Tivo DVR: How to Use Your Home Computer to Add Storage Space

If you've been a regular reader of my articles here on Associated Content, you already know that I love my Tivo DVR. I got my Tivo a few years ago, and it has absolutely changed the way I watch television. Instead of having to be at home at a specific time to catch my favorite shows, I can simply set them up to record on my Tivo and I know they will be waiting for me whenever I want to watch them. If I am watching a show and get interrupted, I know I can pause it and it will be waiting for me when I get back. Recently, I moved into a new home with Verizon FiOS television service, and with 250+ channels, there's lots of things I'd like to record.

Recently, I've been running into the problem of my Tivo lacking the storage capacity to hold everything I want to watch. Tivo stores shows on an internal hard drive, and so when the drive starts to fill up, it will delete older recordings to make room for new ones. There is lots of free space on the hard drive of my desktop computer, and I began to wonder if there was a way to utilize this space to store some of the shows my Tivo had recorded. I headed to the internet, and as it turns out, there is a way to do this.

You'll need to head to the Tivo website (listed in the resources section of this article) and download the free Tivo Desktop software to the computer where you'd like to store your shows. You also need to make sure both your computer and your Tivo are connected to the same home network, which basically means they are connected to the same router via ethernet cable or a wireless connection. Once you have installed the Tivo Desktop software to your computer, launch the program and select "Pick Recordings to Transfer." You will be able to see a list of shows on your Tivo that you can transfer to your computer. After you have transferred the programs to your computer, you can delete them from your Tivo DVR knowing they are stored safely on your computer hard drive.

When you'd like to watch a show that is on your computer, go to the "Now Playing" list on Tivo and at the very bottom you should see an icon for your computer. When you select that, you will see a list of shows that are on your computer's hard drive. Select the one you'd like to watch, and select "Transfer Now." The show should immediately begin transferring back to your Tivo and you will be able to watch it as normal. This is not a perfect solution because the transfers do take time, but I find that some shows I want to store long-term but not watch often are perfectly suited for storage on my computer. Once shows are on the hard drive of your computer, you can also watch them with Windows Media Player, which is a nice bonus. If you've been wanting more storage space on your Tivo, head over to the Tivo website and download the Tivo Desktop software today!