Tivo Home Media Option Details

The TiVo website has a pretty good description of the features at a high level, so I won't bother repeating them here. However, I will provide some additional technical details that I wasn't able to find elsewhere.

Setting Up For Networking

The first step, before you even order the Home Media Option, is configuring your TiVo for your home network. They recommend a couple different adapters, depending on whether you have a wired or wireless network.

I bought the wireless option, and it worked great. Once you plug it into the USB port, TiVo automatically detects it and adds some menu options. You can configure a WEP key, as well as DHCP or a static IP. You can also test your connection, and once it's working OK, switch from using the phone modem to using the network for updates.

Even if you don't order the Home Media Option, configuring your TiVo for networking is nice, because it frees up your phone line.

Spending the $99 on the Home Media Option

Once networking is turned on, you can go purchase the Home Media Option for $99 on TiVo's website, and once your order goes through (took 2 hours for me), you can force an update of the software. Note that in my case, even though it was obvious that the software update was happening, it took several minutes for the new menu items to show up.

Publishing Content for your TiVo

Once you see the 'Music & Photos' item in your main menu, you know the option has been activated. Now you need to go make content available from your PC(s). You need to install the 'TiVo Desktop' software on your PC (available from TiVo's website), and you can 'publish' folders. I'm publishing 'My Pictures' and 'My Music' and everything underneath. TiVo can then find them.

There's now a 'Music and Photos' item on the main screen, and when you go in there, you can see a list of what's published, e.g.

 
Joebob's Music on LOCAL-1
Joebob's Photos on LOCAL-1

When you pick one, you basically navigate the folders on your PC interactively. No content is copied to the TiVo; it's all streamed. For music, you can hit 'Play' on a folder & it'll play everything in the folder. You can also set up playlists on your PC & it'll use them. For photos, you can do slideshows -- very nifty.

Media and Playlist Formats

Only mp3 for music. Pictures are more flexible, though -- JPG, GIF, BMP, PNG. For playlists, I know that Apple iTunes and MusicMatch (*.m3u) both work. I suspect they support the other couple popular formats as well (from Real and Windows Media), but I haven't been able to find confirmation of that online.

Remote Scheduling

The last feature it adds is Remote Scheduling, which I played with today. From a browser, you can add shows to your To Do List. You can also ask for e-mail confirmation that it was added, or if there was a conflict, it'll reply & tell you what the conflict was. When you add something from the web, you can say 'only if no conflict' or 'cancel other programs if necessary'.

Overall, it's been a fun addition to my TiVo. Now I guess I'll have to rip the other half of my CD collection.