# Watch 2 shows on TV Display



## tweekerz (Oct 13, 2002)

With larger televisions and resolutions available, how about the idea of the Tivo outputting two shows/recordings/channels onto the TV at one time?

Since most TVs do not do PIP any longer (nor does TV allow for control of two feeds via two different outputs from Tivo), why doesn't Tivo manage the output to tile 2 or 4 or whatever amount of TV streams.

I want to watch Nascar while the kiddo is screaming for Mickey, and I don't want to fire up an iPad.


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

How long does an ipad take to "fire up"? With a kid screaming for Mickey, seems like the ideal solution.


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## tweekerz (Oct 13, 2002)

It was simply a figure of speech, and am hoping to find out what has been accomplished in the past> I haven't found this topic come up on any Tivo Advisors Panel questionnaires, either.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

PIP is going away because most people don't use it. TiVo isn't going to invest in a dying technology.

What I'd like to see is better use of 3D technology so that two people can watch two different shows at the same time. The way 3D works is it alternates display of a stream intended for your left eye and your right eye, and the glasses simply block each eye in sync. Rather then alternating eyes they could alternate display of frames from two different inputs and completely block both eyes of the user when displaying a frame for the other show. With headphones each user could hear their desired source. (bonus if they are built into the glasses)

LG had a technology like this they were marketing to game makers so they could do split screen gaming without having to actually split the screen. Each player would see their POV as taking up the whole TV. It never really took off, but I think it's a fantastic idea. Since 3D is sort of dying it would be another use for all that R&D they put into the glasses and would create another justification for high Hz TVs.


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## tweekerz (Oct 13, 2002)

Dying Technology?
My Tivo Premiere and Roamio have a PIP window when viewing the Tivo menus! Wish they could simply allow something that is recorded rather than the Tivo menu


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

tweekerz said:


> Dying Technology?
> My Tivo Premiere and Roamio have a PIP window when viewing the Tivo menus! Wish they could simply allow something that is recorded rather than the Tivo menu


You yourself said PIP is disappearing from TVs. There is a reason. I'm sure it's technically possible for the TiVo to do PIP, but there are still development costs, beta testing, etc... It's going away from TVs because with DVRs it's mostly unnecessary. Why try to watch two shows simultaneously when you can simply record one and watch it later? The situation you describe where two people want to watch different things simultaneously is pretty rare.


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

Isn't there only one decoder in the TiVo? I don't think the hardware is capable of displaying two programs at the same time. The Roamio was built with fewer components than older models to decrease costs. That's why the 6 tuner models don't have OTA tuners or analog encoders. No TiVo ever had more than one decoder.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

The Brodcom chipset they use supports decoding two streams at once. This is a software limitation, but one I don't think they're really inclined to add because the feature wouldn't be used by most people.


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## malverde (Mar 13, 2007)

tweekerz said:


> With larger televisions and resolutions available, how about the idea of the Tivo outputting two shows/recordings/channels onto the TV at one time?
> 
> Since most TVs do not do PIP any longer (nor does TV allow for control of two feeds via two different outputs from Tivo), why doesn't Tivo manage the output to tile 2 or 4 or whatever amount of TV streams.
> 
> I want to watch Nascar while the kiddo is screaming for Mickey, and I don't want to fire up an iPad.


This would be slick...


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

Dan203 said:


> ...... Why try to watch two shows simultaneously when you can simply record one and watch it later? ......


 During football season, PiP is an invaluable tool! When I had the DTV genie I had The Redzone Channel in the smaller window to see highlights of all the games and the larger window had my Eagles kickin' someone's azz. ;-)


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I'm not a sports fan so I don't get the obsession with watching live. Can't you just watch all those Red Zone highlights later?


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

Dan203 said:


> I'm not a sports fan so I don't get the obsession with watching live.


 That explains a LOT! 



> Can't you just watch all those Red Zone highlights later?


No not really. It's live look ins to each game, usually when one of the teams reaches the "Red Zone" (inside the 20 yard line) and is about to score, hence the name of the channel.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I use to watch football, but I wasn't a die hard fan. And I'd usually record the games and watch delayed by an hour, or three, so I could skip the commercials. As long as I didn't spoil it for myself by seeing the final score somewhere else it was still "live" to me.


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## telemark (Nov 12, 2013)

I use PIP on every display I can. I agree that it's become a rare feature. I think it's because when we went to Digital TV, it was uncommon to have two tuners built into a TV. (or 2 cable boxes or 2 sat boxes).

Now extra tuners have become commonplace again, I would like to see it come back too.


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