# Live TV streaming to PC ?



## jaynyc (Jan 29, 2014)

Hi. I just purchased Tivo Desktop Plus without reading all the details, but it does not seem to offer Live TV on my computer. In other words, how can I use my computer like a virtual Tivo Mini and watch live TV while at my desktop?


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

There is no TiVo software to do that. Slingbox is your closest option currently.


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## citivolus (Jul 3, 2002)

I was just thinking about this today. With software like cTivo that can read the Now Playing list from a Tivo and download the files, why can't they be fed into a server process running ffmpeg or something to convert and stream the files on the fly?


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

OP was asking about LIVE TV, not fully recorded shows. You can't download live TV or still recording shows.


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## gonzotek (Sep 24, 2004)

citivolus said:


> I was just thinking about this today. With software like cTivo that can read the Now Playing list from a Tivo and download the files, why can't they be fed into a server process running ffmpeg or something to convert and stream the files on the fly?





moyekj said:


> OP was asking about LIVE TV, not fully recorded shows. You can't download live TV or still recording shows.


Yep. Real-time downloading/decoding/viewing of fully-recorded shows has been done before - for instance you can pipe curl output to tivodecode, and the output of that to vlc - you can get a usable picture and sound that way, but won't be able to seek/scrub/navigate within the program. So even then it's of limited value.


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## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

One might be able to employ a capture card, or perhaps a SlingBox.


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## rcanoza (Feb 2, 2014)

jaynyc said:


> Hi. I just purchased Tivo Desktop Plus without reading all the details, but it does not seem to offer Live TV on my computer. In other words, how can I use my computer like a virtual Tivo Mini and watch live TV while at my desktop?


For digital cable there's no free or cheap software method to accomplish that (for local OTA forget Tivo, just buy a $25 USB tuner and an F splitter)--perhaps if you were renting a spare cable box having a Firewire 1394 jack, but it doesn't involve the DVR which is little more than a primitive file server w/ AV outs + web/IR/telnet interface (also happening to have its own coax input for acquiring broadcasts). Look into the various CableCard tuners in USB, PCI, or IP-conversant varieties; surely overkill for channel surfing purposes, but you would save the $6 monthly fee per Mini.


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## rcanoza (Feb 2, 2014)

gonzotek said:


> Yep. Real-time downloading/decoding/viewing of fully-recorded shows has been done before - for instance you can pipe curl output to tivodecode, and the output of that to vlc - you can get a usable picture and sound that way, but won't be able to seek/scrub/navigate within the program. So even then it's of limited value.


Curious to know, what HTTP access is there for Live TV (with or without 30 minute buffers)? I suppose a person could have the Virtual Tivo Remote up, enter a channel, begin recording, and then feed to curl -> decode -> vlc, but that's not the same as piggybacking on the DVR's tuner.


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## gonzotek (Sep 24, 2004)

rcanoza said:


> Curious to know, what HTTP access is there for Live TV (with or without 30 minute buffers)? I suppose a person could have the Virtual Tivo Remote up, enter a channel, begin recording, and then feed to curl -> decode -> vlc, but that's not the same as piggybacking on the DVR's tuner.


There isn't any. You can't even download until the recording is complete, so you can't start up a curl>decode>vlc process until after the show is over. When I said 'real-time' above, I meant decoding/showing as it downloaded (rather than beginning the decode>vlc step post-download). Sorry if I got hopes up.


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