season of a series to watch in the summer without having it take up all the disk space on your TiVo. If you have TiVo Desktop running on a PC that is on all the time, you can set it up to auto transfer the programs as soon as they are done recording. I typically collect several that I just don't have time to watch during the regular season. Then during the summer when the TiVo que has been cleared I'll send the series back to the TiVo to watch. Best of all, if it's a new series I'll collect it. That way if it gets canceled after half a season I can flush it without ever having wasted time getting interested in it.

kmttg is a stand-alone program that just does one-way transfers from TiVo to PC but with a lot of features -- these features come from it's use of open-source helper apps that have to be installed but it guides you through all that. Native TiVo files have an encrypted wrapper that kmttg can easily strip off to give you a simple .mpg file that can be edited to remove commercials (Video ReDo TV Suite) if you want to archive the recordings on a NAS or burn to disk. kmttg can also recode the TiVo files from MPEG-2 to H.264 which allows you to shrink them a lot without loss of quality -- again, for burning to disk or storage on a NAS for media players. I like kmttg because it is fast and doesn't run as a service.

With any of these apps, if the source on the TiVo is marked as copy-once you will not be able to transfer it to either your PC or another TiVo. But since you are using it for OTA (like I do) nothing is copy-protected and so there are no restrictions. I have never been unable to copy anything from my TiVo to my PC using either software program.

Kelson -

Thanks for the thorough explanation. Now I will just have to decide which direction to proceed. BTW, I do use OTA a good bit (better video quality than Cable) but I have Charter with CableCards as well.

Here TWC marks every cable channel as copy once except fpor the FCC mandate that local broadcast channels must be in the clear.
If you run into that try the Hauppauge HD PVR which exploits the analog hole which eliminates HDCP.

I use this with ktmmg and can copy anything from the Tivo to the PC.
Another alternative is:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...00_i00_details

I'm OTA only, running a TiVo Premiere. I love having the freedom to copy programs off using TiVo Desktop (free), even though I don't do that very much. But I have noticed that anything I download from YouTube seems to be copy protected. A few times I've wished I could burn DVDs from those without having to go analog.

You don't need TiVo Desktop on PC running all the time. I only turn my PC with TiVo Desktop on periodically. When I do it still downloads the shows I have it set to transfer. And I save a few dollars off my electric bill each month by not running it 24/7.

IMHO, kmttg is vastly superior to the TiVo Desktop software due to the simple fact that you can remove the Tivo container and get the MPG container (all in one step with the current version).

And you can use kmttg to push shows from your PC to your Tivo once you setup pyTivo. I usually convert the tivo files to MP4 to save space, and kmttg makes that easy to do as well.

So I usually install Tivo Desktop, so I can use their drivers to watch .tivo files on my PC (and edit them with VideoReDo), but I use msconfig to make sure none of the stuff loads at startup.

Do you know if that now works well? There seemed to be problems back when it first came out. Or maybe people didn't know how to use it.

Mine is over a year old but works well with bundled Arcsoft TMT Extreme software in Win 7.

Many users report various problems in this thread:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...y#post21333575
but IMO cockpit errors abound as you point out, user ignorance.

The latest drivers supposedly integrate with MC7 but have not tried that.
The HDPVR has an IR blaster attachment and a substantial data base of STB's which accept channel changes. Sadly this has never worked with the Tivo even after Tech support emailed me a special blaster Tivo code base.

PC requirements are not that extreme, I run an E9400 quad with 8 GB memory and a reasonably fast ATI display adapter using W7 and have no problem recording the H264 encoded TS.

Purists who wnt to remove commercial segments will need a program like VideoRedo H264 capable. Expensive and I don't bother with that.

Woke up at 3 AM and went to the HT room and noticed the TA LED blinking.
5 1 second 1 2 second blink and repeating.
Not having seen that particular TA code before, I finally concluded that the Tivo had acquired the 20.2 build and was re-booting.

Having requested an early roll-out of 20.2 on Monday this seemed reasonable. Upon waking, checked at 7 AM and the TA was again at steady green and sure enough the Tivo upgraded to 20.2.

Interesting ?, perhaps, Useful? probably not.

Since Windows Media Center and Tivo use Tribune Media Services for guide listings here is a link to get your channel line up updated.
http://www.zap2it.com/services/site/...9403.htmlstory
I did this with my Media Center guide and they had it updated in a few days. I sent them a link to my cable companys channel list from their website.

I also notice you can link the Zap2it listings on the website to your tivo. There is a "Link to Tivo" on the top right hand side of the guide.
http://tvlistings.zap2it.com/tvlisti....do?aid=zap2it

Thank you. I hear NYC has its TVGOS back.

I also got 20.2 last night (by request).

After seeing your post I immediately went to the System Information page and the first thing i noticed was it's still in SD.

At least all the new HD UI stuff shown in the Engadget article is working.

Are you giving up on the DHG Joe? I think this is the last year for our cable company to carry analog TVGOS. I still have gotten no word if there will ever be digital TVGOS in our DMA. WNEP was looking into it but I never heard back from them.
I am considering two Tivos or building a PC with the Ceton cablecard tuner. Also Ceton announced a whole home DVR solution so I am going to wait to see how that turns out.

I tried linking my Tivo and it did that ok. However, I didn't get a Tivo record button on all shows when I clicked on them. Ended up going to the Tivo site and going into My Tivo. The channel guide in there allows me to one click and get all shows I want.

Maybe this was some sort of bug particular to me, but the My Tivo page has a nice listing guide and works better for me than zap2it. I'm thinking along the lines of why involve another site with my Tivo than I have to? Anyway, just my two cents.

I am trying to plan ahead. I don't want another computer, the CM-7400 sucks, BV-980H is real buggy and the PHD-VRX is still vaporware. My TiVo should be here today. Call me a boy scout.

I guess I'll have to check the forum tonight... often I don't even turn my computer on at home on weeknights.

Don't forget to go into Settings and turn off "Record TiVo suggestions". Last night my son comes and asks me why the TiVo switched to Fox News while he was watching ESPN. When I went to look, both record indicators were lit and it was recording "The Golf Channel" and "Fox News". Turns out I forgot to turn off the "Record Tivo Suggestions" setting on that DVR when I set it up.

I feel the same way. I've had mixed success when using the other sites so I just stick with the My TiVo site for remote scheduling and it has always worked fine.

Yes - that, and turning off the "Three Stooges-like" sound effects are the first things one might want to do.

Agreed. You can turn off the auto recording function, but you can still access recommendations via the menu. Not real keen on what it recommends anyway.

One of my three DVR's received the Guide update today (I had submitted all 3 numbers). I'll have to check it out more later when I have some time.