# Tivo Stream is so finicky



## houman (Aug 2, 2007)

I picked up one of these from eBay and after activation I found out a few things:

- It has to be hooked up via ethernet directly to the router where the Tivo Roamio (w/ cablecard) is connected. For example I have an AP that is connected to main router via gigabit network and I couldn't pair the stream from the AP (where my Tivo Mini is)

- It Tivo is using Wireless, Stream won't pair (Mini never has any issue), Tivo has to be on Ethernet (which wastes on of my ethernet ports on the router)

- The sysinfo port (http://ip:49152/sysinfo) sometimes works , sometimes doesn't, especially on reboots, power outages or router reboots post firmware upgrades. I did a service call after I got the Stream and it installed some 2019 firmware I believe.

- The Stream today for example refuses to work when it worked yesterday upon a power outage, I can't connect to its sysinfo page and none of the Tivo iOS app will find it. Interestingly if I go to the IP of the Stream w/o the port info, it will show the "Congratulations page from Tivo", so must be some obscure sysinfo page bug...

Does anyone know if you can ssh/telnet to these boxes ?


----------



## houman (Aug 2, 2007)

Two things I realized:

- The IP I was connecting to was the Roamio IP and not the Tivo Stream and for whatever reason the Stream IP wasn't coming up on my network connections.

- I realized reading online that you need to force a Tivo connection after a router reboot, after the Roamio forced a connection to the Tivo servers, the stream became online and I was able to see it on the network list and I was able to reconnect to it from iOS apps. I am also able to see the sysinfo portion.


----------



## Series3Sub (Mar 14, 2010)

I've had a Stream for years and it works just as well (or BAD would be more accurate) as the built-in streaming function on other TiVo DVR's. The Stream will allow MORE individual streams than the built-ins, and, I believe, provides access accross all S4 and later DVR's on the same network while there is limited access with built-ins.

TiVo's entire streaming functionality across the add-on Stream and all the built-ins are quite notorious for its unreliability and "finicky" behavior. The TiVo streaming experince is greatly inferior to a Slingbox, but the Slingbox does take over the Mini or DVR, while TiVo's Stream and built-ins acts more like a remote Mini, but some TiVo owners with built-in stream have resorted to Slinbox for its reliability and its ability to stream Out of Home all content, including restricted content, that TiVo's Stream and built-ins will NOT. If all your recordings are from OTA (such is my case), then no restrictions apply and all recordings will stream, but if your recordings are from cable channels, then many restrictions apply and you won't be able to stream quite a lot of recordings.

Having said all of the above, the TiVo Stream and built-in still do provide one tremendous value, if you plan on using it: recordings can be copied to mobile devices. However, again, if there are cable TV channel content restrictions, they often those recordings can't be copied to mobile devices. Again, all OTA recordings will copy to mobile devices with no problems.

Well, give the TiVo Stream some time. Power outages can be hard on some devices, and all DVR's should be connected to a UPS (*U*ninterruptable *P*ower *S*upply), and I would connect the Stream to that UPS, as well. I've noticed my Stream seems to be more reliable since late last year, and I do use it, but I find the Slingbox more stable. On the other hand, my Stream is really useful in sending copies of my recordings to my phone and tables for viewing without an internet connection, and that feature works very well, but it is slow because it has to transcode at the time of copy to mobile device (Dish DVR's automatically transcode immediatly after recording to allow for really fast transfers to mobile devices).

I do not regret my TiVo Stram purchase, but I did buy it a long time ago, and while I like fleabay, I've found that sometimes lemons get sold. It may be worth it to consider Weaknees Refurbished TiVo Streams. At lest you know where they are and who they are, and I would hope they could do an exchange, but you can always contact them to find out such details. Best of luck.


----------



## houman (Aug 2, 2007)

Series3Sub said:


> I've had a Stream for years and it works just as well (or BAD would be more accurate) as the built-in streaming function on other TiVo DVR's. The Stream will allow MORE individual streams than the built-ins, and, I believe, provides access accross all S4 and later DVR's on the same network while there is limited access with built-ins.
> 
> TiVo's entire streaming functionality across the add-on Stream and all the built-ins are quite notorious for its unreliability and "finicky" behavior. The TiVo streaming experince is greatly inferior to a Slingbox, but the Slingbox does take over the Mini or DVR, while TiVo's Stream and built-ins acts more like a remote Mini, but some TiVo owners with built-in stream have resorted to Slinbox for its reliability and its ability to stream Out of Home all content, including restricted content, that TiVo's Stream and built-ins will NOT. If all your recordings are from OTA (such is my case), then no restrictions apply and all recordings will stream, but if your recordings are from cable channels, then many restrictions apply and you won't be able to stream quite a lot of recordings.
> 
> ...


I have started to really like the Stream, I have sprained my ankle and it's great to watch shows from Bed or my home office.

Do you know a way where it would be possible to change buffering size for recorded shows when you stream it ? When I try to skip commercials, it lags a lot until it streams 30 seconds afterwards... sometimes it hangs.


----------



## Agrajag (Sep 8, 2001)

Got my Stream from Weaknees and all indications are that it works, except for the face that the Play button doesn't appear 90% of the time (or more). The device shows on the network, replies to accesses, etc., but the Play option just doesn't show up. Infuriating. What really got me was a long call into support ended with them saying, "We acknowledge that this is a problem on our end and something the developers are working on so we're going to put you on a lit to contact when it's fixed." Given the age of the Stream and the depth of people with this issue, I have doubts that anyone is ever going to hear from them again. It's further annoying because FiOS is charging me less for TV than far better solutions for streaming like YouTubeTV. I keep thinking, "Hey, I'd like to watch this right now (from a remote location)", and realize it's just not going to work, so I get dejected. 

The features of the Roamio itself are excellent, if a little sluggish at times and any switch to a standard provided box is likewise painful. I can't believe this is where we are in 2020 with this stuff. I'd go full streaming, but it's just lousy for sports until they get to a point where you can do frame-by-frame stepping and high resolution FF and RW (instead of jumping like 10 seconds without even knowing what you're landing on). I feel like checking back in on TV in five years as a result.


----------

