# Tivo Tool?



## MarkW19 (Oct 25, 2002)

I'm running Tivo Tool (latest version) on my Mac (10.5.2), and with an upgraded HD and cachecard in my Series 1 Tivo.

I'm having some problems with Tivo Tool though. The main problems are: trying to export using "DVD format" doesn't work at all, the button doesn't do anything. And, exporting through all other formats (inc. "Add to iTunes") more often than not results in a "debug" error dialog right at the end of the encoding, meaning that I can't play/use the video file as it's incomplete, so all I can do is trash it any try and start again, which of course means I'll just get the error at the end again!

Can anyone help?


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## PaulWilkinsUK (Mar 20, 2006)

Hi There,
Would this be TiVoTool 0.6.n ? Must confess I've had no end of misery with this and subsequent versions. TiVoTool 0.5.7 works ok as long as you are still running Tiger (10.4.n). I'm still experimenting with TySuiteJ, although this app is brain surgery compared with TiVoTool.

Have a hunt through the forum posts, there are many instances of TiVoTool discussions.

Good Luck


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## MarkW19 (Oct 25, 2002)

It's 0.7.0, and I'm on Leopard (10.5.2).

I looked at TySuiteJ, but it looks a bit complex :s


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## TCM2007 (Dec 25, 2006)

TySuiteJ seems pretty simple to me, but then I'm not a Mac user.


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## speedyrite (May 18, 2002)

TCM2007 said:


> TySuiteJ seems pretty simple to me, but then I'm not a Mac user.


Trust me, TivoTool (0.5.7) on a Mac running OS X 10.4 is the dog's dangly bits (as I think I recall my old pal Wilko once described it!)

I've looked at switching to TysuiteJ, due to the unfortunate situation that exists with TivoTool 0.7.0 and Mac OS X 10.5. In my humble opinion, compared to TivoTool, elegant simplicity it ain't!


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## MarkW19 (Oct 25, 2002)

TCM2007 said:


> TySuiteJ seems pretty simple to me, but then I'm not a Mac user.


Exactly, so you're already used to unnecessarily complicated software that isn't written/designed well enough (or cared enough about) to provide the end user with something simple, elegant and easy to use on the surface, while simultaneously being powerful underneath 

Hmm, I'm hoping for an update to TivoTool; until then, it's barely useable...TySuiteJ here I come, until they update it, or I'll have wasted the money on my cachecard.

Wish me luck!


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## speedyrite (May 18, 2002)

MarkW19 said:


> Hmm, I'm hoping for an update to TivoTool; until then, it's barely useable


Sadly I think the author of TivoTool seems to have has given up on the project. It was about a month after Apple launched Leopard that TivoTool 0.7.0 appeared, and despite the widely documented problems with it, there has been nothing since.

I am fortunate to live in a multi-Mac/multi-TiVo household, so I've been able to keep one computer running Tiger simply to continue running the very excellent TivoTool 0.5.7 for the benefit of all.

I've looked at the documentation for TysuiteJ and I just can't be bothered with all the apparent faffing about to install and run it on the Mac.

Maybe a financial incentive to theTivoTool author via the website might work as a last resort?!? I'll have a look down the back of the settee for those dollar bills from our last holiday...


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## MarkW19 (Oct 25, 2002)

Tell you what, I just upgraded to 10.5.2, and I'm now using TivoTool on a new MacBook Pro (2.2), and most of the problems seem to have gone, video is encoding correctly, etc. And even over wifi, it's faster than realtime, which I'm happy with.

The only problem I have is that when encoding to .mp4 (or "Add to iTunes"), the audio stutters/jumps. It's not really noticeable just during speech, but with music it changes pitch. Very annoying! None of the other encoding formats seem to suffer from this.


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## TCM2007 (Dec 25, 2006)

Check the frames per second; a lot of this software defaults to a US 29.9-ish fps instead of UK 25fps and the re-encoding introduces jerkiness and audio oddities.


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## MarkW19 (Oct 25, 2002)

TCM2007 said:


> Check the frames per second; a lot of this software defaults to a US 29.9-ish fps instead of UK 25fps and the re-encoding introduces jerkiness and audio oddities.


Cheers, I'll have a look at the prefs!


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## PaulWilkinsUK (Mar 20, 2006)

MarkW19 said:


> Tell you what, I just upgraded to 10.5.2, and I'm now using TivoTool on a new MacBook Pro (2.2), and most of the problems seem to have gone, video is encoding correctly, etc. And even over wifi, it's faster than realtime, which I'm happy with.
> 
> The only problem I have is that when encoding to .mp4 (or "Add to iTunes"), the audio stutters/jumps. It's not really noticeable just during speech, but with music it changes pitch. Very annoying! None of the other encoding formats seem to suffer from this.


Strewth! TiVoTool 0.7.0 ?? Lets play !!


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## MarkW19 (Oct 25, 2002)

PaulWilkinsUK said:


> Strewth! TiVoTool 0.7.0 ?? Lets play !!


Yep! I just managed to output to iTunes (.mp4), stuttery audio as usual, but it worked.

Then I output to MPEG2, worked flawlessly; I then tried a second time, and it got right to 99%, then I got the error!!! The video took 3 hours to encode so I wasn't happy. BUT - just clicking "no" to the debug close error, left the file on the desktop and it works fine!

So, so far so good.

It's just so bloody slow waiting for video to download/encode/upload, wish there was a one-click solution! I want to get video off my Tivo through TivoTool, and onto YouTube. Currently converting/trimming with MPEG streamclip.


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## PaulWilkinsUK (Mar 20, 2006)

Nope... still don't work for me!
I try to download in MPEG2 pops up the dialog, then fails. I can press Watch Now and its streams ok..

Still a long way to go...


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## MarkW19 (Oct 25, 2002)

PaulWilkinsUK said:


> Nope... still don't work for me!
> I try to download in MPEG2 pops up the dialog, then fails. I can press Watch Now and its streams ok..
> 
> Still a long way to go...


Aye.

What Mac do you have, and is it an Intel chip?

Streaming always works for me, but fast-forwarding makes my audio out of sync...

I get sorted of "banding"/lines across the video though during motion, do you? Whether streaming or from a file.


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## PaulWilkinsUK (Mar 20, 2006)

MarkW19 said:


> Aye.
> 
> What Mac do you have, and is it an Intel chip?
> 
> ...


I'm running this on my Intel Core Duo MacBook... streaming is perfect.


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## MarkW19 (Oct 25, 2002)

Paul - do you find that video in TivoTool (either streaming/onto your HD) has sort of lines across it, during motion? Just sort of artifacts.

If not, it's very strange that it's just me that's having the problem...


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## PaulWilkinsUK (Mar 20, 2006)

MarkW19 said:


> Paul - do you find that video in TivoTool (either streaming/onto your HD) has sort of lines across it, during motion? Just sort of artifacts.
> 
> If not, it's very strange that it's just me that's having the problem...


Oh I see what you mean, yes it does... perhaps something to do with the frame rate... time for me to have a play again...


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## Gavin (Jan 1, 2003)

isn't this dangerously close to being something that needs to go to the other forum?


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## PaulWilkinsUK (Mar 20, 2006)

Gavin said:


> isn't this dangerously close to being something that needs to go to the other forum?


Naaah ! We've been banging on about this in this forum for ages...


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## BrianHughes (Jan 21, 2001)

Gavin said:


> isn't this dangerously close to being something that needs to go to the other forum?


Only if you get it to work


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