# C'Mon Tivo! Picture in Picture



## heifer624

My Tivo has six tuners and I can only watch one at a time. C'Mon Tivo! give me some Picture in Picture so I can watch multiple ball games at the same time. PiP has only been around since the late 70's. C'Mon Tivo!


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## Saturn_V

PiP? what is this the middle-ages?

Stream to a tablet instead?


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## tomhorsley

Saturn_V said:


> PiP? what is this the middle-ages?
> 
> Stream to a tablet instead?


That would be nice, but you can only stream things that are recording. So let's modify this request - make the tablet apps use the same feature the mini uses and allocate a tuner for it so I can surf on the tablet.


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## Dan203

tomhorsley said:


> That would be nice, but you can only stream things that are recording. So let's modify this request - make the tablet apps use the same feature the mini uses and allocate a tuner for it so I can surf on the tablet.


I'm actually shocked they haven't done that yet. Seems like a no brainer.


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## krkaufman

heifer624 said:


> My Tivo has six tuners and I can only watch one at a time. C'Mon Tivo! give me some Picture in Picture so I can watch multiple ball games at the same time. PiP has only been around since the late 70's. C'Mon Tivo!


Yes, PiP would be nice.

In the meantime, if your TV offers PiP, you could maybe get a Mini and install it at the same TV.


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## Bytez

This would differentiate Tivo even more from the competition! This is really a no brainer. Wish I had asked the question when they had the Q&A last time.


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## ccoulson

Hate to resurrect an old thread, but I would love to see PIP from my Tivo. I just used a Dish Hopper that has PIP built in- fantastic for watching multiple games at once and switching between the two. As others have said, this seems like a no-brainer. The Tivo units have multiple tuners and they already do a PIP-like functionality allowing you to continue to watch a show while accessing Tivo menus. 

Has there been any word on this in the past year?


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## philco782

i would LOVE this!


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## tomhorsley

Heck, with the 4K bolt and 4K TVs, I ought to be able to watch 4 1080i channels at once in the 4 corners of the screen .


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## fcfc2

Add my name to the list for PIP. It would be great when trying to keep up with concurrent sporting events.


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## mlsnyc

I'd love to have this as well.

I wonder if showing what's on 2 tuners at the same time has posed some technical challenge. I don't see what that could be, since I can watch a recording on my iPhone app and people can stream to multiple minis at the same time the main unit is playing live tv or a recording.

But it's likely just low in priority for whatever reason.


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## Dan203

I still don't get the appeal of PIP. Why try and watch two things as once when you can just record the second thing and watch it later?


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## jrtroo

The only use case I would have is to avoid NFL spoilers if two teams are playing at the same time. The scores at the bottom ruin things, and putting up a piece of cardboard is annoying and prone for forgetfulness.

If this was an easy feature for Tivo to add, they would have done it. So either its difficult or they are hardware constrained.


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## mlsnyc

Dan203 said:


> I still don't get the appeal of PIP. Why try and watch two things as once when you can just record the second thing and watch it later?


For me, watching 2+ live sporting events at the same time.


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## TonyD79

Dan203 said:


> I still don't get the appeal of PIP. Why try and watch two things as once when you can just record the second thing and watch it later?


Mostly because a lot of us don't treat sports like a scripted TV show or movie. They are meant to be watched live or near live. For me (and many others) watching a recorded sporting event is just blech.


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## Mikeguy

Here's a work-around: 2 TiVo's attached to a P-I-P TV.


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## TonyD79

Mikeguy said:


> Here's a work-around: 2 TiVo's attached to a P-I-P TV.


That's why I have a mini setting in the same cabinet as my bolt.


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## Mikeguy

TonyD79 said:


> That's why I have a mini setting in the same cabinet as my bolt.


Clever--pick up a Mini on the cheap and use it for this purpose. 

I'm doing the same right now with a Series 2 TiVo, in the short-term: recently purchased a Roamio to replace/augment a Series 2 and saw the Series 2 just sitting there, and then got the idea to leave it attached to the TV along with the Roamio, allowing for P-I-P via the TV's P-I-P function (the tuner in the TV itself had fritzed out long ago, and so the TV is more a monitor at this point). Works great and is pretty cool, although, candidly, the only time I've used the P-I-P thus far was when I set the Roamio up, watching the setup go forward in the P-I-P box while still watching a show in the main frame.


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## davidblackledge

mlsnyc said:


> I'd love to have this as well.
> 
> I wonder if showing what's on 2 tuners at the same time has posed some technical challenge. I don't see what that could be, since I can watch a recording on my iPhone app and people can stream to multiple minis at the same time the main unit is playing live tv or a recording.
> 
> But it's likely just low in priority for whatever reason.


I'm no TiVo Hardware guy, but I figure there are two ends for the signal: the end that handles the signal and can save it to disk, and the end that can render it to the screen (at whatever size - thus the PIP in menus is no big deal). So I figure TiVo has been building with a single "second" end since the beginning of time, and has just been adding more "first" ends for multiple recordings.
_
The other technique would be to generate a new video stream on the fly that contains both sources, but that would use up a lot of computing power or some expensive chip designed for that purpose._

They could always produce another device with multiple "second" end renderers, but that would likely add a lot to the price for no conceivable purpose except PIP which is a bit of a niche feature even in the TV industry.

And with the Mini + TV with PIP option, they have zero reason to produce it when they could just tell you to buy more of their existing products.

I too wonder what the technical issue is between a Mini watching a tuner and streaming requiring recording. Picture-on-Tablet (POT?) makes so much sense.


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## lifterguy

Dish Network's VIP 722 DVR has PIP, and it was first introduced 9 years ago. Do Direct TV boxes or cable company DVR's offer this? Could TiVo's reluctance be a patent issue? Or maybe they just don't want to add any more buttons to the remote?


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## jdndnlk

Dan203 said:


> I still don't get the appeal of PIP. Why try and watch two things as once when you can just record the second thing and watch it later?


Tivo not having PIP is a total deal breaker for me and many others. I would love to go away from Dish but having 2 tuner PIP is critical for a higher quality viewing experience. We can pause one program for up to an hour while watching something else and then come back to it and watch it commercial free by skipping forward. We always have something "in the backup" to be able to do this. For instance, we can pause CBS when a favorite program is starting, watch something else we like on another station, then return to CBS... or go back and forth. Either way - no commercials .... ever! So It's not seeing two things at once that matters, it's the flexibility 2 tuners offers. This shold be abundantly obvious to even the most basic engineering efforts. Unfortunately Tivo is missing the boat ... and so with great reluctance we stay w/ Dish. And we're not alone in this decision. As soon as Tivo figures this out I will be switching, and buying some stock ... Jim


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## Dan203

You can do that on TiVo. Although the buffer on TiVo is only 30 minutes. You can cycle through the tuners on TiVo using the live TV button or using the live TV overlay menu.


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## HerronScott

Dan203 said:


> You can do that on TiVo. Although the buffer on TiVo is only 30 minutes. You can cycle through the tuners on TiVo using the live TV button or using the live TV overlay menu.


What Dan said up to the number of tuners on your TiVo (4-6) although listening to your description, you should really be recording your favorite programs. Watching shows when we want is the main benefit of a DVR but being able to skip the commercials is a great benefit.

Scott


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## krkaufman

HerronScott said:


> What Dan said up to the number of tuners on your TiVo (4-6) although listening to your description, you should really be recording your favorite programs. Watching shows when we want is the main benefit of a DVR but being able to skip the commercials is a great benefit.


Although the buffer surfing we can do with the TiVo is limited to just the host DVR; it'd be a whole lot better if a Mini could grab a couple tuners, if available, for the same capability.


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## TonyD79

lifterguy said:


> Dish Network's VIP 722 DVR has PIP, and it was first introduced 9 years ago. Do Direct TV boxes or cable company DVR's offer this? Could TiVo's reluctance be a patent issue? Or maybe they just don't want to add any more buttons to the remote?


Directv Genie does PIP. I know there are some cable boxes that do but I don't know which ones.


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## DaveB673

krkaufman said:


> Yes, PiP would be nice.
> 
> In the meantime, if your TV offers PiP, you could maybe get a Mini and install it at the same TV.


I think that is a good idea. May start looking for a mini...


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