# Tivo as a DVD Jukebox



## adessmith (Oct 5, 2007)

So far in testing this is working quite well.
I'll get more time to play with it over the weekend....

I've got a 320gb HDD I am using for movie files on my PC.
I'm using Super DVD ripper to rip DVDs to Divx files which I can then stream off of my PC to my Tivo. So far video quality has been much better than I expected. I'm missing the 5.1 audio though.

I should be able to rip my entire DVD library to my HDD and access it anytime from the Tivo without digging through my collection or scratching a disc.

I can start playback instantly after initating the transfer so it is effectivaly "on demand" streaming. If I could just figure out how to (simply) rip DVD's to divx (or similar format) without loosing 5.1 sound and still getting good video quality I may be sold on a new 500gb HDD...


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## erikg (Aug 20, 2007)

How good does the divx video file look? I have been using H.264 for my dvd rips and they look great except that TivoDesktop refuses to stream them if they have AC3 (5.1) as the audio.


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## adessmith (Oct 5, 2007)

I've only viewed 2 divx files on the tivo so far. Both were cartoons so it is hard to tell, but they looked Great from what I could see. (One was a CG cartoon, Chicken run) We have some kids coming over today so I was going to get some videos loaded up for them. I also loaded up starwars Ep 3 last night, but I didnt wake up early enough this morning to check out how it looks.
Only think I noticed was very slight blockyness durring a REALLY dark scene.

So far it seems that they are taking less than 1GB per video and I believe it is going to be worthwhile (video quality wise).

So you arent able to get a video with 5.1 audio to the Tivo? That sucks!
I was hoping to find some way to do that. I've heard there is a way to create a AC3 5.1 divx file, but I havent even gotten into that yet.


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## mulscully (May 31, 2003)

I just came to this section of the forum to post that I was looking to do this..

I have 2 young children and they constantly scratch/lose their DVD's.. I want to do the same thing...

Few questions are you shrinking the video with DVD shrink?
The question I was trying to answer is exactly what formats does the TivoHD/tivo desktop support so that when I rip them it doesn't have to transcode them..



So are you saying super DVD can rip the DVD with the 5.1 surround, and the Tvodesktop screws it up??

Can you get 5.1 surround in another codec?

Maybe use DVD shrink to shrink the video then use an uncompressed codec w/5.1??


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## tootal2 (Oct 14, 2005)

adessmith said:


> So far in testing this is working quite well.
> I'll get more time to play with it over the weekend....
> 
> I've got a 320gb HDD I am using for movie files on my PC.
> ...


Why dont you just buy a sony 400 dvd player? It holds 400 dvds. There about 300.00. I have one


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## mulscully (May 31, 2003)

How about the trick of just renaming the .vob file to .mpg will it then work with the 5.1 sound? I have not tryed this method yet myself (at work) but I probably will this weekend sometime...

My experiment will be to use dvd decryptor to decrypt , dvd shrink to shrink to 1 GB then rename the .vob to .mpg


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## HDTiVo (Nov 27, 2002)

mulscully said:


> How about the trick of just renaming the .vob file to .mpg will it then work with the 5.1 sound? I have not tryed this method yet myself (at work) but I probably will this weekend sometime...
> 
> My experiment will be to use dvd decryptor to decrypt , dvd shrink to shrink to 1 GB then rename the .vob to .mpg


It usually is not that simple. But I have been doing what you want.

I don't know anything about DIVX because I have not used it, but for people willing to stay with mpeg2...

You can RIP to your PC's drive with a program like DVD Decrypter. You can run that through DVDShrink (reauthor) to reduce size and output a single long VOB per title (movie/show) with only the 5.1 audio stream. I get rid of the subtitle streams too.

Then I run the VOB through VideoReDo. Just open it and save it as an mpg. That seems to clean up the mpeg such that it works on the TiVoes (240/S3/HD units in my case.)

If you have 4 episodes on one DVD of a series, you can reauthor in Shrink to output the 4 main titles at once and each will have a single VOB. In general, you want to set Shrink to not worry about 4GB DVDR limits so that a long movie can be output at up to 8+GB in a single vob. (you can also break big movies up into parts with Shrink if you find that more convenient.)


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## mulscully (May 31, 2003)

Have you tried skipping the last step with VideoRedo? and just renaming the .vob to .mpg

I understand what dvd decrypter and dvd shrink bring to the table, but what extra advantage will I get from videoredo?

How much do you shrink your movies?


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## adessmith (Oct 5, 2007)

mulscully said:


> I just came to this section of the forum to post that I was looking to do this..
> 
> I have 2 young children and they constantly scratch/lose their DVD's.. I want to do the same thing...
> 
> ...


Not shrinking anything... Super DVD ripper rips straight to DivX, usually less than 1gb per video. 
That is the reason I chose DivX. It seems its a good choice for quality/size.

I havent found a way to get 5.1 with super dvd ripper though. I plan on playing with that later, but I'm afraid there arent many "advanced" options in this program. Its a nice little straight forward utility that works well, but it seems like it is aimed more towards simplicity with less options (less confusing for most users)

Tivo desktop supports various formats, but exactally which formats it supports can depend on what codecs you have installed on your PC AND weither you have the free version or tivo desktop plus ($25).

Overall, it seems to be a good solution aside from loosing the 5.1 audio.
I'll keep using it until I find a better method.
What I like is that the process now is fairly streamlined. I pop the DVD in run Super DVD ripper with mostly default options (have to select the DivX codec and give it a file name) and away it goes, into my "Ripped DVD" folder.

Because the "my tivo recordings" folder was on a different (smaller) hard drive, I created a shortcut in the "my tivo recordings" folder to the "ripped dvd" folder which is on the larger HDD. This allows anything in that folder to also show up on the tivo.

The whole process is much more streamlined than using DVD Decryptor, DVD Shrink, renaming files, using VideoReDo, etc...

Oh and as far as the Sony 400 dvd player, I dont have $300 to spend. The TivoHD is the last AV toy I'll probably get for a while. I like the challange of "making do with what I have."
Plus, its nice to have access to as much material as humanly possible from one user interface.


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## LBCABob (Apr 21, 2001)

The super basic approach I took to getting DVD's, home movies, etc. for easy access on a TiVo was to just record them to an old Series 1 and rename the recording via serial cable (or later with a network card).

Sure, you drop some quality going from DVD digital to analog S-video and back to digital on the TiVo, and it takes some time since the recording are made in real time, but worked for me a few years ago AND the Series 1 does not have to be sub-d for this to work.

Let the LOL at this approach begin....


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## HDTiVo (Nov 27, 2002)

mulscully said:


> Have you tried skipping the last step with VideoRedo? and just renaming the .vob to .mpg
> 
> I understand what dvd decrypter and dvd shrink bring to the table, but what extra advantage will I get from videoredo?
> 
> How much do you shrink your movies?


Of course I did.  That's how I discovered I needed something like VideoRedo to fix mpeg errors in the vob.

The process I use consistenly produces an .mpg with 5.1 audio that can be transfered to and played on 240, S3, and HD TiVoes. The big pay off to this investment I made over time has come with playing these mpegs on hi def TiVoes using 5.1 digital audio output. :up:


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## adessmith (Oct 5, 2007)

Going to try this...
You saying I can just use DVD Decrypter to get the VOB's (I've used DVD Decryptor before) Then I can run VideoReDo to make tivo compliant 5.1 mpg files?

That shouldnt take too long...
How large does the average movie come out to be? Like a couple gigs?


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## mulscully (May 31, 2003)

well the file will be large, that why he runs it through dvd shrink first, that gives him the 1 big VOB file and shrinks it down.. How much you shrink should just be a personal preference...

Trying it now.....


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## HDTiVo (Nov 27, 2002)

I am sure you can use Decrypter to get a single vob of a title. I don't know the settings myself. I do use shrink almost always to shave a bit of size. Generally 80-85% or so. Cheaper hard drive space keeps making everything more practical.

I do not know if taking shrink out of the mix would make it less likely to get a TiVo friendly mpg in the end. There's alot of black magic as far as I am concerned.


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## mulscully (May 31, 2003)

Not sure if I want 5.1 surround or better picture quality with file size.. The shrink file was still close to 4 GB for the movie.. if divix can get me close to 1GB without noticible quality loss but I loose 5.1 I will take that...


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

Divx and Xvid handle DD 5.1 just fine as AC3 streams as does mkv. Unfortunatly Tivo does not do mpeg 4 video. The Tivo Desktop plus can convert SOME mpeg 4 on the fly but converts it to mpeg 2 to store on the tivo. Why convert twice? Hard drives are cheap these days. Would be nice if tivo would play mpeg4 files. The hardware is in the THD but it will not either.

If you really want to convert your DVDs to full resolution Xvid files with AC3 DD5.1 sound, and keep them to about 1GB each, look at FairUseWizard or DVDFabPlatnium. DVDFab will also do the ripping but does not convert as well, sometimes losing sync between audio and video. FairUseWizard does not rip but does make perfectly synced Xvid files every time.

So for all in one, use DVDFab. I still prefer DVDFab to rip and then encode with FU. 
One more option you might consider is Nero. Nero Recode will encode your DVDs to mp4 using an h264 encodeing engine that is far more efficient and will end up with yet smaller files than Xvid for the same quality.

Still, if you are doing this solely for Tivo, I'd stick with mpeg-2 encodes for now which is native to both Tivo and the DVDs.

Was that sufficiently confusing?


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## stevereis (Feb 24, 2006)

Converting to DiVx or other formats is nice to save storage on the PC side but you lose quality in the transcode and lose surround sound as others have noted. You also lose quality on the conversion back to MPEG2 that is done to stream to the TiVo. (I think I have seen posted here that the resolution is only 480x480..)

All you typically need is DVDShrink to rip and combine the audio and video streams with an optional shrink, yet still retain the 5.1 sound and, because it's still MPEG2, there are no transcoding or frame size changes to reduce quality. FYI, Dave Zatz has an old tutorial on his blog for using just DVDShrink:
http://www.zatznotfunny.com/dvdshrink.htm

I have encountered issues with some newer DVDs that DVDShrink chokes on but DVDFabPlatinum can be used as a front end to rip and then DVDShrink can be run on the resulting files. 
Most of the files play just fine but I have encountered some occasional stuttering issues on playback on certain titles. I'll have to try the VideoReDo pass that *HDTiVo* mentioned. (I assume this is just the quick stream fix., please let me know if I should do something different.)

BTW, my Humax DVD unit does not like anything other than 4:3 aspect content. It will pay the 16:9 but the image is all screwed up. The only solution there is the intermediate format conversion. Kinda crazy since this unit supports DVD playback and surround sound w/optical audio out. I would think it's just an issues with interpreting the stream and could easily be fixed in software.


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## HDTiVo (Nov 27, 2002)

stevereis said:


> Most of the files play just fine but I have encountered some occasional stuttering issues on playback on certain titles. I'll have to try the VideoReDo pass that *HDTiVo* mentioned. (I assume this is just the quick stream fix., please let me know if I should do something different.)
> 
> BTW, my Humax DVD unit does not like anything other than 4:3 aspect content. It will pay the 16:9 but the image is all screwed up. The only solution there is the intermediate format conversion. Kinda crazy since this unit supports DVD playback and surround sound w/optical audio out. I would think it's just an issues with interpreting the stream and could easily be fixed in software.


For VideoRedo I find that simply openning the file and clicking Save As button at the lower rightish part of the window works. You get a confirm that you want to remux without any edits and then the save as dialog.

There is one particular S2 model that doesn't handle 16x9 properly. That might be it. Search a couple years back on posts from JustinThyme who did some charts, etal. about this.


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

Just for reference in this thread. Divx, Xvid, MKV and MP4 all retain the DD5.1 surround soundtrack. If the conversion loses it, its the software doing the conversion that likely has setting wrong. Also, all the above formats support any resolution you ask them too. MKV and MP4 are routinely used for HD at 1920x1080 because of the smaller file sizes. Do not confuse resolution or content with the encoding format, one does not equal the other. You are correct that each recode loses some detail. If you are going to use the file in MPEG-2 on your Tivo, you should keep the source files as Mpeg2, not convert to some other form and back just to save space.



stevereis said:


> Converting to DiVx or other formats is nice to save storage on the PC side but you lose quality in the transcode and lose surround sound as others have noted. You also lose quality on the conversion back to MPEG2 that is done to stream to the TiVo. (I think I have seen posted here that the resolution is only 480x480..)
> 
> .


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## stevereis (Feb 24, 2006)

Thanks for clarifying that audio can be retained. I use DivX (via AutoGK) to transcode video to AVI for playback on my Archos AV500 and, in this case, I only get MP3 stereo audio.

It's certainly true that you'll get some quality loss transcoding a 5+ GB MPEG2 file to 1GB MPEG4 file, no matter how good the encoder is. The big kicker is the TTCB transcoding back to MPEG2. Regardless of the resolution of the PC file, TTCB only gives you a 480x480 MPEG2 file (capped at 2 Mbps) back to the TiVo. So, you have significant resolution loss from the 720x480 DVD MPEG2 file. I tried playing around with editing the TTCB .dll to keep the resolution and bitrate high but every settng resulted in a worse looking files than the default. 

As I noted before, my Humax DVD unit does not like the DVD files directly due to the aspect ratio hitch. (FYI, it is just an AR issue. I can change the AR of the file to 4:3 with VideoReDo and the resulting file plays fine the Humax, but the AR is wrong.) So, the transcode/TTCB seemed like the ideal solution to conserve some PC HDD space AND enable playback on ALL my TiVos. However, I was disappointed with the TTCB quality.


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## HDTiVo (Nov 27, 2002)

Is there an issue of $$ for audio codec license when going from mpeg-2 to mpeg-4 and keeping the DD5.1 audio? Maybe the software you folks have doesn't do it because of that?


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## erikg (Aug 20, 2007)

I've been using Handbrake to convert the decrypted dvd to H.264 and keeping the AC3 (5.1) audio stream intact as it is an option. But depending how I save the file, I usually end up with the denied message (copyright etc..) I've tried an AVI file with H.264 and AC3 and it plays fine on my pc, Series 3 is a no. Comes up flagged. Convert it to a mp4 with mpeg4 and ac3 it works, xvid and ac3 works with avi but I can not seem to get H.264 to work with AC3 inside of any container (avi, mp4 etc) Any one have any suggestions or successes?


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## mulscully (May 31, 2003)

Well I definitely don't want to encode/reencode twice... Over the weekend I used DVDdecryptor then and ran it through Divx Converter but the audio and Video were out of sync on the final movie.......

So if I am reading all this correctly and HardDrive Space is not an issue then we are best to just use DVDdecryptor, will give 1 big file.. then use VideoRedo to open and save as a mpg...

(optional) use DVD shrink between DVDdecryptor and Video redo to shave some of the file size...

I will still need the plus version of tivo desktop correct? or can I use galleon to get them to the tivo..

Admittly with this method each movie may be 4 - 6 GB in size...but with dive space being cheap and all...


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## jtown0620 (Jun 17, 2004)

stevereis said:


> All you typically need is DVDShrink to rip and combine the audio and video streams with an optional shrink, yet still retain the 5.1 sound and, because it's still MPEG2, there are no transcoding or frame size changes to reduce quality. FYI, Dave Zatz has an old tutorial on his blog for using just DVDShrink:
> http://www.zatznotfunny.com/dvdshrink.htm


How do you change the file from .VOB to .mpg. I'm obviously a novice and I renamed the file but I keep getting .mpg.VOB and it doesnt see the file on my TiVo. Thank you for the help.


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## rkleim (Nov 29, 2002)

As long as dvdshrink can decrypt the dvd, use it alone. See the Zatz procedure above. I rip all my dvds to HD using dvdshrink to get 4.3G output ready for writing to disk. Then I can use dvdshrink as zatz shows, with NO added compression, to produce one big .vob file in my tivo folder, which I then rename with a .mpg suffix. From tivo just transfer and you can watch it as it transfers. 

This way I have the writable file stored for whatever, and only need to do the shrink to one file step when I need it. With no added compression, it takes about 3 minutes to combine into one file. Then you can just watch on tivo as it downloads. This requires only about a 5 minute lead time to do before watching. I then delete the one vob/tivo/mpg file on the computer and keep the original ripped 4.3G. 

This way, I have full 5.1 surround coming out, and if I did no compression on the initial rip, I would have a very high quality show. With my compress to 4.3G, I still have a superlative experience.

Please note that this way is EASY and quick. Even if you need dvddecrypter or something like magic dvd ripper, the output file can be treated just as above with dvdshring to make one vob/mpg.

KISS!


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## rkleim (Nov 29, 2002)

renaming files on windows is a separate question. You need to open any directory, go to tools menu, folder options, view tab and uncheck "hide extensions for known file types". Then you can rename the extension as well as the file. You know it's right if win asks you if you are sure about renaming the extension.


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## mulscully (May 31, 2003)

on the zatsofunny link above he says to cut and paste the file not copy, does any know why?


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## jtown0620 (Jun 17, 2004)

rkleim said:


> renaming files on windows is a separate question. You need to open any directory, go to tools menu, folder options, view tab and uncheck "hide extensions for known file types". Then you can rename the extension as well as the file. You know it's right if win asks you if you are sure about renaming the extension.


Thanks I Googled it and solved my problem. This method works perfectly! DVDFab + DVDShrink. No more scratched kids movies for me  ! But even though the movie is on the TiVo my kids will probably hunt down the box and play with the movie anyway.


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## HDTiVo (Nov 27, 2002)

mulscully said:


> Well I definitely don't want to encode/reencode twice... Over the weekend I used DVDdecryptor then and ran it through Divx Converter but the audio and Video were out of sync on the final movie.......
> 
> So if I am reading all this correctly and HardDrive Space is not an issue then we are best to just use DVDdecryptor, will give 1 big file.. then use VideoRedo to open and save as a mpg...
> 
> ...


Hey, a convert! :up:

One benefit is you will not need TD Plus. $$ 

Realistically, if you care about video quality, you are not going to get anything close to 1GB per movie with any mpeg4 based method. Maybe you can save 20-30% beyond what you'd get using Shrink before quality suffers noticably. Again, HDD prices (even though stiff lately) have, and will become low enough to ignore mpeg4 solutions for TiVo purposes without incuring huge additional expense, and the quality will likely justify the cost.


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

erikg said:


> I've been using Handbrake to convert the decrypted dvd to H.264 and keeping the AC3 (5.1) audio stream intact as it is an option. But depending how I save the file, I usually end up with the denied message (copyright etc..) I've tried an AVI file with H.264 and AC3 and it plays fine on my pc, Series 3 is a no. Comes up flagged. Convert it to a mp4 with mpeg4 and ac3 it works, xvid and ac3 works with avi but I can not seem to get H.264 to work with AC3 inside of any container (avi, mp4 etc) Any one have any suggestions or successes?


Neither Tivo nor Tivo Desktop Plus software support H.264 codecs. Does not matter the container.

You would need to convert the H.264 video to a format Tivo can play. For the series 3 and THD you are better off converting from anything else to Mpeg-2 in high def and then transferrin the file to tivo. That way it transfers at full resolution rather than being down converted by TivoDesktop.


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

HDTiVo said:


> Is there an issue of $$ for audio codec license when going from mpeg-2 to mpeg-4 and keeping the DD5.1 audio? Maybe the software you folks have doesn't do it because of that?


Not really. For Xvid, AutoGK can convert your vobs and mpeg2 files to Xvid in an Avi container with AC3 audio with the correct settings. If your VOB files contain the AC3 audio already encoded. AutoGK is free, but its not my first choice as it still has some difficulties with audio sync issues. I use FairUseWizard for this conversion but seldom use Xvid any more. Mostly use MP4 or mkv now due to the much more efficient use of space.


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## mulscully (May 31, 2003)

ok my finding so far..

Dvddecryptor to decrypt dvd to 1 big vob file (6.x GB). the tivoHD saw it and started downloading it, I was able to start watching it, then went to eat to let it finish.. when I came down, blue light was off and the file was missing. went into the history and it showed the file as not transferred, selected it and it said the reason was that the file was larger then expected or it was corrupted..

Is there a file size restriction on the files??


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## elhuevon (Oct 30, 2007)

I am noob to tivo. I am trying to justify the purchase of one and if it will stream media then I maybe sold.

All conversion styles aside, how does the tivo see the media (avi, mpg etc..)? Is it through the tivo desktop/home media option? It looked like it only supported bmp/jpg/mp3. Or is there additional software for the tivo or the desktop.

Am I understanding that once the tivo can see my pc with several media files it will just play them? xvid, divx, mpeg and vob converted to mpg?

I have been in the converting video game for years just never had the $ for tivo but the streaming aspect has me intrigued.


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## jasonh4451 (Jan 20, 2005)

I've been doing the DVD to single VOB, change suffice to mpg, and transfer back to Tivo trick for awhile and love it. I usually don't even bother shrinking the DVD since we tend to watch the movies and then delete them. If it's something I want to keep, I'll copy it back to the computer, shrink it and burn a dvd.

Anyway, the one thing I miss is closed captioning. We watch allot of foreign movies and I haven't been able to get my TivoHD to display the Closed captioning. The data is still there because when I convert the same file to a DVD it plays with captioning.

Anyone have any ideas of how to keep and display the CC on the Tivo from a ripped VOB file?


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## ITGuy72 (Aug 10, 2005)

What would be really cool is if there were some way to transfer the DVD info from imdb or a similar source along with the MPG file. Something similar was done for Media Center called "My Movies", but that required software. This would require you to somehow 'trick' the TiVo into thinking the file is something it's not (a vanilla MPG file). Having said that I'm sure such talk is probably not permitted on the board..


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## mulscully (May 31, 2003)

Well if we could write the meta data to the .tivo file, then we could populte it wit the data from imdb..



Anyone doing the dvd to 1 big vob file have the issue I described above as it stopping for a file too large or corrupt


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## ITGuy72 (Aug 10, 2005)

mulscully said:


> Well if we could write the meta data to the .tivo file


That's the million dollar question that I thought might get us in hot water , although I guess you're not reverse engineering anything tivo has created, just mimicking it


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

ITGuy72 said:


> That's the million dollar question that I thought might get us in hot water , although I guess you're not reverse engineering anything tivo has created, just mimicking it


that was a hot topic a year ago.
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=300363&highlight=metadata

I do not think there is any trouble in creating metadata for a show you push to the TiVo. Heck you broke the DMCA laws long before you got around to adding metadata


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## HDTiVo (Nov 27, 2002)

mulscully said:


> ok my finding so far..
> 
> Dvddecryptor to decrypt dvd to 1 big vob file (6.x GB). the tivoHD saw it and started downloading it, I was able to start watching it, then went to eat to let it finish.. when I came down, blue light was off and the file was missing. went into the history and it showed the file as not transferred, selected it and it said the reason was that the file was larger then expected or it was corrupted..
> 
> Is there a file size restriction on the files??





mulscully said:


> Anyone doing the dvd to 1 big vob file have the issue I described above as it stopping for a file too large or corrupt


Dude, EVERYONE has the problem. Thus VideoRedo or whatever...


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## mulscully (May 31, 2003)

Ok Ok, I will purchase videoReDo.. I am new to this with the tivoHD


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## mulscully (May 31, 2003)

ok, got a trial key for VideoRedo, sent the VOB file through, still same error on the tivo.. I can start the movie and watch some of it, but when I come back to it the video is missing and the error is there..

Any thoughts?


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## erikg (Aug 20, 2007)

jcthorne said:


> Neither Tivo nor Tivo Desktop Plus software support H.264 codecs. Does not matter the container. QUOTE]
> 
> *confused*
> 
> ...


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## erikg (Aug 20, 2007)

Well if anyone wants to try it..... Finally got what I wanted and it seems like its almost like christmas.

I have an updated install of Handbrake, Quicktime and TivoDesktopPlus. I had to set the TivoDesktop to the highest levels in performance. (I.E. 300mb and High) Using handbrake I opened an ISO (of a dvd without CSS) on the hard drive and created a video.

Encoder: H.264
Audio: AAC 

After googling for a few hours I came to the realization that since I had to install quicktime for the mpeg4 to be converted to mpeg2 to work correctly that it was probably also Quicktimes duty also to convert the audio. Well, quicktime doesn't like AC3. Thats why none of my files played with TivoDesktop but with PyTivo they did. 

SO. With AAC theres an option for the audio in handbrake.

Set the bitrate to the highest allowed in the program (384) and Set sample rate at 48kHz. Then 
selected the audio track I wanted which was the AC3 (5.1ch) and selected the mix i wanted: Dolby Surround.

Converted video settings of 2-pass encoding with turbo 1st pass and a framerate of 29.97
Enabled chapter markers.

Saved as an .m4v.

Waited patiently.

Selected on Tivo Series 3.

Watched a movie with great video quality and dolby surround. All with a file size of around 1 gig. and with a 750GB hard drive thats about 650+ dvds! Thanks everyone for your insight.


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## mulscully (May 31, 2003)

erikg said:


> Well if anyone wants to try it..... Finally got what I wanted and it seems like its almost like christmas.
> 
> I have an updated install of Handbrake, Quicktime and TivoDesktopPlus. I had to set the TivoDesktop to the highest levels in performance. (I.E. 300mb and High) Using handbrake I opened an ISO (of a dvd without CSS) on the hard drive and created a video.
> 
> ...


This was on a MAC?


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## HDTiVo (Nov 27, 2002)

mulscully said:


> ok, got a trial key for VideoRedo, sent the VOB file through, still same error on the tivo.. I can start the movie and watch some of it, but when I come back to it the video is missing and the error is there..
> 
> Any thoughts?


You might be suffering additionally from a truncation/transfer problem that's mostly talked about in the S3 forum. I don't think anyone knows what is wrong yet.


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## mulscully (May 31, 2003)

> You might be suffering additionally from a truncation/transfer problem that's mostly talked about in the S3 forum. I don't think anyone knows what is wrong yet.


Do you know what thread that was discussed in?


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## adessmith (Oct 5, 2007)

So DVD decryptor can save one BIG VOB from a DVD?

I tried DVD decryptor with Star Wars ROTS and experienced 2 problems.

#1 There was like 7 different VOBs (How do I combine these with DVD Decryptor?)
#2 It seemed like the 1st VOB contained several different video's (The opening text was in more than one language, It would play a few seconds with english text, then repeat that section with another language, then another, then start the next few seconds... This made it unwatchable)

Does anyone know of any way to get around these 2 issues?

for problem #1 should I just use DVD shrink instead of DVD decryptor (It rips DVDs just like DVD Decryptor????) for a 1 step process? I'm willing to sacrafice the HDD space for full quality with 5.1 audio.


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## mulscully (May 31, 2003)

(..error in posting.. see next post)


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## mulscully (May 31, 2003)

> #2 It seemed like the 1st VOB contained several different video's (The opening text was in more than one language, It would play a few seconds with english text, then repeat that section with another language, then another, then start the next few seconds... This made it unwatchable)


yeah, I experienced this too, but it was when I used videoredo to combine them. when I used DVDdecryptor to make 1 big VOB, it did not do that, I figured it had something to do with me possibly selecting 1 too many vob files...



> #1 There was like 7 different VOBs (How do I combine these with DVD Decryptor?)


There are a few spots in the setting/preferences where you select how it will split the file, I choose none.. Not sure exactly where, not home at the moment...



> for problem #1 should I just use DVD shrink instead of DVD decryptor (It rips DVDs just like DVD Decryptor????) for a 1 step process? I'm willing to sacrafice the HDD space for full quality with 5.1 audio.


not sure if how/if DVDshrink handles copy protection/macrovision...


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## adessmith (Oct 5, 2007)

Started playing with DVD shrink... How do you combine several VOB files into one with DVD shrink? Cant seem to figure it out...


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## adessmith (Oct 5, 2007)

Nevermind, I think I figured it out. It was splitting them into 1GB chunks...


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## Speed RacerX (Jan 30, 2004)

jcthorne said:


> Neither Tivo nor Tivo Desktop Plus software support H.264 codecs. Does not matter the container.


Are you sure about that? I have TiVo Desktop Plus, and under the Videos tab, I get this:










Full Size Image


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## adessmith (Oct 5, 2007)

mulscully said:


> ok my finding so far..
> 
> Dvddecryptor to decrypt dvd to 1 big vob file (6.x GB). the tivoHD saw it and started downloading it, I was able to start watching it, then went to eat to let it finish.. when I came down, blue light was off and the file was missing. went into the history and it showed the file as not transferred, selected it and it said the reason was that the file was larger then expected or it was corrupted..
> 
> Is there a file size restriction on the files??


Are you using wireless or a wired connection?


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## adessmith (Oct 5, 2007)

Using DVD shrink worked well so far with star wars...
I had the VOB files still on my HDD from DVD decrytor so I used remote desktop to get on my home pc from work and install DVD Shrink. I loaded up the DVD files and created one VOB file from them. I renamed the file with a .mpg extension and it plays fine in media player.

It is in my tivo folder and hopefully it will work properly on the tivo with !!!5.1 audio!!! When I get home.
If this works like I expect it to I've got a lot of DVD's to convert over the next few weeks


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

Speed RacerX said:


> Are you sure about that? I have TiVo Desktop Plus, and under the Videos tab, I get this:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Sorry, I meant for HD resolutions. Also the mp4 container will have AAC audio and the Tivo cannot play a 5.1 AAC track nor can TivoDesktopplus convert it.

For non HD tivos, the 5.1 sound tracks likely do not matter much.

To get HD resolutions onto a Tivo S3 or HD, the video must be in mpeg2 format. Anything else if run through TivoDesktop Plus is downrezed to SD.

IF this fits your needs, I am sorry to have misled anyone.


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## mulscully (May 31, 2003)

adessmith said:


> Are you using wireless or a wired connection?


My tivo is hooked up wirelessly... Does that really make a difference..

I have been transferring files, they seem to get most of the way done.. them bam error message..

dvd->dvdshrink (no compression)->1 big VOB -> VideoReDo

I even sprang for the tivo desktop plus.

Any thoughts anyone..?


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## erikg (Aug 20, 2007)

Actually my audio streams fine with that being stored as AAC with the 5.1. And yes I'm only streaming non hd resolutions since its just a dvd. But the audio comes through beautifully in 5.1 and TivoDesktopPlus has no problems streaming it. I'm guessing that quicktime is decoding the audio too, and thats why I am seeing the stream rate above 15 megabits per second. 

Oh sorry to misled this is on a Vista Home Premium Machine.


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## mulscully (May 31, 2003)

it seems my problem is being discussed in this thread..

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=372342

so I think this is the issue, not the actual file.. i am trying it now with the tivoHD wired to the network


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## fred2 (Jan 20, 2006)

I seem to remember that there is a PATCH for Windows (xp? or others?) for moving/copying larger sized files. I don't know if this affects or could affect a pc to tivo transfer as the tivo is NOT a windows machine but maybe it is an issue even on the sending end. It is not a Fat32 or ntfs related strictly to size for those file systems but separate issue. I know this came up with trying to copy files to some mp3/video players.

You might search the MS knowledge base (and I try remembering more). Again, this might not be the issue in this problem.


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## adessmith (Oct 5, 2007)

Happy to report that it works GREAT.
I ripped all 6 Star Wars Episodes with DVD shrink last night. Each is ripped to a single VOB file and renamed with a .mpg extension. The whole process takes about 15 minutes for each movie.

The video quality on my 50" TV is EXCELENT and the audio is coming through in DD 5.1.
No buffer time is needed, and after a few seconds I can actually fast forward a bit (not much).

....Now its time to start shopping for a 1TB HDD....


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## adessmith (Oct 5, 2007)

stevereis said:


> All you typically need is DVDShrink to rip and combine the audio and video streams with an optional shrink, yet still retain the 5.1 sound and, because it's still MPEG2, there are no transcoding or frame size changes to reduce quality. FYI, Dave Zatz has an old tutorial on his blog for using just DVDShrink:
> http://www.zatznotfunny.com/dvdshrink.htm


OK, I dunno why I didnt read this earlier, I missed it somehow, but EVERYONE READ THIS GUIDE, this is what I started doing this weekend and it WORKS PERFECTLY.
I wish I would have seen it before. Although DVD Shrink is VERY straightforward and easy to use, it still would have saved me a bit of time. (Especially the "Split into 1GB chunks" option I missed initially.)

Thanks for the help everyone, this is THE solution I was looking for...


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## mulscully (May 31, 2003)

So here is what I found out..

1. I did not realize that when I logged off the computer, that tivo desktop stopped.. I was not actually transfering with Tivo Desktop, but galleon. I stopped the galleon service and all is well.. I will next try to start galleon with comeback disabled...


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## Georgia Guy (Feb 21, 2003)

mulscully said:


> on the zatsofunny link above he says to cut and paste the file not copy, does any know why?


I think just to save time. Doing a cut & paste takes about 5 seconds, a copy takes about 10 minutes.


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