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The Official AVS TiVo "Series4" Premiere topic - Page 59

post #1741 of 2518
10/14/12 at 11:36am
I am considering ditching my Comcast Motorola DVR's to purchase an Elite XL4 for my Great Room & probably an inexpensive 2 tuner Premiere for my Master Bedroom. I did the 30 day trial 2 years ago & ended up sending back my Premiere & cancelling my service. I was hoping somethings have changed since then & I'd like to get some real world unbiased answers from current owners if you don't mind.

1) Menu Screens: Has the responsiveness of the menu screens improved, specifically in HD menu mode? I remember the HD menus lagged & were incomplete (mixed HD & SD menus) & the SD menus were not as up to date graphically but were more responsive. Have they enabled the second core on the dual core processor on all of the premieres via an update yet? I would think that this would have made a difference.

2) Screen Saver: Unless I missed something I was shocked to find out that my POS Motorola box has a screen saver & Tivo did not. Major over site in my opinion, sometimes I get up for a break & don't want image retention on my Pioneer PRO-141FD. I hope this has been addressed?

3) Caller ID: Not a deal breaker but a nice feature that my DIRECTV DVR & Comcast DVR have that I find a nice feature. I can't see why they couldn't enable this since the can connect via phone line with an adapter of course.

4) Whole Home DVR: Overall how well does the streaming (not transferring) from box to box work on a wired ethernet connection? I would use the XL4 to record all of my shows & stream them to a 2 tuner Premiere in my bedroom. I am no concerned with transferring or even recording, just access to the main library & pause, rewind, etc functions of live TV. I have heard a little bit about the rumored IP box that is coming soon & it sounds interesting but I am not sure if it is worth losing a tuner on the XL4. I am assuming this IP box can only access recordings & not live TV, correct me if I'm wrong.

5) IP Control: I will be using this with the Roomie Remote app & was wondering if anyone can comment on how responsive the Tivo is to IP control? If anyone here is using Roomie or another form of IP control (iRule, Crestron, Control4 , etc) with a Premiere please give me as much info you can on your experience.

6) Bugs & Issues: I had problems with my premiere locking up & had to unplug it sometimes. Has this improved &/or are there any other issues that my pop up that I should be aware of ahead of time?

Thank you in advance,
Jan Simonsen
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post #1742 of 2518
10/15/12 at 11:53am
The TiVo service has been down now for 4 hours. Stupid me rebooted by Premiere, thinking there was a problem with the box. Big mistake. I don't think any of my scheduled programs are going to record tonight if they don't get service back up and running. I couldn't even get on to their website. What a PITA!
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post #1743 of 2518
10/15/12 at 12:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by lokilarry View Post

The TiVo service has been down now for 4 hours. Stupid me rebooted by Premiere, thinking there was a problem with the box. Big mistake. I don't think any of my scheduled programs are going to record tonight if they don't get service back up and running. I couldn't even get on to their website. What a PITA!

Are you sure the problem is with TiVo?

I just logged into my account with no problem and also checked my "To Do List" and everything was listed.
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post #1744 of 2518
10/15/12 at 12:18pm
It came back on line about 2 minutes after I posted. However , it was out for quite some time.
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post #1745 of 2518
10/15/12 at 12:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by kemitchell View Post

Are you sure the problem is with TiVo?
I just logged into my account with no problem and also checked my "To Do List" and everything was listed.

Since my box said there was a problem with Tivo on the My Tivo screen, I hope they had a problem. You wouldn't notice unless you went into a menu.
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post #1746 of 2518
10/15/12 at 4:05pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by lokilarry View Post

The TiVo service has been down now for 4 hours. Stupid me rebooted by Premiere, thinking there was a problem with the box. Big mistake. I don't think any of my scheduled programs are going to record tonight if they don't get service back up and running. I couldn't even get on to their website. What a PITA!

Why would the TiVo service affect previously scheduled recordings. I can have my box disconnected from the internet for almost two weeks and it will continue to record my programs with the info it has. As long as there were not any changes to the schedule, it will still record them as it should. It typically has guide data for 12 or 13 days.
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post #1747 of 2518
10/15/12 at 4:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by aaronwt View Post

Why would the TiVo service affect previously scheduled recordings. I can have my box disconnected from the internet for almost two weeks and it will continue to record my programs with the info it has. As long as there were not any changes to the schedule, it will still record them as it should. It typically has guide data for 12 or 13 days.

I don't know what to tell you. When my Premiere XL rebooted, with the TiVo sevice down, I could not access my box with either my Ipad or Iphone. I could also not access my scheduled recordings from the box directly. So, you may be correct that it would have recorded as it was scheduled to do. I however had no way of knowing that if I could not confirm it.
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post #1748 of 2518
10/15/12 at 4:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by lokilarry View Post

I don't know what to tell you. When my Premiere XL rebooted, with the TiVo sevice down, I could not access my box with either my Ipad or Iphone. I could also not access my scheduled recordings from the box directly. So, you may be correct that it would have recorded as it was scheduled to do. I however had no way of knowing that if I could not confirm it.

I heard it was a terrorist attack. Our power grid and government isn't as important as TiVo service anymore.
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post #1749 of 2518
10/15/12 at 10:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jano18 View Post

I am considering ditching my Comcast Motorola DVR's to purchase an Elite XL4 for my Great Room & probably an inexpensive 2 tuner Premiere for my Master Bedroom. I did the 30 day trial 2 years ago & ended up sending back my Premiere & cancelling my service. I was hoping somethings have changed since then & I'd like to get some real world unbiased answers from current owners if you don't mind.
1) Menu Screens: Has the responsiveness of the menu screens improved, specifically in HD menu mode? I remember the HD menus lagged & were incomplete (mixed HD & SD menus) & the SD menus were not as up to date graphically but were more responsive. Have they enabled the second core on the dual core processor on all of the premieres via an update yet? I would think that this would have made a difference.
2) Screen Saver: Unless I missed something I was shocked to find out that my POS Motorola box has a screen saver & Tivo did not. Major over site in my opinion, sometimes I get up for a break & don't want image retention on my Pioneer PRO-141FD. I hope this has been addressed?
3) Caller ID: Not a deal breaker but a nice feature that my DIRECTV DVR & Comcast DVR have that I find a nice feature. I can't see why they couldn't enable this since the can connect via phone line with an adapter of course.
4) Whole Home DVR: Overall how well does the streaming (not transferring) from box to box work on a wired ethernet connection? I would use the XL4 to record all of my shows & stream them to a 2 tuner Premiere in my bedroom. I am no concerned with transferring or even recording, just access to the main library & pause, rewind, etc functions of live TV. I have heard a little bit about the rumored IP box that is coming soon & it sounds interesting but I am not sure if it is worth losing a tuner on the XL4. I am assuming this IP box can only access recordings & not live TV, correct me if I'm wrong.
5) IP Control: I will be using this with the Roomie Remote app & was wondering if anyone can comment on how responsive the Tivo is to IP control? If anyone here is using Roomie or another form of IP control (iRule, Crestron, Control4 , etc) with a Premiere please give me as much info you can on your experience.
6) Bugs & Issues: I had problems with my premiere locking up & had to unplug it sometimes. Has this improved &/or are there any other issues that my pop up that I should be aware of ahead of time?
Thank you in advance,
Jan Simonsen

I have both an Elite/XL4 and a Premiere w/ an upgraded 2TB HDD.

1) Menu Screens:
  • I have no issues with the speed of the HD Menus, To me they are fast and responsive (others still complain).
  • Second Core has been enabled for quite some time.
  • SD Menus still remaining are To Do List, Season Pass Manager and all the Set-up and Diagnostic screens. The next SW Update (soon) should bring a few more HD menus.

2) Screen Saver: NO

3) Caller ID: NO at least not on a Retail, perhaps RCN?

4) Whole Home DVR:
  • Streaming (MRS) Works very well, Hardwired or 5GHz Dual-Band WiFi, Single channel 2.4GHz does not play very smoothly, if at all for me.
  • The Menus to access a second TiVo Premiere are still SD hopefully that will change with the next SW Update.

5) IP Control:
  • I have only used the Android App and kmttg, that type of IP Control works very well, no complaints.

6) Bugs & Issues:
  • A few Lock-ups here and there, occasionally every few months
  • All Tuners Loss of Signal, occasionally every few months
  • Loss of SDV Tuning Adapter connection, occasionally every few months
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post #1750 of 2518
10/16/12 at 1:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bryan_CoxPHX View Post

[*] SD Menus still remaining are To Do List, Season Pass Manager and all the Set-up and Diagnostic screens. The next SW Update (soon) should bring a few more HD menus.

I just read this on Twitter from @tivodesign:

"Fall Update for TiVo Premiere DVRs includes HD My Shows (for networked DVRs), HD Season Pass Manager, and HD To Do List."
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post #1751 of 2518
10/17/12 at 7:50am
And hopefully fixes for Elite/XL4 tuner issues, inability to remember pause/resume points in HDUI for ongoing recordings, and HDUI/SDUI lockups that you can only get out of with iPhone remote control app or a reboot.

I've seen the first a few times ("problems with signal on this channel" on some or all channels when signal is good), the second happens all the time which is why I switched to SDUI (flip between two ongoing recordings in HDUI, like a couple of NFL games, to see it - mostly affects live sports when you're watching a bit behind live), and the third happens on a regular basis when I do page up/down in the SDUI.

If they can fix these bugs and add the new HD screens, I might be able to switch back to the HDUI. But the second bug is a killer for me.
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post #1752 of 2518
10/17/12 at 8:09am
I have question about my Series 4 Premier XL. I got one back in March and am under contract with TIVO until next March. However, we just switched to DirecTV and I went with the whole home DVR. Now, I need to sell my XL. How do I do that w/ the 5 remaining months left? Do I just transfer the account to the buyer? I paid almost $300 for it new and my buyout would be $75 (5 months x $14.99). What would be a fair selling price and would I be able to include the five months of service that is left? Or, would we change account names and account info.?
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post #1753 of 2518
10/17/12 at 8:53am
quick q's before i buy the lifetime subscription...if the box fails at any given point. i will at least get a equal value replacement one correct? or is it when the unit fails you have to start all over again. ie; fork out another 500.00 bucks
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post #1754 of 2518
10/17/12 at 9:54am
Usually they'll let you get a refurb and transfer service for $150 or so after it falls out of warranty.

But the usual case of failure is the drive, and there are cheaper ways to fix that yourself.
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post #1755 of 2518
11/8/12 at 8:44am
New update did add a few more menus in HD... multiroom viewing etc
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post #1756 of 2518
11/8/12 at 9:34am
Just bought a cheap refurb Premiere. I need to decide in the next 30 days whether to purchase lifetime or not on it.
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post #1757 of 2518
11/8/12 at 9:56am
How much and where?

Can you use the extender that's suppose to be coming out with it?
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post #1758 of 2518
11/8/12 at 11:08am
I would like to hear from people with experience transferring recorded shows from network storage (i.e. PC or NAS) back to the TiVo Premier for viewing.

I currently have a TiVo HD and am strictly OTA. I like to upload recordings to my network storage -- I tend to collect all the episodes of a series for block viewing in the summer. I have a media-PC running TiVo desktop that automatically pulls the shows off the TiVo as soon as they have recorded. The information I'm looking for is how well the Premier does when transferring the shows back to the TiVo for viewing.

The TiVo HD has a limited network transfer speed of ~10 Mbps. When I want to pull an HDTV recording back from storage the TiVo HD is unable to play it as soon as I initiate the transfer -- the transfer rate can't keep up. I have to let it transfer for a good 20-30 min before I can start playing it and be assured of uninterrupted viewing to the end of the show.

It is my understanding that one of the big improvements of the TiVo Premier's hardware is much faster network transfer speeds. So what I want to know, given the above scenario, can I start playing the HDTV show as soon as I initiate the transfer from network storage without buffer under-run? Is the transfer rate of the TiVo Premier fast enough to keep up?

With the holidays approaching, I'm getting the itch to treat myself my family to a new TiVo Premier. But the only way I can really justify it (to my wife) is if the transfer rate is fast enough to allow her to play her shows back from storage without having to wait longer than it takes to start the transfer. So I would especially like to hear from someone who actually does this and can say, yes or no, it does/doesn't work just like you want it to.
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post #1759 of 2518
11/8/12 at 11:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kelson View Post

.... So what I want to know, given the above scenario, can I start playing the HDTV show as soon as I initiate the transfer from network storage without buffer under-run? Is the transfer rate of the TiVo Premier fast enough to keep up? . . .

I have three Premier XL's, connected on a wireless-N network that only the TiVo's use. The Premiers are located in adjoining rooms, and I have an access point located in the same room as one of the TiVo's. When I transfer files from one TiVo to another, I can often complete the transfer of an hour-long show in slightly over 20 minutes. I often watch shows via TiVo #1, which are recorded on TiVo #2 or #3. The live transfer while watching almost never produces any stutter or other issues. Within moments of starting to watch the show, fast-fwd and 30-second skip work fine.

If you have a hard-wired connection you should absolutely have no problems whatsoever. The performance I'm getting with wireless did require some initial work and experimentation to get it to work as well as it does.
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post #1760 of 2518
11/8/12 at 3:05pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by WS65711 View Post

If you have a hard-wired connection you should absolutely have no problems whatsoever.
Thanks for the info. Yes it is hard-wired to the equipment rack and the throughput is good enough to stream full bitrate BD rips from the same server farm.

A little while after I wrote my inquiry, it occurred to me to revisit the #1 post of this thread -- not first on my list since it hasn't been updated in 2.5 yr. The answer to my specific question was there. MPEG-2 transfers from PC to TiVo are running 40Mbps which is 4X the speed of my TiVo HD. He reports no problems streaming HD content from his PC to the Premier.

I guess I'm sold. I'll just have to keep my eyes open for Christmas specials and sales.
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post #1761 of 2518
11/8/12 at 9:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kelson View Post

I would like to hear from people with experience transferring recorded shows from network storage (i.e. PC or NAS) back to the TiVo Premier for viewing.
I currently have a TiVo HD and am strictly OTA. I like to upload recordings to my network storage -- I tend to collect all the episodes of a series for block viewing in the summer. I have a media-PC running TiVo desktop that automatically pulls the shows off the TiVo as soon as they have recorded. The information I'm looking for is how well the Premier does when transferring the shows back to the TiVo for viewing.
The TiVo HD has a limited network transfer speed of ~10 Mbps. When I want to pull an HDTV recording back from storage the TiVo HD is unable to play it as soon as I initiate the transfer -- the transfer rate can't keep up. I have to let it transfer for a good 20-30 min before I can start playing it and be assured of uninterrupted viewing to the end of the show.
It is my understanding that one of the big improvements of the TiVo Premier's hardware is much faster network transfer speeds. So what I want to know, given the above scenario, can I start playing the HDTV show as soon as I initiate the transfer from network storage without buffer under-run? Is the transfer rate of the TiVo Premier fast enough to keep up?
With the holidays approaching, I'm getting the itch to treat myself my family to a new TiVo Premier. But the only way I can really justify it (to my wife) is if the transfer rate is fast enough to allow her to play her shows back from storage without having to wait longer than it takes to start the transfer. So I would especially like to hear from someone who actually does this and can say, yes or no, it does/doesn't work just like you want it to.

I get around 70Mb/s transfer rates between my TiVo Desktop PC and my TiVo Premiere boxes. That is several times the bitrate of any broadcast content. And a huge improvement in transfer speeds to/from TiVo Desktop over the Series 3 boxes.
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post #1762 of 2518
11/13/12 at 10:04pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kelson View Post

I would like to hear from people with experience transferring recorded shows from network storage (i.e. PC or NAS) back to the TiVo Premier for viewing.
....
I had a TivoHD and updated it to the Premiere because of the increased network copy speeds. However, I discovered that you do not need to replace your TivoHD to get better streaming speeds. If you use KMTTG (Google it...) and re-encode the video to the HB_TIVO_HD profile that you get rather good quality MP4 videos that you can view almost immediately. (note that I edited the Handbreak profile for Tivo to use 10Mbps instead of the 5 Mbps that it was using). Ive read that Tivo splits TiVO and MPG files into separate audio and video streams before it stores them - this is one reason it has slow throughput with TTG. It does not do this with MP4 files. I used StreamBaby to move the MP4 files to my TivoHD.

I did this with several season of Fringe and blocked viewed them over the summer. Worked great.
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post #1763 of 2518
11/16/12 at 11:28am
I have the original Premier. After 2 years, it is getting noisy and I think it is the fan.

Can anyone tell me how to replace the fan and what fan to buy?

Thanks, cb
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post #1764 of 2518
11/16/12 at 12:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by abredt View Post

I have the original Premier. After 2 years, it is getting noisy and I think it is the fan.
Can anyone tell me how to replace the fan and what fan to buy?
Thanks, cb

You can get a replacement fan here.

http://www.weaknees.com/tivo-fans.php

They also include the torx tools needed.

It's just the four screws for the fan(or is it two?) and the screws on the back to remove the cover. It takes longer to deal with the cover than to replace the fan. But it still only takes a few minutes.
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post #1765 of 2518
11/17/12 at 12:26pm
Speaking of replacements, I have an original 320GB Premiere. How hard is it to add a larger internal drive? I know there are external options but would rather not have another box.

Second question. The Desktop software works great to copy titles from the TiVo to the PC. Is there software to allow sending the titles back to the TiVo?
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post #1766 of 2518
11/18/12 at 4:59am
These people are great.

I ordered a 750MB drive from them for a Series 3 several years ago. Super easy and the drive came pre-formatted with the TiVo software.

http://www.weaknees.com/tivo-upgrade.php
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post #1767 of 2518
11/18/12 at 7:36am
Quote:
Originally Posted by JoeKustra View Post

Speaking of replacements, I have an original 320GB Premiere. How hard is it to add a larger internal drive? I know there are external options but would rather not have another box.
Second question. The Desktop software works great to copy titles from the TiVo to the PC. Is there software to allow sending the titles back to the TiVo?

Not hard at all, this thread is your friend. You'll need a PC that ideally has a couple of free SATA ports (or you can use a USB-to-SATA adapter) and a Torx screwdriver for the Tivo, think they are T-10 or T-15. Takes 5 mins. to open the case and get the drive out, then you put the old and new drives in the PC, boot off of the jmfs CD follow the prompts and wait a few hours for the copy to be done. That's it. Can go up to 2TB last time I checked.

pyTivo and kmttg are the best two programs for Tivo-to-PC transfers in both directions. Tivo Desktop is bloated and has too many limitations, but it is easy to use. But kmttg is not bad.
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post #1768 of 2518
11/18/12 at 8:15am
Quote:
Originally Posted by slowbiscuit View Post

pyTivo and kmttg are the best two programs for Tivo-to-PC transfers in both directions. Tivo Desktop is bloated and has too many limitations, but it is easy to use. But kmttg is not bad.

Thanks. I'm deciding which way to go.

I couldn't find where the TiVo Desktop could send a title back. Getting it off the TiVo was easy and took about 15 minutes.
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post #1769 of 2518
11/18/12 at 9:19am
I'm a new Tivo Premiere fourum member, so just wanted to say HI to all.
I just replaced my Sony DHG-HDD DVRs with Tivo Premiere 4s and, so far, I sure am liking the Tivos!!!

Thanks
James
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post #1770 of 2518
11/18/12 at 10:01am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jebiggers View Post

I'm a new Tivo Premiere fourum member, so just wanted to say HI to all.
I just replaced my Sony DHG-HDD DVRs with Tivo Premiere 4s and, so far, I sure am liking the Tivos!!!
Thanks
James
Did you lose your TVGOS or are you just being proactive?
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