Tivo Woes (II)

Tivo Woes (II)

For us, the Tivo Series II is something of a dream machine. In addition to painless automatic recording of favorite programs, Tivo Series Two’s Home Media Option connects Tivo to a wireless home network. The result?

– If you forget to tell Tivo to record a program, you can send recording instructions to Tivo over the Internet from anywhere on the planet.

– If you have two Series II Tivos, the two units will “share” recorded material. In other words, you can pull content from Tivo A and watch it while sitting at Tivo B.

– If you have music or digital photos stored on your home computer, Tivo allows you to play these on your television.

So, despite the fact that we already have three Tivos, we take advantage of an offer that basically gives us a Series II Tivo with DirecTV for free (in return, we agree to purchase a year of DirecTV programming).

When the new unit arrives, we plop down in front of it and try to activate the Home Media Option. Strangely, we can’t locate the Home Media Option on any menu. We pour over the manual for our RCA DVR40, and find no mention of the Home Media Option at all.

Ultimately, only a Google search provides us with insight: it turns out you can’t have the Home Media Option if your Tivo incorporates DirecTV. The Luddites at DirecTV, paranoid about Tivo’s file sharing capabilities, have disabled the unit’s USB ports and removed all linkage to home media capabilities. In essence, they’ve deliberately excised all features that make a Tivo Series II unit interesting, unique, or desirable.

We’re fairly sophisticated consumers of home A/V products, and we never saw any clear reference to this fact anywhere during our research on the RCA DVR40 (or its predecessor, the DVR39).

So be warned: if buying a Tivo Series II in order to enjoy the magic of the Home Media Option … don’t buy any Series II that incorporates DirecTV.

For us, the Tivo Series II is something of a dream machine. In addition to painless automatic recording of favorite programs, Tivo Series Two’s Home Media Option connects Tivo to a wireless home network. The result?

– If you forget to tell Tivo to record a program, you can send recording instructions to Tivo over the Internet from anywhere on the planet.

– If you have two Series II Tivos, the two units will “share” recorded material. In other words, you can pull content from Tivo A and watch it while sitting at Tivo B.

– If you have music or digital photos stored on your home computer, Tivo allows you to play these on your television.

So, despite the fact that we already have three Tivos, we take advantage of an offer that basically gives us a Series II Tivo with DirecTV for free (in return, we agree to purchase a year of DirecTV programming).

When the new unit arrives, we plop down in front of it and try to activate the Home Media Option. Strangely, we can’t locate the Home Media Option on any menu. We pour over the manual for our RCA DVR40, and find no mention of the Home Media Option at all.

Ultimately, only a Google search provides us with insight: it turns out you can’t have the Home Media Option if your Tivo incorporates DirecTV. The Luddites at DirecTV, paranoid about Tivo’s file sharing capabilities, have disabled the unit’s USB ports and removed all linkage to home media capabilities. In essence, they’ve deliberately excised all features that make a Tivo Series II unit interesting, unique, or desirable.

We’re fairly sophisticated consumers of home A/V products, and we never saw any clear reference to this fact anywhere during our research on the RCA DVR40 (or its predecessor, the DVR39).

So be warned: if buying a Tivo Series II in order to enjoy the magic of the Home Media Option … don’t buy any Series II that incorporates DirecTV.

Mark McElroy

I'm a husband, mystic, writer, media producer, creative director, tinkerer, blogger, reader, gadget lover, and pizza fiend.

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Who Wrote This?

Mark McElroy

I'm a husband, mystic, writer, media producer, creative director, tinkerer, blogger, reader, gadget lover, and pizza fiend.

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