Sending DVR recording to another room

[TrishLLC]

Hi
This question may have been answered already but not in a way I understand (I'm a techno-dummy). Is there an (easy) way to watch a program in one room from a direct tv dvr located in another room. That is, if I have a TV in the living room, can I make it send the recorded program to the bedroom (which is on the other side of the wall). We have not ordered our direct tv yet, so I assume I'll have whatever model they are currently selling.
Thanks!

 

[jsegura]

I don't believe it's possible with Directv/Tivo recievers, only with Series 2 Tivo boxes (standalone types). Check Tivos website for more specifics.

 

[silversurfer]

I'm not sure he is wanting to transfer recordings. I think he just wants to be able to watch his living room receiver in the bedroom. This is most easily done using the RF out jack and running the cable into the bedroom. You can then use a remote extender to control the receiver in the living room.

 

[TrishLLC]

Thanks James,
that sounds like it would work. What's a remote extender and where do I get one?

 

[trehutch]

go Wireless

another option is X10 wireless setup, I have it and it works great, sends signal to another tv wireless.

 

[silversurfer]

A remote extender is simply a device that takes an infrared signal and converts it to a RF signal so it can go thru walls etc. While I don't usually recommend Terk, I do have these and they work as advertised. http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Terk.../sem/rpsm/oid/60468/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

 

[scrotus]

Look for the One For All URC 9910. Runs $60 at best buy or cheaper on the net. It comes with an RF commander that receives RF and will blast your IR to your receiver.

Run the RF Out (To TV coax) from the R10 to your second room. Use the composite video and anlalog audio connections from the R10 to the main tv. This is called a Backfeed if you are wondering. I was thinking of doing this for my setup but decided against it.

 

[jackson5]

I use both options

I always used an RCA video sender to send video to my bedroom which happens to be upstairs. I used the video sender with a seperate remote extender. Recently, I was told about Diplexers by the DTV install man. Diplexing is also an option. It is a similar concept as running a cable from the RF out on the box. The difference is that you don't have to run the cable if your bedroom is already wired for cable. You just need two diplexers...I got mine on buy.com for ~ $6 each. You put one diplexer at your junction box, and one at your reciever. As long as you know what cable at your main junction box goes to the BR, this is a great way to do it without dealing with running a new cable to your BR or using an A/V sender.

Since I got my TIVO, the A/V sender hasn't worked well because it seems that the constant fan on the TIVO interferes with the signal. I'd go the cabel and/or diplexer route if possible.

 

[jackson5]

Curoius

A remote extender is simply a device that takes an infrared signal and converts it to a RF signal so it can go thru walls etc. While I don't usually recommend Terk, I do have these and they work as advertised. http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Terk.../sem/rpsm/oid/60468/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

Do you use this Terk with a TIVO? The fan doesn't cause interference? Ever since I got the TIVO, my A/V sender has been dog$hit. Maybe because it is an old model. Not sure. I have an old RCA. Just curious. Thanks.

 

[LonghornXP]

If you don't want to deal with all this you can wait until around midyear when D* starts rolling out their home media server which can out of the box allow upto 3 rooms to playback anything recorded on its 350-400GB hard drive and this box will be HD ready and can record HDTV and playback HDTV on one HDTV setup until about three months after its release which is when they will have client HD boxes. This will all be offered as a lease so no upfront hardware costs and all client boxes will be included in the lease of the server but you still pay the mirror fee but your DVR service fee that you pay now (if you don't have TC premier) will be merged into your rental fee which should be around 10-15/month.

 

[silversurfer]

Do you use this Terk with a TIVO? The fan doesn't cause interference? Ever since I got the TIVO, my A/V sender has been dog$hit. Maybe because it is an old model. Not sure. I have an old RCA. Just curious. Thanks.

I have never had a problem.....

 

[minorthr]

Or you could install 4.0 on your DirecTv Tivos and do it that way

 

[ddobson]

I use an older version of this unit and it works great. I like it because at one time I had the RF cable split to the bedroom and dining room TV's. Since there wasn't a receiver in the bedroom, the remote worked anywhere in the house.

This unit has transmitter that replaces a battery (then uses a smaller N battery). It gets Infrared leakage from within the remote and sends it out via the RF transmitter that fits in place of a battery.

I was very skeptical about it at first but it has never failed to work for me. You can even hide the receiver and run a seperate Infrared transmitter to the front of the TIVO. That way my receiver was up high and out of site. but that's just an option. That part isn't required but made my particular installation a lot easier.

Just an idea.

http://www.weaknees.com/rf_remote_details.php

 

[jackson5]

Wow!!

Thanks. That is actually a really cool product. I never heard of them. It would solve some problems and simplify some things. I'm going to keep my eye on one of these. Thanks.

 

[Neutron]

If you don't want to deal with all this you can wait until around midyear when D* starts rolling out their home media server which can out of the box allow upto 3 rooms to playback anything recorded on its 350-400GB hard drive and this box will be HD ready and can record HDTV and playback HDTV on one HDTV setup until about three months after its release which is when they will have client HD boxes. This will all be offered as a lease so no upfront hardware costs and all client boxes will be included in the lease of the server but you still pay the mirror fee but your DVR service fee that you pay now (if you don't have TC premier) will be merged into your rental fee which should be around 10-15/month.

Will these boxes be MPEG-4 compliant?

 

[silversurfer]

Yes they will be (subject to change at a moments notice)...

 

[johnnychemo]

If you were to run a cable into another room, could you watch a recorded program on the remote tv as well as a live program on the local tv?

 

[LonghornXP]

Will these boxes be MPEG-4 compliant?

Yes they will. Also I'm not sure if they will offer a non HD media server but all I'm hearing is they can drive the costs down by offering one media server for all customers whether HD or not and they will have one dish from now on that will have support for everything coming. Because they will be leasing this box that if every SD customer gets this box they can make many more and drive down the costs. Again this would also reduce costs for them if a customer goes HD as well.

It will be interesting how things go and I've also heard that they might make this multiroom media server the standard box that every new customer gets while a customer can pay more money upfront without a lease option for a seperate system. They plan at some point to offer VOD service via spaceway but it won't be perfect like cable in that it will need a certain amount of space to record the data as its coming down the sat and it will require the box being hooked into you high speed internet connection whether it be hard lined or wireless so when you start the show with your remote you internet connection would send the request through their system. For customers without a net connection they are looking at a sender system that would mount to the dish to send the signal via satellite to their system.

Believe this or not but the media server will have about 25-30 hours of space that you can't record to because it will be reserved for VOD downloads only and that would be about 5-8 hours times 4 (4 rooms getting a VOD stream).

They will be using some of the bandwidth for this and remember these sats have been built to handle gigabits of data at a time for millions of internet users so they will have their movies in MPEG4 format some with DD5.1 others without but lets assume that you have a two hour movie with 5.1 sound using MPEG4 they could squeeze that down to about 2GB while most DVD movies using MPEG2 are 4GB and now lets remember that my Verizon FIOS line can download a 4GB DVD image of a linux distro in less than than 30 minutes (I downloaded it at a transfer rate of 2512 megabytes per second) and lets be real in that these sats can go faster than that. Now again the problem that I had was finding a mirror that could download that fast. This is all very possible in the future and I would expect too see this offered as say Starz On Demand, Cinemax On Demand and the like. Right now I'm using VOD with BHN and almost every request for a show takes around 15-30 seconds to start so I could see D* system taking that long maybe a little longer but waiting one minute at most is still better than not seeing the show at all. Its enough control for most people.