# How to stream up to 4 shows at once to 4 devices?



## jazzy_james (Apr 16, 2003)

Tivo Stream states that one TiVo Premiere series DVR is capable of streaming up to three shows at once. And two TiVo Premiere DVRs required to stream four shows simultaneously. How is this done?

My regular Tivo Premiere has 2 tuners so I can stream 2 shows at once. How can I stream the third show? The third can't be live since I only have 2 tuners.

Plus, the Tivo Premiere 4 or XL4 has 4 tuners so I would think you can stream 4 shows at once without having two Tivo Premiere DVRs. Is that correct?

Need more clarification fellow Tivo fanatics!


----------



## swarto112 (Sep 10, 2012)

jazzy_james said:


> Tivo Stream states that one TiVo Premiere series DVR is capable of streaming up to three shows at once. And two TiVo Premiere DVRs required to stream four shows simultaneously. How is this done?
> 
> My regular Tivo Premiere has 2 tuners so I can stream 2 shows at once. How can I stream the third show? The third can't be live since I only have 2 tuners.
> 
> ...


Ive been able to multi stream with my xl4 no issues


----------



## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

jazzy_james said:


> Tivo Stream states that one TiVo Premiere series DVR is capable of streaming up to three shows at once. And two TiVo Premiere DVRs required to stream four shows simultaneously. How is this done?
> 
> My regular Tivo Premiere has 2 tuners so I can stream 2 shows at once. How can I stream the third show? The third can't be live since I only have 2 tuners.
> 
> ...


It says stream 4 shows, it does not say stream 4 live shows... However, a two tuner Premier is going to be limited to 3 streams I believe.


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

All TiVos are limited to streaming a maximum of 3 shows simultaneously. So the only way you're going to max out the Stream is if you're streaming from multiple TiVos.

And as bradleys pointed out it it never mentions the shows as being live. In fact it doesn't even really stream live TV. All it can do is imitate a recording of something in the live guide and then stream that recording. If you don't have a free tuner it will throw and error. And if you do select something from the guide the stream will end when that program is over (it wont continue automatically to the next show) and a recording of the show will be left behind in your My Shows list on the host TiVo.

Basically live TV support is just a macro that tells the TiVo to record the show and then stream the recording. It's never actually streaming live TV.

Dan


----------



## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

Dan203 said:


> All TiVos are limited to streaming a maximum of 3 shows simultaneously. So the only way you're going to max out the Stream is if you're streaming from multiple TiVos.
> 
> And as bradleys pointed out it it never mentions the shows as being live. In fact it doesn't even really stream live TV. All it can do is imitate a recording of something in the live guide and then stream that recording. If you don't have a free tuner it will throw and error. And if you do select something from the guide the stream will end when that program is over (it wont continue automatically to the next show) and a recording of the show will be left behind in your My Shows list on the host TiVo.
> 
> ...


My assumption is that the only difference between Premiere-to-Premiere and Premiere-to-Stream streaming is the ability to partially control the source TiVo and to stream from a live buffer. No need to "imitate a recording" a TiVo is always recording on all of its tuners. You are always watching a recording, even in "live" TV.


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Premiere to Premiere streaming doesn't support Live TV at all. The upcoming Mini will allow you to requisition a tuner from the host TiVo and watch real streaming live TV, but Premiere to Premiere streaming only supports recorded programs. Premiere to Stream is actually identical to the Premiere to Premiere except the iOS app has some control over the TiVo so it can initiate a recording from the live TV buffer allowing the pseudo live TV support.

Dan


----------



## sbiller (May 10, 2002)

Dan203 said:


> Premiere to Premiere streaming doesn't support Live TV at all. The upcoming Mini will allow you to requisition a tuner from the host TiVo and watch real streaming live TV, but Premiere to Premiere streaming only supports recorded programs. Premiere to Stream is actually identical to the Premiere to Premiere except the iOS app has some control over the TiVo so it can initiate a recording from the live TV buffer allowing the pseudo live TV support.
> 
> Dan


There has been discussions with RCN about supporting live TV streaming on the Preview in order to support pause and rewind functions on the live buffer. I don't expect to see this supported until next year.


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

sbiller said:


> There has been discussions with RCN about supporting live TV streaming on the Preview in order to support pause and rewind functions on the live buffer. I don't expect to see this supported until next year.


With the Mini having this capability I'm sure it wont be hard for them to port it to the Preview. Although I'm not sure how the user experience would work. How would the user choose whether to use the internal tuner or the remote tuner? Would it be confusing for one to have trick play while the other doesn't? They may need to do some work to work that sort of stuff out.

Dan


----------



## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

Dan203 said:


> Premiere to Premiere streaming doesn't support Live TV at all. The upcoming Mini will allow you to requisition a tuner from the host TiVo and watch real streaming live TV, but Premiere to Premiere streaming only supports recorded programs. Premiere to Stream is actually identical to the Premiere to Premiere except the iOS app has some control over the TiVo so it can initiate a recording from the live TV buffer allowing the pseudo live TV support.
> 
> Dan


Just exactly what part of my post made you assume that I thought that Premiere-to-Premiere streaming supported streaming from the live buffer? Especially since I explicitly stated that being able to do that is one of the differences.

My point was that is doesn't have to "imitate a recording", just stream from the existing live buffer. Or was that a typo in your first post and it was supposed to be "initiate"? Even if so, it is a bit misleading. It doesn't have to explicitly initiate recording, just change one of the tuners to that channel and it will begin recording that channel to that tuners live buffer. What the Stream can do that a Premiere cannot do is change the channel on the source Premiere and access the live buffer. I assume that the same will be true for the upcoming TiVo Mini.


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

lpwcomp said:


> It doesn't have to explicitly initiate recording, just change one of the tuners to that channel and it will begin recording that channel to that tuners live buffer. What the Stream can do that a Premiere cannot do is change the channel on the source Premiere and access the live buffer. I assume that the same will be true for the upcoming TiVo Mini.


I did mean initiate, sorry for the typo. However you're wrong about how the stream works. It can't stream directly from the live buffer. It has to actually start a recording. When it gets to the end of the current show it stops, it doesn't continue on like the real live buffer, and leaves a recording behind in the host TiVo's My Shows list.

Like I said it's basically a macro... Change channel>Start recording>Stream recording. It's not really live TV streaming like the Mini will support.

Dan


----------



## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

Dan203 said:


> I did mean initiate, sorry for the typo. However you're wrong about how the stream works. It can't stream directly from the live buffer. It has to actually start a recording. When it gets to the end of the current show it stops, it doesn't continue on like the real live buffer, and leaves a recording behind in the host TiVo's My Shows list.
> 
> Like I said it's basically a macro... Change channel>Start recording>Stream recording. It's not really live TV streaming like the Mini will support.
> 
> Dan


That seems to me to be of only marginal utility.


----------



## jfh3 (Apr 15, 2004)

lpwcomp said:


> That seems to me to be of only marginal utility.


What difference does it make? Either way a tuner will be tied up n the TiVo.


----------



## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

jfh3 said:


> What difference does it make? Either way a tuner will be tied up n the TiVo.


Only until the end of whatever show is on when you start it. IOW, if you start record a channel with say 5 mins left in the current program, it will only "stream" for 5 mins.

What we have here is simply adding the ability to "stream" recordings, including those in progress, to multiple devices. The actual scheduling of the recording is done using the existing iPad app. The Stream itself does not tie up a tuner.


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Exactly. The live TV functionality is just a trick. It's not true live TV streaming. AFAIK the only device that will do that is the Mini. 

Dan


----------



## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

Dan203 said:


> Exactly. The live TV functionality is just a trick. It's not true live TV streaming. AFAIK the only device that will do that is the Mini.
> 
> Dan


My point is that it isn't a trick, it is non-existent. The only functionality added to the iOS is the ability to control the Stream h/w and receive its output. Scheduling a recording has always been there. The only difference between Premiere-to-Premiere and Premiere-to-Stream streaming is that the Stream (recodes? and) retransmits the stream to (a) portable device(s).


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

That is true. And yes it does recode. It's main purpose is to recode the source stream, which is MPEG-2, to H.264 so that the iPad can even play it.

Dan


----------



## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

Dan203 said:


> I did mean initiate, sorry for the typo. However you're wrong about how the stream works. It can't stream directly from the live buffer. It has to actually start a recording. When it gets to the end of the current show it stops, it doesn't continue on like the real live buffer, and leaves a recording behind in the host TiVo's My Shows list.


This is actually really funny/sad.. Because it's one of the couple of things I don't like about my Toshiba XS32 (which I use daily, nowadays mostly to watch shows faster than realtime, and for a few 'backup' analog recordings)

On it, when you hit the time slip button and there ISN'T already a recording going on, all it does is START a recording (and you have to wait ~5 seconds for it to buffer up a bit) that you can then FF/rewind through and when you exit time slip, it asks you if you want to save or delete it. AFAIK, these weird machinations are to avoid Tivo's patent (i.e. you also cannot just hit 'play' on a currently recording show, you have to exit and hit time slip)..

So now Tivo is doing this same hokeyness. Which seems especially weird, since a Tivo is ALWAYS recording, unlike the XS32.


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I think it's because TiVo doesn't currently have a way to stream the live buffer. Maybe once the Mini is released, which can stream the live buffer, they'll update the iOS app to support it as well. But I'm pretty sure that's going to require a companion update to the TiVo software which is probably why they can't do it yet. 

Dan


----------



## jfh3 (Apr 15, 2004)

lpwcomp said:


> Only until the end of whatever show is on when you start it. IOW, if you start record a channel with say 5 mins left in the current program, it will only "stream" for 5 mins.
> 
> What we have here is simply adding the ability to "stream" recordings, including those in progress, to multiple devices. The actual scheduling of the recording is done using the existing iPad app. The Stream itself does not tie up a tuner.


Understood. I'm just trying to understand how people think live TV could ever be streamed without a tuner being used for that purpose at the same time.


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I don't think anyone thinks it would work without a tuner. I think what people want is for it to work without having to actually record the show. They just want the iPad to display whatever is in the live TV buffer. It can't currently do that.

Dan


----------



## sbiller (May 10, 2002)

Dan203 said:


> I don't think anyone thinks it would work without a tuner. I think what people want is for it to work without having to actually record the show. They just want the iPad to display whatever is in the live TV buffer. It can't currently do that.
> 
> Dan


I suspect that this is related to the Premiere software. It likely needs changes to support this "non-recorded' streaming from an external device perspective.


----------



## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

By recording you lock that tuner. If it didn't record that tuner would be free to be used for something else. So just like when it's on a channel from a Premiere that isn't recording, it could change the channel midway while watching something.


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

aaronwt said:


> By recording you lock that tuner. If it didn't record that tuner would be free to be used for something else. So just like when it's on a channel from a Premiere that isn't recording, it could change the channel midway while watching something.


When you'r Premiere is on a live station and needs to record something it prompts you before changing the channel. If you're not there to see it then it assumes it's OK and records the show. If you are and say no then the recording is canceled. They would need to do something like that on the iPad app to allow real streaming of live TV.

Dan


----------



## b_scott (Nov 27, 2006)

Dan203 said:


> Premiere to Premiere streaming doesn't support Live TV at all. The upcoming Mini will allow you to requisition a tuner from the host TiVo and watch real streaming live TV, but Premiere to Premiere streaming only supports recorded programs. Premiere to Stream is actually identical to the Premiere to Premiere except the iOS app has some control over the TiVo so it can initiate a recording from the live TV buffer allowing the pseudo live TV support.
> 
> Dan


not necessarily true. If you factor in the realization that Tivo is always recording whatever you're watching, you can technically start a recording on one Tivo and then go to the other room and watch that recording, live.


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I don't consider that streaming live TV. Streaming live TV is what the Mini does. It requisitions a tuner and streams the live buffer directly to the other room. The Stream does basically what you just said except it has the ability to start the recording itself so there is no need to do that manually.

Dan


----------



## b_scott (Nov 27, 2006)

agreed. That's why I didn't say untrue, just "not necessarily"  It's MUCH better than it used to be, where you'd have to wait for something to stop recording to watch it.


----------

