# TivoPC (aka Nero Liquid TV)



## philhu (Apr 11, 2001)

I thought a thread for this product is in order. Maybe even a forum group, since it IS a Tivo.

I want to post good and bads for this product here.


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## philhu (Apr 11, 2001)

Anyone try this device with Nero Liquid TV? V1.4 supports it as an antenna-only tuner (no QAM cable, even though the device found 143 clear channels on my FiOS).

Anyway. It scans correctly, adds the channels, and they come into NERO just fine, even HD ones at 16:9

The problem is that I cannot select any channel that is a subchannel, like 7-2, 10-2 etc. Only the -1 channels can be tuned.

This is using direct entry, which never worked on a Tivo well for subchannels, or using the guide, which seems to be trying to type '7-2' etc.

My question is that it upgraded my firmware to a new version. Does the old work better?

I'll posted these same questions to the Nero Support group FYI. If I get an answer, I'll let you know.


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## philhu (Apr 11, 2001)

Well, I took the plunge and bought TivoPC 

It is very close to a tivo on a pc. Same sounds, etc. 

But I am seeing a few problems, showstoppers with it: 

1) I bought it to copy pgms from my TivoHD to TivoPC to be burned to DVD (TivoPC allows that!). Well, anything copied FROM tivoHD to TivoPC is playable, but cannot go to DVD with error 'This source audio and video is encoded i an incompatible format'. You can tell TivoPC to convert to MP4 and those go to DVD with third party programs without problems. 

2) I can transfer SD programs all I want. With HD programs,the transfers seem to abort for some reason. Even if both devices are on the same switch etc. No other network problems, on either box or any device, both read guide data ok, but sometimes the TivoPC says it cant make a connection to TivoHD, so I don't know where the problem lies. In their v1.2, the aborted transfers stick around, and let you watch 9-25 minutes of a 1 hour hd program. Withnew v1.4, the aborted xfers are deleted, so someone there has been looking at this problem or part of it anywayz. 

3) The remote they supply is a standard Tivo remote set to remote #0. This is bad since any tivo, even one set to 1,2,3 will respond to remote 0. Since I send my IR to my video closet, hitting the remote on my TivoPC causes stuff to happen in my basement video closet! The remote that comes with TivoPC is set to 0 AND CANNOT BE CHANGED (no dvr button). They should have set it to 3 or a new one: 4, to keep the products seperate. 


The new version supports the HDHomeRun tuner, which makes life so much easier than running an antenna lead to your computer.


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## jkalnin (Jan 8, 2003)

For those like me scratching their heads saying WTF is this all about:

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/10/15/nero-liquidtv-tivo-pc-review/


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## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

jkalnin said:


> For those like me scratching their heads saying WTF is this all about:
> 
> http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/10/15/nero-liquidtv-tivo-pc-review/


I'm just trying to figure out why it took the OP 3 posts.



philhu said:


> TivoPC is set to 0 AND CANNOT BE CHANGED (no dvr button).


The dvr button has nothing to do with it. Even the original S1 remotes can be set to use any of the ten ir codes.


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## philhu (Apr 11, 2001)

scandia101 said:


> I'm just trying to figure out why it took the OP 3 posts.
> 
> The dvr button has nothing to do with it. Even the original S1 remotes can be set to use any of the ten ir codes.


Well, the TivoPC does not even have a place in the System Information to set it's remote. What they have is a place during guided setup to 'hit the 2 key' and if it understands it, it works.

So you are saying you can take the remote that comes with TivoPC and somehow change it to use, a code like 5? How would one do this, with another tivo, in this case? Then if it is set to 5, I could rerun guided setup and use it at 5 then, causing my remote problem to go away.


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## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

philhu said:


> So you are saying ...


No, what I said was that the presence or lack of a dvr switch isn't relevant to a Tivo remotes ability to be set to use a different ir code as you indicated in your post.


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## philhu (Apr 11, 2001)

scandia101 said:


> No, what I said was that the presence or lack of a dvr switch isn't relevant to a Tivo remotes ability to be set to use a different ir code as you indicated in your post.


But just not on TivoPC, since there is no screen to actually set it to use other than 0.


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

philhu said:


> The new version supports the HDHomeRun tuner, which makes life so much easier than running an antenna lead to your computer.


you may have said this below but...

does TiVoPC with a HDHomeRun get guide data for the clear QAM channels? can you set season passes on them then?


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## philhu (Apr 11, 2001)

ZeoTiVo said:


> you may have said this below but...
> 
> does TiVoPC with a HDHomeRun get guide data for the clear QAM channels? can you set season passes on them then?


No, clearQAM is not yet supported. It will take alot to do it, as standard Tivos do not support it either.

clearQAM *IS* supported in the SiliconDust utilities, like VMC Viewer


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## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

philhu said:


> But just not on TivoPC, since there is no screen to actually set it to use other than 0.


Now you're confusing the ability to set the remote to a different ir code and the ability to set the device to accept a different ir code.


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## TechDreamer (Jan 27, 2002)

There was a thread about this product when it first came out and the conclusion was that it was the biggest pos Tivo had ever released. I don't think one Tivo employee was even willing to post about it. Maybe they were embarrased. My guess is that Tivo had nothing to do with the development of the product. I think they just licensed their User Interface and let Nero destroy the rest. Nero has released two updates without much progress. Windows 7 is coming and there is no way this can compete with MCE on the PC.


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## qz3fwd (Jul 6, 2007)

Liquid TV sucks donkey d$&k.
It will BSOD XP if you use Motorola Firewire drivers for transferring from cable box.


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## chjones8 (Apr 19, 2009)

I just d/l Liquid TV to give it a try b/c my wife likes the Tivo UI in the livingroom better better than Mediacenter in the bedroom. I have seen that the reviews are quite poor but I thought I would try for myself. 

My question is whether anyone has figured out how to use a standard Tivo remote with Liquid TV or even if there is some listing of a button mapping to use the MCE remote. I can use the MCE remote but the menu gets to places that the "left" key wont get out of and I have no idea if there is a button mapped as the "Tivo" button. From what I have read here, I suppose that if I could change my Tivo remote to remote 0, it Liquid TV would then see it? If so, how can this be done?

chj


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## newskilz (Jul 11, 2008)

To change the Tivo remote id/code: Cover the front of the DVR remote and hold down the PAUSE and TiVo buttons for 5 seconds, until the red LED on the remote lights up. Then use the number keys to enter any digit from 0-9, 0 in your case: the remote LED should flash. Then your Tivo remote should be working on remote id/code 0.


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## chjones8 (Apr 19, 2009)

newskilz said:


> To change the Tivo remote id/code: Cover the front of the DVR remote and hold down the PAUSE and TiVo buttons for 5 seconds, until the red LED on the remote lights up. Then use the number keys to enter any digit from 0-9, 0 in your case: the remote LED should flash. Then your Tivo remote should be working on remote id/code 0.


I tried this and the remote responded but it did not work on the Liquid TV. I also noticed that I can assign the remote any id (0-9) and the Tivo still recognizes it. Is this proper or does this mean the change is not being made to the code?


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## Ed_Hunt (Jan 2, 2004)

I have had Liquid TV for about 2 weeks now and I have to say its not ready for prime time. I am a huge Tivo supporter, I have 3, and have been since its inception so I really wanted this to work well. It doesn't. It just hangs in different places. It just has bugs yet. The concept is good and I think in a couple more releases it might be worth while but not yet. By the way I am running Vista 64 so it might be better on XP or 32.


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## Pokemon_Dad (Jan 19, 2008)

Ed_Hunt said:


> I have had Liquid TV for about 2 weeks now and I have to say its not ready for prime time. I am a huge Tivo supporter, I have 3, and have been since its inception so I really wanted this to work well. It doesn't. It just hangs in different places. It just has bugs yet. The concept is good and I think in a couple more releases it might be worth while but not yet. By the way I am running Vista 64 so it might be better on XP or 32.


I'm using Vista 32-bit and maybe that's why I've experienced no bugs that hang LiquidTV entirely, but I would certainly agree that this is a half-baked, unfinished product that has no business being released as anything but a beta. Here are _some_ of the bugs and defects that I've experienced so far in all versions up to and including 1.4.4.100. I'm hoping someone has found a workaround for at least one of these.


The screen resolution is set to 1024 x 768 and cannot be changed. This distorts the picture at my LCD screen's optimum resolution. For example, talking heads turn into fat heads.  Anyone have a solution for this? You can't do it in Settings. All Settings does is offer the suggestion to change your screen resolution in Windows, which may mess up your desktop and make other programs look terrible. What the...??? :down: I know of no other competing product that is this lame. This has nothing to do with Aspect Correction Mode, TV Aspect Ratio or anything else, just the Screen Resolution setting. Totally lame.

LiquidTV doesn't seem able to read the correct time and date of programs on the two TiVo HD boxes in the house, before or after transferring them. For example, a program recorded on February 7th at 6 PM looks like it was recorded on February 8th at 2AM! Yet after transfer, if I walk over to one of the TiVo HDs and navigate to look at the computer from there, I see the correct time in that program's information, 2/7 at 6 PM! At least, I see that today...on previous transfers the time looked wrong from that direction too. When I check the program Guide in LiquidTV it seems to know the correct time so this problem can't be related to anything about my system. Ideas? 

LiquidTV conflicts with Vista's Sleep mode, waking the PC up every 15 minutes or so _even if you have completely exited the program_, probably to check in with the network.  The best I can say about this one is that Microsoft's Windows Media Center does the same annoying thing. Certain companies seem to make the arrogant assumption that you have dedicated your PC to only use their own software as a media PC, not understanding that many of us will use this on our regular desktops or laptops along with other applications. I see nothing in Settings that will allow me to control when this happens. The only way I have found to disable this is to go into Windows Task Manager and kill the process NeroLiquidTVBackground.exe. I chose that one at random and it seems to do the trick. The process restarts when I reopen the program. Has anyone found another way to solve this?

The remote supplied with Nero LiquidTV stops working sometimes. Rebooting the PC is the only way I've found to fix this. This may be because I have killed a process (see above) even though that process restarts when I reopen the program, or maybe it happens just because I exited and reopened the program a few times, or maybe it just conflicts with other USB stuff going on in the system at other times, I don't know, but regardless of how it dies, does anyone have any idea as to how to fix this without a reboot?

Installing an upgrade never works. Installation always hangs while trying to access one specific .dll (I forget which one, sorry). That dll is probably being used by one of the LiquidTV's background processes or services that stay on in the system even after you exit the program. This makes me thing the upgrade installation process was not professionally tested. I gave up trying to figure out why this happens, and just uninstalled the original installation and then slogged through a clean install including the entire setup each time. Which brings me to my next point...

When uninstalling, it asks you if you want to retain your files BUT THEN DELETES THEM ANYWAY along with the entire folder. Frak!  This includes deletion of any other files you may have left in the TiVo programs folder (for example, a program I had spent quite a long time converting and editing...luckily I had already burned the end-product to a disc...). I should have known better, in fact the first time I copied all my files out anyway but the second remove/uninstall I forgot to do this. Again, I think the upgrade installation process was not thoroughly and professionally tested. Shame on them.

The complete and utter lack of any online knowledge base or FAQ beyond the basic instruction manual information is insulting too. Apparently nobody's really interested in supporting this product at Nero or TiVo.

OK I feel better now... That's not all of the problems I've encountered but these are the most glaring. I may or may not send these one-by-one to Nero tech support, I'll let you know, but since Nero released the product this way they deserve to have these problems made public. I'm restraining myself from getting into a comparison with competing products right now, maybe some other time. Anyone have comments or ideas on any of the above?


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## RMBittner (Aug 19, 2003)

I have to add my negatives to those already stated. I love the TiVo interface, love the ability to wirelessly send TiVo'd programs from the PC to my S3, but the program constantly malfunctions. Specifically, after a day or two of not "waking" it, my attempts to start the program and actually watch something I've recorded result in an error message that my "TiVo service has been discontinued. Re-enter the [LiquidTV] service number." So I do that, and then I'm told I've entered the "wrong" number too many times and I need to contact CS. And then the program shuts down completely.

I've had untold e-mail exchanges with the Nero support people (in Germany, I think) to get this fixed -- and I've uninstalled and re-installed the program twice -- and yet the same things go wrong every time they've told me they've fixed my account and I've downloaded the "upgrades."

They have one more chance to get this right for me. After that, I'm requesting a full refund.

Bob


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## Pokemon_Dad (Jan 19, 2008)

Trying today to get the LiquidTV remote IR blaster kit to control a Comcast Digital Transport Adapter. No luck so far. I've selected "Comcast Digital Adapter" in the setup menu. I've tried putting the LiquidTV IR blaster next to the DTA, and I've also tried putting the DTA's remote IR receiver next to the LiquidTV IR blaster. Nothing so far. Anyone have any success with this? Ideas?


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## Pokemon_Dad (Jan 19, 2008)

Pokemon_Dad said:


> Trying today to get the LiquidTV remote IR blaster kit to control a Comcast Digital Transport Adapter...


Aaaaah fuggetaboutit. I still can't make it work but why would I want to watch TV on Nero LiquidTV anyway, when the program won't allow me to adjust the display resolution? At my LCD screen's optimum resolution of 1280 x 1024 everything looks distorted because LiquidTV set itself to 1024 x 768 and there is no way to change this. As I said before, I know of no other PC TV software with this problem!

Besides, standard def TV looks tiny and/or terrible on a PC screen at any resolution so there really is no reason to use that Comcast adapter, which only converts digital channels for use with old analog TV sets. Comcast offered it if for free so I was willing to play with it, but now I'm done and ready to return it. I was planning to use LiquidTV primarily to view HD programs transferred from my TiVo boxes, or to view OTA HD channels. Still, It's a shame that LiquidTV does not support unencrypted digital cable channels ("Clear QAM"), because the Hauppauge HVR-950Q USB tuner included in the LiquidTV retail box package will receive those channels just fine.

To test this, I downloaded Hauppauge's free WinTV 7 and the 21-day free trial of Snapstream Media's Beyond TV 4 and used them with the 950Q. Scanning Comcast San Jose cable, neither product had any problem at all finding *well over 125 digital channels*, :up:*including all the local HD channels*:up: in clear crisp video requiring no cable box, cable card or adapter of any kind. I'll post more about these and other alternatives soon.


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## Pokemon_Dad (Jan 19, 2008)

Did everyone get an invitation today offering participation in the beta release of version 1.6? Apparently 1.6 is scheduled for final release this summer. The message says "a lot of general improvements and bug fixes have been added". I'm enjoying Beyond TV at this point but since we've already paid for the privilege of being beta testers of a very unfinished product, maybe I'll take a look at this...


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## Pokemon_Dad (Jan 19, 2008)

I've started a new thread on the version 1.5 beta here:
http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=426866


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## slowbiscuit (Sep 19, 2006)

Why? It's still crap, so I don't see a need for another thread. It's not like anyone posts much on this one.


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## Pokemon_Dad (Jan 19, 2008)

slowbiscuit said:


> Why? It's still crap, so I don't see a need for another thread. It's not like anyone posts much on this one.


No argument here. Nobody's posting because nobody's buying. But for some reason I am trying to help the Nero people understand why.

For live TV viewing on my PC, I'm using only Beyond TV now. I'll post info on that program in another thread soon too.


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## Plympton (Jan 29, 2002)

Does anyone know if the remote works with any other software, like as an HID device, or with EventGhost? I'd like to use the remote to control.. eh.. media center. 

-Dan


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## jmace57 (Nov 30, 2002)

Nm


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

Pokemon_Dad said:


> No argument here. Nobody's posting because nobody's buying. But for some reason I am trying to help the Nero people understand why.


because it is only half done software and takes just as long as Desktop 2.7 to transfer files and now desktop2.8 transfers them faster. In a nutshell I have no need for the TiVo interface on my PC when other free software or else windows 7 media center that comes with a PC can be used instead and sometimes more effectively.

Nero needs to come up with a value add if they want people to use the software on the PC


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## Pokemon_Dad (Jan 19, 2008)

ZeoTiVo said:


> because it is only half done software and takes just as long as Desktop 2.7 to transfer files and now desktop2.8 transfers them faster. In a nutshell I have no need for the TiVo interface on my PC when other free software or else windows 7 media center that comes with a PC can be used instead and sometimes more effectively.
> 
> Nero needs to come up with a value add if they want people to use the software on the PC


Yes, it's neither stable and useful enough for the general public nor full-featured enough for enthusiasts. I did my best to communicate that during the 1.5/1.6 beta but I was apparently dealing only with developers tasked with fixing the current poorly designed implementation.

One can only hope that it's on sale right now because they're clearing the decks for a 2.0 release that will be better than a TiVo box _and_ better than offerings like Beyond TV. But I wouldn't bet any money on that. More likely, Nero and TiVo they gave up on this product after seeing 7MC.


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## greglwood (Nov 29, 2009)

Why would anyone want to run something like this on windows. It appears to me that after you start this software you can't get out of it except to kill it. This tells me it was meant to run as the primary application. If this where the case then why did they not just release this under linux.

Greg


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## dbutts (Mar 28, 2007)

Does anyone know if this can be used for tivo multiroom viewing? I have no desire to try to record with it but I would love to be able to transfer recordings from my tivo hd to my htpc in the bedroom.


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## sledhed (Aug 29, 2005)

I would think you can do that with tivotogo? Although it would not transfer from the paused point. This should do that. Have not played with it yet though since the latest version crashes on the pc I was trying it on...


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## Pokemon_Dad (Jan 19, 2008)

Yes, you can use it for multi-room viewing / MRV. I never tried to transfer a show that was paused in the middle so I don't know if it preserves that, but I did transfer shows from my TiVo HDs. Also on those TiVo HDs I could see the PC and transfer from it in that direction too. It was not an entirely bug-free experience. Nor defect-free either.

As the previous poster mentioned, you can just as easily move stuff to your PC using the free version of TiVo Desktop (which replaced ye ol' TiVoToGo awhile back).

http://www.tivo.com/buytivo/tivogear/software/index.html


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## Phantom Gremlin (Jun 20, 2002)

Pokemon_Dad said:


> As the previous poster mentioned, you can just as easily move stuff to your PC using the free version of TiVo Desktop (which replaced ye ol' TiVoToGo awhile back).


One of the best things about TiVo is the very intuitive user interface. E.g. automatic rewind of a few seconds after fast-forwarding.

Moving your stuff to your PC means you are at the mercy of the (probably inferior) GUI of some other viewer.


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## Pokemon_Dad (Jan 19, 2008)

Phantom Gremlin said:


> One of the best things about TiVo is the very intuitive user interface. E.g. automatic rewind of a few seconds after fast-forwarding.
> 
> Moving your stuff to your PC means you are at the mercy of the (probably inferior) GUI of some other viewer.


I agree. That was why I was so excited about having a TiVo interface on my PC, but the software was so buggy I stopped using it. Transfers in the queue just disappeared sometimes, watching live TV on my configuration wasn't a good experience, etc. etc. I don't think they really thought about users like me, I think they expected that we would all use it at the center of a dedicated HTPC, but they didn't meet expectations there either and I certainly don't recommend that dbutts let TiVo PC take over his HTPC. It's really a shame, this idea had a lot of potential.

Anyway, to your point yes TiVo Desktop integrates with Windows Media Player and that has its limitations. One would have to decode the file for use with other interfaces, but given time and patience anything is possible.


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## rgura (Feb 21, 2005)

Looks like they decided to kill the product. Nero LiquidTV (aka TiVo PC) now shows up under "Previous Products" on Nero's website.

http://www.nero.com/enu/support-liquidtv.html

I am now wondering if you can transfer the included 1-year of service to a real TiVo?


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## sledhed (Aug 29, 2005)

rgura said:


> Looks like they decided to kill the product. Nero LiquidTV (aka TiVo PC) now shows up under "Previous Products" on Nero's website.
> 
> http://www.nero.com/enu/support-liquidtv.html
> 
> I am now wondering if you can transfer the included 1-year of service to a real TiVo?


Maybe if they are discontinuing it, TiVo will give some kind of an upgrade path, especially for those of us with regular TiVos in our stable... wouldn't count on it though.

If LiquidTV would just even work anywhere close to a regular standard def TiVo I would use it for sure. I could not even get the latest version to run on my system... it would crash every time on startup...

EDIT:

It says right on the page you linked:

Sales of Nero Liquid TV™ | Tivo PC® were discontinued on December 30th, 2009

But I suppose they will continue to "support" it so we get nothing but the tuner and peanut remote for our money spent?


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## rgura (Feb 21, 2005)

Actually this is the exact reason that I bring this up. I am not currently an owner, but I did see this on sale for $29.00 at Fry's last week...including the TiVo software, the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-950Q tuner (OTA HD and QAM), the remote and 1 year of service.

So assuming that the service is transferable to a Physical TiVo (S2 or S2), you get 12 months of service (assuming 12/month = $144) for $29 plus a Hauppauge to toy around with on the side.


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## sledhed (Aug 29, 2005)

rgura said:


> Actually this is the exact reason that I bring this up. I am not currently an owner, but I did see this on sale for $29.00 at Fry's last week...including the TiVo software, the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-950Q tuner (OTA HD and QAM), the remote and 1 year of service.
> 
> So assuming that the service is transferable to a Physical TiVo (S2 or S2), you get 12 months of service (assuming 12/month = $144) for $29 plus a Hauppauge to toy around with on the side.


I believe that will not work. When I registered my liquidtv (which the software itself does through an internet connection), it asked for an email address, I used the same email address as my TiVo account for my series 2 TiVos. I got a form-letter-type email back from Nero saying I needed to change the email since it was already in use for a TiVo account.

So it appears Nero is managing the accounts and possibly guide data themselves, and from every indication to me it will not transfer. Unless TiVo takes over this discontinued product and decides to allow it.

Kinda sad. This product had a lot of potential in its time. The TiVo interface is way easy to use. But The product was bungled and poorly written apparently (I still can't get mine to run), and now there is media center in mainstream windows...

I have to admit after this I would never buy another Nero product no matter what it was.


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## timmie88 (Jan 5, 2010)

Note, there's a lot of discussion about this over at the Nero site. Be warned all guide data seems to have ceased on Jan 1.

I'm one of the users in this boat of having no guide data. It's correct the TSN numbers are different than what Tivo expects, so I don't think they will transfer to another Tivo

I've temporarily switched to Media Center (on Windows Vista) since it has guide data.

I also have the downside that my Humax Tivo died this week, so I'm without most of my programs!


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## sledhed (Aug 29, 2005)

timmie88 said:


> Note, there's a lot of discussion about this over at the Nero site. Be warned all guide data seems to have ceased on Jan 1.
> 
> I'm one of the users in this boat of having no guide data. It's correct the TSN numbers are different than what Tivo expects, so I don't think they will transfer to another Tivo
> 
> ...


Wow, no guide data. That would mean all the users they just got by selling the discounted LiquidTV setup all just bought a product that less than a month later won't work as advertised... I would think they would HAVE to continue to provide guide data or provide some sort of upgrade path to something viable. Or get sued for misrepresenting their product.


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## travisc77 (May 26, 2005)

I guess a bummer if planned to use it as advertised, I bought mine for $30 just for the tuner and the remote. I figured it was a good deal just for those items.

I can always use another remote and the tuner is a decent one.


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## sledhed (Aug 29, 2005)

travisc77 said:


> I guess a bummer if planned to use it as advertised, I bought mine for $30 just for the tuner and the remote. I figured it was a good deal just for those items.
> 
> I can always use another remote and the tuner is a decent one.


That is mainly why I bought mine too, but I do like my TiVos as well and the idea of making my PC act like a TiVo was appealing. Just didn't work too well in execution. If indeed there is no guide data any more then I am not going to try to solve my install / run problems.


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## timmie88 (Jan 5, 2010)

Latest message on the Nero board still shows no resolution for the guide issue for LiquidTV.

BTW, since I'm not getting guide data, I switched to Windows Media Center (since I installed on Windows Vista Ultimate), and it appears that Media Center is a lot less CPU intensive than LiquidTV. The channels that weren't working under LiquidTV all come in under Windows Media Center. Apparently the extra CPU usage causes them not to render under LiquidTV (specifically those channels that are higher in quality).

My PC is a Athlon II X2 and I'm surprised it's barely enough CPU for LiquidTV.

Oh and as someone else mentioned elsewhere, the Tivo remote and receiver that comes with the Nero package does work with Windows Media Center (at least channel change, fast forward, rewind and record work).


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## sledhed (Aug 29, 2005)

timmie88 said:


> Latest message on the Nero board still shows no resolution for the guide issue for LiquidTV.
> 
> BTW, since I'm not getting guide data, I switched to Windows Media Center (since I installed on Windows Vista Ultimate), and it appears that Media Center is a lot less CPU intensive than LiquidTV. The channels that weren't working under LiquidTV all come in under Windows Media Center. Apparently the extra CPU usage causes them not to render under LiquidTV (specifically those channels that are higher in quality).
> 
> ...


Interesting. I was going to try to use it on a Celeron D 2.8GHz, probably would not have worked too well on there if your dual-core was hit that hard...


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## timmie88 (Jan 5, 2010)

sledhed said:


> Interesting. I was going to try to use it on a Celeron D 2.8GHz, probably would not have worked too well on there if your dual-core was hit that hard...


My first attempt was on an Athlon XP 2400+ single core; running XP Pro. Liquid TV didn't work at all, the processor couldn't render any of the channels. I suspect a lot of posts about LiquidTV having blank channels is related to under powered machines.

Nero's recommendation for a single processor is that it be a minimum of 3.0Ghz, so that would indicate you really need more to be comfortable; especially if other things are running. I also keep A/V and anti-malware running in the background which is probably affecting my CPU usage.


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## sledhed (Aug 29, 2005)

sledhed said:


> Interesting. I was going to try to use it on a Celeron D 2.8GHz, probably would not have worked too well on there if your dual-core was hit that hard...





timmie88 said:


> My first attempt was on an Athlon XP 2400+ single core; running XP Pro. Liquid TV didn't work at all, the processor couldn't render any of the channels. I suspect a lot of posts about LiquidTV having blank channels is related to under powered machines.
> 
> Nero's recommendation for a single processor is that it be a minimum of 3.0Ghz, so that would indicate you really need more to be comfortable; especially if other things are running. I also keep A/V and anti-malware running in the background which is probably affecting my CPU usage.


The Celery install was just to give it a try, sounds like it was inadequate then. The latest version crashed on startup continuously anyway. To me it would seem that you would want this product to be able to run on lower end PCs so they could be dedicated to HTPC tasks, but it has to do with the hardware included as well I suppose. Oh well. I will try Windows 7 when I finally install that free upgrade I got from HP on the laptop... the same laptop I spent so much time getting XP Pro to run on...


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## timmie88 (Jan 5, 2010)

Guide data appears to have been repaired if you do this:

Go to Mesages & Settings and then Reset System, and then Repeat Guided Setup.

That's what they're saying on the Nero board; I tried it last night and got partial guide data


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## jmace57 (Nov 30, 2002)

OK - is the Nero site down? I purchased this before Christmas and am just getting around to installing it. Activation does not work - keeps saying I have "Invalid Service Data" and to try again later. I go to the web-site (Nero) and, as you say, it says they no longer SELL the product. They want me to do the $1.29 per minute technical support to talk to anyone about it. I will say that I will be pissed if I bought this in December and they cut off support in January...

Jim

PS - I should mention I have tried it using the activation code I have...and also tried the 30 day free trial - I get the same error message even when I try the free trial...


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## sledhed (Aug 29, 2005)

jmace57 said:


> OK - is the Nero site down? I purchased this before Christmas and am just getting around to installing it. Activation does not work - keeps saying I have "Invalid Service Data" and to try again later. I go to the web-site (Nero) and, as you say, it says they no longer SELL the product. They want me to do the $1.29 per minute technical support to talk to anyone about it. I will say that I will be pissed if I bought this in December and they cut off support in January...
> 
> Jim
> 
> PS - I should mention I have tried it using the activation code I have...and also tried the 30 day free trial - I get the same error message even when I try the free trial...


At least yours does not crash at startup like mine does...  I eventually uninstalled everything including the latest version and used their clean tool (which I hear does not clean well)...


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## daveak (Mar 23, 2009)

You are better off just using the tuner and the software the manufacturer of the tuner provides.


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## jmace57 (Nov 30, 2002)

Yeah - I reinstalled the latest version of software and was finally able to activate...got the guide data...but now it doesn't recognize the tuner. I am going back to Media Center as it works fine with this Hauppage tuner - picked up QAM stations as well. What a fouled-up product.


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## gtaylor (Jan 8, 2002)

Received this from my son at Christmas. He told me he paid $25 and to hope for the best.

Reading this thread I guess my best hope is to just use the tuner standalone. I would use it on a pc without MediaCenter, so is there any free software available to access the tuner, forgetting about TiVo completely?

There was a mention of Hauppauage WinTV above, but it appears that it requires a seperate license.

gary

Edited to add, any ideas about somehow using the 1 year TiVo subscription to add to an existing unit?


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## sledhed (Aug 29, 2005)

gtaylor said:


> Received this from my son at Christmas. He told me he paid $25 and to hope for the best.
> 
> Reading this thread I guess my best hope is to just use the tuner standalone. I would use it on a pc without MediaCenter, so is there any free software available to access the tuner, forgetting about TiVo completely?
> 
> ...


Take a look at slickdeals dot net forums, there is a whole thread about these on there, including how to get the remote to work with windows media center, and I am sure somewhere on there it said how to get the hauppauge (sp?) software going too, without a prior license.

This might have been the thread, there were a couple as this went on sale a couple times:

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1734639

good luck! I look forward to finding the time to play with this tuner.


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## replaytv (Feb 21, 2011)

I saw this listing on ebay and am wondering if nero is dead?
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Nero-Liquid...073?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f08da1ea9
Is anyone still getting service on the tivo nero liquid?
Anybody bought one lately and able to get it working?


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## Pokemon_Dad (Jan 19, 2008)

replaytv said:


> I saw this listing on ebay and am wondering if nero is dead?
> http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Nero-Liquid...073?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f08da1ea9
> Is anyone still getting service on the tivo nero liquid?
> Anybody bought one lately and able to get it working?


Sorry can't answer that - I am not interested in activating the second package I bought to find out - but for $35 my purchase was worth it just for the tuner.

Even if the service still works, it won't pick up anything that needs a cablecard, and good luck using it with an external cable box, but OTA and SD cable come in just fine with the LiquidTV software, and with other software the tuner picks up Clear QAM including HD channels. You can use the tuner with BeyondTV, Hauppauge TV and many others if you have the time and patience to set them up. Given how much time you could waste struggling with LiquidTV, you're better off focusing on one of those others instead.

The great potential of LiquidTV was TiVo-like ease of setup and ease of use, but they didn't devote enough resources to product planning, development and testing. The result was a buggy, feature-poor disappointment. These problems were not insurmountable, but some folks at Nero just killed it instead. (Like everyone else here, I have an opinion about why they did that...but I just deleted it. )


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## Thom (Jun 5, 2000)

replaytv said:


> I saw this listing on ebay and am wondering if nero is dead?
> http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Nero-Liquid...073?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f08da1ea9
> Is anyone still getting service on the tivo nero liquid?
> Anybody bought one lately and able to get it working?


Just looked at this...

99 cents to buy it, *and 28 dollars to ship it*!!!!


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## rayik (Feb 4, 2006)

Thom said:


> Just looked at this...
> 
> 99 cents to buy it, *and 28 dollars to ship it*!!!!


That is because ebay changed their listing fees. Any item 99 cents or under is free to list. $1.00 or over they charge a listing fee. Also, ebays final fee now includes both the sale price and the shipping charge. (It used to be sale price only and not include shipping fees.)

With those changes, I would expect a lot more 99 cent items list.


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## Dimitri (Apr 11, 2011)

Is there any way to use a LiquidTV sub on an old tivo box?
Thanks.
D


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## Pokemon_Dad (Jan 19, 2008)

Dimitri said:


> Is there any way to use a LiquidTV sub on an old tivo box?
> Thanks.
> D


No. That would be nice, but no, it's tied to this particular product.


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## Dimitri (Apr 11, 2011)

Hi n Thanks for info.
:0)


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## Worf (Sep 15, 2000)

LiquidTV sub is handled by Nero. Nero did the software nad licensed the TiVo software.

Despite the service codes looking very similar to TiVo's, they aren't the same, and TiVo doesn't handle LiquidTV subscriptions at all (fat chance for MSD or MSD Lifetime subs).

And the LiquidTV works with an Hauppage HD-PVR so you can connect it to a cablebox for high-def. For some people, that's the only option.


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

The tuner that comes with LiquidTV will work just fine under Windows 7 Media Center. No need to pay Tivo any monthly fees to use it. WMC can do just about everything that the Tivo software can do and much more.


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## ForrestB (Apr 8, 2004)

It's September 30, 2012 and I'm ready to install the Nero Liquid TV that I bought for $35 three years ago. Is anyone still using Nero Liquid TV (or the TV Tuner and Liquid TV remote with other software). My computer is an Acer Aspire Revo (Nvidia Ion / Intel Atom) with 3 GB RAM and Windows XP SP3.


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## philhu (Apr 11, 2001)

Its discontinued and has some sever problems
In win7

Too bad, it was a great idea and a natural
Upgrade to tivo desktop but it is not working

You probably will not get the product to register to
Get guide data at this point


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## slowbiscuit (Sep 19, 2006)

LOL, one of the better Rip Van Winkles.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

ForrestB said:


> It's September 30, 2012 and I'm ready to install the Nero Liquid TV that I bought for $35 three years ago. Is anyone still using Nero Liquid TV (or the TV Tuner and Liquid TV remote with other software). My computer is an Acer Aspire Revo (Nvidia Ion / Intel Atom) with 3 GB RAM and Windows XP SP3.


Come back and tell us how it went.


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## Technologist (Dec 4, 2005)

unitron said:


> Come back and tell us how it went.


I'm guessing it didn't go... LOL!

And yes, I know I am resurrecting a very old thread, but that it because I just found MY LiquidTV that I never got around to installing. 

And not sure I am going to try installing it, but rather will list it on Ebay. I'm just wondering if I want to list it simply as the LiquidTV, or should I make mention that it can be used with other software and is a great little tuner?  Suggestions?

Thanks!


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## philhu (Apr 11, 2001)

What software does it work with? I have one sitting in a box. I did install it. It was pretty cool, a tivo on a pc. I even had it do recordings and tivodecoded them way back when


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## sledhed (Aug 29, 2005)

philhu said:


> What software does it work with? I have one sitting in a box. I did install it. It was pretty cool, a tivo on a pc. I even had it do recordings and tivodecoded them way back when


Blast from the past... forgot I had a watch on this thread.
Wow, I think you were one of the few for whom the install and software actually worked. Mine never did, tried a couple different computers. The tuner stick should be great but I don't recall whether I got it to work right with my laptop and windows 7 media center. Never got beyond that. I should sell mine on ebay too, if it has any value... has an atsc and ntsc tuner in it...


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## philhu (Apr 11, 2001)

Well i had it working. But had 6 tickets in when they shut it down


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## James Schmitt (May 18, 2019)

I was just curious if the Nero LiquidTV remote (peanut remote) can work with a regular TiVo set-top box (Series 1,2, and 3). Can someone test and see if it works?


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## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

I was pretty sure the answer was yes, but I actually pulled out my old Liquid TV remote and confirmed it works with my Bolt+, so I'm sure it will work with those older boxes. Not sure what the Stop and DVD Menu buttons would do.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

windracer said:


> I was pretty sure the answer was yes, but I actually pulled out my old Liquid TV remote and confirmed it works with my Bolt+, so I'm sure it will work with those older boxes. Not sure what the Stop and DVD Menu buttons would do.


In TE2 the Stop button would stop playing a show and return you to the menu. Not sure what, if anything, it does in TE3 or TE4. The DVD menu button never did anything on regular TiVos. It only worked on the DVD units. The regular units just ignored it.


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