Tivo

Media Center supports TiVo's Home Media Option.

What you need:

•

TiVo Series2 DVR

•

Subscription to TiVo's HMO premium feature package

Using TiVo

To use the HMO to listen to your Media Center music or view your Media Center Photos through the TiVo, follow these directions:

1.

If you haven't already done so, load the TiVo desktop (available on TiVo's website: http://www.tivo.com).

2.

You don't need to exit TiVo Publisher. It will coexist with Media Server.

3.

Start the TiVo Beacon service if it is not running. (control panel->Admin Tools->Services). It should be running by default if you installed the TiVo desktop.

4.

Start Media Server (from Media Center: tools->More Tools->Media Server). Double click on the Media Server icon in the task bar. Click settings->options. Under network settings, choose automatic. Under TIVo HMO choose "Support TiVo HMO on Port 8079 (with beacon on port 2190)" and select "Support all audio formats".

5.

Click OK. Click Yes in the message box showing "Media Server is connected. Do you want to reconnect?". If you don't see this message box, then click "File->Share". You must restart the server after any changes to the options, and after the TiVo beacon is running.

6.

If you are showing the status window, you should see:
...sharer ready to accept connections
...Started auto response thread on 5556
...TiVo HTTP ready for connections.

7.

It is not recommended to have the TiVo in shuffle mode while playing Media Center playlists that have "Sort: random". While this works and does the logical thing, the logical thing is not intuitive at all.

Additional Comments

1.

You do not need TiVo's Desktop if you are using Media Server TiVo on port 80, or if you do not need autodetection of Media Server TiVo. If you are running TiVo Publisher, you cannot use Media Server TiVo on port 80. We strongly recommend installing the desktop and using TiVo Beacon.

2.

If the TiVo Beacon is not running, Media Server will run its own version of the Beacon. This lite version does not have the autodetect capability.

3.

You can also manually choose the Media Server port (under options->network), but do NOT choose 2190 or 8079. You can also choose to run TiVO HMO on port 80 (make sure this does not conflict with the Media Server port (under options->network) but you must then enter the IP address of Media Server on the TiVo (no autodetect) and it may take a long time (minutes) for TiVo to identify your server.