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The PC-to-TiVo connection
The PC-to-TiVo connection
Dan Ackerman Editorial Director / Computers and Gaming
Dan Ackerman leads CNET's coverage of computers and gaming hardware. A New York native and former radio DJ, he's also a regular TV talking head and the author of "The Tetris Effect" (Hachette/PublicAffairs), a non-fiction gaming and business history book that has earned rave reviews from the New York Times, Fortune, LA Review of Books, and many other publications.
"Upends the standard Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg technology-creation myth... the story shines." -- The New York Times
Expertise I've been testing and reviewing computer and gaming hardware for over 20 years, covering every console launch since the Dreamcast and every MacBook...ever. Credentials
- Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings
People are always interested in taking video files from their TiVo or other DVR box and sending them to a desktop or laptop computer. We never really thought about going the other way--sending video files from a PC hard drive to a TiVo, but apparently someone finds it useful, because TiVo has posted a support article showing you how to do just that.
If your TiVo is part of a home computer network, this trick lets you watch PC-based files through your television, using the TiVo as a sort of digital media receiver. If you're so inclined, it's a little tricky to pull off but not impossible. Just make sure you have your TiVo box upgraded to software version 7.2.
You probably already have the TiVo Desktop 2.1 app on your PC, so just convert your video files to the MPEG-2 format, using a program such as Premiere or Nero, and stick them in the TiVo folder on your hard drive--usually in My Documents > My TiVo Recordings. After that, an entry for your PC-based files should be available through your TiVo. See, that wasn't very hard at all, was it?