# Leaky Tivo Desktop Software



## qz3fwd (Jul 6, 2007)

So Tivo Desktop 2.5.1 has been out for what 2-3 months and yet Tivo hasnt been able or willing to fix the really nast memory leaks coming from the tivotransfer.exe executable. When running large transfer jobs it starts to consume huge amounts of RAM. After 18 hours it will consume anywhere between 700-900MB memory. This is unacceptable. Transfers start to fail at this point.

Tivo-Get off your duffs and plug the leaky boat before it sinks.

Jeez

Windows XP SP2
Tivo Desktop 2.5.1
4GB Corsair RAM
Nvidia 6800 Ultra
Tyan S2665 Mobo
2x Xeon 3.2Ghz CPU's
......


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Desktop 2.6 is suppose to be released in March. Hopefully it will include fixes to these fundamental problems in addition to the new features.

Dan


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## qz3fwd (Jul 6, 2007)

I hope so because waking up or arriving home only to find the transfers failed just plain sucks.

One would think that the software could keep track of where it left off transferring and pause/restart transfers arbitrarily and also allow one to shuffle the order/priority in the queue.

Looking forward to 2.6


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## qz3fwd (Jul 6, 2007)

Also it would be cool to support streaming ifo/dvd's w/menus intact.
Add a bitrate viewer and random access seeking.


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## msmart (Jan 3, 2007)

> I hope so because waking up or arriving home only to find the transfers failed just plain sucks.


Agreed!!


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Don't expect to many additional features. Just be happy if they fix the bigs and add the features they promised.

Dan

P.S. FYI you can convert from IFO/VOB files to TiVo compatible MPEG files using VideoReDo. It wont maintain the menus, but it will make the video playable.


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## Deanq4 (Sep 30, 2005)

try deleting your cache files, worked for me!


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## msmart (Jan 3, 2007)

> try deleting your cache files, worked for me!


Just to be clear, are you saying that deleting the cache files resolved your transfer failure problems?

I found another recent thread where deleting cache files was said to help TD launch quicker and I can confirm that it does. I created a shortcut to the cache folder and now empty its contents regularly.

I haven't queued up shows to transfer overnight yet but it will be interesting to see if that fixes the transfer failures.


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## ferminriii (Dec 11, 2007)

Just a quick note here - there is going to be one very awesome feature that I just saw on DL.TV for the new TiVo desktop Plus software.

That is it will now accept RSS feeds for internet video shows, download and convert them for viewing in your now playing list.

THIS IS AWESOME...

If you would like to see this feature in action subscribe to DL.TV in the TiVo cast section and download episode #213

It has a brief bit in the first 5 min about the new TiVo Desktop software.

In addition I am sure they have cleaned up some of the bugs although I wouldn't expect TOO much more as they did not name it a landmark release. IE: Its not quite yet ready for Desktop Plus v3.0

You can also see the episode on the www.dl.tv website.

Take care.

Keep up the good work.

Fermin



Dan203 said:


> Don't expect to many additional features. Just be happy if they fix the bigs and add the features they promised.
> Dan


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

qz3fwd said:


> I hope so because waking up or arriving home only to find the transfers failed just plain sucks.


I posted a work around here. It's not perfect, but if you schedule it to run periodically, you won't run out of memory.


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## qz3fwd (Jul 6, 2007)

My workstation never runs out of memory-it has 4 GB BTW. 
Tivo Desktop is buggy software and not designed to be used under stressfull situations like queueing (my spelling sucks-I know) up everything off my S3 for an overnight transfer. 
After 14-18 hours something goes wrong and the service stops working, requiring a reboot, or restarting of the Tivo software.

Tivo does consume close to 1GB of memory after 18 hours though, so it has a nasty memory leak for sure.

If they dont fix this with 2.6 but only add features, they are complete bufoons.

Let us hope for the best.


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## msmart (Jan 3, 2007)

> Just to be clear, are you saying that deleting the cache files resolved your transfer failure problems?


While not conclusive, a 15 hour download (10 movies&shows) just finished without a problem. I recommend emptying the cache folder before downloading. As Deanq4 said, "It worked for me!"


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## Deanq4 (Sep 30, 2005)

Wow, I missed the part about the transfers.. glad it worked for you. I had crappy start times and memory leak.

If that is a good fix, then people can add the cache folder to ccleaner and have it dump that when you clean everything out. Personally I run ccleaner about twice a month.


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## msmart (Jan 3, 2007)

I'd now say that this *IS conclusive*, deleting cache files helps transfers from stopping. I've kicked off several multiple show transfers since I posted last and haven't had any of them stop.

In *THIS* similar thread, someone created a batch job to stop/start the server and somone else added a line to delete the cache folder contents.

Good suggestion regarding ccleaner.


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## jubrand (May 11, 2002)

Does anyone know if having your Tivo Recordings file on an external hard drive has an effect on the performance? I remember reading a long time ago that Tivo desktop doesn't play nice with external drives, but I would think most of us are storing all these huge Tivo files on them.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

I have TiVo Desktop's default drive set to an external drive and don't have any problems. The only issue I run into is that if you run TiVo Desktop and the external drive is not plugged in, then TiVo Desktop will complain and force you to change the default location to some other folder.

As for performance, using a USB 2.0 external drive I'm able to transfer a recording to it and play back an HD recording at the same time. The USB 2.0 interface has more than enough bandwidth for this.

I think some people mentioned network drives don't work well with TiVo Desktop, but external drives work fine.


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## jubrand (May 11, 2002)

morac said:


> I have TiVo Desktop's default drive set to an external drive and don't have any problems. The only issue I run into is that if you run TiVo Desktop and the external drive is not plugged in, then TiVo Desktop will complain and force you to change the default location to some other folder.
> 
> As for performance, using a USB 2.0 external drive I'm able to transfer a recording to it and play back an HD recording at the same time. The USB 2.0 interface has more than enough bandwidth for this.
> 
> I think some people mentioned network drives don't work well with TiVo Desktop, but external drives work fine.


Cool. I was just wondering if that was making my problem worse, but it looks like I'm just suffering from the same memory leaks as everyone else. Clearing the cache seems to help me too, as well as deleting the cookies and transfer files in the Tivo directory.


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## Edelweiss (Jan 25, 2008)

I have the latest version of Tivo Desktop and I get about 30 or more pop ups on my desktop telling me I am out of memory due to Tivo desktop. Is there anything that can be done to alleviate this problem.


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## msmart (Jan 3, 2007)

Edelweiss said:


> I have the latest version of Tivo Desktop and I get about 30 or more pop ups on my desktop telling me I am out of memory due to Tivo desktop. Is there anything that can be done to alleviate this problem.


While not a permanent solution, when was the last time you either restarted your PC or restarted the TiVo server as described in the thread I linked above?

In THIS post, TiVoJerry mentions a new version of TD is to be released this month (or shortly thereafter). While he mentions another issue being addressed, hopefully the memory leak issue will be resolved as well.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

msmart said:


> In THIS post, TiVoJerry mentions a new version of TD is to be released this month (or shortly thereafter). While he mentions another issue being addressed, hopefully the memory leak issue will be resolved as well.


I wouldn't hold my breath on that one. The memory leak has been in every released version for the last few years.


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## Tkilmer (Dec 25, 2003)

It is not resolved in 2.6.2

Plus I just figured out that it is TiVo Desktop that is interfering with my network transfers. I guess I cannot run this software.


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