January 15, 2005

TivoToGo

I posted this to the TiVo Support forum:


I'm very interested in using the TivoToGo service to download shows to my PC. This should be a great new feature. However, as I wait for my first shows to download, I thought I'd send my feedback in the hopes that it will reach the ears of the developers...

1) Wow, that's a lot of hoops to jump through...
> download software
> install codecs separately
* oh, now I have to wait for the system's software to update. Ug...
> sign up to get on priority list for software
* wait for a week
* okay it is updated...try connection, denied.
> oh,I have to enable the system on *Tivo's website*--what the heck is that? why not on the system?
> force the tivo to connect to get this permission
* still, errors while connecting--denied
> oh, in the fine print I need to disable parental controls
* still, errors while connecting--apparently the system is killing transfer
> reset the system as I read on some forum post
* okay! finally, I see my shows, but...
> still have to muck with parental controls (that are already temporarily off) to get some programs

It should go without saying that this is not what I expected from a company that prides itself on ease-of-use.

2) The Parental Controls switching is really not ideal

This should be something completely controllable via the Tivo Desktop. Having to muck with this on the Tivo means I have to be in front of the TV when I transfer shows. I won't disable parental controls--is there any other way to fix this up? I hope this is the first feature they add to Tivo Desktop 2.1.

Otherwise, this looks like a great new tool and I look forward to using it.


1 comment:

Roger Allen said...

Following up. See this forum for some interesting chat: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=215838&perpage=20&pagenumber=1

To summarize--the tivo now runs a web server.

1. See a nice start page at
http://<your tivo ip>


2. Tivo Web interface to all your recorded shows:

https://<your tivo ip>/nowplaying/index.html
user: tivo
pass: <MAK>

get your Media Access Key (MAK) at https://www.tivo.com/accesskey