# Fastest way to convert TIVO file to DVD w/ Mac Pro



## DougieBaby99 (May 11, 2009)

Hello, I'm new here and I'm looking for a little help. I want to convert a Tivo show which is in HD to a DVD using a brand new Mac Pro 8 core. I have Toast 9 Titanium for Mac which I used for a few shows, but I have one 18GB tivo file that is giving me problems. Every time I used Toast 9 to encode to DVD, Toast crashes at the 4% or 5% point. I also want to find a faster solution than Toast. The core utilization in Toast seems rather poor. Using the Activity Monitor utility, the highest CPU utilization that toast is using is 400%. My 8 core Mac Pro has 16 virtual cores (Nehlem Hyper Threading) and applications that are optimized for multicore will show up to 1600% core utilization. 

I just installed Win XP sp3 with bootcamp and I'm going to see if Roxio Creator 2009 will do any better in windows with this problem file, and see if other Tivo files convert faster in the windows environment. 

Speed is a BIG factor, more so than picture quality. I need to convert many large tivo files (15GB to 20GB) which are recorded from the Speed HD channel. Using Toast 9 in the Mac OSx environment, the encoding process takes a long time, 6 to 8 hours or so. I'm hoping there's a solution to harness the power of this Dual Xeon Mac to speed up the encode. Thanks for the help.

-Dougie


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## Frank Furter (Mar 28, 2006)

Tagging along. Similar needs here too.


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## DougieBaby99 (May 11, 2009)

I'm thinking of upgrading from Toast 9 to 10, maybe this will fix the crashing problem. I'll let you know what I find.

-dougie


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## Frank Furter (Mar 28, 2006)

Thanks Dougie - though I'm not as concerned about Toast (which I use) as I am an alternate and quicker method. TDM (TivoDecodeManager) no longer works on my 10.5.6 system, so I was hoping for some fresh ideas. Didn't want to hijack your thread, just along for the ride.


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## DougieBaby99 (May 11, 2009)

After purchasing the Toast 10 upgrade and installing, I ran Toast on the same TIVO file. Crashed at the 5% mark just like Toast 9. Also still as horribly slow as toast 9. I have a feeling there's no difference between 9 and 10, I just threw money in the trash! I'm sending the Problem Report to Roxio to see what they say.

-dougie


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## bedelman (Feb 26, 2001)

How is the free space on the drive where the "Roxio Converted Items" are being stored? This is in the preferences under the storage tab. You may also want to take a look in that folder to see if there's anything in there when Toast is not running -- the folder should be empty when Toast is done.

As far as speed goes, the El Gato Turbo.264 makes a world of difference when it's used by Toast (9 or 10) -- but I doubt that it would make a significant difference for an 8-core MacPro.


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## Yoav (Jan 13, 2007)

Frank Furter said:


> Thanks Dougie - though I'm not as concerned about Toast (which I use) as I am an alternate and quicker method. TDM (TivoDecodeManager) no longer works on my 10.5.6 system, so I was hoping for some fresh ideas. Didn't want to hijack your thread, just along for the ride.


Ermm.. can't comment about anything else, but iTiVo is pretty much TDM updated for 10.5 with a bunch more stuff thrown in. if TDM did everything you wanted but doesn't work on 10.5, definitely try iTiVo.


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## Yoav (Jan 13, 2007)

bedelman said:


> As far as speed goes, the El Gato Turbo.264 makes a world of difference when it's used by Toast (9 or 10) -- but I doubt that it would make a significant difference for an 8-core MacPro.


I'm doubly-confused. If you're encoding for DVD aren't you using an mpeg-2 encoder? I don't see how the ElGato will help with that.

Also, mpeg-2 is not THAT slow. Even on my 'garbage' dual-core machine I can encode mpeg-2 in DVD resolution faster than real-time. I suspect something else is going on that's slowing it down. Fwiw, it's certainly plausible that the multi-threaded mpeg-2 encoder in Toast supports up to 8 threads only. I don't know if ffmpeg has any similar limits, so you can always try that instead...


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## DougieBaby99 (May 11, 2009)

I have 771 GB available and the Roxio Converted Items folder is empy. This is on a second 1TB hard drive. Just for fun, I'll try changing the Converted Items location to the startup HD and see what happens.

-d



bedelman said:


> How is the free space on the drive where the "Roxio Converted Items" are being stored? This is in the preferences under the storage tab. You may also want to take a look in that folder to see if there's anything in there when Toast is not running -- the folder should be empty when Toast is done.
> 
> As far as speed goes, the El Gato Turbo.264 makes a world of difference when it's used by Toast (9 or 10) -- but I doubt that it would make a significant difference for an 8-core MacPro.


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## DougieBaby99 (May 11, 2009)

DougieBaby99 said:


> Hello, I'm new here and I'm looking for a little help. I want to convert a Tivo show which is in HD to a DVD using a brand new Mac Pro 8 core. I have Toast 9 Titanium for Mac which I used for a few shows, but I have one 18GB tivo file that is giving me problems. Every time I used Toast 9 to encode to DVD, Toast crashes at the 4% or 5% point. I also want to find a faster solution than Toast. The core utilization in Toast seems rather poor. Using the Activity Monitor utility, the highest CPU utilization that toast is using is 400%. My 8 core Mac Pro has 16 virtual cores (Nehlem Hyper Threading) and applications that are optimized for multicore will show up to 1600% core utilization.
> 
> I just installed Win XP sp3 with bootcamp and I'm going to see if Roxio Creator 2009 will do any better in windows with this problem file, and see if other Tivo files convert faster in the windows environment.
> 
> ...


After a week, I have a better understanding of what the problem is. However I am still searching for help to resolve this. This problem stems from a nasty thing my cable company is doing. I am trying to make DVDs from programming on my Speed HD channel carried by Verizon FIOS. This channel is broadcast in 720P on my Verizon FIOS provider. Often during a commercial break, Verizon injects local commercial content. It is this local commercial content that is causing the problem because even though the Speed HD programming is 720P, when the local adds are shown, verizon switches to 1080i, and then back to 720p when the national programming returns. As you can imagine this will cause all kinds of havoc! In my home theater setup, I have the Tivo HD set to Native video output and I let my Denon receiver scale to 1080p. Every time verizon switches resolutions my screen goes blank for a few seconds as the denon has to switch from 720p to 1080i, then back again. At first I thought this was just going to be an annoyance while watching the programming on the TV. Now I realize with almost 100% certainty that this is the cause for Toast to crash. During the encode, the first time Toast gets to a change in resolution it crashes.

So know where do I go? I want to contact Roxio and Verizon about this, but I'm finding it difficult to talk to any human on this matter. Well, that's about it. Thanks

-Dougie


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## Yoav (Jan 13, 2007)

Ermm. don't use Toast?

VideoReDo is known to fix these mpegs (on windows or parallels/fusion)
or try iTiVo on the mac but don't use comskip (I believe resolution changes confuse comskip too).


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## Ladd Morse (Feb 21, 2002)

this message was deleted as it contained erroneous information regarding output resolution vs resolution stored on the hard drive.


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## DougieBaby99 (May 11, 2009)

Ladd Morse said:


> You could also set your TiVo to output a fixed resolution -- 1080i or 720p. That way, no what what channel you are recording and what the network is doing vis-a-vis programming and commercials, you will always get a file recorded in a single resolution. That would solve the problem that Toast is having with the resolution changes.


I'll give that a try, but I believe that the Video output setting has no effect on how the TIVO box stores the data on the hard drive. I think the TIVO stores the file on the hard drive as a bit for bit copy of the data that comes in over the cable or antenna, as long as it's recording from a digital channel. But, I'll set to a 1080i fixed output and record something else on Speed.

-dougie


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## Yoav (Jan 13, 2007)

DougieBaby99 said:


> I'll give that a try, but I believe that the Video output setting has no effect on how the TIVO box stores the data on the hard drive. I think the TIVO stores the file on the hard drive as a bit for bit copy of the data that comes in over the cable or antenna, as long as it's recording from a digital channel. But, I'll set to a 1080i fixed output and record something else on Speed.
> 
> -dougie


So, you've spent over a week trying to get Toast to work. You're now about to try something that won't work....

And yet, you're unwilling to try VideoReDo (which is known to work) or iTiVo (which should work)...
VideoReDo has a free demo you can test with first. iTiVo is just free forever... So you don't even have
a cash excuse for not trying them...

Why the stubborn attachment to Toast?

ALSO:

A huge limitation on the speed of your 'rips' is going to be the tivo. No matter how fast you can encode it, the tivo is still only going to allow you to fetch about 1 meg a second... So a 20 Gig file is still going to take several hours to fetch, no matter how fast you can encode it...


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## DougieBaby99 (May 11, 2009)

Yoav said:


> So, you've spent over a week trying to get Toast to work. You're now about to try something that won't work....
> 
> And yet, you're unwilling to try VideoReDo (which is known to work) or iTiVo (which should work)...
> VideoReDo has a free demo you can test with first. iTiVo is just free forever... So you don't even have
> ...


I think my stubborn attachment to Toast is I already paid for it, and i I can stay in the Mac OS environment.

I booted into Win XP and installed Video ReDo. Working on the same tivo file from a week ago, Video ReDo gave me the error message "TN Video Thread: Video Dimensions Changed" Then it said I should perform a video stream fix, or something like that. Only using the free trial, the video stream fix only worked on the first 15 minutes of the program. Unfortunately after performing the video steam fix on the first 15 minutes, when I tried to re-play the corrected fixed I still got the error message, then the whole program crashed. I know I need to spend more time with this program but it's not looking good so far. That was about all the time I could take in Win XP because internet explorer was freaking out and windows started popping up by them self so I quickly booted back into Mac OS. I think I need to re-install XP again or just wait for Win 7 to play in the PC side.

Another idea I have is to use Toast to trim all the commercials manually, including the 1080i sections. This will be very time consuming but it just might work to make a DVD. Thanks for all the help.

-dougie


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## solutionsetc (Apr 2, 2009)

Dougie,

Do you have Final Cut on your Mac?


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## Yoav (Jan 13, 2007)

DougieBaby99 said:


> I think my stubborn attachment to Toast is I already paid for it, and i I can stay in the Mac OS environment.


Well, you can stay with the mac by using iTiVo: http://itivo.googlecode.com/ (and Toast to burn, or even avoiding Roxio entirely and using Burn: http://burn-osx.sourceforge.net/Pages/English/home.html)

Assuming you want to use ALL your cores though, you'll need to open the Prefs and select format: 'DVD', then go under Advanced, and add at the end of video options
(right after the word autoaspect) put

```
:threads=16
```
(or however many threads you want).

That said, I'm surprised the VideoStreamFix failed to fix your movie... I've only heard good stuff about it until now


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## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

Toast is toast in our household. I don't know how many times I've been lured in by Roxio (Edit TiVo Files! says the box...yeah...right) only to find their products to be half-baked, kludgey programs that should have never seen the light of day. I'm sure some of their products work, but none I've ever used. Toast Titanium 9 was my last investment with them. :down:

I also do everything I can to avoid Windows, but I keep a PC for two main reasons: winMFS for TiVo upgrades and VideoReDo TVSuite. :up: That really s/b TVSweet. It is and has never failed me. The only time I ever have problems is when the actual recording is corrupted and even then VideoReDo can often fix it. If an edit fails at the same place every time I have always found it to be the recording and not VideoReDo. I can usually go back and watch it on TiVo and see the small to obvious glitch at the very moment it fails in editing.

I actually popped VMWare Fusion 2 on my Macbook recently and loaded Windows 7 RC1 to give it a spin. (Surprising how much it looks and acts like a Mac  ). VideoReDo works flawlessly in virtual Windows...faster than it does on an actual Windows machine! It probably won't ever make it on to my iMac, but it's fun to play with on the not-so-important laptop.

In any case, I'm with the OP...don't want to mess with Windows if I can help it, but until they release VideoReDo for Mac, I'm happy to deal with it over Toast any day. (Dan?  )


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## Ladd Morse (Feb 21, 2002)

DougieBaby99 said:


> I'll give that a try, but I believe that the Video output setting has no effect on how the TIVO box stores the data on the hard drive.


 Of course you are correct. As I was falling asleep last night I realized the magnitude of my error. Video output should have nothing to do with the video data stored on the hard drive.

I suppose there is non-zero possibility that making the change might magically help, but if it did it would be just that -- magic.


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## DougieBaby99 (May 11, 2009)

richsadams said:


> Toast is toast in our household. I don't know how many times I've been lured in by Roxio (Edit TiVo Files! says the box...yeah...right) only to find their products to be half-baked, kludgey programs that should have never seen the light of day. I'm sure some of their products work, but none I've ever used. Toast Titanium 9 was my last investment with them. :down:
> 
> I also do everything I can to avoid Windows, but I keep a PC for two main reasons: winMFS for TiVo upgrades and VideoReDo TVSuite. :up: That really s/b TVSweet. It is and has never failed me. The only time I ever have problems is when the actual recording is corrupted and even then VideoReDo can often fix it. If an edit fails at the same place every time I have always found it to be the recording and not VideoReDo. I can usually go back and watch it on TiVo and see the small to obvious glitch at the very moment it fails in editing.
> 
> ...


I'm going to try Video Re-Du again, I think after I learn the software it will help me with my project. First I am going to delete Win XP on my bootcamp partition and install the Windows 7 RC1. I'm downloading the 64 bit version from Microsoft now. I think this will run better on my new Mac Pro than the 5 year old XP sp3. Wish me luck with the win 7 install.

-dougie


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## Yoav (Jan 13, 2007)

DougieBaby99 said:


> I'm going to try Video Re-Du again, I think after I learn the software it will help me with my project. First I am going to delete Win XP on my bootcamp partition and install the Windows 7 RC1. I'm downloading the 64 bit version from Microsoft now. I think this will run better on my new Mac Pro than the 5 year old XP sp3. Wish me luck with the win 7 install.
> 
> -dougie


Good luck. 

Am I to assume that iTiVo didn't work for you? Or do you just have a preference for software you pay for?


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## DougieBaby99 (May 11, 2009)

Yoav said:


> Good luck.
> 
> Am I to assume that iTiVo didn't work for you? Or do you just have a preference for software you pay for?


I haven't had time to try iTivo yet. I don't mind paying for software. I mind all the hours I've waisted trying to make this work. I'm going to figure out Video Re Do before I waiste more time with another program

-d


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## DougieBaby99 (May 11, 2009)

richsadams said:


> Toast is toast in our household. I don't know how many times I've been lured in by Roxio (Edit TiVo Files! says the box...yeah...right) only to find their products to be half-baked, kludgey programs that should have never seen the light of day. I'm sure some of their products work, but none I've ever used. Toast Titanium 9 was my last investment with them. :down:
> 
> I also do everything I can to avoid Windows, but I keep a PC for two main reasons: winMFS for TiVo upgrades and VideoReDo TVSuite. :up: That really s/b TVSweet. It is and has never failed me. The only time I ever have problems is when the actual recording is corrupted and even then VideoReDo can often fix it. If an edit fails at the same place every time I have always found it to be the recording and not VideoReDo. I can usually go back and watch it on TiVo and see the small to obvious glitch at the very moment it fails in editing.
> 
> ...


I got Win 7 running, it's actually stable on the Mac pro and runs much better than XP did. Video ReDo is installed. When I open the Tivo file it says "unable to open....... Tivo file open error, please check your media access key."

I have been unable to find where I enter the Tivo media access key. I actually see nothing about tivo at all. Do I need to install Tivo to Go in windows? So far I've been transfering all the tive files in the Mac enviroment.

-d


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## AudioNutz (Nov 10, 2008)

Yoav said:


> ...Am I to assume that iTiVo didn't work for you? Or do you just have a preference for software you pay for?


For sure!
I can't imagine why he won't use KMTTG or iTiVo. They're both free, both run on Mac without installing that PeeeCeee OS, and they both work.


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## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

DougieBaby99 said:


> I got Win 7 running, it's actually stable on the Mac pro and runs much better than XP did. Video ReDo is installed. When I open the Tivo file it says "unable to open....... Tivo file open error, please check your media access key."
> 
> I have been unable to find where I enter the Tivo media access key. I actually see nothing about tivo at all. Do I need to install Tivo to Go in windows? So far I've been transfering all the tive files in the Mac enviroment.
> 
> -d


Win 7 seems to be doing okay on my Macbook as well. I use iTiVo to transfer recordings from TiVo and you have to enter your MAK for it to work. The TiVo files have to have your MAK in the metadata for VideoReDo to work. You might need to check that VRD is set to open TiVo files. In Tools>Options>File Type check to see that TiVo files are enabled.

What are you using to transfer files from your TiVo to your Mac? If whatever you're using doesn't use your MAK the info would be missing from the file's metadata.


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## DougieBaby99 (May 11, 2009)

richsadams said:


> Win 7 seems to be doing okay on my Macbook as well. I use iTiVo to transfer recordings from TiVo and you have to enter your MAK for it to work. The TiVo files have to have your MAK in the metadata for VideoReDo to work. You might need to check that VRD is set to open TiVo files. In Tools>Options>File Type check to see that TiVo files are enabled.
> 
> What are you using to transfer files from your TiVo to your Mac? If whatever you're using doesn't use your MAK the info would be missing from the file's metadata.


Thanks, I entered the MAK and got that part to work. Still no luck with Video Re Do. Video ReDo crashes in Win 7 the same way Toast 10 does in Mac OSX. Neither of them can deal with the stream switching from 720p to 1080i in the middle of a file. Even playing the tivo of converted .mpg Vodeo ReDo will report the error before it crashes. When I have more patience I'll try iTivo some more.

-d


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