# TiVo Premiere may be the way to go...



## ScottE22 (Sep 19, 2003)

Hi all - Been away from TCF for a while, but things come full circle!

I've spent the last few months looking at unloading DTV and going to straight OTA with a side of streaming. Not wanting to go "cold turkey," I started slow...

To date, we've got a Roku XD (where have you been all my life?!?) which I bought around Christmas time. We really like all the content available and the kids now prefer content from Hulu Plus and Netflix to what's on live TV or the DTV DVR.

This weekend, I installed an EZ HD antenna in the attic space above my garage and pointed it toward Denver. The price is right, the antenna is well-constructed, and - WHOA! - I can receive all the networks in glorious HD.

Ironically, I'm now paying $16 MORE per month than I was before since we fell in love with Netflix and Hulu. Naturally, there is now more urgency on my part to cancel DTV and create a working setup.

To this point, I'd assumed I'd be building an HTPC with a Mac Mini and maybe EyeTV. I had given my TiVo HD to my dad years ago when we dropped Comcast and went with DTV and, honestly, aside from TiVo nostalgia now and then I hadn't given TiVo a thought as a possible solution.

With EyeTV and a Roku, we would have all the streaming and DVR capabilities we have gotten used to, but I have been worried about the ease of use. My wife and kids are fairly savvy, but I have been worried about the "upkeep" of a computer attached to a TV. Running updates, freezes, switching between Plex and EyeTV, having to use a keyboard and mouse (even occasionally) to do stuff.

Then through some dumb luck, I stumbled upon the Premiere which seems tailor-made for receiving OTA and streaming content. I've seen some posts here that the Netflix client is far from ideal, but that a change may be coming.

It seems to me that getting even a basic Mac Mini up and running with EyeTV, Plex, additional memory, a large hard-drive, a remote, etc. would easily push me into the $700-$800 range. And this still begged the question of how we could get anything other than OTA at our other TVs (without buying more Roku boxes...) For that money, I could (almost) acquire two Premiere's with lifetime service which (I think) would accomplish almost the same goals AND be kid-friendly and maintenance free.

So, a couple wonderings...


I am reading conflicting reports of whether multi-room viewing is a current feature or a "coming soon" feature with the Premiere. Can anyone confirm?
I am reading nightmare stories about playing other video content (ripped DVDs, etc) via pyTiVoX or other tools. Is this workable (all Mac household), or should I be considering adding an AppleTV into the mix for ease-of-use?
If I order two Premieres, am I correct that I will activate one Lifetime at $500 and the other at $400 (multi-service discount)?

I'm fairly technical and like messing with this stuff, but having said that it's also important that once it's working it stays working.

I've read some great reports of other "cord cutters" really digging the TiVo Premiere so I'm excited for the possibilities this brings vs a Mac Mini HTPC.

Thanks in advance!


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## darock159 (Nov 14, 2007)

Multi-room streaming is up and running and works great. Personally I have many of my dvds ripped and stored on a pc in the basement to stream content to my tivos via tivo desktop. To date I have not had any problems. For someone in your situation tivo should work great.


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## ScottE22 (Sep 19, 2003)

darock159 said:


> Multi-room streaming is up and running and works great. Personally I have many of my dvds ripped and stored on a pc in the basement to stream content to my tivos via tivo desktop. To date I have not had any problems. For someone in your situation tivo should work great.


Thanks so much. I was under the impression that TiVo Desktop could only stream audio. Is that not the case?


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## darock159 (Nov 14, 2007)

Tivo desktop will serve audio (music), photos, and video. I only use it for video though. I have used pytivo as well and it also does a good job, but I upgraded to tivo desktop plus a long time ago and for what I need it for it works great.


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## ScottE22 (Sep 19, 2003)

Looks like video sharing from computer to TiVo requires TiVo Desktop Plus which, alas, appears to be Windows only.


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## darock159 (Nov 14, 2007)

No they have tivo desktop software for mac as well


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## ScottE22 (Sep 19, 2003)

Right. But it appears the "Plus" upgrade is only available for Windows. I'll check again, though!


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## ScottE22 (Sep 19, 2003)

Found this...

Edited to add this as well.


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## dsnotgood (Aug 26, 2010)

I had same dilemma as you a little while ago...htpc or tivo. Ended up w/ 2 premieres w/ lifetime and use a ps3 to stream all media off my pc...works fantastic and zero issues. Couldn't be happier. And with the multi room streaming...awesome to continue shows from where I left off.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

ScottE22 said:


> Looks like video sharing from computer to TiVo requires TiVo Desktop Plus which, alas, appears to be Windows only.


Just use PyTiVo, then you can transfer content from any computer- Linux, MacOS, or MS-Windows, in just about any format (on-the-fly-transcoding) to the TiVo. Not only does it work well, but it is free and open source also.

http://pytivo.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/PyTivo

If you want to pull FROM the TiVo, and do other stuff also, then see kmttg. Surprise! Linux, MacOS, and MS-Windows; open source.

http://code.google.com/p/kmttg/


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## ScottE22 (Sep 19, 2003)

crxssi said:


> Just use PyTiVo, then you can transfer content from any computer- Linux, MacOS, or MS-Windows, in just about any format (on-the-fly-transcoding) to the TiVo. Not only does it work well, but it is free and open source also.
> 
> http://pytivo.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/PyTivo


Thank you so much! I've seen some comments that PyTiVo isn't working well with Lion, but I'll give it a try! On-the-fly transcoding vs re-encoding all of my existing media seems like a much easier workflow.

And I think I just realized that pyTiVo and pyTiVoX are not the same thing... <facepalm>


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## pmiranda (Feb 12, 2003)

ScottE22 said:


> I am reading nightmare stories about playing other video content (ripped DVDs, etc) via pyTiVoX or other tools. Is this workable (all Mac household), or should I be considering adding an AppleTV into the mix for ease-of-use?
> If I order two Premieres, am I correct that I will activate one Lifetime at $500 and the other at $400 (multi-service discount)?


I don't know about the mac, but pyTivo on Win7 with the DVD extension in combination with AnyDVD has been working great for me. I don't know of an easy solution for Bluray yet, but I think I'll have to since I just upgraded to a better TV  Also, if you find yourself wanting/needing subtitles, I don't know how well that can be made pushbutton.

On paper, I think the two lifetimes would be 900, but you might be able to finagle something... like start them both month-to-month, then when you go to lifetime them you could get the lower price on both? Or maybe just call them up and see what they can do.


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

pmiranda said:


> I don't know about the mac, but pyTivo on Win7 with the DVD extension in combination with AnyDVD has been working great for me. ....


not to get too far off track but can you describe a little more detail?

With the Dvd extension can you just use anydvd to physically copy the contents of each dvd to a subfolder on your server and it just works?


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## rayik (Feb 4, 2006)

ScottE22 said:


> I've read some great reports of other "cord cutters" really digging the TiVo Premiere so I'm excited for the possibilities this brings vs a Mac Mini HTPC.
> 
> Thanks in advance!


We "cut the cord" 13 months ago. For OTA, we went with a Tivo Series 3 OLED rather than Premiere. This was based on reviews, opinions, comparisions of both which stated the Series 3 OTA tuner was superior to the Premieres.

I had been contemplating a HTPC - but windows based. Built a test box and was not happy with it. Finding content was much more difficult than with a Tivo and Roku.

Good luck. If you have an xbox 360 and a gold membership, ESPN streams in HD many live sporting events. Just about everything on ESPNU and ESPN2 is streamed live. They also have replays of literally thousands of events.

Again, good luck and enjoy saving money.


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## pmiranda (Feb 12, 2003)

MichaelK said:


> not to get too far off track but can you describe a little more detail?
> 
> With the Dvd extension can you just use anydvd to physically copy the contents of each dvd to a subfolder on your server and it just works?


I use anydvd to copy each DVD to a folder on my server, which is shared by pytivo with the dvdvideo type. Anydvd automatically creates a subfolder with the name of the disc. So when I browse that share from my TiVo, I see a list of movie names. Drill into one, and you see a list of the DVD Title numbers, and "Main Feature" at the top, which is usually the movie itself. By browsing into the various titles you can see all the other stuff. Pick one and it starts transferring, and (on my wired ethernet) fast enough to start watching immediately. In fact the Premiere transfers much faster than my S3.

As I mentioned, subtitles aren't there, and you don't get all the DVD menus and navigation. Also, on some DVD's it picks up the wrong language, so I'll use dvdshrink (without any compression) to reauthor the movie with only the audio track I want.
I know there are ways to add back in the subtitles, possibly as closed captions that TiVo can enable, and you might be able to encode more than one audio track, but I haven't gone through the effort to learn how.


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## ScottE22 (Sep 19, 2003)

This is all very relevant info! I think I'm going to pull the trigger on one Premiere and see how it goes. I'll hook it up and give it some time to "fill up" with our fav shows via the antenna and then pull the DirecTV plug in a couple weeks.

Thanks, all.


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## ScottE22 (Sep 19, 2003)

I pulled the trigger on a Premiere on Amazon. At $89 I couldn't resist. I know I could've gotten it for around $80 from a couple other places, but they weren't eligible for Prime and I'm not good at delayed gratification.

It'll be here tomorrow!


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## pmiranda (Feb 12, 2003)

You did better than me... I paid $99 at best buy so I wouldn't have to wait 2 days


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## Jebberwocky! (Apr 16, 2005)

ScottE22 said:


> I pulled the trigger on a Premiere on Amazon. At $89 I couldn't resist. I know I could've gotten it for around $80 from a couple other places, but they weren't eligible for Prime and I'm not good at delayed gratification.
> 
> It'll be here tomorrow!


I did the exact same thing last week but I also bought a 2tb hard drive upgrade off of ebay ($169) and they were both delivered 2 days later.


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## ScottE22 (Sep 19, 2003)

Jebberwocky! said:


> I did the exact same thing last week but I also bought a 2tb hard drive upgrade off of ebay ($169) and they were both delivered 2 days later.


I'm SO tempted... Now's the time when it's easy to do, too. Before I have a ton of content recorded...


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## Jebberwocky! (Apr 16, 2005)

I ran through the setup with the stock drive and once I ascertained that everything was working I swapped drives - took me 5 minutes. Then I had to run through the setup once again but it was worth it. 300+ hours of capacity HD recording.

bought the drive from here


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## Budshark (Feb 24, 2012)

Scott -

I have the exact same setup and went through the same process as you.

I have EyeTV, but the WAF and kid friendliness wasn't there. That didn't fly.
I worked through all my DTV options, that wasn't there.

So, I settled on a TiVo and its perfect.

I have 1 Premiere, and 2 AppleTVs. The Premiere is on the main TV and AppleTVs elsewhere. I use Roxio Titanium to auto transfer the kids shows and anything that needs to be archived or watched on a secondary TV. Then I use Toast to convert the Tivo video to iTunes (it dumps it right in). Once that happens, its available to stream throughout the house to the AppleTVs and can be copied to an iPad for viewing on the road (bonus, the same tools work for EyeTV recordings).

So far, its been flawless. The last step I need is to schedule/script the Toast conversions, but otherwise, the Tivo Transfer is automatic and I just click the "Toast It" button in Tivo Transfer on the Mac once a day or so and put the Tivo files through Toast and into iTunes. I'm spending less than 5 minutes a day which is why I haven't automated that last step.

I also used the popular ripping software to backup the kids DVDs. Now with the Tivo, Tivo Transfer, Toast, and the DVDs all working and dumping into iTunes, the 1 Premiere and 2 AppleTVs are all we need to cover 3 TVs. Quality on the secondary TVs is on par or better than Netflix HD streaming.


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## ScottE22 (Sep 19, 2003)

Thanks, budshark! I was thinking of something similar. I have a Roku and a first-gen ATV. Since Hulu and Netflix will be on the TiVo, I'll probably move the Roku into the master bedroom for the time being until I decide if I'll get a second TiVo (I probably will).

My TiVo Premiere arrived today and I've been messing with it this evening. I have to say, it's been just over three years without TiVo and it was like welcoming back an old friend.

I had an offer for $100 off a Lifetime Subscription so I pulled the trigger. For $490 I have a TiVo, all the major networks, and no monthly fees beyond the $16 for Netflix and Hulu. That's still far less than I'd have spent on a Mac Mini + EyeTV. And it all works.

One more question (for now): I keep forcing it to connect to the TiVo service, but I still can't get Video On Demand content to show up (it keeps saying, "Connect to TiVo Service") or the new "HD" menus. Am I missing a menu option somewhere?

UPDATE: NVM it asked for a restart and now it's doing an update that it says may take an hour or longer... I assume when I wake up in the morning it'll be "re-born" with the VOD and HD options.


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## ScottE22 (Sep 19, 2003)

Some "noticings" after 24 hours...


It's great to be back.
The HDUI is pretty but quirky. Sometimes it's fine, sometimes the lag is such that I'm not sure I pressed a button.
The places where they haven't upgraded to HDUI make for a rather jarring experience as you move in and out of them.
I love having one box with my DVR, Hulu, and Netflix.
I need better network connectivity to behind my TV.

If all goes well, I plan to cancel DirecTV officially after the season finale of The Bachelor. (You don't want to know...)


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## Jeff_DML (Mar 3, 2009)

ScottE22 said:


> Some "noticings" after 24 hours...
> 
> 
> It's great to be back.
> ...


Do you have the latest SW? My TiVo I got a few weeks ago had old SW and it took a few days before I was able to download.


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## ScottE22 (Sep 19, 2003)

Jeff_DML said:


> Do you have the latest SW? My TiVo I got a few weeks ago had old SW and it took a few days before I was able to download.


Good question. I had to make it go online several times last night before I even got the HD guide as an option. Maybe I'll force it again if it's not scheduled to "check in" before I go to bed tonight.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

ScottE22 said:


> Good question. I had to make it go online several times last night before I even got the HD guide as an option. Maybe I'll force it again if it's not scheduled to "check in" before I go to bed tonight.


If you have the new HD guide (with the live video in a small window), then you have 20.2 which is the current release of the software.

You mention the HDUI being "quirky" and having some delays and such.... welcome to the HDUI  It has improved a lot, but that is it's nature.


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## ScottE22 (Sep 19, 2003)

crxssi said:


> You mention the HDUI being "quirky" and having some delays and such.... welcome to the HDUI  It has improved a lot, but that is it's nature.


OK. That jives with everything I've read here so it sounds like I'm up-to-date!


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## Jebberwocky! (Apr 16, 2005)

ScottE22, I sold the drive that came with the premiere that I swapped out for $50 on amazon, reducing the cost of the HD upgrade to ~$130


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## ScottE22 (Sep 19, 2003)

Jebberwocky! said:


> ScottE22, I sold the drive that came with the premiere that I swapped out for $50 on amazon, reducing the cost of the HD upgrade to ~$130


Outstanding!! I'm loving the Premiere but it seems to fill up way faster than my DTV DVR did. I'm not sure why.

Once I officially pull the plug on DTV I plan to order a second Premiere so I'll probably order the drive upgrade with that one and do it before hooking it up.

Do you have to plug it in and activate it with the original drive or can you do the swap right away?


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## Jebberwocky! (Apr 16, 2005)

I activated it only with the new drive, I was afraid to with the original one.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

ScottE22 said:


> Outstanding!! I'm loving the Premiere but it seems to fill up way faster than my DTV DVR did. I'm not sure why.


Maybe because of the patented, "suggestions" recording ability? Remember, nobody but TiVo has it. And I think it is one of the best TiVo features...


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## ScottE22 (Sep 19, 2003)

So my second Premiere came last night and I set it up, eager to finally kill the satellite bill now that I know we can survive. It's all set up and, other than a networking issue I'm trying to address, working fine.

Now, when I activated my original Premiere, I used the PLSR coupon and got Lifetime for $399. _Prior to even pulling the trigger on the second box_ I visited my account page several times and verified that I could add a second TiVo and qualify for MRS even after activating the first discounted unit. Everything looked good. I added everything to my shopping cart and went right up to the part where you have to pay, and everything looked good.

I then bought the box off Amazon because it was cheaper and I could get it faster. I set it up and went online to activate. I held my breath hoping to see that I was, indeed, eligible for the MRS discount and it said I was. I put in my account info and hit "Purchase" and was presented with a confirmation screen that indicated the discounted price.

So I wake up this morning and have an email in my inbox that is a receipt for the full (non-MRS) price. Odd. So I go online and check my account and, indeed, I paid the full price. So I called a rep and was basically told that I can't activate a second unit on the MRS rate since I didn't pay full price for the first Lifetime subscription. Plus, she said I was never really entitled to that original discount in the first place so what she really should do is charge me retroactively for the original Lifetime purchase and then she could apply the discount to the second unit. She was non-plussed even when I told her I'd verified the rate several times before deciding to purchase.

Right. Six of one...

So, I don't want to be "that guy" and complain about not getting something for nothing, but I'm miffed because I did my due diligence and checked before I bought to make sure I'd get the MRS discount and _then_, even when I went online to register it when I finally bought it, the discount was there in the shopping cart. I only found out I wasn't eligible _after_ I bought the box and, even then, only _after_ I got the receipt.

Is this typical? If so, I will take my lumps and move on. If not, I will call and be more persistent. I'd like the discount on Lifetime for the second unit, but I'm not prepared to send back both boxes (I'm within the 30-day window on both...).


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## L David Matheny (Jan 29, 2011)

ScottE22 said:


> Is this typical? If so, I will take my lumps and move on. If not, I will call and be more persistent. I'd like the discount on Lifetime for the second unit, but I'm not prepared to send back both boxes (I'm within the 30-day window on both...).


I don't know how typical it is. Certainly TiVo's price structure can be an adventure. But if you're going to argue the point with them, definitely do it during your 30-day window. You might have less bargaining power after that.


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## ScottE22 (Sep 19, 2003)

L David Matheny said:


> I don't know how typical it is. Certainly TiVo's price structure can be an adventure. But if you're going to argue the point with them, definitely do it during your 30-day window. You might have less bargaining power after that.


That's what I figured. Now that I've invested all this time and energy in this cord-cutting adventure, what's another $100 among friends?

I'll call again tomorrow and argue politely. Worst case, I pay what I would've paid anyway without the original discount.

Is it the case that you need to have one full-price unit on your account to qualify for MRS?


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

ScottE22 said:


> Worst case, I pay what I would've paid anyway without the original discount.


Indeed.



> Is it the case that you need to have one full-price unit on your account to qualify for MRS ?


Yes. 
BTW, it's MSD (Multi Service Discount).

MRS is the new short for Multi-Room Streaming.


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## ScottE22 (Sep 19, 2003)

steve614 said:


> BTW, it's MSD (Multi Service Discount).
> 
> MRS is the new short for Multi-Room Streaming.


Doh! I knew that. I'm also having problems getting MRS to work. So between MRS and MSD I've been SOL the last two days.


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## ScottE22 (Sep 19, 2003)

I set up my second Premiere on Wednesday and all seemed good. I forced updates until I got 20.2. To date, however, my MAK field has not populated, VOD says, "No network connection" even though I know it has one, and I can't turn on MRS or or the HDUI (possibly as a result of all this other stuff).

Now it's Friday morning and tivo.com says it's still activating my account and I should check back in another 24 hours. It's a bit frustrating that I can buy an iPhone, walk out of the store, and make a call, but it's going on 48 hours and I can't make full use of my TiVo because it's not fully activated.

It's a good thing for them there aren't any legitimate alternatives as this is extremely frustrating. I am waiting until everything is 100% working before canceling DTV.

/end frustrated morning rant

I sure hope it's working when I get home tonight.


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## ScottE22 (Sep 19, 2003)

So, an update. I now have HDUI menus available and can "see" my Living Room TiVo in "My Shows," but when I try to connect I get the error that they're not on the same account. But the are. I contacted TiVo (again) and was told that they sometimes take up to 72 hours to fully activate.

So when I called Wednesday, I was told they take up to 24 hours.

When I called Thursday, they said it might take up to 48.

Tonight, they're telling me sometimes it takes as long as 72.

At least I'm seeing progress...


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

ScottE22 said:


> That's what I figured. Now that I've invested all this time and energy in this cord-cutting adventure, what's another $100 among friends?
> 
> I'll call again tomorrow and argue politely. Worst case, I pay what I would've paid anyway without the original discount.
> 
> Is it the case that you need to have one full-price unit on your account to qualify for MRS?


Well if your price showed a discounted price online, and that is what you agreed to pay, that is what they should be charging you. Even if they made a mistake, they should have better control of their online billing.
But realistically, maybe you can get them to give you a couple of the BT remotes for paying $100 more than your were told online you would be paying.
You would think they would consider giving you at least one BT remote for the trouble they caused by having erroneous info in your checkout.


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## ScottE22 (Sep 19, 2003)

So I never got this resolved. The monthly continued to show up as $19.99 even though the $14.99 MSD had been reflected in both my pre-purchase quote and my sign-up screen. 

Either way, I decided to go ahead and upgrade to lifetime figuring, based on all of the above, it'd cost $499 since I do not have a full-price box on my account. So I click the "Change plan" button and I am taken to a screen that shows me a lifetime price of $399 - $19.99 for the month I already paid. What the?

I figure this has to be a mistake. So I choose the $399 plan (which is the only one available) and click "Continue" figuring it'll change on the next screen. Well, it doesn't. It's still showing $399 - $19.99. So this time I'm prepared. I take a screen grab figuring it's going to be another case where everything reflects the MSD until I get the receipt in my email. Then I click "Confirm" and am taken to the on-screen receipt. Everything still looks good so I take another screen grab and print the receipt.

So I hold my breath again and pop over to check my email fully expecting the email receipt to come in saying I was charged the full $499 lifetime price. But, no. This time my email receipt actually reflects the MSD being applied.

We shall see, but this time I have screen grabs and a correct receipt so I'm hoping it stays the same. If it does, I'll have activated two TiVos with Lifetime for $399 -- the first one on a promo code and the second with MSD.


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## maturgeek (Dec 24, 2007)

ScottE22 said:


> Thanks so much. I was under the impression that TiVo Desktop could only stream audio. Is that not the case?


I believe it will stream video, at least with Desktop plus.


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## ScottE22 (Sep 19, 2003)

maturgeek said:


> I believe it will stream video, at least with Desktop plus.


Turns out, it will! With a little monkeying in Terminal.


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