# Is it posible to play TiVo files with Vista Media Center?



## gayste (Feb 27, 2002)

I searched but could not find any info on this (lots of comparisons between MC and TiVo came up)

I would like to use Media Center to play .TiVo files instead of Media Player. Can this be done without converting the files?


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Just publish your My TiVo Recordings folder in Media Center. As long as you have the TiVo DirectShow filter installed (you'll need to install TD 2.3) then they will play just fine in Media Center. Although you wont be ale to FF, so you'll have to use the skip feature to get around. 

Dan


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## jim111 (May 17, 2007)

I'm not sure what you mean by publishing to Media Center, but I think I may have already done that. It still isn't working, though.

I have the TiVo shows on a hard drive in the PC in my home office (I've transferred them there from the TiVos in my living room and bedroom). I want to watch them on that PC (in the office). I can watch them on that PC fine using Windows Media Player 11, but I want to use MC, since it allows me to use the remote. 

I've tried watching the TiVo shows in Media Center by clicking on Videos in MC, and then selecting the folder that holds the TiVo shows (the "My TiVo Recordings" folder shows in MC, under Videos). When I select one of the dozens of TiVo shows displayed there, it shows the title of the TiVo show, says "Finished" as if I'd just watched it (I haven't), it shows three button choices (restart, finish, delete), and it flashes and clicks three times, then a message comes up saying, "Can't Play Video, MC can't open the file." If I try to click the restart button, nothing happens, and it still flashes three times and says "Can't Play Video, MC can't open the file." 

I have TiVo Desktop 2.4a, and I just bought the TiVo Desktop Plus option for $24.95, hoping it would make it work, but it doesn't. I'm running Windows XP, SP2 (unlike the OP).

Could you please give me a step by step as to how exactly how I can accomplish this? 

Thanks for any help.

Jim


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Hmmm... I actually have Vista Ultimate and it works fine for me, but that could be because Vista does something different. You could try running the TiVo files through a program such as VideoReDo or DirectShow Dump and converting them to standard MPEG files to see if that helps. (one advantage to using VideoReDo is that you can save the file as DVR-MS, which will enable the FF feature in MCE)

Dan


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## denver6 (Sep 26, 2007)

I have Vista Ultimate and also cannot play TiVo files through WMC. They play in Media Player, but not in Media Center. I even installed PowerDVD in hopes that it would install some needed codec or something.

Any ideas on how to troubleshoot TiVo files not playing in WMC?

I was able to play TiVO files in Vista Ultimate in WMC on my old computer, but I built a new one and it does not play TiVo files. Not sure what I did differently between the two builds.

Thanks,

Rob


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## techbri (Oct 15, 2007)

I know this may seem odd since they are already on the Tivo but I wonder if the .tivo files will stream from Vista MCE to the Xbox 360 through the extender interface. My wife has recorded over a hundred shows for the kids and I would like to keep the space freed up on the Tivo. The MCE box has enough space that I could archive them there if it would work.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

If you use VideoReDo to convert them to DVR-MS files you can.

Dan


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## naybag (Feb 23, 2005)

Did anyone ever find a fix to this. Itoo am trying to play .tivo files from within the Windows Media Center. The files show in the Media Center, but when Itry to play them, I get the same message as described above. Any thoughts?


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## jim111 (May 17, 2007)

I never got it working with XP. But it works fine with Vista, which I subsequently upgraded to.


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## naybag (Feb 23, 2005)

jim111 said:


> I never got it working with XP. But it works fine with Vista, which I subsequently upgraded to.


Hmmm. I am using Vista. Anyone else figure out a fix.


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## stumiller (Jan 28, 2003)

Dan203 said:


> Just publish your My TiVo Recordings folder in Media Center. As long as you have the TiVo DirectShow filter installed (you'll need to install TD 2.3) then they will play just fine in Media Center. Although you wont be ale to FF, so you'll have to use the skip feature to get around.
> 
> Dan


I still don't know what you mean when you say "Publish to Media Center." Can you explain this process? Thanks.


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## naybag (Feb 23, 2005)

I believe what he means by "publish" is to add the Tivo folder to be viewable by the Windows Media Center.

I have added the folder, but still can't view the Tivo files.


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## CuriousMark (Jan 13, 2005)

check out the codec manager tool in the sticky at the top of this forum. If the problem is codec related it might help.


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## astromonkey (Mar 1, 2009)

Has anyone had any luck with getting .tivo files to play through Media Center in Vista? Whenever I try to play them I get an error "Windows Media Center cannot open the file". I tried all the codec options in the TivoDesktopCodecMgr.exe but still can not get the video to play.


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## ggieseke (May 30, 2008)

There are several reports that it works in 32-bit Vista Media Center, but not 64-bit.


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## naybag (Feb 23, 2005)

ggieseke said:


> There are several reports that it works in 32-bit Vista Media Center, but not 64-bit.


This would hold true for me. I can't get this to work, and I do have 64-bit Vista.


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## Darkelf (Dec 30, 2008)

naybag said:


> This would hold true for me. I can't get this to work, and I do have 64-bit Vista.


Same issue for me. I have Vista 64 and I can play videos on my PC HDD on my Xbox 360 with Windows Media Center, but when I try to play Tivo files they appear corrupted and stop after a while.

Any known workarounds other than file conversion. Ideally, I'd like to keep them in the .tivo format so I can play them on the Tivo and 360. I'm also concerned about loss of quality.


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## ggieseke (May 30, 2008)

You could use tivodecode to convert to straight MPEG-2 for the 360. All it does is strip the DRM wrapper and decrypt the file, so no actual transcoding or loss of quality would be involved. If you delete the .TiVo file after converting it you would lose the metadata when sending it back to your DVR, but it still wouldn't lose any quality.


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## rickws3 (Jun 17, 2007)

I've just installed Windows 7 RC on two different machines; one with 64-bit, the other 32-bit. After installing tivo desktop, both play .tivo files fine in Media Player. Media Center playback only works on the 32-bit version however. That seems consistent with what's been reported for Vista, and it looks like no improvement with Windows 7 (no surprise).


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## gonzotek (Sep 24, 2004)

Hmmm, I wonder if it would be possible (and make sense) for someone to make a tivodecode-based ds filter?


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## ggieseke (May 30, 2008)

In addition to the one that comes with Desktop??????


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## gonzotek (Sep 24, 2004)

ggieseke said:


> In addition to the one that comes with Desktop??????


I'm thinking specifically of the 64-bit Vista and Win7 Media Center issue as described by rickws3. Since tivodecode's source is available, I *think* it should be _possible_ to build a directshow filter that uses it to decode the .tivo and send mpeg data on to to the next filter in the chain, replacing the decryption filter tivo desktop uses. And it should be possible to build it for 64-bit systems as well, AFAICT. Of course, if it isn't the decryption filter, but the mpeg-playback that's the issue(or something else), doing that wouldn't get us anything particularly useful.


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## ggieseke (May 30, 2008)

Makes sense now. If I had a 64-bit Media Center computer I would take a crack at writing one, but I don't.

The easiest solution is probably to just run everything through tivodecode.


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