Not so simple remote TiVo scheduling.
[ Posted by Dan on September 22, 2003 | 3 Comments ]

As noted last week, I've got a network going at home, and have probably radiated my family into sterility by now, but it's worth the benefits. Namely, the TiVo can be remotely scheduled from my AOL account now.

First, I bought one of the Linksys USB/Ethernet adapters and gingerly put the cat-5 cable into the port which uses a pretty flimsy piece of plastic as the backing. The adapter went into the USB port, and the other end of the CAT5 went into the switch, which connects to a wireless bridge, which talks to a wireless router, which talks to a wireless access point, which talks to some crazy/expensive looking wireless gear two miles away, which talks to the internet somehow.

Instantly, the TiVo grabbed an IP, told me what the MAC address is (I filter by MAC address at the router) and was completely configured. Two minutes later, the TiVo was hapily telling me it connected to the mothership, and I turned off phone line based access. I pretty much have no use for the land-line now.

AOL subscribers can remotely schedule their Series 2 TiVo's for free, assuming they have the unit online thru a network, such as the one mentioned above. I like free, but the interface and user interactions for doing the scheduling need to be fixed.

Searching AOL for TiVo scheduling doesn't help out, but if you go to AOL Keyword: "tv" and then look for the TiVo link on the right (who knows how long that will be there) and then tell it where you are, and who your cable operator is, and what service you have, you can get listings. Click on a listing, and then click the 'Record on my TiVo DVR' link, then log into the TiVo service, agree to the Terms of Service, and then submit the scheduling request. Whew.

The next time your TiVo pings the mother ship it will try to schedule the show you scheduled. Yes, that's right, the remote scheduling doesn't push the data to the TiVo, the TiVo has to ask for it, and then be told there's a scheduling request, and then it tries to figure it out.

Looking back on everything I have in place to make this possible, I wonder how many people actually use this feature...

 

		I loaded your page while watching Call For Help.. I was paying more attention to the show, yet something kept distracting me out of the corner of my eye... from your page - but I couldn't figure out what it was. Took me a few minutes to realize it was the animated Tivo guy icon :) -Posted by Quinn on September 22, 2003 03:38 PM

		Yeah, it's pretty subtle movement in that gif, but it still demands some attention, which I am sure is the point the creator of the image was going for. I plan on using more icons for the postings here, and will try to keep the animated gifs to a bare minimum. -Posted by Dan on September 22, 2003 03:44 PM

		It's much easier to just install tivoweb, which allows configuration of multiple kinds, including scheduling recordings. -Posted by Karen on August 28, 2004 03:20 AM

Comment posting has been turned off because I don't have enough time and will to deal with the constant comment spamming. I'm very sorry and will fix this sometime soon (soon = before 2004 ends).