# Can Tivo display a notebook PC screen?



## atomarchio (Sep 24, 2006)

Is there a way to use Tivo to connect to a notebook over a wireless network so you can display the laptop screen on a Television via Tivo?

Please let me know. Thanks.


----------



## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

The correct answer is "yes". But don't expect to use it for video:

http://www.duckcreeksoftware.com/public/remotecontrol/


----------



## Allanon (Nov 2, 2005)

I've had limited success using HME / VLC Video Streamer along with VH Screen Capture Driver which is a screen capture driver that acts like a video capture device. I was able to start watching Hulu on the Tivo but after about 30 seconds the video freezes but the audio continues. This might be because my computer is old and can't encode fast enough so it might work fine on a faster computer. Streaming the computer's desktop and browser worked without a problem.

EDIT: Lowering the capture frame rate and resolution made it so I could watch Hulu in the browser without freezing. But if I go fullscreen mode with the video it slows down to only a couple frames per second. I'm sure there are other settings I can tweak to get it to work but I think faster computers shouldn't have a problem with fullscreen video.


----------



## davidwadesmith (Nov 28, 2007)

Hi Allanon, can you elaborate more on what you just described. I'm not exactly sure how you've done this. Install the capture driver, which produces a video capture device that HME / VLC Video Streamer can serve up? How?

By the way, I've read many posts from you and wmcbrine over the past year or so. You guys are geniuses.


----------



## Allanon (Nov 2, 2005)

> Hi Allanon, can you elaborate more on what you just described.


Download and install VH Screen Capture Driver then run VH Multi Cam Studio which comes with it. Select "Add Camera..." from the "File" menu and select "VHSrcCap". You should now see your desktop in the program's viewing area. You can drag the window to make it larger or shorter and you can right click on the viewing area to change it's settings. One major setting is to make sure "Optimize Screen Capture" is not set because it only will update the screen capture video if it detects a change with the desktop and it doesn't register playing video as a change. Also be sure to turn on "Default source" under the "Tools" menu. This will make the program the default capture device.

In HME /VLC Video Streamer's config.ini file add the following:


```
[Capture]
url=dshow://
```
That will tell VLC to stream the default capture device. Be sure VH Multi Camera Studio is running and just run HME/VLC Video Streamer and select "Capture" under the "Live Streams" menu on the Tivo. You should see your desktop streaming. There will be a delay between what you do on the computer and what is shown on the TV but if you are watching a video then it really doesn't matter.

Hopefully you understood this and can try it out. If you have any other questions just ask.


----------



## davidwadesmith (Nov 28, 2007)

Thanks! I understand. It was really helpful that you added the part about VH Multi Cam Studio. Now I see that the reason it's not working for me is that the VH Screen Capture Driver is somehow not installing correctly on 2 of my 3 Windows XP machines.

I have no idea why, but on both desktop systems, after installation, neither VH Multi Cam Studio nor VH Player will actually run. I launch them... and nothing. I can run the VHScrCap Config utility, but can't create a device, and I can run the VH Capture utility just fine. But neither of those will allow me to make the driver my default capture device.

On my laptop, I am able to run everything, but boy is it slow...

Oh well. Guess I'll continue hacking away at it tonight. Thanks again!


----------



## Allanon (Nov 2, 2005)

You can set the default video capture device in VLC. Run VH Capture then run VLC and go to preferences and click on *Input/Codecs ->Access modules->DirectShow* and then hit refresh list for "Video device name" then select "VHScrCap". Save the settings and then your default capture device for VLC will be VH Capture.


----------



## fred2 (Jan 20, 2006)

I don't recall much but I think Galleon was able to show a pc screen. I don't recall if it was dynamic or just a quick static image.


----------



## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

Galleon just does a static screenshot of the desktop. It's not meant for continually _watching_ what's going on on the remote machine (i.e., playing video).


----------



## AudioNutz (Nov 10, 2008)

Do any of these things work on a Macintosh?


----------



## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

Galleon is written in Java, so yes it runs on a Mac.


----------



## davidwadesmith (Nov 28, 2007)

I was finally able to get VH Multi Cam working (had to enable Direct3D through dxdiag), and everything works now. This rocks! Thanks you guys!


----------



## trashjunkid (Jan 20, 2009)

Allanon-

Thanks for the tip about the vh multi camera program- works very nice!

Two questions:
I can't ever seem to get a full screen resolution to work between my laptop and the television- there must be something that I am missing in setting that up. Inevitably I end up with 2/3 the screen on the tv and can't get it right.

If you don't have any advice there, I feel like I can live with it/futz with it to get it right enough.

The other problem is audio. I cannot seem to get the audio to be anything other than my laptop's built in microphone- while ideally it would work off what the sound card is playing. In order to hear the audio I have to have the audio playing on the laptop and then ambient noises (like me typing) are recorded as well.

Any tips?

-Trashjunkid


----------



## Allanon (Nov 2, 2005)

I'm using 640 x 480 as my output and my computer is at 1024x768 both are 4:3 resolutions. I suggest using laptop resolutions that are the same ratio as the output resolution then the desktop will fill the screen. Also the resolutions and frame rates that matter are the ones in the video capture settings. The resolution and frame rate of VH Multi Cam Studio doesn't matter. The capture resolution should match the computer's resolution and the output resolution should be the one for the TV. Also make sure "Resize to output size" is set and "Keep aspect" is set.

As for sound you might try going in to the Windows volume control and setting wave as the recording source instead of the microphone.


----------



## atomarchio (Sep 24, 2006)

atomarchio said:


> Is there a way to use Tivo to connect to a notebook over a wireless network so you can display the laptop screen on a Television via Tivo?
> 
> Please let me know. Thanks.


What I originally wanted to do was be able to see what my daughter is typing when playing a game on her notebook PC that we can all watch on our 50" Sony TV. The TV is mounted on the wall so the input connection via "PC" would not be easily accessible.

Then I realized there is an HDMI port on the side of the computer. I could go from the notebook to this HDMI port on the Sony TV, right?

But then I realized my notebook is about 2 years old and would need a card to add a DVI port I think.

Has anyone tried plugging an HDMI cable into their Sony TV from notebook to do this?

Please let me know. Thanks.


----------



## trashjunkid (Jan 20, 2009)

I believe you could do that. It is unclear from your post if your daughter's notebook does have an hdmi out port- you seem to indicate that the "computer" does but then later state that the notebook is 2 years old and would need a card...

An easier solution for many is to use the s-video out port available on many laptops and send it to the tv. 

See if your laptop has an svideo port and if your tv does- if so, google directions for utilizing your laptops svideo display.

-trashjunkid


----------



## atomarchio (Sep 24, 2006)

My notebook does have an S-Video port and my Sony TV looks like it has a S-Video on it also. However, the TV is mounted to the wall so I was hopiong to use the HDMI port on the side.

I like you're idea better though since I would not have to purchase a card to plug into the notebook.

Now I need to figure out if the TV mount my builder installed can be tilted forward enough to allow me to get the S-Video cable plugged in.


----------



## trashjunkid (Jan 20, 2009)

Allanon said:


> As for sound you might try going in to the Windows volume control and setting wave as the recording source instead of the microphone.


It is strange- I have vista running on a dell xps laptop and the windows mixer (which I take to be the same thing as the Windows Volume Control), does not permit me to turn down the microphone recording and leave it recording an application as its source.

See attached image for the options I see...

When I google "windows volume control" it looks like there should be more there- am I missing something obvious?

-trashjunkid


----------



## trashjunkid (Jan 20, 2009)

Allanon-

I spoke too soon. I am getting nothing but grey screens now. I went as far as to reinstall following your instructions on the setup and still just grey...

I'll continue going into the settings, but if you have any suggestions, I'd appreciate them.

-trashjunkid


----------



## trashjunkid (Jan 20, 2009)

Allanon & All-

Resetting to the default values in the directshow access module in VLC did the trick.

I solved the lack of a "stereo mix" in the Volume control by installing windows xp sound drivers (apparently vista in many of its incarnations does not supply the stereo mix to hinder piracy).

Now the sound plays perfect and I get an image on the screen.

It is rather jerky, like video on the internet in 1999. 

Has anyone managed to get truly smooth video using the vh multicam streaming option? If so, what settings ended up working best for you?

Sorry about the multiple posts in a row.

-Trashjunkid


----------



## Allanon (Nov 2, 2005)

I found that setting the capture size to the size of the video in the web browser instead of setting the video to fullscreen mode and capturing the entire screen helps with speed. Less pixels to encode and since I use 640x480 as an output resolution the video usually looks fine.


----------



## vinuva (Aug 14, 2009)

I like to take photos. All photos are my favorite. But not well know in tricks. I need some help.
_____________________


----------



## atomarchio (Sep 24, 2006)

I thought my daughter's notebook had an S-Video port since it showed the port in the manual. However, I bought the cable and then realized there is no such port on the notebook. 

Can I go VGA to DVI, and then DVI to HDMI? Or I am just wasting time and money to try this. I have an HDMI port on the side of my TV mounted on the wall which would be idea.

Please let me know. Thank you.


----------



## fyodor (Sep 19, 2006)

atomarchio said:


> I thought my daughter's notebook had an S-Video port since it showed the port in the manual. However, I bought the cable and then realized there is no such port on the notebook.
> 
> Can I go VGA to DVI, and then DVI to HDMI? Or I am just wasting time and money to try this. I have an HDMI port on the side of my TV mounted on the wall which would be idea.
> 
> Please let me know. Thank you.


you'll need a VGA to HDMI converter which probably runs about $150 bucks. It's possible with passive connectors to take the analog portion of a computer's DVI output, which is both analog and digital, and pass the analog part it to VGA. You can also use a connector to take the digital part of the combined digital/analog signal and convert it to HDMI (digital). But without some sort of conversion box you can't convert VGA (all analog) to HDMI (all digital).


----------



## atomarchio (Sep 24, 2006)

Thank you for responding. Sounds a bit pricey when I can buy an entirely new laptop for $400-$500 with an HDMI port already on there.

So there is no simple adapter or cable for this? I was hoping to buy a PCMCIA card which would add an HDMI port to my notebook?


----------



## fyodor (Sep 19, 2006)

atomarchio said:


> Thank you for responding. Sounds a bit pricey when I can buy an entirely new laptop for $400-$500 with an HDMI port already on there.
> 
> So there is no simple adapter or cable for this? I was hoping to buy a PCMCIA card which would add an HDMI port to my notebook?


Actually, I hadn't even thought about that. One of these, combined with an DVI-HDMI connector should work. Just make sure that the DVI output is DVI-I (combined analog and digital).

http://sewelldirect.com/USB-to-DVI-External-Video-Card-High-Resolution.asp

One caveat, is that these USB adapters aren't quite fast enough for video, but will do other stuff well.


----------



## davidwadesmith (Nov 28, 2007)

To anyone that has gotten this VH screen capture driver thing working (Allanon and others):

For the longest time I was only using this to watch shows that ran for less than one hour, so I didn't notice what I'm noticing now. It seems that lately, sometime after an hour of streaming (just happened at 1 hour and 6 minutes), the stream just stops in HME/VLC. VHMultiCam appears to still be running, as does the process created by HME/VLC, but the stream stops for some reason.

Anyone else experience this? Have any suggestions?

Thanks,
David


----------



## Allanon (Nov 2, 2005)

That is a limitation of the Tivo, it only allows about 1.1GB to be streamed before stopping. It is the same limitation that all the 3rd party streaming applications suffer from. You should be able to exit then restart the stream from within HME/VLC Video Streamer and it will start to play again but the buffered video will be lost.


----------



## davidwadesmith (Nov 28, 2007)

Ahh... That sounds familiar. I think I read something about that before, now that you mention it. Also, now that I think about it, I've seen streambaby work around it. I wonder if there is a way for HME/VLC to work around the problem similarly...

Of course, then I'd probably have to solve the problem of manual intervention. For the VH Screen Capture stuff to work, sometimes I have to do some odd things. Like, when I first start it up after a long period of not running it: When HME/VLC launches the process, VHMultiCam is started, but sometimes it gets stuck, at which point, I have to kill the process manually and try again. Once it gets going, it's fine, but then when I'm done, I need to manually shut down VHMultiCam, or the next time I run it, things won't work.

I had planned to break into the code and look at ways to script up something that would automatically detect issues like this and do something about it, but haven't had time.

Thanks for the info though.


----------



## arrarrgee (Dec 21, 2010)

Wow..this is just the kind of application that I have been looking for..cant wait to try it out this weekend...(once I have my HME VLC up and running)

@Davidwadesmith were you able to figure out a workaround for it to play more than 1.1 gig non stop..if yes could you pls post an update

Thx



davidwadesmith said:


> Ahh... That sounds familiar. I think I read something about that before, now that you mention it. Also, now that I think about it, I've seen streambaby work around it. I wonder if there is a way for HME/VLC to work around the problem similarly...
> 
> Of course, then I'd probably have to solve the problem of manual intervention. For the VH Screen Capture stuff to work, sometimes I have to do some odd things. Like, when I first start it up after a long period of not running it: When HME/VLC launches the process, VHMultiCam is started, but sometimes it gets stuck, at which point, I have to kill the process manually and try again. Once it gets going, it's fine, but then when I'm done, I need to manually shut down VHMultiCam, or the next time I run it, things won't work.
> 
> ...


----------

