# DVD - MPG - TiVo



## justdarick (Jun 9, 2004)

I have tried to RIP several of my personal DVDs with DVD Shrink and then send them to my TiVo.

It starts transfering but all of them cut off after 1-2 minutes. The 1-2 minutes it transfers is flawless.

Anyone have a good guide or information on what I could be doing wrong.

-Rick


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## Re-Hash (Aug 24, 2005)

What kind of connection, tivo, etc. you have would be helpful for troubleshooting. If it's wireless, the connection may be dropping (try rebooting everything - Tivo - router - PC in that case). Below is a old thread on transferring:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=254588
and one on encoding (if you need it):
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=268174


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## justdarick (Jun 9, 2004)

Re-Hash said:


> What kind of connection, tivo, etc. you have would be helpful for troubleshooting. If it's wireless, the connection may be dropping (try rebooting everything - Tivo - router - PC in that case). Below is a old thread on transferring:
> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=254588
> and one on encoding (if you need it):
> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=268174


Thank you so much!

It's not transfering, I have it hooked up ethernet, so it should be good.

I don't understand the reasoning behind the whole converting guide though, if it plays at all, I don't see why I have to go through the process of re-encoding it.

Anyone care to take a stab at why I have to re-encode to get it to play longer than a minute or two.

-Rick


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## sageone (Feb 24, 2005)

from my experience, the file you are accessing on your PC has to be encoded exactly within the specifications on the tivo website - frame rate, audio/video codec, etc., etc.


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## miadlor (Sep 4, 2003)

When you use shrink, are you setting it up to save as a single file?


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## justdarick (Jun 9, 2004)

miadlor said:


> When you use shrink, are you setting it up to save as a single file?


Single file, I rename the vob that it outputs as mpg, it plays fine on my computer.

I transfer, it stops transfering after it completes 1-3 minutes of the movie. That portion plays flawlessly, in sync, and everything, it just doesn't transfer the rest of the movie.


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## miadlor (Sep 4, 2003)

In shrink's preferences:

Output files.........uncheck split VOB.

** also do you re-author for just the movie?


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## justdarick (Jun 9, 2004)

miadlor said:


> In shrink's preferences:
> 
> Output files.........uncheck split VOB.
> 
> ** also do you re-author for just the movie?


It's a single vob, I already do not split the files.

I re-author for the movie only, with no compression (However, I've tried with compression also).

-Rick


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## HDTiVo (Nov 27, 2002)

This is usually due to a problem with the audio format, ie. the DVD audio is AC3 and you have a regular TiVo that requires MP2 audio, or the bit rate is "wrong."


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Contrary to what the TiVo site says a standalone TiVo can play AC3 audio just fine, so that's not the problem. (if it couldn't then MRV between a DVD unit and standalone unit would be impossible)

It's most likely a framerate problem. TiVo requires video to be NTSC format at 29.97fps, some DVDs are in Film format and run at 23.976fps instead. Also if it's a foreign DVD it could be PAL format, which not only has the wrong framerate but the wrong resolution.

Dan


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## Re-Hash (Aug 24, 2005)

In DVD Shrink, you want to make sure you have only 1 audio stream selected and no subtitles selected, in case you are not doing that already. Also, you don't need to 'shrink' it for transfer (i.e., 'no compression' selected works fine).

Can you transfer anything else (perhaps some short "known to work w/ Tivo" test file from the web). Can you grab a show off your TiVo, unwrap it (DS Dump) and then transfer it back?

If your framerate is not 29.97, you can try DVD Patcher to see if you can fool TiVo into thinking it is. It has a place to change the framerate, as well as other stuff (like the aspect ratio).


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Re-Hash said:


> If your framerate is not 29.97, you can try DVD Patcher to see if you can fool TiVo into thinking it is. It has a place to change the framerate, as well as other stuff (like the aspect ratio).


I've actually tried that and it will allow it to complete the transfer, but it plays really erratically.

Dan


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## tfratzke (Jul 11, 2003)

Here's a guide.

DVD to TiVo


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## justdarick (Jun 9, 2004)

Thanks everyone, so far, I still have not been able to get it to go. One video had 5 minutes transfer, but then the same thing 

Anyone else have some suggestions?


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## HDTiVo (Nov 27, 2002)

Dan203 said:


> Contrary to what the TiVo site says a standalone TiVo can play AC3 audio just fine, so that's not the problem. (if it couldn't then MRV between a DVD unit and standalone unit would be impossible)


My experience has been not all AC3 will play. In fact, I can not even identify what parameters cause it to fail or succeed - I have success and failure with the same specs. I could not even say that 5.1 fails but 2.0 does not, nor that 192kbps works, but 448kbps does not.

Basically, when a RIP fails, I transcode with ffmpeg to something else (esp. MP2 audio, but video also) that generally works and almost always end up with a working mpeg.

You should use something like MPEG Inspector to see what the audio and video specs of your mpeg are. We might be able to help more then.


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## MasterOfPuppets (Jul 12, 2005)

Could try running your ripped file through Videora Tivo Converter just for grins and see what happens...


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## HDTiVo (Nov 27, 2002)

MasterOfPuppets said:


> Could try running your ripped file through Videora Tivo Converter just for grins and see what happens...


That's an easy interface for ffmpeg - ffmpeg uses complex commands. Definitely try it.


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## treaty (Mar 1, 2006)

Man I'm glad I fould this thread. This has been driving me crazy. I have this exact same problem with multiple files... they stop after a few minutes, no error's or anything they just stop as if the end of the file had been reached. I've been trying differfent encoding options to see if anything works but no success so far. Have you gotten anything working yet Justderick?


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## justdarick (Jun 9, 2004)

treaty said:


> Man I'm glad I fould this thread. This has been driving me crazy. I have this exact same problem with multiple files... they stop after a few minutes, no error's or anything they just stop as if the end of the file had been reached. I've been trying differfent encoding options to see if anything works but no success so far. Have you gotten anything working yet Justderick?


Videora worked for one, but not for another. Still playing around. I'll post an update when I have one.


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## treaty (Mar 1, 2006)

FYI
Videora is working for me as well... mostly. It allowed me fully transfer the two files I was having trouble with... but I'm still havng problems with some files. Sorta hit or miss. Thanks for the heads-up justdarick.


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## amathack (Sep 23, 2005)

I have read some of this thread and I may have a clue why some of the MPEG and DVD rips may not transfer.

On a tip from the posts, I downloaded MPEG Inspector to check some of my mpegs. I noticed that some of them had odd information like ratio was 1:1 rather than 4:3 or 16:9.  

I have played 320x240 and 320x480 on my Tivo okay but some videos skip or have video/audio pauses in them. Some are so bad that you have to delete them unless you want to watch them in fast or slow motion.

I noticed that one movie I attempted to transfer would never quite make it to the TiVo from the PC. On closer inspection, it had the 1:1 ratio. I am using TMPGEnc3XP to re-encode it and will let you know if this works.


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## JoeyImage (Oct 22, 2004)

Your solution is this:

Download a program called "DVD Ripper" (This is what I used) I forget who makes it, but you can Google "dvd ripper" and have a ton of options for software. So use that to rip the DVD to whatever video format you want, and use VideoRedo to convert to an MPG that Tivo can read. Save the MPG in your Tivo folder on the PC and Tivo will see it when you turn on the machine.


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## lafos (Nov 8, 2004)

I had trouble with DVD content making it to the TiVo, even though it seemed to be within TiVo's guidelines. I used VideoRedo and reprocessed the file to convert the audio to mpeg instead od AC3 and it worked for me. Ad Dan, that was on a Toshiba SD-H400 DVD player/TiVo box. Don't know why, or if VideoRedo did something "extra", but that seems to be the best method for me.


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## JoeyImage (Oct 22, 2004)

lafos said:


> I had trouble with DVD content making it to the TiVo, even though it seemed to be within TiVo's guidelines. I used VideoRedo and reprocessed the file to convert the audio to mpeg instead od AC3 and it worked for me. Ad Dan, that was on a Toshiba SD-H400 DVD player/TiVo box. Don't know why, or if VideoRedo did something "extra", but that seems to be the best method for me.


I made the same suggestion, and I have the same box. Apparently great minds really DO think alike, sir


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## sageone (Feb 24, 2005)

JoeyImage said:


> Your solution is this:
> 
> Download a program called "DVD Ripper" (This is what I used) I forget who makes it, but you can Google "dvd ripper" and have a ton of options for software. So use that to rip the DVD to whatever video format you want, and use VideoRedo to convert to an MPG that Tivo can read. Save the MPG in your Tivo folder on the PC and Tivo will see it when you turn on the machine.


Good solution...I would take that a step further and use Videora's Tivo Converter. It'll convert most media types to proper tivo mpg format. Works like a charm.


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## JoeyImage (Oct 22, 2004)

sageone said:


> Good solution...I would take that a step further and use Videora's Tivo Converter. It'll convert most media types to proper tivo mpg format. Works like a charm.


THAT'S it! I've been going nutso the past few hours trying to figure out what that program was...I remember VideoRedo no problem, but I was at someone else's house when I posted that and forgot the other software name that I DL'ed. haha thank you 

Yes, use Videora Tivo Converter. I've been using VRD only to cut out commercials, and Videora to convert to Tivo-compatible videos.

Thanks again Sage


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