# Netgear router extended storage



## rboutin2 (Oct 27, 2011)

I just bought the WNDR3800 netgear premium edition router. It says it has support for tivo extended storage. i have a 640 gb wd external hd connected to the router. i have the box checked that says enable tivo extended storage. i have two tivo premieres. When i look at either tivos, neither says anything about extra space. How does this extended storage work exactly?


----------



## SNJpage1 (May 25, 2006)

According to the Netgear web site it isnt used the same way a hard drive plugged into the back of the Tivo works. It says you can save recordings to the USB unit attached to it and then Stream them on the Tivo. Sounds like it eliminates having to transfer them back to the Tivo to watch. Would be just like when you stream movies from Netflix.


----------



## rboutin2 (Oct 27, 2011)

oh, so pretty much with the new premiere update, and multiroom streaming, this feature isnt gna be used much lol? I dont see the point of sendign them to my external, just to watch them from there.


----------



## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

Never heard of it before. I could totally see this being used for those who don't want to deal with pyTiVo or if it allows a method to get around MRV restrictions for archival materials. I looked over the netgear site, but don't find much to describe what it does. When I searched google, this thread comes up near the top of the list. Hmm.


----------



## SNJpage1 (May 25, 2006)

I guess the feature could be used to save a lot of movies. You could add as many external USB drives as you want to the netgear router. Personally I would go with a larger internal drive in the Tivo.


----------



## nrc (Nov 17, 1999)

This sounds like the same feature they have on their ReadyNAS NAS unit. If you're not encumbered by cable company copy protection then it provides you with basically unlimited storage of content without having to worry about opening your TiVo or managing all of that in your Now Playing List. 

I have most of my favorite movies saved in HD along with two seasons of football.

You can also use it to backup your favorite recordings in case of drive failure.


----------



## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

rboutin2 said:


> oh, so pretty much with the new premiere update, and multiroom streaming, this feature isnt gna be used much lol? I dont see the point of sendign them to my external, just to watch them from there.


I would totally use networked storage.

1) Most likely easier/possible to increase maximum storage size (we're already hitting the maximum on Tivos again -- yes I remember the 137 gigs on series 1s too)
2) Presumably they're in some kind of STANDARD format, not Tivo's wacky partitioning scheme, so you can get at the recordings easily to back it up, etc..
(yes I've had Tivo drives fail in non-hardware ways.. as well as hardware ways).. if my shows were on a network server, then I would have lost far fewer.


----------



## Worf (Sep 15, 2000)

It's nothing that fancy. I have that router and saw the feature.

It's just a way to stream video/music/movies to TiVo without using TiVo Desktop, that's all. It's just an extra-fancy DLNA server. ("Enable DLNA Server" followed by "Enable TiVo Support").

Of course, if you grabbed the content from your TiVo, you could put it on the Netgear and stream it back, but TiVo can't use it natively other than via the stadnard movie/music streaming already supported.


----------



## mwysocki (Nov 25, 2002)

I have this setup on my WNDR3700 and unless you put MPEG-2 or TIVO file on it the DVR will not see them.


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

mwysocki said:


> I have this setup on my WNDR3700 and unless you put MPEG-2 or TIVO file on it the DVR will not see them.


MPEG-2 is the only format TiVo supports without recoding* so it makes sense that those are the only formats this thing would recognize. They'd have to have enough power to recode if they wanted to support any other formats.

Dan


----------



## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

What's the asterisk for? They support MPEG4 too, right?


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I forgot to fill in the astrix part. 

They support H.264 and VC-1 as well, but only when it is pushed to the TiVo. Since this is a pull device that doesn't really apply here. 

Dan


----------



## swarto112 (Sep 10, 2012)

i switched to the wndr4500..awesome router. wish they'd add th tivo storage option


----------



## SuncoastTivoFan (Jul 29, 2002)

swarto112 said:


> i switched to the wndr4500..awesome router. wish they'd add th tivo storage option


I just bought a Netgear WNDR4500 based on this:

http://www.netgear.com/images/Router Chart 9_1118-44305.pdf

Which states that it supports TiVo Extended Storage but it has no option for it in the management interface and nothing about it in the manual. Netgear support also doesn't know what I am talking about. Going to try and escalate the issue and get a resolution.

-Jay


----------



## CuriousMark (Jan 13, 2005)

SuncoastTivoFan said:


> I just bought a Netgear WNDR4500 based on this:
> 
> http://www.netgear.com/images/Router Chart 9_1118-44305.pdf
> 
> ...


Netgear pretends that the TiVo is a DLNA client and handles the differences between the TiVo and a real DLNA client in the background silently. Just set it up as if you were going to use it to stream to a DLNA enabled TV or Bluray player and then check to see if it becomes visible to the TiVo DVR. Next mark a show as KUID and give it some time to find it on the DVR and copy it to the extended storage. Once it has done so check the TiVo again and see if it shows up and if you can pull the show back to the TiVo.

...Oh Wait! TiVo transfers are broken due to the expired cookie bug! So the KUID transfer mechanism won't work. OK, use TiVo Desktop on a PC, with the morac bug fix installed to copy a show from the TiVo and store it on the extended storage device where it wants to keep TV shows. Now go back to the TiVo and see if the Netgear share shows up and you can see the TV show.

(You could try the KUID method if you set the Netgear to a date before 2/15/2013, though I doubt the date will stay wrong for long)


----------



## SuncoastTivoFan (Jul 29, 2002)

CuriousMark said:


> use TiVo Desktop on a PC, with the morac bug fix installed to copy a show from the TiVo and store it on the extended storage device where it wants to keep TV shows. Now go back to the TiVo and see if the Netgear share shows up and you can see the TV show.


Thanks for that great response. I had already tried those recommendations. A program on the drive didn't trigger the router to show up on the TiVo and no KUID programs were transferred to the NAS

I did receive a response from 2nd level Netgear support though that indicates this will never work.



> I regret to inform you that "TiVo Extended Storage" feature is not available on NETGEAR WNDR4500v1 model. This feature is currently available only on NETGEAR WNDR3800 and the WNDR4500v2 which will be release this coming March 2013. There has been an error with the documentation that you provided that the WNDR4500v1 supports this feature.
> 
> http://www.netgear.com/images/Router Chart 9_1118-44305.pdf


Not the answer I wanted, but at least now I know and can return this one.

-Jay


----------

