# TiVo streaming is a absolute piece of crap



## dsnotgood

When I first got the stream (standalone box), I had issues but for the most part it worked. 

Then I got a roamio plus with streaming built in and it's constant failure after failure. It will start to download a show,Then disconnect and says streaming device not found, when streaming, it will just drop the connection then device not found, downloads say they are done but stop working half way through....just pissing me off with its CONSTANT SUCKING AND LOSING CONNECTION to the point where it's not even worth the hassle.

Last weekend I was traveling so I initiated a download of a tv show...it didn't even download one episode before it crapped out.

What a buggy piece of crap. 

As for my network, 50/50 fios internet with Moca connection and AC networks for wifi. The box is always detected but the streaming portion is always not found. iPad Air 2 as well. 

TiVo stream....you suck.


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## moyekj

OOH Streaming I've had very limited success in large part because of the stupid Proxy server being used, but in home streaming works perfectly (though it's not too useful in home). Slingbox is a MUCH more reliable solution for OOH viewing. When it does work OOH it's great, but that's been pretty rare for me too unfortunately and for all cases where Stream failed OOH, Sling has worked fine.


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## Bytez

OOH streaming gets a D. They have to get rid of that proxy server pronto, it has no place anywhere.


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## Mister_American

I have a Tivo Stream and I have a Slingbox and as compared to Slingbox, I definitely give Tivo Stream Two Thumbs Down, 3 times and press the Enter Key


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## sirfergy

I've never even gotten in home streaming to finish a single show in my roamio pro.


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## wizwor

I use a Simple DVR for remote access to my antenna. They are so inexpensive that you can afford to take a chance. I understand most people are looking for a single whole universe solution, but I have found the little effort required to cobble together an all star team is a better approach.

STV1000 on eBay plus Lifetime for $56.


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## foghorn2

works perfect for me


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## NYHeel

Usually works for me. I do occasionally have issues and have to run setup way too often but mostly, it works well in the home.


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## JWhites

I don't know what any of you guys are talking about. I've never once had any problem with streaming while on a strong wifi signal, in home or out. Clearly someone is not doing it right.


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## Dan203

I used it a lot when I was in Vegas last month and it worked fine. I use it daily in home and it always works fine there too. Only issue is it will occasionally crash and force you to repeat setup, but that's rare given how much I use it.


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## moyekj

JWhites said:


> I don't know what any of you guys are talking about. I've never once had any problem with streaming while on a *strong wifi signal*, in home or out. Clearly someone is not doing it right.


 In bold is the key. Hotels I've tried it at Wifi is pretty crappy and Stream craps out with any network glitches while Sling works fine...


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## Balzer

Yea, I have to say it works very well for me, in or out of home.. I have had a few problems when I try to connect to slower wifi/internet connections, of course.


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## PCurry57

dsnotgood said:


> When I first got the stream (standalone box), I had issues but for the most part it worked.
> 
> Then I got a roamio plus with streaming built in and it's constant failure after failure. It will start to download a show,Then disconnect and says streaming device not found, when streaming, it will just drop the connection then device not found, downloads say they are done but stop working half way through....just pissing me off with its CONSTANT SUCKING AND LOSING CONNECTION to the point where it's not even worth the hassle.
> 
> Last weekend I was traveling so I initiated a download of a tv show...it didn't even download one episode before it crapped out.
> 
> What a buggy piece of crap.
> 
> As for my network, 50/50 fios internet with Moca connection and AC networks for wifi. The box is always detected but the streaming portion is always not found. iPad Air 2 as well.
> 
> TiVo stream....you suck.


Is it the Stream or limits of your iOS device. Perhaps an iOS update is to blame I have few issues streaming to my Android devices in or out of home.

Do you have only one Stream device on your account/lanif you still have both on your network it's possible that may be the fault.


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## dsnotgood

PCurry57 said:


> Is it the Stream or limits of your iOS device. Perhaps an iOS update is to blame I have few issues streaming to my Android devices in or out of home.
> 
> Do you have only one Stream device on your account/lanif you still have both on your network it's possible that may be the fault.


I only have one device, the pro. Also it works fine on my android phone most times (except when it can't find the stupid stream but finds the box just fine...) BUT you can't download shows to android, only stream.


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## steelersruleman

dsnotgood said:


> When I first got the stream (standalone box), I had issues but for the most part it worked.
> 
> Then I got a roamio plus with streaming built in and it's constant failure after failure. It will start to download a show,Then disconnect and says streaming device not found, when streaming, it will just drop the connection then device not found, downloads say they are done but stop working half way through....just pissing me off with its CONSTANT SUCKING AND LOSING CONNECTION to the point where it's not even worth the hassle.
> 
> Last weekend I was traveling so I initiated a download of a tv show...it didn't even download one episode before it crapped out.
> 
> What a buggy piece of crap.
> 
> As for my network, 50/50 fios internet with Moca connection and AC networks for wifi. The box is always detected but the streaming portion is always not found. iPad Air 2 as well.
> 
> TiVo stream....you suck.


When DOWNLOADING to your Ipad Air 2, what LEVEL do you set for downloading? The highest level, mid level, or lowest level?

I set mine at the lowest level(lowest pic resolution). It looks just fine on my screen. I use the Ipad Mini 3, so a picture downloaded at the lowest level on an 7.9" screen is pretty good.

Also it saves ALOT of space for more stuff. I probably would not go above the mid level point. The highest level seems pointless on a small screen, and uses A LOT of GB memory.

But that is just me. Opinions vary.


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## aaronwt

dsnotgood said:


> When I first got the stream (standalone box), I had issues but for the most part it worked.
> 
> Then I got a roamio plus with streaming built in and it's constant failure after failure. It will start to download a show,Then disconnect and says streaming device not found, when streaming, it will just drop the connection then device not found, downloads say they are done but stop working half way through....just pissing me off with its CONSTANT SUCKING AND LOSING CONNECTION to the point where it's not even worth the hassle.
> 
> Last weekend I was traveling so I initiated a download of a tv show...it didn't even download one episode before it crapped out.
> 
> What a buggy piece of crap.
> 
> As for my network, 50/50 fios internet with Moca connection and AC networks for wifi. The box is always detected but the streaming portion is always not found. iPad Air 2 as well.
> 
> TiVo stream....you suck.


No idea about downloading, since I don't see that option on Android. But streaming works great in my use from my Roamio Pro OOTH. As long as there is a decent amount of bandwidth. Sub 1Mb/s seems to have issues. But higher than that and it has worked great for me. I use my Slingbox 350 for streaming at low bitrates and the Stream when I have higher bandwidth.

I'm trying it right now here at work on my cell phone, and it's working great. But I also get over 20Mb/s LTE speeds consistently in the area around work on my cell.


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## sushikitten

Another Fios 50/50 user here who has never once successfully been able to download anything to a device. On lowest quality even. We can usually stream to another tivo without issue (I'd say 80% of the time without a failure) but steaming to a device is a crapshoot (over 50% failure). It can never see the stream.


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## tomhorsley

I usually don't have a problem on android (but we don't have download on android), but if there is the slightest glitch in the wifi, I get a spinning circle that never stops and have to completely exit the app and start over.

And speaking of starting over, on my home network, I can't ever do the initial connection. I have to wait for it to start trying to connect and let the arrow spin for a few seconds, then use the back key to cancel the initial sign in attempt, then click on the sign in button to try and connect again, and the 2nd sign in always works right away.


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## JWhites

I think the FiOS routers are crap, that's why there are so many problems. I use a Linksys WRT1900AC router without a problem on the Minis and iPhones on the highest download levels, streaming between TiVo's, and both IH and OOH streaming.


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## aaronwt

JWhites said:


> I think the FiOS routers are crap, that's why there are so many problems. I use a Linksys WRT1900AC router without a problem on the Minis and iPhones on the highest download levels, streaming between TiVo's, and both IH and OOH streaming.


Yes. My Asus router also works fine on FiOS. It runs circles around the Actiontec routers that FiOS supplies. I have five of them gathering dust in my closet.


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## Bytez

JWhites said:


> I think the FiOS routers are crap, that's why there are so many problems. I use a Linksys WRT1900AC router without a problem on the Minis and iPhones on the highest download levels, streaming between TiVo's, and both IH and OOH streaming.


But why do other streaming services have no issues? I'm thinking it's not so much to do with the router but Tivo's end.


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## tomhorsley

Bytez said:


> But why do other streaming services have no issues? I'm thinking it's not so much to do with the router but Tivo's end.


I definitely think TiVo is utterly unable to overcome even the slightest glitch which other software simply retries without you even noticing it. So a better router which never even has a slight glitch works better on TiVo (at least that's my theory .


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## slowbiscuit

That's exactly it - Tivo's lack of good error handling and adaptive bitrate compression means that OOH streaming will always be a crapshoot compared to other companies like Sling and Plex that actually give a crap about the streaming experience. Oh yeah and they're still using that craptacular proxy which makes it even worse.

When I see OOH problems (which is just about every time we're OOH) it affects both iOS and Android btw.

Did I mention that it was crap?


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## Dan203

There is evidence in the system info screen that they are working on a direct connect method using UPNP. So we could see the proxy going away eventually. Not sure if that will help or not.

Adaptive streaming is a lot harder then it seems. It took Sling 3-4 hardware iterations to get it right. I'm not even sure if the chip used in the Stream is even capable of doing better then it currently does at adaptive streaming. There could be a hardware limitation at play here.


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## tootal2

dsnotgood said:


> When I first got the stream (standalone box), I had issues but for the most part it worked.
> 
> Then I got a roamio plus with streaming built in and it's constant failure after failure. It will start to download a show,Then disconnect and says streaming device not found, when streaming, it will just drop the connection then device not found, downloads say they are done but stop working half way through....just pissing me off with its CONSTANT SUCKING AND LOSING CONNECTION to the point where it's not even worth the hassle.
> 
> Last weekend I was traveling so I initiated a download of a tv show...it didn't even download one episode before it crapped out.
> 
> What a buggy piece of crap.
> 
> As for my network, 50/50 fios internet with Moca connection and AC networks for wifi. The box is always detected but the streaming portion is always not found. iPad Air 2 as well.
> 
> TiVo stream....you suck.


I had the same problem. I had tivo replace it and it's been working fine.


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## sirfergy

tootal2 said:


> I had the same problem. I had tivo replace it and it's been working fine.


Hmm... mine is definitely way out of warranty. I doubt they'd replace it now.


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## Dan203

There is always the warranty by retail option. Buy a new one, if it works better, put the old one in the box and return it.


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## sirfergy

Dan203 said:


> There is always the warranty by retail option. Buy a new one, if it works better, put the old one in the box and return it.


I have lifetime, so that is not an option.


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## Dan203

The Stream doesn't have lifetime. Or do you have a Roamio Plus/Pro?


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## hooper

The issues are not hardware related. I have had 2 Roamios since launch. One failed about a year ago. The software is half baked. Both units experience the same issues.

I travel a lot for work and use (maybe fight?) with the software all the time. Here are some things to help make it not suck so bad.

1. Verify all downloads play before you leave your house. I have had recordings say that they downloaded but won't play. Awesome experience when you are on a plane for a long flight.
2. When streaming, lay off the skip forward. This totally hoses things up pretty consistently even on the BEST freaking wifi access point known to man.
3. You need really good wifi OOH. The Stream doesn't handle the typical hotel wifi crappiness where usage and bandwidth is all over the place. Do a speedtest first. If you see close to 3-5 MB in the download area and over 1 MB up it should be ok if the speeds are steady. If your speedtest is up and down and all over the place, pick up your book for the evening.
4. When the OOH streaming fails, it is likely because you tried skipping commercials you idiot! See point 2 above. Technically speaking, you have exceeded the download buffer and the software has no freaking clue what to do next.
5. When the device seemingly tells you out of the blue that streaming needs to be setup again, don't fall for it! Just hit cancel, back all the way out to now playing, and try the stream again. 
6. Download shows in the morning or evening for later viewing and don't try and stream from the stream!
7. Buy a Slingbox

Note: Point five works for most OOH streaming issues. Whatever you do, don't ever fall for the your device needs to be setup again for OOH streaming ploy.

I have also seemingly had a number of downloads fail while on the same network. I get some lame hex error code. Choosing another show or waiting seems to help.


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## tomhorsley

The skip forward issue must be a problem only outside the local network. I use it all the time when watching a recorded show on my Nexus 7 at home. (P.S. Screen swiping works for skip, much easier that trying to press the impossible to hit skip button).


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## aaronwt

Mine seems to work great skipping over commercials or just jumping 20 or 30 minutes in. The only caveat is that it needs a robust connection. WHich is typically the case with LTE on Verizon. Streaming outside of the home has worked great from my cell phone.


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## slowbiscuit

tomhorsley said:


> The skip forward issue must be a problem only outside the local network. I use it all the time when watching a recorded show on my Nexus 7 at home. (P.S. Screen swiping works for skip, much easier that trying to press the impossible to hit skip button).


Almost all of the issues here are with OOH and flaky bandwidth. The app is crap when it comes to handling errors and congestion.


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## lew

I don't use sling box. I have virtually no experience using streaming services like netflix. I'll defer to the posters who say tivo streaming isn't very good.

My two cents worth. I wanted to download shows (hotel WiFi) for viewing on my flight home. I had same issues described in this thread. I wound up downloading overnight. It resumed the downloads which failed. It worked. 

Sounds like tivo could do a lot to improve streaming but downloading before you go to bed may be a short term answer for some.


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## hooper

I tried downloading three shows yesterday on my home network for my flights this week. 2 out of the 3 failed. 

The worst part is that downloading used to be what I would call "reliable" in the past. 



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Linderhof

It's definitely a "try, try, try again" operation.


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