# TiVo Premiere and movie server



## travisdaul (Apr 14, 2010)

anyone know if the new tivo premiere lets you play movies that are burned to a server/external hard drive?


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## CuriousMark (Jan 13, 2005)

Check out the Home Media and TiVo ToGo forum here for the many options that you have to do this.


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## curiousgeorge (Nov 28, 2002)

travisdaul said:


> anyone know if the new tivo premiere lets you play movies that are burned to a server/external hard drive?


We gave up on that and just use an Egreat m34a on one TV and a Popcorn Hour C-200 on the other one. Plays native ISOs (and a ridiculous list of other formats).

The Egreat is about $130, and the C-200 will run about $350 (but also does BluRay). They both draw off the same media server in our setup.


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## rhoops (Jan 8, 2005)

Sure does! I've got a lot of movies in DivX, .avi format on my HTPC.

Use TiVo Desktop and share them using that. Once you've enable the TiVo Desktop server it looks pretty much like another TiVo for multiroom viewing.



travisdaul said:


> anyone know if the new tivo premiere lets you play movies that are burned to a server/external hard drive?


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## jbdecker (Feb 28, 2002)

I use stream baby stream on my windows home server and love it! This was one of the many reasons I returned all of my moxi boxes. Nothing streams better than it.

Not sure if it works with .iso files though....haven't tried it yet.


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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

jbdecker said:


> I use stream baby stream on my windows home server and love it! This was one of the many reasons I returned all of my moxi boxes. Nothing streams better than it.
> 
> Not sure if it works with .iso files though....haven't tried it yet.


I have not tried streambaby yet. I just move the movies back and forth from the home server to the TIVO I want. I use Pytivo, but Tivo to go works just fine.

I may want to download and try out streambaby this weekend. Hope it isn't too difficult to setup!


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## Andrel (Oct 19, 2000)

Thank you Jbdecker for mentioning Streambaby. I have installed Streambaby and it rocks! 

I was using my PS3 for streaming and I really prefer Streambaby.


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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

I tried streambaby this weekend and it worked pretty well, but I just do not think it is for me.

It only streams non .tivo files... I consolodate all of my saved movies into a series of genre folders on my WHS. These consist of a collection of .tivo and other file formats.

Since streambaby will not stream .tivo file formats it is a little limiting for me and just a hastle to go to multiple places to find the movie I (or the family) wants.

Great product though. You guys really put a lot of effort into these things. It is just too bad all these nice products have to be burried into the menu structure and not more seemlessly integrated.


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

Well if you dont want to seperate the .tivo files, then you can always use kmttg to create a compatible format for streaming. Personally all of my .tivo files are seperate though.


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## bkdtv (Jan 9, 2003)

bradleys said:


> I tried streambaby this weekend and it worked pretty well, but I just do not think it is for me.
> 
> It only streams non .tivo files... I consolodate all of my saved movies into a series of genre folders on my WHS. These consist of a collection of .tivo and other file formats.
> 
> Since streambaby will not stream .tivo file formats it is a little limiting for me and just a hastle to go to multiple places to find the movie I (or the family) wants.


If you use kmttg to download the recorded files rather than TiVo Desktop, you have the option to decrypt every file into MPG as part of the download process, with the metadata (program information) saved as a separate text file. Streambaby will display the program information from the text file and stream the MPG.

Kmttg also provides more options for downloading recording files, including the option to download episodes from every series into its own series folder.


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## Bill McNeal (May 31, 2002)

Do programs like Streambaby and pytivo work without compatibility issues on Premiere?


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## bkdtv (Jan 9, 2003)

Bill McNeal said:


> Do programs like Streambaby and pytivo work without compatibility issues on Premiere?


Yes.

With pyTiVo, you do need to use a recent version so the Premiere is recognized as a high-definition TiVo.


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## DeWitt (Jun 30, 2004)

I use KMTTG and PyTivo with a premiere. The transfer speed capability of the Premiere makes this a great solution. Much more robust/flexible than the Tivo desktop.

I use it primarily to move .tivo files off to the Raid for added long term storage, but it is nice to be able to move a file to my iPod or laptop occasionally.

KMTTG - nice app on the PC to schedule and control transfers from Tivo to PC.
PyTivo - serves them up so you can get them from the Now Playing List.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

DeWitt said:


> I use KMTTG and PyTivo with a premiere. The transfer speed capability of the Premiere makes this a great solution.


It would be much, much nicer if the TiVo would accept and play additional formats so they don't have to be transcoded (which is slow and loses SIGNIFICANT quality, at least in my experience with the HD). I would be very happy if it could do that with 264/AC3/avi (which is an abomination, I know) or 264/AC3/mkv.


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

crxssi said:


> It would be much, much nicer if the TiVo would accept and play additional formats so they don't have to be transcoded (which is slow and loses SIGNIFICANT quality, at least in my experience with the HD). I would be very happy if it could do that with 264/AC3/avi (which is an abomination, I know) or 264/AC3/mkv.


For your mkv files, I wrote a Windows batch job to demux the mkv and remux to mp4. Here are the relevant links:

http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=7883170#post7883170
and
http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=7646122#post7646122


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## Phantom Gremlin (Jun 20, 2002)

crxssi said:


> It would be much, much nicer if the TiVo would accept and play additional formats so they don't have to be transcoded (which is slow and loses SIGNIFICANT quality, at least in my experience with the HD). I would be very happy if it could do that with 264/AC3/avi (which is an abomination, I know) or 264/AC3/mkv.


In an ideal world, what you desire would be a very smart business decision for TiVo. On top of everything else, it could become the premiere streamer solution.

In the real world, TiVo works well for basic functionality. Everything else sucks; or put more diplomatically the Premiere still has a lot of bugs. They need to "stick to the knitting" and fix what they have already promised.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

orangeboy said:


> For your mkv files, I wrote a Windows batch job to demux the mkv and remux to mp4. Here are the relevant links:


Thanks, but like TiVo, I use Linux.

So as long as the video is 264/ac3/mpeg4, then PyTiVo/TiVo doesn't have to transcode? If that is the case, then why doesn't PyTiVo just demux/recontainer on-the-fly, when it encounters 264/ac3/*?

Anyway, my stuff is stored a somewhat freaky 264/ac3/avi combination (hey- there was no such thing as mkv when I started, and the mpeg container caused problems with my players). A few months ago, I experimented with trying to de/re-mux the avi's into mkv, thinking it would be a more logical, modern, and accepted format... but the resulting files could not be played with PyTiVo (which surprised me)! Played fine with mplayer/etc. So I gave up, figuring I would try again some other day. I was trying "mkvtoolnix" with "mkvmerge -o outfile.mkv infile.avi"


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## bkdtv (Jan 9, 2003)

crxssi said:


> Thanks, but like TiVo, I use Linux.
> 
> So as long as the video is 264/ac3/mpeg4, then PyTiVo/TiVo doesn't have to transcode? If that is the case, then why doesn't PyTiVo just demux/recontainer on-the-fly, when it encounters 264/ac3/*?


You can't currently "pull" H264 videos. You can "push" H264 videos with AC3, provided they are in a MP4 container. "Pull" refers to video transfers requested from the bottom of the TiVo's NPL; "push" refers to video transfers initiated from a PC (or from within Streambaby).

With pyTiVo installed, you can push MP4 videos as is using the pyTivo web console at http://localhost:9032/. Alternatively, you can run Streambaby, which allows you to push videos directly from the TiVo interface. Streambaby instructions below:



> Download and extract the latest version Streambaby to a folder on your computer.
> 
> Edit the streambaby.ini to reflect the video folder where you extracted the MP4 calibration files, as well as your TiVo.com username and password. Your streambaby.ini might look like something this:
> 
> ...


As you can see from the stickied performance charts, MPEG-4 videos transfer about 50% faster than MPEG-2 videos.



crxssi said:


> Thanks, but like TiVo, I use Linux.
> 
> So as long as the video is 264/ac3/mpeg4, then PyTiVo/TiVo doesn't have to transcode? If that is the case, then why doesn't PyTiVo just demux/recontainer on-the-fly, when it encounters 264/ac3/*?


As for changing the container on-the-fly, I don't think ffmpeg can do that reliably.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

bkdtv said:


> You can't currently "pull" H264 videos. You can "push" H264 videos with AC3, provided they are in a MP4 container. "Pull" refers to video transfers requested from the bottom of the TiVo's NPL; "push" refers to video transfers initiated from a PC (or from within Streambaby).


Thanks for the info. I (like I guess most people) would want streaming, not pushing, so I guess I am stuck with transcoding until TiVo gets a clue. Since I am still on the HD (= miserable network speed) that cements it. I suppose if I do upgrade to a Premiere, then at least pushing would be much faster and possibly acceptable (with Streambaby as a UI) although it really, really aggravates me that the Premiere is still stuck with only streaming one container and with only a few codec combinations.



> With pyTiVo installed, you can push MP4 videos as is using the pyTivo web console


I gave up a long time ago trying to refer to video as a single format name. When you say "mp4" that doesn't really say which codecs are used/required, since the mp4 container is rather flexible. But if you say "264/ac3/mp4", then I know exactly what you mean (which is what I do think you meant, although I bet it will also accept mpeg2/ac3/mp4).



> As for changing the container on-the-fly, I don't think ffmpeg can do that reliably.


It seems that mkvmerge can't do it reliably not-on-the-fly, either  Or perhaps I was doing something wrong (not sure how, since the syntax is so simple).


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## bkdtv (Jan 9, 2003)

crxssi said:


> I gave up a long time ago trying to refer to video as a single format name. When you say "mp4" that doesn't really say which codecs are used/required, since the mp4 container is rather flexible. But if you say "264/ac3/mp4", then I know exactly what you mean (which is what I do think you meant, although I bet it will also accept mpeg2/ac3/mp4).


Both the TiVo HD and Premiere accept push transfers with mpg/ac3, mp4/ac3, and mp4/aac. Both also support streaming with the same formats using Streambaby. Throughput on the TivoHD makes streaming for many videos impractical, however.


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## shootsbooz (May 22, 2004)

I had some crashes and reboots when I serve up vobs (combined) from my PC via Tivo Desktop. From Tivo Desktop, I added the videos and they all came over and play flawlessly. My original thought was to keep all of the content on the PC, but this is the only Tivo Desktop solution that worked for me. My two cents.


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## tanoanian (Nov 1, 2003)

Orangeboy I'd love to use your script but I can't seem to find step by step instructions in any of the threads you've posted for doing so.

Could you post instructions for the layman? 

Would really appreciate it...


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

tanoanian said:


> Orangeboy I'd love to use your script but I can't seem to find step by step instructions in any of the threads you've posted for doing so.
> 
> Could you post instructions for the layman?
> 
> Would really appreciate it...


See this (new) post: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=448424


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## tanoanian (Nov 1, 2003)

Thanks orange dude!


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## vansmack (Dec 1, 2003)

Yes, thank you very much. This has been a huge help for my collection.


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## matelot (Feb 7, 2009)

Anyone knows if Streambaby on Tivo premiere still has the 1 GB limit before it reset the buffering again?


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

matelot said:


> Anyone knows if Streambaby on Tivo premiere still has the 1 GB limit before it reset the buffering again?


Yes, it does. If you include your tivo.com credential in the ini file, you can "push" the videos to the TiVo and avoid the buffer issue.


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

Check out vidmgr over in the HME Developers Corner. It allows you select vids from your server and have them pushed to the tivo. On a Premiere this happens in as little as 15 seconds and you can start playing as soon as the transfer starts because the push is faster than real time. Nice HD menus with cover art too.

For a premiere, this works far better than Streambaby as there is no rebuffering.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

jcthorne said:


> Check out vidmgr over in the HME Developers Corner. It allows you select vids from your server and have them pushed to the tivo. On a Premiere this happens in as little as 15 seconds and you can start playing as soon as the transfer starts because the push is faster than real time. Nice HD menus with cover art too.
> 
> For a premiere, this works far better than Streambaby as there is no rebuffering.


 FYI, with Streambaby you can also have it push (not stream) videos to your TiVos without the need for pyTivo to be running as well (as orangeboy indicated above).


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