# Stream FROM PC?



## jscozz (Sep 28, 2002)

Anyone know if the Romio will stream AVCHD from PC? I have tons of AVCHD content that up until now, I have had to convert to a supported format to play via TivoDesktop on S3 and HD. Now two weeks ago I find that they disabled that for the free Desktop... so I can't playback any camcorder video on Tivo at all.

Does the Romio support streaming of AVCHD camcorder content directly from PC via TIvoDesktop? Or is there still no solution for that?


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

You should try pyTiVo. It actually has the ability to transfer almost anything to a TiVo. If the audio or video format is not compatible then it'll transcode on the fly as it transfers. So no need to do special processing on your own. Also with the newer builds it can transfer H.264 without transcoding if the destination TiVo is a Premiere or Roamio.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

Dan203 said:


> You should try pyTiVo. It actually has the ability to transfer almost anything to a TiVo. If the audio or video format is not compatible then it'll transcode on the fly as it transfers. So no need to do special processing on your own.


Yep. That is his solution. There is probably zero chance the TiVo will ever support AVCHD.



> Also with the newer builds it can transfer H.264 without transcoding if the destination TiVo is a Premiere or Roamio.


It can, indeed, but not for all H.264. I have plenty of H.264 video that still won't transfer without transcoding first. I think it also depends on the container (in my case, H.264 + AC3 inside AVI, which is kind of an abomination).


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

crxssi said:


> I think it also depends on the container (in my case, H.264 + AC3 inside AVI, which is kind of an abomination).


That's not even technically legal. It requires a hack to store H.264 in an AVI container. Why don't you use MKV?


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

Dan203 said:


> That's not even technically legal. It requires a hack to store H.264 in an AVI container. Why don't you use MKV?


Because this stuff is older than MKV and then I wasn't ready to switch because of issues.....

I have tried to copy the content into MKV containers and encountered problems. I was able to copy without transcoding, (I am NOT going to transcode) I think using ffmpeg or mkvmerge or mencoder or something but the resulting files would not play properly on certain devices. Spent lots of time on it and eventually gave up in disgust. Then I tried again a few years later and got no further.

It might be invalid to store H.264 + AC3 in an AVI container, but it plays fine in vlc, mplayer, xine, and just about everything I tried on my computer. Doesn't fare as well on Android, where it has to use software playback, probably due to nothing portable having AC3 (in addition to not liking avi).


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Is there any chance you'd be willing to send me one of your files so I can try it out in VideoReDo? I actually added an AVI reader a while back but it's disabled in the current release because I could never get an AVI file with H.264 or MPEG-2 video to test it with.

If so use this form...

http://www.videoredo.net/UploadFiles.htm

And just use Dan203 as the ticket number.


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## Kolenka (Jan 2, 2013)

crxssi said:


> Because this stuff is older than MKV and then I wasn't ready to switch because of issues.....
> 
> I have tried to copy the content into MKV containers and encountered problems. I was able to copy without transcoding, (I am NOT going to transcode) I think using ffmpeg or mkvmerge or mencoder or something but the resulting files would not play properly on certain devices. Spent lots of time on it and eventually gave up in disgust. Then I tried again a few years later and got no further.
> 
> It might be invalid to store H.264 + AC3 in an AVI container, but it plays fine in vlc, mplayer, xine, and just about everything I tried on my computer. Doesn't fare as well on Android, where it has to use software playback, probably due to nothing portable having AC3 (in addition to not liking avi).


My memory of the issues is rusty, but I believe there were some weird things that had to be done to store H.263/4 in AVI that made it difficult to simply remux the result into another format without re-encoding the whole thing, as the streams are packed in a weird way within AVI that doesn't match up with MKV or MP4. Might have been fixed, as the last time I tried was years ago.

I probably wouldn't bother re-encoding or re-muxing that stuff either myself. Although everything I do now is MKV or MP4.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

Dan203 said:


> Is there any chance you'd be willing to send me one of your files so I can try it out in VideoReDo? I actually added an AVI reader a while back but it's disabled in the current release because I could never get an AVI file with H.264 or MPEG-2 video to test it with.
> 
> If so use this form...
> 
> ...


I tried, but they are apparently "too big." Sorry. So I split one using "split". It still plays fine, but the indexing is damaged, so I can't skip forward when it is playing.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

How big? If you use this URL it'll accept up to 2GB

http://www.videoredo.net/UploadFiles.htm?bigfile

If you need more space then that let me know and I can send you credentials for an FTP that'll accept up to 20GB


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

Dan203 said:


> How big? If you use this URL it'll accept up to 2GB
> 
> http://www.videoredo.net/UploadFiles.htm?bigfile
> 
> If you need more space then that let me know and I can send you credentials for an FTP that'll accept up to 20GB


Well, already uploaded 228MB sample. Hopefully that will be enough


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Ok thanks. I'll try it out real quick and let you know.


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## takeagabu (Oct 7, 2007)

Currently I use Vuze to convert files and move them to the Tivo. You can just drag it into the icon for the tivo to convert it, and it shows up in your now playing list.

I'll be getting my Roamio soon, and I hope it'll work just as well there.


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## jscozz (Sep 28, 2002)

It woudl sure be nice to just be able to access a store of AVCHD files on a PC running Tivo Desktop and stream (not copy) without conversion. I am sure many people have tons of video taken with a digital camcorder and no easy way to play it or make it accessible instantly for family viewing.

Does anyone know if Romio will let me use the free desktop software again for video/picture sharing or do I need to buy the $ version? I am disappointed that they took that away form the old Tivo's.


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## takeagabu (Oct 7, 2007)

By the way, doing it with vuze is usually virtually instant. You can start transferring the show to the tivo before its finished converting and you can play it as soon as it starts transferring. So as long as your computer is powerful enough to convert it faster that than the transfer (which is definitely the case for lower lower resolution video but might be an issue for 1080p), there is no problem.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

takeagabu said:


> By the way, doing it with vuze is usually virtually instant. You can start transferring the show to the tivo before its finished converting and you can play it as soon as it starts transferring. So as long as your computer is powerful enough to convert it faster that than the transfer (which is definitely the case for lower lower resolution video but might be an issue for 1080p), there is no problem.


I don't know what a "Vuze" is, but you just described the behavior of PyTiVo.


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## takeagabu (Oct 7, 2007)

crxssi said:


> I don't know what a "Vuze" is, but you just described the behavior of PyTiVo.


Vuze was originally just a torrent client, but they expanded the functionality to include a bunch of other crap.


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## garagelogician (Apr 15, 2014)

I am considering the purchase of a base model Roamio for my parents who live in a rural area without cable service. They do have 4G broadband internet access through Verizon, but are limited to 5 GB or 10 GB of data per month, so they could only stream up to 15 hours of content (in low quality) without going over the limit with their other data usage.

I have a bunch of content (TV/movies) that is in .mp4 or .mkv format. I had thoughts of loading up a portable hard drive with this content for them to watch through the TiVo. Could it be as simple as plugging the hard drive into the Roamio? Or do I need to hook it up to their PC and use some other setup?

What file formats is the Roamio capable of displaying without conversion? Is pyTivo my best bet?


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

No it's not that simple with a Roamio. You have to put the files on a PC and then transfer them to the TiVo via pyTiVo. It can be a bit complicated for a novice to understand, so be prepared to be oncall tech support if you go this route.

A better option might be one of the NAS media player type devices like the WDTV.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

garagelogician said:


> I am considering the purchase of a base model Roamio for my parents who live in a rural area without cable service. They do have 4G broadband internet access through Verizon, but are limited to 5 GB or 10 GB of data per month, so they could only stream up to 15 hours of content (in low quality) without going over the limit with their other data usage.
> 
> I have a bunch of content (TV/movies) that is in .mp4 or .mkv format. I had thoughts of loading up a portable hard drive with this content for them to watch through the TiVo. Could it be as simple as plugging the hard drive into the Roamio? Or do I need to hook it up to their PC and use some other setup?
> 
> What file formats is the Roamio capable of displaying without conversion? Is pyTivo my best bet?


First, there is no point of using a TiVo at all without either cable or OTA. So I assume they do want to and will use an antenna to record lots of stuff without cable. Remember, only the base model Roamio can do OTA (unfortunately).

Second part- yes, if they are running pyTiVo on a computer at their house, they can stream/transfer just about any type of video to the Roamio because it will use ffmeg or whatnot to transcode it on the fly, as necessary. Even on a slower computer, it is likely it can keep up with real-time.

Of course the last part is that unauthorized redistribution of copyrighted content is illegal


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## wpatters1229 (Nov 11, 2003)

Does anyone on this thread have a good simple download of pytivo for windows 7 that is straight forward to install and run. I have seen all kinds of instructions and all are much to difficult to pass on to a novice for install. I just want one that installs all the right stuff in all the right places and then runs. Thanks


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

wpatters1229 said:


> Does anyone on this thread have a good simple download of pytivo for windows 7 that is straight forward to install and run. I have seen all kinds of instructions and all are much to difficult to pass on to a novice for install. I just want one that installs all the right stuff in all the right places and then runs. Thanks


Unfortunately, no one has constructed such an installer for PyTivo yet, to my knowledge.

That's the main reason why I haven't used it. Too much "configuration" needed for my tastes, as I already do what I want with other programs.


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## spaldingclan (Aug 22, 2012)

once I got pytivo up and running i just said forget ever changing anything


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