# No more free version of TiVo Desktop



## Allanon (Nov 2, 2005)

Just got an email from TiVo stating:



> Download the FREE TiVo Desktop software today
> As of June 5th, 2013 the free version of TiVo Desktop for PC will no longer be available for download. TiVo Desktop for PC lets you enjoy your music and photos on your TV. You can also transfer shows from your TiVo DVR to your PC.* Take advantage of this last chance to download the software for FREE!


You think they will have a replacement that costs money? Or are they just going to rely on third party software?


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## christheman (Feb 21, 2013)

Allanon said:


> Just got an email from TiVo stating:
> 
> You think they will have a replacement that costs money? Or are they just going to rely on third party software?


I just got that email too. I will probably just wait to see some test reports from others on here. I'm quite happy using KMTTG and then VideoRedo4.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

They already have a replacement that costs money -- they're continuing to sell TiVo Desktop _Plus_, now for $15.99. And, they try to imply that the non-Plus version won't work with Windows 8, and Plus will, though AFAICT there's no difference, and neither version has been updated since 2.8.3. (?) It's quite odd...

The email also suggests that they're shutting down the Mac version altogether, but there's no notice attached to that one here. Then again, it looks like they have the PPC version as the main Mac version, and another entry that says "Now there is a version of TiVo Desktop for the Intel-based Macs running Snow Leopard. Download this version if you have upgraded to the latest version of OS X!". So, they've not exactly kept up to date there.


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## ggieseke (May 30, 2008)

I think Windows 8 may be one of the driving forces behind this. Most versions of Windows 7 had MPEG-2 codecs, but unless you have 8 Pro with the Media Center add-on it's back to all the hassles they had with XP.

Dropping the price and requiring Plus makes sense to me because it gives them a controlled environment with all the codecs they need.


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## ferrumpneuma (Jun 1, 2006)

I wonder how much longer TiVo Inc. are going to allow KMTTG and PyTiVo to work.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

wmcbrine said:


> The email also suggests that they're shutting down the Mac version altogether


I think I misread this. It says "Q: What if I use a Mac? A: You will still be able to publish your photos and music to your TV and will continue to need Roxio Toast software to download shows." So, they're implying that the Mac version never did video. My understanding is that this isn't quite true -- that there's a hidden tab -- but maybe it only goes one way? I dunno, I haven't really used the Mac version.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

ggieseke said:


> I think Windows 8 may be one of the driving forces behind this. Most versions of Windows 7 had MPEG-2 codecs, but unless you have 8 Pro with the Media Center add-on it's back to all the hassles they had with XP.


Ah, this is the closest thing I've seen to a logical explanation. Only problem: They never said (nor do they now) that XP is unsupported. But, I guess XP is grandfathered?

It's still weird for them to imply that the non-Plus version won't work in 8, if all it needs is a codec. I know they want to dumb it down, but come on.


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## ggieseke (May 30, 2008)

Yeah, it's just a guess on my part but how many support tickets were created over the years because of funky codec problems?

MainConcept is almighty proud of those codecs, so TiVo may have cut a new deal with them to reduce the price of Plus.


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## wcbonner (Nov 11, 2007)

It's good to see a guess at least as to the reason for stopping support of free tivo desktop.

The Win8 lack of MPEG2 codec support in many platforms makes sense to me.

The other thing was that even under Win7 they didn't do a great job of hooking into whatever Microsofts' latest video path was, and were still working under the older structure. (Directshow vs Media Foundation?)

I'd always had problems under my 64 bit Win7 installation. I've moved to using VLC for most of my laptop video playback, so I don't have to figure out the codec compatibility issues in windows. I mainly used TiVo Desktop to move videos from my PC to my TiVo.


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