# .tivo to .mp4



## rehr0001 (Sep 17, 2006)

I've got an s3 tivo using strictly OTA. I currently record Seinfeld daily and move the shows off of my tivo and on to my computers HD. These files are recorded off of a HD station and thus are coming over 1280x720 and take up around 3GB each. I'd like to figure out a way to easily convert these into mp4 files to reduce the size and still be able to watch them on my tivo at my leisure. I am a newbie and so far haven't figured out how to accomplish this. ANyone out there that can help.

What I've tried:
Direct Show Filter Dump to go from .tivo to .mpeg
AutoGK to go from .mpeg to .avi (fails due to not recognizing the mpeg file as valid .. changing the file to .m2v will convert the video but leaves the audio out)
Tried to use QuickTime for the conversion from mpeg to .mp4 results in a blank file about 380kb.

I'm a complete newbie at this and my head hurts trying to figure out all of the terminology and complexity revolving around decoding/encoding of video. Please go easy on me.

Thanks in advance


----------



## smock9 (Jun 14, 2006)

rehr0001 said:


> I've got an s3 tivo using strictly OTA. I currently record Seinfeld daily and move the shows off of my tivo and on to my computers HD. These files are recorded off of a HD station and thus are coming over 1280x720 and take up around 3GB each. I'd like to figure out a way to easily convert these into mp4 files to reduce the size and still be able to watch them on my tivo at my leisure. I am a newbie and so far haven't figured out how to accomplish this. ANyone out there that can help.
> 
> What I've tried:
> Direct Show Filter Dump to go from .tivo to .mpeg
> ...


I am about to try this myself for the first time but whenever I want to convert video I use Super


----------



## sed156 (Feb 20, 2008)

I use MPEG Streamclip
You can use this program to open your .mpeg video (after the .tivo to .mpeg "conversion"), optionally edit out the commercials to reduce the file size even more, and then export the video to MPEG-4 (.mp4) format.

The quality of the resulting .mp4 video looks great on my iPod. Not sure how the quality will be when played back on your HDTV, though.


----------



## ihatecable (Apr 16, 2003)

Ive been using http://www.videora.com/en-us/Converter/iPod/ for a while and have been pretty happy, I have tried out Crunch by Roxio and it does the job (cost $10 after rebates).

On a sidebar, does anyone know how I can get my Tivo to play MPEG-4 (ipod) files?


----------



## sathead (Jan 12, 2008)

I edit the hi-def TiVo files with VideoRedo- save them as mpg2, then encode to H.264 (MP4) using MeGUI. It's a slow process, but I achieve a 50% or better file size reduction with almost no decrease in picture quality. 
Here's a really great how-to with links to all the software you'll need: http://www.digital-digest.com/articles/MeGUI_H.264_Conversion_Guide_page1.html


----------



## bedelman (Feb 26, 2001)

ihatecable said:


> On a sidebar, does anyone know how I can get my Tivo to play MPEG-4 (ipod) files?


I use TiVo.NET for this -- too bad the primary developer has been MIA for a long time now


----------



## sed156 (Feb 20, 2008)

ihatecable said:


> On a sidebar, does anyone know how I can get my Tivo to play MPEG-4 (ipod) files?


pyTivo will allow you to play MPEG-4 (and about a million other formats) on your TiVo.


----------



## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

rehr0001 said:


> I've got an s3 tivo using strictly OTA. I currently record Seinfeld daily and move the shows off of my tivo and on to my computers HD. These files are recorded off of a HD station and thus are coming over 1280x720 and take up around 3GB each.


As a public service announcement, I'd like to tell you that the Seinfeld reruns are likely missing *at least* several minutes of content from their original runs.


----------



## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

sed156 said:


> I use MPEG Streamclip
> You can use this program to open your .mpeg video (after the .tivo to .mpeg "conversion"), optionally edit out the commercials to reduce the file size even more, and then export the video to MPEG-4 (.mp4) format.
> 
> The quality of the resulting .mp4 video looks great on my iPod. Not sure how the quality will be when played back on your HDTV, though.


Streamclip sounds interesting -- I looked at the web site.

A couple of questions:
1. It appears to require a QuickTime installation in order to function. Is that correct?

2. Does the YouTube downloader feature actually work?


----------



## sed156 (Feb 20, 2008)

dlfl said:


> 1. It appears to require a QuickTime installation in order to function. Is that correct?


I'm running on a Mac, so I can't comment on the QuickTime requirements for Windows. Maybe someone that uses the Windows version will chime in...



dlfl said:


> 2. Does the YouTube downloader feature actually work?


I only tried this feature once, and, no, it did not work for me.


----------

