# TTG on Mac, why no love?



## A-1 (Mar 12, 2007)

Is anyone here using the Roxio software? Why is tivo giving Mac users no love and not giving us a Tivo Desktop that works with video?

Yeah I know you can some what hack the Tivo Desktop for mac to put a video tab and your Mac in the Now playing list but you can't doing anything with it. No, transfers from Tivo to Mac, No Transfers from Mac to Tivo (or at least i have yet to find a video format that will show up Mpeg 2, 4,)


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## Graymalkin (Mar 20, 2001)

You can use TiVoDecode Manager (google for it) to download content from the TiVo to the Mac. I used it successfully today to download HD content from my TiVo HD. If you save in MPEG-2 format, you'll need something like VLC or Mplayer to play the file; if you save in MPEG-4 format, you can use QuickTime.


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## A-1 (Mar 12, 2007)

Graymalkin said:


> You can use TiVoDecode Manager (google for it) to download content from the TiVo to the Mac. I used it successfully today to download HD content from my TiVo HD. If you save in MPEG-2 format, you'll need something like VLC or Mplayer to play the file; if you save in MPEG-4 format, you can use QuickTime.


Thanks installing it now, So i should use the MPEG-4 download setting?


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## Graymalkin (Mar 20, 2001)

A-1 said:


> Thanks installing it now, So i should use the MPEG-4 download setting?


Alas, I've only had the program for one day, so I don't know the optimal manual settings for MPEG-4. I used MPEG-2, which worked OK in VLC.


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## SullyND (Dec 30, 2004)

TDM is one of my favorite programs I only wish there were a PC version which worked as well and simply.


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## minckster (Aug 31, 2006)

For TiVoToComeback (transfers of video from your Mac to your TiVo), I use VisualHub ($23.32). It has a TiVo-preset for converting anything it can handle into an MPEG-2 for Series2 TiVos. I'd assume that they'll update the TiVo-preset soon for today's release of TTCB for Series3 and TiVoHD. VisualHub at VersionTracker. You could also try MPEG Streamclip (free). Can anyone suggest a better free alternative?

Make sure to check your TiVo Recordings folder for the .properties file for each MPEG-2 you want to transfer to your TiVo. You can create your own Title and Description for each recording, which will appear on your TiVo. (Stop and restart TiVo Desktop to force the .properties file to appear. Stop and restart it again to force the TiVo to recognize your edits.)

I think the D-I-Y environment for TTG and TTCB is better on Macs than Windows.


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## hearncl (Oct 16, 2006)

I just successfully used Visual Hub to upload a movie from my Mac to a Series 3, so it doesn't just work for the Series 2. It seems to have preserved the wide-screen format of the movie, but I haven't had a chance to judge its quality on the S3.

That's good news that TiVoDecode Manager works with the Series 3--I hadn't even tried it, since I assumed it only worked with the Series 2. I'm downloading a show to my Mac now.


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## A-1 (Mar 12, 2007)

Having some issues with the TivoDecode Manager

It connects i can see all my shows and movies but when i select download and decode it starts and stops about 4 times and then stops completely leaving a 0.0mb file in the mac directory selected for tivo downloads.

Has anyone else seen this?

BTW here is the link for the TivoDecode Manager
http://tdm.sourceforge.net/


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## tlrowley (Jun 10, 2004)

I'm having exactly the same problem with Tivo Decode Manager (on all the programs I've tried), but only if I'm trying to do the conversion to Mpeg-4. I have successfully downloaded in Mpeg-2 format, and I'm very grateful for that, but I'd be even happier (shareware $$ happy) if I could get the conversions working automatically.

Tracey


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## Neenahboy (Apr 8, 2004)

A-1 said:


> Having some issues with the TivoDecode Manager
> 
> It connects i can see all my shows and movies but when i select download and decode it starts and stops about 4 times and then stops completely leaving a 0.0mb file in the mac directory selected for tivo downloads.
> 
> ...


Having exactly the same issue right now. Off to see if mine is the latest version.

EDIT: And it is. Damn.


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## A-1 (Mar 12, 2007)

Confirmed for me Mpeg-2 native works


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## Bierboy (Jun 12, 2004)

I can't get it to work it all....I've confirmed my IP address and MAK number but no love...any tips for help? Says "TiVo Decode Manager could not communicate with your TiVo. Please make sure your IP address and Media Access are correct and try again." I have and it still doesn't work. Is there some other setting on my TiVo I'm missing?


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## oldskoolboarder (Jul 8, 2003)

If you get something on your Mac, you can always use ffmpegx to transcode. GREAT program.


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## A-1 (Mar 12, 2007)

Bierboy said:


> I can't get it to work it all....I've confirmed my IP address and MAK number but no love...any tips for help? Says "TiVo Decode Manager could not communicate with your TiVo. Please make sure your IP address and Media Access are correct and try again." I have and it still doesn't work. Is there some other setting on my TiVo I'm missing?


In your browser put the tivo ip address in and connect to you tivo. then try the TDM again.

Update on my issue: Mpeg2 native did download but QT would not play it


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## hearncl (Oct 16, 2006)

I transferred an episode of CSI from the Series 3 to my Mac using the Mpeg-2 setting. Download size reported by TiVoDecode Manager was 8.27 GB. File size on the Mac was 7.72 GB. The transferred file opened in QuickTime (perhaps because I have QuickTime Pro enabled?) but with no audio. It opened and played with audio in VLC. It appears to be full resolution. Tomorrow I'll try Visual Hub to convert the Mpeg-2 to another format.

For those that can't connect with TiVoDecode Manager, could there be a port in your firewall (Sharing Preference) that needs to be opened?


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## Bierboy (Jun 12, 2004)

hearncl said:


> I transferred an episode of CSI from the Series 3 to my Mac using the Mpeg-2 setting. Download size reported by TiVoDecode Manager was 8.27 GB. File size on the Mac was 7.72 GB. The transferred file opened in QuickTime (perhaps because I have QuickTime Pro enabled?) but with no audio. It opened and played with audio in VLC. It appears to be full resolution. Tomorrow I'll try Visual Hub to convert the Mpeg-2 to another format.
> 
> For those that can't connect with TiVoDecode Manager, could there be a port in your firewall (Sharing Preference) that needs to be opened?


Does Internet Sharing need to be enabled (over Ethernet)? Mine is not.


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## Graymalkin (Mar 20, 2001)

A-1 said:


> In your browser put the tivo ip address in and connect to you tivo. then try the TDM again.
> 
> Update on my issue: Mpeg2 native did download but QT would not play it


The Read Me file said QT can't play MPEG-2 native files.

If it can't create MPEG-4 custom files, then it's less useful than I had hoped. Then again, I haven't paid anything for it, like I did for Toast 8.


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## A-1 (Mar 12, 2007)

hearncl said:


> I transferred an episode of CSI from the Series 3 to my Mac using the Mpeg-2 setting. Download size reported by TiVoDecode Manager was 8.27 GB. File size on the Mac was 7.72 GB. The transferred file opened in QuickTime (perhaps because I have QuickTime Pro enabled?) but with no audio. It opened and played with audio in VLC. It appears to be full resolution. Tomorrow I'll try Visual Hub to convert the Mpeg-2 to another format.
> 
> For those that can't connect with TiVoDecode Manager, could there be a port in your firewall (Sharing Preference) that needs to be opened?


VLC plays tivo files downloaded by Tivodecode Manager http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

So to update TivoDecode Manager will pull them in Mpeg-2 only... VLC will play them perfectly and ffmpegx will code your Mac movies/videos to be pushed to the tivo via the tivo desktop with the attached hack to place your computer in the now playing section.


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## Graymalkin (Mar 20, 2001)

I had some audio problems with playing a MPEG-2 file in VLC -- but that easily could have been a problem with that particular program.


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## A-1 (Mar 12, 2007)

This is awesome i have taken many of the Mass Effect videos (upcoming Xbox game) from my Mac used ffmpegx to code them to DVDmpeg2 and then using the Tivo desktop with the Toggle Tivo Video Sharing Hack transfered them to my S3 and they look awesome and sound great..better than when they were on my mac. As the were in transfer they the process acted just as if i Unboxed from Amazon... 

Oh how I am going to have fun playing with this.


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## A-1 (Mar 12, 2007)

Graymalkin said:


> I had some audio problems with playing a MPEG-2 file in VLC -- but that easily could have been a problem with that particular program.


Are you sure the Audio was good on the S3 copy? I too thought there was an audio issue when playing my file via VLC but turns out the one with audio drops and sync were like that on the S3, others are perfect.

I am like akid in a HD candy store now.


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## Bierboy (Jun 12, 2004)

A-1 said:


> In your browser put the tivo ip address in and connect to you tivo. then try the TDM again....


I was able to successfully load the IP address into my browser and get the TiVo page, but then tried TDM again, and it did NOT work.


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## macguy_2003_xyz (Apr 14, 2003)

Bierboy said:


> I can't get it to work it all....I've confirmed my IP address and MAK number but no love...any tips for help? Says "TiVo Decode Manager could not communicate with your TiVo. Please make sure your IP address and Media Access are correct and try again." I have and it still doesn't work. Is there some other setting on my TiVo I'm missing?


 You're still getting your tivo updated for access permissions. You will notice that your media key is listed as : temp unavailible on the tivo menu. Force a tivo call-in and that should fix the problem


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## Bierboy (Jun 12, 2004)

macguy_2003_xyz said:


> You're still getting your tivo updated for access permissions. You will notice that your media key is listed as : temp unavailible on the tivo menu. Force a tivo call-in and that should fix the problem


Reconnect did it...thanks!


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## A-1 (Mar 12, 2007)

Bierboy said:


> Where on the TiVo menu? I can't find that. My MAK is listed in my TiVo prefs on their Web site, but I don't find anything about it in my TiVo menus.


I think he means going into the settings and connecting to the Tivo network.

Also make sure you have your MAK # correct no spaces or type-o's.

Try the Tivo Desktop toggle hack found in a few post up and see if your mac shows up in the Now Playing list.

Also, be sure your Tivo is enabled for TTG iin the system information page on your tivo it should read a,a,a if it is enabled if it is not it will read i,i,i

To enable it you need to goto tivo.com into manage my account and click the enable transfers.

And i know this goes without saying but make sure you are running 9.2j update on your system.

Hope this helps.


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## fatespawn (Oct 14, 2007)

For those of you that are able to push/pull video to or from the Tivo via a Mac.... is anyone still running 8.xx? I still have 8.xx and my account is marked a,a,a and i am able to browse the Tivo from TivoDecodeManager (as well as from an XP Tivo Desktop 2.5 PC on my network)... but I have been unable to transfer any video.

It all LOOKS just like it should. Even when I browse a PC via the Tivo, I can jump through the hoops to get the video to transfer to the Tivo... It just never actually transfers. The files look like they're in the Now Playing list, but they have a 0:00 play time and are unplayable. 

So my question really is, is there any Mac user running 9.2j that IS able to browse their directories... but still can't transfer anything?

-xtra


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

Graymalkin said:


> You can use TiVoDecode Manager (google for it) to download content from the TiVo to the Mac. I used it successfully today to download HD content from my TiVo HD. If you save in MPEG-2 format, you'll need something like VLC or Mplayer to play the file; if you save in MPEG-4 format, you can use QuickTime.


So I think I'm missing something very simple.

Does this mean there's no way to play the recordings from Tivo *with no conversion*?
If there is, will any of these tools let me edit recordings. (Much the same as I do on my standalone DVD recorder -- edit out commercials, or save just the musical guests from talk shows/SNL.) I'm willing to do conversion (since obviously I already am willing to go through an analog step to my existing hard drive/DVD recorder)... but if I can do it
with no loss, all the better.


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## mbcook (Jun 2, 2003)

I'm glad someone posted on this. I was about to complain about this. Thanks for the link, I'll check it out.

I just got the recent update on my Series 3 the other day. So I started looking up using TiVo To Go and I am ROYALLY TICKED.

I'm sorry, but I paid $800+ for my Series 3. I love it, but that is a LOT of money. Now to get a feature that is _free_ for Windows users (an OS I switched off of because I think it is inferior to OS X) I have to pay $50-$100 for a program which will serve no other purpose for me?

Let's not forgot this program is made by Roxio, who I have only had unpleasant experiences with in the past.

There isn't even a demo I can try, or anything similar. I'm just expect to drop another large chunk of money to enable a feature that I should get for free. I understand requiring the program to burn DVDs (as stupid as I think that is), but to just copy the video file so I can view it on my laptop? That's cruel.

-- Souring a little more, MBCook


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## oo7plyr (Jul 11, 2007)

I'm getting Popcorn 3 to work by setting up an auto transfer.


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## sjxmang (Jul 19, 2005)

just curious, anyone using TDM and letting Auto Bonjour discover your S3? Roxio? I can't get the box to display via Bonjour...have to put IP in manually...


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

What's up with all of the media only (no box or manual) sales on ebay? Did they they apply for the $20 rebate, then copy the media, and are now selling the orig media?


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## LisaD (Dec 20, 2001)

I can't get this to work. I punched in the Tivo's IP and Media key. I click 'connect to Tivo' and get an Applescript error "Folder does not exist. (-43)"  

Not sure where to get the MAC address or where to put it. Could anyone point me in the direction for any other Mac OS X TTG programs? Or any free application to get videos off my mac to the Tivo?


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## A-1 (Mar 12, 2007)

LisaD said:


> I can't get this to work. I punched in the Tivo's IP and Media key. I click 'connect to Tivo' and get an Applescript error "Folder does not exist. (-43)"
> 
> Not sure where to get the MAC address or where to put it. Could anyone point me in the direction for any other Mac OS X TTG programs? Or any free application to get videos off my mac to the Tivo?


Read thru this thread your question is answered. If you're still stumped i'll try to help you further.


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## LisaD (Dec 20, 2001)

I'm more than stumped! I guess I'll give up on moving shows from the Tivo to my computer, etc. with TivoDecode Manager because there appears to be something amiss with it right now.
But I have mpeg4 videos on the mac that I'd love to get on the TivoHD. 
I have the (lame) Tivo Desktop with a video tab on it, and I loaded a video - but can't figure out how to get it to talk to the Tivo to suck it in. I got some pictures in there though.


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## A-1 (Mar 12, 2007)

So far the tivo has only played mpeg 2 videos. I have been using ffmpegx to code my videos to mpeg2.

Does your Mac shows up in the Now Playing list? 

Is your Tivo running 9.2j?

Is your tivo system information showing Tivo To Go a,a,a or i,i,i?

Can you enter your tivo's IP address into your browser and connect to it?


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## pkscout (Jan 11, 2003)

sjxmang said:


> just curious, anyone using TDM and letting Auto Bonjour discover your S3? Roxio? I can't get the box to display via Bonjour...have to put IP in manually...


Same here. The TiVo doesn't show up at all in Bonjour searches. I tried TDM, Safari, and even Bonjour Browser from two different Macs on my network (one wired and one wireless). It's like the TiVo isn't broadcasting its Bonjour information correctly.


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## minckster (Aug 31, 2006)

Bonjour discovery is working fine for me with wired ethernet. My suggestions are to 1) Turn everything off and back on, and 2) Ensure that the firewall exceptions for TiVo Desktop are enabled. In System Preferences > Sharing > Firewall, TiVo Desktop exceptions are TCP Ports 2190, 5353, 8101. I think 5353 is for Bonjour.


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## A-1 (Mar 12, 2007)

More software for Mac Tivo
http://www.apple.com/search/downloads/?q=Tivo


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## A-1 (Mar 12, 2007)

Also don't use version 2.0.1 of TDM it does not work on S3. Use latest version 2.1 found here
http://tdm.sourceforge.net/


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## Chimpware (Jan 30, 2002)

pkscout said:


> Same here. The TiVo doesn't show up at all in Bonjour searches. I tried TDM, Safari, and even Bonjour Browser from two different Macs on my network (one wired and one wireless). It's like the TiVo isn't broadcasting its Bonjour information correctly.


Having the same problem here, which makes Toast Tivo Transfer useless. Other parts of Bonjour work fine on my network, just no Tivo.


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## Graymalkin (Mar 20, 2001)

minckster said:


> Bonjour discovery is working fine for me with wired ethernet. My suggestions are to 1) Turn everything off and back on, and 2) Ensure that the firewall exceptions for TiVo Desktop are enabled. In System Preferences > Sharing > Firewall, TiVo Desktop exceptions are TCP Ports 2190, 5353, 8101. I think 5353 is for Bonjour.


Enabling TCP ports 2190 and 5353 seemed to do the trick. (I already had TCP 8101 enabled.) Now Toast 8 sees my three TiVo HDs in its TiVo Transfer module.

BTW, my THDs finally registered their DVR names. Yay.

I'm now hoping that opening those ports doesn't expose my iMac to hackers.


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## pkscout (Jan 11, 2003)

Graymalkin said:


> Enabling TCP ports 2190 and 5353 seemed to do the trick. (I already had TCP 8101 enabled.) Now Toast 8 sees my three TiVo HDs in its TiVo Transfer module.
> 
> BTW, my THDs finally registered their DVR names. Yay.
> 
> I'm now hoping that opening those ports doesn't expose my iMac to hackers.


Even with every firewall on every computer off, I still don't see the TiVo via Bonjour.


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## Chimpware (Jan 30, 2002)

Graymalkin said:


> Enabling TCP ports 2190 and 5353 seemed to do the trick. (I already had TCP 8101 enabled.) Now Toast 8 sees my three TiVo HDs in its TiVo Transfer module.
> 
> BTW, my THDs finally registered their DVR names. Yay.
> 
> I'm now hoping that opening those ports doesn't expose my iMac to hackers.


I do not have my firewall enabled on my Macs, so this is not likely my issue. I do have a higly complex network though using a wireless router and 2 switches to connect everything up. Switches should not matter to Bonjour though, possibly Linksys router is causing problem?

P.S. I would not worry about Mac Hackers, you have a router and not too many Mac Hacks.


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## cesjr (Oct 24, 2007)

I can't see my Tivo from my mac either. Everything is enabled, media key is in. Tivotogo says a,a,a. But I can't get to the tivo from Tivodecode or the Roxio tivo transfer program. Nothing is working. No firewall either.

Edit - just got it working!!!! Rebooting the Tivo did it this last time.


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## Chimpware (Jan 30, 2002)

cesjr said:


> I can't see my Tivo from my mac either. Everything is enabled, media key is in. Tivotogo says a,a,a. But I can't get to the tivo from Tivodecode or the Roxio tivo transfer program. Nothing is working. No firewall either.
> 
> Edit - just got it working!!!! Rebooting the Tivo did it this last time.


So you have Roxio software working, or just TDM. In TDM are you inputing the IP address? If so that works OK for me, it is just once Bonjour is involved I cannot seem toi get this to work.


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## LisaD (Dec 20, 2001)

A-1 - Thanks for the link to Apple for the widgets, converter, etc. 

I managed to transfer some VOB movie files to the Tivo but with no sound.  It was just a quickie test though. For transfer from Tivo to Mac, I used TDM but for some reason late last night and today it stopped communicating with Tivo. I hope to get it working today to show off to my husband that I actually dumped a show to my iPhone.


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## Bierboy (Jun 12, 2004)

cesjr said:


> I can't see my Tivo from my mac either. Everything is enabled, media key is in. Tivotogo says a,a,a. But I can't get to the tivo from Tivodecode or the Roxio tivo transfer program. Nothing is working. No firewall either.
> 
> Edit - just got it working!!!! Rebooting the Tivo did it this last time.


Yes, that was the key for me to get it working....reboot.


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## SnakeEyes (Dec 26, 2000)

It works for me but some HD recordings so far do not play properly. For instance Enterprise on HDNet plays back at sorta 2x FF speed. Audio and video are there just sped up.


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## LisaD (Dec 20, 2001)

Could anyone speculate as to why TivoDecode Manager would say "waiting for Tivo" constantly after working last night? My settings haven't changed.


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## Bierboy (Jun 12, 2004)

LisaD said:


> ...I managed to transfer some VOB movie files to the Tivo but with no sound. ...


Quicktime won't play back with sound...use VLC.


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## LisaD (Dec 20, 2001)

No, I'm moving a show from the mac to the tivo. renamed a vob file with mpg extension and moved it to tivo but no sound.


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## pkscout (Jan 11, 2003)

I rebooted my TiVo as well and now the Bonjour stuff is working right. No idea why it worked (I've rebooted the TiVo three times in the last two days and it never helped before), but it worked.


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## Bierboy (Jun 12, 2004)

LisaD said:


> No, I'm moving a show from the mac to the tivo. renamed a vob file with mpg extension and moved it to tivo but no sound.


ooops...sorry...misunderstood...


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## Chimpware (Jan 30, 2002)

Thanks everyone, cannot believe rebooting the Tivo would work, but it did. I have rebooted it about 10 times in the past 2 days so I was sure this would not work, but it did.


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## LisaD (Dec 20, 2001)

VisualHub works flawlessly for me. Moved vids off Mac to Tivo. Easy peasy. Now trying to put a Tivo'd show onto iPhone. This is great fun.


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## weldon (Jun 17, 2001)

LisaD said:


> VisualHub works flawlessly for me. Moved vids off Mac to Tivo. Easy peasy. Now trying to put a Tivo'd show onto iPhone. This is great fun.


I'll be reading the thread with some interest to follow your progress. I haven't been able to commit to purchasing a TiVoHD, but I just might if I can use VisualHub to prepare video from the Mac to play on my TiVoHD, and then convert video from the TiVo to play on the Mac or my iPhone.

I was about ready to go get Elgato's HDHomeRun solution and an AppleTV, but the TiVoHD might be a better overall solution for me now.

Just to be sure, what all will I need?

TiVoHD w/ cablecards
Roxio Toast (or Popcorn?)
VisualHub

Anything else?


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## TiVoPony (May 12, 2002)

Just to provide a link, a Roxio employee has stated here on TCF that a new update for Toast will be available soon for Leopard, and would hopefully address most of the issues noted here. Please note that I'm not speaking on behalf of Roxio, while our teams have been working together, I cannot commit to a release date or what specifically has been addressed.

The DVD Burning issue is the one that I think surprised us all, we had not seen that before. I don't know if that will be addressed in the upcoming release or not, but here is the link:

Patrick from Roxio on an upcoming update to Toast.

Pony


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## A-1 (Mar 12, 2007)

TiVoPony said:


> Just to provide a link, a Roxio employee has stated here on TCF that a new update for Toast will be available soon for Leopard, and would hopefully address most of the issues noted here. Please note that I'm not speaking on behalf of Roxio, while our teams have been working together, I cannot commit to a release date or what specifically has been addressed.
> 
> The DVD Burning issue is the one that I think surprised us all, we had not seen that before. I don't know if that will be addressed in the upcoming release or not, but here is the link:
> 
> ...


Thanks for the Info!!!


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## Graymalkin (Mar 20, 2001)

Just tried to have Toast 8 play an episode of "Pushing Daisies," recorded in HD on a TiVo HD -- the video and audio are sped up to about 2x normal speed. An episode of "Gilmore Girls" recorded in SD on an S2 and subsequently transferred to a THD before being copied to Toast runs normally.

Apparently Toast 8 uses Elgato software to play the files. I'd actually be better off recording HD content from my HDHomeRun if I want to play it on the iMac. Only problem with that is that the HDHomeRun has only QAM tuners, so encrypted digital channels aren't available.


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## Timber (Apr 28, 2002)

Chimpware said:


> Thanks everyone, cannot believe rebooting the Tivo would work, but it did. I have rebooted it about 10 times in the past 2 days so I was sure this would not work, but it did.


+1

-=Tim=-


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## LisaD (Dec 20, 2001)

weldon said:


> I'll be reading the thread with some interest to follow your progress. I haven't been able to commit to purchasing a TiVoHD, but I just might if I can use VisualHub to prepare video from the Mac to play on my TiVoHD, and then convert video from the TiVo to play on the Mac or my iPhone.


We just got this TivoHD Saturday after not using Tivo for a couple years so I'm basically a newbie again. Got the 9.2 download last night.

Today I: 1) Used TivoDecode Manager (free) to pull the Tivo shows to my iMac. 2) dragged those shows from my iMac's harddrive into VisualHub ($23) clicked 'start' which converts it REAL quick to whatever you want.

Soooo..... I have the Tivo (hd) shows the computers. I have concert video torrents & home movies from the iMac on my Tivo. I have Tivo'd shows on my iPhone. 
A cooking show and a chunk of Heroes. Pristine/flawless.

This is about the coolest thing that's happened to me in a long time.


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## Chimpware (Jan 30, 2002)

weldon said:


> I'll be reading the thread with some interest to follow your progress. I haven't been able to commit to purchasing a TiVoHD, but I just might if I can use VisualHub to prepare video from the Mac to play on my TiVoHD, and then convert video from the TiVo to play on the Mac or my iPhone.
> 
> I was about ready to go get Elgato's HDHomeRun solution and an AppleTV, but the TiVoHD might be a better overall solution for me now.
> 
> ...


Nope that will do it for basics.

Only issue is editing out commercials on the Mac. Currently files downloaded from Toast Tivo Transfer will not load into any editor I have so files need to be transcoded before editing. On the PC side I can download file in Tivo Desktop and automatically edit out commercials using VideoRedo Plus in conjunction with Tivo-VideoRedo-AutoProcessor. Editing aside, you can use Roxio Toast Tivo Transfer and Visual Hub once you hack the Mac Tivo Desktop software to allow video transfer from the Mac to the Tivo (See other posts on subject, really easy hack).

EDIT: Sorry, left out you can use Tivo Download Manager, which is free, rather than Roxio software to download shows and these will be standard MPEG-2 which can be edited.


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## Chimpware (Jan 30, 2002)

Quick question, anyone know why transcoding in Roxio software is limited to 320x240 resolution? Software says this is a Tivo requirement which seems ridiculous as you can burn an iso from Roxio and then transcode to 640x480 easily.


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## A-1 (Mar 12, 2007)

LisaD said:


> We just got this TivoHD Saturday after not using Tivo for a couple years so I'm basically a newbie again. Got the 9.2 download last night.
> 
> Today I: 1) Used TivoDecode Manager (free) to pull the Tivo shows to my iMac. 2) dragged those shows from my iMac's harddrive into VisualHub ($23) clicked 'start' which converts it REAL quick to whatever you want.
> 
> ...


ROCK STAR!


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## pkscout (Jan 11, 2003)

Graymalkin said:


> Just tried to have Toast 8 play an episode of "Pushing Daisies," recorded in HD on a TiVo HD -- the video and audio are sped up to about 2x normal speed. An episode of "Gilmore Girls" recorded in SD on an S2 and subsequently transferred to a THD before being copied to Toast runs normally.
> 
> Apparently Toast 8 uses Elgato software to play the files. I'd actually be better off recording HD content from my HDHomeRun if I want to play it on the iMac. Only problem with that is that the HDHomeRun has only QAM tuners, so encrypted digital channels aren't available.


Try playing it with VLC. I used TiVoDecodeManager to download a copy of Reaper in HD, and VLC played the MPG file with no problem.


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## pkscout (Jan 11, 2003)

Chimpware said:


> Quick question, anyone know why transcoding in Roxio software is limited to 320x240 resolution? Software says this is a Tivo requirement which seems ridiculous as you can burn an iso from Roxio and then transcode to 640x480 easily.


I have this recollection that it had something to do with what TiVo thought they could manage without getting sued by big media for providing a way to make a perfect digital copy off your TiVo. Then again, that could be the voices in my head telling me that.


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## hearncl (Oct 16, 2006)

Chimpware said:


> EDIT: Sorry, left out you can use Tivo Download Manager, which is free, rather than Roxio software to download shows and these will be standard MPEG-2 which can be edited.


What do you use to edit the MPEG-2 file (from TDM) on the Mac?


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## SnakeEyes (Dec 26, 2000)

Chimpware said:


> Quick question, anyone know why transcoding in Roxio software is limited to 320x240 resolution? Software says this is a Tivo requirement which seems ridiculous as you can burn an iso from Roxio and then transcode to 640x480 easily.


Actually check out this post to enable all your other codecs.


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## Neenahboy (Apr 8, 2004)

hearncl said:


> What do you use to edit the MPEG-2 file (from TDM) on the Mac?


I'm a big fan of MPEG Streamclip.


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## Bierboy (Jun 12, 2004)

What would I use to convert the MPEG-2 file from TDM for transfer to my iPod?


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## oldskoolboarder (Jul 8, 2003)

ffmpegx


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## SnakeEyes (Dec 26, 2000)

In a follow up, I have now transferred multiple HD shows from NBC, CBS, FOX and HDNet. Only the HDNet shows are played sped up.


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## SnakeEyes (Dec 26, 2000)

Oh and FYI, there is a new Streamclip out.


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## A-1 (Mar 12, 2007)

SnakeEyes said:


> In a follow up, I have now transferred multiple HD shows from NBC, CBS, FOX and HDNet. Only the HDNet shows are played sped up.


Download and install VLC they will play perfect.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/


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## A-1 (Mar 12, 2007)

Yet another useful tool for Mac and Tivo marriage.
http://www.perian.org/


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## Chimpware (Jan 30, 2002)

I generally use MPEG Streamclip to edit MPEG-2 files and VisualHub to transcode, although I also use ffmpegx at times.

Agree with A-1 posts, everyone should have VLC and use newest version of Perian on the Mac.


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## SnakeEyes (Dec 26, 2000)

A-1 said:


> Download and install VLC they will play perfect.
> 
> http://www.videolan.org/vlc/


except I have to use TDM first.


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## Chimpware (Jan 30, 2002)

SnakeEyes said:


> Actually check out this post to enable all your other codecs.


Great tip, thanks a lot, worked great.


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## Bierboy (Jun 12, 2004)

oldskoolboarder said:


> ffmpegx


I'm having trouble installing that...it asks that I install three things -- mpeg2enc, mencoder & mplayer. But when I enter my OSX login password, I get an error message (and I'm positive I'm entering the right password).


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## iamnotmad (Feb 15, 2003)

Hi all, sorry if I missed this somewhere, so is the Tivo Transfer that comes with Toast 8 suppose to be working right now? Or just TivoDecode Manager?
Thanks.


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## Bierboy (Jun 12, 2004)

I'm now using iSquint (free, stripped-down version of Visual Hub). Works fine with TDM files converting them for the iPod.


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## Spiff72 (Jul 11, 2004)

iamnotmad said:


> Hi all, sorry if I missed this somewhere, so is the Tivo Transfer that comes with Toast 8 suppose to be working right now? Or just TivoDecode Manager?
> Thanks.


I am still trying to figure this out. All I can get to show up in Tivo2Go (Toast) is my S2. The S3 does show up correctly with Tivo Decode Manager.

I am also trying to figure out the hack that enables the video on TDM (I'm off to the search function)...

Thanks!


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## Astrobirder (Aug 17, 2007)

Spiff72 said:


> I am still trying to figure this out. All I can get to show up in Tivo2Go (Toast) is my S2. The S3 does show up correctly with Tivo Decode Manager.
> 
> I am also trying to figure out the hack that enables the video on TDM (I'm off to the search function)...
> 
> Thanks!


I've been discussing this with Roxio having just upgrade from Toast 7 to Toast 8 for the sole purpose of using the Tivo Transfer in Toast 8. Unfortunately, at this time Tivo Transfer does NOT work with my TivoHD and I believe the same is true for a Series 3 (but I don't know for sure). (I'm using Toast 8.0.1)

Roxio is working on a patch, but they don't have an official release date yet.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

A-1 said:


> Also don't use version 2.0.1 of TDM it does not work on S3. Use latest version 2.1 found here
> http://tdm.sourceforge.net/


That very site says:

It is not for Series 1 (ever), Series 3, or DirecTiVos (unhacked or hacked).


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## Chimpware (Jan 30, 2002)

Tivo Transfer does work with Tivo HD, I have used it all day today. Try rebooting the Tivo to get Bonjour to work so that you Tivo shows up in Tivo Transfer, it worked for me.


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## dnorth12 (Feb 10, 2005)

> That very site says:
> 
> It is not for Series 1 (ever), Series 3, or DirecTiVos (unhacked or hacked).


I read that as well, but downloaded it anyway. In the read me file it gets a little more specific, about tivo enabling ttg in the future, blah, blah. I can see the s3, but haven't attempted to download anything.

At any rate I am having the same issue with starts and stops when trying to download from my s2. Gets started and then stops and starts over. Can't get a complete file either with mpeg2 or 4. I can sometimes play the partial mpeg4 version, but not at all on the mpeg2 via quicktime.

Any help here would be great.

Wireless connection with 100% signal btw...


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## Graymalkin (Mar 20, 2001)

The HD content I saved from my THD using Toast 8 played back at double-speed. That was just one episode, so I don't know if it was the content or the software.


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## tetzel1517 (Dec 29, 2003)

So overnight I downloaded (using TDM) the pilot of Bionic Woman (in HD) off my Series 3. That process, as far as I can tell, went fine, but the audio keeps cutting out. I can't be sure, but it almost seems to cut out more when the picture is "busier" -- the video, by the way, is perfect -- Maybe this is just my computer (G5 iMac, 2.1 GHz) choking on the file?

I sent an e-mail to Roxio support asking why my S3 doesn't show up in TiVo Transfer, too. If I hear back from them, and it's something substantial, I'll post it.


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## tetzel1517 (Dec 29, 2003)

Well I'll be damned... that rebooting trick worked for me, too! Weird.


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## nachos4two (Aug 18, 2004)

I have transferee a show from mys2 and s3. I attempted to convert the TiVo file from the s2 using visualhub for my iPhone. Though the end result was all screwed up. The video was just colors and. No audio. Though the TiVo file plays fine using toast. Which is what I used to transfer. Any ideas. I have not tested the TiVo file from the s3 yet.


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## iamnotmad (Feb 15, 2003)

Graymalkin said:


> The HD content I saved from my THD using Toast 8 played back at double-speed. That was just one episode, so I don't know if it was the content or the software.


Wait, I don't understand this, which is why I asked a few posts ago. Most posts regarding Toast say it DOES NOT work, your post, and another random post here and there suggest it does.

Are you saying you used the toast 8 Tivo transfer app to transfer shows from your Tivo HD to your mac? Please clarify.
Thanks.

EDIT - WHOA! Despite the fact that I restarted my S3 for this before - I just did again, and now it shows up in Toast 8 Tivo Transfer! Yay!

For clarification for those that did not follow every post - If your Tivo is showing up in other apps like Tivo Decode manager, but NOT toast 8 Tivo Transfer, try another Reboot of your Tivo. That's what worked for me.


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## minckster (Aug 31, 2006)

Could people who transfer a video to a Mac from a 9.2 TiVo post whether they're having the "speedup issue" and whether the video is 480i, 720p, or 1080i. The "speedup issue" manifests itself by the .tivo video playing at faster than normal speed (say 1.2x to 2.0x normal) in Toast Video Player. My limited testing shows:
* one video at 720p that does NOT have the speedup issue, and 
* one video at 1080i that DOES have the speeup issue.
(iMac G5, 1.9 GHz PPC, 1.5 GB ram)

Does anyone know whether Roxio plans to address the speedup issue with the update planned for after tomorrow's release of Leopard?


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## Graymalkin (Mar 20, 2001)

The problem I had was with a video recorded at 720p (pilot episode of "Pushing Daisies")

I am now transferring episodes of "Dirty Sexy Money" (at 720p) and "Criminal Minds" (at 1080i) and will test those in a few hours.


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## Graymalkin (Mar 20, 2001)

The problem I had was with a video recorded at 720p (pilot episode of "Pushing Daisies"). This was on an alum iMac, 2.8 Ghz Intel, 2 GB RAM.

I am now transferring episodes of "Dirty Sexy Money" (at 720p) and "Criminal Minds" (at 1080i) and will test those in a few hours.


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## tetzel1517 (Dec 29, 2003)

nachos4two said:


> I have transferee a show from mys2 and s3. I attempted to convert the TiVo file from the s2 using visualhub for my iPhone. Though the end result was all screwed up. The video was just colors and. No audio. Though the TiVo file plays fine using toast. Which is what I used to transfer. Any ideas. I have not tested the TiVo file from the s3 yet.


If I were you, I would use TDM to download the file as an MPEG-2 (though if it's an S2 file, MPEG-4 works just as well) and download a program called Handbrake to convert it to something your iPhone will play. It has a preset for the iPhone that should give you a perfect, working file. I've used this combination of programs to get shows off my S2 and onto my iPod Classic.

I think VisualHub is most useful for converting files to MPEG-2 for TiVoToComeBack. But if you want to format something for the iPod or iPhone, Handbrake is the way to go. Great program.


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## Graymalkin (Mar 20, 2001)

The Toast Video Player played both the 720p file and 1080i file at double-speed. So that's not working yet. And VLC doesn't play .tivo files, so that's out.

Guess it's going to be TDM and VLC. Let's try those again, see if the audio dropouts were specific to the one HD program I downloaded that way or are endemic to the software.


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## yunlin12 (Mar 15, 2003)

The S3 TTG files on my PC plays at double speed in my Roxio Creator 9 Basic as well, looks like to cross platform issue with handshake issue between TTG files and Roxio.

Edit:
Toast on my Mac can't see the S3 either, although both my S2 and PC can see the S3 and transfer (including TTCB of an VideoReDo-edited TTG file). I haven't bothered to reboot the S3 for TTG to the Mac. The quad-core PC is working great, I'm doing TTG + iPod conversion faster than real time, while doing VideoRedo on TTG files simultaneously. The 3 year old Mac is just can't compete.


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## Cajun Man (Jan 4, 2007)

Graymalkin said:


> The Read Me file said QT can't play MPEG-2 native files.
> 
> If it can't create MPEG-4 custom files, then it's less useful than I had hoped. Then again, I haven't paid anything for it, like I did for Toast 8.


For anyone who's interested in playing back MPEG-2 files from within QuickTime Player (or any other player that depends on low-level QuickTime functionality), you can purchase Apple's $20 "QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback" add-on. The only caveat is, transcoding (exporting) of MPEG-2 videos to another format -- like MPEG-4 -- requires QuickTime Pro (another $30 purchase).

Apple Store link for purchase of the MPEG-2 Playback Component (for Mac OS X):
QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component - Mac OS X

Disclaimer: I have not tried downloading content from my TiVo S3, to verify that this works. Also, my caveat related to exporting MPEG-2 content only applies to QuickTime Player; if you have a 3rd-party player (VLC Player, etc.) that works independently of QuickTime, then you should not need QuickTime Pro.

Corrections/comments/thoughts/suggestions/criticisms/flames are all welcome.


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## bpmarkowitz (Mar 24, 2006)

I am using TDM and it starts to download shows, gets to around 1% then it is as if it starts and stops over. Any suggestions? 

What software and I supposed to use to transfer too the Tivo?


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## sharding (Feb 11, 2001)

Sorry, accidentally posted this in the wrong thread, so reposting here.

Has anyone with Roxio Toast 8 on the Mac tried burning a TiVo HD file directly to DVD? I'm curious if that works and if the quality is reasonable. Thus far I've been happy downloading from the web interface and using tivodecode to decode them as needed, but with long HD programs, that takes up a huge amount of disk space (one file for the original and then another for the decoded version), which becomes pretty unwieldy. It also takes a long time with the additional decode step. If Toast will let me burn directly from the original file without an intermediate, I may spring for it. I actually have an old version of Toast I use regularly, but it doesn't have the TiVo features (and they don't appear to offer any upgrade pricing).

BTW, for all the people having trouble downloading shows using TiVoDecode Manager, why not just download directly with your browser and then use tivodecode on its own to decode? It seems like most of the problems people are having are related to the wrapper (TiVoDecode Manager), not the underlying functionality (transferring files from the TiVo and decoding them, though the incorrect playback speed probably can't be blamed on TDM).


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## bpmarkowitz (Mar 24, 2006)

sharding said:


> Sorry, accidentally posted this in the wrong thread, so reposting here.
> 
> Has anyone with Roxio Toast 8 on the Mac tried burning a TiVo HD file directly to DVD? I'm curious if that works and if the quality is reasonable. Thus far I've been happy downloading from the web interface and using tivodecode to decode them as needed, but with long HD programs, that takes up a huge amount of disk space (one file for the original and then another for the decoded version), which becomes pretty unwieldy. It also takes a long time with the additional decode step. If Toast will let me burn directly from the original file without an intermediate, I may spring for it. I actually have an old version of Toast I use regularly, but it doesn't have the TiVo features (and they don't appear to offer any upgrade pricing).
> 
> BTW, for all the people having trouble downloading shows using TiVoDecode Manager, why not just download directly with your browser and then use tivodecode on its own to decode? It seems like most of the problems people are having are related to the wrapper (TiVoDecode Manager), not the underlying functionality (transferring files from the TiVo and decoding them, though the incorrect playback speed probably can't be blamed on TDM).


how do i get to it in my browser? what else do i need to add to the IP address?


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## RaviChopra (Apr 19, 2003)

Does anyone know if HD content on the computer, converted to mpeg 720p or 1080i by VisualHub will play on the S3? I believe that the "TiVo" setting is SD.


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## sharding (Feb 11, 2001)

bpmarkowitz said:


> how do i get to it in my browser? what else do i need to add to the IP address?


https://<tivo-ip>/nowplaying/index.html

The username is "tivo" and the password is your MAK. IIRC, the "https" is important (I don't think the http url redirects to https).


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## minckster (Aug 31, 2006)

You can just enter https://<tivo-ip> and you'll get redirected to the Now Playing List. Without the "s" in https, you'll just get a message, "Congratulations! Youve successfully connected your TiVo® box to your home network, ..." on a pretty red web page. (OK, maybe not so pretty.)

You can instead enter your TiVo's Bonjour address, which has the benefit that it won't change, as can the IP address. It's easiest to look up the Bonjour address (which will look something like "dvr-8e5e.local.") with the Safari browser. In preferences, you can enable a primitive Bonjour browser for Safari's bookmarks bar.


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## bpmarkowitz (Mar 24, 2006)

sharding said:


> https://<tivo-ip>/nowplaying/index.html
> 
> The username is "tivo" and the password is your MAK. IIRC, the "https" is important (I don't think the http url redirects to https).


cool, that worked, trying a download now...

will see if it craps out doing it manually like this like it does in TDM

UPDATE: got to 6.6 MB and got a "timed out" message...


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## sharding (Feb 11, 2001)

minckster said:


> You can instead enter your TiVo's Bonjour address, which has the benefit that it won't change, as can the IP address. It's easiest to look up the Bonjour address (which will look something like "dvr-8e5e.local.") with the Safari browser. In preferences, you can enable a primitive Bonjour browser for Safari's bookmarks bar.


FWIW, one of my friends was just telling me that Bonjour seems to not be working with his S3, or is not working properly. I'm not sure if that's a problem with his setup or something more broad (and I'm not at home, so I can't check mine right this second).


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## sharding (Feb 11, 2001)

bpmarkowitz said:


> cool, that worked, trying a download now...
> 
> will see if it craps out doing it manually like this like it does in TDM
> 
> UPDATE: got to 6.6 MB and got a "timed out" message...


Bummer! What browser are you using? I've been downloading files from the TiVo this way using Firefox for years and I don't recall ever having that problem


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## minckster (Aug 31, 2006)

sharding said:


> FWIW, one of my friends was just telling me that Bonjour seems to not be working with his S3, or is not working properly. I'm not sure if that's a problem with his setup or something more broad (and I'm not at home, so I can't check mine right this second).


 Yeah, you see a lot of that complaint on one of these Mac threads. (This one maybe even?) Power cycling everything, perhaps more than once, seems to do the trick. I don't think you'll get the transfers to occur if Bonjour isn't working at all, but I'm really not sure. Anyone?


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## bpmarkowitz (Mar 24, 2006)

sharding said:


> Bummer! What browser are you using? I've been downloading files from the TiVo this way using Firefox for years and I don't recall ever having that problem


I am using safari, but it is timing out at the same time as TDM...around 6 or 7 MB in every time...trying FF now...

I just got this update today. After I try firefox I am going to do a restart again on the Tivo. All of my sharing and stuff it turned on through the Tivo website...


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## sharding (Feb 11, 2001)

minckster said:


> Yeah, you see a lot of that complaint on one of these Mac threads. (This one maybe even?) Power cycling everything, perhaps more than once, seems to do the trick. I don't think you'll get the transfers to occur if Bonjour isn't working at all, but I'm really not sure. Anyone?


It's just HTTP; why would it not work with bonjour off (if you're talking directly to the IP)? Is there some non-HTTP magic happening? That would be annoying... If no one has answered by the time I get home tonight, I'll try intentionally breaking Bonjour (if it's working at all) and see if the download still works. Now you have me wondering!


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## bpmarkowitz (Mar 24, 2006)

sharding said:


> It's just HTTP; why would it not work with bonjour off (if you're talking directly to the IP)? Is there some non-HTTP magic happening? That would be annoying... If no one has answered by the time I get home tonight, I'll try intentionally breaking Bonjour (if it's working at all) and see if the download still works. Now you have me wondering!


I just tried firefox and that didn't work either...crapped out around 6 MB again.

I may have a false positive here, but nothing seems to be working for downloading AND bonjour sharing is not working.

UPDATE: to clarify, TDC is not seeing my Tivo using bonjour sharing, only by manually inputing the IP.


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## minckster (Aug 31, 2006)

bpmarkowitz said:


> I am using safari, but it is timing out at the same time as TDM...around 6 or 7 MB in every time...trying FF now...
> 
> I just got this update today. After I try firefox I am going to do a restart again on the Tivo. All of my sharing and stuff it turned on through the Tivo website...


 My other hint is to change the channel on both tuners of your TiVo to a SD channels that you don't receive when attempting the transfer again. That way the processor isn't busy recording two HD channels while it's trying to transfer things. It can't hurt...

Can you view the video that it does download? Does it time-out at exactly the same point every time? If so, do you notice some sort of hiccup or anything unusual in the recording on your TiVo at that point?

Also, you need TCP ports 2190, 5353, 8101 open in the firewall (System preferences > Sharing > Firewall). I think 5353 is Bonjour.


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## bpmarkowitz (Mar 24, 2006)

minckster said:


> My other hint is to change the channel on both tuners of your TiVo to a SD channels that you don't receive when attempting the transfer again. That way the processor isn't busy recording two HD channels while it's trying to transfer things. It can't hurt...
> 
> Can you view the video that it does download? Does it time-out at exactly the same point every time? If so, do you notice some sort of hiccup or anything unusual in the recording on your TiVo at that point?


I have tried downloading 4 or 5 shows...they all timeout at the same point...around 6 or 7 MB in.

In safari and firefox they say they timeout. in TDM it just starts over.

The portion that downloads will open and play.


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## minckster (Aug 31, 2006)

bpmarkowitz said:


> UPDATE: to clarify, TDC is not seeing my Tivo using bonjour sharing, only by manually inputing the IP.


 Does _Safari_ see the TiVo? (Safari's preferences > Bookmarks > Bookmarks Bar: Include Bonjour) Your TiVo should appear by name, which you can select, and then change the "http" to "https" in the URL bar to get to your Now Playing List. If Safari can't see your TiVo with Bonjour, I'd power off everything (Mac, router, TiVo, etc.) and power them back up. If that doesn't get Bonjour discovery working, I'd restart the TiVo a few times. If you still can't get Bonjour discovery, I'm stumped.

Did you catch my edit above about the ports that have to be open?


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## Graymalkin (Mar 20, 2001)

I didn't know about the Bonjour names or using Safari (or Camino) to access the TiVos. They all work on my system. Nice.

The "Criminal Minds" episode (in 1080i) downloaded successfully (albeit very slowly) through TiVoDecode Manager, and was playable, with a few minor audio dropouts, in VLC. However, there doesn't seem to be a closed-captioning option, which is something I could really use.

Sigh.

I guess I'll just have to suffer and watch these programs on my 50-inch HDTV, after all.


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## sharding (Feb 11, 2001)

Man. This issue with downloads stopping after 6-7MB really doesn't sound like a Bonjour-related issue to me. It sounds more like some sort of fundamental network issue. Like maybe a TCP window or MTU issue or something. What does the network between your computer and your TiVo look like (what kinds of switches/hubs/routers/access points, etc. are in the path)?


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## sharding (Feb 11, 2001)

Also, for those of you who are interested in this kind of thing (and aren't afraid of the command-line), once you have the TiVo files on your Mac, you can watch them in VLC without decoding them to an intermediate file first. You can just pipe the output of tivodecode directly into VLC. For example:

tivodecode The\ Real\ Lost\ World.TiVo | /Applications/VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/VLC -f -

This assumes that you have your MAK in ~/.tivodecode_mak. If you don't, you also have to give tivodecode the '-m <MAK>' option.

Unfortunately, my old PowerBook G4 isn't quite fast enough to play full res 1080i video without stuttering a bit. My Macbook Pro does better.

Hopefully this will be useful to at least one person


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## rickeame (Jan 3, 2002)

Man, these downloads are S L O W.  I have a zippy network too.


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## Vindictive (Sep 13, 2007)

Has anyone had trouble with audio drop outs on digital recordings? I have exp. them on all of the digital recordings I have transferred this has been both HD and SD shows. The analog shows that I have transferred have no problems with audio. I don't believe it is a playback issue with my IMAC due to not having trouble playing back any other video file.


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## sharding (Feb 11, 2001)

I've had audio dropouts playing HD files on my G4 Powerbook. Playing HD shows on my Macbook Pro works fine (no dropouts). At least in my case, it would seem that the G4 just isn't quite fast enough.



> I don't believe it is a playback issue with my IMAC due to not having trouble playing back any other video file.


Does that include other mpeg2 files of the same resolution? The format and size makes a HUGE difference in how much horsepower is needed to play back smoothly. Very few video files people typically play back on computers are as large as those from the TiVo (especially the HD ones).


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## infinitespecter (Jul 23, 2004)

Just a note for those of you planning on upgrading to Leopard tomorrow, but everything worked great on when I was running 10.4, but when I installed 10.5 earlier tonight, TDM decided to freak out when I tried to queue downloads (although it works great downloading individually). Anyone else see anything like this? 

Oh, and also, I guess I've gotten used to the S3 and my TV deinterlacing things for me. A few seconds of 480i video (Brazilian Grand Prix) and 1080i video (Discovery Atlas HD) and I went hunting for VLCs deinterlacing tools.


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## jtkohl (Feb 7, 2004)

infinitespecter said:


> Oh, and also, I guess I've gotten used to the S3 and my TV deinterlacing things for me. A few seconds of 480i video (Brazilian Grand Prix) and 1080i video (Discovery Atlas HD) and I went hunting for VLCs deinterlacing tools.


Which of VLC's deinterlacing modes do you prefer, and why?
I've only briefly fiddled with them and can't tell much difference for the ones that maintain the standard size.


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## norbertsf (Jun 9, 2007)

Just my recent experience:

On a Mac w/ os 10.4.10, G5

-Had to reboot the Tivo S3 to have it recognized in Toast 8
-Was able to pull off a show off the Tivo S3 using Toast's Tivo Transfer app.
(I have not tried burning to DVD yet)
-I was able to view the file fine using Toast (El gato) viewer.
-The files transfered over are .tivo files so when viewing between Macs I guess as long as you have toast 8 you can view "unprocessed files" on other Macs.
-I was able to place straight mpeg2 files into Toast's Tivo Transfer app.
- I was able to view the mpeg via the S3 ( you can start watching the file BEFORE it actually completes transfering which is cool!)

Other than reading on other threads that using pyTivo one can view .h264 files ( I guess they get transcoded/or not?) Is mpeg2 the only choice at the moment?

Norbert


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## dnorth12 (Feb 10, 2005)

I have been following this post and have attempted using tdm with a little bit of luck on my s2, but none on my s3.

Having read about grabbing files files via the web browser, I was able to grab an sd off my s3 with a .tivo extension using Safari on a wireless network. The file size on the S3 was 1.78g. The downloaded file on the mac is 1.6g. Don't know if I have a complete file, hope I haven't lost anything, since at this point I don't have anything that I can view the .tivo file with. Is this where Toast 8 comes in? And is the version that Tivo recommends for 70 bucks? Will Toast allow me to convert the .tivo file for iphone or some other format that I can use handbrake to eventually arrive at the iphone?

Thanks for any info.

btw: Transfer speed was much faster via the web browser than tdm and no stops and starts.

Can also see the S2 via bonjour, but not the S3. Haven't tried rebooting everything yet as I am in the middle of recording a HD program


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## hearncl (Oct 16, 2006)

Based on suggestions in this thread, I've been experimenting with transferring HD programs from TiVo to Mac and burning them to DVD. I thought I'd post my most successful method so far.

Software used:
TiVoDecode Manager (free)
MPEG Streamclip (free) with Apple MPEG-2 Playback Component ($20)
VisualHub
Toast 8 Titanium (optional)

1. Use TiVoDecode Manager to download the program as an MPEG-2 file (file extension will be .mpg). This requires entering the TiVo IP address and Media Access Key, both obtainable from the TiVo menus.

2. Use MPEG Streamclip to edit the file (remove commercials, etc.). The MPEG Streamclip Guide (Help menu) explains how to use the program. Set the Audio Mode to "Surround". Use "Save As" to save the edited file back to the Mac (extension will be .mpeg).

3. Open VisualHub, select the DVD tab, and drag the edited file into the conversion panel. Check "Author as DVD", which will create a DVD image file which can be burned with Disk Utility or Toast (or check "Burn When Done" to burn from VisualHub). After conversion, the resulting DVD video is 720x480 pixels, which looks excellent on a HD TV. My DVDs also had 5.1 surround sound, although I suppose this depends on the original program.

4. Alternatively, the edited file can be burned to DVD or saved as a disc image in Toast 8, DVD-Video section. This has the advantage of adding a menu to the DVD and chapter markers at intervals.

I hope that others will post suggestions, corrections, or improvements.

Does anyone know of a way to include closed captions on the DVD?


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## 21364guy (Oct 20, 2007)

norbertsf said:


> -I was able to place straight mpeg2 files into Toast's Tivo Transfer app.
> - I was able to view the mpeg via the S3 ( you can start watching the file BEFORE it actually completes transfering which is cool!)
> Norbert


Can you explain how you push from a mac to TiVo using the TiVo transfer app? I was under the impression it wall pull only (Mac <- TiVo).


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## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

I've got a Series 3 TiVo with 9.2 software on it.
I've installed TiVo Desktop 1.9.3.

I purchased VisualHub, which gave me software to enable the "Videos" tab in TiVo Desktop.

I convert video with VisualHub (to MPEG-2) and then put it in the correct folder so I can see it from the TiVo... then transfer it over. All of this works fine! The transferred video looks great.

What I'm noticing now, and wondering what's up, is that the timeline of the resulting video isn't in minutes, but rather, in seconds. (I'll see "1600s" instead of "23:00")

Fast forwarding and Rewinding works okay but the "jump back" is often very off (instead of 2-3 seconds, it jumps back 30 or so.) 

So, what's at fault here? The TiVo Desktop software? VisualHub's add-on that makes Video transfer ("TiVo To Go Back") happen? Or TiVo software 9.2?

Most importantly, how do I fix it?


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## mikesown (Nov 15, 2005)

Just to let everyone know, I'm working on a Cocoa app to automate transfers from the Tivo and to automate the decoding process (for now). I started today, struggled through some (comparatively ugly) Cocoa, but I'm making good progress. Right now, I'm able to retrieve episode metadata. Either today or tomorrow, I think I'll have an early alpha app which transfers and decodes shows, and by the end of the week, I should have an alpha suitable for testing.

Beyond the basic transfer-and-decode-the-raw-file features, I (hopefully, dependent on my very limited time) will add the following features over the course of the next couple of months as free time permits:

- Encoding to other formats(i.e. MPEG4) using ffmpeg
- Automated downloading always running in the background(for example, you could put in a filter to tell the program to automatically download all "The Simpsons" episodes to your computer whenever they arrive on your Tivo).

I love my Tivo HD(just got it, after owning a DTivo for a while), and I hope this app turns out to make the Tivo experience even better!

-- Mike


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## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

Awesome news, mikesown! I look forward to checking it out!


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## bizzy (Jan 20, 2004)

Most of those functions are already done well by Tivo Download Manager, and the rest a variety of Quicktime apps (including Quicktime Player if you have QT Pro).

Why reinvent the wheel?


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## mikesown (Nov 15, 2005)

bizzy said:


> Most of those functions are already done well by Tivo Download Manager, and the rest a variety of Quicktime apps (including Quicktime Player if you have QT Pro).
> 
> Why reinvent the wheel?


I assume you mean TivoDecode Manager. Well, the fundamental problem (for me) is that it's coded in AppleScript, muddled together with some perl. It's ugly, in short. Additionally, the program is highly unresponsive. All of my program will be integrated and compiled into one binary(I plan to compile TivoDecode included with my project), so there will be no messy parts, and it will be fully responsive at all times.

Also, if any others have feature suggestions, please let me know; I'd love to make the app as good as possible.


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## bizzy (Jan 20, 2004)

Oh, ug. I had no idea. Well then, please proceed!


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## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

mikesown said:


> Also, if any others have feature suggestions, please let me know; I'd love to make the app as good as possible.


TVHarmony (for Windows) is pretty cool. One of the things I'm jealous of is that it uses the open source library ComSkip to be able to analyze the video frames and automatically detect (and remove) the commercial breaks. I always thought that was really cool but never got a chance to test it out myself.

So... if you could incorporate that into your app, man... that'd be pretty frickin' sweet.


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## norbertsf (Jun 9, 2007)

21364guy said:


> Can you explain how you push from a mac to TiVo using the TiVo transfer app? I was under the impression it wall pull only (Mac <- TiVo).


Just make sure it is in .mpg format. I used VLC to encode a .h264 video to .mpg. You can use Visualhub also.

Then just place the file in the "TiVo Shows" folder that is indicated in the Tivo Desktop Preferences (Under System Preferences).

If you have the Toast 8/Tivo Transfer app(from the Toast Extras Menu) open, you can see the .mpg file appear immediately in the "TiVo Recording" List.

You can then see this from your Tivo Now Playing list on your S3 and play it.

Norbert


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## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

norbertsf said:


> Just make sure it is in .mpg format. I used VLC to encode a .h264 video to .mpg. You can use Visualhub also.
> 
> Then just place the file in the "TiVo Shows" folder that is indicated in the Tivo Desktop Preferences (Under System Preferences).
> 
> ...


Does Toast 8 on it's own enable TiVoToComeBack (the video pane in the system pref) or is VisualHub required for that first?


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## Graymalkin (Mar 20, 2001)

mikesown, if you could figure out how to include closed-captioning in the file, that would be really helpful. Toast 8 has that feature, but the TiVoDecode-VLC combination doesn't (as far as I can tell).


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## bedelman (Feb 26, 2001)

Fofer said:


> Does Toast 8 on it's own enable TiVoToComeBack (the video pane in the system pref) or is VisualHub required for that first?


I used the terminal command to do it originally -- but you don't need anything fancy to enable the videos tab. Just hold down the apple (or command) key and then click on the preference pane and the videos tab will be visible.


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## norbertsf (Jun 9, 2007)

Fofer said:


> Does Toast 8 on it's own enable TiVoToComeBack (the video pane in the system pref) or is VisualHub required for that first?


You do not need VisualHub for this. (as bedelman indicated)

**So... my big question is I keep reading about a Tivo Desktop PLUS key that enables files OTHER than Mpeg 2 to be transfered back to the Tivo.
Apparently such key/software is only provided for PCs.
How do we get that enabled on the Mac-->S3????

Norbert


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## bostlaw (May 16, 2005)

bedelman said:


> I used the terminal command to do it originally -- but you don't need anything fancy to enable the videos tab. Just hold down the apple (or command) key and then click on the preference pane and the videos tab will be visible.


Unfortunately, that method has stopped working for me since installing Leopard...


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## hank12345 (Sep 27, 2005)

so far the best process for me has been the following on my iMac G5 running Leopard:

Use TiVoDecode Manager to get the native MPEG-2 files off the tiVo. 

then use VisualHub to convert the files for use on iTunes and my iPhone as well as to archive and play on appleTV at a latter date. 

I've tried Roxio's Popcorn, and TiVo Transfer for Popcorn, as well as downloading using Safari, all of which seemed hit or miss when it came SD programs, and never worked with HD programs--- 

Now I am experimenting with VisualHub's quality settings so I can get a happy medium between acceptable visual quality on my devices, and conversion speed... 

I like the idea of TiVo Transfer's automatic transfer, as well as importing automatically to Popcorn for conversion, but it simply won't work for me. I look forward to an update fro Roxio that will bring it up to speed....


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## fatespawn (Oct 14, 2007)

norbertsf said:


> You do not need VisualHub for this. (as bedelman indicated)
> 
> **So... my big question is I keep reading about a Tivo Desktop PLUS key that enables files OTHER than Mpeg 2 to be transfered back to the Tivo.
> Apparently such key/software is only provided for PCs.
> ...


Norbert,

That is EXACTLY what I want to do. Quicktime doesn't even support exporting video in mpeg-2 format. Apple has embraced h264 so much (as well it should) they expect everyone to use it for everything. I have not problem with that... I have no problem with paying someone money for software either.

If Tivo supports .mp4, they should do so for the Mac as well. Is there a method?


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## infinitespecter (Jul 23, 2004)

jtkohl said:


> Which of VLC's deinterlacing modes do you prefer, and why?
> I've only briefly fiddled with them and can't tell much difference for the ones that maintain the standard size.


I chose Blend because it seems to do an OK job. I couldn't really tell a difference either, beyond the fact that bobbing the video left a stairstep pattern around some smooth surfaces. I have no idea which method TDM uses.


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## Chimpware (Jan 30, 2002)

hank12345 said:


> so far the best process for me has been the following on my iMac G5 running Leopard:
> 
> Use TiVoDecode Manager to get the native MPEG-2 files off the tiVo.
> 
> ...


Similar process to what I am doing under Leopard (I love my new iMac 20), except I use VisualHub under Parallels to edit out commercials before encoding.


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## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

Chimpware said:


> Similar process to what I am doing under Leopard (I love my new iMac 20), except I use VisualHub under Parallels to edit out commercials before encoding.


I think you mistyped. VisualHub is a Mac program. What Windows program do you use under Parallels to edit?


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## Chimpware (Jan 30, 2002)

Fofer said:


> I think you mistyped. VisualHub is a Mac program. What Windows program do you use under Parallels to edit?


You are correct I meant VideoRedo.


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## A-1 (Mar 12, 2007)

*To all Involved with this Thread*

Thank You! I started this thread knowing i would get some great feedback, but you all have really shined in this thread. The information here is spot on and extremely useful.

Thanks again Tivo Community YOU ROCK!


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## dnorth12 (Feb 10, 2005)

I am having some issues getting the TTG portion working for me. 

I downloaded a digital channel (sd) program via my safari browser from my series 3.

I downloaded the trial version of visualhub and ran the tivo file through using the iphone presets. 

Using the visualhub trial version, you only get 2 minutes worth of useable video, so you can see the quality prior to purchase although it appears to process the whole file. What I got was a grey screen which looked like a subtle waterfall and eventually a great deal of pixels all over the screen. Totally unusable. Tried QT, iTunes and VLC - same image.

What settings should I be using, that I am not? I could use other than the iphone settings and then convert later via iTunes.

I finally got TDM to grab a portion of Gladiator in HD using the mpeg2 settings and process that, but it only did the first half of the program with no errors reported.

I have a little success with each process, but not enough to accomplish the process.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.


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## brianlees (Apr 16, 2007)

How do you download a show via a browser?


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## dnorth12 (Feb 10, 2005)

> How do you download a show via a browser?


Go to post 103 and 104 in this thread. That is where I picked up the trick.


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## Chimpware (Jan 30, 2002)

dnorth12 said:


> I am having some issues getting the TTG portion working for me.
> 
> I downloaded a digital channel (sd) program via my safari browser from my series 3.
> 
> ...


VisualHub will not directly process .TiVo files. You should use TDM to download a MPEG-2 file and then process in VisualHub. Only way to process a .TiVo file on teh Mac is with Roxio software, either Popcorn or Toast.


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## Chimpware (Jan 30, 2002)

brianlees said:


> How do you download a show via a browser?


https://TIVOIPADDRESS

where TIVOIPADDRESS is the IP address of your Tivo. Note make sure you include the "s" above.


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## dnorth12 (Feb 10, 2005)

> VisualHub will not directly process .TiVo files. You should use TDM to download a MPEG-2 file and then process in VisualHub. Only way to process a .TiVo file on teh Mac is with Roxio software, either Popcorn or Toast.


Chimpware thanks for the reply.

To confirm the process:

Download the tivo file via the browser (which has been the reliable transfer as TDM is hit and miss).

Run the tivo file through Toast or Popcorn and I am off and running. Do you have a preference for one or the other other than price?

Will this work with HD as well as SD files from the Series 3? Any special needs there versus Series 2?


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## murrays (Oct 19, 2004)

So I can see the programs on my S3, but when I click on "Download", I get the following error:


```
<h2>Server Busy</h2>
too many transfers in progress
```
I rebooted the TiVo once and TDM seems to timeout after it gets to 0.21% complete.

I'm using an Airport Extreme base station with a Airport Express in WDS mode.

Any advice?

-murray


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## Unix_Beard (Dec 22, 2003)

TDM to MPEG-4
MPEG-4 into iMovie to edit commercials
iMovie to iDVD

I vaguely recall doing this with success with the 'ol Series 2.


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## Chimpware (Jan 30, 2002)

dnorth12 said:


> Chimpware thanks for the reply.
> 
> To confirm the process:
> 
> ...


Process you outlined is correct and should work regardless of file format (HD or SD), I have used both. I have Toast, but only because I already had a version and upgraded for $60 and sometimes use the additional functionality. Popcorn should be fine for most people without the additional cost.

I would actually recommend the TDM to MPEG-2 then VisualHub process as the Roxio software does not convert as quickly as VisualHub nor does it have as many options. Benefit of Roxio approach is integrated solution if you use their Tivo Transfer software. In hindsight if I knew about TDM before I bought the Toast upgrade I would likely have skipped Toast (ah who am I kidding I would have bought it probably just to try...).


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## dnorth12 (Feb 10, 2005)

> I would actually recommend the TDM to MPEG-2 then VisualHub process


TDM is where I started, but can't get it to download a complete file consistently.

I downloaded popcorn since it was the cheaper version. It works, but you are correct, it has limited control.

Anyway thanks for the reply and the info.


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## Chimpware (Jan 30, 2002)

Anyone with a Mac using VideoRedo under Parallels? I was just wondering why it cannot open .Tivo files downloaded from https:// or Tovo Transfer with VideoRedo under Parallels?


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## wdave (Jul 16, 2000)

dnorth12 said:


> I downloaded popcorn since it was the cheaper version. It works, but you are correct, it has limited control.


What's the limited control?

Can Popcorn handle everything in one step once I set my preferences? I just want to easily be able to choose a program off my S3, and have it transferred, converted, and loaded into iTunes ready for transfer to my iPhone. So is Popcorn the best tool for that? And does it allow me to configure it for the exact iPhone resolution?


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## dnorth12 (Feb 10, 2005)

> What's the limited control?
> 
> Can Popcorn handle everything in one step once I set my preferences? I just want to easily be able to choose a program off my S3, and have it transferred, converted, and loaded into iTunes ready for transfer to my iPhone. So is Popcorn the best tool for that? And does it allow me to configure it for the exact iPhone resolution?


I am no expert here, but will try to answer your question.

Popcorn is only one portion of the program. There is a second Tivo conversion app.
There is a preset for the iphone format, but you actually set this in the popcorn app prefereneces (strange). There you can customize that setting for one pass or two pass conversion.

I have only done one conversion at this point using the single pass method (lower quality - but acceptable). I am going to try a second conversion this evening using the two pass method (higher quality) and see how that looks. I imagine that this will take double the time to process.

You do the transfers via Tivo Transfer. I stated earlier in this post that you don't. I was incorrect, because I wasn't seeing my S2 or my S3 in the available devices window. I rebooted them both and now they show up. I edited this post to reflect the correct info.

I have noticed when using TDM (where you transfer and convert) that the same file when converted to mpeg2 has a higher picture quality than the single pass using popcorn. I am having a little trouble getting the dual pass preference to stick. Each time I go back into the prefences it has reset to the single pass.

I am still experimenting, so take what I say here with a grain of salt. Hope this helps.


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## wdave (Jul 16, 2000)

Thanks. Does Popcorn not do the actual transfer but Toast does? The screenshots for Toast looks like it does the transfer and conversion, along with auto-execute rules as well. I'll gladly pay for Toast if that's easier and more full featured.


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## Chimpware (Jan 30, 2002)

wdave said:


> Thanks. Does Popcorn not do the actual transfer but Toast does? The screenshots for Toast looks like it does the transfer and conversion, along with auto-execute rules as well. I'll gladly pay for Toast if that's easier and more full featured.


Actually regardless of whether you use Popcorn or Toast they both use another app for transfer called Tivo Transfer.


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## askewed (Sep 12, 2000)

Chimpware said:


> https://TIVOIPADDRESS
> 
> where TIVOIPADDRESS is the IP address of your Tivo. Note make sure you include the "s" above.


What "name" and "password" is it asking for?

Thanks!


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## Graymalkin (Mar 20, 2001)

Name is "tivo"

Password is your Media Access Key number.


I *think* that's it.


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## askewed (Sep 12, 2000)

Thanks Gray... Tee hee hee hee I see it!

Running toast...

TiVo Transfer is amazing!!!! This is a great day!


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## oldskoolboarder (Jul 8, 2003)

murrays said:


> So I can see the programs on my S3, but when I click on "Download", I get the following error:
> 
> 
> ```
> ...


I have the same problem. Any solution?


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## sdp33 (Nov 1, 2007)

I have attached a My DVR Extender to my Series 3 and, ever since, I cannot download anything anymore. 
Using the browser option, my browser just starts going there and hangs. 
With TivoDecode Manager it just keeps trying to connect but never gets to the point that, at least, it displays the now playing list.
Before this happened, after several tries I only managed to download one episode of CSI and, although I chose the MPEG2 option, the file turned out to be MPEG1. Why?
By the way, I only started trying to download after the Fall 2007 update.


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## murrays (Oct 19, 2004)

oldskoolboarder said:


> I have the same problem. Any solution?


Well, not really, but last night I didn't get the browser error, yet TDM still would restart the download about 3 or 4 times then quit trying. I downloaded an episode of 30 Rock using the browser, but couldn't confirm it was all there since I couldn't convert it easily.

Then I get home from work, give TDM a try and it's downloading an episode now 

I didn't do any reboots or anything since I wrote my post a couple days ago so I don't know what changed.

I'll find out if the file plays in another hour or so.

-murray


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## kgt12 (Oct 23, 2007)

I have used Toast 8 Titanium to bring some recordings from my Tivo to my Mac.

SD plays fine.

HD, like others have mentioned, plays twice as fast (both audio and video).

Does anyone know a simple way around this? Has the patch from Roxio come in yet?

I searched for this info, but came up dry.

Thanks in advance.


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## Supermurph (Oct 15, 2007)

kgt12 said:


> I have used Toast 8 Titanium to bring some recordings from my Tivo to my Mac.
> 
> SD plays fine.
> 
> ...


I don't think there is a fix yet. The last post from Patatrox from Roxio is post #101 on the last page of this thread:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=369019&referrerid=186396


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