TiVo HD

Like a few other folks I know, Jenn and I have jumped headlong on the HDTV bandwagon with the purchase of our new TiVo HD.

Now we don’t have it hooked up to an actual HDTV yet (despite the presence of one upstairs) because we’re awaiting the delivery of a new Plasma HDTV, the Panasonic TH-50PX77U.

Now I know all the jazz about 720p or 1080i (the tv is native 720p but it will display and upconvert to 1080i).

And I’m aware of the issues concerning zooming, stretching or watching a program full-screen.

Ditto for 16:9 vs. 4:3.

Same for native resolutions of programming and upconverting by the TiVo or the TV.

But I’ve still got one burning question: can a recorded HD program from a TiVo HD (the new TiVo, NOT a Series 3) be sent to a Series 2 connected to an HDTV? Can I display the resulting file in HD, if at all?

Ask MetaFilter wasn’t particularly helpful and I’ve asked TiVoCommunity. Does anyone know the answer?

I’ll have to check the back of my Series 2, but I’m sure the sticking point with displaying the content would be the A/V hookups leading from the Series 2 to my TV. Transferring shouldn’t be an issue since the MPEGs recorded by the TiVo HD are taken straight from their transmission and don’t have a quality level (basic, high) like SD broadcasts have.

The only other slight glitch could be that the Series 2 doesn’t have an HD encoder, but I’m sure there’s a hack for that somewhere (*crosses fingers*/*voids warranty*).

Anyone want to be the first to comment? Does anyone else have a similar setup? Has anyone tried doing this themselves. Should I stop saying “anyone” now?

Leave a comment.

UPDATE: I’m an idiot with a new toy. As Greg points out in the comments, the TiVo HD doesn’t have TiVo-To-Go, so no transferring.

5 thoughts on “TiVo HD

  1. “But I’ve still got one burning question: can a recorded HD program from a TiVo HD (the new TiVo, NOT a Series 3) be sent to a Series 2 connected to an HDTV? Can I display the resulting file in HD, if at all?”

    Simply? No… Series 3’s and TiVo HD’s don’t have TiVo-To-Go enabled, so no transferring going down

  2. TiVO HD doesn’t have TiVo-To-Go yet… as I recall when I bought mine, they plan on turning that on later (for some reason), same thing with adding external storage.

    Even with TiVo-To-Go I would wager that transferring an HD recorded broadcast to a Series 2 would not work for the reasons you stated in your post.

  3. Yeah, the series 2 outputs in 480i only, feed that thing a 720p or 1080i program and it’s going to “squish” it, if it plays at all…

    I’m not to fussy about the missing TTG, I just want the TTCB (TiVo To-Come-Back) re-enable so I can send downloaded movies to it like I did with the series 2

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