# HMO with NAS Hard Drive??



## tubedude (Dec 31, 2001)

Has anyone been able to get the TiVo server to see a NAS hard drive?? Seems like it would be a great option for multi-computer/tivo networks.


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## Rob00GT (Mar 10, 2003)

I haven't heard of this, but am fascinated by the possibilities! Might be a good reason to finally invest in that Buffalo Terastation....


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## fade2grey (Oct 25, 2005)

Mmmmm good plan  akin to Boot from SAN.. would resolve a lot of issues for me!


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## n4zmz (Mar 28, 2002)

This issue can be broken down into 2 areas.

1 - Linux filesystems (/. /var)
2 - MFS storage

Since the tivo uses Linux as it's base, the first issue has been resolved. You can NFS/SMB mount filesystems on your network aware tivo. I routinely NFS mount my /var/hack directory.
The really adventurous can even network boot the tivo.

The MFS storage issue is a lot more complicated. Since it is block access, and assumes that it has exclusive write access, using anything other than real devices is complicated. I haven't heard of anyone doing anything with this.

With MRV, there is another option which is tivoserver. tivoserver is a server application designed to emulate another tivo on your lan, allowing you to store video to be displayed on your existing tivos. There are some people playing with trying to cross-compile tivoserver to run directly on a small NAS device. It is limited however to superpatched tivos, since it does not do any certificate or encryption processing. It can be found on sourceforge.net.


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## tubedude (Dec 31, 2001)

OK, I know that you can see a NAS HD on a networked computer readily, by mapping it to a drive. I know that can see a mapped drive from another computer on the TiVo server and thus on your tivo.(I've tried this and it works)
My question is; Has anybody with a NAS HD mapped it to a computer running the TiVo server and thus finding it's contents available through HMO.


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## Hick (Jan 10, 2006)

I can access my TivoServer via a mapped share. Now if I could only get it to launch as a service.


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## Diana Collins (Aug 21, 2002)

The main problem with using a central NAS device with a TiVo is, as was mentioned earlier, the way mfs works. Upon boot-up, the TiVo software does a quickscan of the MFS partitions it thinks should be there. If they are not all available and of the expected size, the TiVo software will not start. So, the first issue will be to get the NAS device attached and mapped before myworld starts. Secondly, you need to map the NAS partition into the mfs volume space (i.e. run something like mfsadd using the NAS aprtition as one of the specified devices). That also means that once mapped, you can't easily "un-map" it. So, while you might use partitions on a NAS device as "Drive B" in a TiVo mfs volume space, you couldn't share those partitions, or switch between partitions, on multiple TiVos very easily. 

Furthermore, a recording made by one TiVo on a NAS partition would be unknown to any other TiVo, even if the other TiVo mapped to the partition successfully. The other TiVo would treat it as empty disk space, and record over it.

The easiest (and probably cheapest) solution is to obtain a cheap, used, Series 2 TiVo, superpatch all the software on all of your TiVos, attach a couple of big drives to the used S2, and use MRV to transfer recordings to and from the "server." The "server" TiVo does not even need to be activated, since you won't be recording any thing from its video inputs. You could even use something like a Slingbox to make the TiVo's UI available from a PC to initate transfers to the server.


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## Rob00GT (Mar 10, 2003)

Dan Collins said:


> The easiest (and probably cheapest) solution is to obtain a cheap, used, Series 2 TiVo, superpatch all the software on all of your TiVos, attach a couple of big drives to the used S2, and use MRV to transfer recordings to and from the "server." The "server" TiVo does not even need to be activated, since you won't be recording any thing from its video inputs.


That is precisely the setup I have right now.


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## lloydjs (Jul 16, 2003)

I see there are no new posts in this thread; the latest being 2006. 

I want to buy a NAS server to backup my PC files (media - music, pics, vides, etc.) and also would like it "compatible" with my series1 Tivo to transfer/backup recordings.

Some of the new NAS servers support linux OS, TCP/IP, and FTP. If this is true, then shouldn't I be able to easily transfer files to/from the NAS server and my Tivo using FTP?

I am looking for advice from the forum before I invest $300+ on a NAS server. I don't want to learn the hard way that I bought the wrong one when there is something more compatible with my Tivo.

Thank you!


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

Dan Collins said:


> The main problem with using a central NAS device with a TiVo is, as was mentioned earlier, the way mfs works. Upon boot-up, the TiVo software does a quickscan of the MFS partitions it thinks should be there. If they are not all available and of the expected size, the TiVo software will not start. So, the first issue will be to get the NAS device attached and mapped before myworld starts. Secondly, you need to map the NAS partition into the mfs volume space (i.e. run something like mfsadd using the NAS aprtition as one of the specified devices). That also means that once mapped, you can't easily "un-map" it. So, while you might use partitions on a NAS device as "Drive B" in a TiVo mfs volume space, you couldn't share those partitions, or switch between partitions, on multiple TiVos very easily.
> 
> Furthermore, a recording made by one TiVo on a NAS partition would be unknown to any other TiVo, even if the other TiVo mapped to the partition successfully. The other TiVo would treat it as empty disk space, and record over it.
> 
> The easiest (and probably cheapest) solution is to obtain a cheap, used, Series 2 TiVo, superpatch all the software on all of your TiVos, attach a couple of big drives to the used S2, and use MRV to transfer recordings to and from the "server." The "server" TiVo does not even need to be activated, since you won't be recording any thing from its video inputs. You could even use something like a Slingbox to make the TiVo's UI available from a PC to initate transfers to the server.


A TiVo without activation will not do MRV


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## lloydjs (Jul 16, 2003)

Thanks lessd for the quick reply. 

I read the mounting problems earlier stated, but what if I don't want to use "pure" MRV? Instread, just use the NAS server to backup recordings (via FTP or something similar) and also backup files on my PC. If I didn't care about watching videos stored on the NAS, couldn't I just transfer them back to the Tivo when I want to watch them?

I have my eye on a 1 TB NAS server with built-in Blue Ray recorder for archiving. what do you think?

I appreciate your feedback.


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## Neilwltr (Mar 8, 2011)

Hello,

There has been alot of discussion on this and I finally was able to find a very simple way to do it without writing code or going into the registry of the PC

Get on any computer that you have connected to your network and to the NAS you want to use.

go to python.org go on the left to "releasses" 
click on version 2.6.6
then under downloads look for "Windows x86 MSI Installer (2.6.6) (sig)"
Download it to your PC and run it from the zipped file

Then download/run
PYTIVO at; pytivo.sourceforge.net/forum/updated-windows-installer-2009-03-21-t512.html#3957
You are looking for thE BELOW file on the above page, it is almost halfway down the page;
"pyTivo-wmcbrine-2009.03.19-RC1.zip"

Note: you must have Python on your before pytivo

HERE IS THE MAIN POINT, WHEN YOU ARE RUNNING THE PYTIVO FILE, IT WILL ASK YOU WHERE THE SOURCE DESTINATION FILE IS
This is the file on your NAS where you have you movies, recordings etc...choose that file on the setup up pytivo.

Once you have done that, turn on your TV and Tivo and you will see an additional folder in the "Now Playing List" that contains the movies etc of your NAS
FYI - If you have more than one Tivo connected to the network and NAS all of them will show this new folder!
Easy as punch! Enjoy...


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## hdog (Nov 10, 2002)

Has anyone used a fun_plug hacked dns-321 to run any tivo tools?


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