I Have Networked My TiVos

I have networked my TiVos. I already had my three computers and one of them (all in my office) on my in-house network. Yesterday, I paid a nice man to poke holes in my walls and run network cables to two other rooms. Haven't hooked up a TiVo in my bedroom yet but the one in my TV Room downstairs can now communicate with the one in my office and also with the Internet.

I have networked my TiVos. This means that I can now program both of them online at the TiVo website. It also means they both now get their program info via frequent communication over the 'net instead of once-a-day calls over slow phone lines.

I have networked my TiVos. A show recorded on one can now be moved to the other. In fact, I can record a movie, watch half of it in my office and then go downstairs and watch the conclusion in the TV Room. (TiVo will not only transfer the movie but remember where I paused it.) If there are two shows I want to record that are on at the same time, I can record one on each machine and then watch them on either machine.

I have networked my TiVos. Because they're both on the network with my main computer, I can do the following: I can "publish" MP3 or JPG files from my computer to a program called TiVo Desktop. Then I can view the JPGs or play back the MP3 files on any TV connected to one of my networked TiVos. So I can sit down in the TV Room and look at pictures that reside on my computer.

I have networked my TiVos. The one downstairs is the Pioneer DVR-810H which has the built-in DVD burner. The one in my office is just a plain ol' TiVo. One drawback is that if I record a show on the upstairs TiVo and move it to my downstairs TiVo, I can't burn it to DVD. It must have been recorded on the machine with the burner in it in order for that to happen.

But I don't care a lot about that. I have networked my TiVos. And I'm damn proud of myself.