# Best Player for Watching .tmf files on my PC



## Politica (Oct 31, 2009)

My apologies if this has already been asked and answered, but I'm nearly bald from pulling my hair trying to find a Player that will play native .tmf files (without having to convert them to some other format first such as .tivo) that I've FTP transferred to my PC Xp.

Admittedly, I'm a newbie, and it's possible that some of the players I've tried might actually work with some tweaks. But I need a player that will work "out of the box and play the .tmf files on my PC. Any recommendations?

I've tried Zoom Player (blank screen), GOM Player (blank screen), Media Player Classic (Says it's "opening" but never opens the file), and finally SM Player (worked great at first, but then grew buggy, with Error Code #1 and refused to work again, despite repeated uninstall and installs).

Any suggestions? I have an S1 Box.


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## Wil (Sep 27, 2002)

Politica said:


> trying to find a Player that will play native .tmf files (without having to convert them to some other format


The tmf file is not a straightforward video file but a package of file sections, which sections themselves are almost, but not quite, mpeg 2 files. MPlayer and VLC can play the sections but I don't believe there is any player that can deal with the tmf package straight up.

You could simply take the tmf apart and reassemble it using standard DOS tools, and play it with MPlayer or VLC. But with far less effort a program called tytompeg can take the tmf and re-assemble it into a universal mpeg2 file that will play on virtually all players. There is no transcoding or loss of quality, just a repackaging. The mpeg2 is not completely kosher but close enough for virtually all purposes.

tytompeg is available and fully discussed on a forum that is not to be named here on Tivo Community Forum. Sometimes called the other forum (though there is also another "other forum," not technical, which underwent a name change a couple of years ago; both names are banned, actually all three; one of the problems with censorship is it becomes very complicated to keep people uninformed) I think you'll be able to find it with a google search.

There are also some pc batch scripts there to make massive conversions relatively painless (no Mac scripts, unfortunately).

Some people subsequently process the tytompeg resulting mpeg2's through womble or VideoRedo to remove some potential glitches, though this is rarely required.


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## Politica (Oct 31, 2009)

I see. Thanks for the reply. What about .ty files? I'm not clear what they are or their purpose, but I see a lot of discussion about them, much of which is over my head. But I sense they might be playable too with the right player. Is that true, and if so, is there a player that will play them "out of the box" as it were, with out conversion? Which player do you recommend for .ty files, if any?


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## Wil (Sep 27, 2002)

Politica said:


> Which player do you recommend for .ty files, if any?


Out of the box, MPlayer and VLC play ty's, which are simply tmf's with their parts joined together to form straightforward video files, close to mpeg2.

I use a Mac for video playback, and very recent versions of MPLayer don't work any more (video is continually distorted), and there are some problems with VLC and recent Mac OS versions (shows freeze at the boundaries between the joined sections of the files, where there is frequently some noise), but hopefully these are Mac-only problems so you won't encounter them on your pc. You also have the advantage that Tivo 1 files are a little "cleaner" to start with than from later Tivos. For example VLC all the way back to versions 8.x will play Tivo 1 ty's, while ty's from later Tivos require either patches to the old VLC's or more recent (9+?) VLC versions.

But think this out. Obviously you can re-load your tmf's into a Tivo and convert to ty's (or ty+ which retain some of the descriptive text material about the show), or there are programs that will directly process them into mpeg2 or even mpeg4 in one step from the Tivo, but think out the work flow efficiency. If you already have tmf's, then tytompeg is the way to go. One step, batched, a few minutes per file, no transcoding or quality loss or alteration of the content in any way, and you've got virtually universal mpeg2's.

In any case, the place to read about all this is the other forum, the technical one. You'll have to search for old relevant threads there because mostly people have moved on to Tivo 3's.


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## Politica (Oct 31, 2009)

Hey Will,
I just wanted to thank you for the tip about "tytompeg" 
What a great, great find. You're right, of course, the conversion doesn't take long at all, and the quality is excellent. I just drag and drop the .ty file and boom, I've got mpeg file that I can even watch on my iPhone.

Thanks sooooo much for contributing to the collective knowledge here. I'm definitely a happy camper today because of you!!!!!!!!!!


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## Politica (Oct 31, 2009)

Oh Hey Wil,
Just one more question, it's kind of not really tivo related, but you know how right now, the way I have it, I have to drag and drop the .ty file onto the tytompg icon. 

Well...is there any way for that action to show up when I right-click my mouse in the contextual menu? Just curious. (talk about your efficiencies! -wink)


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## MontyL (Dec 15, 2003)

Politica said:


> Oh Hey Wil,
> Just one more question, it's kind of not really tivo related, but you know how right now, the way I have it, I have to drag and drop the .ty file onto the tytompg icon.
> 
> Well...is there any way for that action to show up when I right-click my mouse in the contextual menu? Just curious. (talk about your efficiencies! -wink)


Politica: Not sure if you still read the board but...

Create a shortcut for tytompg in %USERPROFILE%/SendTo
There's your "right-click the .ty file" by choosing "Send To" then whatever you named the shortcut...

The resulting MPG will be in the original folder with the .ty


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