# KMTTG Help



## southerndoc (Apr 5, 2003)

I would like to use KMTTG to back up my TiVo shows to my Synology NAS.

What encoding profile should I use if all I want to do is to have things on the NAS to put back on the TiVo in case of a hard drive failure or if I purchase another TiVo? I would like to back things up on a weekly basis.

I also have some Baby Einstein videos scanned into my computer to access on the AppleTV. Is there a way I can use KMTTG to place these videos on the TiVo to avoid needing to switch to the AppleTV? If so, how should I encode them to place them on the TiVo?

Thanks!


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## Bytez (Sep 11, 2004)

Is it possible just to retrieve the raw videos using KMTTG without encoding at all?


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## southerndoc (Apr 5, 2003)

How do I do that?


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

geekmedic said:


> What encoding profile should I use if all I want to do is to have things on the NAS to put back on the TiVo in case of a hard drive failure or if I purchase another TiVo? I would like to back things up on a weekly basis.


You don't need to enable any task at all for backup. With no tasks enabled kmttg will simply just download to a .TiVo file which can then be transferred back to TiVos on your network.



> I also have some Baby Einstein videos scanned into my computer to access on the AppleTV. Is there a way I can use KMTTG to place these videos on the TiVo to avoid needing to switch to the AppleTV? If so, how should I encode them to place them on the TiVo?


 Use pyTivo software to transfer any video to your TiVos, including the .TiVo files you created as backups using kmttg. For TiVo incompatible videos pyTivo will automatically transcode to a compatible format for you during transfer, so you don't have to re-encode to anything else in order to transfer.


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

You could just enable "decrypt" and then it will just be a .MPG and anything that plays .MPG will work. A .TiVo file is an encrypted .MPG file with the Media Access Key, so only the Tivos on your network will work on it.


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## kbmb (Jun 22, 2004)

I've started using kmttg to backup as well and I'm actually using the Transprt Stream Format to speed up transfers. kmttg's decrypt won't work on these but I have a copy of the old DsdDebug program on Windows that will remove the encryption if needed.

-Kevin


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## eboydog (Mar 24, 2006)

kbmb said:


> I've started using kmttg to backup as well and I'm actually using the Transprt Stream Format to speed up transfers. kmttg's decrypt won't work on these but I have a copy of the old DsdDebug program on Windows that will remove the encryption if needed.
> 
> -Kevin


While it slower, there is a benefit of using the PS format transfer as otherwise I believe you will need videoredo to decrypt them, not sure about dsddebug. It's not that much faster if you chose the slower transfer speed. If you use fpmeg in Kmttg you will need to use the slower transfer method, basically nothing else is necessary to decrypt if you use the slower transfer rate, just takes a little longer but we'll worth it unless you have a massive amount of recordings to transfer, it's only about 10-20% faster so with a hour recording, it might transfer 5 minute faster.

Also, with the TS format you might lose the multiple ac3 sound track and be limited to 2 channel stereo when converted, the slower PS format transfer will preserve the full digital Dolby sound track if it's present.


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## kbmb (Jun 22, 2004)

eboydog said:


> While it slower, there is a benefit of using the PS format transfer as otherwise I believe you will need videoredo to decrypt them, not sure about dsddebug. It's not that much faster if you chose the slower transfer speed. If you use fpmeg in Kmttg you will need to use the slower transfer method, basically nothing else is necessary to decrypt if you use the slower transfer rate, just takes a little longer but we'll worth it unless you have a massive amount of recordings to transfer, it's only about 10-20% faster so with a hour recording, it might transfer 5 minute faster.
> 
> Also, with the TS format you might lose the multiple ac3 sound track and be limited to 2 channel stereo when converted, the slower PS format transfer will preserve the full digital Dolby sound track if it's present.


Thanks for the info. Right now I have no need to decrypt.....the only reason I'm backing up is in case the Tivo drive dies.....I don't have any plans to move away from Tivo right now.

I agree, it's not a ton faster, maybe I'll turn it off to be safe.

-Kevin


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

The down side of PS .TiVo files is if you transfer them back as is to TiVo series 4 or later you lose captions. It's still possible to return them to TiVo with captions, but you'll have to decrypt and transfer back with pyTiVo and ts=on setting for that.


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## southerndoc (Apr 5, 2003)

OK, I'm an idiot when it comes to transferring files to and from the TiVo. I've never done it before.

I see there are some pyTiVo options in the config area of KMTTG. Will KMTTG transfer from Mac to TiVo, or do I need to download pyTiVo?


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

pyTivo is separate software that needs to be installed. Follow these instructions to install on Mac:
http://pytivo.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Mac_OS_X_Install


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## southerndoc (Apr 5, 2003)

I think I overheated the Roamio or somehow caused a crash while copying files to my NAS. Had rented a movie using On Demand, then hit the TiVo button and started playing Dora the Explorer when the baby awakened. It started playing Dora for about 10 seconds, then made a static sound, then rebooted. KMTTG was in the process of transferring files. (Wonder if I started watching a file it was transferring?)

This is the first Roamio reboot since the 20.4 update, so hopefully this isn't a hint of things to come.


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## southerndoc (Apr 5, 2003)

Nope, just had another reboot!


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## mwtvc3 (May 14, 2014)

kbmb said:


> I've started using kmttg to backup as well and I'm actually using the Transprt Stream Format to speed up transfers. kmttg's decrypt won't work on these but I have a copy of the old DsdDebug program on Windows that will remove the encryption if needed.
> 
> -Kevin


Looks like the original website that housed dsddebug (or is it dsdebug?) is gone; any pointers on where this can be found now?


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## eboydog (Mar 24, 2006)

mwtvc3 said:


> Looks like the original website that housed dsddebug (or is it dsdebug?) is gone; any pointers on where this can be found now?


Perhaps someone will help but I haven't heard of that, is that a old tool? If you are just wanting to pull content down off your Tivo? If so, Kmttg has all you need to decrypt .Tivo files.

I'm getting confused as it appears we at least three users doing three different things...

Geekmedic - it sounds like your reboots are the spring update issues, at least with the static noise lockup and reboot, also the spring update slowed transfers down a little too. There is options in Kmttg for pyTivo and it can use pyTivo to automatically push decrypted content back to the Tivo after say, commercials have been cut, it's not required but the two can work together otherwise Kmttg will just pull, pyTivo can pull and push.

For the Mac there cTivo I believe, but I know nothing about it other than: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=503495


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

I've never heard of dsddebug. Did you mean DirectShow Dump?

I can attest that DSD will handle TS-format .TiVo files.


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## kbmb (Jun 22, 2004)

wmcbrine said:


> I've never heard of dsddebug. Did you mean DirectShow Dump?
> 
> I can attest that DSD will handle TS-format .TiVo files.


Yeah sorry, that's the actual name of the program. The dsddebug was the installer file.

-Kevin


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## bankshot (May 28, 2009)

eboydog said:


> For the Mac there cTivo I believe, but I know nothing about it other than: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=503495


For simple transfers and decrypting/encoding, cTiVo has a much friendlier (native Mac) user interface than kmttg. I would generally recommend it over kmttg to Mac users who just want a simple way to get their recordings off of the TiVo.

However for the particular application of sending recordings back to the TiVo (later via pyTiVo), the current version of cTiVo has a bug that screws up the seriesId entry in the metadata text file. This means all shows transferred back to the TiVo won't go in their proper series folders unless you manually fix the text files. So I wouldn't recommend it for the purposes in this thread.

[The fix to cTiVo is very simple; I grabbed a copy of the source code and fixed it for myself. I just need to open a ticket with the developers to let them know about it...]


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