# Netgear ReadyNAS Ultra: Stream media to your Tivo over your network!



## keyzone72 (Oct 15, 2007)

Netgear has announced a new NAS product called the Netgear ReadyNAS Ultra. It is supposed to be available in July 2010 and will be available in different configurations. The good, better, best incrementally increases storage capacity options and CPU/memory power. The flagship actually has *6 drive bays!* Wow!










*Click here* to visit Engadget HD announcement page.​
What makes this new device very interesting to TIVO users is the initial claim that TIVO DVR's will be able to stream media directly from this device. This could be a fantastic (and long overdue) solution to finally not have to transfer a show and wait forever for it to complete. I suppose that as long as the video is not copy protected and can be transferred to this NAS, then perhaps this will be a viable solution for TIVO users who've longed to be able to stream video from a central location to any TIVO in thier home. But after reading the intitial announcement, I found myself asking many unanswered questions.


Will this device run some sort of "Tivo to go" software (proprietary or not) allowing video transfers fom TIVO DVR's to the NAS?

Will this device not only support SD video, but also HD video?

If this device does support HD, will it only do 720, or 1080i/1080P?

Will wireless streaming work? Or will hardwired connections ony be supported?
If this device can actually stream HD video to TIVO DVR's, then I think I will seriously consider buying this product. What do you guys think?


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## thebfg (Aug 1, 2004)

There's a PCMag article (sorry, I'm not allowed to post links yet) that is a little more forthcoming about the TiVo features:

"But it may be the TiVo connection that may draw customers to the ReadyNAS devices. TiVo already allows users of the Western Digital My DVR Expander to connect to its set-tops, including the TiVo HD XL and the new Premiere devices. Like the WD My DVR drive, the drive is "locked" to a particular TiVo box via a special code and encrypted files. However, the TiVo set-top apparently allows an unlimited amount of storage to be used, via the Netgear ReadyNAS drives."

Which makes the ReadyNAS Ultra sound like a giant MyDVR drive, which is disappointing. Would much rather have a networked storage drive that all my TiVos could read from and write to directly.


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

thebfg said:


> There's a PCMag article (sorry, I'm not allowed to post links yet) that is a little more forthcoming about the TiVo features:
> 
> "But it may be the TiVo connection that may draw customers to the ReadyNAS devices. TiVo already allows users of the Western Digital My DVR Expander to connect to its set-tops, including the TiVo HD XL and the new Premiere devices. Like the WD My DVR drive, the drive is "locked" to a particular TiVo box via a special code and encrypted files. However, the TiVo set-top apparently allows an unlimited amount of storage to be used, via the Netgear ReadyNAS drives."
> 
> Which makes the ReadyNAS Ultra sound like a giant MyDVR drive, which is disappointing. Would much rather have a networked storage drive that all my TiVos could read from and write to directly.


Oh crap. So that means this monster has to be relatively close (at least an e-sata cable's length) from the one DVR it's attached to?

Actually, it sounds like PC Mag is misinforming or is confused about the Media Access Key (MAK). I'm wondering if this would be closer to the true tale: 


> "the drive is the files are "locked" to a particular TiVo box account via a special code and encrypted files."


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## keyzone72 (Oct 15, 2007)

thebfg said:


> There's a PCMag article (sorry, I'm not allowed to post links yet) that is a little more forthcoming about the TiVo features:
> 
> "But it may be the TiVo connection that may draw customers to the ReadyNAS devices. TiVo already allows users of the Western Digital My DVR Expander to connect to its set-tops, including the TiVo HD XL and the new Premiere devices. Like the WD My DVR drive, the drive is "locked" to a particular TiVo box via a special code and encrypted files. However, the TiVo set-top apparently allows an unlimited amount of storage to be used, via the Netgear ReadyNAS drives."
> 
> Which makes the ReadyNAS Ultra sound like a giant MyDVR drive, which is disappointing. Would much rather have a networked storage drive that all my TiVos could read from and write to directly.


*Here's* the link to the PC MAG article.

I didn't know it uses iscsi. That sounds expensive. Yeah, if only one TIVO DVR can access this device remotely, then that sucks. I have three Series 3 units and I was hopng all of them could stream HD video files from this new device. After its released, we'll know more.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

keyzone72 said:


> What makes this new device very interesting to TIVO users is the initial claim that TIVO DVR's will be able to stream media directly from this device.
> 
> This could be a fantastic (and long overdue) solution to finally not have to transfer a show and wait forever for it to complete.


Um...

1. You don't have to wait for a transfer to complete before you can start playing it.
2. Streaming is not inherently any faster than transferring, either to start or for the whole thing.
3. Streaming is available already.

I could qualify all the above, but they're basically valid.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

wmcbrine said:


> 2. Streaming is not inherently any faster than transferring, either to start or for the whole thing.


This actually depends on the seeking capabilities of the streaming server. One potential benefit of streaming over transferring is you can jump around in the program at will, while transfer services typically transfer the program from start to end so you can only access the portions of the program that have finished transferring.

That being said I don't think there is any real practical benefit to streaming vs transferring other then working around copy protection limitations, which only applies when streaming directly from one TiVo to another.

Dan


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## nrc (Nov 17, 1999)

It will be interesting to see what this really turns out to be. Existing ReadyNAS units can already act as a repository for TTG recordings and transfer directly to TiVo for playback.


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## keyzone72 (Oct 15, 2007)

According to page 3 of the PDF product sheet, this unit is supposed to be able to Stream to Tivo's:

http://www.netgear.com/upload/product/rnduxxxx/readynas_ultra_series_ds_07july10.pdf

If it can, that's be pretty cool as you wouldn't have to transfer a tv show or movie from the NAS to a Tivo. Almost like a "Video on Demand, " from your local video library.


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## nrc (Nov 17, 1999)

That's not really accurate. What they actually do is a copy from the NAS unit to the TiVo - at least in the version I have. You can watch while it's transferring, so it doesn't make much difference if you have a wired connection.

This was discussed in the other forum, but to update here. This is the same TTCB capability that ReadyNAS units have had for about a year. They've added a feature now that will automatically archive any programs from your TiVo that are marked KUID. If you're blessed to have a cable provider without copy protection, it's a nice feature.


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## jbernardis (Oct 22, 2003)

I assume that I can place my own video files on the ReadyNAS and then transfer/stream them to the tivo. What I'd like to know though, is if the unit does any transcoding - or do all of the videos need to be in a specific format.


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## nrc (Nov 17, 1999)

The ReadyNAS application only supports MPEG1/2. I'm not sure if it's only native TiVo format or if any old MPEG2 file will work. Here's a thread on the ReadyNAS forum talking about it:

http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=76&t=43139

Basically since they're only using the "pull" feature of HME they're limited to the formats that it supports.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

I don't have this device, but I'm pretty sure it's using HMO, not HME. (If it were HME, it wouldn't be limited to MPEG-2.)


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