# Any way to stream videos/movies to a tivo from a media server?



## Jeff Lam (Sep 5, 2003)

After having tivo for years I finally moved away from tivo after the original series 3 in favor of an HTPC. Due to the high maintenance and the dreaded windows media center I am now looking into going back to tivo and getting a Roamio as it seems to be the box with it all. Main reasons being the 6 cc tuners, the low maintenence, and superior interface.

Is there any way to stream content from a home media server running windows home server 2011 to the Roamio?


----------



## swerver (May 18, 2012)

Streambaby and plex do that, TiVo desktop or pytivo will transfer the files completely.


----------



## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

Check out the Home Media Features forum.


----------



## swinefc (Aug 20, 2012)

How do you get a tivo to stream content from a plex server?


----------



## MacBrian (Feb 24, 2002)

swinefc said:


> How do you get a tivo to stream content from a plex server?


+1 I wanna know too!


----------



## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

swinefc said:


> How do you get a tivo to stream content from a plex server?


 Streambaby (see link in my sig) now supports that. For series 4 or later TiVos there's also an experimental HTML based Plex client being developed, but there's no easy/clean way to install and run right now. See this post for instructions on getting that installed.
The html client has a nicer and Plex like looking GUI and can also work from TiVo Mini. Streambaby among other things will give you better quality video + audio (Plex solution doesn't support AC3 audio or mpeg2 video) and is much easier to install and run but you can't stream directly to a Mini.


----------



## tomhorsley (Jul 22, 2010)

I don't remember the link, but there are some folks developing a plex app who were asking for testers in another thread. A search would probably turn it up.


----------



## Jeff Lam (Sep 5, 2003)

moyekj said:


> Streambaby (see link in my sig) now supports that. For series 4 or later TiVos there's also an experimental HTML based Plex client being developed, but there's no easy/clean way to install and run right now. See this post for instructions on getting that installed.
> The html client has a nicer and Plex like looking GUI and can also work from TiVo Mini. Streambaby among other things will give you better quality video + audio (Plex solution doesn't support AC3 audio or mpeg2 video) and is much easier to install and run but you can't stream directly to a Mini.


Never heard of streambaby before but I also haven't had any tivos in the house in a few years. Does it require a server program running on the media server? Does it playback MKV files? Does it support HD audio streams (true hd, and dts hd-master)?

Im just trying to find out if the Roamio can replace the htpc completely or if I would still need the htpc to accomplish everything I need...


----------



## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

Server - yes.
MKV - yes (transcoding).
HD Audio - TiVos can decode up to 6 channel AC3 not true hd or dts.
If you are looking for a TiVo to completely replace everything an HTPC can do the answer is NO it cannot.


----------



## leswar (Apr 14, 2005)

I just discovered streambaby three days ago and like it. It handles .srt subtitles without degrading the video resolution. It handles all file types. But you will need a pc to act as your server. I have been using pyTivo to pull videos to my Premiere XL but pytivo doesn't handle subtitles.

I don't have a dedicated HTPC but use Plex, Serviio servers on my pc to watch videos on my dlna Sony TV or thru my ROKU or my WDLiveplus media box. 

Also, I recently added a WDMyCloud 2TB external hard drive to my router. I copied the pc videos to it. The videos are available to watch via the MyCloud's internal server (It uses the Twonky server). This runs independent of my pc (pc can be off) thru the WDLivePlus or ROKU boxes or the dlna Sony Tv. 

All have various successes or failures of displaying subtitles. But they all end up transcoding the video when displaying SUBTITLES. It seems to be a given.

It was only streambaby that didn't degrade the video and displayed nice subtitles.
It was very easy to install. I'm having a small problem with metadata. It uses the same metadata as pyTiVo which is TiVo metadata you create or save from your .tivo transfers.
( The problem I am having is that streambaby uses the episode title from the tivo metadata to display the files in alphabetical order and not the actual filename. The result is I have to hunt the the actual episode numbers of all the displayed series files. It's a minor annoyance.).

streambaby doesn't store the program on the TiVo hard disk like pyTivo does. So it disappears when you shutoff your pc. 

It's like "Lord of the Rings" One Ring to Rule Them All. One perfect server to do it all. I don't know if it exists. I keep switching among all my different setups-- depending on what I want at the time. DTS sound, 3D, subtiles, best video. 
--Good Hunting


----------



## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

leswar said:


> ( The problem I am having is that streambaby uses the episode title from the tivo metadata to display the files in alphabetical order and not the actual filename. The result is I have to hunt the the actual episode numbers of all the displayed series files. It's a minor annoyance.).


These settings in streambaby.ini may be what you want (what I use):
use.title=false
sort.filename=true

There are *many* configurable settings in streambaby, many of which are documented in the StreamBabyIni Wiki page.

Also FYI metadata in addition to pyTivo metadata can also be embedded in mp4/m4v files or within .TiVo files as well, or from a Plex server.


----------



## leswar (Apr 14, 2005)

Thank you. That's what I needed.


----------

