# Tivo Desktop refuses to use network drive



## lpoulsen

At my house, I have a Linux fileserver. This is where the large disks live.
Tivo Desktop seems to not want to place "My Tivo Recordings" on a network
drive. This is disappointing, since I just bought a 250 GB drive for the server specifically to use for this purpose.

Can this really be true?


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## JacksTiVo

lpoulsen said:


> At my house, I have a Linux fileserver. This is where the large disks live.
> Tivo Desktop seems to not want to place "My Tivo Recordings" on a network
> drive. This is disappointing, since I just bought a 250 GB drive for the server specifically to use for this purpose.
> 
> Can this really be true?


I just checked my TiVo Desktop 2.2 "preferences" and it allows me to use my Buffalo Linkstation 250GB NAS to store recordings. My Windows PC sees the Linkstation as an additional drive in "My Computer". The Linkstation is a Linux based device.


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## lpoulsen

JacksTiVo said:


> ... my TiVo Desktop 2.2... allows me to use my Buffalo Linkstation 250GB NAS to store recordings.


There are a number of different ways to serve files to Windows from the network.
The netwrok drives that my Tivo Desktop will not use are exported from a "real" linux system as SAMBA shares, i.e.
Map \\SERVER\video to drive T:

When I set the video storage location in Tivo Desktop to V:\FromTivo it keeps bringing the selection dialog back. If I then proceed to push the transfer, it brings the file selection dialog up twice for each file I request to transfer. It actually knows where I want to go: The file tree in the selection dialog is positioned to the unacceptable device, but the transfer never starts. If I use any folder on C: it is happy.

There must be a check that the drive is a local drive, not a network drive.

If your NAS shows up as a "clean" drive letter with no reference to a workgroup server in you "open file" dropdown lists in Windows, that means Windows does not know it is not a local hard drive.

Has anybody else tried to use a network drive for file storage?



JacksTiVo said:


> The Linkstation is a Linux based device.


So is the Tivo, but you can't mount the Tivo's drive directly to Windows. It is irrelevant that there is Linus in the NAS: It is a closed black box as far as the outside world is concerned.


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## CuriousMark

I think it is a Samba version issue. Some NASes use a version that works and some don't. The poster above has a Linkstation and it works, my Kurobox doesn't. I know his software is more up to date than mine even though the hardware may in fact be nearly identical. Bot are Linux boxes, but they don't run the same Samba version or Linux Kernel.


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## Stormspace

lpoulsen said:


> At my house, I have a Linux fileserver. This is where the large disks live.
> Tivo Desktop seems to not want to place "My Tivo Recordings" on a network
> drive. This is disappointing, since I just bought a 250 GB drive for the server specifically to use for this purpose.
> 
> Can this really be true?


If your PC can access the share without any problems the TiVo Desktop shouldn't either. Try mapping a drive letter to the share. If that doesn't work you could always try one of the older Galleon versions, 2.1 would be a good one. This java app will give you the same functionality as the TiVo Desktop on your linux box.

Several threads exist here detailing how to install it and get it working on Linux. There may even be a how-to on the galleon site. http://sourceforge.net/projects/galleon


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## lpoulsen

Stormspace said:


> If your PC can access the share without any problems the TiVo Desktop shouldn't either. Try mapping a drive letter to the share. If that doesn't work you could always try one of the older Galleon versions, 2.1 would be a good one.


Yes, it is common that some Windows applications will not work with a file name string beginning with \\SERVER\share ... but work well when the share is assigned a drive letter. But as I hinted with my example above, I already did that, and it did not work.

What I really would like to do is just periodically run a Linux job to pull any files from the Tivo that I don't already have on the file server. I have spent some time mucking around with *wget* and I can see the path forward; however it will take some serious work to do that, because
- the files delivered by the Tivo come up with SICK file names (including slashes).
- the nowplaying/index.html file is a single line of very ugly HTML that needs massaging before parsing.
So now I am looking at writing a PERL script that does
- wget index?Recurse=Yes
- massage it with a SED script that breaks it into a line per file (or a line per column of the table per file)
- build a table of program names, episode names, file sizes and broadcast dates
- spawn a wget for each file, massaging the file name into something clean

Using Tivo Desktop on a Windows client to to the fetching was my short-term stopgap to do while working on the scripting.

Using Galleon on the Linux box is probably not a solution. I do not run X on the server (an old 233MHz AMD K2 machine with 128MB of RAM).

I'm beginning to think that putting a 250GB drive on the Tivo is a better (or at least simpler) short-term solution.

But back to the problem at hand: Observing the behaviour of Tivo Desktop 2.2, it certainly looks like it finds the folder I am requesting, then checks to see its properties and rejects it because it is a network mount. But if others have used SAMBA shares without problems, then it must be something else.

Can we make a list of what seems to work and what not?

In my case:
Server: Linuc FC3 with SAMBA
Fails to use share for video storage
Mounted as drive V:\

Interestingly, it works fine to export music and photo directries from similarly mounted shares.


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## Stormspace

lpoulsen said:


> Yes, it is common that some Windows applications will not work with a file name string beginning with \\SERVER\share ... but work well when the share is assigned a drive letter. But as I hinted with my example above, I already did that, and it did not work.
> 
> What I really would like to do is just periodically run a Linux job to pull any files from the Tivo that I don't already have on the file server. I have spent some time mucking around with *wget* and I can see the path forward; however it will take some serious work to do that, because
> - the files delivered by the Tivo come up with SICK file names (including slashes).
> - the nowplaying/index.html file is a single line of very ugly HTML that needs massaging before parsing.
> So now I am looking at writing a PERL script that does
> - wget index?Recurse=Yes
> - massage it with a SED script that breaks it into a line per file (or a line per column of the table per file)
> - build a table of program names, episode names, file sizes and broadcast dates
> - spawn a wget for each file, massaging the file name into something clean
> 
> Using Tivo Desktop on a Windows client to to the fetching was my short-term stopgap to do while working on the scripting.
> 
> Using Galleon on the Linux box is probably not a solution. I do not run X on the server (an old 233MHz AMD K2 machine with 128MB of RAM).
> 
> I'm beginning to think that putting a 250GB drive on the Tivo is a better (or at least simpler) short-term solution.
> 
> But back to the problem at hand: Observing the behaviour of Tivo Desktop 2.2, it certainly looks like it finds the folder I am requesting, then checks to see its properties and rejects it because it is a network mount. But if others have used SAMBA shares without problems, then it must be something else.
> 
> Can we make a list of what seems to work and what not?
> 
> In my case:
> Server: Linuc FC3 with SAMBA
> Fails to use share for video storage
> Mounted as drive V:\
> 
> Interestingly, it works fine to export music and photo directries from similarly mounted shares.


A few things to note about Galleon. It can automatically pull shows from the TiVo based on keywords without having to manually select them. Also I don't think X has to be running for Galleon to work, though it may have to be running to configure it. Three, Galleon on your PC will likely not have the problem with the network drive, so perhaps the latest and greatest version for the PC is your solution. Installing Galleon will certainly identify if the issue lies with TiVo Desktop or your file access permissions.

Lastly, have you tried to use a drive letter closer to A: Some applications have problems mapping to drives so obviously not local. Try mapping to B, D, E, or F if you have one of those available. I pretty much had the same configuration as you when TD first came out, but the problem I had involved the DRM on the files. I would get the DRM crap warning after playing the file for a few minutes. Lately that's not the case however as they've seemed to correct that issue.


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## lpoulsen

Stormspace said:


> Lastly, have you tried to use a drive letter closer to A: Some applications have problems mapping to drives so obviously not local. Try mapping to B, D, E, or F if you have one of those available.


I moved the network share mapping to drive G: with no improvement.

I am currently playing with a wget-based script running on Linux to pull the files from Tivo to the linux-server:/video/FromTivo. In the first pass, I simply did a wget of the entire Tivo html space.
It ran almost 3 days, but got the full set. I pulled the Recurse=Yes version of the HTML index to linux, massaged it with a SED script (it was all one line of text; I put line breaks before <TR and after [/TD]) to make it more readable, then wrote a perl script to rename the .TiVo files to a name similar to that provided by Tivo Desktop.

I will probably turn this into a perl script that gets the index, then gets each file, renaming it as it comes in, and keeping track of which files have already been retrieved (so they can be skipped) by means of the 6-digit index number of each recording, which is part of the download URL for the file. With that I should be able to kick the script off once a day and get copies of anything that has passed through the Tivo. The only negatives with this plan ere: 
1) The HTML index says the file was recorded on "Wed 5/24" but not what year. 
2) Tivo Desktop does not show the various extra information (episode name, recording date) for these files. I have not yet played with it enough to know if TD will PLAY them or they need to be unprotected before they become playable.

It would be so much simpler if TD would not reject my samba-mounted directory.


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## Synthohol

try not to use tivo desktop to get the files, from the linux box just https into it, i find the transfers go faster this way.
i cant find the orig post i learned it on but here is one


aus1ander said:


> The way I figure it out is using the https interface of TivoToGo (https://IPaddressoftivo), the you log in with user "tivo" and pass being your media access key. .


i like the web interface better than T2Go, but thats me


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## comgenius1

Why not just run the TivoDesktop on the fileserver and just remotely manage it as needed/wanted?


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## Stormspace

comgenius1 said:


> Why not just run the TivoDesktop on the fileserver and just remotely manage it as needed/wanted?


His fileserver is a Linux box. TD doesn't come in that flavor, however Galleon does and will accomplish everything he's trying to do. He could run Galleon from his desktop computer or his Linux box automatically pulling shows off the TiVo by keyword. Getting it to run on Linux would be a minor challenge to most people, but to this guy it would likely be a breeze.


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## lpoulsen

synthohol said:


> try not to use tivo desktop to get the files, from the linux box just h t t p s into it, i find the transfers go faster this way.


Look back a couple of posts, and you will see that have have been playing around with a script driven version of that. I used the wget program on linux, which is basically a quasi-browser, that takes either a single file or a whole directory. It is commonly used to set up mirrors of websites.

It worked almost acceptably. It took about 3 days to get the whole "NowPlaying" folder over to the Linux box. The files had ugly names (ending not in .tivo but in ...id=123456), but by reconciling with the web page that has the index of what is now playing on the tivo, and extracting the episode names from the display text, I got them decent names. That was two nights ago. Imagine my surprise when discovering that the files thus downloaded were not playable due to "Wrong Media Key".

I am now repeating the exercise, using the standard browser on the Windows-PC that also as Tivo Desktop installed to do the download, just to see if web-downloaded files in general are broken.

I may yet give up and just put a 250 GB Hard Drive on the Tivo. That looks more and more like the simpler solution. That is discouraging.


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## lpoulsen

lpoulsen said:


> I am now repeating the exercise, using the standard browser on the Windows-PC that also as Tivo Desktop installed to do the download, just to see if web-downloaded files in general are broken.


That worked. It looks like the problem occurs only when using Linux WGET to pull the files.

I will be picking up a set of Torx drivers at Home Depot at lunch hour.


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## lpoulsen

lpoulsen said:


> It would be so much simpler if TD would not reject my samba-mounted directory.


I have just typed up a letter describing the problem (as well as why I am doing this) which I will be mailing to Customer Support at Tivo Inc. Has to be paper mail - they have deleted the email address they used to offer for customer support  .

I wonder if I will ever get a response to that.


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## CuriousMark

It is a problem that has been posted on the support forums a few times over the months. I hope that the next version of TiVo Desktop will fix it. It doesn't work on my Kuro, but I know someone who was successfull using a Linkstation 2. I have not been able to tease out what the differences are, but I know that they are pretty big given the kuro runs a 2.4 kernel and two year old version of Samba the LS2 runs a 2.6 kernel. In any event, there is no reason TiVo desktop should not work with both. Hopefully it is an easy bugfix and will be working in the next revision.

CuriousMark


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## luper89

JacksTiVo said:


> I just checked my TiVo Desktop 2.2 "preferences" and it allows me to use my Buffalo Linkstation 250GB NAS to store recordings. My Windows PC sees the Linkstation as an additional drive in "My Computer". The Linkstation is a Linux based device.


I'm having the exact same problem using a Buffalo Linkstation. The Linux solution above doesn't work for me as my computers are all windows. What I'm really trying to do is use the network drive to view programs on my television through the Tivo. This works when saved on the C drive but not when I map the Buffalo to a different letter.

JacksTIVO, could you let me know more about your setup so I can try to figure out why you can make this work with a Linkstation and I can't?


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## jlac839

Just wanted to confirm lpoulsen's experience in case (s)he needs corroboration if and when TiVo support contacts him.

I have an old Windows2000 server on which I run Tivo Desktop version 2.2. It has SCSI disks that are a whopping 17GB in size - used to be plenty for vending documents etc. Since one needs more space these days, my photos and music are on a network storage device (an Infrant ReadyNAS 600) and while TD can't see the network shares directly (i.e. when configured as //rn600/media/Music etc.) it can see them when I map drive letters to them. Since I have the RN600 set up in user mode, I also had to modify the Tivo Beacon service to use a specific user logon rather than the LocalSystem account.

However, the same procedure does not work for video files. TivoDesktop refuses to use the network drive as a valid source and destination for TTG functions. Indeed, when I try to configure it the TivoServer crashes and has to be manually restarted. It gives me the following error message when I try to configure it:

The selected recordings folder cannot be used. Please select a different folder.
(and the TivoServer icon disappears from the system tray)

I have temporarily attached a 120GB USB 2.0 external drive to the server which TD sees ok.

I did use Galleon and it had no issues using network drives for any function but at least for me, it tended to be unstable. Functions would simply crash and often I would have to restart both the Galleon service on the Server AND the TiVo DVR to get HME functions working again. It's a shame because Galleon did provide superior functionality to TD. However, since the Galleon developer has stopped supporting the application I must choose reliability over functionality and TD has the edge right now. Plus some of the HME functions for which I used Galleon are now available directly on the TiVo since the release of 7.2 software.

Anyway, if you need to cite another HME user who is disgusted with the lack of simple connectivity to network drives, I'm your man.

I think that CuriousMark's idea of incompatible Samba versions is probably right. I don't know what version (if any) is in my RN600 because it runs a proprietary Linux build created by Infrant specifically for their NAS products. Having said this, clearly the TD software uses a different method (albeit perhaps just different code) to access the recordings than it is for Music and Photos. If the methods were they same, I would think that mapping to the NAS should work for all access types.

Please let us know if you hear back from TiVo support. Thanks.


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## Kalnel

Has anyone heard more about this issue? I'm having the exact same problem with a D-Link DSM-G600 network storage device -- I've got it mapped to a letter drive and Tivo keeps rejecting it as a storage choice.

I know *nothing* about programming -- Windows or Linux -- but I did notice two differences between the network drive and the onboard drive:

-- The DSM-G600 also runs Linux and formats the hard disk in EXT3. My other disks are formatted as FAT32 or NTFS. I wonder if this would make a difference?

-- And, on the totally superficial side, I've noticed that if I try to copy the "My Tivo" file directly to the network drive (even when it's empty), I can create the new folder, but the Tivo folder icon doesn't show in File Explorer.

Anyway, sorry if those observations are too obvious to be useful, but I'm hoping to spark some thinking to make this work.

Any ideas? Any luck with the new Tivo Desktop version?

Thanks,
kal


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## Obelisk

I have been trying to troubleshoot this issue as well, having recently purchased a Buffalo Tech TeraStation Pro NAS. I am trying to determine if drives mapped to NAS devices (as opposed to USB drives attached to computers on the network) are causing the problem, or if the XFS file system on my partic. NAS is the issue. 

FYI, I can successfully change the "My TiVo Recordings" folder to be a folder on a mapped drive that points to a USB drive attached to a different computer on my network (not just a USB drive on the local computer running TDtop), which is good, but I cannot point it to a mapped drive pointing to a folder on my NAS. When I try the latter and press "apply/ok", it says that that folder has been changed/moved/deleted.

Would love any insight that anyone can share on all this!


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## Obelisk

Ok, so trying to isolate this more and have found the following: if I map a local drive letter to my NAS folder, mark it to work Offline, and then disconnect the NAS, the system works perfectly via TiVo. I am becoming more inclined to believe that this might be file system related since my NAS (TeraStation Pro) is running XFS for the primary store, and will try 1 last troubleshooting step hopefully tonight by attempting to map to a USB drive, formatted NTFS, that is plugged into the NAS directly. Again, any insight from others would be welcomed since solving this would be fantastic for all... (anyone have problems mapping to an NTFS-formatted NAS?)


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## pdetombe

Had the same problem with a samba mount; set up NFS client on WIN XP and mounted an NFS share on XP for TIVO desktop to use instead...

TIVO desktop displayed the same error (refused to "remember" the save to location).
Perhaps this is a "feature", not a bug. This is really bad, my mediapc has only 40GB, but my linux box (CenOS) has 1.3TB......

P.


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## EwanG

AN option that was mentioned earlier in this thread but seems to be getting overlooked is Galleon:

Galleon runs on either Windows or Linux

Galleon will use a networked drive for storing or serving up Tivo or MPEG-2 streams

Galleon also lets you setup multiple folders for "GoBack" - which if you have a Buffalo NAS device (I have two of the TerraStation Pro devices myself) is very useful to avoid having to scroll through hundreds or thousands of files

So, for most of the folks in this Thread, I think the "quick" fix would be to use Galleon in addition to, or in place of Tivo Desktop.

FWIW,
Ewan


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## jlac839

Tivo Desktop 2.3a seems to fix the network access problem for video. I've been experimenting with Orb (a software alternative to slingbox and hava) and since Orb doesn't support my Windows 2000 Server, I installed it on my desktop. I also installed 2.3a on my desktop. The combination allowed Orb to see my Tivo and both transfer and stream shows to an internet connected device (a laptop in my case connected via an external network). Rather than maintain two separate folders for shows, I thought I'd see if Tivo Desktop on my desktop pc would access the media storage folder on my server. Orb uses the Tivo Desktop to determine the destination folder for transfers and the source for streaming. So, I configured the Tivo Desktop preferences to use the media folder using its network share name (\\servername\folder\folder etc. style - not using a mapped drive letter). Lo and behold, Tivo Desktop did not complain about the setting (as previous versions did), sees the network link and operates correctly with it.

I then ran another experiment to see if the Tivo Desktop on my server could connect to a folder on my NAS unit. This too worked fine although switching back to the folder on the server's local drive caused some sort of "internal error" in Tivo Desktop which I couldn't get around until I rebooted the server. When it restarted, the Tivo server indicated that the videos folder had changed and forced a reset to the default folder. I was then able to reset it to the correct location (the network shared media folder on a different drive in the server). I haven't quite figured out why this error occurred although it might be due to my desktop installation getting in the way somehow. I may have been able to get around this just by stopping and starting the Tivo services but I'll try that later.

Anyway, this is good news for those of us who want to store our Tivo transfers on a network share or separate device using Tivo Desktop instead of Galleon (which is a great program but for whatever reason wasn't reliable in my configuration).

BTW, Orb is working on a version of their software that will allow streaming directly from the Tivo without the need to transfer to the pc first. For those of you who haven't heard of Orb and are interested, just go to http://www.orb.com and download DVR everywhere.


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## bud8man

Um...Do you have an XP machine that can see the network drive?
Do you have TiVo Desktop on that machine?
Can you map to the drive from the XP machine?
If so make that drive where your .tivo files reside.
That's sorta what we do here...with out Linux...and a USB drive.


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## lafos

It simply does not work for me using a Buffalo Terastation. I have a drive mapped as V: and a folder in it named TiVo Video. TD 2.3a refuses to map to it, even if I populate the folder with .tivo files. I can map to a USB drive, which I'm doing now, but the Terastation has a lot more room.


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## bud8man

Not as clean...but what if...
You place the downloaded files on the Teradrive...
Create shortcuts
and place them in your TiVoToGo folder?
Of course that means you are not downloading directly to the Teradrive...
But at least files stored on the Teradrive would be available for TiVo viewing.


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## bud8man

Can you Change these settings?
[/http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/bud8man/detail?.dir=/1bacre2&.dnm=7aa0re2.jpg&.src=ph IMG]


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## jlac839

Hi,

Bud8man, not sure if you were proposing an alternative solution for me but I don't need one now that Tivo Desktop 2.3a is working over the network for me. My first post on this topic back in June mentioned the problem of my Windows 2000 server running TD2.2 failing to recognize a folder on my Infrant ReadyNAS 600 as a target location on which to store (and retrieve) video. It would map ok for music and photos but not for video. I had tested the same configuration using my XP machine running TD2.2 but it had exactly the same problem. I could map the video folder on the RN600 fine on XP but TD2.2 wouldn't recognize it. Other posts surmised that the problem might be to do with SAMBA code. 

I have updated my RN600 recently with new software from Infrant so perhaps this is what has fixed the problem for me particularly if Lafos still can't see his Terastation with TD2.3a (bummer, sorry about that). It didn't occur to me that the network drive access problem might actually be on the RN600 side since I could map audio and pictures ok. If I get some spare time, I might regress one of my systems to TD2.2 and see if the network drive access problem recurs.

For now, I'm running Tivo Desktop 2.3a on both my Windows 2000 server and my XP desktop PC, the latter to use Orb for testing streaming (since Orb doesn't support Win2K without a lot of mucking about).


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## jlac839

Well, I regressed my XP machine to TD2.2 and to my surprise it could now see the video storage networked location on my ReadyNAS 600 unit configured as \\Servername\folder\folder etc. I assume that it would also work with a mapped drive letter but I didn't bother trying that. 

Thus, it would appear that it's the software update from Infrant that has enabled the network configuration to work for me and not TD2.3a. Mea Culpa for assuming it was a TiVo software problem. I'm still at a loss to explain why the audio and pictures mappings worked in the earlier Infrant software but the video mapping did not. It may be to do with how the code accesses the locations - they are configured differently in TD.

When I get the chance, I'll ask the Infrant support guys if they could shed any light on this situation.

Lafos, unfortunately it looks like you may need to get Buffalo to update their software for the Terastation to support this.


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## Karlp327

2.3a is not working either for me. That is, seeing the network drive does not work. I will regress the Desktop back to 2.2 then.
*
SOLUTION FOR ME: * :up: :up: 
I uninstalled and re-installed and it worked fine. If I am not mistaken I would point the finger at the uninstall of previous version from the 2.3a installation. For some reason I did not feel comfortable with it and thought to uninstall 2.3a from the control panel, add remove programs and then ran the 2.3a installation again. It worked for me. Everything is running as it should.


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## jdgresham

lpoulsen said:


> At my house, I have a Linux fileserver. This is where the large disks live.
> Tivo Desktop seems to not want to place "My Tivo Recordings" on a network
> drive. This is disappointing, since I just bought a 250 GB drive for the server specifically to use for this purpose.
> 
> Can this really be true?


I point TTG to my Windows (Server 2003) file server and it works fine.


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## lafos

bud8man said:


> Can you Change these settings?
> [/http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/bud8man/detail?.dir=/1bacre2&.dnm=7aa0re2.jpg&.src=ph IMG]


Sure, but not to a mapped network drive on the Terastation. TD is the first program I've found that has this limitation.


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## lafos

Thanks for the ideas, people. I tried uninstalling, cleaning with ccleaner, then rebooting and reinstalling. I tried using both mapped drives and UNC descriptors. No joy. I then tried the same exercise using a second PC as the target. It still did not work. The second PC could not map to the Terastation, either. My main PC runs Windows MCE 2005, and the 2nd PC runs XP Home SP2. I tried to temporarily shut down NAV and firewalls, to no avail.

I have no other network issues that I know of. I can see all three TiVos and all the networked PCs and printers in the house. 

Guess I'll have to keep using the USB drive. I suppose I could network that, as it's really a Ximeta NetDisk. It uses a driver on the client PCs to map the drive.


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## Obelisk

I was unable to get this to work w/ my TeraSation Pro, but I just replaced it with a ReadyNAS NV and it works fine. And let me just say this: it is SO worth it to have a NAS that supports UPnP-AV (instead of the TS Pro)-- I can now access TiVo-converted files from my D-Link DSM-520 and play them in another room, which simply rocks...


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## Obelisk

Problem solved by complete accident, naturally: I noticed that whenever I would try to move (from w/in the TD Prefs) the My TiVo Recordings (MTR) folder to a new location on the NAS, this problem would occur, and the file "desktop.ini" would show up when it's normally a hidden/system file. Today, while copying some files from the MTR to my NAS, I took the shortcut of simply copying the MTR folder, and when I opened it on the NAS I saw that the desktop.ini file was not showing (and when I checked, properly there and with the right settings as hidden/system). I then tried to move the setting for the MTR folder in TD Prefs to that folder (on the NAS) and it worked like a charm. Would be very interested to know if this method (copying the actual real MTR folder to the NAS, then re-directing TD to it in Prefs) works for others to put this issue to rest once and for all (sorry-- I'm not willing to un-do/re-try this just yet!)...


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## strategy

I like the program WebDrive. It will map a Windows drive letter to any ftp connection. It acts just like a real local hard drive letter. Very handy and although I stopped reading halfway down the thread will work.


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## cmetcalf

Underlying problem discovered! 

The problem appears to be that Tivo Desktop insists on setting up the attributes of the desktop.ini file in exactly the way it wants, and makes sure it was set that way. Out of the box, Linux smbd doesn't support "true" Windows attributes; it just fakes it up in various ways. The smb.conf man page documents the "store dos attributes", which requires you to mount your server filesystem with the "user_xattr" option. I added "store dos attributes = yes" to my /etc/samba/smb.conf and "user_xattr" to my home filesystem in /etc/fstab, and now I can store the MTR directory on my Linux server without trouble.


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## bkuschak

I use a small script for pulling the files over the web interface onto my linux box. 
Replace XXXXXXXXXX with your media access key. (To get around a paranoid spam filter on this list, which won't let me type it... also correct the spelling of ht_p below)

#!/bin/sh
# usage: ./get.sh '<url copied from tivo's web page>'
# (don't forget the single quotes!)
FILE=$(echo $1 |sed '[email protected]\?Container=.*@@g;s?.*/download/??g' |sed 's?%20? ?g;s?%2F?-?g' |tr [\ $] [__])
URL=$(echo $1 | sed 's?ht_p://?ht_p://tivo:[email protected]?g')
wget -O $FILE echo $URL


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## jbryce

I have not been able to get Tivo Desktop to use a network attached hard drive for program storage. I'm using a Series 2 Tivo brand DVR and 2.3a Desktop software. My computer runs Windows XP Pro. I've disabled firewalling with no success. Networking is wireless from the TiVo and wired to the computer and Iomega 250 MB network attached drive. This drive works fine with with everything but TiVo Desktop. Desktop works fine with the local C: drive and with a USB attached hard drive. It has also worked and stored on the hard drive of another computer attached to the network; that is, the computer running Desktop used the hard drive of another computer over the network by ordinary Windows networking procedures. I set this up with Desktop 2.2 and have been able set Desktop 2.3a to that drive and play the programs stored there. 

Obelisk on 09-05-2006 appeared to have success, but I've not been able to make his method work. He copied the My TiVo Recordings default directory made on his C: drive to his network hard drive and configured it with Desktop. He noted the file attributes on the desktop.ini file were hidden/system. I've not been able to get hidden set on the network drive even with the command line ATTRIB utility. I've also tried uninstalling and reinstalling 2.3a with no success.

Any ideas? Thank you all very much.


----------



## telecomkid

Is there anybody hear about QNAP's TS-101, All-in-one NAS server ? 
it is a NAS with lots of application server features. (BitTorrent download client, Web-based File manager, FTP server, File server (SMB/CIFS), PHP+SQLite, iTunes server, Twonky's UPnP media server, Online Photo album, Remote replication server, Backup server with a backup software...)

I was asked to join a beta program about one of their new function, called "QTiVo station". The concept is, once you enable the function on TS-101, all recordings will be automatically transferred and backed up to your TS-101 without turning on PCs. By using this feature you don't need to wait and wait for long time transferring but let you NAS to do it. QTiVo function is a well-built function with web-based configuration interface, no need to install anything on the linux.

If there is anyone interested in joining the program you may send a mail to me. I can also mail you the special version firmware or link you with the product manager.

Cheers


----------



## ciscokidinsf

Hey all. Same here. I just got my new Terastation and cannot connect it to TivoDesktop. I also tried obelisk's method but it didn't work. I've tried 2.4 preview and 2.3. I'll try WebDrive next.



> The problem appears to be that Tivo Desktop insists on setting up the attributes of the desktop.ini file in exactly the way it wants, and makes sure it was set that way. Out of the box, Linux smbd doesn't support "true" Windows attributes; it just fakes it up in various ways. The smb.conf man page documents the "store dos attributes", which requires you to mount your server filesystem with the "user_xattr" option. I added "store dos attributes = yes" to my /etc/samba/smb.conf and "user_xattr" to my home filesystem in /etc/fstab, and now I can store the MTR directory on my Linux server without trouble.


Where exactly is the 'smb.conf' file and how can we open it/edit it (notepad?) I can't find it. Thanks.


----------



## CuriousMark

ciscokidinsf said:


> Hey all. Same here. I just got my new Terastation and cannot connect it to TivoDesktop. I also tried obelisk's method but it didn't work. I've tried 2.4 preview and 2.3. I'll try WebDrive next.
> 
> Where exactly is the 'smb.conf' file and how can we open it/edit it (notepad?) I can't find it. Thanks.


You will need to hack your Terastation. The smb.conf file is on it, not the PC. You access the Terastation and edit the file with vi, nano, or your favorite Linux text editor if it isn't one of those. Check out linkstationwiki.net for more than you ever wanted to know on the subject, plus a few hundred other Buffalo device hacking subjects.

CuriousMark


----------



## ciscokidinsf

Uhhh... no can do. I wish there was a homebrew firmware with those changes. I'm ok doing firmware updates, I'm no newbie, but I don't do Linux yet, (I have no Linux editor and not familiar with the data/file structure) I don't want to damage the thing.

Sigh... _I ****ing knew_ I should've gotten the ReadyNAS, and I almost did, but the price difference was beaucoup bucks and I got a semi-decent deal on Ebay with the Terastation. Oh well, I'll do manual transfers or perhaps a daily backup.

I couldn't make Webdrive work. if anyone has, I might need better instructions. (FTP is setup in the Terastation, but I can't get the thing to show up correctly in windows)


----------



## ciscokidinsf

Me again Apparently TD and my Terastation are NOT working via webdrive. Despite Webdrive being able to MAP to Windows explorer as a drive letter, when I try to drive TD to that drive it seems to work, but the job fails b/c of some unexplained permissions. Bummer. I know it has to do with the Tivo app, because Webdrive and File explorer works fine, I can move files back and forth.


----------



## CuriousMark

ciscokidinsf said:


> Uhhh... no can do. I wish there was a homebrew firmware with those changes. I'm ok doing firmware updates, I'm no newbie, but I don't do Linux yet, (I have no Linux editor and not familiar with the data/file structure) I don't want to damage the thing.
> 
> Sigh... _I ****ing knew_ I should've gotten the ReadyNAS, and I almost did, but the price difference was beaucoup bucks and I got a semi-decent deal on Ebay with the Terastation. Oh well, I'll do manual transfers or perhaps a daily backup.
> 
> I couldn't make Webdrive work. if anyone has, I might need better instructions. (FTP is setup in the Terastation, but I can't get the thing to show up correctly in windows)


I still think you should ask at the linkstationwiki forums. If Freelink is available for Terrastation it may have samba installed properly, and if not, one of the uber hackers there my be able to help you out and make it so. They have done a lot of work over there, and created a lot of great stuff, but you have to be willing to read to dig it out. They will help those who demonstrate they are willing to work a bit and help themselves.

Mark


----------



## jches55

I purchased a Linksys NSLU2 Storage Link in order to store TiVo files on the network instead of USB connected drive [using Windows XP] --- and, I also cannot connect to the NAS drive from TiVo Desktop. Is there a workaround for this situation out there ..... [somewhere]?


----------



## ciscokidinsf

Sorry, apparently only the ReadyNAS works nice with Tivo. Other NAS devices seem to fail with Tivo Desktop..


----------



## bud8man

So the issue is...TiVo will not allow you to use a NAS drive as the location to download your files and store them...
How about this...or do shortcuts from the NAS placed in a TiVoToGo folder on a PC fail as well....
1. use a folder on the PC to download the files
2. Use SyncToy to transfer them to the network drive
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/prophoto/synctoy.mspx
3. Create Shortcuts of the files on the NAS drive and place them in the folder on the PC
4. Delete the copied files from the PC
I am sure some guru could figure a simple batch program to accomplish most of this...


----------



## CuriousMark

bud8man said:


> I am sure some guru could figure a simple batch program to accomplish most of this...


Like was hashed out in this thread?

TiVo Desktop and Network drives


----------



## davesanti

Hey all pulling a slightly old thread here..

I too am using a Linksys NSLU2 (unlung) to serve music out of the attached HDD. I am interested in being able to use the Tivo to pull videos and picks out of the NAS. I dont need to pull the recorded shows off the Tivo to the NAS (yet anyway) Are there are any further thoughts on this issue.

Thanks

Dave


----------



## CuriousMark

davesanti said:


> I too am using a Linksys NSLU2 (unlung) to serve music out of the attached HDD. I am interested in being able to use the Tivo to pull videos and picks out of the NAS. I dont need to pull the recorded shows off the Tivo to the NAS (yet anyway) Are there are any further thoughts on this issue.


Some have gotten a headless Galleon to run on the linkstation. It may be possible to do that on the NSLU2 if it has the horsepower to run Java. Check out the linkstationwiki for details.

CuriousMark


----------



## murmur

Same story here with a D-Link DNS-323 NAS.


----------



## murmur

I just installed TD2.5 and the problem still exists. Now I feel dumb for not reporting it back when I first noticed it.


----------



## luper89

bud8man said:


> So the issue is...TiVo will not allow you to use a NAS drive as the location to download your files and store them...
> How about this...or do shortcuts from the NAS placed in a TiVoToGo folder on a PC fail as well....
> 1. use a folder on the PC to download the files
> 2. Use SyncToy to transfer them to the network drive
> 3. Create Shortcuts of the files on the NAS drive and place them in the folder on the PC
> 4. Delete the copied files from the PC
> I am sure some guru could figure a simple batch program to accomplish most of this...


I just tried this and it worked! Admittedly slightly more cumbersome than directly mapping to the network drive but I wasn't comfortable with Linux or hacking into anything, so for me this is the best way to go. I'm using Windows XP and a Buffalo Linkstation if anyone is wondering. (I haven't bothered with SyncToy yet, just dragged and dropped onto the network drive using Windows Explorer.)
Thanks for the suggestion!

Now if only there was a way to get Tivo to access a network drive directly without keeping a computer running in the background...


----------



## murmur

Damn, that solution is so simple that I'm kicking myself for not trying it before. Nice.


----------



## CuriousMark

luper89 said:


> INow if only there was a way to get Tivo to access a network drive directly without keeping a computer running in the background...


I have seen posts about people putting Galleon on the Linkstation, specifically a Kurobox HG. There is a Howto on the Linkstation Wiki.


----------



## CuriousMark

I am ressurecting this old thread because it seems the best place for my input.

This is a recurring question that pops up from time to time as people try to have TiVo Desktop save directly to their NAS. I see no reason why it should not work and consider it a bug of TiVo Desktop, however TiVo may consider it a feature.

I recently took my old NAS and upgraded it and thought I would investigate this while I was at it. I was able to duplicate the problem and then implement the fix provided by *cmetcalf* above. Sure enough, it works. I also posted "Make Your NAS Compatible With TiVo Desktop" at NAS-Central for others wishing to do the same and needing a little more detailed guidance. I hope anyone with this problem finds the article useful.

CuriousMark


----------



## mikelenner

i'm having trouble getting this solution to work with tivo desktop 2.6 - it exhibits different behavior then 2.5. Instead of allowing you to click the folder on your network mapped drive, tivo desktop simply grey's out the OK button.

I'm made the changes on my NAS's samba config and fstab - still, the OK button is grayed out. Anyone got this solution working on tivo desktop 2.6?


----------



## weaverdrew

mikelenner said:


> i'm having trouble getting this solution to work with tivo desktop 2.6 - it exhibits different behavior then 2.5. Instead of allowing you to click the folder on your network mapped drive, tivo desktop simply grey's out the OK button.
> 
> I'm made the changes on my NAS's samba config and fstab - still, the OK button is grayed out. Anyone got this solution working on tivo desktop 2.6?


I also see what you've reported: TD's "OK" button is grayed out now in 2.6 for my NAS MyBook drive. I presume that's because TD's developers (who are not Tivo employees, it's a third party, I was told) know the "drive has moved or changed" error message was erroneous, but they didn't fix the root issue.

I'm going to try the CuriousMark solution this week and will report back.


----------



## CuriousMark

I haven't been using my NAS with TD 2.6, as I am running PyTiVo on it now. I will have to check it out too. If your samba is good and it still doesn't work, then I am not sure there is a good fix, other than dumping TiVo Desktop and switching to PyTiVo. 

I am not ready to speculate on the why of it yet.


----------



## CuriousMark

I have added a note to my NAS hacking page to warn people that it will no longer help them if they are using current versions of TiVo Desktop.


----------



## Injuhneer

CuriousMark said:


> I have added a note to my NAS hacking page to warn people that it will no longer help them if they are using current versions of TiVo Desktop.


Indeed. I upgraded to 2.6.1 from a 2.3 rev and suddenly all UNCs don't work. That sux.


----------



## Injuhneer

Obelisk said:


> Problem solved by complete accident, naturally: I noticed that whenever I would try to move (from w/in the TD Prefs) the My TiVo Recordings (MTR) folder to a new location on the NAS, this problem would occur, and the file "desktop.ini" would show up when it's normally a hidden/system file. Today, while copying some files from the MTR to my NAS, I took the shortcut of simply copying the MTR folder, and when I opened it on the NAS I saw that the desktop.ini file was not showing (and when I checked, properly there and with the right settings as hidden/system). I then tried to move the setting for the MTR folder in TD Prefs to that folder (on the NAS) and it worked like a charm. Would be very interested to know if this method (copying the actual real MTR folder to the NAS, then re-directing TD to it in Prefs) works for others to put this issue to rest once and for all (sorry-- I'm not willing to un-do/re-try this just yet!)...


Not for me. I have XP Pro and Win2k3 Server. The desktop.ini is visible and cn be opened for edited. The file is fine. The TD prefs simply won't allow me to select any network resource for MTR.

I am testing a solution now:

Shut down TD.

I have gone into the registry in XP and modified the HKCU/Software/Tivo/Desktop/Modules/TivoNowPlaying/config/LocalRootPath value to reflect the mapped drive path.

When I launched TD it said the drive was missing or moved and the slection dialog appeared. I selected the mapped network drive and the OK buttong un-greyed.

I clicked OK and waited a few moments. The contents of the network drive now appear in the Now Playing List.

Next is to set up some transfers and see what happens.


----------



## mitchc

on my buffalo terrastation pro I am able to store my music and photos and tivo desktop works fine...I can access thru any of 4 tivos in the house over the network. the videos though i cannot store on the nas as is discussed in the forums. 

if your edit of the registry works, would you please post the details.


----------



## gvegastiger

This may be a dumb quesiton, but has anyone gotten their Tivo's to read movie files off a NAS drive using TD on a Mac?

I tried just changing the location but my S2 doesn't see any files. I haven't tried the shortcut option yet but will this evening. Has anyone done this yet? I have a Simpleshare NAS 500 GB and want to use it to store my DVD collection on.


----------



## acheslow

Injuhneer said:


> Shut down TD.
> 
> I have gone into the registry in XP and modified the HKCU/Software/Tivo/Desktop/Modules/TivoNowPlaying/config/LocalRootPath value to reflect the mapped drive path.
> 
> When I launched TD it said the drive was missing or moved and the slection dialog appeared. I selected the mapped network drive and the OK buttong un-greyed.
> 
> I clicked OK and waited a few moments. The contents of the network drive now appear in the Now Playing List.
> 
> Next is to set up some transfers and see what happens.


This worked for me on Vista with a ReadyNAS. Thanks!!


----------



## wlk

acheslow said:


> This worked for me on Vista with a ReadyNAS. Thanks!!


Unfortunately, it didn't work for me (XP) with unRAID. The dialog box popped up (after modifying the registry) and the new mapped network drive was highlighted. After clicking the "OK" button, however, the dialog box popped right back up again. If I highlighted another drive letter, the OK box grayed out and I could no longer select my mapped network drive.


----------



## wlk

wlk said:


> Unfortunately, it didn't work for me (XP) with unRAID.


FYI. I just upgraded to unRAID v4.3.3 (Samba 3.0.28a), but no joy.


----------



## fatavatar

I was able to get this to work with unRaid by creating symbolic link in Vista to the unRaid mapped drive. (It seemed to take a few tries however). I'm not sure if you can do the same thing with an NTFS junction in XP or not. I'm not sure XP supports symbolic links.


----------



## kmackenz

Worked for me on a LinkStation Live with Vista! Thanks!!!!:up::up:



Injuhneer said:


> Not for me. I have XP Pro and Win2k3 Server. The desktop.ini is visible and cn be opened for edited. The file is fine. The TD prefs simply won't allow me to select any network resource for MTR.
> 
> I am testing a solution now:
> 
> Shut down TD.
> 
> I have gone into the registry in XP and modified the HKCU/Software/Tivo/Desktop/Modules/TivoNowPlaying/config/LocalRootPath value to reflect the mapped drive path.
> 
> When I launched TD it said the drive was missing or moved and the slection dialog appeared. I selected the mapped network drive and the OK buttong un-greyed.
> 
> I clicked OK and waited a few moments. The contents of the network drive now appear in the Now Playing List.
> 
> Next is to set up some transfers and see what happens.


----------



## kmackenz

kmackenz said:


> Worked for me on a LinkStation Live with Vista! Thanks!!!!:up::up:




Never mind... Now it keeps asking to pick the folder after saying OK! I was replied too quick! Was excited to see the non-grayed out OK.


----------



## MikeAndrews

Ummmm. curl in kmttg works writing to a network drive. 

The only problem I had was curl complaining about mismatched file sizes on shows > 4GB but I was going from a Windows XP PC to a drive mounted from an Apple Time Capsule. A lot of tempting fate there but it worked fine for a long while.

I think curl writes 4GB after buffering and it was not fast enough. .... Now that I think about it, I had the problem when I moved the PC to a 100mb switch from a 1000mb link right on the Time Capsule. Idea!


----------



## Gregor

Trying to do this now with a DLINK DNS-321. Tried the registry hack, no go. Ideas?


----------



## mkinnuca

I have the same problem. I use an HP mediasmart server. As a workaround I use Smart Sync Pro software to move the tivo files from my laptop to the server.


----------



## Matt J.

Obelisk said:


> Problem solved by complete accident, naturally: I noticed that whenever I would try to move (from w/in the TD Prefs) the My TiVo Recordings (MTR) folder to a new location on the NAS, this problem would occur, and the file "desktop.ini" would show up when it's normally a hidden/system file. Today, while copying some files from the MTR to my NAS, I took the shortcut of simply copying the MTR folder, and when I opened it on the NAS I saw that the desktop.ini file was not showing (and when I checked, properly there and with the right settings as hidden/system). I then tried to move the setting for the MTR folder in TD Prefs to that folder (on the NAS) and it worked like a charm. Would be very interested to know if this method (copying the actual real MTR folder to the NAS, then re-directing TD to it in Prefs) works for others to put this issue to rest once and for all (sorry-- I'm not willing to un-do/re-try this just yet!)...


This fixed it for me. I'm running TiVo Desktop 2.8 on Windows 7 and using an Intel SS4200-E for the NAS.

Here's what worked.
1. Copy the "My Tivo Recordings" from the default location to its new home on the NAS. Make sure you include the desktop.ini in the copy. (As mentioned this is hidden by default)
2. Regedit and modify "LocalRootPath" under "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\TiVo\Desktop\Modules\TivoNowPlaying\Config". This should be set to point to the location of the "My Tivo Recordings" folder on the NAS.
3. start TiVo Desktop and transfer a program.
4. (optional for Desktop Plus) regedit and modify "OutputPath" under "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\TiVo\Desktop\Converter" Change this to point to whatever location you want to use on the NAS.


----------



## kmbarr

Matt J. said:


> 1. Copy the "My Tivo Recordings" from the default location to its new home on the NAS. Make sure you include the desktop.ini in the copy. (As mentioned this is hidden by default)
> 2. Regedit and modify "LocalRootPath" under "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\TiVo\Desktop\Modules\TivoNowPlaying\Config". This should be set to point to the location of the "My Tivo Recordings" folder on the NAS.
> 3. start TiVo Desktop and transfer a program.
> 4. (optional for Desktop Plus) regedit and modify "OutputPath" under "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\TiVo\Desktop\Converter" Change this to point to whatever location you want to use on the NAS.


:up:Thanks! I worked through just about all the solutions here without success [excluding alternate software or scripts to indirectly transfer recordings] and this finally worked perfectly for me!


----------



## Imladrian

Matt J. said:


> This fixed it for me. I'm running TiVo Desktop 2.8 on Windows 7 and using an Intel SS4200-E for the NAS.
> 
> Here's what worked.
> 1. Copy the "My Tivo Recordings" from the default location to its new home on the NAS. Make sure you include the desktop.ini in the copy. (As mentioned this is hidden by default)
> 2. Regedit and modify "LocalRootPath" under "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\TiVo\Desktop\Modules\TivoNowPlaying\Config". This should be set to point to the location of the "My Tivo Recordings" folder on the NAS.
> 3. start TiVo Desktop and transfer a program.
> 4. (optional for Desktop Plus) regedit and modify "OutputPath" under "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\TiVo\Desktop\Converter" Change this to point to whatever location you want to use on the NAS.


I'm running Windows XP, TiVo HD, TiVo Desktop 2.8, and trying to use a 1TB My Book Live connected to my router. I was able to get THD to transfer to my My Book Live drive by cut/pasting the My TiVo Recordings folder to it and then editing the registry as directed above. I noticed a few differences from the results that were described.

1. The desktop.ini file does not require me to change my Folder Options > View settings to deselect "Hide protected operating system files" in order view it (i.e. it's always visible).

2. Something is screwy with the TiVo desktop window. If I manually select a file and initiate a transfer, I'm unable to close, minimize, or select anything as an hour glass appears anytime I try to click on anything. The window remains open until the transfer is done and my inputs are accepted. During the transfer other windows/programs still respond.

3. My overall system performance seems to bog down during a file transfer and is much slower than I experienced with a USB connected storage drive. This degradation affects all applications running.

I'm not too worried about the system file being visible, but I would love to have control over the program window and not suffer a hit to performance. Any suggestions.


----------



## pilott

I recently ran into this problem as well. As a last attempt before going into the registry I tried using a symbolic link to my network share and that did work. This is only an option with vista and later (I think, never used vista and I am using win 7).


mklink /D C:\video \\NAS\video

A bit of strangeness: I had to ALSO have a mapped share with saved credentials to get it to work (I have \\NAS\video mapped to V: with username and password saved). There might be a better way to handle the credentials, but that worked.


----------



## turbo327

Gregor said:


> Trying to do this now with a DLINK DNS-321. Tried the registry hack, no go. Ideas?


Just got Mattj's reg edit above working fine on the Dlink DNS-321 NAS. Tivo works both ways.

The only thing I've noticed is on reboot just 1 time the Tivo server did not want to correct reboot. I am using the Tivo Beacon, not MS/Apple's Bonjour.

Gerry-


----------



## kwiebe

pilott said:


> I recently ran into this problem as well. As a last attempt before going into the registry I tried using a symbolic link to my network share and that did work. This is only an option with vista and later (I think, never used vista and I am using win 7).
> 
> mklink /D C:\video \\NAS\video
> 
> A bit of strangeness: I had to ALSO have a mapped share with saved credentials to get it to work (I have \\NAS\video mapped to V: with username and password saved). There might be a better way to handle the credentials, but that worked.


This worked great for me (Win 7). Thanks for the tip. :up:


----------



## Neilwltr

Hello,

There has been alot of discussion on this and I finally was able to find a very simple way to do it without writing code or going into the registry of the PC

Get on any computer that you have connected to your network and to the NAS you want to use.

go to python.org go on the left to "releasses" 
click on version 2.6.6
then under downloads look for "Windows x86 MSI Installer (2.6.6) (sig)"
Download it to your PC and run it from the zipped file

Then download/run
PYTIVO at; pytivo.sourceforge.net/forum/updated-windows-installer-2009-03-21-t512.html#3957
You are looking for thE BELOW file on the above page, it is almost halfway down the page;
"pyTivo-wmcbrine-2009.03.19-RC1.zip"

Note: you must have Python on your before pytivo

HERE IS THE MAIN POINT, WHEN YOU ARE RUNNING THE PYTIVO FILE, IT WILL ASK YOU WHERE THE SOURCE DESTINATION FILE IS
This is the file on your NAS where you have you movies, recordings etc...choose that file on the setup up pytivo.

Once you have done that, turn on your TV and Tivo and you will see an additional folder in the "Now Playing List" that contains the movies etc of your NAS
FYI - If you have more than one Tivo connected to the network and NAS all of them will show this new folder!
Easy as punch! Enjoy...


----------



## bfaz18

This method requires no additional software or registry modifications:

My documents directory now has an entry
<SYMLINKD> GoFlexTivo [\\GOFLEX_HOME\GoFlex Home Public\TIVO]

which I created with the following command line command:
mklink /D GoFlexTivo "\\GOFLEX_HOME\GoFlex Home Public\TIVO"
to which the system responded with:
symbolic link created for GoFlexTivo <<===>> \\GOFLEX_HOME\GoFlex Home Public\TIVO

I was then able to change preferences for the directory in Tivo Desktop for My Tivo Recordings to:

c:\users\username\Documents\GoFlexTivo
which was accepted without a hitch.

Interestingly, after it was accepted, Tivo Desktop then showed the directory as:
\\GOFLEX_HOME\GoFlex Home Public\TIVO

which it would NOT take if entered natively.


----------



## apexadam

bfaz18 said:


> This method requires no additional software or registry modifications:
> 
> My documents directory now has an entry
> <SYMLINKD> GoFlexTivo [\\GOFLEX_HOME\GoFlex Home Public\TIVO]
> 
> which I created with the following command line command:
> mklink /D GoFlexTivo "\\GOFLEX_HOME\GoFlex Home Public\TIVO"
> to which the system responded with:
> symbolic link created for GoFlexTivo <<===>> \\GOFLEX_HOME\GoFlex Home Public\TIVO
> 
> I was then able to change preferences for the directory in Tivo Desktop for My Tivo Recordings to:
> 
> c:\users\username\Documents\GoFlexTivo
> which was accepted without a hitch.
> 
> Interestingly, after it was accepted, Tivo Desktop then showed the directory as:
> \\GOFLEX_HOME\GoFlex Home Public\TIVO
> 
> which it would NOT take if entered natively.


What is mklink command? What is /[letter]? What is "GoFlexTivo"?
The rest of the command, namely the destination location NAS device I get but the prelim information above isn't working for me. I tried,
mklink /T GoFlexTivo "\\MYBOOKLIVE\Public\Vids\TIVO ... the NAS folder location.

Advise?
Adam


----------



## ggieseke

apexadam said:


> What is mklink command? What is /[letter]? What is "GoFlexTivo"?
> The rest of the command, namely the destination location NAS device I get but the prelim information above isn't working for me. I tried,
> mklink /T GoFlexTivo "\\MYBOOKLIVE\Public\Vids\TIVO ... the NAS folder location.
> 
> Advise?
> Adam


MKLINK is a command-line utility that creates a symbolic link. Open up a command prompt, change the curent directory to the location that Desktop is using like "C:\Users\Adam\Documents\My TiVo Recordings", and run it from there.

/D (not /T as you posted) tells it to create a directory link, not a file link.

The first parameter after /D is the name you want to assign to the link. It can be anything you want like Recordings, MyNas etc. It doesn't have to be GoFlexTivo.

If you just run MKLINK /? it will list the syntax and options.


----------



## Alf Oote

I just tried this procedure - successfully - to setup a link for transferring Tivo files using my Tivo Desktop to my Seagate GoFlex_Home NAS (Network Attached Storage) device. With hopes of being more succinct (clear) in the description of the procedure, I leave this post ...

SETUP PROCEDURE FOR TRANSFERING TIVO FILES DIRECTLY TO A SEAGATE GOFLEX_HOME

Use the Following Procedure is a specific example of how to setup a "Folder
Link" to transfer Tivo files using Tivo Desktop to a Seagate GoFlex_Home
NAS (Network Attached Storage) storage device. The link is from the "My
Tivo Recordings" folder to a "TivoTransfers" folder in the "GoFlex_Home
Personal" drive which Seagate designates the (Z drive.

1.) Create a "TivoTransfers" folder in the root of the GoFlex_Home (Z drive 
(the personal drive referenced by the name "GoFlex Home Personal").

2.) Open a command prompt window running in administrator mode.

3.) Navigate to the TiVo folder using the following command line:

cd \users\username\Documents\My Tivo Recordings

4.) To create and store your link in your "My Tivo Recordings" folder, enter
the following command line. (The "Link To" location in the example is
the"personal" folder in the GoFlex. (To confirm your own GoFlex folder
name click on the "Folder View" icon in the Seagate Deskboard.)

mklink /D Tivo2GoFlex "\\GOFLEX_HOME\GoFlex Home
Personal\TivoTransfers"

If done correctly a confirmation line in the command prompt will read ...

symbolic link created for Tivo2GoFlex <<===>>
\\GOFLEX_HOME\GoFlex Home Personal\TivoTransfers

and you should see a "Tivo2GoFlex" link in your "My Tivo Recordings"
folder.

5.) Start Tivo Desktop and change the default storage directory by 
clicking on the above link.

I hope somebody finds this useful.


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