# Watch Win7 recorded TV on TiVo



## RayKC (Oct 22, 2009)

What is the easiest way to watch TV programs recorded using Windows 7 - Windows Media Center?

I have a Series 2 and Series 3 TiVo units. I have a PC with multiple TV tuners that powers a HD projector. I have a HP MediaSmart Windows Home Server as well.

Here are my goals:
1) Output Win7-WMC recorded TV to my WHS in a format that can be played on the TiVo units without requiring transcoding. The problem is that I don't know how to change the recording format in Win7-WMC. The current output is .wtv.
2) If I am unable pick the output format of the recorded tv, then I want to convert/transcode the .wtv file to a format that the TiVo units can play BEFORE transferring the files to the my WHS for storage.

I have installed python and pyTiVo on the win7-WMC PC. I am able to select TiVo recordings from one TiVo unit and transfer to another using PyTiVo. However, I cannot view any win7-WMC .wtv files in PyTiVo for transfer to any TiVo unit though.

I'm sure others have done this before but I'm unable to find through google searches and searches on this forum.

Thanks for your help.

Ray


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

You need to convert to MPEG2 (.mpg) or H.264(.mp4). Here is a table of compatible files for pyTiVo (and StreamBaby):

http://code.google.com/p/streambaby/wiki/video_compatibility

First you need to find out what video and audio encodings are contained in your WTV files. For example, mpeg2 video is common in the USA but H.264 is common in Europe. I recommend you free-trial VideoReDo TVSuite4, which can process WTV files. Download here:

http://www.videoredo.net/msgBoard/showthread.php?t=17563

Then register via the (help?) menu for the uncrippled free trial. Load one of your WTV's into TVS4 and hit Ctrl-L, then click the button to copy the info into the clipboard, and post here. The best conversion process depends on this info.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

Simply convert wtv files to dvr-ms first using a tool such as described here, then many of the popular encoders including ffmpeg can be used, or you can further convert to mpeg2 format which is the best format for playback on TiVo using dvrmstoolbox or other tools (including ffmpeg).


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

Yeah I need to play around with this and test it. I wish I could convince Moyekj to implement it somehow into KMTTG.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

innocentfreak said:


> Yeah I need to play around with this and test it. I wish I could convince Moyekj to implement it somehow into KMTTG.


 I don't have a Win 7 MCE machine with tuners to experiment with. I have Vista which includes MCE but no tuner, and disabled most MCE functions since they were giving me trouble a while back and I wasn't using it anyway, so I don't have good environment to generate and test wtv conversions. However if you can come up with proven command line tools to do the desired conversions it's easy enough to make an encoding profile in kmttg to automate it or even perhaps some kind of formal integration into kmttg.


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

Good to know. I will see what I can figure out since once my Ceton infiniTV 4 comes in I would prefer to convert them so I can watch them via the TiVo.

This is for dlfl


File Name: D:\Sons of Tucson_WTVTDT_2010_06_06_19_25_00.wtv
File Size: 4498915328 ( 4.19 GB )
Program Duration: 00:39:57.58
File Type: MCE
Encoding: MPEG2
Video stream Id: xE0
Encoding Dimensions: 1280 x 720
Display Size: 1280 x 720
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Frame Rate: 59.94 FPS
Bit Rate: 19.000 Mbps
VBV_Buffer: 976 KB
Profile: Main/High
Progressive: Progressive Only
Chroma: 4:2:0
Audio Format: 2.0
Audio Stream Id: Raw PS1
Audio Bit Rate: 192 Kbps
Audio Sampling Rate: 48000 Hz
TS Mux Rate (bps): -1
Est. video bit rate: 14.230 (Mbps)


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

Looks like there are command line tools already for wtv -> dvrms. Just Google wtvconverter.exe. From there it should be easy to convert to mpeg2 program stream container without transcoding (copy audio and copy video) using ffmpeg or mencoder. One issue that may come up is A/V sync however since the above steps involve demux->remux->demux->remux and we know that digital recordings tend to have glitches in them, so could well be that VRD QS Fix should be in the mix. As dlfl pointed out the latest beta versions of VRD do accept wtv format already, so one could do a QS Fix and save as mpeg2 program stream all in one or 2 steps using VRD batch capabilities. Of course that means forking out around $100 if you don't already have latest VRD.


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

Yeah that is what I am finding. My knowledge on the subject though is so lacking that I tend to not really grasp all that I read since it isn't anything I have ever looked into before.

My end goal is to pretty much automatically convert all WTV files to MPG2 which seems to be the easiest format to push/pull to TiVo. Even better if I can mix in some commercial skipping in there in the process it would be nice. Of course I may end up having to rename them manually into a SXXEXX format just so I can keep track of the correct order since I tend to always be behind on shows.


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

moyekj said:


> Simply convert wtv files to dvr-ms first using a tool such as described here, then many of the popular encoders including ffmpeg can be used, or you can further convert to mpeg2 format which is the best format for playback on TiVo using dvrmstoolbox or other tools (including ffmpeg).


If you have Win7 WMC all you have to do to convert to dvrms is right click on the file name and click "Convert to DVR-MS". This conversion is very fast but will only work if the WTV file contains MPEG2 rather than H.264. But the OP's videos do contain mpeg2 it seems (likely in the USA at least).

You can run the WMC converter in command line mode. The executable is located in c:\windows\eHome and is named WtvConverter.exe. Arguments are just the input and output file (complete) paths. Unfortunately it appears the output messages go to console only -- I was unable to redirect them either to stdout or stderr. But basically it either works or doesn't. If it works, the converted file appears. As far as kmttg usage goes, I think this converter only exists with Win7 WMC and I don't believe you can download it or copy it from a Win7 machine and get it to work elsewhere. It depends on a number of other dll's I suppose.


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

innocentfreak said:


> Yeah that is what I am finding. My knowledge on the subject though is so lacking that I tend to not really grasp all that I read since it isn't anything I have ever looked into before.
> 
> My end goal is to pretty much automatically convert all WTV files to MPG2 which seems to be the easiest format to push/pull to TiVo. Even better if I can mix in some commercial skipping in there in the process it would be nice. Of course I may end up having to rename them manually into a SXXEXX format just so I can keep track of the correct order since I tend to always be behind on shows.


If you're willing to purchase VRD TVSuite 4 (h.264), a free program I've authored, called VideoReDo-Autoprocessor (VAP) can do this entire process for you automatically, including generating the pyTiVo metaData files. TVS4 will read in the WTV files -- no external conversion is required. Post on the VAP thread in the VideoReDo forums if you want to follow up on this. Of course you can try it for free with the VRD free uncrippled trial


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

Thanks. I will give this a try while I have the trial. I am still waiting for my Ceton card so very few WTV files to play with.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

FYI. Using VRD TVSuite 4 latest beta you can already do it in kmttg as well. In kmttg under configuration VideoRedo tab enable "Show VideoRedo encoding profiles" option. Then for kmttg "encode" task simply pick "MPEG2 Program Stream" built in VRD profile. I tried it on a mpeg2 dvr-ms file I had lying around and worked fine, should work also with mpeg2 wtv files.


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

moyekj said:


> FYI. Using VRD TVSuite 4 latest beta you can already do it in kmttg as well. In kmttg under configuration VideoRedo tab enable "Show VideoRedo encoding profiles" option. Then for kmttg "encode" task simply pick "MPEG2 Program Stream" built in VRD profile. I tried it on a mpeg2 dvr-ms file I had lying around and worked fine, should work also with mpeg2 wtv files.


Isn't kmttg limited to processing only .TiVo input files? (The OP has .wtv input files). Just askin' -- due to some strange bias I have, I am not running kmttg.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

dlfl said:


> Isn't kmttg limited to processing only .TiVo input files? (The OP has .wtv input files). Just askin' -- due to some strange bias I have, I am not running kmttg.


 No, you can choose any input file(s) you want in FILES mode. The "metadata" task won't work for creating pyTivo metadata from wtv/dvr-ms files, but the "encode" task will produce mpeg2 file just fine using that VRD profile.


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## RayKC (Oct 22, 2009)

dlfl said:


> If you're willing to purchase VRD TVSuite 4 (h.264), a free program I've authored, called VideoReDo-Autoprocessor (VAP)can do this entire process for you automatically, including generating the pyTiVo metaData files. TVS4 will read in the WTV files -- no external conversion is required. Post on the VAP thread in the VideoReDo forums if you want to follow up on this. Of course you can try it for free with the VRD free uncrippled trial


As soon as I get PyTiVo working correctly I will seriously consider this! Thanks for reply and detail.


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## tluxon (Feb 28, 2002)

dlfl said:


> If you're willing to purchase VRD TVSuite 4 (h.264), a free program I've authored, called VideoReDo-Autoprocessor (VAP) can do this entire process for you automatically, including generating the pyTiVo metaData files. TVS4 will read in the WTV files -- no external conversion is required. Post on the VAP thread in the VideoReDo forums if you want to follow up on this. Of course you can try it for free with the VRD free uncrippled trial


Sorry to bring an old thread back up, but this is what I found when I did a search for "WTV" in trying to find a way to use WTV files with pyTivo.

I'm accumulating a considerable number of WTV files on my PC since adding two multi-tuner HDHomeRuns (one for OTA and one for CableCARD) on our home network. My primary desire is to find an easy way to get these files out of their WTV wrapper while using the metadata in the file properties for giving the files some useful names (like SeasonEpisode or EpisodeTitle).

Ideally, I'd like to be able to save the metadata to a pyTivo metadata text file, but that's not as critical as getting names that differentiate themselves with something more intelligible than a date recorded stamp.

What are the best choices? I have a number of editing tools including VideoReDo TVSuite4, which can convert the files in batch mode, but loses the metadata I'd need to have useful filenames. I browsed the above-mentioned thread VAP thread on the VRD forums, but its last activity was over 2 years ago. I've found this program called MC-TVConverter2 that looks like it might do some or all I'm asking for, but I'd rather not install something that has a superior alternative.

I use pyTivo and Streambaby to push and pull files to/from our TiVoHD's, but I'd rather manually edit them in MPEG-2 first (I have yet to find a commercial remover that I completely trust on all the programs I record, and for most sporting events I usually only keep minimally selected short segments as highlights or the most dramatic passages). I scrub in Womble because I can play the file fast handsfree and the clips are extremely flexible (can be re-ordered/grouped as desired).

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

I think you will find that VRD and VAP are still the state of the art and are well supported by thier respective authors here on the Tivo forums as well as at the VRD site.

The short answer is that VRD with VAP overlay will do what you are asking and have metadata for pytivo to send to your Tivo. Just needs configuration to get there.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

Modern pyTivo should directly support .wtv files, and read metadata from them. You can also use metadata.py to generate metadata .txt files from the .wtv files.


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## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

tluxon said:


> I use pyTivo and Streambaby to push and pull files to/from our TiVoHD's, but I'd rather manually edit them in MPEG-2 first


For that purpose, I would recommend kmttg. It's extremely flexible, and you can have it automatically create cut files using VRD (if you are running Windows) or comskip. Comskip can produce a wide array of cut files for use with various editing software, including .VPrj files for use with VRD.


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