# iTiVo and Mountain Lion



## peaston (Feb 13, 2005)

Has anyone upgraded to mountain lion 10.8?
I have it on a dev machine and it breaks iTiVo!

Pete


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## jshore (Aug 18, 2003)

I just upgraded last night and saw immediately that iTiVo was broke. I was able to actually get it to launch ok and see my Tivo by trying this in the terminal:

http://code.google.com/p/itivo/issues/detail?id=198

But when i tried transferring a show, it said it was gonna take something like 55, 843 hours... i left it alone for about 45 minutes and it stopped on its own. I checked the file it hand transferred and it got about 19 minutes of a 30 minute show.

Does anybody use Tivo Transfer that is a part of Toast? Is that still part of Toast as of 11? Just wondering if i need to go to that now?


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## bill gerstein (Jul 27, 2012)

I just upgraded to mountain lion and can no longer use itivo. Are there alternatives? I once tried Toast. That was a nightmare.


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## Dark Helmet (Sep 15, 2006)

jshore said:


> Does anybody use Tivo Transfer that is a part of Toast? Is that still part of Toast as of 11? Just wondering if i need to go to that now?


I still use TiVo Transfer (still comes with Toast 11), but ONLY for the transfer; I use my own program for the conversion (which uses tivodecode, MPEG Streamclip, and Handbrake for the hard stuff).

I used to use Toast, but they (Roxio) basically gave up on TiVo support; if you bring a TiVo file into Toast the editor locks up and their tech support didn't care when I tried to work the problem with them.


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## jshore (Aug 18, 2003)

well, i am in the process of trying Tivo Transfer (from Toast).... but so far unable to get it to see my TiVos on my home network. Even with Mountain Lion, iTivo sees my Tivos, and each of my 3 tivos can see the other tivos on my network, and transfer/stream shows between them. But for some reason my Tivos don't show up at all. And dealing with Roxio/Corel customer support is a joke. Their big suggestion was for me to take the Tivo Transfer from my dock into the trash, and launch from the applications folder. (Hello, Tivo Transfer in my dock is just an alias for the one in my apps folder!)

Anyway, giving it one more try tonight then getting a refund.

But i really need an alternative - one of the things i love about tivo is transferring shows to my iMac (and then to my iPad)....


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## Dark Helmet (Sep 15, 2006)

jshore said:


> well, i am in the process of trying Tivo Transfer (from Toast).... but so far unable to get it to see my TiVos on my home network. Even with Mountain Lion, iTivo sees my Tivos, and each of my 3 tivos can see the other tivos on my network, and transfer/stream shows between them. But for some reason my Tivos don't show up at all. And dealing with Roxio/Corel customer support is a joke. Their big suggestion was for me to take the Tivo Transfer from my dock into the trash, and launch from the applications folder. (Hello, Tivo Transfer in my dock is just an alias for the one in my apps folder!)


I can't really defend Roxio customer support, but at least the TiVo Transfer app works for me. Just curious ... do you have the latest update of Toast? There were problems with newer TiVos, but at least those got fixed. If TiVo support people are reading this, could you communicate up the chain that Toast essentially DOES NOT WORK and TiVo shouldn't recommend it as a Mac solution?

I think you will discover that the REST of Toast, however, is an Epic Fail when it comes to TiVo support; the editor is terrible and locks up for me all of the time. Even when it does work it's still lousy.

If you're willing to be adventurous (and maybe compile a program or two) I'd be willing to supply the program I use to do transcoding on my Mac. You'll need tivodecode, AtomicParsley, MPEG Streamclip, and Handbrake (HandbrakeCLI, actually). All of those are free (but MPEG Streamclip needs a $20 library from Apple). PM me if you're interested.


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## jshore (Aug 18, 2003)

Dark Helmet said:


> I can't really defend Roxio customer support, but at least the TiVo Transfer app works for me. Just curious ... do you have the latest update of Toast? There were problems with newer TiVos, but at least those got fixed. If TiVo support people are reading this, could you communicate up the chain that Toast essentially DOES NOT WORK and TiVo shouldn't recommend it as a Mac solution?
> 
> I think you will discover that the REST of Toast, however, is an Epic Fail when it comes to TiVo support; the editor is terrible and locks up for me all of the time. Even when it does work it's still lousy.
> 
> If you're willing to be adventurous (and maybe compile a program or two) I'd be willing to supply the program I use to do transcoding on my Mac. You'll need tivodecode, AtomicParsley, MPEG Streamclip, and Handbrake (HandbrakeCLI, actually). All of those are free (but MPEG Streamclip needs a $20 library from Apple). PM me if you're interested.


Appreciate the offer but i know nothing of compiling programs and whatnot. I'm one of those mac nerds who is so into apple because everything is (relatively) easy. I believe i am using latest version of toast since i just purchased it 2 days ago and downloaded it. I used to use TIvo Transfer back in Toast 9 (before i discovered iTivo) and it was fine. So i'd be ok if the darn thing would just see my Tivos on the network...


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## Johncv (Jun 11, 2002)

peaston said:


> Has anyone upgraded to mountain lion 10.8?
> I have it on a dev machine and it breaks iTiVo!
> 
> Pete


Remember ANY program using Mountain Lion must use 64-bit code. Any program using 32-bit code will no longer run on Mountain Lion. All 32-bit code was remove from Mountain Lion.


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## WDWPassholder (May 25, 2012)

Does kmttg use itivo under the covers? I know it packages up stuff like projectx and other tools to accomplish the various tasks.

I have been searching the internet before actually trying to download or install Mountain Lion. Continue to use Lion for now. Seems like several MAC software programs are releasing updates, but trying to understand the compatibility of tools that are unix, java, or other software based is tiring.

I saw some information about X11 no longer being part of Mountain Lion, does itivo or kmttg rely on that? I followed link (xquartz.macosforge.org/landing/) to try installing the separate x11 that apple suggests is needed with Mountain Lion, but was not really sure if it was needed for kmttg processing.

I also searched kmttg doc on google without finding a clear answer yet, so I left a question on the install MAC OS X page (code.google.com/p/kmttg/wiki/mac_osx_installation)


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## Dark Helmet (Sep 15, 2006)

Johncv said:


> Remember ANY program using Mountain Lion must use 64-bit code. Any program using 32-bit code will no longer run on Mountain Lion. All 32-bit code was remove from Mountain Lion.


That's not exactly true. There's no longer a 32-bit KERNEL, so 32-bit kernel extensions won't work. But 32-bit userspace applications should work fine (assuming they don't depend on 32-bit kernel extensions).

It looks like one of the problems with iTiVo is that it uses a program called "mDNS" which no longer exists in Mountain Lion.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

WDWPassholder said:


> Does kmttg use itivo under the covers?


No.



> I saw some information about X11 no longer being part of Mountain Lion, does itivo or kmttg rely on that?


 No.

kmttg GUI should run AFAIK (but I don't own a Mac so can't guarantee it) and if the 32 bit helper applications like ffmpeg, etc. still run then there should be no problems.


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## jshore (Aug 18, 2003)

Ugh, this is frustrating. I even tried KMTTG and got all the parts installed and entered my MAK, but it's not seeing any of my Tivos either. I have no firewalls that i know of set up on my router... and i've tried shutting down, restarting cable modem, router, iMac, and all tivos. i've reinstalled toast 11 (and thrown away plst files). But the only app that can even see any of my tivos is iTivo (it sees my living room elite).... and when i transfer a show in iTivo i only get about 18 minutes of it and it stops.

i'm really hoping i haven't just lost the ability to transfer shows from tivo to my iMac/itunes. Love taking shows on the go on my iPad....


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## Dark Helmet (Sep 15, 2006)

jshore said:


> i'm really hoping i haven't just lost the ability to transfer shows from tivo to my iMac/itunes. Love taking shows on the go on my iPad....


You know, you don't actually need KMTTG or iTiVo to do the transfers for you; you can use a web browser to simply connect to your TiVo and download the files yourself (still have to transcode them, of course).

If you don't happen to know your TiVo's name or IP address on your local network, they should show up under Bonjour in the "Collections" sidebar of Safari.


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## jshore (Aug 18, 2003)

Dark Helmet said:


> You know, you don't actually need KMTTG or iTiVo to do the transfers for you; you can use a web browser to simply connect to your TiVo and download the files yourself (still have to transcode them, of course).
> 
> If you don't happen to know your TiVo's name or IP address on your local network, they should show up under Bonjour in the "Collections" sidebar of Safari.


I tried entering the IP address of two of my TiVos, and got the attached "Congratulations" message screen but nothing else? (Not sure if the image attachment worked). It basically tells me all the wonderful things i can do with an internet-connected tivo, but i can't click anywhere to do anything. I looked under Collections and only see history, Bookmarks Bar and Bookmarks Menu... if you have any mountain lion step-by-step directions to transfer and then encode (handbrake?) i'd really appreciate it. Thanks!


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## Dark Helmet (Sep 15, 2006)

jshore said:


> I tried entering the IP address of two of my TiVos, and got the attached "Congratulations" message screen but nothing else? (Not sure if the image attachment worked). It basically tells me all the wonderful things i can do with an internet-connected tivo, but i can't click anywhere to do anything. I looked under Collections and only see history, Bookmarks Bar and Bookmarks Menu... if you have any mountain lion step-by-step directions to transfer and then encode (handbrake?) i'd really appreciate it. Thanks!


Sure. First, connect using https, e.g:

https://256.256.256.256

Log in with a username of "tivo" and a password of your MAK (since you had iTiVo working, I am assuming you know where to get that from).

You should then see a web page which shows what you have on your TiVo. For each program you'll have the option to either download a MPEG-PS (Program Stream) or MPEG-TS (Transport Stream). You want the Program Stream.

Then, you have to decrypt it with a program called "tivodecode". You can find binaries by Googling (you could also get it from MacPorts), but it's a command-line tool. It's not hard to use (but I am used to that sort of thing). That decrypts it from the TiVo format into a MPEG stream that a lot of programs can handle.

At this point I use MPEG Streamclip to edit the file to remove commercials; this step is optional.

You can then use Handbrake to convert the file. Just open the MPEG stream file with Handbrake; it has presets for a bunch of different Apple devices so that should make it easy. Then you have to open it with iTunes to import it, and once you do THAT, you should be able to transfer it to your iPad.

The program I was talking about earlier that I wrote automates these steps; it's still command line, but it just removes some of the tedium. Thinking more about it, the only thing I had to compile myself was Atomic Parsley (which I use for metadata tagging).


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## jshore (Aug 18, 2003)

Dark Helmet said:


> Sure. First, connect using https, e.g:
> 
> https://256.256.256.256
> 
> ...


First off, thanks for your help...making a bit of progress here. Was able to login with tivo and MAK... and downloading a test file...

still a little unclear on tivodecode. I have both that and kmttg downloaded... just not sure how to point them to the file i will want decoded. (And handbrake won't just do this from the file i am downloading via ip address, right?)...

again, thanks for your help, and apologies for my lack of knowledge on all things terminal-related!


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## jshore (Aug 18, 2003)

jshore said:


> First off, thanks for your help...making a bit of progress here. Was able to login with tivo and MAK... and downloading a test file...
> 
> still a little unclear on tivodecode. I have both that and kmttg downloaded... just not sure how to point them to the file i will want decoded. (And handbrake won't just do this from the file i am downloading via ip address, right?)...
> 
> again, thanks for your help, and apologies for my lack of knowledge on all things terminal-related!


PS i have roxio toast 11 - can i use that to translate the file for iTunes?


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## Dark Helmet (Sep 15, 2006)

jshore said:


> still a little unclear on tivodecode. I have both that and kmttg downloaded... just not sure how to point them to the file i will want decoded. (And handbrake won't just do this from the file i am downloading via ip address, right?)...


Handbrake doesn't know about any TiVo specific stuff; you need it decrypted first, and tivodecode really is the only choice here.

You're going to have to do this from a Terminal window. If you run "tivodecode" without any arguments it will tell you what the options are. You probably want something like:


```
tivodecode -mak YOUR-MAK-HERE --out file.mpeg file.TiVo
```
If you've never done *anything* from a Terminal window before ... well, I suspect it will be tough going. I hope you won't be offended if I don't go into a complete Unix command line tutorial; that would take a long time.



> PS i have roxio toast 11 - can i use that to translate the file for iTunes?


Maybe. Back when I used it you could press the "Toast it" button from TiVo Transfer and it would incorporate it into Toast. From what I could tell Tivo Transfer doesn't do the TiVo decryption itself, Toast handles it all. So maybe if you point Toast at a downloaded TiVo file the right thing will happen (I'm assuming you entered your MAK into Toast at some point). But be warned ... the editor in Toast basically doesn't work with TiVo files. If that doesn't bother you then maybe it will be sufficient for your needs.


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## jshore (Aug 18, 2003)

Dark Helmet said:


> Handbrake doesn't know about any TiVo specific stuff; you need it decrypted first, and tivodecode really is the only choice here.
> 
> You're going to have to do this from a Terminal window. If you run "tivodecode" without any arguments it will tell you what the options are. You probably want something like:
> 
> ...


Once again, thanks for all your helpful suggestions! I think the terminal is best suited for those who know what the heck they are doing, not pseudo-nerds like me.

So here's what worked...

went to my https:IPADDRESS and signed in with "tivo" and MAK... was able to transfer the file per your instructions. I dragged that file into Toast 11, and it converted it just fine. It dropped it into iTunes, and i just copied over to my iPad. While this is a bit more of a pain in the @ss than using iTivo, at least it works! (Again, once fall tv shows start back up there will be plenty of shows i will want to transfer and take on my iPad to the gym.)

Thanks again for all your help!


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## herbman (Apr 8, 2008)

Johncv said:


> Remember ANY program using Mountain Lion must use 64-bit code. Any program using 32-bit code will no longer run on Mountain Lion. All 32-bit code was remove from Mountain Lion.


This is not true.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

Sorry, I haven't read this thread in full (I found it while searching for the kmttg thread).

I used to use iTivo.. kmttg is MUCH easier to use (though it is java interface)... and much more reliable in general.


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## javabird (Oct 13, 2006)

kmttg is still working in Mountain Lion (although I disagree that it's easier to use than iTivo).


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## WDWPassholder (May 25, 2012)

It is encouraging seeing that you, javabird, have kmttg working under Mountain Lion. Did you need to make any changes to get it to work?

I have the standard download from kmttg, version v0p8r. I see that there is a newer version available, v0p8t. Wondering if it matters, do I need to install newest version first ?


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## WDWPassholder (May 25, 2012)

Previously I did not realize there was a separate thread just for kmttg (Thread= New program for 1 step TTG downloads, decryption, encoding - kmttg). Guessing that is the better spot for me to be posting my specific questions about kmttg compatibility with Mountain Lion. 

There were several good suggestions in this thread though that I wanted to say - Thanks! Troubleshooting tips like being able to use the browser if all else fails to verify connection to Tivo will probably push me to try Mountain Lion sooner than I otherwise would have.

Wanted to also respond to questions in this thread about Roxio Toast. I first tried Titanium version 11 and really wanted a simple solution that worked. If that product had worked successfully consistently, I never would have been looking on the internet for alternatives. Probably the most successful part of that tool set for me was the Tivo Transfer. But as stated elsewhere, that package has issues and seemed to lack the vendor support it deserved. Editting of video within Toast would always eventually get hung up if I tried doing multiple edits without logging out of the tool. I have plenty of power on my iMac (Core i7, upgraded to 16 Gb ram), so I expected software would not have issues. It seemed that kmttg was the next best option for me to try. I do not want to have to dig into the setup if I can avoid it. I have some issues with kmttg not completely processing my video files from my Tivo, but have learned how to reprocess the few that have issues, so it has been a much better alternative to Toast for me.


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## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

I found some fixes mentioned here:



> sudo ln -s /usr/bin/dns-sd /usr/bin/mDNS
> in Terminal is a quick workaround.
> 
> In addition, in curlSize.pl, add another <CURLFILE>; while the file is open. This should get it in sync.


http://code.google.com/p/itivo/issues/detail?id=198


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## javabird (Oct 13, 2006)

WDWPassholder said:


> It is encouraging seeing that you, javabird, have kmttg working under Mountain Lion. Did you need to make any changes to get it to work?
> 
> I have the standard download from kmttg, version v0p8r. I see that there is a newer version available, v0p8t. Wondering if it matters, do I need to install newest version first ?


I have version v0p8t, which I upgraded from a previous version v0p8l. I had it installed and working on Lion before I upgraded to Mtn Lion.


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## Dark Helmet (Sep 15, 2006)

WDWPassholder said:


> Wanted to also respond to questions in this thread about Roxio Toast. I first tried Titanium version 11 and really wanted a simple solution that worked. If that product had worked successfully consistently, I never would have been looking on the internet for alternatives. Probably the most successful part of that tool set for me was the Tivo Transfer. But as stated elsewhere, that package has issues and seemed to lack the vendor support it deserved. Editting of video within Toast would always eventually get hung up if I tried doing multiple edits without logging out of the tool.


Yeah, I ran into the EXACT same issues. Talk about frustrating ... the official TiVo-recommended total is almost completely non-functional. It literally got worse in EVERY new version, and it never worked well even when it was functional. Like you said, the only thing that works worth a damn is TiVo Transfer. It's too bad; if it did work right I'd be happy with it even with the issues like the lousy metadata support. Well, at least now with the open-source tools I can get high definition video on my iPad which is pretty sweet.

The issue I had with kmttg was that it wasn't really set up to do manual commercial editing (it can use VideoReDo, but that's Windows only). The version of comskip for the Mac is an emulated version of the Windows program; I tried compiling it myself so it could run natively, but I realized that it wasn't very portable and I got the impression that the author wasn't interested in fixing that. So that's why I wrote my own Perl program to automate my workflow.


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## javabird (Oct 13, 2006)

I agree the editing feature never worked in Toast. The last version of Toast I used was v.9 and I really liked the Tivo transfer tool, but it broke in Lion. iTivo was great to use, as it was drop-dead simple. kmttg works satisfactory for com skip but it's not perfect. If it's something I care about, I use MPEG streamclip for editing -- I haven't tried MPEG Streamclip since Mtn Lion, i hope it still works


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## tspofford (Feb 27, 2008)

This thread seems to have devolved into a discussion of Toast and some unix approaches. I'm happy for and can use the latter, after a little bit of refreshing my memory, but wonder if an iTiVo fix is available yet or on the way. Thanks.


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## javabird (Oct 13, 2006)

Per the previous posts, iTivo is currently not working in Mountain Lion.


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## Spudboy2012 (Jul 16, 2012)

I'm using MacOS 10.8 with KMTTG & Mac2Tivo. I'm having zero issues. I'd be happy to help you out with what ever your having trouble with.


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## jbaum (Jul 23, 2002)

I'm giving up, I think Tivo Stream will simplify this for me.


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## westside_guy (Mar 13, 2005)

WDWPassholder said:


> I saw some information about X11 no longer being part of Mountain Lion, ...


This is somewhat incorrect. While it's true Apple is no longer developing their own version of X11, if you run an app that needs it, Mountain Lion will ask you if you want to install it - and if you say yes, it grabs XQuartz for you. It's still seamless.


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## volcs1 (May 1, 2005)

Spudboy2012 said:


> I'm using MacOS 10.8 with KMTTG & Mac2Tivo. I'm having zero issues. I'd be happy to help you out with what ever your having trouble with.


Thanks for this. I installed KMTTG under 10.8.1, and it works great.


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## javabird (Oct 13, 2006)

Just want to let people know that I recently tried the Roxio Tivo Transfer tool again and it seems to be working for me under Mtn Lion (I accidentally launched it and was surprised to see it working, since it's been broken since the last 2 OS X updates). So if you have it installed, you might give it a try again.


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## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

It would be great if it could work with the new TiVo Stream for better/faster transfers.


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## enigmakv (Jan 26, 2008)

Dark Helmet said:


> If you're willing to be adventurous (and maybe compile a program or two) I'd be willing to supply the program I use to do transcoding on my Mac. You'll need tivodecode, AtomicParsley, MPEG Streamclip, and Handbrake (HandbrakeCLI, actually). All of those are free (but MPEG Streamclip needs a $20 library from Apple). PM me if you're interested.


Hi DH. I am doing pretty much exactly what you are doing...

1) transfer TiVo video via web interface
2) TivoDecode
3) MPEG StreamClip to edit out commercials
4) Handbrake
(haven't tried the atomic parsly thing yet, but I use MetaX before importing to iTunes)

I have considered trying to make an applescript to do all these things, but I'd be interested in hearing more details of what you have done.

I'm fairly new here in the community and it won't let me PM you. Could you PM details to me?


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## Archstar (Apr 11, 2013)

I have posted a way to fix iTiVo here. github[dot]com/archstar/iTiVo-CookiePatch


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## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

In case anyone isn't aware, there's a new entrant in this field called cTivo (for Mac.) It's largely replaced iTiVo for me, and seems to be in very active development.

http://code.google.com/p/ctivo/


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## BrooklynBlueEyes (Mar 9, 2012)

FYI, in case people don't already know, Roxio Popcorn is less expensive than Toast and includes TiVo transfer (which is what I use with Mountain Lion), if people are looking to save a few bucks.


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## manifestao (Dec 7, 2005)

i saw that you have 10.8 working. Can I ask if you're able to view itunes library via the tivo? it's all i want. I dont need transfer, just music from my itunes to my tv speaker. Help?


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## manifestao (Dec 7, 2005)

does cTivo work to play music from itunes through tivo?


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## manifestao (Dec 7, 2005)

does anyone know if i can use a Tivo Roamio with my MacBook Pro using OS 10.8 for simply accessing my itunes music? Come on, Tivo...


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