# Transferring Recordings from Tivo HD to New Tivo Premiere



## pL86 (Oct 11, 2009)

Hi, I may get a Tivo Premiere to replace a Tivo HD and have some questions about transferring saved recordings to a new Tivo. I've done some searching but haven't been able to find posts that match. Any answers you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

First, I understand I'll be able to transfer recordings from the Tivo HD to the Tivo Premiere using Multi Room Viewing. Will the recordings be an exactly bit-for-bit copy and report the same size on the Premiere as they were on the Tivo HD? I've been playing with Tivo Desktop and noticed that the recordings downloaded onto the PC are slightly smaller than the size reported on the Tivo HD. I've read the shrink is normal and caused by the remuxing but wondered if the size remained the same with Multi Room Viewing transfers since my no remuxing occurs during that process.

Second, does channel and logo data get transferred with Multi Room Viewing? The recordings transferred onto my PC retained their recording date and time but channel info is gone - at least it's not displayed in the Tivo Desktop's Now Playing List window - and it didn't return after I copied the programs back onto my Tivo HD. Will the channel info also get stripped when programs are moved directly to the Tivo Premiere using Multi Room Viewing?

Thanks again in advance for your help.


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

pL86 said:


> Hi, I may get a Tivo Premiere to replace a Tivo HD and have some questions about transferring saved recordings to a new Tivo. I've done some searching but haven't been able to find posts that match. Any answers you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> First, I understand I'll be able to transfer recordings from the Tivo HD to the Tivo Premiere using the Multi Room Viewing feature. Will the recordings be an exactly bit-for-bit copy, i.e. will the recordings copied to the Premiere report the same size as on the Tivo HD? I've been playing with Tivo Desktop and noticed that the recordings downloaded onto the PC are slightly smaller than the size reported on the Tivo HD. I've read the shrink in size is a result of the remuxing that takes place when recordings are transferred to a PC but wondered if the size did not change with Multi Room Viewing transfers since my understanding is no remuxing occurs then.


Just transferred a show from my THD to my Premiere and it is slightly smaller on the Premiere (5.67GB vs. 5.78GB)



pL86 said:


> Second, does all program metadata get transferred when copied with Multi Room Viewing, including such info as channel and logos? After I transferred several recordings onto my PC, I re-copied them back onto my Tivo HD. When they were back on the Tivo, I saw that the channel info was missing (also, the copies were smaller than their original recording sizes). Will the same thing happen when programs are moved onto the Tivo Premiere using Multi Room Viewing? I'm wondering if the missing info is an artifact of Tivo Desktop and maybe it doesn't happen with Multi Room Viewing.
> 
> Thanks again in advance for your help.


TiVo-TiVo transfers never retained all of the metadata. From what I see on the x-ferred show, Series Title, Series ID, Episode Title, Description, Record Time (when the recording was made), Channel # & callsign, and rating are the only things that are retained. It used to be possible to get more (like credits) by transferring it through a PC but that is no longer the case with the current level of Premiere s/w (20.2). The reason you lost channel data appears to be caused by the fact that it isn't being written to the .tivo file.


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## pL86 (Oct 11, 2009)

Thanks for the answers, very much appreciated. I'm a little surprised that Tivo to Tivo copies don't carry everything over. I can appreciate why transfers to PC might be more difficult but I would have thought copying from one Tivo to another Tivo would have been identical.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

It's a bug, that they've ignored for years. They actually made it worse in 20.2. I guess their focus is elsewhere.


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## b_scott (Nov 27, 2006)

I may be getting a 4XL for my mom for Xmas this year. My dilemma is complex.

Their current TiVo HD is on my account because it was easier to do it that way initially and they got my MSD. I have two lifetimes in my place, and then their one HD w/monthly.

What I want to do is buy them a 4XL and make their own account from here on out, to keep things tidy. However, can I transfer their current shows to their future new 4XL if they're on different accounts but on the same network? I assume not. I think I may be out of luck unless someone can think of a way. Maybe I can transfer to Tivo Desktop and then back to the new Tivo - or is that locked to the Tivo account as well?


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

b_scott said:


> I may be getting a 4XL for my mom for Xmas this year. My dilemma is complex.
> 
> Their current TiVo HD is on my account because it was easier to do it that way initially and they got my MSD. I have two lifetimes in my place, and then their one HD w/monthly.
> 
> What I want to do is buy them a 4XL and make their own account from here on out, to keep things tidy. However, can I transfer their current shows to their future new 4XL if they're on different accounts but on the same network? I assume not. I think I may be out of luck unless someone can think of a way. Maybe I can transfer to Tivo Desktop and then back to the new Tivo - or is that locked to the Tivo account as well?


You could probably do it with pyTivo (TD is a bit more problematic), but why not just transfer the THD to their account? Otherwise, the XL4 won't qualify for MSD.


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## b_scott (Nov 27, 2006)

lpwcomp said:


> You could probably do it with pyTivo (TD is a bit more problematic), but why not just transfer the THD to their account? Otherwise, the XL4 won't qualify for MSD.


well it won't qualify either way, since it would be their only Tivo. I'd sell the THD. The issue is, they don't have an account at all. I have an account, with their Tivo on my account. So they'd need to open a new account, and add their old Tivo to that account and I'd remove it from mine. Then they'd use their new Tivo and activate it, then transfer everything from the old, then remove the old one. That's if all that would work and they could keep all their shows on it between the new setup (if they would have to run setup again with their own new account). Plus they would only have one cable card - the new one or old one wouldn't have one during the transfer, not sure if that matters. It would be moved from the old to the new and then call Comcast to register it to the new one.

I hope all of that make sense.


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

b_scott said:


> well it won't qualify either way, since it would be their only Tivo. I'd sell the THD. The issue is, they don't have an account at all. I have an account, with their Tivo on my account. So they'd need to open a new account, and add their old Tivo to that account and I'd remove it from mine. Then they'd use their new Tivo and activate it, then transfer everything from the old, then remove the old one. That's if all that would work and they could keep all their shows on it between the new setup (if they would have to run setup again with their own new account). Plus they would only have one cable card - the new one or old one wouldn't have one during the transfer, not sure if that matters. It would be moved from the old to the new and then call Comcast to register it to the new one.
> 
> I hope all of that make sense.


My suggestion would be to transfer and decrypt everything on the THD to the computer, create an account and put the XL4 on it. You should then be able to configure things so that the XL4 can access and transfer everything from the computer. TD or TD+ may be able to do this.

In order to transfer directly between the two, they have to be on the same account. If you use the computer as a go between for TiVos on different accounts, the recordings have to be decrypted after transferring to the computer.

Obviously, the easiest way is to have them on the same account.

I assume they are digital cable only - no OTA.

BTW, why an XL4 rather than a 4? Do they need the additional disk space?


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

b_scott said:


> What I want to do is buy them a 4XL and make their own account from here on out, to keep things tidy.


It's gonna cost you $100 to be "tidy". I suggest you stay messy.



> _However, can I transfer their current shows to their future new 4XL if they're on different accounts but on the same network?_


Not directly. What happens is that each account gets its own Media Access Key. TiVos will only talk to other TiVos with the same key.



> _Maybe I can transfer to Tivo Desktop and then back to the new Tivo - or is that locked to the Tivo account as well?_


TiVo Desktop also requires the key, and you'd have to change it back and forth, plus you'd have to decrypt the .TiVo files to .mpg, which TD doesn't really do (it only wants to decrypt as part of transcoding them). As noted above, it would work better with pyTivo -- you can specify per-TiVo MAKs, and decrypt on extraction.

But really, I recommend you just keep the new TiVo on your account.


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## b_scott (Nov 27, 2006)

why would it cost me any extra money? $100? Right now they're paying for their monthly cost, and my other two are lifetime so no monthly. I think it'd be $14.99 instead of their current $12.99, which is not much difference.

4XL because they need the space. They probably watch more TV than I do, and I have like 50 season passes. Right now their THD has the expander drive on it. Figure might as well get them 300 hours and then they're set for life.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

b_scott said:


> why would it cost me any extra money? $100?


Lifetime service on new account = $500
Lifetime service on existing account = $400

Sorry, I wasn't even thinking of monthly. I don't think monthly is a good deal.



> _I think it'd be $14.99 instead of their current $12.99, which is not much difference._


13% -- still not insignificant. But yeah, the $15 fee is new. It would've been 35% before.


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

I'm a bit confused. If the current THD is on your account, why is it $12.99/mo? You qualify for MSD and at most it should be $9.95/mo.


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## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

wmcbrine said:


> Sorry, I wasn't even thinking of monthly. I don't think monthly is a good deal.


Well, it can be, especially with MSD and particularly if the owner is thinking of upgrading in a year or so. PLS is also a bit of a gamble, but I agree it is one that has very good odds of paying off handsomely, and extremely low odds of being a total loss.


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## JeffreyF (Jan 15, 2012)

I have done a significant number of transfers from a Tivo HD to a Tivo Premier without any issues. I have found the best way to do this, and the fastest way, is to use a special type of ethernet cable called a cross over cable. This cable can be found at most computer stores or if budgets are tight you can make the cable yourself fairly inexpensively.

On the Tivo iteself you need to point each Tivo to each other through the gateway. As an example let's say you have Tivo 1 with an IP address of 192.168.10.101 and Tivo 2 with an IP address of 192.168.10.102

TiVo 1
IP address: 192.168.10.101
Subnet: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.10.102 (The IP address of TiVo 2)

TiVo 2
IP address: 192.168.10.102
Subnet: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.10.101 (The IP address of TiVo 1)

To change the network settings on your Tivo you would do this through the settings -> network

Once the Tivos see each other you will see each Tivo appear at the bottom of your What's Playing list.

I have found the crossover cable to be the best because of the following:

+ it is hard wired and faster than wireless
+ it bypasses any routers or firewalls to optimize speed
+ a TiVo to TiVo transfer keeps all the metadata and formatting

The one thing that would be nice on the TiVo is a way to delete all the recordings in a folder or be able to check off all the recordings to be deleted all at once. Currently one has to delete the recordings one at a time.

This aside, however, the crossover cable is a very quick and convenient way to transfer recordings.



pL86 said:


> Hi, I may get a Tivo Premiere to replace a Tivo HD and have some questions about transferring saved recordings to a new Tivo. I've done some searching but haven't been able to find posts that match. Any answers you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> First, I understand I'll be able to transfer recordings from the Tivo HD to the Tivo Premiere using Multi Room Viewing. Will the recordings be an exactly bit-for-bit copy and report the same size on the Premiere as they were on the Tivo HD? I've been playing with Tivo Desktop and noticed that the recordings downloaded onto the PC are slightly smaller than the size reported on the Tivo HD. I've read the shrink is normal and caused by the remuxing but wondered if the size remained the same with Multi Room Viewing transfers since my no remuxing occurs during that process.
> 
> ...


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## b_scott (Nov 27, 2006)

wmcbrine said:


> Lifetime service on new account = $500
> Lifetime service on existing account = $400
> 
> Sorry, I wasn't even thinking of monthly. I don't think monthly is a good deal.
> ...


I'm not paying lifetime for them. And they're not going to front $400-500 at once, just not going to happen. So that's moot.



lpwcomp said:


> I'm a bit confused. If the current THD is on your account, why is it $12.99/mo? You qualify for MSD and at most it should be $9.95/mo.


It MAY be $9.95, I can't remember. I think it is, you're right, since at one point my second one was monthly and so I got the MSD and theirs didn't get it. They probably get it now and it would be $9.95. I can't check because Tivo Billing History is STILL down.


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## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

b_scott said:


> I'm not paying lifetime for them. And they're not going to front $400-500 at once, just not going to happen. So that's moot.


That's one of the really nice things about buying a TiVo. They offer the buyer a choice. It's quite beyond me why people grumble about monthly billing. Some people, like you in your situation, PREFER monthly billing. Many of us prefer to take the modest risk involved with PLS, but those who don't have another option. To be sure there is absolutely nothing wrong with preferring MTM, as long as one realizes the odds are good it may very probably cost more in the long run.


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## b_scott (Nov 27, 2006)

^


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