If you have Windows Home Server there is an easy to use software package, Tivo Publisher, for streaming videos to your TivoHD. It’s like a free Tivo Desktop Plus for Windows Home Server. This is nice because you can store your videos on your home server, using it as a NAS, and stream directly from there.
Here are the steps to stream a DVD backup to Tivo Publisher:
- Backup the vob set of the desired DVD using DVD Decrypter or your favorite DVD ripper.
- Use vob2mpg to convert the vobs to a single mpg.
- Copy the mpg into a directory shared by Tivo Publisher.
- Once Tivo Publisher is installed and configured, go to the Tivo and and at the bottom of the “Now Playing List”. The link to the Home Server should be there. Browse the Home Server to find your movie and select for download.
- Tivo Publisher uses ffmpeg to convert to the Tivo’s format. This slows down the streaming considerably. It takes about 2 minutes to download from Tivo Publisher for every minute in the video. So for an hour video, it could take about 2 hours to download.
I haven’t tried Tivo Desktop Plus to see if it is any faster. Please comment if you have any experience comparing the two.
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