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Airport Express and Tivo???

rdowns

rdowns

macrumors Penryn
Original poster
Anybody have a Tivo and AE hooked together?

I'm thinking of buying a Tivo and want to connect it to my home network and avoid having to have it connect to a phone line (none nearby) every day. I am about to install my new AE and the Tivo will be near it.

Apparently Tivo has USB ports but no Ethernet. Can I hook this into my AE via USB and have it be on my network? Are there other alternative to hook it into my home network?
 
My Tivo and AE are hooked together... but only because both go into my stereo... 🙂

You'll have to get a USB -> ethernet adapter for your Tivo if you want to hook your Tivo up to your network. Home Media Option is free now so you'll be able to view your photos and also play MP3's from your Mac to your Tivo. Currently you can only play MP3's... they're "working" on AAC and protected AAC. I'd be content with just AAC.
 
rdowns said:
Apparently Tivo has USB ports but no Ethernet. Can I hook this into my AE via USB and have it be on my network? Are there other alternative to hook it into my home network?
Click to expand...

You can get a USB WiFi adapter. There's a list of "approved" devices on the TiVo site. With that you can hook it into your home WiFi network.
 
SilentPanda said:
You'll have to get a USB -> ethernet adapter for your Tivo if you want to hook your Tivo up to your network. Home Media Option is free now so you'll be able to view your photos and also play MP3's from your Mac to your Tivo. .
Click to expand...

I bought the USB-ethernet dongle. It's about $30 (IIRC) and it works like a charm. Wired network, though. Does AE come with ethernet jack? If so, I'd think you could plug into that. Go to tivocommunity.com, because i thought I read that people have had problems with the wireless USB-ethernet adapters, so be careful before you buy if you go that way.
 
nope, cant use the express for internet over USB. the port just isnt designed for that. only to be used with USB printer. if you could get an adapter to a network port then you could plug that in.
 
wPod said:
nope, cant use the express for internet over USB. the port just isnt designed for that. only to be used with USB printer. if you could get an adapter to a network port then you could plug that in.
Click to expand...

So, you could get the USB adapter for Tivo, and then run Cat 5 to the AE ethernet port, and be set, right?
 
I've used a USB WiFi adapter without any issues on my TiVo box for some time now. Right now I'm using an older Linksys 'b' device, but may have to upgrade to 'g' when TiVo releases their TiVo To Go service (allowing downloading of TiVo files to your Mac to bring with you) later this year.
 
Quick off topic question about TiVo. Can you record one thing and watch something else simultaneously?
 
superbovine said:
yes
Click to expand...

Not quite, I don't think. You can record something and watch something else that you have already recorded, but you cannot watch one live TV show while you record another live TV show. At least, I can't with my Series2 DVR. Of course, I've set up my system so that I can watch either through TiVo or through straight cable on my TV to get around this.

If you really know of a way to watch one live TV show while recording another one, I'd love to hear it because I'd love to do it.

Another question - anybody have 2 TiVo systems connected through Home Media via WiFi? What's the performance when watching shared programs? Do you really need wired for that (or at least 'g' speeds), or is b good enough?
 
emw said:
Not quite, I don't think. You can record something and watch something else that you have already recorded, but you cannot watch one live TV show while you record another live TV show. At least, I can't with my Series2 DVR. Of course, I've set up my system so that I can watch either through TiVo or through straight cable on my TV to get around this.

If you really know of a way to watch one live TV show while recording another one, I'd love to hear it because I'd love to do it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's right. You can't--except as described, and that works only if you don't have a cable box (or don't use it for tuning in the other shows). There's only one tuner built in. Unless you have DirecTivo, which has two tuners and allows recording one thing and watching antoher. But there's no HMO or USB/ethernet connection on the DirecTivo units.

Many of the DVRs offered by cable cos., e.g., Time Warner, do have two tuners.
 
Ditto to what EMW said.

I use Tivo Desktop and it works fine, save for AAC's. I'm convinced the Tivo will never play them. That also means that apple will have to license fairplay which will never happen. I would also what like to know what watching shared programs on two tivos over wifi is like. Choppy? I wonder how strong the signal needs to be. The Tivo has about 80% signal where it is now (approx 42 feet from AP). The proposed second Tivo is Closer to the wireless access point.

Code: 
       *---------34----------*          
       I       &  L         @I          
       I                     I          
       I                     I          
       30                   31          
       I                     I          
       I                     +-6-*      
       I                     I T10      
       I      L              I   I      
       S-----20-----*        *-5-*      
       I            I          L I      
       I            19          18      
       24     G     I           !I      
       I            I      L     I      
       I            *-----19-----*      
       I            I  P  5             
       *-----20-----*--9--*

The exclamtion point(!) is the Current Tivo. The ampersand(&) is the proposed Tivo. And the @ is the access point (It has to be there!).

My little schematic is pretty cool. 😉
 
siliconjones said:
Code: 
       *---------34----------*          
       I       &  L         @I          
       I                     I          
       I                     I          
       30                   31          
       I                     I          
       I                     +-6-*      
       I                     I T10      
       I      L              I   I      
       S-----20-----*        *-5-*      
       I            I          L I      
       I            19          18      
       24     G     I           !I      
       I            I      L     I      
       I            *-----19-----*      
       I            I  P  5             
       *-----20-----*--9--*

The exclamtion point(!) is the Current Tivo. The ampersand(&) is the proposed Tivo. And the @ is the access point (It has to be there!).

My little schematic is pretty cool. 😉
Click to expand...

Nice diagram - I am assuming it is a floor plan, in which case it looks like you could potentially run wired from the proposed new TiVo to your router (which I am, again, assuming you have). May or may not help, since you'd be speed-limited by the wifi one, but at least it would potentially eliminate one variable.
 
emw said:
If you really know of a way to watch one live TV show while recording another one, I'd love to hear it because I'd love to do it.
Click to expand...

If you put your Series 2 DVR on standby that's the only way I know of doing it. Coax from wall to Tivo, then coax from Tivo to TV... you can record and since your Tivo is on standby it sends the cable signal instead of the Tivo signal to the TV. I thought I mentioned that in this thread but maybe it was another Tivo thread... weird... 😕

Edit: I found the other thread... now I'm not confused so much... I post too much... 🙂
 
SilentPanda said:
If you put your Series 2 DVR on standby that's the only way I know of doing it. Coax from wall to Tivo, then coax from Tivo to TV... you can record and since your Tivo is on standby it sends the cable signal instead of the Tivo signal to the TV. I thought I mentioned that in this thread but maybe it was another Tivo thread... weird... 😕

Edit: I found the other thread... now I'm not confused so much... I post too much... 🙂
Click to expand...

How do you get into "standby" mode? On the TiVo site (http://www.tivo.com/4.4.1.asp) it says you need to split the signal, like I have done.
 
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