The TiVo Home Media Option (HMO) is included free in the TiVo subscription for the Standalone Series2 TiVo. The HMO brings a whole slew of features, including the ability to schedule recordings over the Web, play MP3s through your television and attached stereo system, display digital photos on your TV, and even stream television shows between Series 2 TiVos.
The latest TiVos that are being sold may already have the HMO installed. It’s easy to tell: if you have a Music And Photos menu item on the front TiVo menu, then you’re set.
Signing up for the Home Media Option is pretty simple. First, get your networked Series 2 TiVo onto your home broadband connection. Any high-speed connection will do just fine.
TiVo recommends two adapters: the WUSB11 Version 2.6 (a Wi-Fi 802.11b adapter) from Linksys’s Instant Wireless Series and the USB100TX USB-to-Ethernet (10/100 BaseT) adapter from the Instant Etherfast Series. Users have also reported success using non-TiVo USB-to-Ethernet adapters, such as these:
Linksys USB100M
Linksys USB200M
Netgear FA101
Netgear FA120
Belkin F5D5050
3Com 3C460B
Microsoft MN-110
Hawking UF200
Hawking UF100
D-Link DSB-650TX
D-Link DUB-E100
Siemens SS1001
SMC SMC2208
On the Wi-Fi front, the table below lists non-TiVo-recommended USB-to-802.11b adapters and the TiVo service numbers with which they are most likely to work. You can find your service number with a quick trip to TiVo’s New Messages & Setup System Information screen. Look for it a couple of lines down from the top.
That said, unless you have one of the unsupported adapters lying about your house, I’d recommend going with one of the recommended ones. Simply plug the adapter into the back of your Series2 (running TiVo OS 4.0 or later) and follow the onscreen directions to get it onto the network.
Point your browser to TiVo’s HMO page. You will need the e-mail address and password you provided TiVo when you first activated your TiVo. Don’t worry if you’ve forgotten your password; you can either have a new password assigned and sent to your e-mail address or set up everything again by providing TiVo with your service number. You can find that number on the New Messages & Setup System Information screen.
Once you’re signed up and you have your TiVo connected to your home network, you will have to wait for your TiVo to connect to the service to activate itself. If you’re a little impatient, you might try forcing your TiVo to connect and download the HMO option right away by having it make its Daily Call: go to the New Messages & Setup System Information screen and select Settings > Phone & Network Setup > Connect to the TiVo service now. If you notice the addition of Music And Photos to your TiVo Central menu, the install worked.
