I ran a coax cable and network cable under the carpet and through the walls from the living room to the kitchen. The coax is plugged into a switcher, one input a direct cable feed split with a amplified splitter and the other from the cable output on the TiVo. We use the composite output from the TV in the living room. I didn't want to put another TiVo in the kitchen (money, space, sound, etc., mostly the latter), but this was the perfect solution. My girlfriend and I usually watch the same stuff on TV, so if she is cooking, she can still continue to watch what we were watching in the living room. Suprisingly the TiVo remote works from the kitchen, thirty or more feet away, from the TiVo unit. So, if the living room TV wasn't being watched you can just control it form the kitchen. If we wanted to watch different shows, you can just switch it to a direct feed and use it like a normal TV.
TiVo was $600 (80hr unit and lifetime fee), at the time I couldn't see spending that. Also, neither of my TiVo (I have two, living room and bedroom) are perfectly silent, unlike the macmini. We mostly watch movies and listen to music anyway. I have an extra 250gb USB2 drive. I am planning on ripping all of our favorite movies to it and putting them in iTunes. I had about fifteen movies already in iTunes encoded at iPod quality (we both have iPod videos), but the quality is horrible on a big screen.
This project was worth every penny. I am considering installing one in my living room as well, all I would need was the mini in this case though.
I am also working on Voice Recognition right now, I will update on the method I chose when I'm done.
I also bought a recipe manager for my girlfriend, so she can put in all her recipes and have them right there next to the stove. Once the voice recognition is done, it will be great for her.
Comments
TiVo was $600 (80hr unit and lifetime fee), at the time I couldn't see spending that. Also, neither of my TiVo (I have two, living room and bedroom) are perfectly silent, unlike the macmini. We mostly watch movies and listen to music anyway. I have an extra 250gb USB2 drive. I am planning on ripping all of our favorite movies to it and putting them in iTunes. I had about fifteen movies already in iTunes encoded at iPod quality (we both have iPod videos), but the quality is horrible on a big screen.
This project was worth every penny. I am considering installing one in my living room as well, all I would need was the mini in this case though.
I am also working on Voice Recognition right now, I will update on the method I chose when I'm done.
I also bought a recipe manager for my girlfriend, so she can put in all her recipes and have them right there next to the stove. Once the voice recognition is done, it will be great for her.