# Burn TiVo'd shows to DVD?



## nessie (Apr 18, 2010)

Is there an easy way to burn TiVo'd shows to DVD? I have a Series 2 TCD24008A, Tivo Desktop and a 15 day free trial of VideoReDo TV Suite. I tried transferring a show to Tivo Desktop then burning it with VideoReDo TV Suite, but just before finalizing the disc and it said something like "Disc Error!" Do I just have a bad disc or am I doing this wrong? It's just a blank DVD-R disc. Thanks for your help.


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

Bad drive or simply bad DVD disc.


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

If the error is happening within VideoReDo, you might ask your question over at the VRD forums...

http://www.videoredo.net/msgBoard/forum.php


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

Folks still use optical media? Thought those shiny little discs went to the Smithsonian along with 8 track tapes....


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## pmiranda (Feb 12, 2003)

DVDs are still handy if you have a player in your car or want to give a friend an episode of something they missed. Or for kid shows. Of course, a USB stick is way easier if you have something to play it on.


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## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

jcthorne said:


> Folks still use optical media? Thought those shiny little discs went to the Smithsonian along with 8 track tapes....


Well, of course they do! They make nice coasters. They also make a neat little fireworks display if you put them in a microwave oven.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

There are a few things you can try. First try slowing down the burn. Not all media can burn at your drives max speed reliably. If that doesn't work then you might want to try installing the SPTD driver...

http://www.duplexsecure.com/en/downloads

Reboot your PC and then go into VideoReDo, click Tools->Options->DVD and change the burner protocol to STPD. SPTD allows us to grab exclusive access to the drive which prevents other programs from interrupting the burn process.

If that still doesn't work let me know and we can try a few more tests to figure out what's going on.


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## Ariette (Aug 27, 2005)

jcthorne said:


> Folks still use optical media? Thought those shiny little discs went to the Smithsonian along with 8 track tapes....


Yes, when Tivo deletes without your permission programs you planned to keep for posterity! All I know to do is to get out my old Panasonic DVD Recorder and record the programs from Comcast on Demand-- if the shows are even available there!

See this thread: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=505679


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## christheman (Feb 21, 2013)

Ariette said:


> Yes, when Tivo deletes without your permission programs you planned to keep for posterity! All I know to do is to get out my old Panasonic DVD Recorder and record the programs from Comcast on Demand-- if the shows are even available there!
> 
> See this thread: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=505679


I have been using DVD+Rs too, as an extension of my regular DVD library, and have been happy with the results for years. If it is that important then just make a backup copy. There are basically two groups of ways to do this, and i see you already do one of them. The other way is to transfer the Tivo program to a computer first, then do some very basic work on it first and then write it to DVD. If you do it with a computer then you wouldn't need to sit through each and every show or movie to capture it. However, due to a random Tivo glitch, your way will have the greatest chances of working.

As per your shows "expiring" as you describe in your other thread, outside of the possibility of your machine failing, I would suspect that it is intended by your service provider as per your terms of service for those particular shows or movies.


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## christheman (Feb 21, 2013)

nessie said:


> Is there an easy way to burn TiVo'd shows to DVD? I have a Series 2 TCD24008A, Tivo Desktop and a 15 day free trial of VideoReDo TV Suite. I tried transferring a show to Tivo Desktop then burning it with VideoReDo TV Suite, but just before finalizing the disc and it said something like "Disc Error!" Do I just have a bad disc or am I doing this wrong? It's just a blank DVD-R disc. Thanks for your help.


I don't know if you are still around or not, but I can only suggest you use good blank media. Not all DVD-R media is the same. For starters, I use "DVD+R" media as it is a more modern adaptation of the DVD-R and reportedly better suited for media use. I use Verbatim AZO DVD+R. The "AZO" label is key, as these are their premium discs and are manufactured internally by Mitsubishi Chemical Corp (MCC). Of course there will be an odd "coaster" here and there, but not too often. I cannot recall having any discs fail after verifying each burn and ruling out the few discs that are DOA.

http://microcenter.com/product/193528/DVDR_16x_47GB-120_Minute_Disc_100-Pack_Spindle

http://www.amazon.com/Verbatim-97000-8x-10x-Branded-Recordable/dp/B005F2YPH2

On the other hand, I would NOT get discs from their value line. Instead of saying "AZO", they say "Life Series" and are manufactured by Ume Disc. These have a greater amount of DOA failures to begin with.

http://microcenter.com/product/327997/Life_DVD-R_16x_47GB-120_Minute_Disc_100_Pack_Spindle

Also I should mention the Taiyo Yuden brand, which is considered top of the line too. Again, I would recommend their premium discs - even though they make their own value label discs:
http://www.mediasupply.com/tydd5psp8-1.html

Sorry about the links going to different places and different speeds of discs, that is just what I happened to already have bookmarked.


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

All recordable optical media has a very limited lifespan. You are much better off storing on magnetic media drives, ie hard drive based backup. My point was that hard drive based storage, even in a NAS became cheaper than optical media long ago and allows you to store full resolution content along with other benefits. There just is no real need for optical media any longer.


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

Ariette said:


> Yes, when Tivo deletes without your permission programs you planned to keep for posterity! All I know to do is to get out my old Panasonic DVD Recorder and record the programs from Comcast on Demand-- if the shows are even available there!
> 
> See this thread: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=505679


I have NEVER had Tivo delete anything marked Keep Until I Delete unless I told it to. That aside, the DVR is not an archive library. Its local storage for immediate use.


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## WhiskeyTango (Sep 20, 2006)

jcthorne said:


> There just is no real need for optical media any longer.


Speak for yourself. I have plenty need for it.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

jcthorne said:


> All recordable optical media has a very limited lifespan.


Most manufacturers say that recordable DVDs have a lifespan of about 100 years. I know they can't know for sure, but even if they're way off they should last well past the practical limit for the DVD format itself.


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

jcthorne said:


> All recordable optical media has a very limited lifespan. You are much better off storing on magnetic media drives, ie hard drive based backup. My point was that hard drive based storage, even in a NAS became cheaper than optical media long ago and allows you to store full resolution content along with other benefits. There just is no real need for optical media any longer.


Comparison numbers please. You should include power consumption costs (including cooling). Bear in mind that blank SL DVDs can be had for as little as $16/100.


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

Dan203 said:


> Most manufacturers say that recordable DVDs have a lifespan of about 100 years. I know they can't know for sure, but even if they're way off they should last well past the practical limit for the DVD format itself.


I did not have much success with them, even high end ones, lasting much past 4 or 5 years with greater than 95% reliability. Was happy to see optical media go away.


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

lpwcomp said:


> Comparison numbers please. You should include power consumption costs (including cooling). Bear in mind that blank SL DVDs can be had for as little as $16/100.


Magnetic media uses no power in shelf state either. Only when spinning in ready state. Same is true for optical. And on a per GB basis, NAS is far cheaper than optical for power. (don't forget, both spin down when not being accessed as well and its pretty hard to beat 8 watts for 4 TB)

A single 4TB drive would be equivalent to over 800 DVD-r disks in capacity. So yes, I will concede the optical can still be cheaper but only if your media files are all 4.6GB or less which precludes most all true HD movie formats. And you really want to deal with THOUSANDS of individual discs? To each their own I suppose but once video progressed to HD, optical became of very limited usefulness and is fading fast from use.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

$25 = 50 DL discs with 8.4GB capacity = $250 for 4.2TB of storage. 

But honestly I agree that a HDD is a much better option for a personal collection of movies. I mainly use DVDs to give stuff to friends and family.


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

Dan203 said:


> $25 = 50 DL discs with 8.4GB capacity = $250 for 4.2TB of storage.
> 
> But honestly I agree that a HDD is a much better option for a personal collection of movies. I mainly use DVDs to give stuff to friends and family.


Your math is off by a factor of 10.

50 DL discs at 8.4GB each is 420GB, not 4.2 TB. Would take 500 DL disks to equal 1 4TB drive.

I used to do the same but when HD media became mostly too large for a single disc, I gave up and started using thumb drives to give to family and friends. I get most of them back, they always seem to want some episode or other...And they have gotten pretty cheap. Whatever works for you.

Later Dan.


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

jcthorne said:


> Your math is off by a factor of 10.


No it isn't.



jcthorne said:


> 50 DL discs at 8.4GB each is 420GB, not 4.2 TB. Would take 500 DL disks to equal 1 4TB drive.


That's why he said it was $250 for 4.2TB.


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## nessie (Apr 18, 2010)

Thanks for all the replies. I'm not that computer savvy so didn't realize you could burn TiVo'd shows to magnetic media.
In the end I just hooked up my DVD recorder to TiVo, pressed play on TiVo, hit record on the DVDR.


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

nessie said:


> Thanks for all the replies. I'm not that computer savvy so didn't realize you could burn TiVo'd shows to magnetic media.
> In the end I just hooked up my DVD recorder to TiVo, pressed play on TiVo, hit record on the DVDR.


Uh oh, I think your hard drive is burning!


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