# HP partners with TiVo to bring add on to WHS



## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

http://www.wegotserved.com/2010/03/10/hp-mediasmart-expander-for-tivo-revealed/

Pretty cool stuff!

While there are plenty of ways to do this, it looks like one of the slickest ways to manage a TiVo collection back and forth between a home server.

As I already have the HP MSS EX495 I will be downloading and setting this up right away, comments to follow!


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## TriBruin (Dec 10, 2003)

I am so all over this. I have been waiting for this ever since I got MSS last year.


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

it looks like a really nice skin of TiVo desktop but does not support automatic transfers. I do not get it?


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## CuriousMark (Jan 13, 2005)

It looks like they made it run as a service.


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## TiivoDog (Feb 14, 2007)

What really sucks is it is only compatible with the latest HP Mediasmart Servers - once again, early adopters (HP MSS EX475) are screwed.... I've got Series 3 Deja Vu ownership issues all over again inside of 1 week with the no updated GUI on the heels of the Premier..... I couldn't even have time to get over that one!!


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## atomarchio (Sep 24, 2006)

I have Tivo and the LX195 HP Home Server. How do I upgrade this model to V3.0 so I can download this new add-on?

Please let me know. Thanks.


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

ZeoTiVo said:


> it looks like a really nice skin of TiVo desktop but does not support automatic transfers. I do not get it?


A lot of people don't do automatic transfers, they just archive select shows for later viewing or retrieval.

Hopefully they will add the automatic transfer feature eventually since it's a big deal to a select group of folks.

I have installed the add-on and all I had to do was put in my media key and it sees the recordings on both of my TiVos.

The beauty here really is that if you have the WHS client installed on all of your PCs and Macs in the house then you can pull up this control console from any of them and quickly move shows around. Pretty cool stuff.


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

atomarchio said:


> I have Tivo and the LX195 HP Home Server. How do I upgrade this model to V3.0 so I can download this new add-on?
> 
> Please let me know. Thanks.


You need to order the 3.0 upgrade from HP, it's not free. I also am not sure if the LX195 is able to run the 3.0 software, so you should check the HP support website.


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## TriBruin (Dec 10, 2003)

TiivoDog said:


> What really sucks is it is only compatible with the latest HP Mediasmart Servers - once again, early adopters (HP MSS EX475) are screwed.... I've got Series 3 Deja Vu ownership issues all over again inside of 1 week with the no updated GUI on the heels of the Premier..... I couldn't even have time to get over that one!!


I wonder if you upgrade to 3.0 if you can run it.


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

ZeoTiVo said:


> it looks like a really nice skin of TiVo desktop but does not support automatic transfers. I do not get it?


it just makes it easier to install rather then having to sneak your way into the box to install tivo desktop and/or pytivo.


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## jkhansen (Aug 27, 2008)

Can anyone confirm if this will run on an EX47x or EX48x upgraded to the 3.0 software?


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

jmpage2 said:


> The beauty here really is that if you have the WHS client installed on all of your PCs and Macs in the house then you can pull up this control console from any of them and quickly move shows around. Pretty cool stuff.





MichaelK said:


> it just makes it easier to install rather then having to sneak your way into the box to install tivo desktop and/or pytivo.


ah. so is the client a remote control of the WHS? can you watch the videos on other PC's as well via the client or by copying the file to the other PC?


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

ZeoTiVo said:


> ah. so is the client a remote control of the WHS? can you watch the videos on other PC's as well via the client or by copying the file to the other PC?


each client in the house installs some software that gives it remote control of the server and does the nightly backups (and checks on the clients antivirus and whatnot).

So you can remote control the WHS from any client in the house (or on the web- as the WHS comes with built in remote access and DDNS support). (in fact many of the WHS' sold are headless without even a VGA port)

Not sure of the mechanism of watching the videos on other pc's but the WHS can act as a DLNA server so maybe that could be leveraged? (not sure how the whole decrypt would be handled- I have a first gen WHS so no fun for me as not supported)


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## atomarchio (Sep 24, 2006)

Looks like I am screwed on getting 3.0 for the LX195. It's not even available. That and HP can't even get the Media Collector to work right. They lied to me about having an upgrade to 2.5 coming out which never did. Thanks for nothing HP! What a waste of $


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

TiivoDog said:


> What really sucks is it is only compatible with the latest HP Mediasmart Servers - once again, early adopters (HP MSS EX475) are screwed.... I've got Series 3 Deja Vu ownership issues all over again inside of 1 week with the no updated GUI on the heels of the Premier..... I couldn't even have time to get over that one!!


i just found out (via wegotserved) that HP sells an upgrade disk to their 3.0 version of the software for our first gen boxes.

it's like 27.95 plus a couple bucks for 2 day shipping. Check out their support site.


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

ZeoTiVo said:


> ah. so is the client a remote control of the WHS? can you watch the videos on other PC's as well via the client or by copying the file to the other PC?


The add-in for WHS puts the transferred recordings in the WHS media share called "Recorded TV" in a subfolder called "tivo".

This should make the recordings available to any device on the network that can access an SMB share.


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

More info found in this write up from MediaSmartServer.net

http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2010/03/09/manage-tivo-content-from-your-hp-mediasmart-server/

Looks like HP has admitted that the scheduled automatic transfers would be a big feature and they will consider it for a future version.


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## atomarchio (Sep 24, 2006)

Since I can't upgrade to 3.0 with the LX195. Is there another way I can access the content on my Tivo and copy it over to the LX195?

Please let me know. Thanks.


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

atomarchio said:


> Since I can't upgrade to 3.0 with the LX195. Is there another way I can access the content on my Tivo and copy it over to the LX195?
> 
> Please let me know. Thanks.


I would assume you can get TiVo desktop installed on the WHS. maybe others can chime in on that that have tried


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

The disadvantage of doing it that way is you would need to remote into your WHS instead of using the WHS connector software to use it.


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## atomarchio (Sep 24, 2006)

innocentfreak said:


> The disadvantage of doing it that way is you would need to remote into your WHS instead of using the WHS connector software to use it.


For the cost of a new HP Home Server, I can live with my LX195 if that's what I have to do. Hopefully, someone can show me how to do this.


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## ellinj (Feb 26, 2002)

Can this device do any transcoding similar to tivo desktop plus?


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## Johncv (Jun 11, 2002)

How does this bypass the copy protection carp that prevent transfer of shows?


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## ellinj (Feb 26, 2002)

Johncv said:


> How does this bypass the copy protection carp that prevent transfer of shows?


I would imagine that it can't


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## tomm1079 (May 10, 2005)

This is pretty much the same thing and not limited to what WHS you have:

http://www.whsplus.com/2009/04/11/tivo-publisher-for-windows-home-server/

I take that back. This just sends to the tivo...does not receive back.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

Darn, OK, so it's still "pull". One of the earlier articles made me think/hope that you could, on the Tivo itself, say copy to the server.

Seems very very expensive for what we can do already with third party tools. Though admittedly, being able to just plop more hard drives in is very cool..


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## TriBruin (Dec 10, 2003)

mattack said:


> Darn, OK, so it's still "pull". One of the earlier articles made me think/hope that you could, on the Tivo itself, say copy to the server.
> 
> Seems very very expensive for what we can do already with third party tools. Though admittedly, being able to just plop more hard drives in is very cool..


But if you already have an HP MediaSmart Server, it costs nothing. I have installed it, and, well, it works. I hope to see improvements (Autotransfers, please!) But at least it is an option.


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## Bsteenson (Jul 30, 2000)

I'm not sure why this is a big deal.

PyTiVo, which is free, will let you stream just about any video file format from any computer to all the TiVo's in your house that are connected to your home network.

kmttg, which is also free, will let you pull programs from TiVo, cut commercials automatically and even transcode them to different format for viewing on computer or portable device.

There are also pyTiVo scripts available which will push content automatically from a "watched" folder on your computer to your TiVo.


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

mattack said:


> Darn, OK, so it's still "pull". One of the earlier articles made me think/hope that you could, on the Tivo itself, say copy to the server.
> .


yep - that is what I am looking for. The early galleon had this ability via an HME app as it simply got the now playing list from all TiVo DVRs in the house = presented the list in hme app and then you picked the show and then galleon running on your PC initiated the pull from the TiVo for you. Kind of cool but cumbersome and then when HME public API work was abandoned  there was no way to streamline the concept further.


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

Bsteenson said:


> I'm not sure why this is a big deal.
> 
> PyTiVo, which is free, will let you stream just about any video file format from any computer to all the TiVo's in your house that are connected to your home network.
> 
> ...


I've used PyTiVo and kmttg in the past. However setting it up takes a bit of time, compared to this add-in, which takes about 3 seconds to install and set up.

It's just another option for those who don't need extra storage or some archiving capability but don't want to set multiple applications and scripts up on a computer in their house.


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

jmpage2 said:


> It's just another option for those who don't need extra storage or some archiving capability but don't want to set multiple applications and scripts up on a computer in their house.


tha tis the idea of WHS alright.


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

mattack said:


> ...
> Seems very very expensive for what we can do already with third party tools. Though admittedly, being able to just plop more hard drives in is very cool..


I don't think anyone would honestly sell a WHS box as an accessory to a tivo. But for people that already have it for it's other uses it's a nice add-on. (not great but nice).

A WHS would be just another place to run the 3rd party tools on (people run pytivo or tivo desktop on them already)- but now there's another tool for the WHS as an option.


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

Bsteenson said:


> I'm not sure why this is a big deal.
> 
> PyTiVo, which is free, will let you stream just about any video file format from any computer to all the TiVo's in your house that are connected to your home network.
> 
> ...


it's only a "big deal" if one already has a WHS (and even then only for a subset of the owners).

It's no different than the iphone remote app for the tivo's. It's no big deal to me I dont own an iphone. If I did have an iphone i think i'd likely prefer my harmony or tivo penaut remotes so i could 'feel' my way around the buttons and not have to look for where to touch the screen (I had an old touchscreen remote and went to the harmony with buttons for that reason). I doubt anyone is buying an iphone just to control their tivo's. But if you have an iphone or are considering an iphone it's one more nice possibility to have at your fingers.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

Actually, I think you're missing a point about the iPhone remote apps. They "type" for you. (By manually moving around the onscreen keyboard.) I don't use one, but for a skanky hack, they're pretty cool.


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## jdmass (Dec 1, 2002)

I coincidentally just picked up a HP Mediasmart Server EX495 with 2 1.5TB drives a couple of weeks ago, so I was very happy to see this announcement.

The add-in seems to work exactly as advertised. I've pulled a bunch of programs from both of my Tivos. It doesn't really add any new functionality over other transfer solutions other than a bit of convenience, if you happen to have an hp server. 

I'm happy because I continually had problems with timeouts to my windows 7 pc with Tivodesktop. Now I can upload reliably and free up space on my wife's non-upgraded TivoHD.

Of course, to view any of the content on the server requires transferring back to the Tivo just like with Tivo Desktop -- sure would be nice if they could support streaming.


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

mattack said:


> Actually, I think you're missing a point about the iPhone remote apps. They "type" for you. (By manually moving around the onscreen keyboard.) I don't use one, but for a skanky hack, they're pretty cool.


I'm not knocking the iphone app at all- it's pretty cool. But like i said- everyone wouldn't see a use in it (you don't use it either for example) . And no one is likely buying an iphone JUST because you can use it to type on your tivo.

so just like there's no reason to knock the iphone app there's no reason to know the whs 'app'. Each have their users and fan base. They aren't a magic answer for all.


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## dcbarry (May 21, 2002)

Presumably, this will be worthless for the very large number of Tivo Series3 / HD users where the cable company blocks transfers (google CCI byte) on nearly every channel.


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## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

dcbarry said:


> Presumably, this will be worthless for the very large number of Tivo Series3 / HD users where the cable company blocks transfers (google CCI byte) on nearly every channel.


Your use of the word "most" is misguided, as is the category of "very large numbers" 
TWC is one of the few overly aggressive cablecos out there doing this, Comcast straddles the line, and FiOS is just a joy.
Maybe worthless to you, but a nice feature for a great number of users.

Diane


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## hughvh (Apr 4, 2002)

Just to confirm. The Mediasmart does not support streaming of archived shows back to the TiVo? I'm getting conflicting info after I do a search.

Thanks!


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## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

hughvh said:


> Just to confirm. The Mediasmart does not support streaming of archived shows back to the TiVo? I'm getting conflicting info after I do a search.
> 
> Thanks!


It doesn't stream them, it presents them as if they were on another Tivo in the house and you need to transfer them, you can start watching after the transfer has begun.

Diane


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## BarryDGordon (Dec 25, 2007)

I have a EX495 with Version 3 so I installed Tivo Expander addin. I ran the configuration page for the addin and input my Media Access Key. It seemed to accept it but it still says no DVRs found. I have 4 Tivo HD boxes which all have the same MAK. All are hooked up to my network. Any suggestions?


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## janry (Jan 2, 2003)

Anyone interested in a HP EX495, Costco has just dropped their price to $549.99.

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Produc...Ntt=ex495&No=0&Nty=1&Ntx=mode matchallpartial


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

janry said:


> Anyone interested in a HP EX495, Costco has just dropped their price to $549.99.
> 
> http://www.costco.com/Browse/Produc...Ntt=ex495&No=0&Nty=1&Ntx=mode matchallpartial


Do you know if it backs up documents and other files other than media files? I'd like to get a _complete_ centralized backup solution...


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## janry (Jan 2, 2003)

orangeboy said:


> Do you know if it backs up documents and other files other than media files? I'd like to get a _complete_ centralized backup solution...


Yes, it does.

You might enjoy this thread.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=421357


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## David Platt (Dec 13, 2001)

orangeboy said:


> Do you know if it backs up documents and other files other than media files? I'd like to get a _complete_ centralized backup solution...


It does automatic nightly backups that are capable of doing a bare-metal restore. If a hard drive fails on one of your backed up machines, you pop in a new one, restore, and it is *exactly* like it was at the last backup.


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

Thanks! Very helpful information! :up:


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