# TiVo Desktop



## skid71 (Mar 20, 2013)

So I was trying out TiVo desktop with VideoRedo. I transferred a show, edited with VRD then placed the edited file back in the My TiVo Recordings folder. However I cannot find this folder using our Pro or Minis.

What am I missing?

Thank you in advance.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

skid71 said:


> So I was trying out TiVo desktop with VideoRedo. I transferred a show, edited with VRD then placed the edited file back in the My TiVo Recordings folder. However I cannot find this folder using our Pro or Minis.
> 
> What am I missing?
> 
> Thank you in advance.


Can't find the MTR folder, or can't find the file in the MTR folder?

Does the file still have a .tivo extension?


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## skid71 (Mar 20, 2013)

unitron said:


> Can't find the MTR folder, or can't find the file in the MTR folder?
> 
> Does the file still have a .tivo extension?


Can't find the MTR folder. The file does have a .tivo extension.


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

Are you saying you can't find the MTR folder when you look through the computer, or that you don't see the MTR folder from the Tivo?

I'm guessing the latter.

Your computer should be listed at the bottom of the My Shows list.
If it is not there, then there are a few things you need to check in TiVo Desktop.

Make sure the Tivo Server is running on the computer.
In Tivo Desktop, go to the Tivo Server Properties and under Access Control, make sure your Tivo is listed there.

If both of the above are true and you still don't see the computer from the Tivo, then go to the Tivo Server Properties, click the Network tab, and switch the discovery protocol.

Although it's usually not the problem, you can also try making the Tivo use a static IP address. It won't hurt, and it might help.

Finally, after you check all the above, you still may need to reboot your computer, router, and the Tivo to get everything synced back up. 

Good luck, hope this helps.


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## skid71 (Mar 20, 2013)

I appreciate the very helpful information Steve. I'll go through this tonight to make sure it's set up properly.

Thanks for your time and sharing.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

skid71 said:


> I appreciate the very helpful information Steve. I'll go through this tonight to make sure it's set up properly.
> 
> Thanks for your time and sharing.


Go ahead and give everything on your home network a fixed IP address if it doesn't leave the house.

Choose some range of numbers from which to assign them.

Then set the router's DHCP pool for a range outside of that fixed IP address range.

Allot enough for your traveling devices and maybe 2 or 3 more for the unforeseen.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Setting fixed IPs is a huge PITA and lends itself to more problems if you're not meticulous about keeping track of everyone you assign. DHCP works fine as long as you only have one DHCP server on your network. In fact it makes it easier to manage because you can see the DHCP table in your router's web interface and easily find the IP assigned to each device. Most new routers even have a way to assign a specific DHCP IP address to a particular device (via it's MAC address) if you have something that requires a static IP like a printer or NAS but want to keep everything managed by your router. Unless you're an IT professional or really want fine grain control over all the IPs used on your network for some reason I would not recommend converting everything to static IPs 

As for your problem.... If the TiVo Server is running then it's most likely a firewall problem. If you're using a 3rd party firewall like Norton temporarily disable it and see if it fixes the problem. If it does then you'll need to consult the settings for that specific firewall to figure out how to open it up for the TiVo server. If you're using the Windows firewall the TiVo Desktop installer should have automatically added a firewall exception. However you may need to rerun it as Admin for that to work.


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## skid71 (Mar 20, 2013)

So I changed the discovery protocol to TiVo Beacon and now the Pro sees the laptop, but I get a message that says the list (now playing?...can't remember the exact wording) is unavailable. When I open TiVo Desktop there are two shows. These shows are in the "My TiVo Recordings" folder.

Progress I suppose which is more than I can say for Xfinity VOD, but that is for another thread.


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

As Dan suggested, it could be a firewall problem. Are you running a firewall on the laptop?

Just to check one more thing, go to the System Information screen on the Tivo and look for the line "TiVoToGo". 
If it shows anything other than "a,a,a", then you still have some troubleshooting to do.


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## skid71 (Mar 20, 2013)

steve614 said:


> As Dan suggested, it could be a firewall problem. Are you running a firewall on the laptop?
> 
> Just to check one more thing, go to the System Information screen on the Tivo and look for the line "TiVoToGo".
> If it shows anything other than "a,a,a", then you still have some troubleshooting to do.


Steve,
No firewall other than Windows. I run Windows/Microsoft Security Essentials, no Norton, McAfee, etc.

I won't be able to troubleshoot until Monday. But I will look on the Pro's Info screen and look at the TiVoToGo line and report back. It isn't a huge deal, just would be nice to have all the bells and whistles in concert with each other.

I appreciate the help.


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## Jonathan_S (Oct 23, 2001)

steve614 said:


> Your computer should be listed at the bottom of the My Shows list.
> If it is not there, then there are a few things you need to check in TiVo Desktop.
> 
> Make sure the Tivo Server is running on the computer.
> ...


I've also see the TiVo Desktop server 'randomly' pick another network interface on the PC (if there's more than one)

It doesn't work so well if it's decided to pick the ethernet interface if I'm connected by wifi (or a VM-ware virtual machine interace, or VPN interface if I'm not using VPN at the moment)
Trying to connect using a 169.254.X.X address from an unconnected interface is pretty much doomed to failure


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## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

Tivo Beacon works, and Bonjour doesn't can also be caused by the "multicast filtering" section of the router being set wrong and the Tivo's and PC are on different types of network, i.e. one is wired, one is not.

This same issue pops up when you have hardwired Tivos and then issues with the iOS app. Track down the setting in the router and change it to whatever it isn't as a test.


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## skid71 (Mar 20, 2013)

The Minis still won't connect to the laptop even though they see it. The Pro now shows the edited video, but says it's in an unsupported format (.tivo). The name of the file is "The Book of Manning".tivo Maybe I named the file an unproper way?

Any thoughts? Maybe just uninstall TiVo Desktop and try KMTTG?

Thanks for any ideas/help.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

But if one works the other should also work. I use both TiVo Desktop and KMTTG on the same machine. So I would also think if one doesn't work, then they both won't work either until you can figure out what is causing the problem. But you never know until you try it.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

skid71 said:


> The Minis still won't connect to the laptop even though they see it. The Pro now shows the edited video, but says it's in an unsupported format (.tivo). The name of the file is "The Book of Manning".tivo Maybe I named the file an unproper way?
> 
> Any thoughts? Maybe just uninstall TiVo Desktop and try KMTTG?
> 
> Thanks for any ideas/help.


 You can't transfer videos from PC to Mini. The Mini doesn't have any storage. So it's normal/expected behavior for TiVo Desktop and/or pyTivo video shares not to be available to the Minis.
Normally, TiVo files end in .TiVo suffix, not .tivo. Don't know if that is the issue with the Pro saying it's unsupported since I don't use TiVo Desktop.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

The capitalization of the extension doesn't matter.

Was the original file a .tivo file? If not then you can't save as a .tivo file. In VideoReDo the .tivo output only works if the source file is a .tivo file. Basically .tivo files are PS or TS files with a special header. We can not currently create that header. When you save as a .tivo file we simply copy the header from the source file over to the output file. If the source file isn't a .tivo it wont work, you need to save as a .mpg instead. In more current versions of VideoReDo TVSuite H.264 we throw up an error if you try to save a non-.tivo file to a .tivo, but older versions allow it so you need to be careful if you're using an older version.


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## skid71 (Mar 20, 2013)

Dan203 said:


> The capitalization of the extension doesn't matter.
> 
> Was the original file a .tivo file? If not then you can't save as a .tivo file. In VideoReDo the .tivo output only works if the source file is a .tivo file. Basically .tivo files are PS or TS files with a special header. We can not currently create that header. When you save as a .tivo file we simply copy the header from the source file over to the output file. If the source file isn't a .tivo it wont work, you need to save as a .mpg instead. In more current versions of VideoReDo TVSuite H.264 we throw up an error if you try to save a non-.tivo file to a .tivo, but older versions allow it so you need to be careful if you're using an older version.


Dan,
Yes, the original file was transferred from the Pro to the laptop, ran through QS Fix, then edited from that file. But in using that file (after going through QS Fix) it is no longer a .TiVo file. Would it be as easy as renaming the extension on the edited file, or would it need to be re-edited?

Interesting.

moyekj,
Certainly can understand the Mini not being able to store the file since there isn't storage available on the Mini, but couldn't the Mini stream the edited file from TiVo Desktop?

Thank you,
Jeff


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

skid71 said:


> moyekj,
> Certainly can understand the Mini not being able to store the file since there isn't storage available on the Mini, but couldn't the Mini stream the edited file from TiVo Desktop?
> 
> Thank you,
> Jeff


 TiVo Desktop is ancient/dinosaur software that uses HMO which can only make copies of videos and doesn't support streaming. TiVo has not updated TiVo Desktop to support streaming or released a public SDK for 3rd parties to be able to take advantage of MRS (streaming). So the answer is with current software, no, the Mini can't stream from TiVo Desktop or pyTivo.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

skid71 said:


> Dan,
> Yes, the original file was transferred from the Pro to the laptop, ran through QS Fix, then edited from that file. But in using that file (after going through QS Fix) it is no longer a .TiVo file. Would it be as easy as renaming the extension on the edited file, or would it need to be re-edited?


You need to QSF to a .tivo file to retain the header. As soon as you save it to any other format the header is lost and simply renaming it to .tivo will not work.

There is a free program called TiVoAttach that can grab the header from the original .tivo file and copy it over to your edited file if you don't want to have to go through editing again....

http://home.comcast.net/~greg_burns/tivoattach/

But in the future if you QSF to .tvio and then edit and save to .tivo then VRD will maintain the header and it should work.


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## Floridaman (Oct 30, 2005)

I have Tivo Desktop Plus and the Roamio Pro wasn't able to see the PC. Fixed this issue by changing the network settings from Bonjour to Tivo Beacon. I started transferring recordings last night from Tivo Desktop to my Roamio. No problems with the transfers but I did discover an issue with the recordings. The shows are labeled with blue circle which means they will delete at some point automatically. I tried to change the setting on the recordings to keep until I delete. While it looked like it retained the setting the shows were still labeled with a blue circle. I repeated the process numerous times and got the same result. I am hoping the shows don't delete. One of them has a date set to 10/15. If it is there tomorrow then I at least know the keep until I delete worked. Definite bug either way and hopefully it is isolated to the blue circle label only.


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

Someone else said to delete the program after it transfers, then undelete it and set to KUID. Then the setting will stick.

This bug is supposed to be fixed in the Fall Update.


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