# Slingbox or anything else to transfer recorded shows via internet to my laptop?



## Pilot135pd (Apr 3, 2010)

I am serving on a voluntary humanitarian mission flying air ambulance helicopters and have a Tivo Premiere recording OTA TV back home in the States. The internet connection here is pretty slow so watching streaming video online like at NBC or USANetwork or FOX is not so great because it's continuously stopping to fill up the buffer while it plays. A regular 45 minute show takes over 2 hours to watch and it's frustrating !

Does slingbox let me control my Tivo remotely and transfer my shows to my computer (which is connected here to the TV) to watch them here? I'm not interested in live streaming because my Internet here is slow, so can I transfer the entire show even if it take a few hours and then watch it continuously here? Also after I watch it can I delete it remotely from the Tivo in Texas?

I read the threads on Streambaby but it's a little more technical that I can handle and I didn't understand if it even did what I'm asking here.

With your answers you're not only helping me you're helping all the other members here that have to watch crappy local TV in a language we don't understand. If I can get this working we'll all benefit here.

Thanks !


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

Pilot135pd said:


> I am serving in the Middle East on a humanitarian mission flying air ambulance helicopters and have a Tivo Premiere recording OTA TV back home outside of Dallas, Texas. The internet connection here is pretty slow so watching streaming video online like at NBC or USANetwork or FOX is not so great because it's continuously stopping to fill up the buffer while it plays. A regular 45 minute show takes over 2 hours to watch and it's frustrating !
> 
> Does slingbox let me control my Tivo remotely and transfer my shows to my computer (which is connected here to the TV) to watch them here? I'm not interested in live streaming because my Internet here is slow, so can I transfer the entire show even if it take a few hours and then watch it continuously here? Also after I watch it can I delete it remotely from the Tivo in Texas?
> 
> ...


I can't speak about Slingbox, but if you have a home computer in Texas, you could take a look at having kmttg installed. It is an application that can download the shows and decrypt the TiVo DRM wrapper, leaving a regular .mpg file. A personal webserver could then make these mpeg files available for download and viewing. I'm not sure of the legal ramifications for sharing such files "publicly" but then the public would have to know your home computer's IP address to access those files, so the risk should be quite small for attracting attention.

With using kmttg, I have most of my TiVo's Season Passes setup to "Keep at most" only one episode, because I commercial cut the downloaded shows and "push" them back to my TiVo. In the end, I have only one episode with commercials, and several edited episodes on my TiVo at any given time.


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## Pilot135pd (Apr 3, 2010)

Thanks for your reply. I went and read a little about KMTTG and it sounds very interesting. I have an extra laptop at home I'm not currently using that has Windows XP. The one here is running Windows 7. The problem I see is that I don't have anyone home who could program anything in that other computer. 

I'll be going home at the end of this month for a few weeks so I'll read a little more to see if it works on it's own once programmed and also if it's not too tech intensive because I use to be able to do some light basic programming but haven't done anything in over a decade so I don't know if I remember enough or not.


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

For what it's worth, I use LogMeIn as a (free) VPN solution to control my computers when away from home. The same company also has Hamachi, which allows access to files on your computer, so the need for setting up a webserver may not be needed, may be a bit easier to setup, and definitely more secure.

You may be a bit surprised by how much Hunter's Creek has grown while you've been gone! I used to live at the (west) end of Town Center Blvd. a few years back, and I'm amazed at how much HC has grown whenever I drive through...


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## Pilot135pd (Apr 3, 2010)

Yeah, I know what you're saying. Lots of foreclosures though.

I use hotspot shield VPN because everything is blocked here. I'll look at LogMeIn and Hamachi too. Let's see if I am tech savy enough to make it work.

Thanks again. Time to go to bed now, I have to be up at 4:00 am and it's 11:30pm here right now.


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## Pilot135pd (Apr 3, 2010)

My interest is peaked and I took a look. Can I use LogMeIn to connect to my laptop at home and run Tivo Desktop Plus and once I transfer the shows copy them from my home laptop to my local laptop over here even if I have to do it overnight? It can't be that simple right?


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

Pilot135pd said:


> My interest is peaked and I took a look. Can I use LogMeIn to connect to my Texas laptop and run Tivo Desktop Plus and once I transfer the shows copy them from my Texas laptop to my local laptop over here even if I have to do it overnight? It can't be that simple right?


I believe a combination of LogMeIn and Hamachi would do it. LogMeIn doesn't do file transfers, only remote control (like a web Remote Desktop session). Hamachi does do file transfers, but there's no program control, so if TD+ happens to crash, there wouldn't be any way to restart it using only Hamachi. And yes, something recorded on a Tuesday probably wouldn't be watchable until Wednesday, due more to upload speed in Texas than download speed in the Middle East. At least I know I'm capped at about 1.5 Mbps upload with RoadRunner here.


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## AudioNutz (Nov 10, 2008)

I use kmttg running in "Auto" mode to do exactly this. I travel for business, so I can't be logging in to remote control a machine to do this stuff manually...

I use kmttg to process the shows, but I've also programmed a "Custom" command to move the shows to a volume that I've got shared via FTP protocol. You could do this as easily as sharing the output directory. You could then simply log in via FTP from wherever you are, and download your shows to your local machine for viewing. You could also delete them from the FTP directory when you're done, to keep the home hard drive from filling up.

Just remember to program your home router to allow FTP routing to the home machine that the files are landing on... Before you leave for travel, test it by logging in from your local McDonalds or Starbucks, to be sure everything is accessible before you leave.


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## ggieseke (May 30, 2008)

Pilot135pd said:


> My interest is peaked and I took a look. Can I use LogMeIn to connect to my Texas laptop and run Tivo Desktop Plus and once I transfer the shows copy them from my Texas laptop to my local laptop over here even if I have to do it overnight? It can't be that simple right?


It would work fine as long as you can transfer files with your remote control software. Technically it's a violation of the TiVo Terms of Service to transfer the files outside of your local network, but with VPNs that definition gets pretty gray.

To keep it simple, I would just use the free version of Desktop at both ends and keep the files in .TiVo format. You wouldn't even need Plus unless you want to convert to another format. Since your MAC is required to decrypt the files for viewing it shouldn't violate the TOS, or at least I doubt if anyone would care. I copy TiVo files to my laptop before traveling all the time - you would just be using a longer network cable. 

As orangeboy pointed out, the transfers will take forever but that's what computers are for.


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## sturner2 (Aug 9, 2009)

I know this may be a bit late. But Sling media PC client does have a storage feature to capture the media for playing. You would start the program from your tivo and Pause your silng to get the result you are looking for. Then locally you would skip through commercials. 

Best Regards


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## Pilot135pd (Apr 3, 2010)

sturner2 said:


> I know this may be a bit late. But Sling media PC client does have a storage feature to capture the media for playing. You would start the program from your tivo and Pause your silng to get the result you are looking for. Then locally you would skip through commercials.
> 
> Best Regards


Actually I'm finally going home next week so you're just in time. It sounds like your solution is the easiest for a person who is not as computer savy as the others here. Tell me more please.


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## Resist (Dec 21, 2003)

Pilot135pd said:


> Does slingbox let me control my Tivo remotely and transfer my shows to my computer (which is connected here to the TV) to watch them here? I'm not interested in live streaming because my Internet here is slow, so can I transfer the entire show even if it take a few hours and then watch it continuously here? Also after I watch it can I delete it remotely from the Tivo in Texas?


Slingbox is only for streaming content from devices like your Tivo to your computer or other device. But it has to be connected to your Tivo and lets you fully control it.


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## Pilot135pd (Apr 3, 2010)

Resist said:


> Slingbox is only for streaming content from devices like your Tivo to your computer or other device. But it has to be connected to your Tivo and lets you fully control it.


Thanks we have that info. We're trying to get more info now regarding the Sling Media PC client and how it stores the download. For example is the buffer size something I can adjust?


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## stiffi (Jun 14, 2006)

Throwing out more ideas. Could you use a simple video capture device, and just record what is coming from the slingbox on your laptop?


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## Pilot135pd (Apr 3, 2010)

Do you know of any program that can do that? Up to now we're talking about the PC Client capturing the video by just pausing the program (not stopping the Tivo stream) as soon as it starts streaming.

Anybody out there that can try this and let us know? How much can you buffer before it starts to play again?


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

Sling is not going to do what you are asking. Yes the PC client buffers a bit but you cannot save shows.

To do what you are asking, you need ktmmg or pytivo running on a pc local to the tivo. Then download the vids from the pc to your laptop overseas. The local pc can be managed remotely (I use gotomypc as it convieniently navigates VPN and other networking problems, but there are other ways too) Since most of your use would be Tivo TO a PC, KTMMG would do what you are wanting. Set it up while you are home and leave it running. updates and changes can be done remotely once the basics are in place.


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## Pilot135pd (Apr 3, 2010)

jcthorne said:


> Sling is not going to do what you are asking. Yes the PC client buffers a bit but you cannot save shows.
> 
> To do what you are asking, you need ktmmg or pytivo running on a pc local to the tivo. Then download the vids from the pc to your laptop overseas. The local pc can be managed remotely (I use gotomypc as it convieniently navigates VPN and other networking problems, but there are other ways too) Since most of your use would be Tivo TO a PC, KTMMG would do what you are wanting. Set it up while you are home and leave it running. updates and changes can be done remotely once the basics are in place.


Just to be sure we're not getting our terms crossed and missing the intent. I don't want to save any shows to my laptop to view later. All I want is to be able to buffer them and watch them. The internet in these 3rd world countries is slow so if I can have a big buffer and let it stream into the buffer and then watch it I'll be happy. That's what we do with youtube videos because we can't see them in actual time with the slow "broadband" available here. We start the video and as soon as it starts we click on pause and go do something else. We then return maybe 10 minutes later and click on play and watch the video smoothly.


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## Pilot135pd (Apr 3, 2010)

I just read 98 pages of a pyTivo thread and a couple of other forums and it's too complicated. It seems you have to be a coder or a programmer to make it work. There has to be something out there that's plug and play as I know I'm not the only person overseas experiencing this problem.


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

They pytivo thread is worse than reality. There is a step by step setup guide available that is pretty straight forward. I am not programmer and had it up and running in an hour several years ago when configuration was manual. Now, its an onscreen menu so much easier. Its coded in Python so it runs on many platforms other than windows.

For what you need, ktmmg is really the answer as its fully automated. Download the shows, decode from .tivo to mpg, even recode to more efficient format if you wish. I don't use it because most of my programming comes from the internet and goes TO the tivo. The opposite of what you want.

If all you want is to stream in real time, sling is a very good product, but with a slow connection (either upstream at home or downstream overseas) It may not be useful.


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## Pilot135pd (Apr 3, 2010)

I bought the Slingbox and it looks like it does exactly what I want and more. I'll be trying it for a few weeks here in the States and then I'm off to the sandbox to try it out over there. I'll let everybody know how it goes.

Thanks to all who helped me here.


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## Pilot135pd (Apr 3, 2010)

I wish I could change the subject on this thread because I really didn't need to transfer the shows, just be able to watch them.

Thanks to all who helped with options but in my case for what I need to do Sturner2 had the easiest solution.

I'm in the sandpit again and I left Slingbox working at home. 254Kb service at home and even slower here but I just do what he said and pause the slingbox program on the laptop, NOT THE TIVO WITH THE REMOTE as I learned with trial and error, and it loads up to half an hour and you can watch, fast forward through commercials when wanted, rewind, delete when done, etc.. You can also access everything on your Tivo like if I were home so it never gets full and I won't lose any new programs. I can watch live local tv too and if I see previews of a program that I like I can schedule it just like if I were home.

Slingbox = Great product !!!


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## Pilot135pd (Apr 3, 2010)

UPDATE: I finally got something that really works and the volunteering contract ended. Not too bad since it was without pay but very fulfilling, Anyway, to anyone working overseas Slingbox works great even with a slow internet at home and even slower overseas.


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