Home Networking: The Missing Manual

Displaying Your PC's Photos on Your TV

Apple has its loyal fans, but in a relatively short time, TiVo (www.tivo.com) has attracted devoted fanatics who trust the humble little box to record all the television shows they like—and all the ones TiVo thinks they might like, too. The TiVo digital video recorder (DVR) has transformed living rooms across the country into digital recording havens capable of storing anywhere from 40 to 120 hours of TV programming.

In addition to its television-recording software, the current Series2 versions of TiVo can join your home network and, by using optional software, put your own pictures on the TV and play your music through the TV's speakers. TiVo makes all this music-listening and photo-watching a snap by giving you a familiar, TiVo-like menu on your TV to navigate through your music and photo collections.

Using a TiVo Series2

Making all these features work requires a bit of effort and a little additional hardware. From the factory, the TiVo doesn't have the hardware you need to connect to your home network. Further, to allow a TiVo to tap into the music and picture files on your computer, you need to install and configure some software on your computer.

Note

Before you get started on your journey to network your TiVo, make sure the thing actually works. You can't use TiVo's home networking capabilities until you've completed the initial configuration and the unit has made that first phone call to TiVo central command to download updates and the first ...