# TivoHD & Series3 MRV/TTG/TTCB: FAQ + Discussion



## bkdtv

This thread is outdated. See the current version stickied at the top of the forum:

 TivoHD FAQ: Overview, Using TiVo, Tips, and Issues

_Disclaimer: TiVo had no involvement with this FAQ._

This FAQ is divided into three sections:


MRV (TiVo -> TiVo)
 TiVoToGo (TiVo -> Computer)
 TiVoToComeBack (Computer -> TiVo).
The contents of this FAQ were compiled from member posts to this forum. It is a work in progress; if there is a question you feel should be added, or there is an answer that should be expanded or clarified, please post.

Note this FAQ is not intended as a substitute for TiVo Home Media Features & TiVoToGo forum. It is meant to (1) answer common questions and (2) address issues *specific* to the Series3 and TivoHD.

Last Updated: Jan/29/2009.

*I. MRV (TiVo -> TiVo)*


*What is MRV?*

Multi-room viewing (MRV) allows any TiVo in your home to view the recordings on any other TiVo in your home.

The Now Playing screen on each TiVo displays a separate folder for every other TiVo in your home. Each of these folders contains a list of all _non-copy-protected_ recordings on that TiVo. Selecting a program on another TiVo copies the recording from that box. You can watch recordings as they transfer. You can also pause a recording in one room and resume it in another.

*What do I need to use it?*

You need any two (or more) Series2, Series3, or TiVoHD DVRs running the latest software on the same billing account and the same home network.

*How do I enable MRV?*

TiVo enables MRV on all new TiVos by default. However, it may take 48 hours before a new TiVo authorized for MRV by TiVo's servers.

To check whether MRV is enabled on your TiVo, you can login to Manage My Account @ TiVo.com and verify the box for "Enable Video Downloads" is checked on your TiVo DVRs.

Each TiVo will display the correct DVR name and "a,a,a" for TiVoToGo on the System Information screen once it is authorized. _Screenshot._

*How do I know what recordings I can watch with MRV on the TivoHD or Series3?*

You can watch any recording stored on another TiVo so long as it is not copy protected (CCI 0x02). You will not be given the option to transfer copy-protected programs.

You can see whether a recording is copy-protected by selecting the program on your TiVo, and hitting the Info button. If the file is copy protected, the TiVo will list those copy restrictions. You may need to page down (channel -) on the Info screen to see this information.

_Note it was not TiVo's choice to prohibit transfer of copy-protected programs. Cable Labs prohibits the transfer of copy-protected programs from one DVR to another. To provide MRV on copy-protected programs, TiVo would have to add support for streaming without copying. Streaming represents a problem, because most customers network their TiVos using the 802.11g adapter, and 802.11g is often insufficient to sustain high-definition streaming with interference from other devices and adjacent networks._

*Can I transfer HD recordings between the TiVoHD and Series3?*

Yes, you can transfer _non-copy-protected_ SD and HD recordings between the TiVoHD and Series3.

*Are high-definition recordings downconverted during transfer?*

No. Recordings transferred with MRV are 100% identical to the original. There is no downconversion or quality degradation of any kind.

*Can I transfer recordings from HD channels to the Series2?*

No. The Series2 cannot play recordings from HD channels, and the TiVoHD and Series3 cannot convert high-definition recordings to standard definition.

*Can I transfer SD recordings from the TiVoHD and Series3 to a Series2? And SD recordings from the Series2 to the TiVoHD and Series3?*

Yes to both. That said, both must be running the latest software. If you just got your TiVo, then it will have an older version of the software. It usually takes a few days for a new TiVo to download the latest software, but it can take as long as a week.

Some SD recordings on the Series2 may need to be converted to a compatible format before they will transfer to the Series3 and TivoHD. The TiVo Series2 will do that automatically, but it tends to slow transfer times.

*Can I watch recordings as they transfer, or do I have to wait until the transfer is complete?*

With MRV, you can watch the recordings as they transfer. You do not have to wait until the transfer is complete.

With TiVoHD and TiVo Series3 DVRs on a 100Mbps wired, 100Mbps coax (MoCA), and 802.1n wireless networks, all SD and HD recordings should transfer fast enough to allow for immediate, uninterrupted viewing without delay.

On traditional 802.11g wireless networks, you may need wait a bit before you can watch some HD recordings from start to finish without interruption. Be aware that wireless networks are subject to interference from other devices and adjacent networks, and this interference can negatively impact MRV performance.

*Can I pause a recording in one room and resume it in another?*

Yes. With MRV, you can pause a recording in one room and then resume it in another.

*Help! My TiVos don't see each other! (Or I get unknown format error.) *

As noted in FAQ #1, it may take 48 hours before a new TiVo is authorized for MRV by TiVo's servers.

To check whether MRV is enabled on your TiVo, you can login to Manage My Account @ TiVo.com and verify the box for "Enable Video Downloads" is checked on your TiVo DVRs.

You can confirm whether your TiVo is authorized and ready for MRV by checking the System Information screen. The System Information screen should show the correct name of your TiVo, and it should indicate "a,a,a" for TiVoToGo (screenshot). If you don't see both, then your DVR is not yet authorized and ready for MRV.

If your System Information screen doesn't indicate "a,a,a" for TiVoToGo, and you've had your TiVo up and running for at least 24 hours, then youc an try the following:

 On each TiVo, force a connection to the TiVo service using Settings -> Phone & Network.

 Reboot each TiVo _after_ the connection is complete.

*Help! Many of my channels are copy-protected and will not work with MRV.*

Few cable companies apply _widespread_ copy protection, except to premium cable channels like HBO, Showtime, etc. If your provider is among those that does copy-protect most digital cable channels, there is not much you can do about that.

FCC mandate permits cable companies to apply copy protection (CCI 0x02) -- preventing use of TTG and MRV -- on any channel outside of the _limited basic_ tier. This is typically an independent decision by the cable company, but it can also be done at the request of the content provider, some of whom now want copy protection as part of the contract renewal for their channel(s).

Cable companies are *not permitted* to copy-protect local channels. If you are not able to use TTG (or MRV) with a recording from a local channel, you should contact your cable provider to have them correct the problem. Tell them they are using a CCI value of 0x02 on their local channels that prevents copying, in violation of federal law.

*Will MRV ever allow viewing of copy-protected recordings on other boxes?*

TiVo's current implementation of MRV copies recordings from one box to another. The CableLabs DFAST licensing agreement -- which every CableCard device manufacturer must adhere to -- does _not_ allow protected recordings to be copied elsewhere. It _does_ allow copy-protected recordings to be streamed from one device to another.

A future implementation of MRV could stream copy-protected recordings from one TiVo to another for viewing. TiVo has not said whether it will implement that capability. If you would like to request that capability, you can do so here.

*How fast can I transfer recordings between TiVos?*

The more you are doing on the DVR, the slower files will transfer between TiVos. For example, if you are recording two different HD programs while watching a third, previously recorded HD program, MRV transfer speeds will be slower than if you were watching live TV with both tuners set to SD channels (or channels you don't receive).

Wired transfers are faster than wireless. Wireless 802.11g throughput is limited to 15-17Mbps on the TiVo, and could be 10Mbps or less if you have a weak signal or sources of wireless interference (such as other adjacent wireless networks).

Throughput will vary depending on whether you are transferring between two Series3 DVRs, two TiVoHD DVRs, or one of each.

Note TiVo significantly improved MRV performance on the TivoHD with the 11.0 software.

Series3->Series3

MRV throughput (i.e. transfer speed) between two TiVo Series3 DVRs is up to s ~45Mbps (20Gb/hour) under ideal conditions. Under more typical viewing conditions, throughput is 25-35Mbps.

At 25-35Mbps on a 100Mbps network, there are no viewing delays and all high-definition recordings transfer fast enough to skip commercials.

TiVoHD->TiVoHD

The TiVoHD can currently transfer recordings about 2/3 as fast as the Series3. MRV throughput (i.e. transfer speed) between two TivoHDs is ~31Mbps under ideal conditions. Under more typical viewing conditions, throughput is 22-24Mbps.

At 22-24Mbps on a 100Mbps network, there are no viewing delays and most high-definition recordings transfer fast enough to skip commercials.

Series3->TiVoHD

Throughput from a Series3 to a TiVoHD falls somewhere between Series3->Series3 and TiVoHD->TiVoHD transfers. Users have reported 35Mbps under ideal conditions and 25-30Mbps under typical viewing conditions.

At 25-30Mbps on a 100Mbps network, there are no viewing delays and most high-definition recordings transfer fast enough to skip commercials.

To put this in context, recordings from ABC-HD and FOX-HD typically have a bitrate of 10-14Mbps, while recordings from NBC-HD and CBS-HD typically have a bitrate of 14-17Mbps. Sports channels like ESPN may be as high as 18.6 Mbps, while premium movie channels like HBO-HD and SHO-HD are typically 11Mbps or less. Your MRV throughput (i.e. transfer speed) must match or exceed the recording's bitrate in order to eliminate viewing delays. Throughput should be at least 1.3x the recording's bitrate in order to skip all commercials on the fly.

*Why are MRV transfers slower with the TiVoHD than the Series3?*

TiVoPony did have this to say:


TiVoPony said:


> Also, due to system resources, TiVo HD transfers are typically a bit slower at the moment. Speeding them up is something being investigated, but there is no additional information to share today.


_Update: In the 9.4 software, TiVo improved transfer throughput on the TivoHD by 20-25%. Performance was improved by another 25+% in the 11.0 software. This information is reflected in the posts above._

*How do I calculate my MRV transfer rate?*

In the 9.4 software, TiVo added a transfer history screen with details on the last last programs transferred to and from the DVR. This screen can be found under Messages & Settings -> Settings -> Phone & Network -> View network diagnostics -> Transfer history.

The "Incoming Series3 Transfer" and "Outgoing Series 3 Transfer" refer to the MRV transfer rate to and from the TiVo.

*Does the TiVo support Gigabit networking?*

No, and it wouldn't matter if they did. Due to resource limitations, neither the TiVo Series3 nor TiVoHD will ever come close to using the full throughput of the built-in 100Mbps ethernet connection.

*I want to improve the MRV transfer rate on my HD TiVo. Wireless just isn't cutting it. What are the alternatives to running a 100Mbps ethernet cable across the living room floor?*

Several higher-speed networking options are available at a price that avoid the need to run a network cable across the floor. Examples:

 Coax networking / MoCA (top choice)

The best choice for high-speed MRV with multiple TiVos is coax-based networking, also known as MoCA. This provides a 100Mbps ethernet connection between TiVos using the existing coax cable in your home.

You'll need one Motorola NIM100 adapter for each room, plus one for your network router if it's in a room without a TiVo. Each NIM100 has one coax input, one coax [passthrough] output, and one 100Mbps ethernet port. Up to eight NIM100s can be used to provide 100Mbps ethernet connections to seven different rooms in your house. These NIM100 adapters are rather small at 5.5W x 6.5L x 1.75H and can be found only on ebay for $30-$60/ea; they are not currently available at retail.

Each TiVo is setup as follows: Coax -> NIM100 -> Coax and ethernet -> TiVo

You disconnect the coax from the back of each Tivo and connect it to a NIM100. Then you connect coax and ethernet cables from the NIM100 to the TiVo, as indicated above. There is no other setup or configuration required -- the network is setup automatically; all your TiVos are now have a 100Mbps wired connection to your router, using coax instead of ethernet.

If you have Verizon FiOS, you do not need a NIM100 connected to your router because the Actiontec already has a NIM built-in. If you have FiOS, you only need one NIM100 per TiVo.

Assuming your cable modem is in the same room with your router, you disconnect the coax from the cable modem and connect it to the input on the NIM100. You connect the coax output from the NIM100 to your cable modem and you you connect that NIM100's ethernet output to a LAN port on your router. If you have a DSL connection, you connect your coax to the NIM100 and the NIM100 ethernet output to a LAN port on your router.

 802.11n wireless

Performance with 802.11n wireless is heavily dependent upon conditions in and around your home, including conflicting electronic devices such as 2.4GHz phones and video cameras, as well as nearby wireless networks. In areas with lots wireless interference, 802.11n may offer relatively little improvement over 802.11g.

With ideal wireless conditions, 802.11n should provide sufficient usable throughput to "max out" your TivoHD (i.e. 30+Mbps). The TiVo does not support 802.11n wireless USB adapters, but you can replace your current router with a 802.11n model and connect a 802.11n wireless bridge to the TiVo's 100Mbps ethernet port.

A "wireless bridge" is a wireless device that connects to the ethernet port on the DVR. It is basically an extender for your wireless network that also has one or more ethernet ports. These are commonly sold as gaming adapters for use with the consoles like the Xbox360. Examples of such products at Amazon.com include:

D-Link DAP1522 (4 ports, $99)
Linksys WGA600N (1 port, $83)
Apple Airport Express (used with Airport Extreme base station)

You would configure these products with a computer using the bundled software, and then move it your TV room.

It is best to use a 802.11n bridge from the same manufacturer as your 802.11n router, because 802.11n hardware from some manufacturers is not 100% compatible with 802.11n hardware from other manufacturers.

 Homeplug AV / Powerline AV networking

Homeplug AV (also known as Powerline AV) adapters create a wired network using your home's electrical wiring. Each adapter has a power plug and 100Mbps ethernet jack. You would need one for each TiVo, plus one to connect to a LAN port on your router.

Throughput with this technology ranges from 35Mbps to 80Mbps, depending on the condition of the electric wiring in your home.


*II. TiVoToGo (TiVo -> PC transfers)*


*What is TiVoToGo?*

TiVoToGo allows you to download _non-copy-protected_ standard definition and high-definition recordings from the TiVo with your computer.

You can view these recordings on your computer, burn them to DVD or Blu-ray disk, or transfer them to your portable media player (iPod, Zune, etc). See the rest of this section for further information on those tasks.

Screenshots: (1) TivoToGo with web browser, (2) TivoToGo with TiVo Desktop #1, and (3) TivoToGo with TiVo Desktop #2.

*How do I enable TiVoToGo?*

TiVo enables TiVoToGo on all new TiVos by default. However, it may take 48 hours before a new TiVo authorized for TTG by TiVo's servers.

To check whether TTG is enabled on your TiVo, you can login to Manage My Account @ TiVo.com and verify the box for "Enable Video Downloads" is checked on your TiVo DVRs.

Each TiVo will display the correct DVR name and "a,a,a" for TiVoToGo on the System Information screen once it is authorized. _Screenshot._

*What do I need to use it?*

With the following applications, you can pick and choose what recordings to download from your TiVo.

Windows

TiVo Desktop 2.6.2 (free)


Click for larger.

Mac OSX

 iTiVo (free)


Click for larger.

 TiVo Decode Manager (free)

 Roxio Toast 10 Titanium ($79.99, includes DVD authoring)

 Roxio Popcorn ($49.99, includes portable video player conversion)
[*]The 3.03 update is required to work under Leopard (OSX 10.5) and support high-definition content.

 *Old:* Roxio Toast 9 Titanium
[*]The latest update is required to correctly support TiVo files.

 *Old:* Roxio Toast 8 Titanium
[*]The latest update is required to correctly support TiVo files.


All Platforms

 Web Browser


Click for larger.

Open https://<Your_TiVo_IP>/ in your web browser and use 'tivo' as the login with your Media Access Key as the password. If you don't know your TiVo's IP address, you can find it under Settings -> Phone & Network.

*TiVo Desktop is asking for a "Media Access Key." Where do I get that?*

You can find your Media Access Key on your TiVo under Account & System Information -> Media Access Key. You can also find it under Manage My Account at TiVo.com.

*Are high-definition recordings downconverted during transfer?*

No. Recordings downloaded to your computer are 100% identical to the original. There is no downconversion or quality degradation of any kind.

*Do I have to wait until the download finishes to start watching it?*

No. When you use TiVo Desktop, you can watch recordings as they are transferred.

*How do I know what recordings I can transfer?*

You can transfer any recording, SD or HD, so long as it is not copy-protected (CCI 0x02).

You can see whether a recording is copy-protected by selecting the program on your TiVo, and hitting the Info button. If the file is copy protected, the TiVo will list those copy restrictions. You may need to page down (channel -) on the Info screen to see this information.

TiVo Desktop 2.6.2 (Windows) and Roxio Toast 10 Titanium (Mac) will also 'gray out' any copy-protected recordings to indicate they are ineligible for transfer.

*Why are recordings on my computer smaller than reported by TiVo Desktop or my TiVo?*

The TiVo INFO screen reports recording sizes based on 1,000,000,000 bytes per gigabyte. But there are actually 1,073,741,824 bytes per gigabyte, which is what you get with 1024 bytes per kilobyte, 1024 kilobytes per megabyte, and 1024 megabytes per gigabyte. Hence, the TiVo overstates file sizes by about 7%.

TiVo Desktop also reports sizes incorrectly, because it takes the number of gigabytes (based on 1000) reported by the TiVo and multiples that by 1024 to display megabytes.

In actual practice, recordings downloaded to your computer will be 93-95% the size reported by the TiVo. If they are _significantly_ less than 93% of the TiVo's reported size, then that could indicate a problem with the transfer.

*Help! TiVo Desktop doesn't see my TiVo!*

As noted in FAQ #1, it may take 48 hours before a new TiVo is authorized for TiVoToGo by TiVo's servers.

To check whether TTG is enabled on your TiVo, you can login to Manage My Account @ TiVo.com and verify the box for "Enable Video Downloads" is checked on your TiVo DVRs.

You can confirm whether your TiVo is authorized and ready for MRV by checking the System Information screen. The System Information screen should show the correct name of your TiVo, and it should indicate "a,a,a" for TiVoToGo (screenshot). If you don't see both, then your DVR is not yet authorized and ready for TTG.

If your System Information screen doesn't indicate "a,a,a" for TiVoToGo, and you've had your TiVo up and running for at least 24 hours, then you an try the following:

 On each TiVo, force a connection to the TiVo service using Settings -> Phone & Network.

 Reboot each TiVo _after_ the connection is complete.

If that doesn't fix the problem, then the cause is probably a security or firewall program on your computer. A number of third-party firewall and security programs are known to interfere with TiVo Desktop. If you can connect to your TiVo with a web browser @ https://<Your_TiVo_IP>/ using 'tivo' as the login and your Media Access Key as the password -- but not TiVo Desktop -- then that will confirm that your firewall software is the problem. Note TiVo Desktop works fine with Windows' built-in firewall.

*Help! Many of my channels are copy-protected and will not work with TiVoToGo.*

Few cable companies apply _widespread_ copy protection, except to premium cable channels like HBO, Showtime, etc. If your provider is among those that does copy-protect most digital cable channels, there is not much you can do about that.

FCC mandate permits cable companies to apply copy protection (CCI 0x02) -- preventing use of TTG and MRV -- on any channel outside of the _limited basic_ tier. This is typically an independent decision by the cable company, but it can also be done at the request of the content provider, some of whom now want copy protection as part of the contract renewal for their channel(s).

Cable companies are *not permitted* to copy-protect local channels. If you are not able to use TTG (or MRV) with a recording from a local channel, you should contact your cable provider to have them correct the problem. Tell them they are using a CCI value of 0x02 on their local channels that prevents copying, in violation of federal law.

*How fast can I transfer TiVo recordings to my PC / Mac?*

As with MRV, the more you are doing on the DVR, the slower files will transfer to your PC / Mac. For example, if you are recording two different HD programs while watching a third, previously recorded HD program, TiVoToGo transfer speeds will be up to 50% slower than if you were simply watching live TV with both tuners set to SD channels.

Series3

Under ideal conditions, the TiVo Series3 can transfer files to a PC or Mac at up to ~18Mbps on a 100Mbps network. Under more typical conditions, TiVoToGo throughput is ~12Mbps (1.5 Megabytes per second). Throughput will vary depending on whether you are watching or recording SD or HD channels.

At 12Mbps on the Series3, the typical one-hour SD recording will transfer in less than 20 minutes. One-hour of high-definition can take as little as 40 minutes or as much as 90 minutes to transfer, depending on the channel, content, and how much it is compressed by your provider.

TiVoHD

The TiVoHD can transfer recordings about 3/4 as fast as the Series3.

Under ideal conditions, the TivoHD can transfer files to a PC or Mac at up to ~12Mbps on a 100Mbps network. Under typical conditions, TiVoToGo throughput is 8.5-9.5 Mbps (1.1 Megabytes per second). Throughput will vary depending on whether you are watching or recording SD or HD channels.

Be aware that some third-party security (firewall) and antivirus programs can slow throughput with TivoToGo because they continuously scan all incoming traffic on your computer. For example, some versions of Kaspersky Internet Security are known to limit TiVoToGo throughput to as little as 5Mbps.

If you are transferring a lot of recordings to your PC, and would like to transfer at maximum possible speed, then set both tuners to channels you do not receive, which temporarily disables the channel buffers. Be sure to use a program like TiVo Desktop for Windows or iTiVo for OSX to queue up lots of recordings to transfer while you sleep.

 Why at TiVoToGo downloads so much slower than MRV transfers to another TiVo?[/b]

High-definition recordings are relatively large files. They are stored on the TiVo's hard drive as transport streams in a proprietary format. When you download a recording from the TiVo, the TiVo muxes the recorded streams stored on the hard drive into a single MPG file that can be played on a PC or Mac. The TiVo does this "on the fly" with its relatively slow DVR CPU, and the result is about 10-15Mbps download throughput on the Series3 and 9-12Mbps on the TivoHD.

MRV transfers to other TiVos are two to three times as fast.

*Why are TiVoToGo transfers slower with the TiVoHD than the Series3?*

TiVoPony did have this to say:


TiVoPony said:


> Also, due to system resources, TiVo HD transfers are typically a bit slower at the moment. Speeding them up is something being investigated, but there is no additional information to share today.


_Note: TiVo improves the TivoHD's TTG throughput in the 9.4 software._

*How do I calculate my TiVoToGo transfer rate?*

In the 9.4 software, TiVo added a transfer history screen with details on the last last programs transferred to and from the DVR. This screen can be found under Messages & Settings -> Settings -> Phone & Network -> View network diagnostics -> Transfer history.

The "Videos copied to remote device" refers to the TivoToGo transfer rate.

*I downloaded a recording and it has a .TiVo extension. What is that?*

All TiVo recordings are saved within an encrypted TiVo wrapper, hence the .TiVo extension. With TiVo Desktop installed, you should be able to view these .TiVo files using most Windows media viewers.

Several popular DVD authoring programs such as Toast 9 Titanium for OSX and Roxio Easy Media Creator and VideoRedo TVSuite (screenshot) for Windows now include direct support for .TiVo files. Other programs like TiVo Desktop Plus for Windows and Roxio Popcorn 3 for OSX can directly accept and convert these files into smaller versions for transfer to iPods and other portable video players.

*I want to use another program, but it doesn't accept .TiVo files. What do I do?*

If you remove that .TiVo wrapper, you get a MPG/MPEG file which most video programs can accept.

On the Mac, iTiVo and TiVo Decode Manager will download files from the TiVo and save them as MPG format.

On Windows, an application called VideoReDo (free 14-day trial, $49.99) will take a .TiVo file and allow you to save it as a .MPV, .MPG, .TS, or .VOB file. VideoRedo also provides the option to automatically cut all commercials from a TiVo recording, as seen in this screenshot. A free alternative is TiVo Decoder GUI 1.1, which will open .TiVo files and save them in MPG format.

*How do I view the recordings on my computer?*

On a PC, you need to install Tivo Desktop 2.6.2. If you still have issues with audio or video playback, download and install the K-Lite Codec Pack. During installation, be sure to check "Cyberlink" as the default MPEG-2 decoder and Windows Media Player as your default player. You will need to reboot for installation to take effect.

On a Mac, the best playback software for TiVo recordings comes bundled with Roxio Toast 10 Titanium. A freeware alternative is VLC, but this requires that files first be decoded into MPEG-2 (MPG) format as detailed in the previous FAQ.

*How do I remove commercials from my TiVo recordings?*

On Windows, several different programs exist to automatically remove commercials from a recording. By far the easiest and most popular program for this task is VideoRedo (14-day trial, $50 to buy). With VideoRedo, you open the TiVo recording, select "Start Ad-Detective Scan" to automatically detect and mark the commercials for deletion, and then click "save" to save the recording with commercials removed (screenshot).

On the Mac, no applications exist to automatically remove commercials from a recording. Roxio did add editing capability to its new Toast 10 Titanium suite; that should allow you to manually mark commercials for removal.

If you already own the Apple Quicktime MPEG-2 Playback Component ($20) installed, another alternative is MPEG Streamclip for OSX (free). With MPEG Streamclip, you can manually remove commercials on recordings you've downloaded with TiVo Decode Manager. Once you've marked the commercials for removal as explained in the Streamclip Guide (Help menu), set the Audio Mode to "Surround", and click "Save As" to save the edited file in MPEG format. _Credit for this bit goes to member hearncl._

*How do I edit [downloaded] recordings in VideoRedo TVSuite?*

VideoRedo very simple, once you understand how it works.

You can choose from two modes of operation: scene mode and cut mode. In scene mode, the video segments you select are the only parts of the video saved as part of the new file. In cut mode, the video segments you select are removed, leaving the original video minus those segments in the new file. Pick which one you want under Tools -> Options -> General Parameters.

_For the purposes of this message, I am going to assume you have cut mode selected._










You can select Ad-Detective->Start Ad-Detective Scan and VideoRedo will scan the recording for commercials and mark any that it finds for removal. The accuracy on this isn't 100%, so you'll want to check the cuts before you save your commercial-free file.

In the above screenshot, note the bar with the red and green. The green represents the video that will be saved and the red represents the video that will be cut. Positioned at the center of that bar is a gray slider control. That marks the current position in the video.

You can drag the slider control with your mouse, and the video window updates as you do so. You can also use the transport controls to find the spot in the video that you want to cut. These transport controls are customizable in Tools -> Options -> Navigation. I have the *|>* set to advance one frame, the *>>* button to advance 1 second, and the *>>>* button set to advance 3 seconds. If you want to go to a specific timecode, select Edit -> GoTo TimeCode (or Cntrl-T). Of course, you can also play the video and pause it to find the position you want.

_To make it easier to find a specific frame or scene in a video, there is a preview bar below the video that shows nine frames. This includes the current frame, plus four earlier frames and four later frames, in selectable increments of frame, 0.1s, 0.25s, 0.5s, 1s, 2s, 5s, 10s, 30s, and 60s._

You position the slider where you want to start the cut, and then you click the "Sel. start" button. That marks the start of the video segment you want to cut. You then position the slider where you want to end the cut, and you click "Sel. end." That marks the end of the video segment you want to cut. If you want to preview the cut, just click on the blue button above the volume control; that switches between editing and preview mode. After you've got the start and the end that you want, click the "Add Selection" button and that segment is added to the Scene list for cutting purposes; if you click the "Add Unselection" button, then everything not selected is added to the Scene list for cutting purposes. You can then move on to the next cut.

VideoRedo also allows you to combine segments from multiple videos into a single file. Make all the edits you want in one video, and then save the project under File -> Save. This keeps a record of all the edits you make in a project file. From the menu, select Joiner -> Add Current Project to Joiner list. Open a new video file and make all the edits you want to that, then again select Joiner -> Add Current Project to Joiner list. Once you've added all the video files you want, select Joiner -> Edit Joiner list and use the Up and Down buttons to place the edited videos in the order you want.

When done, click "Create DVD" or "Save As..." to save the file as a MPG, MPV, TS, .TiVo file, or DVD folder. If you click "Create DVD," you'll get the following menu:










Those are the basics. VideoRedo has a number of other features too, like a title editor for video title screens. This is separate from DVD menu creation, which VideoRedo TVSuite also supports.

*How do I copy TiVo recordings to my portable video player?*

On Windows, TiVo Desktop Plus 2.6 ($25) is the easiest way to to get recordings on your portable video player. On the Mac, Roxio Popcorn ($50) will download shows and convert them to a format for your portable video player. Note neither of these applications will remove commercials. If you want to remove commercials, then you'll need to follow the directions in the previous FAQ to obtain a commercial-free MPG file.

On the Mac, you can convert commercial-free MPGs for your portable video player using Roxio Popcorn or VisualHub (free demo, $23 to buy). VisualHub will take recordings downloaded with TiVo Decode Manager and convert them for portable video players and DVDs. If you are a more advanced user, Handbrake is a free alternative.

On Windows, there are a host of different applications that can convert MPGs for use in portable video players. Examples of free applications include Videora Converter and Handbrake.

*How do I create standard DVDs from .TiVo recordings?*

DVD players -- even those with 720p and 1080p upconversion -- are not able to display high-definition video. However, a number of different authoring applications will take high-definition .TiVo files, automatically downconvert them to SD resolution, and burn them to DVD for playback in standard DVD players.

Popular Windows programs to do this include VideoRedo TVSuite and Roxio's Easy Media Creator. VideoRedo TVSuite (14-day demo, $30 upgrade from VideoRedo) will also cut the commercials before burning to DVD. _Screenshot: #1, #2, #3._

For the Mac, Roxio's Toast 9 Titanium ($80) is the most popular application to download and burn .TiVo recordings to DVD. If you have the older v8, be sure to grab the update to 8.03. Another popular choice is VisualHub ($23), which will take recordings downloaded with TiVo Decode Manager and burn them to DVD.

To create DVDs with Visual Hub:



hearncl said:


> 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.



*Can I burn high-definition recordings from my TiVo to DVD for viewing on my HD-DVD or Blu-ray player?*

Yes, you can burn high-definition TiVo recordings to DVD for playback in full high-definition on HD-DVD and Blu-ray players. See the following thread:

Creating HD-DVDs and Blu-ray disks with TiVoToGo using DVD media...

*Why do my TiVoToGo transfers always halt after 2048Mb or 4096Mb?*

If you your file system is FAT32 (instead of NTFS), downloads will be limited to 4096Mb. Some third-party firewall and Internet security applications also limit each file transfer to 2048Mb or 4096Mb. Some web browers do as well.

Kaspersky Internet Security is an example of a security application that limits transfers, but it has a workaround. Add the following programs to Kaspersky's trusted applications list, with the options don't scan files, network traffic, or restrict application activity:

TiVoTransfer.exe
TiVoDesktop.exe
TiVoServer.exe

At one point, IE6 limited downloads to 2048Mb and IE7 limited downloads to 4096Mb, although I don't know whether that is still the case.

* I have an iPod Touch. The iPod selection in TiVo Desktop only encodes at 320x240. How do I encode for my iPod Touch at 640x480?*

_The following applies to TiVo Desktop 2.5 for Windows. It is not yet tested under TiVo Desktop 2.6.2._

To do that, first download the free XN Resource Editor application.

Run the XN Resource Editor and use it to open the c:\Program Files\TiVo\Desktop\Plus\TiVoTrans.dll.

Select ENCODEPROFILES -> 220 -> English on the left. Scroll down to the bottom where you see:


> <tivotransrofile name="H.264 compatible device" version="1" audioresamplerate="0" audiobitrateK="128" hrez="*320*" vrez="*240*" vbitrateK="*700*"
> vmaxbitrateK="*768*" suffix="" filetype=".mp4" framerate="29.97"
> >
> <tivotrans:ImageScaler filter="Scaler"/>
> <tivotrans:VideoFormat filter="H.264"/>
> <tivotrans:AudioFormat filter="AAC"/>
> <tivotrans:TheMux filter="H.264-Mux"/>
> <tivotrans:Writer filter="filewrite"/>
> </tivotransrofile>


You can edit the values in bold. In the case of the iPod Touch, you would change hrez to 640 and vrez to 480. If you increase resolution, you'll probably also want to increase the bitrate; you might try a vbitrateK of 1000 with a vmaxbitrateK of 1200.

Save the change and then select the "H.264 compatible device" profile in TiVo Desktop under File -> Preferences -> Portable Devices.

*III. TiVoToComeBack (PC -> TiVo transfers)*


*What is TiVoToComeBack (TTCB)?*

TiVoToComeBack -- also known as TTCB -- is the unofficial name for the ability to transfer recordings from a PC or Mac to the TiVo for playback.

Screenshots: (1) setup video folders, (2) setup video folders #2, and (3) videos on Now Playing list.

*How do I use it?*

Install latest version of TiVo Desktop is installed on your Windows PC or Mac.

Under Windows, you have two options to transfer videos. You can create a season pass to a folder, and any compatible videos placed in that folder will automatically transfer to the TiVo. These videos will be organized into their own folder on the TiVo's Now Playing list. Alternatively, you can setup a folder where you manually select the videos on the TiVo for transfer; when transferred, these videos will not be organized into a folder on the TiVo. _Screenshot_.

Under Mac OSX, hold down the Apple key when you open TiVo Desktop from System Preferences. When you do that, you'll see a Video menu. Enable that video option and select the folder you want to use. Put your videos in that folder.

Mac users can permanently enable the Video menu in TiVo Desktop -- eliminating the need to hold down the Apple key -- by running this Applescript from member Dennis Wilkinson.

If you created an auto-transfer folder, simply select the recording from your Now Playing list as you would any other recording. If you did not enable auto-transfers, but rather manual transfers, then select the computer icon with your computer's name at the bottom of the Now Playing list. It will list any _supported_ videos in the folders you setup. If the folder contains no supported videos, then you will not see an icon for your computer on the TiVo.

*What type of video files can I transfer to the TiVo?*

With the free version of TiVo Desktop for Windows and OSX, TiVo only supports the transfer of .TiVo recordings that you previously downloaded to your computer with TiVoToGo.

Members have found that they can also transfer most SD and HD MPEG-2 (MPG) files, but TiVo does not officially support that with the free version of TiVo Desktop.

*What about other video formats?*

If you want to transfer other video formats, you'll need an application to convert those files to a compatible TiVo format. TiVo Desktop Plus 2.6.2 for Windows ($25) is the easiest and most popular program to do this, although two freeware alternatives exist -- TiVo.Net for Windows, and pyTiVo for Windows, OSX, and Linux. These alternatives are more complicated to setup, but once configured properly, they generally work just as well as Tivo Desktop.

If you have a Mac, you'll have to use pyTivo to send video files other than past TiVo recordings and MPGs to TiVo.

*If I buy TiVo Desktop Plus for Windows, what video formats can I transfer to the TiVo?*

 Windows Media Video (.wmv)
 Quicktime Movie (.mov)
 MPEG-4/H.264 (.mp4,.m4v,.mp4v)
 MPEG-2 (.mpg,.mpeg,.mpe,.mp2,.mp2v,.mpv2)
 DivX or XviD (.avi,.divx)

Both standard definition and high-definition videos in these formats are supported.

*What about high-definition recordings? Can I transfer those?*

The TiVoHD and Series3 will play high-definition recordings previously downloaded from the DVR. Both will also play most MPEG-2 (MPG) high-definition recordings.

TiVo Desktop Plus can now support other formats in high-definition. High-definition DIVX, MP4, and Quicktime files are converted to high-definition MPEG-2 and transferred to the TiVo.

*When will TiVo directly support DIVX, MP4, and Quicktime files without the need to convert them to MPEG-2?*

The hardware in the TivoHD and TiVo Series3 supports MPEG-4 and VC-1 (WM9), but the software does not. TiVo is expected to enable direct support for those formats in a future software update, but it is unknown when that will happen.

* I installed TiVo Desktop 2.6.2, but I don't see my PC on the TiVo? *

Some third-party firewall programs can block the TiVo Desktop server.

You will only see the PC on your TiVo if the TiVo Recordings folder contains a compatible file. Since the free version of TiVo Desktop will only transfer .TiVo and .MPG files, you won't see your PC unless the TiVo Recordings folder contains at least one of those files.

Other file formats such as AVI, DIVX, and WMV will not show up unless you have TiVo Desktop Plus 2.6.2 ($25) or one of the other applications mentioned in FAQ #4.

* I transferred some recordings from the TivoHD (or Series3) to my PC, and then transferred those recordings from the PC to my TiVo Series2, but they won't play?*

TiVo Desktop won't prevent you from transferring HD recordings to the Series2, but the Series2 will not play them. The Series2 can only play recordings from SD channels.

Some SD recordings downloaded from the TivoHD (or Series3) are also incompatible with the Series2. When you use MRV to transfer SD recordings from the TiVoHD or Series3 to the Series2, the TiVo transcodes (converts) those SD recordings to a compatible SD format for the Series2. However, you bypass that transcoding (conversion) when you transfer the recording directly to your PC.

*I setup an auto-transfer video folder with ten recordings. Why did only three videos transfer?*

By default, TiVo Desktop is set to keep just three videos from an auto-transfer folder on the TiVo at once. You can change that number, as seen in this screenshot. After you've deleted one of those videos, the next one will transfer.

*How do I know what videos the TiVo will transfer first?*

TiVo Desktop 2.6.2 transfers the oldest recordings first. As you delete older recordings from the DVR, newer recordings are transferred.

*I successfully transferred a .tivo or compatible mpg file from my PC to the Tivo. It plays fine on my PC but playback is pixelated on the Tivo. What gives?*

_This FAQ and answer was contributed by member *wgw*._

There appears to be a problem with the process which converts the PC compatible MPEG program stream back to the TiVo ty stream. Errors in the conversion are expressed as pixelation and other audio/video glitches. This defect becomes more pronounced at higher bitrates. HD recordings will exhibit this problem more than SD recordings due to their higher bitrate.

High audio bitrates above 425kbps from HD sources not recorded on the tivo have also been shown to cause severe playback problems. It is not known at this time if high audio bitrates are affected by the same defect in the tivo conversion process, or if the tivo is simply not capable of playing high audio bitrates.

_What can I do until Tivo fixes this?_

You can downsample the video to a lower bitrate before transferring it to the Tivo. 17mbps seems to be the maximum bitrate peaks that the tivo conversion process can handle before the errors in the conversion begins to cause noticable pixelation.

An easy way to downsample the recording is to use a program like VideoReDo to convert the .tivo or mpg file to a .ts file (transport stream). Then use pyTivo or Tivo.Net to transfer the file to the Tivo. These programs will transcode the recording to a lower bitrate that is more palatable to the current tivo conversion process. Or you can manually downsample the recording using the transcoder of your choice before using Tivo Desktop to send the mpeg to the Tivo.

*How fast can I transfer videos from my computer to the TiVo?*

As with MRV and TTG, the more you are doing on the DVR, the slower files will transfer. If you are recording two different HD programs while watching a third, previously recorded HD program, PC -> TiVo transfer speeds will be up to 50% slower than if you were watching live TV with both tuners set to SD channels.

Series3

Currently unknown.

TiVoHD

Videos will transfer from PC to TiVo at about 11Mbps under ideal conditions, and 6-7 Mbps under typical conditions.

* I just bought TiVo Desktop Plus. Why is TiVo playback quality on my AVI, DIVX, WMV, and Quicktime files so poor?*

_The following applies to TiVo Desktop for Windows._

Make sure you download TiVo Desktop Plus 2.6.2 -- a free upgrade from v2.5. TiVo Desktop Plus 2.5 was set to stream video at 480x480 resolution with a constant bitrate of 2000 Kbps. That doesn't look very good scaled on larger displays. TiVo Desktop 2.6.2 is able to stream at higher resolutions and bitrates, thereby improving quality.
Why do my TiVoToGo transfers always halt after 2048Mb or 4096Mb?


----------



## moyekj

FANTASTIC FAQ! Great job as usual. Mods please sticky this thread.


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## HDTiVo

If you transfer an HD recording ala III.7, can you MRV to S3/HD and play the show? 

A simple conversion of multiplying GB/hr by 2.2 gives you mbps to a very close approximation. Easy to do in your head.


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## bown

I realize there is a separate forum for TTG stuff, but since you made a FAQ here (which is very good by the way), perhaps add a question for section II:
Why is HD content so choppy when played back on my PC?
...and include some sort on condensed answer from 
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=371505


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## Jiffylush

Anyone have feedback on step 8?

TiVo Desktop Plus is working so I am a little worried about messing something up... I have noticed that transcoded xvids look blurry, but blurry is better than not working.

So, if anyone has tried this let me know what kind of results you are getting.

edit: I just set mine to 720/6000/6000, I won't be able to test til tonight but I will post feedback as soon as I can.


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## Joybob

This FAQ contains a serious error that is continually spread throughout this forum.

The transfer speeds ARE NOT CPU limited. Even the best hard drives out there can only output 60 to 80 MB/s read speeds. Even if it came with a Gigabit ethernet controller you would still see the same output. Over Wireless G, you'll never see speeds faster than 19 MB/s simply because that's the maximum sustained throughput.


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## Jiffylush

Joybob said:


> This FAQ contains a serious error that is continually spread throughout this forum.
> 
> The transfer speeds ARE NOT CPU limited. Even the best hard drives out there can only output 60 to 80 MB/s read speeds. Even if it came with a Gigabit ethernet controller you would still see the same output. Over Wireless G, you'll never see speeds faster than 19 MB/s simply because that's the maximum sustained throughput.


Transcoding is CPU limited, if you are transferring a video that is already mpeg2 then it isn't transcoding so it isn't CPU limited, but if you are transferring an xvid or something else that has to be transcoded then it most likely is cpu limited.

edit: just to clarify this is in reference to TTCB


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## bkdtv

Created DVDs with TiVoToGo: Three Easy Steps


Automatically download recordings to PC in MPEG2 format with Dolby Digital 5.1.


Alternatively, you can use a web browser as seen here.

 Automatically remove commercials using VideoRedo TVSuite.


Red areas are deleted commercials. Note the "Create DVD" button at the bottom right.

 Burn commercial-free to DVD with Dolby Digital 5.1.



I like this approach because quality is 100% identical to the original broadcast on SD recordings, and much better on HD recordings. You also preserve the original Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack.


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## HDTiVo

bkdtv said:


> Thanks, I used the term _resources_ instead.
> 
> The TivoHD doesn't appear to ever exceed ~75Mbit/s (9.0 Megabytes per sec) throughput with its 7200rpm hard drive. Western Digital doesn't publish full specifications on the drive in the TivoHD, so it's not entirely clear whether that is a limitation of the drive or something else.


Remember how we looked at the guts of the TiVo HD in the Wild Speculation thread with regard to recording/tuning/transcoding... it might be worth taking another look inside with ethernet (USB-Ethernet too) in mind this time, just to see the hardware. Probably beyond me to do that, but you...


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## moyekj

Joybob said:


> This FAQ contains a serious error that is continually spread throughout this forum.
> 
> The transfer speeds ARE NOT CPU limited. Even the best hard drives out there can only output 60 to 80 MB/s read speeds. Even if it came with a Gigabit ethernet controller you would still see the same output. Over Wireless G, you'll never see speeds faster than 19 MB/s simply because that's the maximum sustained throughput.


 Hard drive activity most certainly influences transfer speeds, but doesn't tell the full story. Case in point for my S3s if I have them on same hard wired switch and tune all tuners to channels I don't receive (thereby eliminating disk activity due to buffering) and initiate MRV transfers between them transfers still seem to peak at around 44 Mbps. I'm not exactly sure what happens during MRV transfers but it's possible there is still audio/video muxing, decryption and encryption taking place during the transfer which would consume CPU. I wish there was a way to bring up a CPU meter on the Tivos to monitor CPU load...
For TTG we do know that the Tivo is creating .TiVo encrypted stream so certainly that one is CPU limited to some degree.


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## 1283

Hard drives can transfer at 60-80MB/s, but that's only for sequential access. When you have to seek all over the drive, the transfer rate drops way down. TiVo has to reserve resources to record two streams and play back one stream properly. All other activities are secondary and have to share the remaining resources.


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## Joybob

c3 said:


> Hard drives can transfer at 60-80MB/s, but that's only for sequential access. When you have to seek all over the drive, the transfer rate drops way down. TiVo has to reserve resources to record two streams and play back one stream properly. All other activities are secondary and have to share the remaining resources.


Still, it's not CPU limited which was my original beef.

Wired Ethernet 100, will give you about 7 to 10 MB/s sustained.
Wireless G will give you about 2 to 2.8 MB/s sustained.

We have to live with the fact that current networking specs simply can't handle HD content at a stream-able speed.


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## 1283

Joybob said:


> We have to live with the fact that current networking specs simply can't handle HD content at a stream-able speed.


One HD stream is less than 2.5MB/s.


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## Phantom Gremlin

Joybob said:


> This FAQ contains a serious error that is continually spread throughout this forum.
> 
> The transfer speeds ARE NOT CPU limited. Even the best hard drives out there can only output 60 to 80 MB/s read speeds. Even if it came with a Gigabit ethernet controller you would still see the same output. Over Wireless G, you'll never see speeds faster than 19 MB/s simply because that's the maximum sustained throughput.


You are seriously confused and thereby helping spread more confusion throughout this forum.

I will spell out what your problem is, it's *units*.

Hard drives output (approximately) 60 to 80 mega*BYTES* per second read speeds.

802.11g theoretically transfers at up to 55 mega*BITS* per second.

802.11g transfers at (perhaps*) 19 mega*BITS* per second in realistic conditions.

You have confused mega*BITS* and mega*BYTES* in your rant.

BTW an HD program is (at best) 19 mega*BITS* per second, so it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility to achieve this over Wireless G.

* I say perhaps because I'm willing to accept your value here. In reality the transfer speed is much more complicated than that, affected by distance, interference, the presence of 802.11b devices, etc.


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## bkdtv

Jiffylush said:


> Anyone have feedback on step 8?
> 
> TiVo Desktop Plus is working so I am a little worried about messing something up... I have noticed that transcoded xvids look blurry, but blurry is better than not working.
> 
> So, if anyone has tried this let me know what kind of results you are getting.
> 
> edit: I just set mine to 720/6000/6000, I won't be able to test til tonight but I will post feedback as soon as I can.


Let us know how it goes.

If you have a Series3 on a 100Mbps network, you can probably experiment with even higher bitrate values (i.e. 8000+).


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## Jiffylush

bkdtv said:


> Let us know how it goes.
> 
> If you have a Series3 on a 100Mbps network, you can probably experiment with even higher bitrate values (i.e. 8000+).


I am Series 3, and my network is actually gigiabit (although I believe the s3 only has a 10/100 nic). I will try the current settings first (720/6000/6000), then will bump it up and try to get some ideas about how quickly the files transfer and if I have any stuttering or whatever.

FWIW my computer is a 3.2 dual core (not core 2 duo) w/ 2gb of memory running vista and tivo desktop plus 2.5.


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## Jiffylush

Well, changing the values didn't stop it from working, but I can't tell a difference yet.

I think the problem is that the resolution on the avi file I have is already very low.


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## naclone

with regard to TTCB --> S3, my settings are 720/6000/6000 and I am trying to upload some HD avi files, and while I know I won't get HD resolution, I'd at least like to get the proper aspect ratio. right now everything is squished horizontally. It's filling the screen from top to bottom okay, but there are black bars on either side even though the source file is 16:9

any idea why this might be happening? do i need to set the hrez higher?


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## rrg

From III.3:



> What type of video files can I transfer to the TiVo?
> 
> ...
> 
> Members have found that they can also transfer most SD and HD MPEG-2 (MPG) files, but TiVo does not officially support that with the free version of TiVo Desktop.


Where are people discussing HD transfers? I saw no mention of it on the long "TTG and MRV go live today!" thread, except that TivoPony told us that only TiVo-recorded HD material could be sent back via TTCB.

If it's true that we can transfer other HD material to the S3, this is fabulous news. I've spent years messing about with various media players and HD recording playback solutions (D-VHS, Roku, MyHD, LinkPlayer, Helios, TViX, others), all of them half-assed in one way or another. Recording has never been the problem (I have many ways to do that) but playback has always been problematic.

This new capability adds great value to my TiVo Series 3 overnight. I'll very likely get another one (or two).

I'm still not crazy about the "transfer" model that TiVo uses (as opposed to the "streaming" that's done with most other LAN playback solutions) but if it's as fast as many are claiming (for HD) then it'll be okay.


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## rrg

I meant to add: thanks, bkdtv, for another superbly helpful FAQ and summary.


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## Joybob

Phantom Gremlin said:


> You are seriously confused and thereby helping spread more confusion throughout this forum.
> 
> I will spell out what your problem is, it's *units*.
> 
> Hard drives output (approximately) 60 to 80 mega*BYTES* per second read speeds.
> 
> 802.11g theoretically transfers at up to 55 mega*BITS* per second.
> 
> 802.11g transfers at (perhaps*) 19 mega*BITS* per second in realistic conditions.
> 
> You have confused mega*BITS* and mega*BYTES* in your rant.
> 
> BTW an HD program is (at best) 19 mega*BITS* per second, so it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility to achieve this over Wireless G.
> 
> * I say perhaps because I'm willing to accept your value here. In reality the transfer speed is much more complicated than that, affected by distance, interference, the presence of 802.11b devices, etc.


I held down the shift key for too long. My second post was in bytes.


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## rrg

One piece of information I can add: I was able to transfer and play back a PAL MPEG2 file (544x576i) on the Series 3. In "native" mode the video is converted to 720p for playback.

The results are not ideal--better would be if "native" actually yielded 576i for deinterlacing and processing by my Lumagen video processor--but not bad at all, considering. A little juddery, a little ring-y, but the TiVo has the friendliest UI by far of any media player I've ever used, and that counts for a lot.

This is great. I'll have to experiment with more formats.


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## bkdtv

naclone said:


> with regard to TTCB --> S3, my settings are 720/6000/6000 and I am trying to upload some HD avi files, and while I know I won't get HD resolution, I'd at least like to get the proper aspect ratio. right now everything is squished horizontally. It's filling the screen from top to bottom okay, but there are black bars on either side even though the source file is 16:9
> 
> any idea why this might be happening? do i need to set the hrez higher?


Does the same thing happen with 640?



rrg said:


> If it's true that we can transfer other HD material to the S3, this is fabulous news. I've spent years messing about with various media players and HD recording playback solutions (D-VHS, Roku, MyHD, LinkPlayer, Helios, TViX, others), all of them half-assed in one way or another. Recording has never been the problem (I have many ways to do that) but playback has always been problematic.


TivoPony was referring to supported functionality. That is all Tivo officially supports. There is plenty of stuff you can do that TiVo does not officially support.

There are a number of different posts about the ability to transfer MPGs. In this post, a member mentioned that they were able to transfer a play a high-definition MPG, but it played with odd skips and jumps.

To test with high-definition recording that did not originate from the TiVo, I downloaded this 22.5Mbps transport file (190Mb) from the HD-DVD test pattern site -- it is a short, repeating loop of a man running through the park. I converted this TS file to MPG using the free HDTVtoMPEG2 utility. It transferred and played fine on my TivoHD.

I did not see any comments on transfer speed when copying videos from PC to TiVo. When we have more information on that, I'll add it to the FAQ.


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## moyekj

rrg said:


> If it's true that we can transfer other HD material to the S3, this is fabulous news. I've spent years messing about with various media players and HD recording playback solutions (D-VHS, Roku, MyHD, LinkPlayer, Helios, TViX, others), all of them half-assed in one way or another. Recording has never been the problem (I have many ways to do that) but playback has always been problematic.
> 
> This new capability adds great value to my TiVo Series 3 overnight. I'll very likely get another one (or two).


 I've experimented with this a little and have had mixed success with playback of mpeg2 files not originating from a Tivo. A few examples:
1. I have several HD mpeg2 transport streams from a PC QAM tuner. Tivo Desktop can't see .ts files so I convert to .mpg and then TD can see them and I can feed them to my S3s. Some of them play back without issue, some will refuse to play back beyond a certain point, some will play back but no trick functions will work.
2. I have had very good success playing many DVD compliant mpeg2 program streams. Glitch free playback and all trick functions work fine.
3. I even tried playing back mpeg2 files from ReplayTV - those play back fine but no trick functions work.
4. Any HD mpeg2 file originating from my S3s seems to play back fine even after I convert from .TiVo to .mpg and edit out commercials.

So I think that's why TivoPony warned us that Tivo currently only supports HD playback of files originating from S3. It seems like you can get non S3 mpeg2 files to work in some cases, but the S3 decoder seems to be pretty picky to get full functionality working.


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## HDTiVo

moyekj said:


> I've experimented with this a little and have had mixed success with playback of mpeg2 files not originating from a Tivo. A few examples:
> 1. I have several HD mpeg2 transport streams from a PC QAM tuner. Tivo Desktop can't see .ts files so I convert to .mpg and then TD can see them and I can feed them to my S3s. Some of them play back without issue, some will refuse to play back beyond a certain point, some will play back but no trick functions will work.
> 2. I have had very good success playing many DVD compliant mpeg2 program streams. Glitch free playback and all trick functions work fine.
> 3. I even tried playing back mpeg2 files from ReplayTV - those play back fine but no trick functions work.
> 4. Any HD mpeg2 file originating from my S3s seems to play back fine even after I convert from .TiVo to .mpg and edit out commercials.
> 
> So I think that's why TivoPony warned us that Tivo currently only supports HD playback of files originating from S3. It seems like you can get non S3 mpeg2 files to work in some cases, but the S3 decoder seems to be pretty picky to get full functionality working.


If you try processing your flaky mpg sources through VideoRedo (even without edits - it still remuxes on save) do you get mpg's that are fully playable?


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## fred2

Sorry, if this is covered and it may be more a Windows' issue but....

Is there a way to "redirect" the My Tivo Recordings to another location. My C: drive is getting a bit tight and I have usb drives hanging around with space. I know I can manually move stuff out of that directory, sorry folder but if I could just get TivoToGo to just use those usb drive(s) initially I would save a step and also schedule a bunch of stuff overnight and just let it run.

I looked over TivoDesktop and did not see any option to change folder locations.

Thanks in advance


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## bkdtv

fred2 said:


> Sorry, if this is covered and it may be more a Windows' issue but....
> 
> Is there a way to "redirect" the My Tivo Recordings to another location. My C: drive is getting a bit tight and I have usb drives hanging around with space. I know I can manually move stuff out of that directory, sorry folder but if I could just get TivoToGo to just use those usb drive(s) initially I would save a step and also schedule a bunch of stuff overnight and just let it run.
> 
> I looked over TivoDesktop and did not see any option to change folder locations.


Look at the File Locations tab in Tivo Desktop, which you can open by selecting File -> Preferences.

You'll need to move your previous downloads to the new folder, as indicated by the tip at the bottom of that tab.


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## moyekj

HDTiVo said:


> If you try processing your flaky mpg sources through VideoRedo (even without edits - it still remuxes on save) do you get mpg's that are fully playable?


 I don't have VideoRedo. I use Womble Mpeg Video Wizard for mpeg2 editing (it has been around much longer than VideoRedo but is similar in capabilities - frame accurate editing, only transcodes at cut points, etc). I wouldn't categorize the mpg sources that don't work properly with Tivo decoder as "flaky". They play back perfectly OK with Videolan VLC, Media Player Classic and some other players on the PC. The ReplayTV mpg files (recordings at medium quality) play back in all DVD players I have tried (and the software I use to make DVD VOBs doesn't transcode the RTV video as it is DVD compliant, just the audio to AC3). So if anything I would categorize the S3 mpeg2 decoder as "flaky".

Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying that TTCB capability is critically flawed. I'm just trying to explore exactly what works and what doesn't work. I'm very happy that at least mpeg2 files originating from S3s (SD & HD) can be edited of commercials and then thrown back at the S3s and play back perfectly. Also very happy that commercial DVD originating mpegs seem to play back fine as well. Note that these notes are based on a relatively small sample of files I have tried so far, so may not representative of a much larger sample size...


----------



## montz

Does anyone know if the directory you select for TTCB from a Mac can be set to a USB hard drive? It seems like it only works if the directory is on the drive Mac OS X resides on. Is that true? I already tried putting an alias (shortcut) to the external drive in the default directory, but that didn't seem to work either. It would be really lame if I couldn't get that to work because I don't have much space on my OS hard drive and tons of space on the external one.


----------



## moyekj

montz said:


> Does anyone know if the directory you select for TTCB from a Mac can be set to a USB hard drive? It seems like it only works if the directory is on the drive Mac OS X resides on. Is that true? I already tried putting an alias (shortcut) to the external drive in the default directory, but that didn't seem to work either. It would be really lame if I couldn't get that to work because I don't have much space on my OS hard drive and tons of space on the external one.


 Don't have a Mac, but on my Win XP machine I put shortcuts in the Tivo folder to files on my external USB drive and they transfer fine (Using Tivo Desktop) - so that indicates it should be possible on a Mac.


----------



## cheerdude

Is there any word on when Toast will be updated to support the Series3 and THD?


----------



## Laserfan

moyekj said:


> ...these notes are based on a relatively small sample of files I have tried so far, so may not representative of a much larger sample size...


My sample size equals exactly one (so far) and I really appreciate your efforts--I suspect though that a separate thread would be best for this.

My experience (VideoReDo) was merely to edit-and-output an HD TV show to .mpg--the result plays perfectly on the PC but not on the S3. There is an odd "racing" effect that occurs several times a minute; the video jumps and the audio races to keep up. Interestingly it is in SYNC to the end, but it's unwatchable for the jumps.

I've used VRD with HD for a couple years but .tivo files are completely new to me. It will be interesting to see what DanR (VRD developer) finds when he gets his new TivoHD in a week or two. But given the past, he No Doubt will figure out the problem(s) and unless the solution lay exclusively w/in the Tivo he will fix it.


----------



## HDTiVo

moyekj :

VideoRedo has a free trial. Give it a shot.


----------



## bkdtv

Has anyone with VideoRedo tried the TiVo-VideoReDo-AutoProcessor ("TVAP") program?

Every time you transfer a recording from the Tivo to your PC, this free utility automatically runs it through VideoRedo to remove the commercials. The recording can then be transferred back to the Tivo without commercials. More information and a download link here:

http://www.videoredo.net/msgBoard/showthread.php?t=4712

I haven't tested it with the Series3 or TivoHD, but intend to do so this weekend.


----------



## HDTiVo

bkdtv said:


> Has anyone with VideoRedo tried the TiVo-VideoReDo-AutoProcessor ("TVAP") program?
> 
> Every time you transfer a recording from the Tivo to your PC, this free utility automatically runs it through VideoRedo to remove the commercials. The recording can then be transferred back to the Tivo without commercials. More information and a download link here:
> 
> http://www.videoredo.net/msgBoard/showthread.php?t=4712
> 
> I haven't tested it with the Series3 or TivoHD, but intend to do so this weekend.


So with this and TD Plus you could automatically TTG new recordings to the PC and have them run through VR to come out with a comercial free .tivo or .mpg?


----------



## moyekj

bkdtv said:


> Has anyone with VideoRedo tried the TiVo-VideoReDo-AutoProcessor ("TVAP") program?
> 
> Every time you transfer a recording from the Tivo to your PC, this free utility automatically runs it through VideoRedo to remove the commercials. The recording can then be transferred back to the Tivo without commercials. More information and a download link here:
> 
> http://www.videoredo.net/msgBoard/showthread.php?t=4712
> 
> I haven't tested it with the Series3 or TivoHD, but intend to do so this weekend.


 I've tried various such utilities in the past but I am pretty picky about cut points and I've never seen one get it 100% right. With my editor (Womble) as I'm sure is the case with VideoRedo after some experience it only takes about 5 minutes of editing per 1 hour of show to remove commercials and then maybe another 10 minutes or so to save to disk (for HD content, less for SD content).


----------



## bkdtv

moyekj said:


> I've tried various such utilities in the past but I am pretty picky about cut points and I've never seen one get it 100% right. With my editor (Womble) as I'm sure is the case with VideoRedo after some experience it only takes about 5 minutes of editing per 1 hour of show to remove commercials and then maybe another 10 minutes or so to save to disk (for HD content, less for SD content).


In my experience, VideoRedo is fairly accurate for series programming from the networks. Sometimes it will miss a commercial, but I've never seen it cut part of the actual series program. It is much less accurate when it comes to sports and other live broadcasts.


----------



## naclone

bkdtv said:


> Does the same thing happen with 640?


Sorry, I'm a jackass. I didn't realize I had toggled to "panel" mode. all good now.


----------



## nexus99

Is there anyway to use TTCB with content origoanlly from HD-DVD or Blu Ray?


----------



## SeanC

Anyone else have a hell of a time editing tivotrans.dll?

I originally opened it, saved it as a differnt file name, killed all the running Tivo processes, deleted the original, and renamed the edited one. When I checked my work, the edited file, now named tivotrans.dll still had the default settings.

I tried many different variations to get the correct setting into tivotrans.dll. Eventually I had to go into safemode and do the editing there to get it to stick.

That said, I now have 720, 6000, 6000. I transferred 2 files. One came out great, the other squished.

The first file is 640x368, the second is 592x256.

How is TD supposed to handle different resolutions when the file transferrs?


----------



## DinoBambino

Is anyone else experiencing a complete hogging of pc resources when doing a divx TTCB transfer to Tivo (Tivo HD)?

My PC becomes basically unusable when transferring the files. The PC specs are a AMD 3400 Sempron with 1.5 GB RAM running XP Pro. The network conneciton between the PC and Tivo is wired.

I have uninstalled Tivo Desktop and reinstalled, which seems to have helped slightly. But the pc is still unusable.

I'm starting to think purchasing the Plus version wasn't such a great idea. 

Any suggestions? Would doing a batch conversion of divx files to mpeg and then TTCB be a better solution?

Sorry for the semi rant, but I have spent too much time troubleshooting this today/tonight/next morning.

Thanks.

***Edit: Arrgh! The computer went to screen saver mode, which must have stopped the file transfer. Now the partial file that was transferred is gone from the Now Playing List on the Tivo. Also, when I first selected the file to transfer to the Tivo my computer disappered from the NPL list on Tivo.

I really wanted to get rid of the Xbox running XBMC. I don't really play many games - I was using it as a media center.


----------



## rictus

I'm seeing two problems with TTG from my Series3:

-- Many of the programs I've downloaded appear to have incorrect lengths in Windows Media Player--for example, WMP says they're 15 minutes long when they're actually 60 minutes long. WMP will actually play past the 15 minute mark, but I can't fast-forward or use the time bar past this point. Some other people on the TTG forum mentioned seeing this, but I was wondering if anyone over here knew of a solution.

-- On one particular program (a Planet Earth HD episode), both TiVo Desktop and the built-in HTTPS server refuse to transfer more than 200MB of the file, even though the entire 7GB episode is available and watchable on the TiVo. Most of the other Planet Earth episodes transferred fine (though I think a couple others got truncated slightly, to around 6GB).


----------



## SeanC

DinoBambino said:


> Is anyone else experiencing a complete hogging of pc resources when doing a divx TTCB transfer to Tivo (Tivo HD)?


Yep that's exactly what I see. I'm running TivoDesktop on a P4 2200 with 1.5G of RAM laptop.

When I start a transfer that needs to be encoded TD takes 99% of resources, but I wouldn't call the laptop unusable. Slow, yes, very slow in fact. It could take a couple of minutes to open a new window, but once open the programs work fine.


----------



## naclone

anybody else getting this error?

"This program was not transfered onto this DVR because the file was larger than expected or because the file was corrupted"


----------



## tootal2

HDTiVo said:


> moyekj :
> 
> VideoRedo has a free trial. Give it a shot.


I like video redo. Seems to do a good job taking ads out. But sometimes i get a error.
"file dimensions have changed" when its doing a scan for ads. and the program shuts down.


----------



## bkdtv

SeanC said:


> That said, I now have 720, 6000, 6000. I transferred 2 files. One came out great, the other squished.
> 
> The first file is 640x368, the second is 592x256.
> 
> How is TD supposed to handle different resolutions when the file transferrs?


Is one of those files a MPG?

Tivo Desktop does not touch MPGs.

If it is another file type, I don't know. There may be something in the file type that the Tivo looks for to determine whether to add bars or not.


----------



## bkdtv

DinoBambino said:


> Is anyone else experiencing a complete hogging of pc resources when doing a divx TTCB transfer to Tivo (Tivo HD)?
> 
> My PC becomes basically unusable when transferring the files. The PC specs are a AMD 3400 Sempron with 1.5 GB RAM running XP Pro. The network conneciton between the PC and Tivo is wired.





SeanC said:


> Yep that's exactly what I see. I'm running TivoDesktop on a P4 2200 with 1.5G of RAM laptop.
> 
> When I start a transfer that needs to be encoded TD takes 99% of resources, but I wouldn't call the laptop unusable. Slow, yes, very slow in fact. It could take a couple of minutes to open a new window, but once open the programs work fine.


In TiVo Desktop under Server -> Server properties, select the Performance tab and set the Activity Level to low. That will reduce the amount of system resources devoted to the program, but it will also slow your video transfers to the TiVo.

TiVo Desktop Plus encodes non-MPEG2 files to MPG format on the fly for transfer to the TiVo. This is fairly processor and resource intensive for older computers. Encoding quality is always a tradeoff with quality vs. speed. As far as encoders go, Tivo Desktop is configured to produce relatively low quality output so it can work well on most computers. I've used other encoders that produce significantly better output equality, but required 100% of every CPU on a quad-core system.

On modern computer systems -- like a dual core Athlon64 or Intel Core2 Duo -- you won't even notice the resources taken by Tivo Desktop. This graph compares different CPUs over the past several years. Anandtech has a good roundup of current mid-range processors if you want to look at your options for a new computer.


----------



## mr2828

bkdtv said:


> Tivo Desktop Plus encodes non-MPEG2 files to MPG format on the fly for transfer to the Tivo. This is fairly processor and resource intensive for older computers.
> 
> On modern computer systems -- like a dual core Athlon64 or Intel Core2 Duo -- you won't even notice.
> 
> The alternative is to encode these files to MPG in advance, rather than on the fly, but creating a second copy requires more disk space.


Something you can do to help is open the Windows Task Manager (taskmgr.exe). Sort the running programs by CPU usage, find the tivo conversion process, right click on it and set the process priority to BELOW NORMAL. Your computer will then be a lot more responsive, but on the other hand the conversion will take a bit longer.


----------



## bkdtv

rictus said:


> I'm seeing two problems with TTG from my Series3:
> 
> -- Many of the programs I've downloaded appear to have incorrect lengths in Windows Media Player--for example, WMP says they're 15 minutes long when they're actually 60 minutes long. WMP will actually play past the 15 minute mark, but I can't fast-forward or use the time bar past this point. Some other people on the TTG forum mentioned seeing this, but I was wondering if anyone over here knew of a solution.


This is a codec / decoder issue on your computer. I had that problem until I switched to the Cyberlink decoder.

Right-click on Windows Media Player window and select properties while the file is playing. That will tell you the video decoder you are using.



rictus said:


> -- On one particular program (a Planet Earth HD episode), both TiVo Desktop and the built-in HTTPS server refuse to transfer more than 200MB of the file, even though the entire 7GB episode is available and watchable on the TiVo. Most of the other Planet Earth episodes transferred fine (though I think a couple others got truncated slightly, to around 6GB).


I've found some recordings transfer in 9.2 that would not transfer in 9.1. If there is a lot of pixelization in the recording (i.e. due to a poor signal), it looks like that can cause trouble for some transfers. It's not really clear at this point what else causes problems with some transfers and not others.


----------



## rictus

bkdtv said:


> This is a codec / decoder issue on your computer. I had that problem until I switched to the Cyberlink decoder.


Hmmm. I just installed the Cyberlink decoder (and disabled the other decoders, and verified that WMP is using the Cyberlink decoder) and am still seeing the same issue. Odd.

nj


----------



## bkdtv

rictus said:


> Hmmm. I just installed the Cyberlink decoder (and disabled the other decoders, and verified that WMP is using the Cyberlink decoder) and am still seeing the same issue. Odd.


I suppose there could be an error in the file that is causing that problem. Or it could be a difference in versions.

My Cyberink decoder is v8.1.0.7104.


----------



## tase2

First-Thank you very much bkdtv for all your hard work in putting together this FAQ.

I have 1 question-probably a dumb one, but here it is:

Is there any way to simply stream the video from the PC to Tivo with transferring the recording?


----------



## SeanC

tootal2 said:


> I like video redo. Seems to do a good job taking ads out. But sometimes i get a error.
> "file dimensions have changed" when its doing a scan for ads. and the program shuts down.


Under Tools select Quick Stream Fix, when the box pops open put a checkmark in Enable Filters.

VRD will output an MPG file that strips out the commercial that's causing the problem, then open the new MPG file and run ad detector.


----------



## moyekj

HDTiVo said:


> If you try processing your flaky mpg sources through VideoRedo (even without edits - it still remuxes on save) do you get mpg's that are fully playable?


 Thanks for the tip. I ran my ReplayTV sample mpegs through Womble Mpeg Video Wizard and now via TTCB all trick functions work properly on my S3s. So as HDTiVo suggests if you are having problems with trick functions working perhaps running them through VideoRedo or Womble may fix them up.


----------



## bkdtv

tootal2 said:


> I like video redo. Seems to do a good job taking ads out. But sometimes i get a error.
> "file dimensions have changed" when its doing a scan for ads. and the program shuts down.


I believe this is caused by the your cable company's commercial insertion equipment. They are inserting commercials using a different resolution.

I believe the folks over at VideoRedo said they were looking at this issue.

For now, I would try what SeanC suggested above.


----------



## rictus

bkdtv said:


> I suppose there could be an error in the file that is causing that problem. Or it could be a difference in versions.
> 
> My Cyberink decoder is v8.1.0.7104.


Where did you get that version? I got the "PowerDVD SE" codec pack from the Cyberlink website, which appears to be a much older version.

Thanks,

nj


----------



## GBL

I can view SD content just fine, but watching HD content, I get no sound and severely distorted and slowed down images.

I am using TiVo Desktop 2.5.1 plus, WMP 10.0 on laptop with XP home, SP2, intel centrino Duo CPU 1.66GHz, 1GB memory. Codec is Intervideo, IVIVIDEO.ax Version 7.0.27.191.

I also installed WMP 11, no change.

Any suggestions?


----------



## greggt007

"Are high-definition recordings downconverted during transfer?

No. Recordings transferred with TTG are 100% identical to the original."

is this correct? all of my transfers so far are about 94% of the size of the original, eg. a 7.5gb hd show on the tivo according to desktop, after it transfers to my pc, is about 7gb, a 13.5 gb show is 12gb on the pc. i havent transferred a whole show back and my pc cant play hd, but i've watched it partially on the tivo and it looks fine as it transfers


----------



## moyekj

greggt007 said:


> "Are high-definition recordings downconverted during transfer?
> 
> No. Recordings transferred with TTG are 100% identical to the original."
> 
> is this correct? all of my transfers so far are about 94% of the size of the original, eg. a 7.5gb hd show on the tivo according to desktop, after it transfers to my pc, is about 7gb, a 13.5 gb show is 12gb on the pc. i havent transferred a whole show back and my pc cant play hd, but i've watched it partially on the tivo and it looks fine as it transfers


 Part of the reason for that is that Tivo Info displays the file size in decimal GB (10^9) vs. binary GB (2^30) which your PC is showing.


----------



## greggt007

moyekj said:


> Part of the reason for that is that Tivo Info displays the file size in decimal GB (10^9) vs. binary GB (2^30) which your PC is showing.


not Tivo Info, but from desktop...when you pick recordings to transfer, they list as say 980MB or 7,480MB. and after you transfer they list as say 920MB, 6920MB, etc
i believe i read somewhere that THD has to convert the files when it transfer and the S3 doesnt..?


----------



## HDTiVo

GBL said:


> I can view SD content just fine, but watching HD content, I get no sound and severely distorted and slowed down images.
> 
> I am using TiVo Desktop 2.5.1 plus, WMP 10.0 on laptop with XP home, SP2, intel centrino Duo CPU 1.66GHz, 1GB memory. Codec is Intervideo, IVIVIDEO.ax Version 7.0.27.191.
> 
> I also installed WMP 11, no change.
> 
> Any suggestions?


Run those .tivo files through VideoRedo like I mentioned earlier and play the .mpg output file. That may clear it up.

I suspect that the TiVo DRM Filter may be having difficulty in some cases with HD content. What cases/causes I have no clue. Playing the mpgs takes that out of the loop. Or perhaps some HD .tivo files have some strange mpg stuff in them and VideoRedo cleans that up. Again, all black magic to me.


----------



## bkdtv

greggt007 said:


> "Are high-definition recordings downconverted during transfer?
> 
> No. Recordings transferred with TTG are 100% identical to the original."
> 
> is this correct? all of my transfers so far are about 94% of the size of the original, eg. a 7.5gb hd show on the tivo according to desktop, after it transfers to my pc, is about 7gb, a 13.5 gb show is 12gb on the pc. i havent transferred a whole show back and my pc cant play hd, but i've watched it partially on the tivo and it looks fine as it transfers


Yes.

The 160Gb drive in the TivoHD does not actually provide 160Gb of capacity. It provides 160,000,000 bytes of capacity. But there are 1024 bytes in a kilobyte, 1024 kilobytes in a megabyte, and 1024 megabytes in a gigabyte. So that 160,000,000 bytes of capacity is actually 152.58 gigabytes (95% of 160Gb).

TiVo does the same thing on the file sizes it reports on the INFO screen. It reports sizes based on multiples of 1000 instead of 1024. Even TiVo Desktop reports sizes incorrectly, because it takes the number of gigabytes (based on 1000) reported by the TiVo and multiples that by 1024 to display megabytes.


----------



## bkdtv

HDTiVo said:


> I suspect that the TiVo DRM Filter may be having difficulty in some cases with HD content. What cases/causes I have no clue. Playing the mpgs takes that out of the loop. Or perhaps some HD .tivo files have some strange mpg stuff in them and VideoRedo cleans that up. Again, all black magic to me.


Not exactly.

This problem results because some have two different decoder / codec configurations for .Tivo files and .MPG files. It has nothing to do with the Tivo filter.



GBL said:


> I can view SD content just fine, but watching HD content, I get no sound and severely distorted and slowed down images.
> 
> I am using TiVo Desktop 2.5.1 plus, WMP 10.0 on laptop with XP home, SP2, intel centrino Duo CPU 1.66GHz, 1GB memory. Codec is Intervideo, IVIVIDEO.ax Version 7.0.27.191.
> 
> I also installed WMP 11, no change.


Windows and Windows Media Player do not include the codec necessary to decode Dolby Digital sound. If you haven't installed a codec to do that (often included with codec packs and DVD player software), then you won't have the software on your PC to decode that audio. Even if you did install DVD player software at some point in the past, it's possible that something in your configuration changed since.

You need the right codec installed on your system. I've had success with this codec pack:

http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/KLite_Mega_Codec_Pack/1080441198/1

During the first part of the install, choose the Profile 1: Default, and also select the Cyberlink decoder under MPEG-2 and the Microsoft decoder under MPEG-1. During the second part of the install, choose Windows Media Player as your default player. You'll need to reboot for the changes to take effect.

Once you install the above codec pack, run the Windows XP Video Decoder Checkup Utility, select the Cyberlink decoder, and hit the "Set as Preferred" button.


----------



## moyekj

bkdtv said:


> Yes.
> 
> The 160Gb drive in the TivoHD does not actually provide 160Gb of capacity. It provides 160,000,000 bytes of capacity. But there are 1024 bytes in a kilobyte, 1024 kilobytes in a megabyte, and 1024 megabytes in a gigabyte. So that 160,000,000 bytes of capacity is actually 152.58 gigabytes (95% of 160Gb).
> 
> TiVo does the same thing on the file sizes it reports on the INFO screen. It reports sizes based on multiples of 1000 instead of 1024. Even TiVo Desktop reports sizes incorrectly, because it takes the number of gigabytes (based on 1000) reported by the TiVo and multiples that by 1024 to display megabytes.


 To add to the confusion, TD displays Tivo file sizes as Tivo reports them - as 10^9, however in it's own Now Playing list it lists the file sizes in binary MB (2^20). So, as an example if a file is listed as 7.5GB on Tivo NPL then it will be ~ 7152MB (or 6.98GB) in TD NPL once downloaded.


----------



## HDTiVo

I transfered a recording made on a 240 TiVo to a TiVo HD.

Attempting to *transfer the recording back to the same 240 that made the recording*, I find the red circle with the message "*This recording cannot transfer because the format is HD which is incompatible with this DVR*."

In addition, SD videos TTC'd to the TiVo HD will not transfer to the 240 for the same reason.


----------



## naclone

did i schedule too many transfers? I queued up about 2 seasons worth of TV episodes that I have has avi files. the blue LED went on and the first episode began transferring. I even started playing it to make sure the transfer was working ok. the blue light remained on over night so i figured everything was going fine.

when i checked now playing, i saw that none of the scheduled transfers where available. even that first episode i had played the day earlier wasn't there. so i checked the recording history and each and every episode queued had the following error: "This program was not transfered onto this DVR because the file was larger than expected or because the file was corrupted". so it tried every episode but all failed for some reason.

So, i canceled whatever transfers were still queued but hadn't started yet. I tried transferring just one episode by itself to see what happened. I got the notice that the transfer would begin when other queued transfers were complete - even though there was no longer any transfers scheduled. despite the notice, the transfer began right away, but failed like the others.

I gave it a few hours and even restarted the TiVo a couple times but everytime I try to schedule a transfer it tells me the transfer will begin as soon as previously scheduled transfers are complete - even though none are scheduled. 

I left it alone until this morning with nothing scheduled and tried again with just the one transfer and it told me it would start when other transfers were complete. but again, the transfer started right away (but i fully expect to come home from work to find it has failed)

so my question is, why does TiVo still think there are transfers scheduled? did i mess it up by queuing so many initially? Is TiVo "stuck" on a transfer that is not showing up in now playing or to do list and that's why all other transfers are failing somewhere in the process after starting successfully? is there a way to "clear out" the to do list?

What's the most number of files somebody has successfully queued up?

the only thing i have done that i can think of that would cause any problem is that when i first experienced some failed transfers i decided to change the file names in the my tivo recordings folder for tidiness in the now playing screen. i can't remember if i changed something that was scheduled to transfer before i canceled it out. I'm pretty sure i canceled them all first, but maybe tivo hadn't cleared them all from memory yet? is it possible the file name changes confused TiVo and it's still trying to transfer the files under the old names?

i'm not sure what to do. i successfully transfered shows before queuing up the batch of 40+ episodes so something happened. either with the number of shows scheduled or the fact that i changed the names. but i can't get anything to transfer now. not even new files that i've never changed the name of. they all trigger this error "This program was not transfered onto this DVR because the file was larger than expected or because the file was corrupted" 

any thoughts?


----------



## GBL

bkdtv said:


> You need the right codec installed on your system. I've had success with this codec pack:
> 
> http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/KLite_Mega_Codec_Pack/1080441198/1
> 
> During the first part of the install, choose the Profile 1: Default, and also select the Cyberlink decoder under MPEG-2 and the Microsoft decoder under MPEG-1. During the second part of the install, choose Windows Media Player as your default player. You'll need to reboot for the changes to take effect.
> 
> Once you install the above codec pack, run the Windows XP Video Decoder Checkup Utility, select the Cyberlink decoder, and hit the "Set as Preferred" button.


I've done that:








It still won't play properly: no sound, distorted image.

Here are the properties of the HD clip:









Somebody, who can watch transfered HD clips, what properties does your HD clip display?

I tried to get a screen shot of the Media Player but (due to DRM?) only get black image.


----------



## HDTiVo

naclone said:


> the only thing i have done that i can think of that would cause any problem is that when i first experienced some failed transfers i decided to change the file names in the my tivo recordings folder for tidiness in the now playing screen. i can't remember if i changed something that was scheduled to transfer before i canceled it out. I'm pretty sure i canceled them all first, but maybe tivo hadn't cleared them all from memory yet? is it possible the file name changes confused TiVo and it's still trying to transfer the files under the old names?
> 
> i'm not sure what to do. i successfully transfered shows before queuing up the batch of 40+ episodes so something happened. either with the number of shows scheduled or the fact that i changed the names. but i can't get anything to transfer now. not even new files that i've never changed the name of. they all trigger this error "This program was not transfered onto this DVR because the file was larger than expected or because the file was corrupted"
> 
> any thoughts?


Well, I would have led with this.  That is certainly suspicious.

Have you tried restarting both the TiVo and the PC to see if you get lucky?

Can you transfer videos that don't require transcoding through TD Plus?


----------



## moyekj

GBL said:


> Somebody, who can watch transfered HD clips, what properties does your HD clip display?


 For me WMP is setup to use InterVideo Video Decoder and it works fine for playback of 480i, 720p & 1080i shows obtained via TTG from my S3s. Note that 1080i especially requires pretty good graphics card GPU and in some cases hardware acceleration to play back properly on your PC. Perhaps your Centrino is just not up to snuff for 1080i playback? You may want to try Media Player Classic since it's known to be very light weight and not requiring much horsepower to handle HD decoding. If that works then that indicates your system is not powerful enough to work with WMP.
NOTE: Of course you will have to convert .TiVo files to .mpg first before you can use Media Player Classic which you can do with free utils such as DirectShow Filter dump.


----------



## naclone

HDTiVo said:


> Well, I would have led with this.  That is certainly suspicious.
> 
> Have you tried restarting both the TiVo and the PC to see if you get lucky?
> 
> Can you transfer videos that don't require transcoding through TD Plus?


i'll try restarting both when i get home. i was hoping that after a period of time or a connection with the mother ship it would correct itself. but that hasn't been the case yet.

haven't tried transferring a .tivo recording yet. I will try one of my S2 recordings that is on the PC when I get home.


----------



## HDTiVo

naclone said:


> i'll try restarting both when i get home. i was hoping that after a period of time or a connection with the mother ship it would correct itself. but that hasn't been the case yet.
> 
> haven't tried transferring a .tivo recording yet. I will try one of my S2 recordings that is on the PC when I get home.


You might also try deleting the cache files from TD.


----------



## naclone

HDTiVo said:


> You might also try deleting the cache files from TD.


i'll try that as well. thanks.


----------



## rjgibson0066

I have 9.1 and TTG status of a,a,a but after installing and starting Tivo Desktop, I get "There are no Tivo DVRs available on the network". 

I put in the correct media access key, what am I missing?

Thanks


----------



## GBL

HDTiVo said:


> Run those .tivo files through VideoRedo like I mentioned earlier and play the .mpg output file. That may clear it up.


Here's a frame (one of the least corrupted) captured with VideoRedo: 









Apparently VideoRedo cannot play the clip either. That leads me to think maybe the clip did not transfer properly (A second HD clip I tried did not play either, same problem).

My TiVo S3 is using 9.1.L5 software. Could that be the problem? Do I need 9.2 software?



moyekj said:


> Perhaps your Centrino is just not up to snuff for 1080i playback?


The laptop is able to play MS HD sample clips just fine (e.g. MysteryOfTheNile.wmv )


----------



## bkdtv

GBL said:


> My TiVo S3 is using 9.1.L5 software. Could that be the problem? Do I need 9.2 software?


Some recordings that would not transfer for me in 9.1 d0 transfer in 9.2.

Others have reported that there are still some recordings that will not transfer in 9.2. It's not clear what causes that.


----------



## bkdtv

GBL said:


> I've done that:
> 
> [pictures snipped]
> 
> Somebody, who can watch transfered HD clips, what properties does your HD clip display?
> 
> I tried to get a screen shot of the Media Player but (due to DRM?) only get black image.


Every vendor assigns their codec a priority or "merit." Windows uses the codec with the highest "merit" first. This is an oversimplification, but on your system, you might have:

Merit100 Codec #1
Merit100 Codec #2
Merit100 Codec #3
Merit 90 Codec #4
Merit 90 Codec #5
Merit 80 Codec #6

Suppose you want to use codec #4. When you hit the button in the Windows Video Decoder Checkup utility to "Set as Preferred," all it does is increase the priority or merit to 100. But it doesn't change the fact that you already have three other codecs set to 100. I'm not sure what criteria is used to pick codecs that share the same merit.

The Microsoft Windows Video Decoder Utility does not let you reduce the priority of a codec. But you can do that using the DirectShow Filter Manager. This free utility will display a list of all the available installed video and audio codecs, as seen in the picture below:










Click the "Merit" category to sort by priority. Scroll down to the pink entries at the bottom. The pink entry closest to the bottom has the highest merit or priority. With the "Show filer properties" button, you can decrease the priority of codecs you do not want (or that don't seem to be working right in Windows Media Player) and increase the priority of those that you do. The changes will not take effect in Windows until you reboot.

After the reboot, drag and drop your MPG or .Tivo file in Graphedit to confirm the codec changes are as you desire.

Before making any changes, you may want to create a system restore point so you can go back to your original (existing) configuration at a later time.

If someone can come up with a simpler method of changing the default codec/filter for MPG and/or Tivo files, I will add it to the FAQ.


----------



## srea

I transferred a 2 1/2 hr movie from my S2 to my S3. The Closed Caption is now about 5 seconds ahead (or behind, I can't remember) of the actually audio. The movie is fine on the S2. I transferred a 1 hr TV show and it was okay. The movie was recorded at Best and the TV show was one step down from that. I know the S3 has to do some translation on the mpeg data, could it be messing up the CC? Has anyone else had this problem (I tried a search, but found nothing)?


----------



## naclone

HDTiVo said:


> You might also try deleting the cache files from TD.


Ok, so last night I deleted the TD cache files, restarted the PC and restarted the TiVo. Trying to transfer an avi failed as before. trying to transfer an mpeg2 file worked normally (it said the transfer was starting immediately rather than saying it would begin when other transfers were complete). after the successful mpeg2 transfer i tried again with another avi file and once again it said it would begin transfer as soon as other transfers were complete but started transferring immediately. It's going now, but experience says it will fail shortly.

TiVo definitely seems to be confused about something.

Any recommendations? should i clear everything out of my TiVo recordings folder and start over? should i call TiVo customer service at this point? I'm at a loss.


----------



## bicker

srea said:


> I transferred a 2 1/2 hr movie from my S2 to my S3. The Closed Caption is now about 5 seconds ahead (or behind, I can't remember) of the actually audio.


The (S2-based, i.e., analog) Closed Captioning is inextricably tied to the video, so if there is any synchronization issue, it is between the audio and video.


----------



## srea

bicker said:


> The (S2-based, i.e., analog) Closed Captioning is inextricably tied to the video, so if there is any synchronization issue, it is between the audio and video.


Hmmm, all I can say is the audio and video are in sync and the closed caption is off by 2-3 seconds (yeah, I know I said 5 seconds before, it just seemd that long ). I've seen this in other recordings and assumed it was something the cable company had done. I thought the closed caption was in the vertical blanking interval so how can it be off from the video (unless there is some processing delay)? Maybe i need a new TV (not sure my wife would buy that) .


----------



## slweber

Help! I am able to use TTCB to pull SD home videos (.mpg) to my Tivo S3, but there is no audio. Video seems to play fine, but zero sound. Any suggestions?


----------



## Chevy_Cowboy

naclone said:


> anybody else getting this error?
> 
> "This program was not transfered onto this DVR because the file was larger than expected or because the file was corrupted"


Yes! I was beginning to think I was the only one.

I can transfer anything TO my PC, but I get the above error everytime I try to transfer anything back to the S3.

Any ideas?


----------



## naclone

Chevy_Cowboy said:


> Yes! I was beginning to think I was the only one.
> 
> I can transfer anything TO my PC, but I get the above error everytime I try to transfer anything back to the S3.
> 
> Any ideas?


what file formats are you having trouble with.

so far for me it's not happening with .tivo files or mpeg2, only avi.


----------



## Chevy_Cowboy

naclone said:


> what file formats are you having trouble with.
> 
> so far for me it's not happening with .tivo files or mpeg2, only avi.


I havent tried anything but .tivo files, I'll try the other formats later and see if they'll transfer.

I even tried transfering stuff from my wife's PC and had the same problem.


----------



## a68oliver

srea said:


> Hmmm, all I can say is the audio and video are in sync and the closed caption is off by 2-3 seconds (yeah, I know I said 5 seconds before, it just seemd that long ). I've seen this in other recordings and assumed it was something the cable company had done. I thought the closed caption was in the vertical blanking interval so how can it be off from the video (unless there is some processing delay)? Maybe i need a new TV (not sure my wife would buy that) .


Was the program you were concerned about captioned "live" or was it recorded and captioned later? Live unscripted programs always have a few seconds delay because the captioner can't press the buttons until s/he hears the words. Frequently the captioner is in a different part of the country which adds to the electronic transmission delays.

Pre-recorded programs can be synced properly. Live programs that work from a script may also be captioned properly because they simply feed the teleprompter to the closed captions.


----------



## blicht10069

Appologies if this is the wrong forum to ask this. I have a Tivo HD and just downloaded the desktop 2.5.1. Apparently of my 82 recording all are copy protected and can't be transfered EXCEPT the hi-def law and order recordings. This appears to be exactly backward of what my understanding was. Anyone else experience this?


----------



## fred2

bkdtv:

Great FAQ

I hope that I'm not asking too much. I know that the end of the first message shows when you have edited it but might it be possible for you to place a date at the top of the message, too so that it can be glanced at to see if it has been edited recently?? (too bad the software does not show the edit line at the top in some cases)


----------



## naclone

so, I'm thinking part of my problem may be frame rate as none of the files i am having trouble with are the recommended 29.97. but if that were the issue, wouldn't it not transfer at all? As I've pointed out before, i can get all of these files to start transferring and can watch them as they do, and there is no prob with picture or sound. but then somewhere along the way it fails.

anyway, what would be the easiest way to change the frame rates on these avi files so i can test to see if that is the issue? kind of a drag because I thought TD Plus would allow me to upload files without any transcoding at all.


----------



## shanebowman

I have a S3 and S2 DT My Tivos can see each other, but since the update (9.2j) my computer cannot see either of my Tivos. I am ecstatic that I can now transfer between Tivos, but would like the option with computer as well. 
My Tivos can access my pictures and music on my computer.
Tried forcing a connection, no luck
I tried uninstalling and reinstalling Tivo desktop, but same thing. 
Anyone got any ideas?


----------



## bkdtv

shanebowman said:


> I have a S3 and S2 DT My Tivos can see each other, but since the update (9.2j) my computer cannot see either of my Tivos. I am ecstatic that I can now transfer between Tivos, but would like the option with computer as well.
> My Tivos can access my pictures and music on my computer.
> Tried forcing a connection, no luck
> I tried uninstalling and reinstalling Tivo desktop, but same thing.
> Anyone got any ideas?


Are you using any kind of third-party firewall or security software?


----------



## shanebowman

yes, but I have given Tivo Desktop server access and I would have thought Tivo would not be able to access my music and photos if this was the problem


----------



## kas25

I have taken non-hd home movies and got them in MP4 so they can play on my Apple TV and Ipod. It sounds like I can transfer them to my Tivo. I have paid for the upgraded desktop but how do I get them to show up on my tivo.? Do I move these files to My Tivo Recordings folder? Thanks.


----------



## bkdtv

shanebowman said:


> yes, but I have given Tivo Desktop server access and I would have thought Tivo would not be able to access my music and photos if this was the problem


I believe these use different ports, so the fact that one is working does not necessarily mean anything for the other.

I'm not certain what ports Tivo Desktop requires to grab a list of recordings from the TiVo -- maybe 80 and 443? If someone else knows for certain, hopefully they will post.


----------



## moyekj

kas25 said:


> I have taken non-hd home movies and got them in MP4 so they can play on my Apple TV and Ipod. It sounds like I can transfer them to my Tivo. I have paid for the upgraded desktop but how do I get them to show up on my tivo.? Do I move these files to My Tivo Recordings folder? Thanks.


 Yes, you need to either move the files or put shortcuts to them in your "My Tivo Recordings" folder for them to show up in TD+.


----------



## vstone

blicht10069 said:


> Appologies if this is the wrong forum to ask this. I have a Tivo HD and just downloaded the desktop 2.5.1. Apparently of my 82 recording all are copy protected and can't be transfered EXCEPT the hi-def law and order recordings. This appears to be exactly backward of what my understanding was. Anyone else experience this?


Broadcast channels should not be copy protected, even when received via cable. Other than all of TNTHD and some of Discovery HD Theater, all of my digital cable recordings are marked as copy protected.


----------



## kas25

moyekj said:


> Yes, you need to either move the files or put shortcuts to them in your "My Tivo Recordings" folder for them to show up in TD+.


Thanks. I'm amazed that my home movies are now on my tivo. The fast forward is awesome compared to Apple TV. Its just like Tivo recordings which is great. Now if I can get home movies in a folder called "Home Movies" I would be psyched. Any chance of this?


----------



## moyekj

kas25 said:


> Thanks. I'm amazed that my home movies are now on my tivo. The fast forward is awesome compared to Apple TV. Its just like Tivo recordings which is great. Now if I can get home movies in a folder called "Home Movies" I would be psyched. Any chance of this?


 I think it's possible with .TiVo files (that contain all the original program information data) but I don't think it's possible otherwise. Don't know if anyone has developed an application that can create .TiVo files with the relevant program description data filled out, but that seems doable now that .TiVo files have been cracked.


----------



## greg_burns

moyekj said:


> I think it's possible with .TiVo files (that contain all the original program information data) but I don't think it's possible otherwise. Don't know if anyone has developed an application that can create .TiVo files with the relevant program description data filled out, but that seems doable now that .TiVo files have been cracked.


TivoDecode can decrypt a .tivo file, but does it know how to re-encrypt it? Wouldn't that be necessary?

Galleon does some of this stuff already I think (folders?)
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=3846339&&#post3846339


----------



## moyekj

greg_burns said:


> TivoDecode can decrypt a .tivo file, but does it know how to re-encrypt it? Wouldn't that be necessary?
> 
> Galleon does some of this stuff already I think (folders?)
> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=3846339&&#post3846339


 Maybe I misread that thread but Galleon can present itself to Tivo with programs in folders but AFAIK nobody has figured out how to push files onto Tivo and make them go into their own folders.


----------



## greg_burns

moyekj said:


> Maybe I misread that thread but Galleon can present itself to Tivo with programs in folders but AFAIK nobody has figured out how to push files onto Tivo and make them go into their own folders.


Ah, that is probably my misunderstanding. Makes sense.


----------



## HDTiVo

greg_burns said:


> TivoDecode can decrypt a .tivo file, but does it know how to re-encrypt it? Wouldn't that be necessary?


You are talking about the header info? I have to read up. What do you do with the decrypted header info?


----------



## moyekj

One thing I haven't tried to see if folders via TTCB are even possible: Use TTG to grab 2 shows from Tivo in same folder. Then delete those shows on the Tivo and use TTCB to put back the same shows on the Tivo. Do they both end up in same folder after that round trip? If so then that means the .TiVo metadata is what is important. If it doesn't work then it would mean that folders are not supported via TTCB.


----------



## HDTiVo

moyekj said:


> One thing I haven't tried to see if folders via TTCB are even possible: Use TTG to grab 2 shows from Tivo in same folder. Then delete those shows on the Tivo and use TTCB to put back the same shows on the Tivo. Do they both end up in same folder after that round trip? If so then that means the .TiVo metadata is what is important. If it doesn't work then it would mean that folders are not supported via TTCB.


The meta data is what's important. But I think that the shows (series) have to be in the program guide (or NPL) too for TiVo to group it. Thus, if you do this with some old cancelled series, you won't get grouping.

If you "steal" headers from shows and attach them to other mpgs (TiVoAttach) you could get grouping...but no control over the name of your group.

Never tried this with Wishlists - give that a shot to see if you can come up with grouping more like what you want.


----------



## bkdtv

moyekj said:


> One thing I haven't tried to see if folders via TTCB are even possible: Use TTG to grab 2 shows from Tivo in same folder. Then delete those shows on the Tivo and use TTCB to put back the same shows on the Tivo. Do they both end up in same folder after that round trip?


Yes, they do.

Now we just need a program to add that metadata...


----------



## greg_burns

HDTiVo said:


> You are talking about the header info? I have to read up. What do you do with the decrypted header info?


Inside the decrypted header info is (presumably) an xml doc that has the show description, series id, etc.

If you could decrypt it you could build an editor to change the data. But that is only half the battle. You would need a way to encrypt it again before sending it back to the tivo so that it was in an expected format.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=4638713&&#post4638713

Edit: another related thread I ran across tonight...
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=4722964&&#post4722964


----------



## AZrob

Hi All,

I realize this is probably an obvious newbie-level question, but I have not exactly found an answer in my searches:

I have Tivo Desktop Plus and it works fine with my S2, both sending and receiving shows.

I am planning to replace the S2 with a TivoHD, but first I will transferring all of the unviewed shows on the S2 to my PC.

Can I be sure that when I buy the TivoHD that it will be able to transfer back and play those shows from my PC that I originally sent from the S2? I'm pretty sure this is SUPPOSED to work, but I wanted to be sure that people's experience has confirmed this.

I have Tivo Desktop Plus.

Thanks in advance,

Rob


----------



## greg_burns

AZrob said:


> Hi All,
> 
> I realize this is probably an obvious newbie-level question, but I have not exactly found an answer in my searches:
> 
> I have Tivo Desktop Plus and it works fine with my S2, both sending and receiving shows.
> 
> I am planning to replace the S2 with a TivoHD, but first I will transferring all of the unviewed shows on the S2 to my PC.
> 
> Can I be sure that when I buy the TivoHD that it will be able to transfer back and play those shows from my PC that I originally sent from the S2? I'm pretty sure this is SUPPOSED to work, but I wanted to be sure that people's experience has confirmed this.
> 
> I have Tivo Desktop Plus.
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> 
> Rob


That will work, but the transferred shows may not group back into folders when transferred to your new TivoHD. (Due to the guide data (series ID?) being different than what is embedded in those tivo files as is being discussed here)


----------



## AZrob

I can live with that, thanks.

I just discovered the web browser version of Tivo Desktop by reading this FAQ. Where else is this documented? I can't find anything on the Tivo website that explains this option, or even mentions it.

I guess it's pretty straightforward...but one question: what does the word "classic" at the bottom of each web page mean?

Thanks,

Rob


----------



## seattlewendell

AZrob said:


> I can live with that, thanks.
> 
> I just discovered the web browser version of Tivo Desktop by reading this FAQ. Where else is this documented? I can't find anything on the Tivo website that explains this option, or even mentions it.
> 
> I guess it's pretty straightforward...but one question: what does the word "classic" at the bottom of each web page mean?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Rob


Classic means no folders. Click it and notice all your shows are listed individually instead of in folders.


----------



## greg_burns

AZrob said:


> I just discovered the web browser version of Tivo Desktop by reading this FAQ. Where else is this documented? I can't find anything on the Tivo website that explains this option, or even mentions it.


It is not a documented feature.


----------



## moyekj

greg_burns said:


> It is not a documented feature.


 Actually it is part of the Tivo HME SDK which can be found here:
http://tivohme.sourceforge.net/


----------



## greg_burns

moyekj said:


> Actually it is part of the Tivo HME SDK which can be found here:
> http://tivohme.sourceforge.net/


Not to split hairs (and I may be totally wrong), but does the SDK really describe the web page he is referring to? Or does it just go into the "TiVoConnect?Command=" stuff you pass to your tivo via http to retrieve XML info and such. (And is _that_ even in the *HME* SDK you linked to?)

Ok, I am spiltting hairs. 

Edit:

It looks like the bottom part of this page (link below) may have more info directly related to developing against the TivoDesktop features (as opposed to HME stuff). But I can't get the links to go anywhere for me. 

http://dynamic.tivo.com/developer/


----------



## moyekj

greg_burns said:


> Not to split hairs (and I may be totally wrong), but does the SDK really describe the web page he is referring to? Or does it just go into the "TiVoConnect?Command=" stuff you pass to your tivo via http to retrieve XML info and such. (And is _that_ even in the *HME* SDK you linked to?)
> 
> Ok, I am spiltting hairs.
> 
> Edit:
> 
> It looks like the bottom part of this page (link below) may have more info directly related to developing against the TivoDesktop features (as opposed to HME stuff). But I can't get the links to go anywhere for me.
> 
> http://dynamic.tivo.com/developer/


 You're right, sorry about that. A lot of information I gathered was from here:
http://www.xml.com/lpt/a/1644
That had a nice link to some documentation:
Music and Photos Server Protocol Specification, however that link no longer works


----------



## greg_burns

moyekj said:


> A lot of information I gathered was from here:
> http://www.xml.com/lpt/a/1644


Lot of good info there. :up:



> The same TiVo screen also shows your MAC ID (formerly the MAK, for Media Access Key), which will be your password to gain access to the TiVo's metadata, so note that as well.


And some not so good. 



> It's ironic that the documentation explaining how do to this with the TiVo Home Media Option API holds the key to querying the TiVo box itself, which is much more interesting.


+1


----------



## amukhael

I am not using Desktop Plus and I was able to watch (download/stream) an .mpeg movie just by throwing the shortcut to the video into the My Tivo Recordings folder. However, I decided to convert my 20+gig HD movie (Hot Fuzz) by converting from .ts to .mpeg. The resulting file showed up in my Tivo and looks gorgeous, but alas, it's sans sound! I am re-converting using another app I found (DVBPortal's TSConverter) hoping that the AC3 will work and I will let you know if that helps.
Did anyone on this forum successfully download/stream an HD-DVD or Blu-Ray rip onto the Series 3? Will Desktop Plus convert any video file into H.264 format?


----------



## Laserfan

bkdtv said:


> What about high-definition recordings?...The TiVos cannot _currently_ play other formats (AVI, MP4, etc) in high-definition. The TiVo will play those high-definition files, but they will be converted to SD by Tivo Desktop.


I wonder why you wrote "currently" in the above--has their been discussion that this is in the works?

I would not be surprised if it was NOT forthcoming--I think/expect Tivo does not have the horses to decode/display an HD Xvid file?


----------



## wgw

amukhael said:


> I am not using Desktop Plus and I was able to watch (download/stream) an .mpeg movie just by throwing the shortcut to the video into the My Tivo Recordings folder. However, I decided to convert my 20+gig HD movie (Hot Fuzz) by converting from .ts to .mpeg. The resulting file showed up in my Tivo and looks gorgeous, but alas, it's sans sound! I am re-converting using another app I found (DVBPortal's TSConverter) hoping that the AC3 will work and I will let you know if that helps.
> Did anyone on this forum successfully download/stream an HD-DVD or Blu-Ray rip onto the Series 3? Will Desktop Plus convert any video file into H.264 format?


The S3 will not play ac3 5.1 audio above 512kbps bitrate, and even that high a rate will cause continuous skipping and dropouts. You will need to downsample the audio to 384kbps for best results. And the video bitrate should be below 17mbps to avoid pixelation during playback.


----------



## amukhael

wgw, 

Thank you for the helpful suggestion! If you don't mind me asking, what would you recommend I use to downsample the audio track? I know I should probably head to Doom9, but I figure you have dealt with this plenty  Also, will the 5.1 properties of the audio feed be retained? Sorry for being so newbish to all this, but with the recent Series3 firmware upgrades I am discovering a whole new world of encoding and muxing 

Thanks in advance!

-armen


----------



## HDTiVo

Laserfan said:


> I wonder why you wrote "currently" in the above--has their been discussion that this is in the works?
> 
> I would not be surprised if it was NOT forthcoming--I think/expect Tivo does not have the horses to decode/display an HD Xvid file?


The hi def TiVoes' mpeg decoders are capable of playing mpeg4 based content. What exactly that really covers, I don't know. Of course, in theory TiVo Desktop could transcode to HD MPEG2 and send to TiVo. Or someone could make some nice little program to do so long before TiVo ever gets around to it.


----------



## moyekj

I was playing around with the https server and decided to take a look at page source of the Now Playing list on my browser. You can pull network logos and a few other things directly off your Tivos which I found quite amusing. For example for me, the NBC logo and the dancing Tivo can be obtained as:


Code:


http://192.168.1.101/ChannelLogo/logo-65556.png
http://192.168.1.101/images/tivodance.gif

 I'm sure there are other perhaps more interesting/useful things to find for those willing to explore more...


----------



## bkdtv

Laserfan said:


> I wonder why you wrote "currently" in the above--has their been discussion that this is in the works?
> 
> I would not be surprised if it was NOT forthcoming--I think/expect Tivo does not have the horses to decode/display an HD Xvid file?


The Tivo Series3 is based around the Broadcom BCM7038 CPU and MPEG-2 decoder, but it also has a BCM7411 that is not yet used. The BCM7411 is the same MPEG-2/MPEG-4/VC-1 decoder used by the Samsung BD-P1000 and BD-P1200 Blu-ray players. It is also the same chip in the DirecTV HR20 DVR.

The TivoHD has the newer BCM7401 DVR CPU which integrates the BCM7038 and BCM7411 into a single chip. The BCM7401 is the same chip found in the new DirecTV HR21 DVR.

The DirecTV HR20 and HR21 DVRs both load a driver with MPEG-4 support, but Tivo only loads a MPEG-2 driver. I suspect Tivo will add MPEG-4 decoding capability to the next major release (maybe 10.x ?) so they can support high-definition downloads from Amazon Unbox (and elsewhere) in MPEG-4 AVC and VC-1 format. Unfortunately for Tivo, the hardware in the Series2 is not -- and never will be -- MPEG-4 capable.


----------



## holligl

amukhael said:


> I am not using Desktop Plus and I was able to watch (download/stream) an .mpeg movie just by throwing the shortcut to the video into the My Tivo Recordings folder. However, I decided to convert my 20+gig HD movie (Hot Fuzz) by converting from .ts to .mpeg. The resulting file showed up in my Tivo and looks gorgeous, but alas, it's sans sound! I am re-converting using another app I found (DVBPortal's TSConverter) hoping that the AC3 will work and I will let you know if that helps.
> Did anyone on this forum successfully download/stream an HD-DVD or Blu-Ray rip onto the Series 3? Will Desktop Plus convert any video file into H.264 format?


I had the same experience (Transfers OK but no sound) using HDTVtoMPEG2 converter. I had tried VideoReDo and saved as TiVo format but the TiVo would not recognize the file on NPL.
I have not gotten NonTiVo HD content back to the THD. SD MPEGS are transfering fine with the Basic TTG.


----------



## Laserfan

bkdtv said:


> The Tivo Series3 ... has a BCM7411 that is not yet used... I suspect Tivo will add MPEG-4 decoding capability to the next major release...


Thanks for that; I didn't know it had any hardware-decoding for MPEG-4.

I couldn't find anything that explicitly stated the BCM7411 would decode Xvid/Dvix files...if you or anyone here knows, by all means share.


----------



## amukhael

holligl said:


> I had the same experience (Transfers OK but no sound) using HDTVtoMPEG2 converter. I had tried VideoReDo and saved as TiVo format but the TiVo would not recognize the file on NPL.
> I have not gotten NonTiVo HD content back to the THD. SD MPEGS are transfering fine with the Basic TTG.


holligl, let's hope wgw is onto something in regards to his very plausible solution that would require a downsampling of the AC3 audio-feed (it's currently at 1500kbps).

What say you wgw, or any others that have gotten non-TiVo recorded HD content to play on the Series3?


----------



## moyekj

amukhael said:


> holligl, let's hope wgw is onto something in regards to his very plausible solution that would require a downsampling of the AC3 audio-feed (it's currently at 1500kbps).
> 
> What say you wgw, or any others that have gotten non-TiVo recorded HD content to play on the Series3?


 I have several HD mpeg2 transport stream recordings from my Fusion HDTV USB tuner that I converted to mpeg2 program stream using HDTV2MPEG2 that play back fine on my S3s. However, some of them exhibit the following problems when played on the Tivos (OK for PC playback):
- Trick functions won't work
- Displayed total time not correct
- Audio/video sync problems
There are at least 2 recordings that play back perfectly - these are all recordings of ABCs "Lost".
Also of note that for all of the above I also have downconverted DVD compatible mpeg2 versions (created from the sources above) and all of those play back without issue on my S3s.

I have used TTG on several HD recordings from my S3s and stripped them of commercials (using Womble Mpeg Video Wizard) and fed them back to my S3s. In every case those recordings play back perfectly. So this seems to confirm that the most reliable HD sources for the Tivos are ones originating from the Tivos themselves which is probably why TivoPony mentioned that's officially all that Tivo supports for now.


----------



## HDTiVo

Laserfan said:


> Thanks for that; I didn't know it had any hardware-decoding for MPEG-4.
> 
> I couldn't find anything that explicitly stated the BCM7411 would decode Xvid/Dvix files...if you or anyone here knows, by all means share.


The big question in my mind is what formats the hi def TiVoes are capable of supporting on the box - can they be made to play protected WMVs, etc.? Then after that comes what will TiVo actually implement with software updates?


----------



## amukhael

moyekj said:


> I have several HD mpeg2 transport stream recordings from my Fusion HDTV USB tuner that I converted to mpeg2 program stream using HDTV2MPEG2 that play back fine on my S3s. However, some of them exhibit the following problems when played on the Tivos (OK for PC playback):
> - Trick functions won't work
> - Displayed total time not correct
> - Audio/video sync problems
> There are at least 2 recordings that play back perfectly - these are all recordings of ABCs "Lost".
> Also of note that for all of the above I also have downconverted DVD compatible mpeg2 versions (created from the sources above) and all of those play back without issue on my S3s.
> 
> I have used TTG on several HD recordings from my S3s and stripped them of commercials (using Womble Mpeg Video Wizard) and fed them back to my S3s. In every case those recordings play back perfectly. So this seems to confirm that the most reliable HD sources for the Tivos are ones originating from the Tivos themselves which is probably why TivoPony mentioned that's officially all that Tivo supports for now.


Likewise, I am able to stream any DVD-quality MPEG-2 file over to the S3. I am now scouring Doom9 for solutions to maybe demux the original .ts source file so that I can downsample the AC-3 audio stream and then re-mux it back to make a playable .mpg for the S3. Looking for any recommendations from the forum


----------



## johnnylundy

Using the web interface on my TiVo HD through a NetGear 11g router and the TiVo USB adapter, I am only getting 545 KB/sec transfer. This is better than the 350+KB/sec I used to get with my Series 2, but nowhere near the MB/sec you guys are speaking of.

Is the TiVo-branded USB wireless adapter limiting here? I suppose I could hook up ethernet to my laptop and see...


----------



## cogx

moyekj said:


> So if anything I would categorize the S3 mpeg2 decoder as "flaky".
> Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying that TTCB capability is critically flawed. I'm just trying to explore exactly what works and what doesn't work. I'm very happy that at least mpeg2 files originating from S3s (SD & HD) can be edited of commercials and then thrown back at the S3s and play back perfectly. Also very happy that commercial DVD originating mpegs seem to play back fine as well. Note that these notes are based on a relatively small sample of files I have tried so far, so may not representative of a much larger sample size...


I've spent way, way too many hours with FFMPEG in the last week or so, trying to figure out exactly how to get my S3 to playback converted-to MPEG2 videos and it is really hard to keep quality and yet not have the S3 freak out (skip bits and/or FFW past parts) when presumably there are spikes in bitrate. Also, VideoRedo didn't do anything at all to let me watch a converted HD capture from my PC to my S3, the same thing, it just seems the S3 can't handle spikes in bitrate at all.

I've found that all I can do is to really lower the entire quality of the video, so that the S3 can handle playing back the entire video, because nothing I do with the -b -maxrate and -bt settings has been able to work on my entire test suite of videos.

I think the key is if the video was originally encoded in MPEG2 with a modest bitrate (like a DVD), then it is fine, but HD MPEG-2 videos from capture cards and also transcoding from MPEG-4 to MPEG-2 has really been "flaky" in my experiments. The bottom line is, I can get it to work, if I really butcher the quality, but that defeats the purpose of having a sort of universal media player (like say the TViX 5110 PVR?)

Oh well, I really don't *need* to have the TTCB feature, it was just something I wanted to see what it was capable of in case I did want to rely on it, but I now see it can't be relied upon, but is more of a "bonus feature" perhaps.


----------



## Laserfan

moyekj said:


> I have used TTG on several HD recordings from my S3s and stripped them of commercials (using Womble Mpeg Video Wizard) and fed them back to my S3s. In every case those recordings play back perfectly.


Ouch; as cogx just said VideoReDo must mangle the mpg somehow that Womble does not--I have yet to get an edited HD show back onto my S3 w/o problems.


----------



## moyekj

Laserfan said:


> Ouch; as cogx just said VideoReDo must mangle the mpg somehow that Womble does not--I have yet to get an edited HD show back onto my S3 w/o problems.


 I think cogx was referring to HD captures on his PC edited with VideoRedo. I thought others posted success with VideoRedo for editing HD recordings originating from Tivos? The flow I use that has worked perfectly:
- TTG to PC (Windows XP SP2, Tivo Desktop 2.50)
- Direct Show Dump Utility to convert .TiVo to .mpg
- Edit with Womble to cut out commercials
- Save to .mpg (which only transcodes at the cut points)

Are you editing .TiVo files directly with VideoRedo? If so, perhaps try converting to .mpg first using Direct Show Dump Utility and then run them through VideoRedo to see if it's any better.


----------



## bkdtv

johnnylundy said:


> Using the web interface on my TiVo HD through a NetGear 11g router and the TiVo USB adapter, I am only getting 545 KB/sec transfer. This is better than the 350+KB/sec I used to get with my Series 2, but nowhere near the MB/sec you guys are speaking of.


Wireless throughput is limited by the quality of your signal. Wireless conditions in every home are different, but some wireless routers do better with weaker signals than others.

That said, remember that throughput differs significantly depending on what you are doing on the Tivo. If both of your tuners are set to high-bitrate HD channels like CBS-HD and Hdnet, throughput will be significantly less than if those tuners are set to SD channels like SciFi and CNN.


----------



## Laserfan

moyekj said:


> ...perhaps try converting to .mpg first using Direct Show Dump Utility and then run them through VideoRedo


Excellent idea, I will try it, thanks!


----------



## greg_burns

moyekj said:


> I thought others posted success with VideoRedo for editing HD recordings originating from Tivos?


I have had success doing doing that. No need for DirectShow Dump (or TivoDecode) here.


----------



## holligl

moyekj said:


> I think cogx was referring to HD captures on his PC edited with VideoRedo. I thought others posted success with VideoRedo for editing HD recordings originating from Tivos? The flow I use that has worked perfectly:
> - TTG to PC (Windows XP SP2, Tivo Desktop 2.50)
> - Direct Show Dump Utility to convert .TiVo to .mpg
> - Edit with Womble to cut out commercials
> - Save to .mpg (which only transcodes at the cut points)
> 
> Are you editing .TiVo files directly with VideoRedo? If so, perhaps try converting to .mpg first using Direct Show Dump Utility and then run them through VideoRedo to see if it's any better.


I have A Fusion RT5 Gold and have now transfered a Transport Stream file back to the THD using VideoReDo and TCCB.

1) open the .TP file in VideoReDo, Run Commercial Scan if desired.
2) Save as Mpeg file in the TiVo Recordings folder, but under options change the Audio format to mpeg (I used a 192KBit rate).

I did this with a fairly short file, to prove it out, the transfer was a little slow, but seemed to hold the quality and no synch problems. It seems the MPEG Spec on the audio is the key. My previous attempts lost the audio.


----------



## Laserfan

holligl said:


> ...under options change the Audio format to mpeg (I used a 192KBit rate).


Don't want to do that holligl--I wouldn't want to lose the wonderful opening (all surround channels) drums from Santana's "Evil Ways" in the outstanding episode "Brotherhood" of Cane!!!! Wow! :up:


----------



## cogx

moyekj said:


> I think cogx was referring to HD captures on his PC edited with VideoRedo. I thought others posted success with VideoRedo for editing HD recordings originating from Tivos? The flow I use that has worked perfectly:
> - TTG to PC (Windows XP SP2, Tivo Desktop 2.50)
> - Direct Show Dump Utility to convert .TiVo to .mpg
> - Edit with Womble to cut out commercials
> - Save to .mpg (which only transcodes at the cut points)
> 
> Are you editing .TiVo files directly with VideoRedo? If so, perhaps try converting to .mpg first using Direct Show Dump Utility and then run them through VideoRedo to see if it's any better.


I'm not even worrying about cutting out commercials, I don't even care about doing that. My issue is that although I can already get my HDTV captures into the S3 just fine, and it will play them, it _won't_ play them _all the way through_ without skipping every so often; usually it will skip within the first 30 seconds, so I know soon enough that yet another transfer isn't going to be really be watchable. I find it odd that the S3 can record HDTV perfectly itself, but is unable to perfectly play back the recordings from the same exact channels I record with my Fusion5Gold PCI card. There is a maximum bitrate for HDTV recordings, so I don't understand why it can't handle those video files without skipping.


----------



## kas25

I've successfully moved MP4 home movies to my Series 3. When I go to play them, I have the audio drop issue. If I move the input on my tuner to another input and then back to the correct input, the sound comes on. Is this a known bug?


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## flyerman

Tried TTCB with a recorded file from my Nexus-S card. The format of 1280x720 59.94 fps 16/9 aspect 13.480 Mbps. The audio was AC3 but I tried to save as 192 mpg in Videoredo and I had no success. Does anyone have any suggestions?


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## HDTiVo

flyerman said:


> Tried TTCB with a recorded file from my Nexus-S card. The format of 1280x720 59.94 fps 16/9 aspect 13.480 Mbps. The audio was AC3 but I tried to save as 192 mpg in Videoredo and I had no success. Does anyone have any suggestions?


Did you use 48KHz?


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## flyerman

Yes 48000 Hz used.


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## naclone

Hi everyone, just wanted to mention that i spoke to TiVo customer service about my transfer issues and they confirmed that it was not an issue with either the files, the network or the TiVo so that narrowed it down to my PC and/or the copy of TDP I was running. so i re-downloaded/installed TDP and then made sure my PC was set to never automatically shut down or sleep and i've had no problem transferring avi files since.


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## bkdtv

If you haven't checked the first post recently, I added several new FAQs to the TivoToGo section.


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## keysman

I just wanted to express my thanks for posting this FAQ. I have just started with TTG since it just became available for the Series 3. I never had a Series 2 to play with. I skipped from the O.G. Series 1 to the S3.  This is a great collection of information and the information on TTCB is invaluable to me.

I just started looking at ways that I could take video I transfered from the TiVo, edit it, and then view it again in my home theater in HD and surround. I was looking at the AppleTV and scrapped that idea because of the AppleTV limitations. I was also looking at the PS3 and I may still get a PS3 for the Blu-Ray player (and the games). Then I found this.

I already found TiVo Decode Manager and transfered some content to my Mac. I have also been fooling around with MPEG Streamclip off and on for some time. So tonight, I trimmed a small piece of an old SNL episode (one Digital Short skit) with MPEG Streamclip, saved it as an MPEG file, and was able to transfer it back to my TiVo. In High Def, in Surround Sound, nice. I also found that TiVo Desktop created a .properties file with the same name as my MPEG file in my TiVoShows folder. I took a look at that file with TextEdit and decided to see what would happen if I edited that file. At first nothing seemed to change (I was expecting the Title and Description to change. After I stopped and restarted TiVo Desktop though. The title and description I typed into the .properties file showed up on my TiVo and I transfered the file to my S3. Sweet! 

It seems to work fine. I thought the lipsync was off at first and that the video frame rate was a tiny bit lower than it should be but it seems to be okay. I'll keep testing.

Now I'm going to have to add that external SATA drive so I can keep a collection of my favorite SNL skits, music videos, and whatever else I want on my TiVo for instant access.


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## moyekj

keysman said:


> I also found that TiVo Desktop created a .properties file with the same name as my MPEG file in my TiVoShows folder. I took a look at that file with TextEdit and decided to see what would happen if I edited that file. At first nothing seemed to change (I was expecting the Title and Description to change. After I stopped and restarted TiVo Desktop though. The title and description I typed into the .properties file showed up on my TiVo and I transfered the file to my S3. Sweet!


 That sounds very interesting. Can you post here the contents of a .properties file? Would be great to control how the file looks on the Tivo - maybe even getting folders would be possible!?


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## keysman

Sure here you go. This is what the blank file looks like.



Code:


#Tue Nov 06 18:41:21 PST 2007
description=
title=filename.mpeg

I assume you could also change the date but I left that alone. I added my own description after description= and I changed "filename.mpeg" (by the way filename.mpeg is just a placeholder I typed. It actually said the name of the file I placed in the TiVoShows folder) to the title I wanted.


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## moyekj

keysman said:


> Sure here you go. This is what the blank file looks like.
> 
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> #Tue Nov 06 18:41:21 PST 2007
> description=
> title=filename.mpeg
> 
> I assume you could also change the date but I left that alone. I added my own description after description= and I changed "filename.mpeg" (by the way filename.mpeg is just a placeholder I typed. It actually said the name of the file I placed in the TiVoShows folder) to the title I wanted.


 Didn't work for me so I did some Googling and found this will only work for Macs, not Windows. Thanks anyway!


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## keysman

Okay I want to post some screen shots but I have to bump my post count. Sorry.


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## keysman

Now that I have more than 5 posts...

Here are a couple of "Screen Shots" (pun intended).

All the info on this screen is the way I entered it into the .properties file created by TiVo Desktop on my Mac.










One thing I don't understand is why the time is in Seconds instead of minutes. Both files I have transfered back have been in this way. Oh well, I'm not too worried about that.










P.S. How sad is that, I have been a member since 2002 and only have 6 posts.


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## wgw

cogx said:


> I've spent way, way too many hours with FFMPEG in the last week or so, trying to figure out exactly how to get my S3 to playback converted-to MPEG2 videos and it is really hard to keep quality and yet not have the S3 freak out (skip bits and/or FFW past parts) when presumably there are spikes in bitrate. Also, VideoRedo didn't do anything at all to let me watch a converted HD capture from my PC to my S3, the same thing, it just seems the S3 can't handle spikes in bitrate at all.
> 
> I've found that all I can do is to really lower the entire quality of the video, so that the S3 can handle playing back the entire video, because nothing I do with the -b -maxrate and -bt settings has been able to work on my entire test suite of videos.
> 
> I think the key is if the video was originally encoded in MPEG2 with a modest bitrate (like a DVD), then it is fine, but HD MPEG-2 videos from capture cards and also transcoding from MPEG-4 to MPEG-2 has really been "flaky" in my experiments. The bottom line is, I can get it to work, if I really butcher the quality, but that defeats the purpose of having a sort of universal media player (like say the TViX 5110 PVR?)
> 
> Oh well, I really don't *need* to have the TTCB feature, it was just something I wanted to see what it was capable of in case I did want to rely on it, but I now see it can't be relied upon, but is more of a "bonus feature" perhaps.


When I first started using ffmpeg as part of the pyTivo software for transfering video to the Tivo (see TiVo Home Media Features & TiVoToGo forum on this site ) I also thought there had to be a way to use it to downsample HD video just to the exact bitrate required by the Tivo (ie 17M max bitrate) while maintaining maximum file size etc., but alas, ffmpeg is apparently just a transcoder that tries to recode or stream av as best it can at the smallest size while trying to maintain quality. I've obviously made my fair share of mistaken assumptions and blunders in the last few weeks while trying to learn about converting av. But ffmpeg does however seem to produce excellent output and I can't really tell the difference between the original 30mbps HD ts steam and the output from ffmpeg. But I don't have a huge 60 inch HDTV either. I have not yet found a tool that will convert high bitrate transport stream down to the 16mbps that the Tivo seems to require while capping the peaks at 17mbps. If an affordable solution exists, I'll buy it today. VideoReDo will reduce the bitrate to 15mbps or whatever you select, but apparently it will not yet cap the peaks like ffmpeg will do when using the -maxrate option. (Edit: read on VideoReDo forum today that it does not really change bitrate, just the header. That's +1 for my mistaken assumptions) Hopefully a future version of VideoReDo or some other software will quickly and easily downsample HD video as well as the ac3 audio. Until the ideal tool presents itself, I guess I'll be using ffmpeg for now.

That said, I can only suggest with my limited experience with ffmpeg, that you might as well ignore the bitrate settings and concentrate on quality settings. Specifying bitrate does not really seem to matter. ffmpeg will still try to compress the video as best it can no matter what you specify. The -qscale option seems to be the easiest way to tell ffmpeg you want high quality output. Yet it will still attempt maximum compression. Right or wrong, the only reason I specify bitrate 14Mi in my ffmpeg string is so that it does not assume I want the default 200kbps bitrate. Not that it really matters when using qscale as my only quality setting. qscale seems to ignore the bitrate setting.

So, unless you want to attempt to scour the web for the meaning of all the ffmpeg options and best settings to use, I would suggest the following ffmpeg string for an easy conversion to a Tivo compatible mpg. Try a qscale setting somewhere between 0.5 and 1.5 depending on the speed of your processor and the resulting picture quality you are happy with on your particular HDTV. Personally, I'm very happy with the results and cannot tell the difference between ffmpeg and the high bitrate source.

ffmpeg_mp2.exe -i file.ts -vcodec mpeg2video -r 29.97 -b 14Mi -maxrate 17Mi -bufsize 1024k -aspect 16:9 -s hd720 -qscale 1.2 -acodec ac3 -ab 384k -ar 48000 -f vob out.mpg


----------



## naclone

since this is the dedicated HD forum, would it be possible to set up a separate FAQ thread for transferring HD content to S3/THD? I realize solutions are still being worked out but there is information spread out across this thread, this forum as well as the Home Media Forum and it's very difficult to get a handle on what everyone is up to. I think it would be extremely helpful once there are some best practices established to break them out into their own FAQ. Again, since this is the dedicated HD forum I think most of us in here are interested primarily in the transfering of HD content.


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## cogx

wgw said:


> ffmpeg_mp2.exe -i file.ts -vcodec mpeg2video -r 29.97 -b 14Mi -maxrate 17Mi -bufsize 1024k -aspect 16:9 -s hd720 -qscale 1.2 -acodec ac3 -ab 384k -ar 48000 -f vob out.mpg


I just tried your -qscale 1.2 params here on my HDTV captures, but the file still skip (fast forward) frames every so many seconds/minutes. When I tried 1.3, it started doing ugly blocking artifacts. 

I have had some apparently success, with these settings, though, lowering the resolution and overall quality, to avoid the apparent bitrate spikes that absolutely cripple my S3:

ffmpeg.exe -i "filename.ts" -vcodec mpeg2video -acodec copy -sameq -mbd bits -s 960x540 -qmin 5 "filename.mpg"

Sometimes I have to increase -qmin up to 6 or 7, depending on the source, but it seems to be working for all of my transcoding this week (so far). Like I said in an earlier post, though, I don't know why I have to reduce quality so much to play back HD quality videos on a TiVo S3, without problems.


----------



## miller890

bkdtv said:


> *10. I just bought TiVo Desktop Plus. Why is TiVo playback quality on my AVI, DIVX, WMV, and Quicktime files so poor?*
> 
> _The following applies to TiVo Desktop for Windows._
> 
> By default, TiVo Desktop Plus 2.5 is set to stream video at 480x480 resolution with a constant bitrate of 2000 Kbps. That doesn't look very good scaled on larger displays. With a "hack," you can increase resolution to 640x480 @ 6+ Mbps to significantly improve playback quality on AVI, DIVX, WMV, etc files.
> 
> To do that, first download the free XN Resource Editor application.
> 
> Run the XN Resource Editor and use it to open the c:\Program Files\TiVo\Desktop\Plus\TiVoTrans.dll.
> 
> Select ENCODEPROFILES -> 220 -> English on the left. Scroll down to the bottom where you see:With the TiVo Series2, you could change the hrez value to 640, so I would start with that. I would also increase the vbitrateK to 5000 and the vmaxbitrateK to 5000. If that works fine, you might try increasing the hrez value to 720 and the bitrate values to 6000 or 7000.
> 
> To restore the defaults, delete the TiVoTrans.dll and re-run the TiVo Desktop setup program. When you choose the Repair option, the installer will re-copy the original version of the file.[/list]


When I followed these instructions using xn resource editor and I am unable to get the change saved. I stopped all of the tivo daemons, but when I use xn to check to see if my changes were saved, everything is back to the original setting. Any idea how to get the changes to stick?


----------



## bkdtv

naclone said:


> since this is the dedicated HD forum, would it be possible to set up a separate FAQ thread for transferring HD content to S3/THD? I realize solutions are still being worked out but there is information spread out across this thread, this forum as well as the Home Media Forum and it's very difficult to get a handle on what everyone is up to. I think it would be extremely helpful once there are some best practices established to break them out into their own FAQ. Again, since this is the dedicated HD forum I think most of us in here are interested primarily in the transfering of HD content.


I will add that information to the TTCB section as I can once I have time to write some simple instructions for it.



miller890 said:


> When I followed these instructions using xn resource editor and I am unable to get the change saved. I stopped all of the tivo daemons, but when I use xn to check to see if my changes were saved, everything is back to the original setting. Any idea how to get the changes to stick?


You might try rebooting in safe mode to do it (press F8 at bootup). The steps necessary seems to vary somewhat depending on your version of Windows. I did not need to use safe mode in Vista32 or Vista64.


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## rrg

Having TTG/TTCB is great because I prefer the TiVo's UI to that of most other media players, provided I can easily get content onto it.

My main problem is that most of my recorded content (all the HD content and a lot of the SD content) is in the form of MPEG-2 transport streams (TS files) which can't natively be served to the TiVo, at least not by TiVo Desktop. So currently, in order to transfer these files to the TiVo, I first have to process them with something like VideoRedo to turn them into MPEG-2 program streams (MPG files). This is manual, laborious, and time-consuming.

I don't believe that TiVo Desktop and TiVo Desktop Plus are able to deal with TS files. Are there alternative servers (open-source or not, free or not, whether for Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X) that are able to transcode TS to MPG on the fly, much as TiVo Desktop Plus is able to convert other formats to MPEG for uploading to the TiVo?


----------



## moyekj

rrg said:


> Having TTG/TTCB is great because I prefer the TiVo's UI to that of most other media players, provided I can easily get content onto it.
> 
> My main problem is that most of my recorded content (all the HD content and a lot of the SD content) is in the form of MPEG-2 transport streams (TS files) which can't natively be served to the TiVo, at least not by TiVo Desktop. So currently, in order to transfer these files to the TiVo, I first have to process them with something like VideoRedo to turn them into MPEG-2 program streams (MPG files). This is manual, laborious, and time-consuming.
> 
> I don't believe that TiVo Desktop and TiVo Desktop Plus are able to deal with TS files. Are there alternative servers (open-source or not, free or not, whether for Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X) that are able to transcode TS to MPG on the fly, much as TiVo Desktop Plus is able to convert other formats to MPEG for uploading to the TiVo?


 You can use HDTV2MPEG2 free utility to convert mpeg2 transport streams to mpeg2 program streams (no transcoding just a format conversion). As a bonus you can optionally use the program to cut out commercials as well in case you don't have a commercial editor to do that already.


----------



## dakk

I just installed Tivo series 3 hd ...I already had Tivo series 2dt ......when transferring 30 Rock to computer using TivoDesktop 2.52, the series 3 reads 31 min. 498 MB ......My old series 2dt reads 31min. 853 MB .....the series 3 unit when transferring to TivoDesktop is doing this to all recordings. 
When I run the files thru VideoReDo..their are way to many audio synch errors, than when I load it into DVDStyler 1.5 I get :
Erroneous packet size, skipping
DemultiplexingXXX : [audio 08 video 07] [ 90.03%]
DemultiplexingXXX : [audio 08 video 07] [ 95.07%]
DemultiplexingXXX : [audio 09 video 08] [100.00%]
INFO: [???] mplex version 2.0.0 (2.2.3 $Date: 2004/01/13 20:45:26 $)
INFO: [???] File C:\Documents and Settings\Kevin\dvd\dvd\title0-0-0-0.m2v looks like an MPEG Video stream.
**ERROR: [???] File unrecogniseable!
**ERROR: [???] Unrecogniseable file(s)... exiting.
Error executing of command: mplex -f 8 -S 0 -M -V -o "C:\Documents and Settings\Kevin dvd\dvd\title0-0-0.vob" "C:\Documents and Settings\Kevin \dvd\dvd\title0-0-0-0.m2v" "C:\Documents and Settings\Kevin \dvd\title0-0-0-0.mp2"

Is this a hardware problem specific to my series 3 unit?
Has anyone had a problem like this?
I have to stop recording on my series 3.....I can't put them on dvd
Could someone please point me in the right direction
I have some season series's coming to an end, one or two episodes left, I would hate to lose them, esp. after all the time & effort to get the full series.
Need help fast....................Thank You


----------



## rrg

moyekj said:


> You can use HDTV2MPEG2 free utility to convert mpeg2 transport streams to mpeg2 program streams (no transcoding just a format conversion). As a bonus you can optionally use the program to cut out commercials as well in case you don't have a commercial editor to do that already.


In the past, HDTV2MPEG2's conversion to MPG format was known to be problematic; despite its name, the main use of this utility (in my experience) has been to consolidate TS-file recordings that had been split into pieces, or to split them into pieces, or to trim them, but always with another TS file as the final target. And yes, sometimes for editing, but the results often caused problems with some MPEG decoders, causing them to lose audio during playback at edit points. (My Roku HD1000 was especially affected in this regard.)

VideoRedo Plus is a much better solution for all these uses (MPG-to-TS conversion and vice versa, consolidating split TS files, and of course editing out commercials, trimming, etc.).

What I'm hoping to find is not just a tool for doing TS-to-MPG conversion, but something that will automate or semi-automate the process and present TS files as transferable to a TiVo (much as AVIs and other things are transferrable via TiVo Desktop Plus). Ideally you would just drop the file into the directory that the TiVo Desktop (or equivalent) server uses, and it would convert on the fly and transfer that to the TiVo.


----------



## dakk

I just installed Tivo series 3 hd ...I already had Tivo series 2dt ......when transferring 30 Rock to computer using TivoDesktop 2.52, the series 3 reads 31 min. 498 MB ......My old series 2dt reads 31min. 853 MB .....the series 3 unit when transferring to TivoDesktop is doing this to all recordings.
When I run the files thru VideoReDo..their are way to many audio synch errors, than when I load it into DVDStyler 1.5 I get :
Prepare
Cleaning temporary directory
Generating menus
Generating menu 1 of 1
Prepare
Converting jpg to mpeg
INFO: [jpeg2yuv] Parsing & checking input files.
INFO: [jpeg2yuv] YUV colorspace detected.
INFO: [jpeg2yuv] Starting decompression
INFO: [jpeg2yuv] Image dimensions are 720x480
INFO: [jpeg2yuv] Movie frame rate is: 29.970030 frames/second
INFO: [jpeg2yuv] Interlaced frames, top field first.
INFO: [jpeg2yuv] Frame size: 720 x 480
INFO: [jpeg2yuv] Number of Loops 1
INFO: [jpeg2yuv] Now generating YUV4MPEG stream.
INFO: [jpeg2yuv] Processing non-interlaced/interleaved C:\Documents and Settings\Kevin Faye\dvd\menu1-0.mpg_bg.jpg, size 155981
INFO: [jpeg2yuv] Rescaling color values.
++ WARN: [mpeg2enc] Unknown stream tag encountered: 'C420jpeg'
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Selecting DVD output profile
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Encoding MPEG-2 video to C:\Documents and Settings\Kevin Faye\dvd\menu1-0.mpg_bg.m2v
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Horizontal size: 720 pel
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Vertical size: 480 pel
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Aspect ratio code: 1 = 1:1 pixels
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Frame rate code: 4 = 30000.0/1001.0 (NTSC VIDEO)
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Bitrate: 9000 KBit/s
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Quality factor: 8 (1=best, 31=worst)
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Field order for input: top-field-first
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Sequence unlimited length
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Search radius: 16
INFO: [mpeg2enc] GOP SIZE RANGE 9 TO 18
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Setting colour/gamma parameters to "NTSC"
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Progressive format frames = 0
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Buffering 45 frames
INFO: [mpeg2enc] SETTING MMX and EXTENDED MMX for QUANTIZER!
INFO: [mpeg2enc] SETTING EXTENDED MMX for MOTION!
INFO: [mpeg2enc] SETTING MMX for TRANSFORM!
INFO: [mpeg2enc] SETTING EXTENDED MMX for PREDICTION!
INFO: [mpeg2enc] GOP LENGTH = 1
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Frame start 0 I 0 0
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Frame end 0 220.68 220.68 8.6 8.57
INFO: [mpeg2enc] GOP LENGTH = 0
Multiplexing audio and video
INFO: [???] mplex version 2.0.0 (2.2.3 $Date: 2004/01/13 20:45:26 $)
INFO: [???] File C:\Documents and Settings\Kevin Faye\dvd\menu1-0.mpg_bg.m2v looks like an MPEG Video stream.
INFO: [???] File C:\Program Files\DVDStyler\data\silence.mp2 looks like an MPEG Audio stream.
INFO: [???] Video stream 0: profile 8 selected - ignoring non-standard options!
INFO: [???] Found 1 audio streams and 1 video streams
INFO: [???] Selecting dvdauthor DVD output profile
INFO: [???] Multiplexing video program stream!
INFO: [???] Scanning for header info: Video stream e0 (C:\Documents and Settings\Kevin Faye\dvd\menu1-0.mpg_bg.m2v) 
INFO: [???] VIDEO STREAM: e0
INFO: [???] Frame width : 720
INFO: [???] Frame height : 480
INFO: [???] Aspect ratio : 1:1 pixels
INFO: [???] Picture rate : 29.970 frames/sec
INFO: [???] Bit rate : 9000000 bits/sec
INFO: [???] Vbv buffer size : 229376 bytes
INFO: [???] CSPF : 0
INFO: [???] Scanning for header info: Audio stream c0 (C:\Program Files\DVDStyler\data\silence.mp2)
INFO: [???] MPEG AUDIO STREAM: c0
INFO: [???] Audio version : 1.0
INFO: [???] Layer : 2
INFO: [???] CRC checksums : no
INFO: [???] Bit rate : 16384 bytes/sec (128 kbit/sec)
INFO: [???] Frequency : 48000 Hz
INFO: [???] Mode : 0 stereo
INFO: [???] Mode extension : 0
INFO: [???] Copyright bit : 0 no copyright
INFO: [???] Original/Copy : 0 copy
INFO: [???] Emphasis : 0 none
INFO: [???] SYSTEMS/PROGRAM stream:
INFO: [???] rough-guess multiplexed stream data rate : 9319496
INFO: [???] target data-rate specified : 10080000
INFO: [???] Setting specified specified data rate: 10080000
INFO: [???] Scanned to end AU 0
INFO: [???] Run-in Sectors = 89 Video delay = 13019 Audio delay = 0
INFO: [???] New sequence commences...
INFO: [???] Video e0: buf= 237568 frame=000000 sector=00000000
INFO: [???] Audio c0: buf= 4096 frame=000000 sector=00000000
INFO: [???] STREAM e0 completed @ frame 0.
INFO: [???] STREAM c0 completed @ frame 249.
INFO: [???] Multiplex completion at SCR=536868.
INFO: [???] Video e0: buf= 237568 frame=000000 sector=00000021
INFO: [???] Audio c0: buf= 1024 frame=000249 sector=00000048
INFO: [???] VIDEO_STATISTICS: e0
INFO: [???] Video Stream length: 41314 bytes
INFO: [???] Sequence headers: 1
INFO: [???] Sequence ends : 1
INFO: [???] No. Pictures : 0
INFO: [???] No. Groups : 1
INFO: [???] No. I Frames : 1 avg. size 41314 bytes
INFO: [???] No. P Frames : 0 avg. size 0 bytes
INFO: [???] No. B Frames : 0 avg. size 0 bytes
INFO: [???] Average bit-rate : 9905600 bits/sec
INFO: [???] Peak bit-rate : 0 bits/sec
INFO: [???] BUFFERING stream too short for useful statistics
INFO: [???] AUDIO_STATISTICS: c0
INFO: [???] Audio stream length 96000 bytes.
INFO: [???] Syncwords : 250
INFO: [???] Frames : 250 padded
INFO: [???] Frames : 0 unpadded
INFO: [???] BUFFERING stream too short for useful statistics
INFO: [???] MUX STATUS: no under-runs detected.
Multiplexing subtitles (buttons) into mpeg
DVDAuthor::spumux, version 0.6.14-GfD-1.
Build options: gnugetopt iconv freetype
Send bugs to <[email protected]>
INFO: Locale=C
INFO: Converting filenames to US-ASCII
STAT: 0:00:00.000 
INFO: PNG had 2 colors
INFO: PNG had 2 colors
INFO: PNG had 2 colors
INFO: Pickbuttongroups, success with 1 groups, useimg=1
INFO: Found EOF in .sub file.
INFO: Max_sub_size=148
INFO: 1 subtitles added, 0 subtitles skipped, stream: 32, offset: 0.18
Create VOB files
Fix MPEG-file: G:\DVD'S\PBS\Ken Burns\Ken Burns American Stories - ''The Congress'' (Recorded Nov 7, 2007, WNET).mpg
warning: couldn't find any valid system header. I'm continuing anyway
DemultiplexingXXX : [audio 00 video 01] [ 0.01%]
DemultiplexingXXX : [audio 07 video 03] [ 5.00%]
DemultiplexingXXX : [audio 11 video 04] [ 10.00%]
DemultiplexingXXX : [audio 12 video 05] [ 15.00%]
DemultiplexingXXX : [audio 14 video 07] [ 20.00%]
DemultiplexingXXX : [audio 14 video 09] [ 25.00%]
DemultiplexingXXX : [audio 15 video 10] [ 30.00%]
DemultiplexingXXX : [audio 16 video 10] [ 35.00%]
DemultiplexingXXX : [audio 16 video 10] [ 40.00%]
DemultiplexingXXX : [audio 16 video 11] [ 45.00%]
DemultiplexingXXX : [audio 16 video 11] [ 50.00%]
DemultiplexingXXX : [audio 16 video 14] [ 55.00%]
DemultiplexingXXX : [audio 16 video 14] [ 60.00%]
DemultiplexingXXX : [audio 16 video 14] [ 65.00%]
DemultiplexingXXX : [audio 16 video 14] [ 70.00%]
DemultiplexingXXX : [audio 16 video 14] [ 75.00%]
Erroneous packet size, skipping
DemultiplexingXXX : [audio 16 video 15] [ 80.00%]
DemultiplexingXXX : [audio 16 video 15] [ 85.00%]
DemultiplexingXXX : [audio 16 video 15] [ 90.00%]
Erroneous packet size, skipping
Erroneous packet size, skipping
DemultiplexingXXX : [audio 16 video 15] [ 95.00%]
DemultiplexingXXX : [audio 16 video 15] [100.00%]
INFO: [???] mplex version 2.0.0 (2.2.3 $Date: 2004/01/13 20:45:26 $)
INFO: [???] File C:\Documents and Settings\Kevin Faye\dvd\title0-0-0-0.m2v looks like an MPEG Video stream.
**ERROR: [???] File unrecogniseable!
**ERROR: [???] Unrecogniseable file(s)... exiting.
Error executing of command: mplex -f 8 -S 0 -M -V -o "C:\Documents and Settings\Kevin Faye\dvd\title0-0-0.vob" "C:\Documents and Settings\Kevin Faye\dvd\title0-0-0-0.m2v" "C:\Documents and Settings\Kevin Faye\dvd\title0-0-0-0.mp2"
s this a hardware problem specific to my series 3 unit?
Has anyone had a problem like this?
I have to stop recording on my series 3.....I can't put them on dvd
I also noticed when Cablevision came to remove cable box & installed the cards in TCD648250B Series3 HD Digital Media Recorder my signaled from tivo to my TV is now on HDMI,Composite 1 & S Video 1 where w/my series 2 dt box it was on HDMI,TV channel 03 NTSC & Composite 1, now all I get is snow on NTSC 
Could someone please point me in the right direction
I have some season series's coming to an end, one or two episodes left, I would hate to lose them, esp. after all the time & effort to get the full series.


----------



## wgw

cogx said:


> I just tried your -qscale 1.2 params here on my HDTV captures, but the file still skip (fast forward) frames every so many seconds/minutes. When I tried 1.3, it started doing ugly blocking artifacts.
> 
> I have had some apparently success, with these settings, though, lowering the resolution and overall quality, to avoid the apparent bitrate spikes that absolutely cripple my S3:
> 
> ffmpeg.exe -i "filename.ts" -vcodec mpeg2video -acodec copy -sameq -mbd bits -s 960x540 -qmin 5 "filename.mpg"
> 
> Sometimes I have to increase -qmin up to 6 or 7, depending on the source, but it seems to be working for all of my transcoding this week (so far). Like I said in an earlier post, though, I don't know why I have to reduce quality so much to play back HD quality videos on a TiVo S3, without problems.


Did you include -maxrate 17Mi -bufsize 1024k and -ab 384k options to cap the video and audio bitrates respectively? My tests seem to indicate that it is critical to cap video peaks below 19mbps to avoid pixelation and audio bitrates below 448k to avoid the fast forwarding and skipping you are describing. High audio bitrates will cripple playback even more than the high video bitrate peaks (especially ac3 audio). I think high audio bitrates might be crippling your playback. But increasing qmin appears to be lowering your video bitrate similar to using -maxrate. Just include -maxrate and you can lower qmin as much as you want.

I have been trying the -sameq option as well and its working just as well as -qscale, but the -maxrate and -ab 384 options have to be included to cap the a/v peaks. I think the -qmin option should be excluded when using either -qscale or -sameq to avoid conflict. I'm not sure about -mbd but that might also be contraindicated when using sameq or qscale.

I have also eliminated the -r option from my recent encodes since the tivo does not seem to care what the framerate is and it has not caused any problems yet. I assume that will reduce the need for resyncing due to changing the source framerate but don't know if that matters much. Still learning. Just been trying it out to see if encode time will increase or decrease.


----------



## HDTiVo

I have been having my fair share of trouble with TTG getting complete HD programs to transfer to the PC. Many halt after a few MB, some reach into the hundreds of MB, and the Pats/Colts game CBS-HD) made it to about 3.2 GB. Some HD programs do transfer completely. I now have 9.2 on the hi def TiVoes.

I took episode 1 of The War (PBS-HD) which would only transfer 7MB and MRV'd it to another THD from "Paused Location." The location was 1+ min in - at the actual start of the episode. Then I TTG'd that version and it made it to 135MB.

So I am thinking there are some glitches within some recordings that trip TTG up and halt the transfer.

VideoRedo openned the 7MB .TiVo OK. Its about 5 sec long. VideoRedo would not open the later 135MB .TiVo, complaining "MPEG Layer 1 audio not supported." However, post DSD, MPEG Inspector shows the .mpg audio to be AC3 2.0 @384KHz. VideoRedo also opens the .mpg and reports the same audio.

I am not sure what further to make of this. One question - does codec etal. have any effect at all on the TTG transfer process?

-----------------

Another little quirk: The TTG file (.tivo) is named as recorded on the date the program was MRV'd to the source TiVo instead of the actual recording date.


----------



## dlfl

moyekj said:


> I've tried various such utilities in the past but I am pretty picky about cut points and I've never seen one get it 100% right. With my editor (Womble) as I'm sure is the case with VideoRedo after some experience it only takes about 5 minutes of editing per 1 hour of show to remove commercials and then maybe another 10 minutes or so to save to disk (for HD content, less for SD content).


You can easily configure TVAP so VideoReDo (optionally) runs a Quick-Stream_Fix then runs the AdDetective scan without making any cuts, just creating a project (.vprj) file. Later you can load the project file into VRD (or TVSuite) manually, review the scene marks and cut as desired, then save the final version. With this procedure everything except the final review/cut is automated. You can do the manual review/cut on batches of videos.


----------



## bkdtv

If you are using VideoRedo TVSuite, be sure to grab the latest version (v3.1.3.545), as it improves compatibility with TiVo files.


----------



## HDTiVo

bkdtv said:


> If you are using VideoRedo TVSuite, be sure to grab the latest version (v3.1.3.545), as it improves compatibility with TiVo files.


That's good. I have not yet downloaded my purchase from the other day. Does installing this install new codecs which could potentially relieve problems with playback such as HD .tivo in WMP or other codec issues?


----------



## bkdtv

HDTiVo said:


> That's good. I have not yet downloaded my purchase from the other day. Does installing this install new codecs which could potentially relieve problems with playback such as HD .tivo in WMP or other codec issues?


Unfortunately, no.

VideoRedo uses their own codecs for their application so it does not affect anything else.


----------



## HDTiVo

bkdtv said:


> Unfortunately, no.
> 
> VideoRedo uses their own codecs for their application so it does not affect anything else.


I think I've hit a snag that was reported before but I am not sure. After editing a recording in VR, the edited video has quite a few glitches (several seconds of audio and a bit of pixelation) when played on the original S3 that were not there in the original, and are not there if I merely TTG the recording and TTC it right back untouched. (Thus I eliminated that it might be a snag with TTG itself.)

If this is the same problem that already has been identified, has the fix been made in newest VR version?

Also, is it possible to assign those VR codecs to be used with other programs/extensions or are they really just internal/exclusive to VR?


----------



## bkdtv

HDTivo,

The latest version linked above definitely has some fixes. I had two recordings that would not play correctly when run through the previous version of VideoRedo. The latest version of TVSuite (v3.1.3.545) fixed that for me.


----------



## HDTiVo

Edit: I found 545 in their forum with a post about changes...



bkdtv said:


> HDTivo,
> 
> The latest version linked above definitely has some fixes. I had two recordings that would not play correctly when run through the previous version of VideoRedo. The latest version of TVSuite (v3.1.3.545) fixed that for me.


I downloaded this morning and my version is v3.1.3.54*4*

I don't see an obvious place on the site to get the next version and from the VRTVS menu it reports I have the latest version.

I have not had success yet in getting "glitch" free output, but I don't want to say anything more yet if my version is a bit "off" ... 

=============

Seperately, to add a note about one of my little experiments, I took an HD recording, remuxed through VR to .mpg, and TTC'd it to a 240. It transfered, and once the transfer was finished the 240 played the AC3 5.1 @384KHz audio fine, but the screen was black. Just a little cool that I could get the file to transfer and the audio to play on the 240. During transfer, the audio was choppy.


----------



## HDTiVo

I have a wrinkle to add to the above. The glitches only occur on my S3, not my THDs. Whether using v544, v545 or the old version of VRplus I traditional have used, the S3 has the problem and the THDs do not.

So I guess its limited to an interaction between the S3 and VR.

The original recording was made on the S3 at Medium.

==================

More info:

Running the video through VRTVSv545 to a DVD folder produced a .vob I change to .mpg which ran on the S3 with less trouble, ie. fewer, more minor glitches. I had set the output of VR to allow non-spec DVD and not change the resolution or bitrate, .ie no transcoding. (S3 Medium: 480x480 @~3.5mbps;MP2 [email protected])

Taking that vob folder and running it through DVDShrink @75&#37; gave me an output that is playing without a hitch on the S3. Again, both play fine on THDs.


----------



## mackie

Hello folks. I am a happy owner of a TivO Series 3 HD box. I was even happier once TiVO released TivoToGO for this model.

I recently transferred some recorded Hi-Def shows to my PC and I started viewing them with Windows Media Player and to my surprise, the playback speed was jerky. It was like watching stuff in slow motion.

Has anyone come across this issue before?

Any ideas on how to solve it? I am sure that it's something simple.


----------



## greg_burns

mackie said:


> I am sure that it's something simple.


Famous last words. 

Most likely a codec issue. (Isn't it always? )

http://www.cole2k.net/?display=Codec-Pack-Standard


----------



## mackie

Hi Greg.

I have a ton of codecs on my machine. I think I just need one that works with the TiVO files.

Are you recommending that I download the codec pack at the site you mentioned?

I'm sure that I already have ffdshow.


----------



## greg_burns

mackie said:


> Hi Greg.
> 
> I have a ton of codecs on my machine. I think I just need one that works with the TiVO files.
> 
> Are you recommending that I download the codec pack at the site you mentioned?
> 
> I'm sure that I already have ffdshow.


Usually just throwing codecs at the problem and hoping one works doesn't work out so well, but a lot of people have had success using that particular codec pack.

It installs the Intervideo MPEG-2 codec which seems to do the trick.

YMMV

If it doesn't you probably have another codec with a higher merit value. DirectShow Filter manager may help solve that issue. But things can get ugly quick.


----------



## mackie

I am going to give it a whirl but it's really strange. Usually when I have codec problems I either don't see video or I don't hear audio. I've never had this jerky motion problem coupled with audio flakiness.


----------



## greg_burns

mackie said:


> I am going to give it a whirl but it's really strange. Usually when I have codec problems I either don't see video or I don't hear audio. I've never had this jerky motion problem coupled with audio flakiness.


Since Tivo2Go was released couple years back I've read about all kinds of weirdness with MPEG-2 codecs and playing Tivo's flavor of MPEG-2.


----------



## mackie

I never had problems with standard video and TiVO to go.

I need to update my post. The audio is actually perfect. The video is what's goofy. The playback is not smooth. The picture quality is great. The motion is simply jerky.

Installing the codec pack didn't help.

When I look up the properties of the files being played back, I see something called Elecard Image scaler. Maybe that's what's bad?

I just don't know how to get rid of it.


----------



## greg_burns

mackie said:


> I just don't know how to get rid of it.


May want to try DirectShow Filter Manager and lower that things merit value. Worth a shot.

http://www.softella.com/dsfm/index.en.htm

Reboot might be necessary after making changes. (Suggest making a backup image of your machine if you can prior to messing with that software.) You can royally break things. 

On my system that filter (Elecard ImageScaler) has a merit value of "00200000". (aka "Do Not Use")


----------



## 1283

Isn't Elecard ImageScaler the one that's built into the TiVo Desktop Plus? I think the system is simply underpowered for the task. On my 2.5GHz P4 (a few years old), playing back SD uses about 50&#37; CPU. Playing back HD uses 100%, which is too high, and video is jerky.


----------



## mackie

c3, I concur with you on the CPU usage.

When I play the Hi Def video, it does take up a lot of CPU. My task manager shows the CPU being maxed out.

Definitely interested in masking the use of this Elecard Image Scaler.


----------



## mackie

In the end I downloaded this Filter Manager called RadLight Filter manager that let me de-register the Elecard Image Scaler piece of crap. I tried to set the merit value of the Elecard codec to be MERIT_DO_NOT_USE but it appears that it was already set to that value!

In my frustration I just de-registered the bastard.

Once I did that and replayed my .tivo videos, I achieved smooth playback! CPU usage wasn't continuously maxed out either. I checked the codec being used by the media player and saw that it was some other one called MainConcept MPEG-2 Decoder. Probably one of many codecs I've downloaded to my computer over the years.

The Radlight Filter manager (v1.4) can be obtained from this site: http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/RadLight-Filter-Manager-Download-7862.html

I tried to get version 5 but ran into various restrictions regarding its download.

Codecs man, what a pain they can be at times.

I hope that this post can be of value to others. I know that it was a frakking struggle for me to finally solve this issue.


----------



## AZrob

Hi all,

I am having a heckuva time getting the TTCB to work reliably on my Tivo HD. It seems that most of the time I try to choose a program to transfer from my PC, I get the ambiguous "failed to transfer" message. But once in a while I do get a program to transfer, and when it does start, it almost always finishes, and the rate of transfer is acceptable (a SD 30 minute show transfers in 15 minutes). On top of this, it seems like the queueing function that allows you to set up shows to transfer one after the other never works. I have never gotten more than one show to transfer at a time.

My question is: could this be helped by moving from a wireless to a wired connection? Right now, I have a very good signal (90-100%) using a wireless connection. I am using a Tivo Wireless G adapter, talking to a Linksys WRE54G remote extender, connected back to a Netgear WGR614 router. 

I was thinking of returning the Tivo adapter and getting a Linksys 200mbps Homeplug AV kit. I know wired connections are faster, but my question is, would that also help solve this intermittent transfer functionality issue? Or is that an entirely different matter?

One other clue: if I have both tuners tuned to channels I don't receive it seems to increase the odds that the transfer will start. That seems to indicate the issue has more to do with the Tivo HD than the network -- but even that adjustment doesn't work all the time. 

Thanks,

Rob from AZ


----------



## Goober96

I have problems with one HD show -- "The Office" on NBC -- coming back to the Tivo. It gets pixelated badly and is unwatchable. I've tried bringing back other .Tivo files (even HD ones) and they are fine, but not this one show. Does anyone have any ideas on that?


----------



## TheOski

I have a little ghetto setup because my cable modem is in the library connected to D-Link DIR 655 (router N) which is then connected to the computer and the wall through Netgear HDXB101 (supposedly 200 mbit).

In the bedroom from the wall Netgear HDXB101 through D-Link DGS-2205 (switch) to both Slingbox and Tivo S3. 

Downstairs, I have another Netgear HDXB101 and D-Link DGS-2205 (switch) spilt to Tivo S3, Vonage and IPTV box which is most of the time off. 

From the Tivo S3 upstairs to Tivo S3 downstairs I takes over 2 hours to transfer one hour of HD. Is there anything more I can do to speed it up? Would Tivo ever instead of transferring the data stream it? How can I improve my network configuration?


----------



## Brainiac 5

Goober96 said:


> I have problems with one HD show -- "The Office" on NBC -- coming back to the Tivo. It gets pixelated badly and is unwatchable.


I have a similar (maybe the same) problem, but I've only tried one show so far, "Chuck" on NBC. I'll have to try some others and see if it's specific to that show.

Have you tried multiple episodes of the "Office," or just one so far? I've tried at least 3-4 episodes of "Chuck" with the same results each time.

Unfortunately I don't yet have any idea what might be causing this...


----------



## AZrob

AZrob said:


> Hi all,
> 
> I am having a heckuva time getting the TTCB to work reliably on my Tivo HD. It seems that most of the time I try to choose a program to transfer from my PC, I get the ambiguous "failed to transfer" message. But once in a while I do get a program to transfer, and when it does start, it almost always finishes, and the rate of transfer is acceptable (a SD 30 minute show transfers in 15 minutes). On top of this, it seems like the queueing function that allows you to set up shows to transfer one after the other never works. I have never gotten more than one show to transfer at a time.
> 
> My question is: could this be helped by moving from a wireless to a wired connection? Right now, I have a very good signal (90-100%) using a wireless connection. I am using a Tivo Wireless G adapter, talking to a Linksys WRE54G remote extender, connected back to a Netgear WGR614 router.
> 
> I was thinking of returning the Tivo adapter and getting a Linksys 200mbps Homeplug AV kit. I know wired connections are faster, but my question is, would that also help solve this intermittent transfer functionality issue? Or is that an entirely different matter?
> 
> One other clue: if I have both tuners tuned to channels I don't receive it seems to increase the odds that the transfer will start. That seems to indicate the issue has more to do with the Tivo HD than the network -- but even that adjustment doesn't work all the time.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Rob from AZ


Okay, I'm going to reply to my own post here:

I spoke to someone in Tivo Networking Support and was told that they are aware of the issue with intermittent reliability on the TTCB transfers and they are working on a patch which should be sent out "in two weeks".

Has anyone else heard this from Tivo? The lady seemed very clear that Tivo recognized this problem and was working on it. Not the transfer slowness issue (which even TivoPony has acknowledged), but the unreliability of the transfer startup itself.

Rob


----------



## Goober96

Brainiac 5 said:


> I have a similar (maybe the same) problem, but I've only tried one show so far, "Chuck" on NBC. I'll have to try some others and see if it's specific to that show.
> 
> Have you tried multiple episodes of the "Office," or just one so far? I've tried at least 3-4 episodes of "Chuck" with the same results each time.
> 
> Unfortunately I don't yet have any idea what might be causing this...


I have tried multiple episodes of "The Office" but I have never tried another NBC show. Could it be something that is NBC-specific?


----------



## nynate

TTG download of Rave HD content fails 

When i try and download with TTG any content recorded on Cablevisions Rave HD (Channel 785 for me) the download stops at around 10%. This only happens with this channel and i can successfully record and TTG any other channel.

The channel doesnt show up as copy protected and it actually downloads around 200MB of the file.

Any help appreciated since i would like to archive the concerts shown on this channel.


----------



## rmstone

TTG question:

I read the FAQ and didn't see this answered. I have an THD, an dhave downloaded the free version of tivo desktop. I'm ready to make the jump to desktop plus, but be for i do, I want to understand the limitations.

Does tivo Desktop Plus compress before it upload to mobile devices? I record mostly in SD. I know if you download a 1 hr long show from Itunes (43 minutes of video) the file is around 200MB. However when I transfer a 1hr show from Tivo SD (1 full hour including commercials) the file is usually 1.1-1.3GB. 

I don't want to junk up my 30GB ipod Video with such large files, do I?


----------



## greg_burns

rmstone said:


> TTG question:
> 
> I read the FAQ and didn't see this answered. I have an THD, an dhave downloaded the free version of tivo desktop. I'm ready to make the jump to desktop plus, but be for i do, I want to understand the limitations.
> 
> Does tivo Desktop Plus compress before it upload to mobile devices? I record mostly in SD. I know if you download a 1 hr long show from Itunes (43 minutes of video) the file is around 200MB. However when I transfer a 1hr show from Tivo SD (1 full hour including commercials) the file is usually 1.1-1.3GB.
> 
> I don't want to junk up my 30GB ipod Video with such large files, do I?


The pay version (Tivo Desktop Plus) does compress.


----------



## David Ortiz

I have also noticed glitching in files brought back to the TiVoHD. All NBC shows. Friday Night Lights, Journeyman, Heroes, etc. But they play back fine with TheaterTek, and I don't have to wait for the transfer. (PC is hooked up to my HDTV as well.)


----------



## HDTiVo

From OP:



> Some SD recordings downloaded from the TivoHD (or Series3) are also incompatible with the Series2. When you use MRV to transfer SD recordings from the TiVoHD or Series3 to the Series2, the TiVo transcodes (converts) those SD recordings to a compatible SD format for the Series2. However, you bypass that transcoding (conversion) when you transfer the recording directly to your PC.


Is it known which types of SD recordings are not compatible from S3/HD->PC->S2?


----------



## Goober96

David Ortiz said:


> I have also noticed glitching in files brought back to the TiVoHD. All NBC shows. Friday Night Lights, Journeyman, Heroes, etc. But they play back fine with TheaterTek, and I don't have to wait for the transfer. (PC is hooked up to my HDTV as well.)


Will Theater Tek play the .Tivo file directly (perhaps when Tivo Desktop is open) or does it have to be converted first?


----------



## Brainiac 5

David Ortiz said:


> I have also noticed glitching in files brought back to the TiVoHD. All NBC shows.


Sounds like Goober96's speculation that it might be NBC-specific is looking more and more likely.



> But they play back fine with TheaterTek, and I don't have to wait for the transfer. (PC is hooked up to my HDTV as well.)


It's the same way for me - the files play back fine on the PC, I only see the glitches on the TiVo after having transferred them back.


----------



## David Ortiz

Goober96 said:


> Will Theater Tek play the .Tivo file directly (perhaps when Tivo Desktop is open) or does it have to be converted first?


I have played some .tivo files in TheaterTek, but not all work. It will play .ts files.


----------



## Goober96

David Ortiz said:


> I have played some .tivo files in TheaterTek, but not all work. It will play .ts files.


I'm new to TTG. What's a .ts file?


----------



## Brainiac 5

I did some experimenting last night to see what shows I get glitches on when I transfer them from my S3 to my PC and back. So far it looks like it's only NBC shows for me too.


----------



## David Ortiz

Goober96 said:


> I'm new to TTG. What's a .ts file?


Transport stream. VideoReDo will save a .tivo file as a .ts file. It can then be played with MyHD if you have the card, or with TheaterTek, among other programs.


----------



## srea

If I transfer a TV show (whose closed caption is in sync throughout the show) from my S2 to my S3 the closed caption on the transfered show is okay at the beginning of the show but my the end it is off by 3 or so seconds. Very annoying. I don't see this effect when transferring an S3 show to the S2. I wonder if there is a problem in the translation from S2 format to S3 format.
Has anybody else seen this?
I mentioned this earlier in this thread but the discussion got sidetracked on the closed caption in the original recording. This only occurs after the show is transferred from my S2 to my S3.


----------



## Goober96

David Ortiz said:


> Transport stream. VideoReDo will save a .tivo file as a .ts file. It can then be played with MyHD if you have the card, or with TheaterTek, among other programs.


So if I get VideoReDo and convert .Tivo to .ts, the file can be played back with TheaterTek without the problems being discussed here? What other programs will play a .ts file? Are there free ones?


----------



## HDTiVo

I have not seen any posts lately about programs failing to transfer fully to their PC from an S3/THD, but I figure lots of people are having this problem with a significant number of recordings.

I have been TTG'ing shows from both an S3 and THDs and keeping some notes. Should I start another thread? Should I start it in the TTG Forum? Is there already another thread I somehow missed?


----------



## Tarek

AZrob said:


> Okay, I'm going to reply to my own post here:
> 
> I spoke to someone in Tivo Networking Support and was told that they are aware of the issue with intermittent reliability on the TTCB transfers and they are working on a patch which should be sent out "in two weeks".
> 
> Has anyone else heard this from Tivo? The lady seemed very clear that Tivo recognized this problem and was working on it. Not the transfer slowness issue (which even TivoPony has acknowledged), but the unreliability of the transfer startup itself.
> 
> Rob


Rob,

I seem to have the exact same issues as you describe. I first noticed these problems when my TiVo Series 3 was still at 9.1, and it still occurs after my 9.2 update.

I've had the problem both with TiVo Desktop 2.5.1, as well as TiVo Desktop Plus 2.5.1, running on Windows Vista Ultimate. Similar to you, I have reasons to believe that it is not a general networking issue, and have experienced the same problems both with native .tivo files (both HD & SD recordings), as well as other formats/codecs supported by TD Plus. I had no problems at all moving hundreds of GB to my PC via TTG - the problems are all with TTCB.

I have not spoken with anyone at TiVo regarding these issues. Did you get the impression that this patch they mentioned would take the form of an update release or patch to the TiVo Desktop software, or an update to the TiVo itself?

Regards,
Tarek


----------



## wgw

David Ortiz said:


> I have also noticed glitching in files brought back to the TiVoHD. All NBC shows. Friday Night Lights, Journeyman, Heroes, etc. But they play back fine with TheaterTek, and I don't have to wait for the transfer. (PC is hooked up to my HDTV as well.)


You might try running the file through the Quickstream Fix tool in VideoReDo before sending it back to the Tivo to see if that will clear up the problem.


----------



## nynate

HDTiVo said:


> I have not seen any posts lately about programs failing to transfer fully to their PC from an S3/THD, but I figure lots of people are having this problem with a significant number of recordings.
> 
> I have been TTG'ing shows from both an S3 and THDs and keeping some notes. Should I start another thread? Should I start it in the TTG Forum? Is there already another thread I somehow missed?


As previously mentioned i'm only having this issue with recordings from one of my HD channels. Downloads from all other channels appear to not be affected.


----------



## wgw

Looks like I'm also one of the lucky recipients of pixelation problems in a PC to Tivo transfer.
Details are here.
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=374868


----------



## jhimmel

I recorded a .mov file from my digicam in 16:9.
It displays in correct wide screen format on my PC.
I purchased the pro TiVo Desktop application.
It transfers to my S3's fine, but displays with black bars top and bottom.

It seems to be transcoding incorrectly. Anything I can do? I saw nothing about this specifically in the excellent FAQ, and I was getting confused by some posts in this thread that seem to be talking about altering a .dll. This file is not "HD", but is wide screen. (It is 848X480) 

Jim H.


----------



## wmcbrine

To get 16:9 videos transcoded as 16:9, try pyTivo.


----------



## AZrob

Tarek said:


> Rob,
> 
> I seem to have the exact same issues as you describe. I first noticed these problems when my TiVo Series 3 was still at 9.1, and it still occurs after my 9.2 update.
> 
> I've had the problem both with TiVo Desktop 2.5.1, as well as TiVo Desktop Plus 2.5.1, running on Windows Vista Ultimate. Similar to you, I have reasons to believe that it is not a general networking issue, and have experienced the same problems both with native .tivo files (both HD & SD recordings), as well as other formats/codecs supported by TD Plus. I had no problems at all moving hundreds of GB to my PC via TTG - the problems are all with TTCB.
> 
> I have not spoken with anyone at TiVo regarding these issues. Did you get the impression that this patch they mentioned would take the form of an update release or patch to the TiVo Desktop software, or an update to the TiVo itself?
> 
> Regards,
> Tarek


I got the impression that it would be part of an update to the Tivo itself, quite possibly included with whatever update solves the admitted slowness issue.

Rob


----------



## cgould

HDTiVo said:


> I have not seen any posts lately about programs failing to transfer fully to their PC from an S3/THD, but I figure lots of people are having this problem with a significant number of recordings.
> 
> I have been TTG'ing shows from both an S3 and THDs and keeping some notes. Should I start another thread? Should I start it in the TTG Forum? Is there already another thread I somehow missed?


I've definitely been seeing this on several programs lately  I get about 100-200MB of the file, then it just stops/skips and goes to next program. Exact same size each time I try again.
I re-recorded the program on a separate airing, and it txferred fine this time.
2 were HD (Secrets of Denali - old, HD Getaways-Bora Bora (new), one analog (Star Trek: City edge forever from TVLand)..

I've transferred 100s of GB of shows w/ no problems otherwise (trying to back up and swap shows between two drives), I'm on a wired network, and no errors shown. I have had other file errors (eg network glitches, tivo crash, quit TivoDesktop / whatever) and TivoDesktop correctly flagged them as interrupted etc (and even resumed them pretty well!)


----------



## AZrob

Has anybody ever seen the TTCB queuing function work successfully? I, for one, have never been able to get more than 1 show to transfer back to Tivo from my PC, even though the Tivo says it is queuing up shows to transfer after the current one is done. The queued-up shows just simply "fail to transfer".

Rob


----------



## wmcbrine

AZrob said:


> Has anybody ever seen the TTCB queuing function work successfully?


It works fine for me, with pyTivo. I can't comment on Tivo Desktop.


----------



## YupYup

AZrob said:


> Has anybody ever seen the TTCB queuing function work successfully? I, for one, have never been able to get more than 1 show to transfer back to Tivo from my PC, even though the Tivo says it is queuing up shows to transfer after the current one is done. The queued-up shows just simply "fail to transfer".
> 
> Rob


Yes, I have done it successfully. I haven't tried to stress the functionality, but I did start one transfer and then queued another show, and both transferred completely. I just did this a couple of days ago.


----------



## YupYup

Brainiac 5 said:


> I did some experimenting last night to see what shows I get glitches on when I transfer them from my S3 to my PC and back. So far it looks like it's only NBC shows for me too.


Its not just NBC. It appears to be any network broadcasting in 1080i, as I've had lots of problems with stuff like "Smallville" on CW. (I haven't tried anything from CBS, which also broadcasts in 1080i.)

Haven't experienced the problem with 720p shows (FOX, ABC, PBS,...).


----------



## AZrob

YupYup said:


> Yes, I have done it successfully. I haven't tried to stress the functionality, but I did start one transfer and then queued another show, and both transferred completely. I just did this a couple of days ago.


YupYup, could you please share your setup?

I have a Tivo HD, connected via wireless to Tivo Desktop 2.5 running on XP. SP2.

THanks,

Rob


----------



## bareyb

Just wanted to throw a shout out to bkdtv and anyone else who contributed to putting this FAQ together. This is exactly what I was hoping to find. I'm getting ready to install some of the wireless cards to my TiVo's and was beginning to wonder just how complicated this whole mess was going to be. You guys couldn't make it any easier. I can't wait to get started. Thanks for the great resource here. :up:


----------



## Brainiac 5

[About problems with shows transferred from an S3 to a PC and back to the S3:]


YupYup said:


> Its not just NBC. It appears to be any network broadcasting in 1080i, as I've had lots of problems with stuff like "Smallville" on CW. (I haven't tried anything from CBS, which also broadcasts in 1080i.)


It seems there are a number of people with this problem, so I'm wondering - has anyone out there transferred a show broadcast in 1080i from an S3 to their PC and then back to the S3 and NOT seen all kinds of new glitches when they played the transferred-back show?


----------



## greg_burns

Brainiac 5 said:


> [About problems with shows transferred from an S3 to a PC and back to the S3:]
> It seems there are a number of people with this problem, so I'm wondering - has anyone out there transferred a show broadcast in 1080i from an S3 to their PC and then back to the S3 and NOT seen all kinds of new glitches when they played the transferred-back show?


I believe I've done that numerous times now. The Unit on CBS is 1080i, right?


----------



## David Ortiz

Goober96 said:


> So if I get VideoReDo and convert .Tivo to .ts, the file can be played back with TheaterTek without the problems being discussed here? What other programs will play a .ts file? Are there free ones?


I believe VLC player will play .ts files.

www.videolan.org


----------



## tcooper1561

In TTG I can select an HD recording and click on play, WMP 11 opens and I get a hour glass for several seconds but the screen stays black and there is no audio. If I try the same thing with a SD file it works just fine. I also noticed in WMP 11 the thumbnails for all of the HD files are the default (filmstrip with hot air balloons) but the show titles are correct. Also the playing time for all of the HD files is also showing 0 seconds. I have tried transferring the files back to the Tivo to see if they will play and they do play without any problems. I have Roxio Creator 10 installed and have also installed the Windows XP video decoder checkup utility. The utility shows all of the Roxio encoders and decoders, but all of them show up as incompatible with WMP 11. Does anyone have words of wisdom? 

BTW, I am running this on my laptop: XP Home SP2 on a Pentium M 1.73Ghz with 1.25Gb of ram.


----------



## gamo62

I'm trying to transfer mpg files to my TiVo and they do show up on the Now Playing list. HOWEVER, they show up as 0:00. The file is an avi file converted to mpg by WinAVI. 

Am I doing something wrong? Or are converted avi files incompatible? Thanks.


----------



## greg_burns

tcooper1561 said:


> Does anyone have words of wisdom?


Apparently you are missing a compatible MPEG-2 codec.

May want to ask around over here...
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=35

My boiler plate recommendation would be to install another codec to see how it goes.
http://www.cole2k.net/?display=Codec-Pack-Standard


----------



## naclone

gamo62 said:


> I'm trying to transfer mpg files to my TiVo and they do show up on the Now Playing list. HOWEVER, they show up as 0:00. The file is an avi file converted to mpg by WinAVI.
> 
> Am I doing something wrong? Or are converted avi files incompatible? Thanks.


i use WinAVI to convert avi to mpeg2 so that is not the problem. doublecheck your framerate, bitrate and audio sample settings to make sure they are compatible with TiVo's mandated specs.


----------



## naclone

with regard to uploading HD content that did not originate as .tivo file to the TiVo via TTCB, has there been any best practices established? I haven't seen much talk about this in a while and was curious if anybody has had any success.


----------



## gamo62

naclone said:


> i use WinAVI to convert avi to mpeg2 so that is not the problem. doublecheck your framerate, bitrate and audio sample settings to make sure they are compatible with TiVo's mandated specs.


Where might I find those mandated specs? Thanks.


----------



## greg_burns

gamo62 said:


> Where might I find those mandated specs? Thanks.


http://tivosupport2.instancy.com/Ti...-79C3-4238-96C8-A27B323D1413/ins_Content.html


----------



## bkdtv

New version of VideoRedo TVSuite improves compatibility with .TiVo files.

http://www.videoredo.net/beta/VideoReDoTVS-3-1-3-547.exe


----------



## HDTiVo

Release notes mention some TiVoHD specific issues, but nothing about problem of TiVo S3 recordings not playing back well on the S3 after editing. (Play OK on THD & S2 units)


----------



## moyekj

HDTiVo said:


> Release notes mention some TiVoHD specific issues, but nothing about problem of TiVo S3 recordings not playing back well on the S3 after editing. (Play OK on THD & S2 units)


 So is that a VR specific issue for some files? I've edited several HD TTG downloads to remove commercials and fed them back to my S3s without issue, but I use Womble.


----------



## Brainiac 5

[About whether anyone has transferred a 1080i program from an S3 to their computer and back without seeing glitches in the transferred-back program:]


greg_burns said:


> I believe I've done that numerous times now. The Unit on CBS is 1080i, right?


Yes, CBS uses 1080i. After reading your message, I tried recording something on CBS and transferred it to my PC and back. Oddly, although I had the problem with every NBC program I've tried, on the CBS program I didn't see any problems at all! So maybe being 1080i is not what causes the problem, or at least not that alone...?

So I guess I need to change my question to: Has anyone recorded an HD program on NBC and transferred it to their computer and back without seeing new glitches in the transferred-back program?


----------



## moyekj

Brainiac 5 said:


> So I guess I need to change my question to: Has anyone recorded an HD program on NBC and transferred it to their computer and back without seeing new glitches in the transferred-back program?


 Yes, a Las Vegas episode (commercials edited out before transferring back).


----------



## Brainiac 5

moyekj said:


> Yes, a Las Vegas episode (commercials edited out before transferring back).


Interesting... Still, I could imagine it being possible that the editor (was it VideoRedo?) could "fix" something in the stream - has anyone sent an NBC program back unchanged?

Of course, if the editor _did_ somehow "fix" the stream, that would be a nice workaround for those of us with this problem.


----------



## moyekj

Brainiac 5 said:


> Interesting... Still, I could imagine it being possible that the editor (was it VideoRedo?) could "fix" something in the stream - has anyone sent an NBC program back unchanged?
> 
> Of course, if the editor _did_ somehow "fix" the stream, that would be a nice workaround for those of us with this problem.


 I use Womble (similar to VideoRedo but has been around much longer). Worth a try for you to use an editor to see if it fixes any issues.


----------



## HDTiVo

moyekj said:


> So is that a VR specific issue for some files? I've edited several HD TTG downloads to remove commercials and fed them back to my S3s without issue, but I use Womble.


I believe it is specific to VR and to recordings made on the S3 and played back on the S3. Essentially TTG an S3 recording, edit it in VR, TTC it back to S3 and there are lots of glitches.

You can TTC the edited recording to THDs and S2s without experiencing the glitches.

If you only TTG the S3 recording and TTC it back, there are no glitches.

I can't remember now if I had the problem with a THD recording edited and sent back to an S3.


----------



## greg_burns

HDTiVo said:


> I believe it is specific to VR and to recordings made on the S3 and played back on the S3. Essentially TTG an S3 recording, edit it in VR, TTC it back to S3 and there are lots of glitches.


That has not been my experience. I will try a NBC Heroes episode today and see what happens. I always edit the Unit ones in VR and have not seen any issues yet. I still wonder if it isn't your cable provider doing something to the video.


----------



## HDTiVo

greg_burns said:


> That has not been my experience. I will try a NBC Heroes episode today and see what happens. I always edit the Unit ones in VR and have not seen any issues yet. I still wonder if it isn't your cable provider doing something to the video.


No, it seems to be a known issue to the VR people. There is some post around here about it, I think responding to my mention of this.

It even happens on analog S3 recordings. In fact, that is where I first noticed it. Some Lassie movies off TCM (analog) which I played back after editing. It took some time before I tried them on the THD/S2s and realized they played fine there.

Maybe its the Scottish accents in the audio. 

So, anyway, it seems this is seperate from the 1080i failed transfers problem in the other thread.


----------



## greg_burns

HDTiVo said:


> No, it seems to be a known issue to the VR people. There is some post around here about it, I think responding to my mention of this.


I've read that, I am just saying I have not seen it with my S3 + VR. Wouldn't that indicate it is the source material that is different that is causing your issue?


----------



## HDTiVo

greg_burns said:


> I've read that, I am just saying I have not seen it with my S3 + VR. Wouldn't that indicate it is the source material that is different that is causing your issue?


It raises questions. I have it on both Digital and Analog recordings. Could it be specific to certain S3s? Other people have the problem too. What is the common factor? What about the analog signal could cause this and be specific to certain cable co's? etc...

----------------

Something else I wanted to mention for a while:

I did some DVD rips to mpg (before the new MRV/TTG and after) which had sound with old MRV/TTG but not new MRV/TTG. That means sound played on S2s before but not on S2/S3/THD now. The only difference between these rips and others which do play with sound seemed to be 384K DD5 audio instead of the usual 448K DD5. (These were episodes of The Thunderbirds from the British TV Series of the '60s)

My solution was to re-save the mpg with VR transcoding the audio to mp3.

But I wonder if there is a flaw with 384K audio in the current implementation.


----------



## bkdtv

HDTiVo said:


> It raises questions. I have it on both Digital and Analog recordings. Could it be specific to certain S3s? Other people have the problem too. What is the common factor? What about the analog signal could cause this and be specific to certain cable co's? etc...


I think it is specific to some affiliates and the encoders they use.

Different affiliates use different encoders with different encoder settings. The TiVo Series3 seems to be particularly sensitive to edited recordings from some affiliates, regardless of whether Womble or VideoRedo is used.

I do not have the problem on either of the NBC or CBS HD channels that I record. I do not record from any analog channels, so I don't have any of those to compare.


----------



## HDTiVo

bkdtv said:


> I think it is specific to some affiliates and the encoders they use.
> 
> Different affiliates use different encoders with different encoder settings. The TiVo Series3 seems to be particularly sensitive to edited recordings from some affiliates, regardless of whether Womble or VideoRedo is used.
> 
> I do not have the problem on either of the NBC or CBS HD channels that I record. I do not record from any analog channels, so I don't have any of those to compare.


That is one possible explanation for the failed transfers I've been talking about in the next forum over, but I put it lower down for this problem. I think the VR people said they know there is some flaky interaction between VR output and S3 playback.


----------



## So'n'so

Apart from registering the non-source Tivo units for MRV, must the 'slave' unit have the same subscription type as the source unit?


----------



## bkdtv

So'n'so said:


> Apart from registering the non-source Tivo units for MRV, must the 'slave' unit have the same subscription type as the source unit?


Yes, although the monthly subscription cost for every TiVo after the first is less.

The most you will ever pay for your second or third TiVo is $9.99/mo.


----------



## DavidTigerFan

Have any of you gotten Tivo Decode Manager to work right with a S3 on a Mac? I installed and it worked fine for the first time I ran it, then everytime after that it would start to download and then stop, then start again.

Don't know what to get that makes an easy solution.

Also, I tried editing the Tivo Desktop .dll file to change my resolution for my touch, but everytime I edit it, save it, then put it back in the dir, it reverts back to the old version. Any ideas?


----------



## volksman

I have a TIVO Series 3 unit on the way. I am somewhat confused on the monthly cost of activation. The unit is coming from Amazon. What is the best price on activating this unit?


----------



## foamy909

DavidTigerFan said:


> Have any of you gotten Tivo Decode Manager to work right with a S3 on a Mac? I installed and it worked fine for the first time I ran it, then everytime after that it would start to download and then stop, then start again.


I had a similar problem with my second download from my Series 3, but my third seemed to complete ok. I just installed everything yesterday and have not done too much with it yet.

I am having a different problem. I searched this thread and a few others, but if I missed it, I apologize. I purchased the MPEG-2 component from Apple and installed MPEG Streamclip in an attempt to cut out commercials. I am having issues opening the downloaded MPEG files in either Quicktime or Streamclip. One of the files (SD, from analog) plays the audio only in both programs. The video remains frozen on the initial frame. The second file (SD, digital recording) will not play at all in Quicktime, but the audio will play in Streamclip. The third file (HD) seems to play without issue.

I previously purchased Toast 8 and all three files play in the Toast Video Player without issue. It seems to be a MPEG-2 Component issue, but I have reinstalled it to no effect. I saw on some of the Apple Forums that there have been Quicktime 7.3 issues, but did not see anything similar to my problem there, either.

I am attempting another SD download as I write this and just noticed something in Tivo Decode Manager. There is a check next to the HD program I downloaded, but no checks next to the two SD programs. Maybe the SD downloads did not complete successfully and are missing part of the file.

I am running 10.4.11 with Quicktime Pro 7.3 on a 1.33GHz upgraded G4. The connection to the Tivo is wired ethernet and I have reset permissions.


----------



## netguru7

Hi,

I used this article to download and try both Tivo Decode Manager and Tivo Decoder on my imac G4 PPC running OS X 10.4.11. I have a TivoHD. All i got was an MPEG file with no sound. The file i was using was an HD recording. So i am guessing that it may only work with shows you recorded in analog. Does anyone know how to convert HD recordings from.tivo to MPEG 2? I really need to know how to do this. I was pretty bummed when it did not work.

Thx

Rick


----------



## bkdtv

netguru7 said:


> I used this article to download and try both Tivo Decode Manager and Tivo Decoder on my imac G4 PPC running OS X 10.4.11. I have a TivoHD. All i got was an MPEG file with no sound. The file i was using was an HD recording. So i am guessing that it may only work with shows you recorded in analog.


Are you using Quicktime? Quicktime does not include the codecs to decode and output Dolby Digital sound.

You might try the latest version of VLC. I know the previous version had some playback issues with high-definition files, but I haven't seen any reports on the newest one.

The playback application bundled with Roxio Toast 8 Titanium and Roxio Popcorn is still the best program for viewing high-definition MPEG-2 recordings, based on what other members have said.



netguru7 said:


> Does anyone know how to convert HD recordings from.tivo to MPEG 2? I really need to know how to do this.


That's exactly what Tivo Decode Manager for OSX does. It downloads and decodes the Tivo file into MPEG-2 format. If the recordings weren't in MPEG-2 format, they wouldn't be playable at all on your Mac without the Roxio viewer.


----------



## johnnylundy

netguru7 said:


> Hi,
> 
> I used this article to download and try both Tivo Decode Manager and Tivo Decoder on my imac G4 PPC running OS X 10.4.11. I have a TivoHD. All i got was an MPEG file with no sound.
> Thx
> 
> Rick


Hi Rick,

I have learned quite a bit about this.

TiVoDecode (part of TiVoDecode Manager) does in fact decode the .tivo file into Muxed MPEG-2.

The problem is, QuickTime Player will not play that file properly, EVEN IF you buy the $30 "MPEG-2 Codec" from Apple (I tried).

So there are two solutions:

1) Use VLC. It will play the files.

2) Use iSquint to convert the MPEG-2 Muxed files to MPEG-4 (click "For TV" on the iSquint setup screen).

Also, for getting the height and width correct, read off what they are in Finder for the .mpeg file and enter them in iSquint's "Advanced" panel, even though it warns you not to mess with those. Also enter "128" for the Audio Bitrate, and "48000" and "Stereo" in the two Audio popup lists below the Bit Rate field.

VLC: found at http://www.videolan.org/

iSquint: found at http://www.isquint.org

I downloaded and converted more than 50 shows this way so I know it works.


----------



## johnnylundy

foamy909 said:


> I had a similar problem with my second download from my Series 3, but my third seemed to complete ok. I just installed everything yesterday and have not done too much with it yet.
> 
> I am having a different problem. I searched this thread and a few others, but if I missed it, I apologize. I purchased the MPEG-2 component from Apple and installed MPEG Streamclip in an attempt to cut out commercials. I am having issues opening the downloaded MPEG files in either Quicktime or Streamclip. One of the files (SD, from analog) plays the audio only in both programs. The video remains frozen on the initial frame. The second file (SD, digital recording) will not play at all in Quicktime, but the audio will play in Streamclip. The third file (HD) seems to play without issue.


The QuickTime MPEG component will not play the Muxed MPEG-2 files generated by TiVoDecode. You need to either play them in VLC or run them through iSquint to convert to MPEG-4.

I know, I know, I wasted my $30 also...


----------



## netguru7

Hi,

thanks for all your useful suggestions. I did use VLC to play the files and nada. No audio. Here is the interesting thing. I downloaded an HD show and i got video but no sound then i tried an analog show and QT did not play video or audio. But then i tried opening the file in VLC and got video but still no audio. I opened both files in QT player with QT MPEG2 component installed and VLC and there was no sound in either file (no video in QT on the analog file).

What i am trying to do is use my laptop and front row to view my shows on the hotel room tv (and on the plane) when i travel. I was hoping that i could just used Tivo Decoder or Decode Manager and get an MPEG 2 file with sound and dump these files into my movies folder where front row would see them and voila instant remote controllable video library while i travel. i did not want to have to convert to MPEG 4 as it takes way too long on my computer even with Turbo H.264 (12-18 hours at Ipod standard setting). I have Popcorn 3 and it takes way too long and i don't know if it can give me an MPEG2 file with sound. All i see is MPEG 4 and H.264. I also have a ReplayTV and all i have to do with that is use mReplay to transfer MPEG2 files to my computer and then transfer those to my Movies folder on my laptop and i am good to go, Front Row sees those files as Movies so i can control everything using my remote.

Do you folks think that perhaps these 2 software packages have not been updated for Series 3? I am lost and overwhelmed.

Thx

Rick



netguru7 said:


> Hi,
> 
> I used this article to download and try both Tivo Decode Manager and Tivo Decoder on my imac G4 PPC running OS X 10.4.11. I have a TivoHD. All i got was an MPEG file with no sound. The file i was using was an HD recording. So i am guessing that it may only work with shows you recorded in analog. Does anyone know how to convert HD recordings from.tivo to MPEG 2? I really need to know how to do this. I was pretty bummed when it did not work.
> 
> Thx
> 
> Rick


----------



## johnnylundy

All I can tell you is that the MPEG-2 Muxed absolutely will not play in QT Player, even with the $30 codec.

Converting them to MPEG-4 with iSquint is very fast for me. Of course this is on a quad Xeon Mac Pro.

I just watched 3 episodes of House MD that I did this way and they were all perfect HD with perfect sound.

It's puzzling why VLC doesn't work. It's very picky sometimes.


----------



## netguru7

I opened the file in QT and did a save as MPEG4 and looked at the audio tab details. It said there was no soundtrack. I found a TIVO Decoder script that uses MAC OS X's Automator using tivodecoder 0.1.4. it works real well but the same issue no sound.

man this is frustrating. Why Tivo can't integrate with front row (they use elgato's video player in popcorn 3 and eyetv integrates with front row) and why AppleTV and iPods can't play MPEG2 is beyond me. I don't like windows much and have been a Mac Fanboy since the 80's but i have to say they do make it so much easier on the PC with WMC. Just a simple question of recording in WMC and then syncing. Then you have full remote control over your "portable DVR on oyur laptop" and simple syncing options like your Zune or laptop. The way it should be-simple.



johnnylundy said:


> All I can tell you is that the MPEG-2 Muxed absolutely will not play in QT Player, even with the $30 codec.
> 
> Converting them to MPEG-4 with iSquint is very fast for me. Of course this is on a quad Xeon Mac Pro.
> 
> I just watched 3 episodes of House MD that I did this way and they were all perfect HD with perfect sound.
> 
> It's puzzling why VLC doesn't work. It's very picky sometimes.


----------



## Larry Chanin

bkdtv said:


> _Coax networking (known as MoCA)_
> 
> This is a popular solution among Verizon FiOS customers. Verizon already supplies every customer with an Actiontec router that supports 100Mbps networking over the coax cable in (or outside) the home. You simply add one Motorola NIM100 adapter for each TiVo. These adapters are periodically found on ebay for $30-$60/ea. Up to seven NIM100s can be used to provide 100Mbps ethernet connections wherever you have coax cable.
> 
> You split the your coax prior to the TiVo, with one coax feed going to the TiVo and the other coax feed going to a NIM100. The NIM100 has a 100Mbps ethernet port, which you connect to the 100Mbps port on the TiVo with ethernet cable. The adapters configure themselves, so there is nothing else you have to do.


Hi bkdtv,

First, I'd like to acknowledge how much I greatly appreciate your valueable contributions to this and other forums.

I've purchased one of those $10 splitters from Radio Shack. Is this going to be adequate for this application?

We've just recently been connected to Verizon FiOS and after the usual day or so to get the CableCards working things seem to be okay, except for a few channels that suffer from pixelation. As I understand your comments in another thread, this is due to having too strong of a signal for the TiVos. Is it likely that using a splitter could "kill two birds with one stone" for one of my TiVo HDs by attenuating the signal, or will I still have to add more attenuation?

Thanks again.

Larry


----------



## bkdtv

Larry Chanin said:


> I've purchased one of those $10 splitters from Radio Shack. Is this going to be adequate for this application?


I've since learned that the coax passthrough on one of my NIM100s was defective, which is why the splitter was necessary. Coax passthrough works just fine on my other NIM100s, so no splitter is needed.

I just updated the FAQ to reflect that information.



Larry Chanin said:


> We've just recently been connected to Verizon FiOS and after the usual day or so to get the CableCards working things seem to be okay, except for a few channels that suffer from pixelation. As I understand your comments in another thread, this is due to having too strong of a signal for the TiVos. Is it likely that using a splitter could "kill two birds with one stone" for one of my TiVo HDs by attenuating the signal, or will I still have to add more attenuation?


The splitter is unlikely to provide sufficient attenuation. Most seem to require around 10-16dB of attenuation, and some require as much as 20dB.

I would return the splitter to Radio Shack and order the $12.99 attenuator pack from Smarthome.com. More information in this thread.


----------



## netguru7

Hi,

i decide to uninstall VLC and reinstalled it and i know have video with audio. and at least i can remote control it. I did find this really awesome Automator script that can be turned into an app that uses tivo decoder o.1.4 and it works great and fast. Better than Tivo decoder app. just fyi


----------



## Mach1_8

Tarek said:


> Rob,
> 
> I seem to have the exact same issues as you describe. I first noticed these problems when my TiVo Series 3 was still at 9.1, and it still occurs after my 9.2 update.
> 
> I've had the problem both with TiVo Desktop 2.5.1, as well as TiVo Desktop Plus 2.5.1, running on Windows Vista Ultimate. Similar to you, I have reasons to believe that it is not a general networking issue, and have experienced the same problems both with native .tivo files (both HD & SD recordings), as well as other formats/codecs supported by TD Plus. I had no problems at all moving hundreds of GB to my PC via TTG - the problems are all with TTCB.
> 
> I have not spoken with anyone at TiVo regarding these issues. Did you get the impression that this patch they mentioned would take the form of an update release or patch to the TiVo Desktop software, or an update to the TiVo itself?
> 
> Regards,
> Tarek


I have just started with the whole TTG/TTCB thing. I've had great success using TTG plus to put programs onto my iPod and archiving to DVD. Recently I've been trying to send some video podcasts and the like back to my TiVo with no luck. I, too, don't think it's a network problem...my Vista machine shows up in the NP list, but when I select it, it says nothing is available. On the other end, the TiVo Desktop shows all of the correct files ready to go. Any words on the patch? Anyone else have any ideas?


----------



## Larry Chanin

bkdtv said:


> I've since learned that the coax passthrough on one of my NIM100s was defective, which is why the splitter was necessary. Coax passthrough works just fine on my other NIM100s, so no splitter is needed.
> 
> I just updated the FAQ to reflect that information.


Hi,

Thanks!

I just received my NIM100 a few minutes ago and connected it via the coax passthrough to my Family Room TiVoHD. Things appear to be working. :up:

The ethernet connection was recognized and I was able to view a list of the recorded content on my Home Theater TiVoHD. I haven't tried any transfers yet.

I was also able to view photos on my Family Room HDTV that were archived on two PCs connected to the home network. My TiVo Desktop likewise lists the content on both TivoHDs. Very cool. 

Larry


----------



## rrman

I have one TiVo Series 3 and two Tivo HDs. Recently, I gave them new names in TiVo's online MMA. I made all 3 reconnect to TiVo so as to download the latest names. I then restarted each TiVo for good measure. Each TiVo now knows its new name. However, each TiVo still displays the old names of the other two TiVos in the "Now Playing" list. It's been about 2 or 3 days already, and each TiVo still doesn't show the new names of the other two TiVos. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to make each TiVo display the new names of the other two TiVos? I tried seaching if anyone has a solution, and I haven't found one yet.


----------



## jaj2276

I've been reading a few posts in this thread that have mentioned this error but no one has been able to determine why this occurs.

I started getting this error and now I know why. I'm dealing exclusively in xVids, so this might not apply to other filetypes. Anyways, I had transferred a 1hr30min video without trouble.

Then I started snooping around here and saw the hack to the tivotrans.dll regarding the higher resolution/bitrates. I made the change and everything is/was working. I didn't really see much difference visually and didn't think much of it.

Then I tried to upload 5 more files and they all failed, all with the same generic reason. I then tried to upload the 1 file that had worked before and it failed too. So of course I revert to the "reboot everything" mentality. That made no diff.

Then it dawned on me that hey, what I did change between successful and unsuccessful xfer was the tivotrans.dll! So I deleted the file and reinstalled TivoDesktopPlus and everything transferred!

So, today I'm going to run a few tests to see at what resolution and bitrate (I had mine set at 720 and 7000) the xfers start to fail.


----------



## euckersw

jaj2276,

I've received the same errors after playing around with the res and bitrate in the tivotrans.dll file. At first I thought it might be my computer (processing power?), but I just recently (within the past week) upgraded to a new computer (Athlon X2), and still receive the same errors/problems. When I revert to the old settings, I have no problems transferring. 

Oddly enough, changing the resolution to 720 has no ill effects on my transfers - only altering the vbitrateK and vmaxbitrateK settings seem to cause the failures.

Please let me know what the results are of your tests.


----------



## Carlton Bale

cgould said:


> I've definitely been seeing this on several programs lately  I get about 100-200MB of the file, then it just stops/skips and goes to next program. Exact same size each time I try again.
> I re-recorded the program on a separate airing, and it txferred fine this time.
> 2 were HD (Secrets of Denali - old, HD Getaways-Bora Bora (new), one analog (Star Trek: City edge forever from TVLand)..
> 
> I've transferred 100s of GB of shows w/ no problems otherwise (trying to back up and swap shows between two drives), I'm on a wired network, and no errors shown. I have had other file errors (eg network glitches, tivo crash, quit TivoDesktop / whatever) and TivoDesktop correctly flagged them as interrupted etc (and even resumed them pretty well!)


I too am having problems transferring recordings. I've tried TiVo Desktop and my web browser and most of the shows will not fully transfer. For example, I get 65MB into a 30GB transfer and it stops, and I tried multiple computers. In fact, the only show that fully transferred was a show that was originally MRV'd from my other TiVo HD. (I have two TiVo HDs, btw.) Any ideas on how to fix this?


----------



## cheesehawk

I have a Tivo HD and have recently noticed that shows from 720p channels (ABC and FOX) are having issues when converting to portable files.

After TiVo Desktop converts the shows, they play at sped up pace with glitches. An hour show is shrunk to around 42 minutes.

I do not have any issues when playing the .tivo files in Windows Media Player. Also, when I first started transferring shows from these channels, the files converted without any problems.

Has anyone else experienced this?


----------



## ccrider2

Jiffylush said:


> I am Series 3, and my network is actually gigiabit (although I believe the s3 only has a 10/100 nic). I will try the current settings first (720/6000/6000), then will bump it up and try to get some ideas about how quickly the files transfer and if I have any stuttering or whatever.
> 
> FWIW my computer is a 3.2 dual core (not core 2 duo) w/ 2gb of memory running vista and tivo desktop plus 2.5.


Having a problem transfering some shows.
Can someone please explain the (720/6000/6000) setting...Where?
Thought I'd try that, but don't know where to do this.

Thanks Much!

Chris


----------



## Case

I'm trying to use Tivo Desktop (with Plus Key) but the "Convert for..." selection under the Actions menu is ghosted. I have tried most of the "supported" formats. Only the MPEG2's show at all and the other formats don't even show up in the TivoDesktop Now Playing window even though I have them in the My Tivo Recordings folder.

Any advice?


----------



## peyote

i've given up hope on all TTG & MRV for my series 3. i'm on cox in okc & nearly all stations minus the ota stations are copy-protected. the ones that have been open to transfer aren't necessarily open the next time (very random flags - i think due to incomplete program description). sad thing is cable co's can legally do this & have no reason to reverse it. 

so what would be the point of scheduling transfers when there's no way of knowing if show is protected or not? is this MRV dream dead before i even take a lap with it?

this will just force people to run 1-to-8 hdmi boxes in their house with complicated rf repeaters.

anyway, i bought the dvr expander & am pleased but because of the copy flag problems & seriously thinking of a media room for the whole house. $$$$$$$ flying out of my pants...


----------



## cgould

HDTiVo said:


> I believe it is specific to VR and to recordings made on the S3 and played back on the S3. Essentially TTG an S3 recording, edit it in VR, TTC it back to S3 and there are lots of glitches.
> 
> You can TTC the edited recording to THDs and S2s without experiencing the glitches.
> 
> If you only TTG the S3 recording and TTC it back, there are no glitches.
> 
> I can't remember now if I had the problem with a THD recording edited and sent back to an S3.


I've seen playback glitches now on S3-PC-S3 (eg, archive to PC and copy back) - NO editing- on several shows now, incl the final Heroes episode. It's not consistent.
I do get glitches on edited home movie video to S3 also :-( even when I reduced bitrate down to 19Mbps (in VideoStudio11+, not Videoredo), the S3 gives glitches. I'm starting to think it's the S3 and its playback of transferred files.


----------



## flc

Sorry if this has been asked, but I've created xvid .avi's in Handbrake but they do not transfer to TiVo, the desktop TiVo server craps out and requires a restart every time I try.

I've compared the Handbraked avi to downloaded ones that work fine and the only major difference (apart from video dmensions) is the Handbraked avi has a video sample size of 24 bit as opposed to 12 bit, what does this mean and does TiVo support it?


----------



## untitled000

Quote
"The TiVos cannot currently play other formats (AVI, MP4, etc) in high-definition. The TiVo will play those high-definition files, but they will be converted to SD by TiVo Desktop."

Is this info current/still accurate? I'd love to get an HD Tivo if it can play xvids in HD, but if the above is still true it sounds like it can not.


----------



## moyekj

untitled000 said:


> Quote
> "The TiVos cannot currently play other formats (AVI, MP4, etc) in high-definition. The TiVo will play those high-definition files, but they will be converted to SD by TiVo Desktop."
> 
> Is this info current/still accurate? I'd love to get an HD Tivo if it can play xvids in HD, but if the above is still true it sounds like it can not.


 Unfortunately yes, it's still true. At this time S3/THD units can only handle mpeg2 playback, so any other formats must be converted to mpeg2. Note that while it's certainly possible for you to encode other formats to HD mpeg2 yourself (instead of letting Tivo Desktop do it) at this time S3/THD units are very picky about HD mpeg2 file formats and only seem to work well with HD mpeg2 files originating from Tivos. I have several HD mpeg2 files from a PC QAM tuner. Some play back fine via Tivo Desktop but most do not. In contrast if they originated from Tivo and I edit out commercials and send them back to Tivos they play back fine every time...

If Tivo fixed these issues and allowed native mpeg4 playback it would make the S3/THD units very useful general purpose media players as well. I can only hope there will be a S3/THD software update coinciding with next release of Tivo Desktop software that will address these issues, but I'm not holding my breath...


----------



## WhoMe

Ive seen some strange MRV behavior... I just got my S3 so I've been using MRV to transfer a few recordings from my S2 to my S3 that I haven't had time to watch yet. After deleting the recordings from my S2, I looked at the recordings on my S3 via MRV from S2. They all said that they cannot be transferred back to the S2 because they are high-definition. These are S2 recordings, so they arent high-def and if I look at the recording information on the S3, it indicates that they are 480i. Has anyone seen this behavior before?


----------



## David Ortiz

I've been transferring shows to my Vista PC since I got the TiVoHD just fine until now. Shows will not start to transfer. The transfer fails with a red x. Is there any way to troubleshoot this issue?

The TiVo Desktop software says 1 recording 2 hours and such to go, but the file never shows up in the PC's now playing list and when I go back to transfer status it shows that the transfer failed.

I just had an M Series cablecard installed and moved from antenna only to cable and antenna. System information shows a,a,a on the TiVoToGo line and my account shows Transfers ALLOWED.

Not sure what the problem is.

David


----------



## axelbrunger

I've downloaded the latest version of Tivo Desktop to my Intel MacPro running Leopard (10.5.1). I've successfully transferred movies from my TivoHD to the Mac using Roxio Toast 8 as well as directly by using the https: address of my Tivo. I can play these movies (all have the .TiVo extension) on my mac using Toast Video Player. So, the transfer from the Tivo to my mac works fine.

I then started TiVo Desktop on the Mac from System Preferences. The Tivo sees my iPhoto and iTunes libraries and I can play them on the TivoHD. So, this part works fine, too.

I then used the Apple key to enable the (unsupported) Video transfer option in Tivo Desktop. I set the directory and media access key accordingly.

An icon shows up in the Playlist on my TivoHD. However, when I go to this directory on the TivoHD it says that there are no recordings. I tried several different directories as well as tried converting my Tivo recordings on the mac to .mv4 format. Still, the Tivo says that there are no recordings in the directory.

On the Mac console window I see the following error message:

1/20/08 2:33:32 PM [0x0-0x2ca2ca].com.apple.systempreferences[8756] java.io.IOException: HTTPServer.QueryFormats: unimplemented 
1/20/08 2:33:32 PM [0x0-0x2ca2ca].com.apple.systempreferences[8756] at com.tivo.calypso.CalypsoHTTPServer.handleQueryFormats(CalypsoHTTPServer.java:789) 
1/20/08 2:33:32 PM [0x0-0x2ca2ca].com.apple.systempreferences[8756] at com.tivo.calypso.CalypsoHTTPServer.doTiVoRequest(CalypsoHTTPServer.java:882) 
1/20/08 2:33:32 PM [0x0-0x2ca2ca].com.apple.systempreferences[8756] at com.tivo.calypso.CalypsoHTTPServer.handleRequest(CalypsoHTTPServer.java:177) 
1/20/08 2:33:32 PM [0x0-0x2ca2ca].com.apple.systempreferences[8756] at com.tivo.calypso.CalypsoHTTPServer.run(CalypsoHTTPServer.java:74) 
1/20/08 2:33:32 PM [0x0-0x2ca2ca].com.apple.systempreferences[8756] at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:613)

It seems that Leopard has broken the unsupported video transfer feature of Tivo Desktop. Any suggestions what to try to fix this problem?


----------



## leiff

Is Overscan available for mediaplayer11? My TTG files dont fill the top and bottom portions of player when I maximize and I'm concerned about burn-in for my 1360x768 plasma. I have a pioneer 5080 and was surprised the pannel could not do this on it's own.


----------



## tluxon

Just got a couple TiVoHD's last week and installed TiVo Desktop 2.5.1 last night. I transferred several HD shows and tried to play them within TiVo Desktop. By default it seems to use Windows Media Player (WinXP Pro SP2). The picture looks great but there is no sound.

Is there a way to change the default player for the TiVo Desktop Now Playing list?

Editing these files in VideoReDo resulted in 50% or more dropped frames, but at least it confirmed to me that the audio is there. Is there some official way to "unwrap" these .TiVo files into MPEG-2 for VideoReDo or Womble editing?

Thanks!


----------



## greg_burns

tluxon said:


> Just got a couple TiVoHD's last week and installed TiVo Desktop 2.5.1 last night. I transferred several HD shows and tried to play them within TiVo Desktop. By default it seems to use Windows Media Player (WinXP Pro SP2). The picture looks great but there is no sound.
> 
> Is there a way to change the default player for the TiVo Desktop Now Playing list?
> 
> Editing these files in VideoReDo resulted in 50% or more dropped frames, but at least it confirmed to me that the audio is there. Is there some official way to "unwrap" these .TiVo files into MPEG-2 for VideoReDo or Womble editing?
> 
> Thanks!


Probably need AC3 codec
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ac3filter/

You could try unwrapping them using TivoDecode

Here is a GUI wrapper for it.
http://www.gmonweb.com/portal/CodingFun/Downloads/tabid/54/Default.aspx


----------



## tluxon

greg_burns said:


> Probably need AC3 codec
> http://sourceforge.net/projects/ac3filter/
> 
> You could try unwrapping them using TivoDecode
> 
> Here is a GUI wrapper for it.
> http://www.gmonweb.com/portal/CodingFun/Downloads/tabid/54/Default.aspx


TiVo Decoder did the trick. Thanks!


----------



## splat1

Thank you very much !
Great review and very helpful.

I can get tivotogo to transfer my HDTV show from my HDTivo and I can convert to .ts but HDTV2MPEG will not open the file. It shows the first frame but puts a question mark at the fps and aspect ratio and advancing the slider eliminates the picture in the preview. 

Any thoughts ?
thanks


----------



## moyekj

splat1 said:


> Thank you very much !
> Great review and very helpful.
> 
> I can get tivotogo to transfer my HDTV show from my HDTivo and I can convert to .ts but HDTV2MPEG will not open the file. It shows the first frame but puts a question mark at the fps and aspect ratio and advancing the slider eliminates the picture in the preview.
> 
> Any thoughts ?
> thanks


 Transferred TTG shows are already in encrypted mpeg2 program stream (.TiVo) format. Once you decrypt the .TiVo file you end up with an unencrypted mpeg2 program stream (.mpg) so there is no need to convert them using HDTV2MPEG (which converts mpeg2 transport stream to mpeg2 program stream).


----------



## splat1

The message at the start of the thread talks of converting the tivo mpeg2 to ts and then importing the ts file into HDTV2MPEG to cut out the commercials as a free alternative to videoredo but HDTV2MPEG does not open the new .ts file. I was hoping that the author of the very helpful guide could explain how he opened the file in HDTV2MPEG.

thanks


----------



## HazelW

I have tried playing 2 different one hour HD programs with Windows Media Player 11 after transferring from a TiVo HD to my Vista computer. I skip though the commercials by dragging the little handle on the play bar. Everything works fine until about 35 minutes. When I try to skip a commercial, the player locks up and does not respond. If I let it play without skipping commercials it plays fine. Anyone else see this or have a solution?


----------



## flyerman

I tried using VideoRedo to take the commercials out of my Family Guy series and it when I put them back they seem to skip. Any tricks and getting shows to Videoredo to edit out commercials and set them back okay?


----------



## leiff

I noticed under performance settings under wmp11; highquality mode vastly improved picture quality. However this wasn't the default mode. Are their any other tweaks anyone can recommend to improve player performance? Is everyone using wmp11 to view their tivo shows?


----------



## tluxon

flyerman said:


> I tried using VideoRedo to take the commercials out of my Family Guy series and it when I put them back they seem to skip. Any tricks and getting shows to Videoredo to edit out commercials and set them back okay?


I had some issues with VRD as well on some shows. They all went away when I ran everything through TiVo Decoder GUI.


----------



## tootal2

Should i set nero 8 to interlace when making a dvd from a 1080 or 480 file from tivo?


----------



## Patricko

bkdtv said:


> Throughput will vary depending on whether you are transferring between two Series3 DVRs, two TiVoHD DVRs, or one of each.
> 
> 
> Series3->Series3
> 
> Under ideal conditions, the TiVo Series3 can transfer files at up to ~44Mbps (20Gb/hour) to another Series3 on a 100Mbps network. Under more typical viewing conditions, throughput will be 20-30Mbps, depending on whether you are watching or recording SD or HD channels.
> 
> At 30Mbps, the typical one-hour SD recording will transfer in less than 8 minutes. One-hour of high-definition can take as little as 20 minutes or as much as 35 minutes to transfer from one Series3 to another, depending on the channel, content, and how much it is compressed by your provider.
> 
> With two Series3 DVRs on a 100Mbps network, there are no viewing delays and most high-definition recordings transfer fast enough to skip commercials.
> 
> TiVoHD->TiVoHD
> 
> The TiVoHD can currently transfer recordings about half as fast as the Series3. MRV throughput (i.e. transfer speed) between two TivoHDs is up to 21Mbps under ideal conditions, and 12-15Mbps under typical viewing conditions.
> 
> At 12-15Mbps on a 100Mbps network, it is not possible to watch >15Mbps recordings from another TiVoHD without delay. High-definition recordings with lower bitrates, such as those made from FOX-HD, UHD, HBO-HD, SHO-HD, and STARZ-HD can generally be viewed without delay.
> 
> Series3->TiVoHD
> 
> Throughput from a Series3 to a TiVoHD falls somewhere between Series3->Series3 and TiVoHD->TiVoHD transfers. One user found 24Mbps under ideal conditions and 16-20Mbps under typical viewing conditions.
> 
> MRV throughput between a Series3 and TiVoHD on a 100Mbps network is sufficient to watch most high-definition recordings without a delay, or with a very short delay.
> 
> To put this in context, recordings from ABC-HD and FOX-HD typically have a bitrate of 10-14Mbps, while recordings from NBC-HD and CBS-HD typically have a bitrate of 14-18Mbps. Premium movie channels like HBO-HD and SHO-HD are typically 11Mbps or less. Your MRV throughput (i.e. transfer speed) must match or exceed the recording's bitrate in order to eliminate viewing delays. Throughput should be at least 1.3x the recording's bitrate in order to skip all commercials on the fly.
> 
> [*]*Why are MRV transfers slower with the TiVoHD than the Series3?*
> 
> TiVoPony did have this to say:


I have been searching high and low on this and I thought it was time to ask the experts.

I just purchased 2 TivoHD units and i just had FIOS with two cablecards each installed yesterday. The HD MRV transfers seem a bit slow, I am using gigabit wired ethernet.

My question is have the TivoHD MRV transfer speeds been improved since this post was made in October? I saw that Tivo was apparently working on it. If they have improved it what is the speed difference between the S3 HD and the THD on HD MRV transfers now?

If the S3 is still twice as fast I am thinking it may be worth returning my 2 TivoHD units and getting 2 S3 HD units.

I would rather not go through the hassle but I don't like to wait

Thanks for your help


----------



## moyekj

Patricko said:


> I have been searching high and low on this and I thought it was time to ask the experts.
> 
> I just purchased 2 TivoHD units and i just had FIOS with two cablecards each installed yesterday. The HD MRV transfers seem a bit slow, I am using gigabit wired ethernet.
> 
> My question is have the TivoHD MRV transfer speeds been improved since this post was made in October? I saw that Tivo was apparently working on it. If they have improved it what is the speed difference between the S3 HD and the THD on HD MRV transfers now?
> 
> If the S3 is still twice as fast I am thinking it may be worth returning my 2 TivoHD units and getting 2 S3 HD units.
> 
> I would rather not go through the hassle but I don't like to wait
> 
> Thanks for your help


 No change - S3 units are still ~ 2x faster than THD units for MRV. No idea if Tivo is working on improving this or not but my guess is if it was an easy fix and/or high on their priority list they would have fixed it by now.


----------



## Patricko

moyekj said:


> No change - S3 units are still ~ 2x faster than THD units for MRV. No idea if Tivo is working on improving this or not but my guess is if it was an easy fix and/or high on their priority list they would have fixed it by now.


Thanks for confirming that for me.


----------



## bkdtv

Patricko said:


> Thanks for confirming that for me.


This FAQ was posted right after MRV was enabled with the release of the v9.2 software in October.

TiVo's next software update (v9.3 ?) is expected any day now. It was originally slated for release around the Superbowl, but was delayed for further refinement. TiVo has said this update will eliminate bugs and improve performance.

TiVo did say that it was looking to improve TTG/MRV performance with the TivoHD, and I would expect some improvement with this next update. But I would not expect TTG/MRV performance to equal the Tivo Series3.


----------



## h00ligan

well that's a shame... pretty much anything less than 1.3x great quality HD when the network supports it seems pretty ridiculous. The machine architecture should allow for that speed difference I would think. I'm not sure what is going on but lately it seems exceptionally slow for me. 

1.18 MB/sec from a tivo with 1HD show recording - ethernet to Airport Extreme Base station to Macbook pro - and slightly slower to the other TivoHD bridged. 

That said I do think I am having some network issues, but it looks, base don the faq that 1.18 is just on the low side of normal - not horrendous as i was considering it - at least by TC standards. To me it is still horrendous.


----------



## splat1

try using vlc media player which is a free download and it fixed the issue for me.


----------



## splat1

vlc media player fixed the ability to skip ahead while playing the video for me.


----------



## m_jonis

At this point, MRV and TTG is completely worthless on my TivoHD with TW Albany. EVERY channel is CCI=0x02 (you can't transfer it). Only exception: The HD Locals. But you can't transfer HD anyway and I doubt Cable Labs will EVER allow it. TW Albany (and apparently a few other places) is doing digital simulcast of the analog tier, so they've marked even our "analog tier" locals as 0x02 because they're on a digital simulcast and TW will not provision the cable cards to do analog, just digital.


----------



## bicker

You *can* transfer HD marked CCI=0x00. I know I can via TTG, and I believe you can also do so using MRV between two HD TiVos.


----------



## bkdtv

bicker said:


> You *can* transfer HD marked CCI=0x00. I know I can via TTG, and I believe you can also do so using MRV between two HD TiVos.


Right.

I transfer recordings in full high-definition all the time.


----------



## h00ligan

bkdtv said:


> Right.
> 
> I transfer recordings in full high-definition all the time.


it's based on the media flag set though right? What's the code for locking it out completely? I transfer HD shows all the time too, however, i was under the impression it was on or off, not, - ok if you transcode it.

I'm new to this so bear with me


----------



## bicker

The variety of codes don't matter for TiVo. To preclude problems/political or legal conflicts/confusion/etc., TiVo will only allow transfer of (as I said earlier) CCI=0x00.


----------



## ills0n

I have an S2 and a S3 both on a home network and using MRV. Occasionally my S2 won't show up in Now Playing on my S3, which I usually I usually fix with a reset of the S3. Strangely, the S3 always shows up on the S2. Just wanted to see if anyone else had encountered this issue and if there were any fixes out there.

Thanks.


----------



## h00ligan

Grey screen rebooting - regularly
Failure to actually add new channels

and finally i got around to testing the transfer speed directly connected to my computer and through a router and I am getting 900k/sec - with teh tivoHD in standby. That is so slow you can't even call it MRV - you have to call it queue your **** up and wait a few days to watch it.

Honestly, I'm going to call TiVo but if they can't sort out these problems, both HD's are going back to Costco and the contracts will be severed, via an attorney if necessary (ya, that will probably cost more but TiVo doesn't deserve my money right now) as I consider them to have basically failed to provide me a service for which I paid.

There is absolutely NO REASON that transfers should be that slow, except buggy ass code.


----------



## bkdtv

h00ligan said:


> and finally i got around to testing the transfer speed directly connected to my computer and through a router and I am getting 900k/sec - with teh tivoHD in standby. That is so slow you can't even call it MRV - you have to call it queue your **** up and wait a few days to watch it.
> 
> There is absolutely NO REASON that transfers should be that slow, except buggy ass code.


MRV -- transfers from one TiVo to another -- is a good deal faster than 900K/s. I take it you mean TivoToGo -- transfers from TiVo to a computer -- which is typically around 800K/s on the TivoHD and 1500K/s on the Tivo Series3. To keep that in perspective, most SD recordings are under 400K/s and most HD recordings are under 2MB/s.

MRV transfers are faster than computer transfers because the TiVo can send the recording to another TivoHD or TiVo Series3 in its original file format without any conversion. With TiVoToGo, the TiVo file format is converted to MPG format on the fly so it is playable on computers.

The DVR CPU in the TivoHD is a highly integrated piece of silicon. The MIPS processor performance is very similar to a Pentium II 300MHz. It is only able to do what it does thanks to dedicated hardware acceleration for DVR functions. Before you criticize TiVo for that, keep in mind that the options for integrated DVR CPUs are relatively limited, and no other DVR on the market uses a faster processor. A faster processor from Broadcom is now available -- with MIPS performance more comparable to a Pentium III/733 -- so we could see that in a next-generation TiVo.

As indicated by the FAQ, TiVo has said it would look into improving the MRV and TTG performance on the TiVoHD, so we _could_ see that improve later this year with a software update. Until then, TiVo Desktop does make it easy to queue recordings so they are automatically transferred while you are asleep, at work, etc.


----------



## bkdtv

I updated the first post to reflect the changes in TiVo Desktop 2.6.


----------



## h00ligan

Did i misunderstand then that if you dl from the web browser you are not decrypting the file?

I thought that the decryption took place after import of the .tivo?


----------



## greg_burns

h00ligan said:


> Did i misunderstand then that if you dl from the web browser you are not decrypting the file?


You misunderstood. Downloading from web browser or TivoDesktop both are using same access method, AFAIK.



> I thought that the decryption took place after import of the .tivo?


The decryption does, the encryption takes place on the Tivo. Techincally (so I've heard) the encryption takes place at recording time. The slow part of TTG is the muxing to MPEG-2 format (which MRV does not have to do).


----------



## h00ligan

AFAIK - tivo encrypted files are mpeg 2 files with encryption. For mpeg 2, muxing and demuxing should be a pretty quick thing. If the encrytion is left in place, what is the tivo muxing? Wouldn't it be muxed at recording? Does anyone have a link to a tech faq about the process that occurs during recording / playback / transfer?

If downloading from a web browser grabs the native file, i just don't understand how that is different than MRV?


----------



## greg_burns

h00ligan said:


> AFAIK - tivo encrypted files are mpeg 2 files with encryption. For mpeg 2, muxing and demuxing should be a pretty quick thing. If the encrytion is left in place, what is the tivo muxing? Wouldn't it be muxed at recording? Does anyone have a link to a tech faq about the process that occurs during recording / playback / transfer?
> 
> If downloading from a web browser grabs the native file, i just don't understand how that is different than MRV?


The audio and video are somehow separate on a Tivo. Hacked Tivo's pull them off in "ty" format. Downloading from a web browser does not grab this native file. It uses (presumably) the same http mechanism that TivoDesktop uses to download the file. (Both of which require the "muxing" to happen at that time.)


----------



## h00ligan

thanks for the info!


----------



## Finalrinse

If I purchase TiVo Desktop Plus 2.6 for one of my computers which I have with me on an extended business trip, can I then transfer the license to my main computer once I get home?
Thanks


----------



## GT1Boy

Finalrinse said:


> If I purchase TiVo Desktop Plus 2.6 for one of my computers which I have with me on an extended business trip, can I then transfer the license to my main computer once I get home?
> Thanks


I'm not sure what the EULA for the software says, but Plus does work if it is installed on multiple PCs using the same key. You shouldn't have a problem with running it on either PC. The FAQ on Tivo's website doesn't answer that question or let you read the EULA before purchasing the software either.


----------



## Finalrinse

GT1Boy said:


> I'm not sure what the EULA for the software says, but Plus does work if it is installed on multiple PCs using the same key. You shouldn't have a problem with running it on either PC. The FAQ on Tivo's website doesn't answer that question or let you read the EULA before purchasing the software either.


Thanks, I just purchased it.


----------



## greg_burns

GT1Boy said:


> I'm not sure what the EULA for the software says, but Plus does work if it is installed on multiple PCs using the same key. You shouldn't have a problem with running it on either PC.


Is this still true with TD 2.6? I am hearing reports of people having to register their PC with Tivo for Plus functionality. I haven't tried it yet myself.


----------



## GT1Boy

greg_burns said:


> Is this still true with TD 2.6? I am hearing reports of people having to register their PC with Tivo for Plus functionality. I haven't tried it yet myself.


It's true that you can only register one PC for the new folder publishing feature to automatically transfer videos to your TiVo, but all of the other Plus features from previous versions for Desktop Plus will work fine on multiple PCs.
During installation if you already have publishing enabled on one PC, you will asked if you want to enable it for the new installation (thus disabling it on your other PC), or just install Plus without registering the new PC for folder publishing.


----------



## tluxon

There's a YouTube video that's about 1hr15min long that my wife wanted to know if I could put on the TiVo for her to access as she has time. It's a flash video file at 320 x 240 resolution with a bitrate between 300 and 400 kbps. I used SUPER © to convert it to a VCD format MPEG and that worked fine, but with a bitrate of 1150 kbps it was a much larger file (somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 MB) than the original (a mere 178 MB).

I understand TiVo will be updating the software soon which should permit playing of .flv files, but in the meantime what are some of the other format/resolution/bitrate optimizations I can use for such tasks to make the file as small as possible that the TiVo will still play?

Thanks!


----------



## HDTiVo

Anyone working on some decent data for transfer speeds with 9.3? Bkdtv?


----------



## moyekj

HDTiVo said:


> Anyone working on some decent data for transfer speeds with 9.3? Bkdtv?


 9.3a seems to have made no difference for my S3s under typical conditions:
S3->PC ~ 16 Mbps (100Mbps switch)
S3->S3 ~ 29 Mbps (MOCA networking & 100Mbps switches)
It will be interesting to see THD numbers as looks like they have improved quite dramatically. In one thread I saw ~ 18-19 Mbps type numbers for MRV with THD units.


----------



## bkdtv

It looks like 9.3 improves TTG throughput on the TivoHD from 8.0-8.5 to 12Mbps typical.

Others have also noted much improved MRV throughput with TivoHD -> TiVo Series3.


----------



## HDTiVo

bkdtv said:


> It looks like 9.3 improves TTG throughput on the TivoHD from 8.0-8.5 to 12Mbps typical.
> 
> Others have also noted much improved MRV throughput with TivoHD -> TiVo Series3.


So far all the annecdotal comments I have seen have been about THD speed improvement (incl. THD to/from S3). Perhaps that is what they keyed on - it being the major problem... I wonder if we´ll start to see some evidence of the THD actually being faster than the S3 in some situations.


----------



## Dssturbo1

can you connect one S3 direct to one Tivo HD, just one straight ethernet cable between the two units, no other network switch/connection?


----------



## bkdtv

Dssturbo1 said:


> can you connect one S3 direct to one Tivo HD, just one straight ethernet cable between the two units, no other network switch/connection?


You may be able to do that with a crossover cable, but you would have configure the network settings manually (since you won't have a DHCP server). I haven't tried that myself.


----------



## greg_burns

bkdtv said:


> You may be able to do that with a crossover cable, but you would have configure the network settings manually (since you won't have a DHCP server). I haven't tried that myself.


Haven't tried it either, but won't both give themselves 169.254.x.x addresses? I've seen my S3 have an one like that before which I assume means it aware of link-local addressing.


----------



## HDTiVo

I recall in the early days of MRV TiVo offered specific instructions for peer to peer connection via crossover cable. I would imagine that has not changed and applies to the S3s. I&#180;ll bet the instructions are still in the MRV web pages on the subject at tivo.com.


----------



## rspad53

Hey,
I have had my tivohd since jan. 1. after an initial cable card issue it has worked fine until the past 2 weeks. 
My picture will totally freeze and then sound goes out. i also get some picture jitter sometimes when it is working.
A power off/on will sometimes correct problem and sometimes i come back later and it is working. Changing channels does not help as they freeze right away also.
I removed and reinstalled the cablevision cablecards many times (but never re ran guided setup). but still get the freeze ups.
Now i noticed, based on the amount of stuff i have recorded, hd and sd. it adds up to close the maximum. 
Could an almost full drive cause this?
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance, Rich


----------



## b_scott

it's my understanding that the tivo menus are not in high resolution HD. at least it does not seem so to me. looks like the only thing that's in HD is the Tivo guy.

is that correct?


----------



## silentbob

I couldn't find an answer in this thread or elsewhere -- is it possible to capture and save a screenshot of HD playback on my laptop?

I transferred some ESPN2HD content to my laptop using TTG. Playback looks awesome using Windows Media Player. I would like to save some paused high-resolution images but don't know how. One thing I tried was "PrtSc" and then pasting on MS Paint. Which seems to work at first. But if I try to save that image to a .bmp file, the WMP screen image disappears even though the overall screenshot of WMP remains? 

And if I convert the .tivo file to a video file using Direct Show Dump, then do a screen capture in a video editing program, the image quality deteriorates dramatically as expected.

Is my only realistic option to take a digital photo of my laptop screen during the WMP playback?


----------



## greg_burns

silentbob said:


> Is my only realistic option to take a digital photo of my laptop screen during the WMP playback?


Slingboxes are great way to do screencaps from your Tivo. But it won't be HD either.

I thought if you went in WMP to the Tools->Performance tab and changed Video Accelartion to none it would allow you to use PrntScrn. May be misremembering that.

Another way to grab screen shots is with VirtualDubMod. It will open allow you to open an .mpg (freed via DSD or TivoDecode) and the copy a frame to the clipboard.


----------



## thomb

When logging in to the now playing list via the browser I get 4 warning screens asking to confirm the security of the tivo ip address -
1. Security Certificate
2. Pop up asking if the current web page (res://ieframe.dll) is allowed to open a site on the intranet
3. user name (tivo) & password
4. a popup warning that the page contains secure and nonsecure items.

Is there a way to avoid these?


----------



## BillL

For some reason transfering a half hour standard definition show between my S3 and HD takes an entire night. It is MUCH quicker to transfer it from my S3 to my computer then from my computer to my HD. The extra step saves about 8 hours. I have rebooted both TIVOs and am out of ideas.


----------



## Mike want hmo

Hello All, 

I am thinking about buying a couple of S3 tivos. I currently have two replay TV's and was wondering if mrv worked the same on Tivo as it does on my ReplayTVs when it comes to recording conflicts. If i try to record something on one of my replayTV's and their is a conflict it will ask if i want to record it on another ReplayTV. Does Tivo do that as well?
Thanks


----------



## moyekj

Mike want hmo said:


> Hello All,
> 
> I am thinking about buying a couple of S3 tivos. I currently have two replay TV's and was wondering if mrv worked the same on Tivo as it does on my ReplayTVs when it comes to recording conflicts. If i try to record something on one of my replayTV's and their is a conflict it will ask if i want to record it on another ReplayTV. Does Tivo do that as well?
> Thanks


 No, Tivo does not have any kind of co-operative scheduling like the RTVs. Also, Multi Room Viewing refers to the ability to copy programs from one Tivo to another in a household. Note that unlike RTV the Tivos do not stream to each other, rather they make physical copies of programs (and only for non-copy protected content). So it's kind of a pain that you then have to delete a program you have watched on multiple Tivos in the house.

That being said the fact that the S3s have 2 tuners and you plan on getting 2 of them makes scheduling conflicts much easier to manage than with single tuner RTVs.


----------



## Mike want hmo

Interesting, I thought RTV's copied the content i didn't think they streamed it. Tivo should do some type of coopertive scheduling like the RTV's and take full advantage of the 100mb network connection as well. Then it would be close to perfect.


----------



## astronomer

A few weeks ago, everything worked smoothly transferring files from Series 3 to PC and back, even with editing to .mpg using VideoRedo. Now, transfers TO the PC work fine but transfers back to the Series 3 (even just the originals) begins
just fine but stalls after transferring a few minutes of video; after several minutes, the blue light goes off and the transfer stops. There are no error messages on either the Series 3 or the PC. This started happening with 2.5.1 but is the same after installing 2.6.1.

Has anyone else seen (or repaired) this problem?


----------



## ilh

I had this problem when I switched to 2.6.1. When I went back to 2.5.1 plus the certificate fix, my transfers PC to THD worked fine once again.


----------



## moyekj

Use pyTivo to transfer back instead of TD and it will likely work much better. In fact avoiding TD (for both pull and push) completely seems to be a good option these days.


----------



## m_jonis

Mike want hmo said:


> Hello All,
> 
> I am thinking about buying a couple of S3 tivos. I currently have two replay TV's and was wondering if mrv worked the same on Tivo as it does on my ReplayTVs when it comes to recording conflicts. If i try to record something on one of my replayTV's and their is a conflict it will ask if i want to record it on another ReplayTV. Does Tivo do that as well?
> Thanks


Make sure you check if your cable provider has set CCI byte to 0x02 on all channels (like TW Albany does--except for HD Locals). That renders your MRV and TTG useless.


----------



## astronomer

moyekj said:


> Use pyTivo to transfer back instead of TD and it will likely work much better. In fact avoiding TD (for both pull and push) completely seems to be a good option these days.


Loading Python and pyTivo works fine--thanks for the tip!


----------



## beets

Got a new HD TV and need to upgrade my S2DT. Prefer to keep existing WiFi.


----------



## moyekj

beets said:


> Got a new HD TV and need to upgrade my S2DT. Prefer to keep existing WiFi.


Amazon still carries S3 Tivos.


----------



## bkdtv

I haven't been around the forum much lately, so the first post is in dire need of an update.

Any suggestions for changes?


----------



## SamD

Looks as TTG 2.6.2 doesn't allow to add video folder to automate transfers back to TiVo. Add Video button is grayed out.I guess this is available now only in Plus version. Perhaps this should be noted in the first post.


----------



## rrg

I have TiVo Desktop running both on a Windows PC and on Mac OS X. Both servers are pointing to the same directory (on my NAS) and both are configured with my Media Access Key.

The directory contains both .mpg files and .tivo files, the latter transferred from one or more of the Series3s on my LAN. The files were transferred from the TiVos using TiVo Desktop on Windows, and using Toast 9 on Mac OS.

The TiVos can see all the files from the Windows TiVo Desktop server, but only the .mpg files and NOT the .tivo files from the Mac OS server.

Is there some additional configuration needed on the Mac OS side? I can't see anything obvious in the available Preferences. The Media Access Key is the obvious thing to check but it looks correct as far as I can tell.

Thanks.


----------



## yawitz

I'm also having a frustrating time getting some downloaded .tivo files from my Mac back to my Tivo (Series 3). Hope someone can help.

I had copied a number of .tivo files via the web browser interface (accessed using the TiVo's IP address). Some of these were SD shows, under 3GB, and some were HD shows, between 5 and 8 GB. They all seemed to come down successfully.

I'm now trying to get these back onto the Tivo, , using the latest Tivo Desktop on the Mac, with the following results.


If I place the JUST the SD shows into the correct video folder, they show up properly on my TiVo. (I usually need to stop, then restart, Tivo Desktop to see the changes to the contents of that folder.)
If I place JUST the HD shows in that folder, they don't show up--Tivo claims no items were found.
If I place a mix of the HD and SD shows in that folder, none of the files show up, even the ones that had shown up in the first test. If I remove the HD shows (and toggle Tivo Desktop again), the SD shows appear once again.

Is there something about just having larger files in the folder that causes this odd problem? Or is there something about their format? And in either case, is there a fix?

I'm running Mac Tiger 10.4.11, but tried this same test on 10.3.9 with the same results.

Any ideas or advice out there?

Thanks,
Mitch


----------



## RS4

I have 2 Tivo HD's. I use one to record OTA and from the internet, and my main THD is used for cable. The main THD cannot always see the OTA THD, but I never seem to have a problem the other way. Yesterday for instance I could not see OTA on my main, but when I looked on OTA, it could see the Now Playing List on main just fine.

One day I actually saw the reference to the OTA machine go away just as I brought up the screen to look at the other box. Another time, the other machine went away in the list, but continued transferring a show to main.

My main box has no problems getting updates, and I can see the other machine usually after rebooting, but I hate rebooting all the time. The network tests show the network to be running fine.

Is there something else I should be checking or something I could do instead of rebooting all the time?

Thanks


----------



## AZrob

I have had the same problem with my 2 Tivo HD's...have posted on it but have received no answer. Called Tivo and they said reset the router, which I have not had a chance to try yet. 

But I can offer you this: you may not need to reboot the Tivo(s) to fix the problem - just reset the Network connection. That always brings back the MRV functionality for me. It's a drag but it's better than rebooting, because you can click-through all the options and get it reset in about a minute. It's just a temporary workaround, but at least it's less hassle than rebooting.

Rob


----------



## berkshires

bkdtv said:


> I haven't been around the forum much lately, so the first post is in dire need of an update.
> 
> Any suggestions for changes?


I am seeing MRV speeds THD to THD faster than ever before - with the same network equipment I always had.

Even with a not so fancy Netgear WGR614 100mbps router I have wired @ low to mid 20's mbps and if I tune to blank channels on the receiving THD, its over 30mbps.

I think THD to S3 is also faster these days, but haven't focused on that.


----------



## txporter

berkshires said:


> I am seeing MRV speeds THD to THD faster than ever before - with the same network equipment I always had.
> 
> Even with a not so fancy Netgear WGR614 100mbps router I have wired @ low to mid 20's mbps and if I tune to blank channels on the receiving THD, its over 30mbps.
> 
> I think THD to S3 is also faster these days, but haven't focused on that.


I agree, my wired THD to THD rates went from 16-18 mbps to 22-24 mbps and when tuned to channels I don't receive, up to 36 mbps. Happened with V11 software.

Jason


----------



## roblight

Anyone have any experience with this setup? Many thanks!


----------



## b_scott

I have an N router that I do that with. but Tivo isn't N, so it'll only be G speeds.


----------



## bkdtv

b_scott said:


> I have an N router that I do that with. but Tivo isn't N, so it'll only be G speeds.


He would have to add a compatible 802.11n bridge, such as the:

D-Link DAP1522 (4 ports, $99)
Linksys WGA600N (1 port, $90)

One would configure the 802.11n bridge on your PC or Mac using the bundled software, and then move it to your TV room and connect the TiVo.

The TiVo's ethernet port would connect to an ethernet port on 802.11n bridge, and the bridge would wirelessly communicate with your router at 802.11n speeds. Generally, it is advisable to buy an 802.11n bridge from the same company that manufactured your router, because not all 802.11n implementations (from different manufacturers) are fully compatible.


----------



## roblight

bkdtv said:


> He would have to add a compatible 802.11n bridge


Exactly what I'm thinking of doing with Apple AirPort Extreme and Express combos.

So, has anyone done this? Are the data rates sufficient? Thanks!!


----------



## roblight

So no one is doing MRV over any form of Wi-Fi?


----------



## CuriousMark

A quick search resulted in several hits, here is the most promising one.
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=343801&highlight=MRV+express+extreme


----------



## bkdtv

roblight said:


> So no one is doing MRV over any form of Wi-Fi?


Most use WiFi because they've got the TiVo wireless adapter. But 802.11g is not as fast for MRV, and it can be unbearably slow if you lots of interference from other wireless devices and/or other adjacent wireless networks.



roblight said:


> Exactly what I'm thinking of doing with Apple AirPort Extreme and Express combos.
> 
> So, has anyone done this? Are the data rates sufficient? Thanks!!


The first post has information on the use of 802.11n. If you already have a 802.11n router like the Airport Extreme, this is a good choice; if you don't yet have a 802.11n router, then there are better (and cheaper) alternatives like MoCA.


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## moyekj

I tried bridged 802.11n Airport Extreme routers before and they didn't work any better than my 802.11g Buffalo bridge - in fact they were a little worse. Also tried the Tivo wireless adapter and that was not good enough either. So I sent both Airport routers back and eventually settled on MOCA. Many have learned the hard way that wired pretty much always trumps wireless when it comes to reliability and speed.


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## roblight

Thanks so much for the replies! It sounds like for my purposes that MoCA is the answer.

Any pointers to setting up a MoCA network with two THDs? Thanks again!!


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## moyekj

roblight said:


> Thanks so much for the replies! It sounds like for my purposes that MoCA is the answer.
> 
> Any pointers to setting up a MoCA network with two THDs? Thanks again!!


 This thread should answer any/all questions you may have:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=379206&highlight=MOCA


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## slimjim867

>>I want to improve the MRV transfer rate on my HD TiVo. Wireless just isn't cutting it. What are the alternatives to running a 100Mbps ethernet cable across the living room floor?

Several higher-speed networking options are available at a price that avoid the need to run a network cable across the floor. Examples:

* Coax networking / MoCA (top choice)<<

I have FIOS with one TivoHD. I have Cat5 going to each box. Transfer speed of HD for PC>Tivo is too slow. I plan to get another Tivo and have Cat5 already at that location. Would Coax be faster?


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## bkdtv

slimjim867 said:


> I have FIOS with one TivoHD. I have Cat5 going to each box. Transfer speed of HD for PC>Tivo is too slow. I plan to get another Tivo and have Cat5 already at that location. Would Coax be faster?


If you already have CAT5, you can't do better than that. Coax (MoCA) is just the next best choice for those that can't run CAT5.

Throughput with MRV between TiVos is *much* faster than transfers to and from PCs, for the reasons noted in the first post.


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## rooobosmith

Just an FYI, I purchased a new TivoHD and my DLink switch indicates connection at gigabit rate.

My 1.3 year old TivoHD only connects at 100MBps so it looks like they've upgraded the networking.


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## wmcbrine

Interesting! That's the first I've heard of that. Can you see a difference in transfer rates between the two?

Normally other bottlenecks in the TiVo limit it to way below 100 Mbps, so I'm kinda surprised they'd bother upgrading before they'd fixed that. But maybe the old 100 Mbps parts became unavailable, and the new Gigabit parts were just as cheap, or something.


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## bkdtv

Sounds like a glitch in your D-Link switch. The Broadcom SoC in the TivoHD is limited t0 100Mbps.


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## WilTurg

Apologies if this is the wrong place for this question, but it seemed like the logical place.

I have a Tivo HD XL that had been hooked directly into one of the LAN ports of my main router (Netgear FWAG114) via Cat5 run through the walls into another room; my main iMac is also directly connected to the FWAG114. For months transfers in both directions between the iMac and the Tivo worked fine. The other day I decided to add a new router (Netgear WGR614) in the room with the Tivo, both to extend the range of the network and get a few more wired connections in that room for other equipment; now that router is wired to a LAN port on the FWAG114 and the Tivo is connected to one of its LAN ports. Everything works fine through the new router, except all of a sudden the iMac connected to the old router can't find the Tivo connected to the new router. Interestingly, if I connect a MacBook Pro though the new router (wired or wirelessly), it finds the Tivo without any problems. The Tivo is also having no problems connecting to the network and downloading from Tivo.

I've tried shutting down all the firewalls on the new router and have turned NAT from secured to open, restarting everything, and even created a static route for the Tivo (which I deleted because it didn't work). Anyone have any suggestions or hints for where else to look?

Thanks,

WT


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## hamlet78

This might have already been brought up before, but my search kung-fu isn't good enough to find it, so let me ask:

I sometimes rip backups of my owned DVDs, specifically DVDs of TV shows. Each show is a separate mp4 and I can upload them to the Tivo perfectly.

The only other tweak that I would like to make is to see if I can get episodes of the same series to show up in the Now Playing list in the same folder.

So if I upload 4 episodes of Lost via the mp4 versions of my DVD, can I get them to show up in a single Lost folder?

Is there an mp4 attribute I can update to make this happen?

Anyone accomplish this yet?

Thanks.


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## moyekj

hamlet78 said:


> This might have already been brought up before, but my search kung-fu isn't good enough to find it, so let me ask:
> 
> I sometimes rip backups of my owned DVDs, specifically DVDs of TV shows. Each show is a separate mp4 and I can upload them to the Tivo perfectly.
> 
> The only other tweak that I would like to make is to see if I can get episodes of the same series to show up in the Now Playing list in the same folder.
> 
> So if I upload 4 episodes of Lost via the mp4 versions of my DVD, can I get them to show up in a single Lost folder?
> 
> Is there an mp4 attribute I can update to make this happen?
> 
> Anyone accomplish this yet?
> 
> Thanks.


How are you uploading them to your TiVo? Are you pulling them from the TiVo using TiVo Desktop server, using TiVo Desktop Auto Transfers or using pyTivo pushes? Depending how you "upload" them they might be transcoded back to mpeg2 during transfer resulting in further quality degradation. If your goal is ultimately to transfer and keep on TiVos then why transocde to mp4 and lose quality when you can transfer the original quality mpeg2 instead?

If you use pyTivo and accompanying metadata files you can get them to group on your TiVo. Depending on your mp4 specs you may be able to push them natively to your TiVos as well so that no transcoding is necessary.


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## hamlet78

moyekj said:


> How are you uploading them to your TiVo? Are you pulling them from the TiVo using TiVo Desktop server, using TiVo Desktop Auto Transfers or using pyTivo pushes? Depending how you "upload" them they might be transcoded back to mpeg2 during transfer resulting in further quality degradation. If your goal is ultimately to transfer and keep on TiVos then why transocde to mp4 and lose quality when you can transfer the original quality mpeg2 instead?
> 
> If you use pyTivo and accompanying metadata files you can get them to group on your TiVo. Depending on your mp4 specs you may be able to push them natively to your TiVos as well so that no transcoding is necessary.


@moyekj - Thanks for the advise.

First off, I am using Tivo Desktop Server to "upload". Basically I keep a large set of backed up DVDs on my PC and want an easy way to pull them over on demand.

I have been using Handbrake's default settings to transcode the DVD to mp4, mainly for compatibility between all devices. I hadn't considered mpeg2. I'll do a little research. My main concerns is that I want the library to be highly compatible across devices (Tivo, PC, iphone, next device i get), reasonable on space (don't want to have to have massive files) and easy to transfer.

I haven't used pyTivo since I had an old SAT-T60 and that was the only way to transfer files.

You've given me some things to think about. I appreciate your response.


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## wmcbrine

hamlet78 said:


> I haven't used pyTivo since I had an old SAT-T60 and that was the only way to transfer files.


I think you're confusing it with tivoserver.


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## showpony

This is the possibly the most informative thread I have ever seen on the internet. Thank you.


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## bkdtv

showpony said:


> This is the possibly the most informative thread I have ever seen on the internet. Thank you.


It sounds like you haven't seen this thread, stickied to the top of the forum:

TivoHD FAQ: Overview, Using TiVo, Tips, and Issues


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## elmeng

My local Fox HD channel comes in as 720p. I download it with Tivo Transfer and import it to Toast Titanium for editing on my iMac as a Blu-ray Video. When toast receives the file is become a larger file and and takes three times or more longer to multiplex as compared to NBC (1080i), CBS (1080i), and ABC (720P) programs. Whats the problem?


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## tspofford

I expect this is a FAQ but I can't find it. Tivo Desktop Plus on Win7 machine produced a number of *.tivo files that I'd like to keep and run on my new Mac. It seems that iTivo will only process files from the Tivo - I have an HD - and not preexisting files. I tried using the share function in TDP to get them back on the box and from there, my hope was, to the Mac, but for reasons unknown, that doesn't seem to be happening - that is, the folder that's queued in TDP to send back to the box is not being seen, or the files aren't being fetched, or something.

I'm getting on a plane tomorrow morning and had hoped to watch a couple of these movies on the plane but I've pretty much run out of time. Still, if there is a solution to this, I'd appreciate a pointer. A couple of older programs sound like they would strip the wrapper to that I can watch them but either they're obsolete, apparently, or have disappeared.

Regards,
Tim.


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## Phantom Gremlin

tspofford said:


> I expect this is a FAQ but I can't find it.


You can find a lot more information in the Home Media forum, which is the more appropriate place to discuss these issues. But even in that forum, there's no overarching FAQ. You must read a number of threads to gather the information you will need.

There are multiple ways to process .tivo files. E.g. there is a standalone program called tivodecode that can simply remove the encryption. One easy way to get tivodecode is to download kmttg, which is discussed extensively in the other forum. Kmttg includes and uses tivodecode, but also does a whole lot more. Once decrypted, you can use e.g. handbrake to transcode to H.264 format that's smaller and more conducive to storing on a laptop for watching on a plane. You can then double-click on the resulting file and iTunes will import it. Or you could just use VLC as a viewer. I personally use the kmttg -> tivodecode -> handbrake -> VLC workflow to get files to my Mac for viewing.

Or you can use videoredo, another program that's frequently discussed. It costs money, but will decrypt and also transcode.

Or you could just use tivodecode to decrypt, then use VLC to watch the MPEG-2 without transcoding.

Many many ways to solve your problem.


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