# TIVO to IPAD



## lew (Mar 12, 2002)

I know how to D/L a tivo recording to my PC then use programs like handbrake and Videoredo to convert to an iPad compatible video file. I know how to use KMTTG to automate the process.

I don't know the best (easiest/fastest) way to get the video onto my iPad:

Assume the IPad is connected to my home network.
Assume I'm on vacation and want to D/L the video to my iPad via the internet. Looks like Gotomypc won't transfer files from a PC to an iiPad.

Some of what I'm reading doesn't make a lot of sense. Put the video in an iTune photo directory?


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

1. Download show via KMTTG.
2. Decode (if needed)
3. Encode using ff_ipad in KMTTG.
4. Add the .mp4 to itunes library, you can also drag and drop the files.
5. Connect ipad to PC by USB and drag/drop the files onto the ipad icon.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Honestly the fastest/easiest way to transfer on your home network is to get a new TiVo Stream. With it you can select a program directly from your TiVo and have it download directly to the iPad with no PC or extra steps required. 

When you're on the road you'd have to resort to using a PC. I think there are other RPC clients that allow file transfers. Have you tried any of them? What about DropBox or SkyDrive, those might help too.

Dan


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## lew (Mar 12, 2002)

Dan203 said:


> Honestly the fastest/easiest way to transfer on your home network is to get a new TiVo Stream. With it you can select a program directly from your TiVo and have it download directly to the iPad with no PC or extra steps required.
> 
> When you're on the road you'd have to resort to using a PC. I think there are other RPC clients that allow file transfers. Have you tried any of them? What about DropBox or SkyDrive, those might help too.
> 
> Dan


I don't own a Premiere. I can't see purchasing a Premiere and Tivo Stream just to accommodate an occasional desire to view programs on an iPad.

I'll try SkyDrive. Thanks for the suggestion.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

That OK. I don't want to push the Stream too hard since my job depends on people still using their PC in the middle.  You just asked for the easiest way, and it is by far the easiest.

Dan


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## txporter (Sep 18, 2006)

The only way that I know to put a video in the Video directory on an iDevice, is to do it through iTunes. The files aren't stored as whatever you decide to call them on your computer, but are renamed and stored in a random directory in /users/mobile/Media/iTunes_Control.

So, for 1. the easiest thing is to go and plug your iPad into your computer and sync with iTunes.

For 2., there are a number of different approaches to use. I have a synology server and I use their DSFile app to download shows that I have stored on my server to my iPhone or wife's iPad. It downloads to the DSFile app and it will launch the video player so I can watch them as normal (except it isn't totally as normal since I cannot video-out to a TV through that app like I can through the std Video). There are likely other programs that can download files into the app and then launch the video player.

Another possibility would be to set up a Plex server on your computer and then add the myplex app to your iPad. It is really pretty easy to do. You could then stream video to your iPad. This works much better on your LAN than over the WAN due to upload speeds and what transcode bitrate is necessary to allow uninterrupted streaming. If you have another computer wherever it is that you are trying to watch shows on your iPad, you could always download to that computer and then set up another plex...or just watch on the computer.

There are remote sharing apps that are supposed to allow video/audio to be streamed from your desktop to your iDevice (Splash Desktop, Pocketcloud, and others). I use Pocketcloud to VPN into my machine to do various tasks, but I haven't tried sending audio. I would doubt it would be fast enough to actually watch a video...but you could try.


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## lew (Mar 12, 2002)

Thanks.

1. Sounds like importing to iTunes then sync or Tivostream is the way to go.

2.My reason is to remotely transfer a recorded show and play the show on the road. I want to D/L the show, not stream. I suspect bandwidth might not be good enough to stream plus I might want to D/L the video but watch it in an environment with no (or inadequate) internet such as on a plane.

I tried SkyDrive it will stream but won't download. (I confirmed with microsoft support). Streaming worked fine at home (FiOS)....so what.

I then tried SugarSync. It lets you D/L (sync) the video. Offline you can click on the SugarSync icon and access the files you D/L. It plays it with QT. It should display on an external monitor. I'll buy the adapter and give it a shot.

Now I have to try to see how small I can get the file. The ff defaults on KMTTG and VRD both give me a file of about the same size, bitrate about 2500. Is that about as small as you can go and still get a video worth watching?

FWIW I'm using the iPad3.


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## ajayabb (Jan 12, 2007)

For me personally, I use a Slingbox at home to view all my media when travelling. I run the Slingbox app on my Ipad and can view programming on my Tivo and Home Network over wifi and 3G


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## txporter (Sep 18, 2006)

lew said:


> Now I have to try to see how small I can get the file. The ff defaults on KMTTG and VRD both give me a file of about the same size, bitrate about 2500. Is that about as small as you can go and still get a video worth watching?
> 
> FWIW I'm using the iPad3.


It sort of depends on what your original video was that you are coming from (mainly whether SD or HD and broadcast bitrate) and how much effort you are willing to put into your conversion process.

The most successful way to reduce the filesize is to edit out the commercials (enter VRD). You have VRD, but I am not sure if you edit out commercials or not.

The next best way to reduce filesize is reduce the target bitrate, for SD video I frequently transcode with final bitrates around 1000-1200 kbps.

Other ways to reduce filesize is to remove the duplicate frames or telecined frames or apply some denoiser to the video. I do this with avisynth. It can also be done with Handbrake (at least telecined frames can and rudimentary denoising).

*[SD Video]* If you already edit out commercials before transcoding, then you can try the kmttg profile called hb_tivo_sd_crf. This is a handbrake profile that transcodes using a constant rate factor of 19 (which I find to be transparent visually for SD video), inverse telecines the video and applies a very light denoiser. Compare that to the ffmpeg output and see if that meets your need.

For HD video, shrinking filesize can also be accomplished with resolution change as well as duplicate/telecined frame removal and denoising. The hb_tivo_hd_crf profile in kmttg is similar to the sd profile, but with the rate factor set to 21 rather than 19 (which seems transparent to me for HD video). It also is set up to inverse telecine video. I haven't actually used handbrake for transcoding for a number of years now, so I am not sure how successful it will be at removing telecined/duplicate frames for HD material. _(1080i material is broadcast as hard telecined video, while 720p is broadcast as 3:2:3:2 full frame dups of the original video.)_ This profile does not reduce resolution. I also use avisynth for this. I take all my HD video and output as 720p24*.

Anyhow, you should be able to drop the bitrate further and still have great looking video. Going the avisynth route is not what anyone would consider easy/quick, so I am not going to go into what all is entailed. Kevin also has some handbrake profiles that do adjust resolution (iphone/ipod/psp). You could use one of those and maybe one of the crf profiles to come up with a reduced resolution version with constant rate factor and inverse telecining.

Constant rate factor is a quality based transcoding algorithm that x264 (h.264 transcoding engine behind handbrake) uses to output video as a given quality level. The final bitrate will vary based on the source video. Broadcast television tends to have relatively low quality video already, so your final bitrate for that will be lower than for a blu-ray source at the same CRF number. You can adjust constant rate factor to hit the quality level you want. I would stay between 16 and 23 (the lower the number, the higher the bitrate). It is a float, so you can use decimals as well.

*except sports and UK sources


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