# Any way to play non TiVo videos on Roamio?



## 2004raptor (Dec 31, 2005)

I'm guessing what I'm wanting to do is impossible but I figure I'd check anyway. 

I have a basic roamio in the living room and a mini in the bedroom. Is there any way to copy movies/video files off of my computer and play them on the roamio or mini? If not copy, then stream them?


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

Yes, with TiVo Desktop software and I believe PyTiVo.


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

Um, yes. check out Tivo desktop or pytivo. You cannot do this with the Mini, but it can stream them after transferring to the Roamio.


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## gweempose (Mar 23, 2003)

Check out Streambaby and pyTivo.


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## takeagabu (Oct 7, 2007)

I like using Vuze. It is a bittorrent client, but you can use it to put videos from your computer on the tivo. It's easy to set up (i think its just entering the MAK). Your tivos will just show up on a list of devices on your network. You just drag and drop files and they begin transcoding. A vuze folder automatically shows up on your tivo and you can transfer the files to the tivo. I almost always am able to immediately start watching as soon as it starts transcoding.


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## 2004raptor (Dec 31, 2005)

Wow, guess I was wrong. I didn't think anything existed. 

So, I guess I have a couple of options. I didn't realize TiVo desktop costs money now.  I used it for years with my old s2. 

Ultimately I want these videos to be able to be viewed on my mini. I'll download one this weekend and tinker around with it.

Thanks to all.


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## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

You can still download the free version.

http://assets.tivo.com/assets/exe/tivotogo/TiVoDesktop2.8.3.exe

Scott


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## gweempose (Mar 23, 2003)

2004raptor said:


> Ultimately I want these videos to be able to be viewed on my Mini.


It's very easy to use programs like Streambaby or pyTivo with your Roamio. It's a bit more complicated with the Mini. You have to "push" the video so that it is on the Roamio, and then you can stream it from the Mini. I believe there is a way to initiate the push from the Mini, but I've never done this, so I will let the experts in this area chime in.


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## swerver (May 18, 2012)

gweempose said:


> It's very easy to use programs like Streambaby or pyTivo with your Roamio. It's a bit more complicated with the Mini. You have to "push" the video so that it is on the Roamio, and then you can stream it from the Mini. I believe there is a way to initiate the push from the Mini, but I've never done this, so I will let the experts in this area chime in.


pyTivo uses a web interface, so if needed you can use that via phone/tablet to initiate a push to your roamio, and then you can watch on the mini. You can use the roamio to pull videos via pyTivo, but the mini doesn't have that option.


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## NJ Webel (Dec 8, 2004)

swerver said:


> pyTivo uses a web interface, so if needed you can use that via phone/tablet to initiate a push to your roamio, and then you can watch on the mini. You can use the roamio to pull videos via pyTivo, but the mini doesn't have that option.


Actually, pyTivo in conjunction with VidMGR can initiate a push from the Mini to the Roamio (or Premiere) and then you can stream it to the Mini. See here.

Streambaby allows the same functionality all on its own.


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## 2004raptor (Dec 31, 2005)

OK, I had a few minutes.

Started out with Streambaby. I clicked the .bat file but have no idea what it did. 

So, since it was mentioned pyTivo has a web interface I tried it. Went through all the steps here.
http://pytivo.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Windows_Install

Got to this step "Now that it's running, point your browser to http://localhost:9032. You should get the pyTivo home page:" and nothing. No page loads. Grrrrrrr. 

I should have known this wouldn't be easy.

Not sure where I went wrong with pytivo???


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Once you get it running it should be worth it. Or just use TiVo Desktop. With TiVo Desktop wHen you drop the videos into the specific video folder, they will automatically transfer to the Tivos you have selected.


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## 2004raptor (Dec 31, 2005)

aaronwt said:


> Once you get it running it should be worth it. Or just use TiVo Desktop. With TiVo Desktop wHen you drop the videos into the specific video folder, they will automatically transfer to the Tivos you have selected.


I may go that route. Gonna try pvtivo one more time. I posted a thread elsewhere and someone pointed out the mistake I made. Hopefully that resolves the issue.

OH, and thanks for the link, HerronScott.


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## DJQuad (Dec 22, 2004)

Keep in mind TiVo only supports the formats listed on http://support.tivo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/297 so you may need to use a converter on your videos first.


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## 2004raptor (Dec 31, 2005)

thanks. I thought I had seen somewhere that one of these programs handles .mkv files. Maybe it converted them to one of the mentioned formats.


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## squint (Jun 15, 2008)

I use pyTivo to send .mkv files to my Tivos all the time. They're transcoded using ffmpeg to MPEG2. It works quite well. I think .mkv in MPEG4 may be pushed to a Tivo without requiring transcoding though I'm not certain as I almost always just pull files from the PC.


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## ggieseke (May 30, 2008)

You can get some MKV files to work without transcoding first if you install the Haali Splitter. Desktop 2.7 had it built in, but they took it out in 2.8.

The actual audio & video codecs used within the MKV container still have to match those provided with Desktop Plus.


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