# TiVo Mega drinks your milkshake, and then some



## cmontyburns (Nov 14, 2001)

Lots of debate in the TiVo OTA thread about whether one should pay $15/mo. forever for the OTA box. Well, would you pay $5,000 one time for a TiVo?

TiVo is about to demo the TiVo Mega, basically a souped-up Roamio with... wait for it... 24 _terabytes_ of storage.










TiVo estimates the price will be around $5,000. Hey, at least that includes Lifetime. Slated to hit the market early next year.


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## tomhorsley (Jul 22, 2010)

1. Where is the slot I can pop my blu-ray and dvd disks into to rip them to the disk for instant access to my collection?

2. No one can possibly use this thing without support for folders to organize your 24TB of video.

3. Why only 24TB? I see 10 disk slots - should be able to get 60TB in there .


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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

For all that is good and holy!!!!

http://investor.tivo.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=106292&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1964575&highlight=

Looks like it only has 6 Tuners - meh, I was hoping for 12!


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## SullyND (Dec 30, 2004)

This is the third or fourth thread on the topic.


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## TiVoMonkey (Jan 12, 2002)

tomhorsley said:


> 3. Why only 24TB? I see 10 disk slots - should be able to get 60TB in there .


I would hope that it is full of 3TB disks that are in a RAID 6 configuration. Otherwise a drive going bad, and with 10 drives it's going to happen, would screw you big time.


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## cmontyburns (Nov 14, 2001)

SullyND said:


> This is the third or fourth thread on the topic.


Pardon me. I thought it was a new announcement and there does not seem to have been a thread on it within the last week.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

Looks like the DVR for quite a few on these forums.


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## DebiLee (Aug 25, 2014)

Hold me, I think I'm in love (as long as I'm not paying the subscription) <3

I can imagine it now, if a TiVo can encrust this with diamonds women who are TiVo- holics will want this instead of jewelry for anniversaries, birthdays, and Valentines day. Think of all the Lifetime movies they can fit on it!


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

trip1eX said:


> Looks like the DVR for quite a few on these forums.


Too expensive when I have mine feeding my NAS with more space.


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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

innocentfreak said:


> Too expensive when I have mine feeding my NAS with more space.


I agree, I thought this was supposed to be a central hub for powering several client Mini's in very large installations. But with only 6 tuners, it is nothing more than a regular Roamio with a large hard drive.

Meh


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## Banker257 (Aug 4, 2014)

cmontyburns said:


> Lots of debate in the TiVo OTA thread about whether one should pay $15/mo. forever for the OTA box. Well, would you pay $5,000 one time for a TiVo?
> 
> TiVo is about to demo the TiVo Mega, basically a souped-up Roamio with... wait for it... 24 _terabytes_ of storage.
> 
> ...


You can buy 5 Romio Pro's all with lifetime for the same price and have 30 tuners instead of 6.

Is this really the product that is going save their retail business? 

I'm sorry, this is ridiculous. Hopefully they're taking pre-orders before they make more than 10 of these.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

bradleys said:


> I agree, I thought this was supposed to be a central hub for powering several client Mini's in very large installations. But with only 6 tuners, it is nothing more than a regular Roamio with a large hard drive.
> 
> Meh


The other thread said Raid array. You won't lose a recording if a hard drive fails.


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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

trip1eX said:


> The other thread said Raid array. You won't lose a recording if a hard drive fails.


And that is a value, but not a great argument for the product. What is the actual purpose of this unit? A TiVo storage locker or a distribution hub?


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## wickerbill (Apr 4, 2002)

trip1eX said:


> The other thread said Raid array. You won't lose a recording if a hard drive fails.


Not if you don't get the drive replaced and get the data restored to that drive before another drive fails. RAID5 isn't a very good choice for an array this large if you really value the data on it.


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## daveak (Mar 23, 2009)

I remember a thread that pops up every once in awhile about someone's TiVo being full because deleting recordings is essentially evil...... $5000 for marital bliss.


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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

Raid 5 is the standard for data warehousing in today's mega corp. There are certainly other options, but for cost / value proposition - Raid 5 is the go to standard.

And really, just how important is that season pass for "Real Housewives of Atlanta"?


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## NJ Webel (Dec 8, 2004)

No OTA = No Sale.






lol


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

bradleys said:


> And that is a value, but not a great argument for the product. What is the actual purpose of this unit? A TiVo storage locker or a distribution hub?


Hi-end setups I would guess. Specifically probably marketed to the types of installers that sell the well heeled on expensive av setups.

Possibly maybe some sort of cloud type on-demand solution for ...small MSOs? I don't know.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

bradleys said:


> I agree, I thought this was supposed to be a central hub for powering several client Mini's in very large installations. But with only 6 tuners, it is nothing more than a regular Roamio with a large hard drive.
> 
> Meh


They need to deal with the 10 box per account problem. The target market for this thing probably has 12-15 TVs or more...



NJ Webel said:


> No OTA = No Sale.
> 
> lol


The target market for this has FIOS or cable with everything on it.


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

Honestly, if I were rich and wanted to pimp out my stately manor with TiVo, I think I would just go out and buy 7 Roamio Pluses for the same price as this monster and just scatter them around the mansion. That would give me 42 tuners rather than just 6.


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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

Bigg said:


> They need to deal with the 10 box per account problem. The target market for this thing probably has 12-15 TVs or more...


I wonder how many Cablecard slots this thing has. Is it possible they have an expansion planned for the future?

6 tuners, it seems like such a wasted oportunity.


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

You would think they would have built a full rackmount in a case similar to the Norco with expandable tuner cards. Then they could offer 6 as the base and sell expander cards to add 6 tuners at a time. Of course there probably is a software limitation to managing more than 6 tuners at a time.


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## JWhites (May 15, 2013)

tarheelblue32 said:


> Honestly, if I were rich and wanted to pimp out my stately manor with TiVo, I think I would just go out and buy 7 Roamio Pluses for the same price as this monster and just scatter them around the mansion. That would give me 42 tuners rather than just 6.


Pluses? Why not Pro's?


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## pig_man (Jun 4, 2009)

i think they should name it "*The TiVo Behemoth*".


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## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

tarheelblue32 said:


> Honestly, if I were rich and wanted to pimp out my stately manor with TiVo, I think I would just go out and buy 7 Roamio Pluses for the same price as this monster and just scatter them around the mansion. That would give me 42 tuners rather than just 6.


If I were rich I'd find some big Home Theater custom installer and tell them what I wanted and they'd take care of doing it all in some completely integrated manner.

Or actually I'd probably have my personal assistant do that.


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## Banker257 (Aug 4, 2014)

pig_man said:


> i think they should name it "*The TiVo Behemoth*".


The TiVo Edsel


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## NJ Webel (Dec 8, 2004)

Bigg said:


> The target market for this has FIOS or cable with everything on it.


Hence the joke...


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## JWhites (May 15, 2013)

dswallow said:


> If I were rich I'd find some big Home Theater custom installer and tell them what I wanted and they'd take care of doing it all in some completely integrated manner.
> 
> Or actually I'd probably have my personal assistant do that.


(Shakes hand) Hi, you've found me  point me to the personal assistant  so I can get started.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

Haven't read the whole thread. I actually think this is "neat", but not a good thing for the PR front, since Tivo is perpetuating the "it's really expensive" thing... where it should REALLY be promoting the "it can be cheaper than the cable DVR over only a few years including a lifetime (of the box) subscription".

While I wouldn't pay that much, I'd pay a bunch more than an existing Tivo if it were basically Tivo with built in RAID (the kind of RAID that lets disks go bad and you can replace 1 and it fixes itself).

I'm _very_ lightly following various NAS RAID boxes on Amazon, etc.... and my 99.999% reason would be for more external storage for Tivo. If it were built in to Tivo (but still had the Tivo To Go, etc. features), even better.


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

Bigg said:


> They need to deal with the 10 box per account problem.


I think the limit per account is 12.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

tarheelblue32 said:


> I think the limit per account is 12.


Isn't that limit on the number of boxes on which you can get MSD?


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

What would be nice is something like this without the tuners set up to act as a NAS for all your TiVos so that shows you record automatically get stored on it instead of having to have a PC dedicated to running Desktop, although I'm sure the CCI bit or some other cable company skullduggery would prevent that.


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## squint (Jun 15, 2008)

tarheelblue32 said:


> I think the limit per account is 12.





unitron said:


> Isn't that limit on the number of boxes on which you can get MSD?


When I went over 10, I asked the TiVo CSR and was told there was no real limit to the number of TiVos on your account. However, no more than 10 can do video sharing at a time. I just make sure I have less than 10 boxes with "video sharing" checked in my Tivo account device preferences.


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## tatergator1 (Mar 27, 2008)

daveak said:


> I remember a thread that pops up every once in awhile about someone's TiVo being full because deleting recordings is essentially evil...... $5000 for marital bliss.


:up: It's a small price to pay.  Maybe we should cross-post the Tivo Mega announcement in that thread as well.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

dswallow said:


> If I were rich I'd find some big Home Theater custom installer and tell them what I wanted and they'd take care of doing it all in some completely integrated manner.
> 
> Or actually I'd probably have my personal assistant do that.


You'd still have separate NPL's, instead of the true whole-home TiVo like this thing offers. What's the largest that someone has gotten a Roamio up to with an ESATA RAID enclosure? Also, 6 tuners is weak for a box like this. I'd expect at least 18 to best the CableVision RS-DVR (yes, they are a small provider, but a good chunk of the people with the dough for this thing live in their service area), the FIOS DVR, and the XFinity X1.

The people who would buy this are likely integrating it into Crestron systems with whole-home HDMI matrix switching... At that point, why not just have one 6-tuner DVR for each person living in the household? Then each person could have 6 tuners and 4TB of storage with their own NPL...



NJ Webel said:


> Hence the joke...


Yeah... guess I missed that one.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

daveak said:


> I remember a thread that pops up every once in awhile about someone's TiVo being full because deleting recordings is essentially evil...... $5000 for marital bliss.


One of Adam Carolla's common lines for a happy marriage is two Tivos.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

Bigg said:


> You'd still have separate NPL's, instead of the true whole-home TiVo like this thing offers. What's the largest that someone has gotten a Roamio up to with an ESATA RAID enclosure? Also, 6 tuners is weak for a box like this. I'd expect at least 18 to best the CableVision RS-DVR (yes, they are a small provider, but a good chunk of the people with the dough for this thing live in their service area), the FIOS DVR, and the XFinity X1.


1 cablecard has a maximum of 4 tuners.

I haven't heard of anybody doing ANYTHING with an (attached) eSATA RAID enclosure.. heck, the biggest internal drive expansion is still 4 TB AFAIK.


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## SullyND (Dec 30, 2004)

mattack said:


> 1 cablecard has a maximum of *4* tuners.


Sssh. Don't tell the cablecard in my Roamio Pro that.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

SullyND said:


> Sssh. Don't tell the cablecard in my Roamio Pro that.


LOL


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## Series3Sub (Mar 14, 2010)

This is obviously a product for custom pro installs to homes for very wealthy people who either want the best no matter the price or who just let the custom pro installers do what they will while never checking the cost along the way nor do any real research believing that is why they are having a custom pro install in the first place. So this makes LOTS of money for--per unit--for TiVo and the custom pro installer from super rich folks who would never miss $5,000.

Imagine the day of completion (or the the day of installation) when the custom installer says all the glorious specs of this unit and how you, the home owner, are state of the art with your family never running out of room and erasing each others shows and never lose those recordings because of its RAID spec. That's all this product is. Just another thing to shovel more money from those who can afford it. However, SIX tuners is really puny for this thing. It should have been at least 12 tuners, but that would cost more to manufacture.


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## CoxInPHX (Jan 14, 2011)

mattack said:


> 1 cablecard has a maximum of 4 tuners.


The Cisco PKM908 supports up to 8 (tuners) program streams w/ the proper firmware.
http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/products/collateral/video/remote-controls-keyboards/ol_28628_01.pdf

All other CableCARDs, both Motorola and Cisco support 6 (tuners) program streams w/ the proper firmware.


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

CoxInPHX said:


> The Cisco PKM908 supports up to 8 (tuners) program streams w/ the proper firmware.
> http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/products/collateral/video/remote-controls-keyboards/ol_28628_01.pdf
> 
> All other CableCARDs, both Motorola and Cisco support 6 (tuners) program streams w/ the proper firmware.


Building it with 8 tuners to use this special 8-tuner card would be very risky. Just getting one from a cable company with the proper firmware to run all 8 tuners would almost require an act of Congress, literally. And if your cable company uses SDV, I doubt there is any Tuning Adapter in existence with the proper firmware to correctly work with 8 tuners, and if you are going to sell a $5,000 DVR, it had damn well better work correctly.

Making it with 2 (or more) CableCard slots would have been much safer. Each could power 6 tuners and there could be 2 separate tuning adapters connected to it if SDV is required. I really don't think 2 CableCard slots is too much to ask for if you are going to be charging 5 grand.


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

Banker257 said:


> You can buy 5 Romio Pro's all with lifetime for the same price and have 30 tuners instead of 6.
> 
> Is this really the product that is going save their retail business?
> 
> I'm sorry, this is ridiculous. Hopefully they're taking pre-orders before they make more than 10 of these.


maybe they just wanted to make one for "the daily show" to record FOX and all. In trade "The Daily Show" will see that the guide data finally gets fixed


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## Thom (Jun 5, 2000)

Basically, the Mega is just a Roamio Plus (or Pro) dual drive, with the drives being a RAID 5 array instead of a single drive. For $5000. The RAID arrays are a good idea and a long time coming; the pricetag is idiotic.


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## abovethesink (Aug 26, 2013)

I am have been staring flabbergasted at this for days now. Why? Had they added a second cable card slot, allowing for 12 tuners, then great, it is a hub. An extreme niche product hub, but at least one where I could understand it being a hub for a large family of say five plus minis. But it doesn't. It just has a huge harddrive. Crazy.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

abovethesink said:


> I am have been staring flabbergasted at this for days now. Why? Had they added a second cable card slot, allowing for 12 tuners, then great, it is a hub. An extreme niche product hub, but at least one where I could understand it being a hub for a large family of say five plus minis. But it doesn't. It just has a huge harddrive. Crazy.


+1

It's nothing more then a Roamio Pro with an obscene amount of hard drive space. Not sure who the target for something like this is. If it had 12 tuners and 2 CC slots then it would make more sense, but the HDD space is still obscene. That would be like having two Roamios with 12TB each. Who needs that much space? At an average bitrate of 15Mbps that would hold over 3500 hours of HD. You couldn't watch that much TV in a year.


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## astrohip (Jan 7, 2003)

tarheelblue32 said:


> Making it with 2 (or more) CableCard slots would have been much safer. Each could power 6 tuners and there could be 2 separate tuning adapters connected to it if SDV is required. I really don't think 2 CableCard slots is too much to ask for if you are going to be charging 5 grand.


I would guess the current software can't handle more than six streams. It's what they've had for a while, and all their newer TiVos are oriented around it. So going from 6 to 12 may only be one cc slot, but a significant update to their software.

And it's not just the physical transport of six streams. It's all the associated code for handling conflicts, info screens, LIVE button tuner swapping, yada yada.

Just a guess on my part.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

If they hard coded their software to 6 streams then they are poor programmers. I seriously doubt that's the case.

It's much more likely this is a hardware issue. I'm guessing the Broadcom chip they use simply can't handle any more tuners. Either the bus the tuners are attached to is too slow or the I/O portion of the chip is.

Honestly the only targets I can think of for something like this would be very specialized. For example we have a customer who's company records every minute of TV broadcast at key locations around the country. Then they use it to catalog data about advertising such as the exact time ads were displayed, their duration, they even save a preview of each ad so the customer can view it to make sure it was the right one. (they use our cutting engine for that part) They use recorders similar to this for their operation, so I could see them maybe having an interest in something like this. But for a consumer the price point and storage are excessive. I just can't imagine a personal use case for something like that.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

Dan203 said:


> +1
> 
> It's nothing more then a Roamio Pro with an obscene amount of hard drive space. Not sure who the target for something like this is. If it had 12 tuners and 2 CC slots then it would make more sense, but the HDD space is still obscene. That would be like having two Roamios with 12TB each. Who needs that much space? At an average bitrate of 15Mbps that would hold over 3500 hours of HD. You couldn't watch that much TV in a year.


I remember people with large collections of movies on VHS. And then people with large DVD collections. Now it is BR. I don't see this as any different.

Quite a few here keep recordings around and sound like they have storage space rivaling that of this Mega Tivo.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I guess it could appeal to the digital pack rat, but at the price they're asking most probably wont be able to afford it. 

People amass movies one at a time, for $15-$30/ea. They don't run out and drop $5k on every movie at the store. This is more like the Kaleidescape. A niche product for hard core A/V enthusiast with money to burn.


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## shwru980r (Jun 22, 2008)

I could see this being used in a small hotel, apartment building or college dorm. You could have 8 minis running off of it according to another thread. And you could accumulate massive amounts of diverse programming to please many different people.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

But with only 6 tuners you'd only be able to support 5 Minis watching live TV. Plus there is no way to limit the Mini. It basically has full control over the host DVR, which wouldn't be ideal for that use case. People could delete recordings, change SPs, cancel recordings, etc...


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## Johncv (Jun 11, 2002)

shwru980r said:


> I could see this being used in a small hotel, apartment building or college dorm. You could have 8 minis running off of it according to another thread. And you could accumulate massive amounts of diverse programming to please many different people.


Could be use in a sport bar/restaurant.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Johncv said:


> Could be use in a sport bar/restaurant.


Maybe but those places typically are displaying live TV, so what do they need 24TB of storage for?


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## Johncv (Jun 11, 2002)

Dan203 said:


> Maybe but those places typically are displaying live TV, so what do they need 24TB of storage for?


To play a sport game when there nothing live, or play a different sport event on other TVs. Could add a children play area and show cartoons.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I guess. Seems pretty niche still and still way more space then probably needed. Almost seems like an experiment to see how much hard drive space they could get into one TiVo. Does the MFS file system have some upper limit?


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

mattack said:


> 1 cablecard has a maximum of 4 tuners.
> 
> I haven't heard of anybody doing ANYTHING with an (attached) eSATA RAID enclosure.. heck, the biggest internal drive expansion is still 4 TB AFAIK.


A) You wrong, it's 6 tuners. How on earth do you think the Roamio Plus/Pro works?

B) They would use 3 or 4 CableCards to get to the necessary number of tuners. Not exactly rocket science. I'm sure the monthly fees are no big deal for the target audience of this beast.

Interesting. I guess there's just not much need when you can move things off to a NAS or PC...



tarheelblue32 said:


> Building it with 8 tuners to use this special 8-tuner card would be very risky. Just getting one from a cable company with the proper firmware to run all 8 tuners would almost require an act of Congress, literally. And if your cable company uses SDV, I doubt there is any Tuning Adapter in existence with the proper firmware to correctly work with 8 tuners, and if you are going to sell a $5,000 DVR, it had damn well better work correctly.
> 
> Making it with 2 (or more) CableCard slots would have been much safer. Each could power 6 tuners and there could be 2 separate tuning adapters connected to it if SDV is required. I really don't think 2 CableCard slots is too much to ask for if you are going to be charging 5 grand.


True, I forgot about TAs. For the few left on TWC whose mansions haven't been wired for FIOS, this would be important. Not hard to do though... just have a USB for each CableCard and two TA's.



Dan203 said:


> I guess. Seems pretty niche still and still way more space then probably needed. Almost seems like an experiment to see how much hard drive space they could get into one TiVo. Does the MFS file system have some upper limit?


Yeah, none of these hypothetical use cases make any sense. Maybe for someone who is only at their mansion half the year, is in another country, and want to record everything for the other half? I'm really trying hard here...


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

I typoed.. obviously I meant 6..


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

Bigg said:


> Interesting. I guess there's just not much need when you can move things off to a NAS or PC...


I'm doing that nowadays, but I'd definitely PREFER the recordings to all be *in* the Tivo. (Sure, if it were in a way I could easily get to from other computers "directly", not via kmttg, even better.. but I realize that won't happen.)


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## siratfus (Oct 3, 2008)

tarheelblue32 said:


> Honestly, if I were rich and wanted to pimp out my stately manor with TiVo, I think I would just go out and buy 7 Roamio Pluses for the same price as this monster and just scatter them around the mansion. That would give me 42 tuners rather than just 6.


If you were rich, why wouldn't you get 7 Megas? LOL!


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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

If I were rich, I would get one Roamio Pro and a Base Roamio for each member of the household. Those would all be contained in a central media closet.

Each Mini dedicated to a family member, say in their room, would be paired to their base Roamio. Each Mini in a common area would be paired with the Pro.

Viola - Profiles!


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## cannonz (Oct 23, 2011)

I assume it has some way to organize shows, could get unwieldy with that much space.


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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

cannonz said:


> I assume it has some way to organize shows, could get unwieldy with that much space.


Nope


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

Johncv said:


> To play a sport game when there nothing live, or play a different sport event on other TVs. Could add a children play area and show cartoons.


actually the sports bars would have legal issues playing recorded material in a for profit business setting. Some may do it and get away with it simply because no average person would be all that upset -- but if it become more commonplace the broadcasters and sports leagues would shut them down.

in a nutshell
Sports is the last great bastion of live tv and thus better for commercial revenue so they protect that


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

the actual niche market IMHO is the actual shows at the local networks. News organizations use clips, Today show, GMA etc...
the daily show, colbert report and so forth all likely already have ways they are recording FOX, C-span, CNN and so on 24/7. This Mega TiVo could greatly simplify that.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

bradleys said:


> If I were rich, I would get one Roamio Pro and a Base Roamio for each member of the household. Those would all be contained in a central media closet.
> 
> Each Mini dedicated to a family member, say in their room, would be paired to their base Roamio. Each Mini in a common area would be paired with the Pro.
> 
> Viola - Profiles!


Depending on how a person uses their Tivo though, this might not work well for them. Of course it will work but you lose alot by only using a Mini. When I sold one of my Premiere Elites, I replaced it with a Mini in my main viewing area until the Roamio pro came out and I could sell the second Elite. It was not ideal to use the Mini in my main viewing area. You could not see what was on the different tuners and you couldn't view Amazon content either from the Host. I used it this way for a couple of months.

I was glad when I got the Roamio Pro and put it in the place of the Mini. I like using my Minis for secondary Tvs, tertiary TVs, etc. But for the main viewing location, I like using a full fledged Tivo there.


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## cannonz (Oct 23, 2011)

Be good for dorms.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

bradleys said:


> If I were rich, I would get one Roamio Pro and a Base Roamio for each member of the household. Those would all be contained in a central media closet.
> 
> Each Mini dedicated to a family member, say in their room, would be paired to their base Roamio. Each Mini in a common area would be paired with the Pro.
> 
> Viola - Profiles!


That makes no sense, since a high-end installation centralizes all the equipment, so you could just drive directly from the racked Roamio's. But in that high-end of an installation, they would all be Pro's. This type of installation is going to run a 20x20 HDBaseT matrix or the Just Add Power system...


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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

Yeah, you are correct - but I might have two or three TV's in my bedroom. One over the fireplace, one in the sitting area and one behind the mirror in my bathroom. 

So one direct connect and two mini's.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

bradleys said:


> Yeah, you are correct - but I might have two or three TV's in my bedroom. One over the fireplace, one in the sitting area and one behind the mirror in my bathroom.
> 
> So one direct connect and two mini's.


No need for a Roamio for the common areas since you can tell the Mini to talk to whatever Roamio you want it to talk to.


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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

Point was... To use separate Roamios to create a mechanism for profiles.

Each person would setup their own season passes and recordings on their own base TiVo. Mini's would be liberally used to ensure connection to distributed TV's


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

bradleys said:


> Point was... To use separate Roamios to create a mechanism for profiles.
> 
> Each person would setup their own season passes and recordings on their own base TiVo. Mini's would be liberally used to ensure connection to distributed TV's


Yeah that's why I am saying you don't need the Pro in your setup for the common areas.

I go in to a common area and tell Mini to talk to my Roamio in the closet and I have my content.

Unless the Pro is for guests.


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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

I love debating nonsense ideas! 

You see, the pro is to ensure that no one profile gets preferential treatment in the common areas. To see Dad's content, you have to physically choose Dad's TiVo, to see Mom's content, you have to choose Mom's TiVo!

General family content can stay on the "home" TiVo, but dads Sports and moms cooking shows and kids cartoons are all separated nicely!

Now back to reality - without profiles and a lack of tuners to really position itself to be that large installation hub, I do not see the point of the Mega.


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## shwru980r (Jun 22, 2008)

Dan203 said:


> But with only 6 tuners you'd only be able to support 5 Minis watching live TV. Plus there is no way to limit the Mini. It basically has full control over the host DVR, which wouldn't be ideal for that use case. People could delete recordings, change SPs, cancel recordings, etc...


I was thinking there would be so much great programming already recorded that there would be no need for a tuner and so much disk capacity there is no need to delete. It might be sufficient to say don't allocate a tuner and don't delete anything, but I suppose mistakes could be made someone could be malicious.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

We use to have an open public FTP every few weeks some ahole would logon and delete everything. I just can't see using Minis as a viable option for a public business like a hotel. Not without some sort of controls in place to prevent malicious behavior. 

Plus I think there are laws against this sort of thing anyway. DVRs are only legal because the betamax case gave us the right to timeshift content for personal use. Archiving and public performances are still illegal without special permission.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

bradleys said:


> I love debating nonsense ideas!
> 
> You see, the pro is to ensure that no one profile gets preferential treatment in the common areas. To see Dad's content, you have to physically choose Dad's TiVo, to see Mom's content, you have to choose Mom's TiVo!
> 
> General family content can stay on the "home" TiVo, but dads Sports and moms cooking shows and kids cartoons are all separated nicely!


Ok so the Pro is the family tivo.

But still you wouldn't need it since you can go into the Mini's settings menu and select the Roamio you want the Mini to get content from.

So if you are the DAd and are going to watch tv in the living room then you would tell the Mini to talk to your Roamio in the menus. Voila. Your shows are on that Mini.

The kids and Mom would go through the same process to get their content in the living room areas.

No one profile would get preferential treatment.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

bradleys said:


> Point was... To use separate Roamios to create a mechanism for profiles.
> 
> Each person would setup their own season passes and recordings on their own base TiVo. Mini's would be liberally used to ensure connection to distributed TV's


That doesn't make sense. An install with one of these things is likely to have all the equipment racked centrally- so one Roamio per user, than distributed through an HDMI matrix or Just Add Power, all controlled by Crestron.



trip1eX said:


> Ok so the Pro is the family tivo.
> 
> But still you wouldn't need it since you can go into the Mini's settings menu and select the Roamio you want the Mini to get content from.
> 
> ...


You guys are WAY over-complicating it. One Roamio Pro per person, all centrally racked with the HDMI distribution, networking, Crestron, etc gear. That's it. Whoever has the Crestron controller selects their TiVo, and proceeds to use it. The TiVos don't need to use streaming or transferring at all. Heck, you could have an HR44, an MSO box, and a bunch of other stuff in the AV rack as well.

Installations like that are NOT going to have equipment installed in the individual rooms, unless it's something like an XBone or (maybe) a Blu-Ray player that needs local access.


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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

are we still debating this? I tell you what, when I win the lotto, I will pay the lot of you to design me the perfect distributed system! 

Ha!


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

bradleys said:


> are we still debating this? I tell you what, when I win the lotto, I will pay the lot of you to design me the perfect distributed system!
> 
> Ha!


Yeah. Get a real custom A/V installer who is Crestron certified... and I can guarantee that they will centrally rack all the DVRs and use HDMI distribution for the DVRs and other sources.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Bigg said:


> Yeah. Get a real custom A/V installer who is Crestron certified... and I can guarantee that they will centrally rack all the DVRs and use HDMI distribution for the DVRs and other sources.


With HDBaseT it makes HDMI distribution very easy using Cat5e/Cat6 cables. This is all we use at work now for clients.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

Bigg said:


> That doesn't make sense. An install with one of these things is likely to have all the equipment racked centrally- so one Roamio per user, than distributed through an HDMI matrix or Just Add Power, all controlled by Crestron.
> 
> You guys are WAY over-complicating it. One Roamio Pro per person, all centrally racked with the HDMI distribution, networking, Crestron, etc gear. That's it. Whoever has the Crestron controller selects their TiVo, and proceeds to use it. The TiVos don't need to use streaming or transferring at all. Heck, you could have an HR44, an MSO box, and a bunch of other stuff in the AV rack as well.
> 
> Installations like that are NOT going to have equipment installed in the individual rooms, unless it's something like an XBone or (maybe) a Blu-Ray player that needs local access.


what's complicated about Minis at every tv and a Roamio in the closet for every family member?


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

aaronwt said:


> With HDBaseT it makes HDMI distribution very easy using Cat5e/Cat6 cables. This is all we use at work now for clients.


Yeah, that's what I was thinking of. I meant the HDMI signal over HDBaseT, not literally an HDMI cable.



trip1eX said:


> what's complicated about Minis at every tv and a Roamio in the closet for every family member?


NO!!! In a centralized system, there is zero or minimal (stuff like XBone or maybe Blu-ray) at the actual TVs. EVERYTHING ELSE is centrally racked. And, with a centralized system, there is NO REASON to have a Mini at the TV. You just use your Roamio directly. The target market for the TiVo Mega already has everything centrally racked with an HDMI matrix, HDBaseT and a Crestron system to control it, and thus would NOT need Minis if there was one DVR per person. Realistically, they may only have one or two or three Roamios with shared NPLs, but in that case, the Minis would also be centrally racked, and the number would be based on the number of simultaneous users who might want to use the TiVo system at once.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

Bigg said:


> NO!!! In a centralized system, there is zero or minimal (stuff like XBone or maybe Blu-ray) at the actual TVs. EVERYTHING ELSE is centrally racked. And, with a centralized system, there is NO REASON to have a Mini at the TV. You just use your Roamio directly. The target market for the TiVo Mega already has everything centrally racked with an HDMI matrix, HDBaseT and a Crestron system to control it, and thus would NOT need Minis if there was one DVR per person. Realistically, they may only have one or two or three Roamios with shared NPLs, but in that case, the Minis would also be centrally racked, and the number would be based on the number of simultaneous users who might want to use the TiVo system at once.


Meanwhile I just hook up a mini to each tv and throw 4 Roamios in a closet.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

trip1eX said:


> Meanwhile I just hook up a mini to each tv and throw 4 Roamios in a closet.


I wouldn't like that. Especially if I wanted to watch Amazon content or I was a person that jumped between multiple live channels using the buffer. The Mini just doesn't replace all the aspects of a full blown TiVo. With networking the main TiVo can be anywhere. So it might as well be located at the TV instead of a central location. Since it needlessly add another device, a Mini, if you only plan on having one Mini attached to each Roamio.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

aaronwt said:


> I wouldn't like that. Especially if I wanted to watch Amazon content or I was a person that jumped between multiple live channels using the buffer. The Mini just doesn't replace all the aspects of a full blown TiVo. With networking the main TiVo can be anywhere. So it might as well be located at the TV instead of a central location. Since it needlessly add another device, a Mini, if you only plan on having one Mini attached to each Roamio.


True.



trip1eX said:


> Meanwhile I just hook up a mini to each tv and throw 4 Roamios in a closet.


No. The disucssion was the target market of the Mega. Who would already have a whole-home Crestron-controlled centralized HDMI distribution system using HDBaseT.


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## petesweeps (Jan 16, 2012)

thanks for sharing.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

Bigg said:


> No. The disucssion was the target market of the Mega. Who would already have a whole-home Crestron-controlled centralized HDMI distribution system using HDBaseT.


I'm goofing around with the "nonsense" idea that was posted in this thread that didn't have anything to with a Crestron system. I just pointed out that the silly idea didn't really need the extra roamio.

then you say I'm overcomplicating this already non-sense idea. And I say how I am overcomplicating it? It's just roamios and Minis. And then you say well you need a Crestron system and HDMI matrix and .... And then I say well that sounds like complication to me. Nothing simpler than Minis and roamios. And then you say it is required. I say well I don't see anywhere in this discussion that it is required for this "non-sense" idea to work.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

aaronwt said:


> I wouldn't like that. Especially if I wanted to watch Amazon content or I was a person that jumped between multiple live channels using the buffer. The Mini just doesn't replace all the aspects of a full blown TiVo. With networking the main TiVo can be anywhere. So it might as well be located at the TV instead of a central location. Since it needlessly add another device, a Mini, if you only plan on having one Mini attached to each Roamio.


You gotta put it into context. I replied to someone's self-admitted nonsense idea about roamio's in the closet....etc.

but good point that you wouldn't have to put the Roamios in the closet unless space was an issue which it might be a bedroom. But otherwise JUnior could have his Roamio in his room and access it at any Mini in the common rooms.

As far as Amazon and Minis go, I'd say who cares. Tivo already has some big holes in the streaming dept and the Amazon app is from 2005 so I would say anyone wanting top notch streaming abilities should also have a streaming box.

And yes if you absolutely needed to jump as smooth as possible between live tv channels then the Mini wouldn't be the best answer.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

trip1eX said:


> I'm goofing around with the "nonsense" idea that was posted in this thread that didn't have anything to with a Crestron system. I just pointed out that the silly idea didn't really need the extra roamio.
> 
> then you say I'm overcomplicating this already non-sense idea. And I say how I am overcomplicating it? It's just roamios and Minis. And then you say well you need a Crestron system and HDMI matrix and .... And then I say well that sounds like complication to me. Nothing simpler than Minis and roamios. And then you say it is required. I say well I don't see anywhere in this discussion that it is required for this "non-sense" idea to work.


You're over-complicating it because in a centrally distributed system, nothing except maybe game consoles or Blu-Ray players are located outside of the central rack(s). It's relevant, because the target market for the TiVo Mega is the market that's running a central HDBaseT system, with something like Crestron or Control4, and a 16x16 or 20x20 HDMI matrix (or the Just Add Power system). With a centralized system, the Roamios themselves, that are centrally racked, would be used directly, maybe with a mini or two if they wanted to support additional users to share a Roamio/NPL... Thus, the TiVo Mega is even more pointless, since they could just rack 3 or 4 Roamios and have way more tuners and separate "profiles" by just using separate TiVos.

Of course for 99% of users, they are going to have their TiVos with their TVs, and use MoCA or Ethernet to distribute them... in which case their Roamio is NOT going to be in the closet... it's going to be under their main TV, or in the room with their projector... But the 99% aren't relevant to the TiVo Mega.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

Bigg said:


> You're over-complicating it because in a centrally distributed system, nothing except maybe game consoles or Blu-Ray players are located outside of the central rack(s). It's relevant, because the target market for the TiVo Mega is the market that's running a central HDBaseT system, with something like Crestron or Control4, and a 16x16 or 20x20 HDMI matrix (or the Just Add Power system). With a centralized system, the Roamios themselves, that are centrally racked, would be used directly, maybe with a mini or two if they wanted to support additional users to share a Roamio/NPL... Thus, the TiVo Mega is even more pointless, since they could just rack 3 or 4 Roamios and have way more tuners and separate "profiles" by just using separate TiVos.
> 
> Of course for 99% of users, they are going to have their TiVos with their TVs, and use MoCA or Ethernet to distribute them... in which case their Roamio is NOT going to be in the closet... it's going to be under their main TV, or in the room with their projector... But the 99% aren't relevant to the TiVo Mega.


we were just talking about using just roamios and minis to implement profiles for a household and a bit tongue in cheek at that.

nothing you are saying has any relevance to that.


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## tomhorsley (Jul 22, 2010)

Ha! I laugh at your puny TiVo Mega storage capacity! Here's the sort of chassis they should be using .


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

trip1eX said:


> we were just talking about using just roamios and minis to implement profiles for a household and a bit tongue in cheek at that.
> 
> nothing you are saying has any relevance to that.


We were discussing alternatives to the TiVo Mega, which would be alternatives for the same target market as the Mega. Which would be a fully centralized, Matrix'ed system integrated with a Home Automation system.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

tomhorsley said:


> Ha! I laugh at your puny TiVo Mega storage capacity! Here's the sort of chassis they should be using .


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## Worf (Sep 15, 2000)

The guys at BackBlaze build their own storage pods and give the designs away. Costs around $2000 without drives (but includes power supply, motherboard, CPU, case, etc). Total cost with drives is around $11K

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/180tb-of-good-vibrations-storage-pod-3-0/

Oh, it's 180TB (45 4TB drives)


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

Worf said:


> The guys at BackBlaze build their own storage pods and give the designs away. Costs around $2000 without drives (but includes power supply, motherboard, CPU, case, etc). Total cost with drives is around $11K
> 
> https://www.backblaze.com/blog/180tb-of-good-vibrations-storage-pod-3-0/
> 
> Oh, it's 180TB (45 4TB drives)


Their blog is great too. I use them for backup, and I like their blog posts, especially about stuff like drive reliability.


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

Bigg said:


> We were discussing alternatives to the TiVo Mega, which would be alternatives for the same target market as the Mega. Which would be a fully centralized, Matrix'ed system integrated with a Home Automation system.


problem is - you all are thinking in home use for the market for the Mega.
that is likely not really the case unless someone likes to keep a LOT of recordings around.

the mega really would be for archival purposes like say the Daily show wanting to hold a couple of weeks of Fox news so they can look for some specific thing to use on the show, etc...


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

ZeoTiVo said:


> problem is - you all are thinking in home use for the market for the Mega.
> that is likely not really the case unless someone likes to keep a LOT of recordings around.
> 
> the mega really would be for archival purposes like say the Daily show wanting to hold a couple of weeks of Fox news so they can look for some specific thing to use on the show, etc...


TiVo is entirely ill-suited to a use scenario like that, and I am sure there are professional systems that are used for that sort of thing.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

ZeoTiVo said:


> problem is - you all are thinking in home use for the market for the Mega.
> that is likely not really the case unless someone likes to keep a LOT of recordings around.
> 
> the mega really would be for archival purposes like say the Daily show wanting to hold a couple of weeks of Fox news so they can look for some specific thing to use on the show, etc...


I can already do that now. With TiVo Desktop or KMTTG, I can have an infinite amount of storage for most of my TiVo recordings. Here on FIOS the only thing I can't transfer are recordings from HBo and Cinemax.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

aaronwt said:


> I can already do that now. With TiVo Desktop or KMTTG, I can have an infinite amount of storage for most of my TiVo recordings.


You're right, but there's still metadata lost sometimes. It's much better than maybe 2 years ago when I first started 'seriously' using kmttg. i.e. if there's no risk of loss (due to RAID), having it all on the Tivo itself COULD be better.


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## Worf (Sep 15, 2000)

The mega is for people with more money than sense. The kind that have a whole distribution center for videos in a central location where from any room they can access the TiVo or any Blu-Ray in the system or other video source. 

You know, the kind of people who spend $100K outfitting a house with video cabling and all that with matrix switchers so they can watch anything from any room and all that. And no, they're into storing all the video they can because you don't know when someone wants to watch


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## Joe01880 (Feb 8, 2009)

Do you think they will trade one for a nice bass boat??


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

Bigg said:


> TiVo is entirely ill-suited to a use scenario like that, and I am sure there are professional systems that are used for that sort of thing.


well ok - the Daily show can afford a pro setup - might even have a third party that does it for them.

but the basic idea is this is for folks that want to archive in one simple setup versus all this other whiz bang stuff -- which is a very niche group


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

Joe01880 said:


> Do you think they will trade one for a nice bass boat??


Probably not, but maybe you can work a three way trade with the Duck Dynasty boys?


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## JWhites (May 15, 2013)

Worf said:


> The mega is for people with more money than sense. The kind that have a whole distribution center for videos in a central location where from any room they can access the TiVo or any Blu-Ray in the system or other video source.
> 
> You know, the kind of people who spend $100K outfitting a house with video cabling and all that with matrix switchers so they can watch anything from any room and all that. And no, they're into storing all the video they can because you don't know when someone wants to watch


Those are my clients.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

Bigg said:


> We were discussing alternatives to the TiVo Mega, which would be alternatives for the same target market as the Mega. Which would be a fully centralized, Matrix'ed system integrated with a Home Automation system.


plenty of discussion of the Mega without mention of centralized systems including the post I replied to. It isn't a requirement.

And in this case it was talk of a silly idea about profiles using Roamios and Minis.

Your take on it was you didn't need Minis just Roamios because you would probably have a centralized system.

My take was you could do it with 1 less Roamio.

Someone else's take was you could use less Minis by not having the Roamios in the closet.

Your take is fine. But forcing it onto others as if law isn't. I didn't reply to your idea you know.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

Worf said:


> The mega is for people with more money than sense. The kind that have a whole distribution center for videos in a central location where from any room they can access the TiVo or any Blu-Ray in the system or other video source.
> 
> You know, the kind of people who spend $100K outfitting a house with video cabling and all that with matrix switchers so they can watch anything from any room and all that. And no, they're into storing all the video they can because you don't know when someone wants to watch


Yeah, pretty much. There are some practical benefits to a centralized HDMI distribution system, but there still is no good reason to get a TiVo Mega.



trip1eX said:


> plenty of discussion of the Mega without mention of centralized systems including the post I replied to. It isn't a requirement.


It's also not a requirement to have anything more than a $3k car that runs to own a multi-million dollar home. But it's a highly unlikely scenario.



> And in this case it was talk of a silly idea about profiles using Roamios and Minis.
> 
> Your take on it was you didn't need Minis just Roamios because you would probably have a centralized system.
> 
> ...


The point was that the TiVo Mega is intended for a target market with a centralized A/V system, hence the rackmount design and giant pricetag, and that it's pointless, because that market would be better off with several Roamio Pros, where they would have way more tuners and individualized DVRs for each member of the family.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

Bigg said:


> Yeah, pretty much. There are some practical benefits to a centralized HDMI distribution system, but there still is no good reason to get a TiVo Mega.
> 
> It's also not a requirement to have anything more than a $3k car that runs to own a multi-million dollar home. But it's a highly unlikely scenario.
> 
> The point was that the TiVo Mega is intended for a target market with a centralized A/V system, hence the rackmount design and giant pricetag, and that it's pointless, because that market would be better off with several Roamio Pros, where they would have way more tuners and individualized DVRs for each member of the family.


a) You are making the assumptions of a multimillion dollar home. I'm not.

b) You are assuming a centralized system. I'm not.

I merely replied to a post about profiles and Roamios and Minis. You then tell me I'm complicating the idea by having Minis instead of a centralized system when all i said was you can take a Roamio out of the equation. I'm telling you that no you are complicating it.

Now in your shoes you don't see it this way because you are assuming a) and b). But you know what they say about assumptions.

I have to look no further than my brother for an example of someone with a million dollar home with all kinds of fancy custom tile and elaborate snake skin wall paper and other weird stuff and $5000 stoves and fridges etc etc etc. With a Porsche and a Range Rover in the garage. And a pool with a cover that automatically rolls up or out. And a 10' projected tv screen. And he has no centralized system. So there.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

trip1eX said:


> a) You are making the assumptions of a multimillion dollar home. I'm not.


That's the target market of the TiVo Mega. Who else is going to drop that kind of cash? Right, no one.



> b) You are assuming a centralized system. I'm not.


That comes along with the territory.



> I merely replied to a post about profiles and Roamios and Minis. You then tell me I'm complicating the idea by having Minis instead of a centralized system when all i said was you can take a Roamio out of the equation. I'm telling you that no you are complicating it.


You complicated it by adding Minis that make no sense given the discussion was very clearly about alternatives to the TiVo Mega, which would include several TiVo Roamio Pros all connected to a the same central A/V distribution system. Of course, any of those scenarios may also have Minis, but they would be centrally racked along with the rest of the gear.



> Now in your shoes you don't see it this way because you are assuming a) and b). But you know what they say about assumptions.


That's the logical assumption for a product like this.



> I have to look no further than my brother for an example of someone with a million dollar home with all kinds of fancy custom tile and elaborate snake skin wall paper and other weird stuff and $5000 stoves and fridges etc etc etc. With a Porsche and a Range Rover in the garage. And a pool with a cover that automatically rolls up or out. And a 10' projected tv screen. And he has no centralized system. So there.


Then he's definitely not going to be interested in the TiVo Mega or any other solution for storing 24 TB of video content. So there.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

Bigg said:


> That's the target market of the TiVo Mega. Who else is going to drop that kind of cash? Right, no one.
> 
> That comes along with the territory.
> 
> ...


I wasn't assuming a centralized system so you're overcomplicating it.

Sorry.

Yes, to you, I'm overcomplicating it if your only vision of using Roamios and Minis to do profiles only exists in a home with a centralized system.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

trip1eX said:


> I wasn't assuming a centralized system so you're overcomplicating it.
> 
> Sorry.
> 
> Yes, to you, I'm overcomplicating it if your only vision of using Roamios and Minis to do profiles only exists in a home with a centralized system.


Again, we were talking about the TiVo Mega, not a general situation where you'd have a "normal" setup.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

Bigg said:


> Again, we were talking about the TiVo Mega, not a general situation where you'd have a "normal" setup.


No. YOU are talking about the Tivo Mega. I'm not.

YOU are assuming a centralized system. I'm not.

Anyway you have your assumptions and from those it is overcomplication. I have mine and from those it isn't. Nonsense discussion for me is done. lol.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

trip1eX said:


> No. YOU are talking about the Tivo Mega. I'm not.
> 
> YOU are assuming a centralized system. I'm not.
> 
> Anyway you have your assumptions and from those it is overcomplication. I have mine and from those it isn't. Nonsense discussion for me is done. lol.


We are talking about the TiVo Mega, as that's the point of this thread, and where this discussion started.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

Bigg said:


> We are talking about the TiVo Mega, as that's the point of this thread, and where this discussion started.


No YOU were. You're getting silly.

Does the Roamio and Mini and profile idea need a centralized system? No.

Do you need a million dollar home to pull it off? No.

Is the Roamio/Mini profile idea something easily reachable by those with far less resources than million dollar home owners? Yes

Did the Roamio and Mini and profile idea post mention a centralized system or the Tivo Mega? No.

Did I assume a centralized system? No. Did I mention a centralized system? No.

Did you reply to my post about this Roamio and Mini and profile idea? Yes.

Did I take what was in the original Roamio and Mini and profile idea and simplify it? Yes.

Does simplying mean overcomplicating? No.

Did Bigg say I was overcomplicating it? Yes.

Is Bigg incorrect? Yes.

Does Bigg not see this? Yes.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

trip1eX said:


> No YOU were. You're getting silly.


The TiVo Mega is clearly made for a centralized HDMI distribution system controlled with Cretron or Control4. In this situation, a more logical alternative would be several Roamio Pro's, which would net more tuners. What is so hard to understand about that?



> Does the Roamio and Mini and profile idea need a centralized system? No.


That's how the idea came about. Several Roamio Pros instead of a Mega.



> Do you need a million dollar home to pull it off? No.


That's the target market of the Mega.



> Is the Roamio/Mini profile idea something easily reachable by those with far less resources than million dollar home owners? Yes


But then it's not an alternative to the Mega, it's just something that's already been done and already in use, so it's irrelevant to this discussion.



> Did the Roamio and Mini and profile idea post mention a centralized system or the Tivo Mega? No.


It was an alternative to the TiVo Mega, so yes it did.



> Did I assume a centralized system? No. Did I mention a centralized system? No.


You have to when discussing the Mega.



> Did you reply to my post about this Roamio and Mini and profile idea? Yes.
> 
> Did I take what was in the original Roamio and Mini and profile idea and simplify it? Yes.
> 
> ...


You are just arguing nonsense for the sake of arguing nonsense. The idea was to have multiple Roamio Pros instead of the TiVo Mega, and either way they would be racked and centralized. Minis, if used to support more simultaneous viewers, would also be racked and centralized in the target market of the TiVo Mega.


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## tenthplanet (Mar 5, 2004)

cmontyburns said:


> Lots of debate in the TiVo OTA thread about whether one should pay $15/mo. forever for the OTA box. Well, would you pay $5,000 one time for a TiVo?
> 
> TiVo is about to demo the TiVo Mega, basically a souped-up Roamio with... wait for it... 24 _terabytes_ of storage.
> 
> ...


 But does it's milkshake call all the boys to the yard ?


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## shwru980r (Jun 22, 2008)

Dan203 said:


> We use to have an open public FTP every few weeks some ahole would logon and delete everything. I just can't see using Minis as a viable option for a public business like a hotel. Not without some sort of controls in place to prevent malicious behavior.


I think you are right. Maybe get some used unsubscribed premieres and ask for $99 lifetime service and that would resolve the control issue.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

shwru980r said:


> I think you are right. Maybe get some used unsubscribed premieres and ask for $99 lifetime service and that would resolve the control issue.


Hotels don't have DVRs and for good reason. Few even have actual cable boxes in the room, although I do know of a small group of good-sized hotels that does.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

Bigg said:


> Hotels don't have DVRs and for good reason. Few even have actual cable boxes in the room, although I do know of a small group of good-sized hotels that does.


Actually I just read about DirecTV's DRE (DirecTV Residential Experience) that offers in room DVRs for hotels, hospitals, etc.

http://www.itsallaboutsatellites.co...ls/directv-residential-experience-for-hotels/


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## nooneuknow (Feb 5, 2011)

"The Suites", formerly known as "Budget Suites", has lineups for (analog supporting) TiVos, if you pick a zip code where the lineups exist. It's a strange system, taking a huge satellite dish, and converting it to pretend to be an analog cable feed. Well, that was many years ago, so maybe they've gone digital (I doubt it). I could see one of those franchises in a better neighborhood using a Mega...


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

Bigg said:


> The TiVo Mega is clearly made for a centralized HDMI distribution system controlled with Cretron or Control4. In this situation, a more logical alternative would be several Roamio Pro's, which would net more tuners. What is so hard to understand about that?
> 
> That's how the idea came about. Several Roamio Pros instead of a Mega.
> 
> ...


Wrong. I wasn't talking about the Tivo Mega. You're overcomplicating my version of the Mini and Roamio profile idea. YOU're adding a centralized system to the idea where there was none. I'm sorry you don't see it because you assume your assumptions are the only assumptions.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

HarperVision said:


> Actually I just read about DirecTV's DRE (DirecTV Residential Experience) that offers in room DVRs for hotels, hospitals, etc.
> 
> http://www.itsallaboutsatellites.co...ls/directv-residential-experience-for-hotels/


I've never heard of a DVR being used in a hotel. I'm guessing they are targeting regular hotel installations that modulate the signals to NTSC or ATSC-QAM and then distribute through an SMATV system. I've seen many systems that use DirecTV for that type of thing.



nooneuknow said:


> "The Suites", formerly known as "Budget Suites", has lineups for (analog supporting) TiVos, if you pick a zip code where the lineups exist. It's a strange system, taking a huge satellite dish, and converting it to pretend to be an analog cable feed. Well, that was many years ago, so maybe they've gone digital (I doubt it). I could see one of those franchises in a better neighborhood using a Mega...


How on earth would a TiVo Mega do ANYTHING for them? It WOULDN'T.

Most hotels use SMATV systems like you describe that modulate 30-50 channels on analog, with maybe a few HDs thrown in if you're lucky. They often use DirecTV as the source. You can make an SMATV system off of about anything, and I'm sure all the big providers have bulk modulation/de-modulation systems to support SMATV...



trip1eX said:


> Wrong. I wasn't talking about the Tivo Mega. You're overcomplicating my version of the Mini and Roamio profile idea. YOU're adding a centralized system to the idea where there was none. I'm sorry you don't see it because you assume your assumptions are the only assumptions.


Then it has jack **** to do with the TiVo Mega and this thread, and is thus irrelevant.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

Bigg said:


> *I've never heard of a DVR being used in a hotel. I'm guessing they are targeting regular hotel installations that modulate the signals to NTSC or ATSC-QAM and then distribute through an SMATV system. I've seen many systems that use DirecTV for that type of thing.*
> 
> How on earth would a TiVo Mega do ANYTHING for them? It WOULDN'T. Most hotels use SMATV systems like you describe that modulate 30-50 channels on analog, with maybe a few HDs thrown in if you're lucky. They often use DirecTV as the source. You can make an SMATV system off of about anything, and I'm sure all the big providers have bulk modulation/de-modulation systems to support SMATV...
> 
> Then it has jack **** to do with the TiVo Mega and this thread, and is thus irrelevant.


Actually I think it's based on their H24 HD receiver and HR24 DVRs. It's a system that doesn't require the Pro: Idiom encryption system such as the SMATV system you're mentioning that usually uses the COM1000/2000 system with COM200 chassis and COM24/36 card modules and associated QAM Modulators. (i.e. - LodgeNet, etc) like the one I have for sale in my rack


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

Bigg said:


> Then it has jack **** to do with the TiVo Mega and this thread, and is thus irrelevant.


irrelevant to YOU maybe.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

HarperVision said:


> Actually I think it's based on their H24 HD receiver and HR24 DVRs. It's a system that doesn't require the Pro: Idiom encryption system such as the SMATV system you're mentioning that usually uses the COM1000/2000 system with COM200 chassis and COM24/36 card modules and associated QAM Modulators. (i.e. - LodgeNet, etc) like the one I have for sale in my rack


DirecTV's QAM systems don't require encryption anyways, as they apparently have a different deal with the programmers. What I don't understand is why college campuses can get Clear QAM, and yet cable can't bulk de-crypt for a hotel or something in Clear QAM.

Also, as long as they have an account for the right number of rooms, what stops some hotel from just getting a dozen cable boxes, running through the analog hole, and re-encoding to Clear QAM, and doing the rest NTSC? Most that I've seen only have a few HD channels if they have any at all anyways...

Although I still like the HD box in every room method a lot more...


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

Bigg said:


> DirecTV's QAM systems don't require encryption anyways, as they apparently have a different deal with the programmers. ..........


Not true. While the COM24/36 cards do remove the standard encryption, They have to add Pro: Idiom encryption to the QAM RF Broadcast stream. That's why hotels need either Pro: Idiom TVs or regular TVs with a Pro: Idiom STB strapped to the back of it.

With their DRE, one advantage is they don't have to do that.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

HarperVision said:


> Not true. While the COM24/36 cards do remove the standard encryption, They have to add Pro: Idiom encryption to the QAM RF Broadcast stream. That's why hotels need either Pro: Idiom TVs or regular TVs with a Pro: Idiom STB strapped to the back of it.
> 
> With their DRE, one advantage is they don't have to do that.


I thought they claimed that they can do regular Clear QAM?

What a mess the idiots on the content side have made with these licensing restrictions. Clear QAM is the obvious technical answer...


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

HarperVision said:


> Actually I think it's based on their H24 HD receiver and HR24 DVRs. It's a system that doesn't require the Pro: Idiom encryption system such as the SMATV system you're mentioning that usually uses the COM1000/2000 system with COM200 chassis and COM24/36 card modules and associated QAM Modulators. (i.e. - LodgeNet, etc) like the one I have for sale in my rack


Pro: Idiom is required by DirecTV for the HD channels. For SD they don't require it. And any TV with a QAM tuner is all that is need to pick up those. But with the Procentric Server and the Pro: Idiom Encryption and the TVs to decode it, a lot more can be done. Like auto programming of all the TVs, guide data, weather etc.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

aaronwt said:


> Pro: Idiom is required by DirecTV for the HD channels. For SD they don't require it. And any TV with a QAM tuner is all that is need to pick up those. But with the Procentric Server and the Pro: Idiom Encryption and the TVs to decode it, a lot more can be done. Like auto programming of all the TVs, guide data, weather etc.


Cool, thanks for clarifying! Maybe you can help me get this setup that I have here going then?


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

the system we have at work that is mainly used in a hotel uses the Procentric Server and Pro Idiom ENcyption. for the HD channels. All teh SD channels are unencrypted. In the beginning we mucked around with it, but eventually we got an outside contractor to manage it. So they access the system remotely to update info, channels etc.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

aaronwt said:


> the system we have at work that is mainly used in a hotel uses the Procentric Server and Pro Idiom ENcyption. for the HD channels. All teh SD channels are unencrypted. In the beginning we mucked around with it, but eventually we got an outside contractor to manage it. So they access the system remotely to update info, channels etc.


I think the old LodgeNet system that I have has Pro: Idiom activated on all channels though. I'd love to pick your brain or anyone you may know that could help? I'll PM you if I have questions if that's ok?


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