# Does Roamio support PiP (Picture-in-Picture)?



## Bytez (Sep 11, 2004)

I don't mean the video on the upper right when browsing through the menu/guide but two or more live channels on the same screen.


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## nooneuknow (Feb 5, 2011)

Bytez said:


> I don't mean the video on the upper right when browsing through the menu/guide but two or more live channels on the same screen.


Not the TiVo itself. The only PiP you can achieve is if you have a TV that supports it, and use the TiVo for one picture, and a supported input for the other picture. Some TVs only do certain inputs, and limit the other to just being the internal tuner. Others will do most inputs, and let you choose which ones.

I don't see why TiVo would be unable to do it. That doesn't mean they can. It's also hard enough for them to keep functions that have always been included, working right, let alone add new ones.

I'd be scared of how much TiVo might break, in any effort to implement PiP.

Sad, that I have to feel that way. But, TiVo seems to be lacking in their talent department.

I exclude TiVoMargret, from my criticism. She deserves recognition for her talent, and all she does for the retail TiVo users. But, she's just one person.


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

I get the feeling that TiVo runs on a shoesting budget. I'm guessing that their software development team is understaffed and just doing the best they can to keep their heads above water.


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## nooneuknow (Feb 5, 2011)

tarheelblue32 said:


> I get the feeling that TiVo runs on a shoesting budget. I'm guessing that their software development team is understaffed and just doing the best they can to keep their heads above water.


I 100% concur.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

The TiVos only have one decoder for video. You would need two to be able to have PiP.

Personally I've had PiP capability since 1991. It is a feature I've used before but the number of times can be counted on one hand. I see no reason for it in 2014. I would rather just have something else playing on my tablet than using PiP. 

Like during football season when I will have an NFL game playing on the tablet while doing something else on the TV. But also since I use Android devices I need to stream the content from a Slingbox 350 since the TiVo stream still doesn't work with Android devices.


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## chiguy50 (Nov 9, 2009)

I was an ardently devoted fan of PiP for almost 20 years until I started using TiVo; in fact, advanced PiP functionality was a mandatory prerequisite for any TV purchase for me. With the ability to freeze even live TV, I have little use for PiP now, even though all my TV's support it. I do still use it however, especially if I want to bring up my AVR's menu without overlaying it on the source video I happen to be watching or if I want to check the CCTV feed from my condo property's front gate while watching another video source. But those are relatively rare occasions.


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## L David Matheny (Jan 29, 2011)

tarheelblue32 said:


> I get the feeling that TiVo runs on a shoesting budget. I'm guessing that their software development team is understaffed and just doing the best they can to keep their heads above water.


I get the impression that nobody knows how to write asynchronous multithreaded code, even in cases where it's desperately needed to support handling of interrupts from hardware devices. Or maybe they program only in high-level languages that don't properly support that sort of thing.


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