Ok, my wife wants a Tivo for her Birthday. My main question is what are my options for having the ability to have the Tivo in our main room, but letting her watch shows in the bedroom when she is on the eliptical?

I see you can get 2 Tivos and share the recorded programming. They also have various networking options; wireless, hardwired, etc. I would think you could use a splitter, but then you would be limited to whatever is being watched on the main unit...

Just trying to see what options we have...thanks

I think it depends on whether you're talking about getting more than one Tivo.

With multiple Tivos, yes, they can all be connected to your home network (wired or wireless) and can share content. So a show recorded on the Den's Tivo can be sent to the bedroom's Tivo for viewing. My parents actually have three networked Tivos (setup by me), and they regularly send content from one to the other for viewing on different TV's. It works pretty well (Wireless G), and they like the setup. And yes, I routinely remind them that most normal people don't need three Tivos, one of which is even a dual-tuner Tivo.

But even with just a single Tivo, it's still possible to send the content elsewhere.

A simple coax/RCA splitter could send the signal from the Den to the bedroom. But as you already know, yes, it'd just be a clone of what's on in the Den. And unless you got an RF remote or the bedroom has LOS to the den, you're not going to be able to use the remote to control playback. Perhaps not very useful.

However, Tivo does provide a free Windows application that allows you to copy the shows recorded on a networked Tivo to a PC. So if you had some sort of media PC in the bedroom, you could use that software to view recorded shows from the Tivo. The process is independent of what the Tivo is doing, so users in the Den wouldn't be interrupted. The catch is that it isn't (or didn't used to be - it's been a year or so since I last tinkered with it) a streaming process. You'd initiate the transfer and it would take 30-40 minutes to copy a one-hour show to the PC. *Then* you could watch it. This was via 802.11g between Tivo & router, wired from router to PC. Would likely be faster with hard-wired connections. So it did work, but it would require a little preemptive planning.

Good luck!

thanks man, that is what I needed to hear.

Even with a hard wired connection, the last time I tried it (a few years ago, admittedly), the transfer was pretty much real time. Of course, I have an old Series2, which was probably being limited by the USB port that the ethernet adapter was plugged into.

I have a Series 3 and dual tuner Series 2, connected via ethernet. They can share shows, but the Series 2 cannot download the S3 HD recordings. You can start watching during the beginning of a download assuming you've got a fast link. 802.11b may not be fast enough to allow it but 11g will. You can still transfer w/ 11b but it'll be a little slow. I've used my Tivos w/ those Netgear Powerline adapters because I wanted wired, not wireless. It was pretty fast.

If you have an iPhone or iPod touch (or iPad...), you can use DVR Remote with a Series 3 or newwer. This allows you to use your iPhone as a Wifi remote to your Tivo. It's WAY faster than an IR or RF remote because the commands are sent via the network, not IR. Response is almost instantaneous, including entering a 3 digit channel, including the ENTER key. This would allow you to have an easily configured Wifi remote.

Another option is to get 1 Tivo and 1 Slingbox. Then you can use a PC/Mac in another room to stream that Tivo. The Series 3 has both the HDMI and component out simultaneously, so you can use one to the Slingbox.

I do have a Itouch. hmmmm and have the rooms run with Cat5e, may have to think about all my options...

OMG, Lookout!!! Fred just boarded a U-Haul full of Archos 9s, 1000 feet of serial cable & crates full of other gear and is heading to your house while blaring "Ride of the Valkyries" from the stereo.

Great. Bear in mind that you can't use the remote w/ a Series 2 though. Bummer for me.

Also, if you get a Slingbox, Slingplayer works on an iPhone/Touch.

Another option worth considering is a sage tv server-extender setup. You avoid the monthly charge but do have a pc involved with the wife's tv shows, which could be hazardous.
I'm using a couple of the hd-200 extenders, one on a moca coax-ethernet adapter,along with a silicondust hd homerun,all networked to an xp machine in my office area, and have had good luck.
It's not as appliance-like as as you may want, though.