# DNLA Support for Roamio and Mini



## JeffW907

TiVo needs to add native DNLA support for both the Roamio and Mini. There are clearly a number TiVo customers that what this supported and have had to rely on 3rd party products like pytivo and streambaby. DNLA simply needs to be natively supported.


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## tomhorsley

Forget DNLA with all the strange limitation on format and resolution, how about support for mounting network filesystems and playing media from them? That would be far more generally useful. Or lacking that, how about support for browsing a local network web server with links to video files? Both of these are simpler to operate and more generally useful than a DNLA server.


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## wmcbrine

tomhorsley said:


> Forget DNLA with all the strange limitation on format and resolution, how about support for mounting network filesystems and playing media from them?


Are you the one that I explained this to before?

The format limitations of DLNA make it easier to implement. Specifically, it could be used with hardware-accelerated video playback -- which is the way all video playback has been done, in all models of TiVo so far.

If you want support for a broader selection of formats, at some point, you're looking at software-based playback. And the TiVos -- probably including the Roamios, even though they're more powerful than ever -- just aren't powerful enough to do that.


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## Dan203

wmcbrine said:


> If you want support for a broader selection of formats, at some point, you're looking at software-based playback. And the TiVos -- probably including the Roamios, even though they're more powerful than ever -- just aren't powerful enough to do that.


Or a PC based server that did real time transcoding. Although if you had that DLNA would still work because the server could just transcode to DLNA compliant formats.


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## wmcbrine

Dan203 said:


> Or a PC based server that did real time transcoding.


Well, we already have those. Presumably tomhorsley doesn't like them.


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## Scooby Doo

Wouldn't it now be possible to build an IOS/Android app that supported DNLA and that output to Tivo Roamio using DIAL. Maybe someone has already done this?


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## tatergator1

Scooby Doo said:


> Wouldn't it now be possible to build an IOS/Android app that supported DNLA and that output to Tivo Roamio using DIAL. Maybe someone has already done this?


You're confusing what DIAL is. It stands for "DIscovery And Launch." DIAL is a method of passing commands between two clients that have a same App available on board. To send a Youtube video from your mobile Youtube App to the Tivo, the Tivo has to have a Youtube App as well. Same thing with Netflix. Only apps that support DIAL, and are available on the Roamio as well, possess the ability to "output" whats on the the mobile app to the Tivo. Even then, there's no "output"; DIAL allows the mobile app to tell the Tivo the following: launch Youtube, then play this video. No video is sent from the phone to the Tivo.


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## poppagene

DLNA Support for tivo would be appreciated.


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## Scooby Doo

tatergator1 said:


> You're confusing what DIAL is. It stands for "DIscovery And Launch." DIAL is a method of passing commands between two clients that have a same App available on board. To send a Youtube video from your mobile Youtube App to the Tivo, the Tivo has to have a Youtube App as well. Same thing with Netflix. Only apps that support DIAL, and are available on the Roamio as well, possess the ability to "output" whats on the the mobile app to the Tivo. Even then, there's no "output"; DIAL allows the mobile app to tell the Tivo the following: launch Youtube, then play this video. No video is sent from the phone to the Tivo.


I don't think DIAL needs an app to be installed on the Tivo. Doesn't it just provide a link to an html5 web service? I understand the content still needs to be hosted somewhere, but presumably this could be done from the phone. I think this is more or less how Airplay works.

My larger point is that Tivo has wisely committed to an open HTML5 platform for the Roamio. It's probably most realistic to expect future platform enhancements will come from this direction. And at the risk of being shouted at by the faithful, isn't DLNA sort of end-of-life anyway?


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## Dan203

Scooby Doo said:


> I don't think DIAL needs an app to be installed on the Tivo. Doesn't it just provide a link to an html5 web service? I understand the content still needs to be hosted somewhere, but presumably this could be done from the phone. I think this is more or less how Airplay works.


It needs a companion app to work properly. However someone did discover a hack that allows you to launch a blank copy of Opera and play pretty much any HTML5 video. So we may see ways to do this sooner or later.

That being said with the Opera TV Store coming I'm sure we'll see some sort of DLNA app on TiVo sooner or later. I think I read somewhere that someone is already working on an HTML5 version of Plex that would probably work.


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## Scooby Doo

Dan203 said:


> It needs a companion app to work properly


You sure about that? Chromecast has an SDK that let's any IOS or Android app stream to it. I don't think they are installing a companion app on the Chromecast every time are they?


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## Dan203

The Chromecast uses a proprietary API beyond the DIAL spec. Also that universal casting feature only works on a PC at the moment, via the special Chrome browser extension. 

The actual DIAL spec is intended to launch an app on the playback device and then send it a URL for it to play. It provides minor control features (pause, play, seek) but that's about it.


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## Scooby Doo

Dan203 said:


> The Chromecast uses a proprietary API beyond the DIAL spec.


Google may be doing something not in the standard, but I don't think they are keeping it proprietary (i.e. if Tivo or another device manufacturer wants to support Chromecast apps then I suspect they can). The Chromecast app ecosystem is small at the moment: I think it's just Youtube and Netflix. But if it becomes large then I would think Tivo would be better to jump on this bandwagon rather than foster its own ecosystem.


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## Dan203

TiVo is not using their own ecosystem. They are using the Opera TV Store platform. It's still relatively new, and small, but there are a couple of Sony TVs and BD players that use it so it's not specific to TiVo. It's also HTML5 based which makes it compatible with pretty much every major app out there.


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## Scooby Doo

Dan203 said:


> TiVo is not using their own ecosystem. They are using the Opera TV Store platform. It's still relatively new, and small, but there are a couple of Sony TVs and BD players that use it so it's not specific to TiVo. It's also HTML5 based which makes it compatible with pretty much every major app out there.


Oh OK, I didn't know that. So how does all this play out? Is there going to be a battle of ecosystems (opera vs google vs apple vs ?). Will some ecosystems sign up exclusive content to differentiate? I hope it plays out to the benefit of consumers. I have no interest in getting a Chromecast because it has no content I can't already get on my Tivo. I'd love to be able to remove my Apple TV and go Tivo exclusive, but I would need access to the content on the ITunes Store.


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## Dan203

Since Opera and Google are both based on HTML5 their apps should be compatible, with little to no porting effort. Apple is a whole other beast. They not only have their own programming language (objective C) but they have strict style guidelines for Apple TV apps so that they all have a similar look/feel.

I have a Chromecast. The functionality of the Netflix and YouTube apps are identical to what the Roamio can do. The only advantage the Chromecast has is the Chrome tab mirroring from a PC, but that actually does a real time screen capture so it requires a pretty beefy PC to work. My laptop is too old to handle it, so the Chromecast is basically no use to me. But with the Netflix credit it was only $11 so it wasn't a big expense either.


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## Praesto

If the Roamio adds the ability for Plex (or another equivalent local streaming app) then I can justify having one beside every TV in the house. I dont want a box for TV and another (currently using Roku) for streaming.

Here's hoping!


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## bradleys

A year ago I read an article about DNLA service coming to TiVo. Has anyone heard any rumors either pro or con?

http://www.v-net.tv/tivo-customers-can-transfer-content-to-tivo-dvr-with-access-dlna/






Maybe this was dropped for DIAL and stream, not sure...


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## Dan203

Din't know what ever happened to that. Honestly DLNA is relatively simple, I'm not sure why TiVo hasn't just created an app for it itself. Just basic DLNA with no on the fly transcoding or other fancy features is about as simple as you can get


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## dalabera

Dan203 said:


> Honestly DLNA is relatively simple, I'm not sure why TiVo hasn't just created an app for it itself. Just basic DLNA with no on the fly transcoding or other fancy features is about as simple as you can get


Can we send emails or tweet someone at Tivo to find out if they can consider this?


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## telemark

Considering one of the FCC filings, it kinda appears that Tivo doesn't want to support DLNA server until the FCC says they have to.

I was wondering what happened to that old DLNA announcement, but it's a little strange cause Opera and Netfront are somewhat competitors.

Another odd thing though, if you look on a recent Premiere, there's an inactive DLNA startup script. That says:
'Starting and watching DLNA local DMS server for USB...'

Implies there's a Tivo box somewhere in the world with that enabled.


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