# Anyone try Desktop 2.8.1 yet?



## janry (Jan 2, 2003)

Being able to look at various folders on the PC from the TiVo will be nice.


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

I tried it, and will stick with pyTivo for now. TD+ transcodes my h264/ac3/mp4 files into completely unviewable programs on my Premiere. See attachments comparing TD+ with pyTivo.

Edit: Damn! I did pretty good at capping the same frame in VLC!


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

janry said:


> Being able to look at various folders on the PC from the TiVo will be nice.


Tivo Desktop 2.8 could do this. You just had to put shortcuts to the other folders/drives in the My Tivo Recordings folder.

Having said that, now it seems that along with being able to publish video from other drives/folders, you can also set up auto transfers. :up:

My question is: will MP4 videos transfer using the free version (Tivo will play MP4, right?)?


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## Phantom Gremlin (Jun 20, 2002)

orangeboy said:


> I tried it, and will stick with pyTivo for now. TD+ transcodes my h264/ac3/mp4 files into completely unviewable programs on my Premiere. See attachments comparing TD+ with pyTivo.


Tell me again, which is the program you need to pay for?


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## Allanon (Nov 2, 2005)

steve614 said:


> Having said that, now it seems that along with being able to publish video from other drives/folders, you can also set up auto transfers. :up:


Previous version could do that.


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## Breadfan (Jan 7, 2008)

It's not showing up when I check for updates. I have version 2.8.
Have they finally fixed the problem of not being able to transfer recordings from the TiVo to the PC?


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

Allanon said:


> Previous version could do that.


Not on the free version...


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

Breadfan said:


> It's not showing up when I check for updates. I have version 2.8.





TiVoJerry said:


> **Unfortunately the "check for updates now" functionality was broken in 2.7 and 2.8, so you'll have to download the new version manually.


http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=7970553#post7970553


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## bschuler2007 (Feb 25, 2007)

lol.. check for updates was broken. That is too funny. QA and bug checking must have been broken too, lol.

Loaded new version.. yeah.. Pytivo is the way to go.. but will give this a shot once in awhile. Since it will never do transfers better then free software, they should just concentrate on zoom-able HD Photos and album flow Music IMHO.


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## BankZ (Aug 16, 2007)

I tried to try Pytivo, but I couldn't even figure out which version I should download. Seems like a mess to me.


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

BankZ said:


> I tried to try Pytivo, but I couldn't even figure out which version I should download. Seems like a mess to me.


Hmm. Doesn't seem like a pyTivo fail, but rather a cogitation fail.


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## jrm01 (Oct 17, 2003)

OK. I was happy with 2.3 for these many years since I didn't use it for anything except copying back and forth from tivo to pc. But new Norton install threw away one of my files so I decided to just update to 2.8, using the Search for Updates.

Everything went well except my NPL on Desktop is now empty. What happened.


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

jrm01 said:


> OK. I was happy with 2.3 for these many years since I didn't use it for anything except copying back and forth from tivo to pc. But new Norton install threw away one of my files so I decided to just update to 2.8, using the Search for Updates.
> 
> Everything went well except my NPL on Desktop is now empty. What happened.


It could be that your "My TiVo Recordings" folder got moved, or disassociated in some manner. I know I moved mine from "My Documents" to a much bigger harddrive.


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## jrm01 (Oct 17, 2003)

I just checked. The "My TiVo Recordings" folder is still listed under My Documents. When I check it with Explore it shows that all of the recordings are there. When I check TiVo Desktop File Settings it is looking right there for the folder. Yet the Desktop shows no files in the folder.


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

How about creating a new .tivo file in it? I just tested a theory by adding a new 0 byte text document, then renaming it to "Fake.TiVo.File.tivo", and it showed up immediately in TD. Perhaps creating a new file in My TiVo Recordings will wake up the little file watcher that TD uses?


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## jrm01 (Oct 17, 2003)

I just found a duplicate copy of MyTiVoRecordings. One under My Documents and another other my Name and then My Documents. I copied the old one to the new one, but said no to the dupicate desktop.ini file (didn't copy it). Everything now shows up OK. Just need to test to see if I screwed up anything else.


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

I think the desktop.ini file is only there to allow Windows to set the Folder Icon to the little TiVo dude, so you're not missing anything there...


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## TolloNodre (Nov 3, 2007)

bschuler2007 said:


> QA and bug checking must have been broken too, lol.


Please - been doing QA for 12+ years. Just because bugs are found, doesn't mean the suits don't decide to ship it anyway...


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## janry (Jan 2, 2003)

orangeboy said:


> Hmm. Doesn't seem like a pyTivo fail, but rather a cogitation fail.


He & I are in the same dementia boat because I completely failed to comprehend what is going on with pyTiVo also. Use this, no use that, use the installer, no don't use the installer. I just decided if the instructions are so incompresensible to me, then I'd never figure out the program.


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

janry said:


> He & I are in the same dementia boat because I completely failed to comprehend what is going on with pyTiVo also. Use this, no use that, use the installer, no don't use the installer. I just decided if the instructions are so incompresensible to me, then I'd never figure out the program.


Here is a single page of instructions that someone put together:
http://scottsoapbox.com/2010/04/20/pytivo-install-instructions/


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## janry (Jan 2, 2003)

orangeboy said:


> Here is a single page of instructions that someone put together:
> http://scottsoapbox.com/2010/04/20/pytivo-install-instructions/


Yes I've seen that, but in the main thread there is a comment by the owner of one of the branches not to use the old installer program. Maybe I'm reading his comment out of context but I decided to hold off. Maybe one day I'll look again but for now, I'm  and not needing the program that bad.

Not meaning to slam the folks maintaining the program but it does seem a bit disjointed. But than again, maybe it's just because I'm over 50.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

pyTiVo is great, but very difficult for the average Joe to setup. The fact that there is an entire page dedicated to explaining how to install it only goes to prove that. TiVo Desktop is easy to install/setup, but leaves much to be desired in terms of quality and performance. Unfortunately there is no real money in this product so no one is willing to invest the time effort required to develop a product that incorporates the best of both worlds. 

I personally wish TiVo would just reboot the whole TD project and start over with the goal of creating a product as robust as pyTiVo but with the simple UI and setup of TD. Unfortunately I don't think TiVo cares enough about TD to ever do that. In fact TD is not even developed by TiVo anymore. It's developed by a 3rd party company who is contracted on an as needed basis. Obviously if TiVo is not willing to invest in actual staff to develop the product then they're not willing to invest what it would take for a complete ground up rewrite.

Dan


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## Zarkol (Jun 20, 2010)

I guess I should have known a few years ago when I first bought my TiVo that support and product development wasn't going to be a top priority for TiVo Desktop. I remember just before Christmas TiVo advertised their DVR and pushed the whole TiVoToGo thing mentioning the Sony PSP specificly in the TV ad. I got TiVo for Christmas (I guess my hints were obvious enough) and guess what? TiVoToGo for the PSP was still under development. A year later there was still no way TiVo Desktop could convert for the Sony PSP. Of course, by then, I was using freeware to do the conversion. When TiVo Desktop Plus came out I started using it even though I had to pay another $25 to be able to convert from within TiVo Desktop. It was just easier and could be automated more. That whole thing along with how often the program and the server failed are all give-aways. TiVo just does not do whatever it takes to make TiVo Desktop (Plus) a slick and easy and bulletproof and fun product. Oh well, I can get it to work on most days so I guess that's enough.


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## Andrewp75 (Aug 4, 2004)

I deleted Roxio and now I cant see Tivo Desktop and Pytivo on my TIvos. Do they need Roxio to work??


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

No. However it may have reset something. Just reinstall TD and reset your MAK.

Dan


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## DBLClick (Aug 20, 2007)

I upgraded to 2.8.1 on Monday. I found it fixed several minor issues that I had with 2.8 The first one was the server home folder can now be moved to another folder. 

It's worth the upgrade if you are a TIVO Desktop user.


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

I tried it but on Win 7 I can't play .Tivo files on my PC. I never bothered trying playing them back since I made the switch to Win 7 so I don't know if it is a TD or Win 7 issue.


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