# Does Tivo Desktop Plus work well with Premiere?



## rahnbo (Sep 12, 2010)

I'm thinking of using Desktop Plus mainly to copy video files to Premiere. I don't really care about any other features I'd just rather not have to plug a PC or laptop in to a TV to watch these files. I'll probably be copying every file format listed on the Tivo website. For other people that do the same, how well do you think this works? Are there problems reading file formats it should read? What about MKV, which it says it can handle "depending on other software installed on your system?" I assume it does some kind of conversion?


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## lafos (Nov 8, 2004)

I can't speak for MKV, but AVI and MP4, including H.264, work fine. TD+ does the translation and sends mpg2 to the TiVo, which may be the reason for the caveat on MKV (codec). I use it with S3, HD, and Premiere. My server is a relatively modest CPU (AMD Athlon II 3800+), and it can send faster than realtime to the TiVo.


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## rahnbo (Sep 12, 2010)

Sounds good. I wonder if anyone with MKV & TD+ experience can chime in? Worst case scenario I could transcode the files myself but was hoping for a one stop option.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

pyTivo works much better with far more formats supported and is free.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

rahnbo said:


> I'm thinking of using Desktop Plus mainly to copy video files to Premiere. I don't really care about any other features I'd just rather not have to plug a PC or laptop in to a TV to watch these files. I'll probably be copying every file format listed on the Tivo website. For other people that do the same, how well do you think this works? Are there problems reading file formats it should read? What about MKV, which it says it can handle "depending on other software installed on your system?" I assume it does some kind of conversion?


I recommend PyTiVo, it works well. And unlike TDP, is free and runs in all popular operating systems. http://pytivo.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/PyTivo


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## rondotcom (Feb 13, 2005)

I just use streambaby and stream to my Tivo. Very efficient


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## plazman30 (Jan 23, 2005)

moyekj said:


> pyTivo works much better with far more formats supported and is free.


Discovered pyTivo after doing some Internet search after I bought my Premiere. I'm on a Mac, so to do what Tivo Desktop Plus does, I would need to buy both Roxio Toast AND Roxio Popcorn.

Luckily, I discovered pyTivoX (an OS X specific version of pyTivo) and iTivo. Now I can copy stuff to the Tivo AND get stuff off the Tivo and onto my wife's iPod Touch.


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## rahnbo (Sep 12, 2010)

Thanks for all the feedback especially about pyTivo which I looked at before but dismissed because the other people under my roof already use and are familiar with the free Tivo Deskop which would make this easier for me to support. A major selling point would be if pyTivo could work around CCI byte restrictions. If so then I have a major selling point.


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## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

rahnbo said:


> A major selling point would be if pyTivo could work around CCI byte restrictions. If so then I have a major selling point.


That would be a major selling point for _any_ third-party application. Unfortunately, it's not going to happen.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

rahnbo said:


> Thanks for all the feedback especially about pyTivo which I looked at before but dismissed because the other people under my roof already use and are familiar with the free Tivo Deskop which would make this easier for me to support. A major selling point would be if pyTivo could work around CCI byte restrictions. If so then I have a major selling point.


Your request said "I'm thinking of using Desktop Plus mainly to copy video files to Premiere." Well, the CCI restrictions don't prevent sending stuff TO the Premiere. As for working around it... well, that would be great. But it is not possible for some external application from the TiVo to force the TiVo to allow you to copy things OFF the Premiere.


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## plazman30 (Jan 23, 2005)

What are CCI byte restrictions?


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## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

The CCI (copy control information) byte is also known as the copy-protection flag. It's what prevents you from transferring flagged content to other TiVo DVRs or to your PC via TiVo Desktop.


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## TVCricket (Mar 7, 2010)

moyekj said:


> pyTivo works much better with far more formats supported and is free.


I tried to install it, but it's confusing unless you fiddle with settings and configure files. I want something that I run and install program and everything is done for me.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

TVCricket said:


> I tried to install it, but it's confusing unless you fiddle with settings and configure files. I want something that I run and install program and everything is done for me.


I didn't find it confusing or complicated at all. Just edited one file (pyTivo.conf) and changed the path under the [MyMovies] section to the location of my video files:

path=/home/crxssi/videos

Done!


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## TVCricket (Mar 7, 2010)

I decided to install Python 2.6 and an older version of pyTivo. Transfers went fast, but I don't like how the videos don't get arranged into folders.


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

TVCricket said:


> I decided to install Python 2.6 and an older version of pyTivo. Transfers went fast, but I don't like how the videos don't get arranged into folders.


If you provide metadata and push to the Premiere (and maybe pull from? I don't pull), folders are implemented. pytivometathis works well for me, or you can RYO metadata files.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

TVCricket said:


> [PyTivo] I don't like how the videos don't get arranged into folders.


Not completely sure I understand your statement. On my setup with wmcbrine PyTivo (not sure which version, since there never seems to be a version number there anywhere) on Linux, PyTiVo correctly displays all the sub-directories of the media location.

For example, my path=/home/crxssi/videos. Under that directory there are a few dozen sub-directories and each is displayed correctly on the TiVo. And when I select one of thse on the TiVo, it will display all the video files under it.


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

crxssi said:


> Not completely sure I understand your statement. On my setup with wmcbrine PyTivo (not sure which version, since there never seems to be a version number there anywhere) on Linux, PyTiVo correctly displays all the sub-directories of the media location.
> 
> For example, my path=/home/crxssi/videos. Under that directory there are a few dozen sub-directories and each is displayed correctly on the TiVo. And when I select one of thse on the TiVo, it will display all the video files under it.


I took it to mean that the _transferred_ videos aren't contained in folders in the NPL, which happens when a seriesId and other keywords are not supplied in metadata.


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## TVCricket (Mar 7, 2010)

Does Desktop Plus do this or are the videos transferred like they are with the way I have pyTivo configured?


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

orangeboy said:


> I took it to mean that the _transferred_ videos aren't contained in folders in the NPL, which happens when a seriesId and other keywords are not supplied in metadata.


Ah! Thanks for clearing that up  I would not have thought of that.


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

TVCricket said:


> Does Desktop Plus do this or are the videos transferred like they are with the way I have pyTivo configured?


It's been a while since I used TD+ (I at least try a new version when it comes out), but there is not support for metadata files, so TD+ transfers would end up as single, ungrouped entries in the NPL. I believe the exception is native .tivo files, which have some metadata embedded in the .tivo wrapper.


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## TVCricket (Mar 7, 2010)

orangeboy said:


> If you provide metadata and push to the Premiere (and maybe pull from? I don't pull), folders are implemented. pytivometathis works well for me, or you can RYO metadata files.


I read into this and it looks as if I must be a hacker to understand it. It's very confusing. This is the very reason why I chose to use an .exe installer over the traditional pyTivo setup.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Both options have advantages and disadvantages. No question though that TiVo desktop is easier to deal with, but ultimately it really depends on what you want to be able to do. for most people I would think TD+ would suffice. I know for me that is what I use most often.


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## TVCricket (Mar 7, 2010)

At the very least, I wish the software placed transferred videos in a separate folder. I transferred over 20 videos and My Shows folder is now a mess. pyTivo works, but I don't like viewing scattered shows throughout the Premiere. Was hoping for an all in one solution, but I may go back to using Windows Media Center on my 360 for transferred shows.


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

No guarantees that this will work, but create a "default.txt" file in the same directory with you videos you want to transfer with pyTivo, and put this in it:


```
title : Transferred videos
seriesId : SH989990
```


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

TVCricket said:


> At the very least, I wish the software placed transferred videos in a separate folder. I transferred over 20 videos and My Shows folder is now a mess. pyTivo works, but I don't like viewing scattered shows throughout the Premiere. Was hoping for an all in one solution, but I may go back to using Windows Media Center on my 360 for transferred shows.


I understand why you might not be enthused, but I can't think of any time I would transfer more than a few shows to the TiVo at once. Is there some reason you have to transfer 20 videos at a time? You can watch the show while it is transferring, so doing it ahead of time isn't all THAT important.

Plus, this is the default behavior for all selected videos the TiVo records that do not have the same show name- to place them in "My Shows" alphabetically. I don't see why one would expect any different behavior.

But do try Orangeboy's suggestion.


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## TVCricket (Mar 7, 2010)

Episodic shows is what I transferred. I also wanted to get a few DVDs that I ripped as .avis onto my Premiere. All the OTA shows are arranged separately within folders by show. My transferred shows are listed alphabetically, but not in a folder.


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## TVCricket (Mar 7, 2010)

Downloaded a MetaGenerator program to sort shows into folders like Season Passed shows do. Worked perfectly.


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## danjw1 (Sep 13, 2005)

I have done this with an HD often. It works with just about anything you can play on your computer. Since it will transcode it from the format it is in to the tivo format. On occasion I have had it not work, I am not sure why. But this last case is pretty rare.


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