# What the most easy way to move a MP4 movie to a Roamio



## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

I have never moved anything to my Roamio from my PC, but I would like to know if there is a simple way to move a movie in MP4 1080p format to my Roamio from my Windows 7 64 bit computer.

Thanks for any help you people can give me (I want the easiest way as I am only going to do this a few times a year).


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## 2004raptor (Dec 31, 2005)

You can google pytivo or search the forums. I don't know if it's the easiest but it's not very difficult.

There's also streambaby. Iirc I couldn't set it up for some reason so I opted for pytivo.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

Or using the TiVo Desktop Plus software from TiVo ($15.99).


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

Mikeguy said:


> Or using the TiVo Desktop Plus software from TiVo ($15.99).


Will the TiVo desktop plus software move any *MP4* movie to any Roamio on my network ??


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

> *Supported video formats include:
> 
> *•Windows Media Video (.wmv)
> •QuickTime Movie (.mov)
> ...


https://www.tivo.com/shop/detail/desktop-plus

Of course, not if copy protection applies.


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

Mikeguy said:


> https://www.tivo.com/shop/detail/desktop-plus
> 
> Of course, not if copy protection applies.


TiVo desktop Plus worked great, except the close captions, how do you get close captions if anybody knows.


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## telemark (Nov 12, 2013)

This comes up on occasion, the answer might make you regret asking.
http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=522140
http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=488598

That said, you might want to process them on the PC to burn in open captions.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

TiVo Desktop Plus will recode the video to MPEG-2 which will result in a quality loss and a bigger file on your TiVo. PyTiVo can be set to copy the MP4 as-is so it retains it's original H.264 video which takes less space and incurs no quality loss. PyTiVo can be a bit of a pain to setup, but once it's working you never have to think about it again.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

Dan203 said:


> TiVo Desktop Plus will recode the video to MPEG-2 which will result in a quality loss and a bigger file on your TiVo. PyTiVo can be set to copy the MP4 as-is so it retains it's original H.264 video which takes less space and incurs no quality loss. PyTiVo can be a bit of a pain to setup, but once it's working you never have to think about it again.


Thanks for the contrast points. Had PyTiVo on an earlier PC and it in fact was a pain to get up and running--although it seemed like set-up should have been more 1-2-3; generally was fine thereafter. That PC died on me and now was looking to add the tech. to a new PC, but didn't know that I wanted to go through the PyTiVo setup again, and so have been considering TiVo Desktop Pro (which since my last experience nicely has come down in price). Your points are helpful.


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## sangs (Jan 1, 2003)

Does Tivo Desktop Plus work with Windows 8.1 on a Mac that uses Windows 8.1 with Parallels? Don't want to purchase it if it's not going to function properly in a virtualization environment. Thanks.


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## worachj (Oct 14, 2006)

sangs said:


> Does Tivo Desktop Plus work with Windows 8.1 on a Mac that uses Windows 8.1 with Parallels? Don't want to purchase it if it's not going to function properly in a virtualization environment. Thanks.


You can try downloading the Desktop free version first to see if it works and upgrade to plus later: http://assets.tivo.com/assets/exe/tivotogo/TiVoDesktop2.8.3.exe


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

sangs said:


> Does Tivo Desktop Plus work with Windows 8.1 on a Mac that uses Windows 8.1 with Parallels? Don't want to purchase it if it's not going to function properly in a virtualization environment. Thanks.





worachj said:


> You can try downloading the Desktop free version first to see if it works and upgrade to plus later: http://assets.tivo.com/assets/exe/tivotogo/TiVoDesktop2.8.3.exe


Or Bootcamp your Mac with Windows.


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## alleybj (Dec 6, 2000)

Dan203 said:


> TiVo Desktop Plus will recode the video to MPEG-2 which will result in a quality loss and a bigger file on your TiVo. PyTiVo can be set to copy the MP4 as-is so it retains it's original H.264 video which takes less space and incurs no quality loss. PyTiVo can be a bit of a pain to setup, but once it's working you never have to think about it again.


Is this actually true when all you're doing is transferring the file from the Tivo to the computer and back? I've never noticed any quality loss or artifacts using Tivo Desktop to transfer back and forth from the computer to the Tivo and vice versa, and the transferred file size seems to be roughly the same size as the file on the Tivo. I know there is quality loss when Tivo Desktop converts to another format. thanks


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## spaldingclan (Aug 22, 2012)

Plex is coming out for Tivo soon


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## b-ball-fanatic (Aug 5, 2003)

alleybj said:


> Is this actually true when all you're doing is transferring the file from the Tivo to the computer and back? I've never noticed any quality loss or artifacts using Tivo Desktop to transfer back and forth from the computer to the Tivo and vice versa, and the transferred file size seems to be roughly the same size as the file on the Tivo. I know there is quality loss when Tivo Desktop converts to another format. thanks


The OP asked specifically about mp4 files. If you're just moving mpeg-2 around, there's no transcoding.


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

Dan203 said:


> TiVo Desktop Plus will recode the video to MPEG-2 which will result in a quality loss and a bigger file on your TiVo. PyTiVo can be set to copy the MP4 as-is so it retains it's original H.264 video which takes less space and incurs no quality loss. PyTiVo can be a bit of a pain to setup, but once it's working you never have to think about it again.


Does the *TiVo desktop *or *PyTiVo* allow you to adj. the level of the audio on a MP4 movie, the audio level I am getting using the desktop is low.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

alleybj said:


> Is this actually true when all you're doing is transferring the file from the Tivo to the computer and back? I've never noticed any quality loss or artifacts using Tivo Desktop to transfer back and forth from the computer to the Tivo and vice versa, and the transferred file size seems to be roughly the same size as the file on the Tivo. I know there is quality loss when Tivo Desktop converts to another format. thanks


If it's a .tivo file then no. The only type of file that TiVo Desktop can transfer in H.264 format without recoding is a .tivo file. All other file formats that contain video that is not MPEG-2 will be recoded to MPEG-2 on the fly.

Also this only applies when transferring a file from PC to TiVo. When you transfer a file from TiVo to PC it will always be a .tivo file with the original video in it's original format.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

lessd said:


> Does the *TiVo desktop *or *PyTiVo* allow you to adj. the level of the audio on a MP4 movie, the audio level I am getting using the desktop is low.


In pyTiVo you can probably do this. It uses ffmpeg to do the recoding and you can adjust most/all of the parameters. For TiVo Desktop the recoding stuff is all hard coded into the product and there are no options to change it.


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

Dan203 said:


> If it's a .tivo file then no. The only type of file that TiVo Desktop can transfer in H.264 format without recoding is a .tivo file. All other file formats that contain video that is not MPEG-2 will be recoded to MPEG-2 on the fly.
> 
> Also this only applies when transferring a file from PC to TiVo. When you transfer a file from TiVo to PC it will always be a .tivo file with the original video in it's original format.


I got an MP4 movie off the web, played on my computer and TiVo Desktop pro xfered it into my Roamio, no problem, I then made a MP4 file directly from a DVD, I played on my Computer without a problem, tried to xfer to my Roamio and I got *will xfer when other xfers are done*, but I was not xfering anything at that time, reformatted to WMC and the file xfered without problems. I don't know the difference between any MP4 file, why would one xfer the other will not. If anybody knows the answer as when making the MP4 from a DVD I can change many parameters, I leave then at default.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

If you used Handbrake to make the MP4 make sure you use constant frame rate mode. By default Handbrake uses variable frame rate mode which is impossible to convert to MPEG-2 because MPEG-2 does not support VFR. (as mentioned above TiVo Desktop plus is recoding the video to MPEG-2) I think TiVo needs one of the standard frame rates to function. (i.e. 23.976, 25, 29.97, 50 or 59.94) A standard DVD should be one of the first two.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Since the video is being transferred to a TiVo anyway you could skip a step and just transfer the DVD directly. There is a plugin for pyTiVo that does this. Or if you need to use TiVo Desktop you can use a program that can rip a single title from a DVD and save to a single VOB file. (VOB files are basically just .mpg files) DVDDecrypter could do this. I'm sure there are other programs that can as well. Doing it that way will save the extra conversions and improve quality.


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

Dan203 said:


> Since the video is being transferred to a TiVo anyway you could skip a step and just transfer the DVD directly. There is a plugin for pyTiVo that does this. Or if you need to use TiVo Desktop you can use a program that can rip a single title from a DVD and save to a single VOB file. (VOB files are basically just .mpg files) DVDDecrypter could do this. I'm sure there are other programs that can as well. Doing it that way will save the extra conversions and improve quality.


The VOB option worked great, the 5.1 sound was also xfered, thanks for the suggestion Dan :up:


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