# TiVo SW for Mac OSX



## zerdian1 (Apr 19, 2015)

I set this thread up because the PC kingdom did not want any MAC related questions on their PC WINDOWS ONLY SW Thread.

I am looking for comments and suggestions on MAC OS X 10.10 SW.

I have 3 candidates so far:
1. TiVo DeskTop for MAC by TiVo last updated in 2009. Not able to be installed.
2. pyTiVo for MAC by Python. Not able to get it on my Mac OSX 10.10.
3. cTiVo for MAC. This is the first SW that loaded and started to run.
but since I am away from home and out of the country, I can not complete my test of the new Beta SW which needs to be run on my home network when I get back. Is this all I need on my Mac?
4. Looking for other TiVo MAC OS X 10.10 SW candidates.


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## bxofcpoison (Mar 22, 2015)

I am interested. I'm running TiVo Desktop for Mac 10.10.3 OS X Yosemite and it's absolutely worthless.


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## sydnius (Feb 5, 2004)

kmttg


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## zerdian1 (Apr 19, 2015)

sydnius
thanks
KMTTG SEEMS TO REQUIRE PYTIVO AND TIVO TO GO.
SINCE I CAN NOT EVEN GET PYTIVO TO LOAD ON MY OS X 10.10.
I AM NOT SURE IF I CAN USE IT.
BUT WILL CHECK IT OUT.
MY CURRENT LEADING CANDIDATE IS CTIVO.



sydnius said:


> kmttg


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## zerdian1 (Apr 19, 2015)

I downloaded kmttg and executed it and got a bunch of small UNIX routines.
I assume there is some other program to execute them?


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## zerdian1 (Apr 19, 2015)

there are four votes one for each option


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## gonzotek (Sep 24, 2004)

pyTivo and kmttg and cTiVo all work perfectly fine for me on my 2013 MacBook Air running 10.10.2. <- I've just linked to the install directions for ctivo, and the OSX-specific install directions for pyTiVo and kmttg. If you choose to attempt to follow the install directions, and have any trouble with any of them, please post in the TiVo Home Media Features forum with as much detail about the issues encountered as possible and someone will try to help.


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## zerdian1 (Apr 19, 2015)

I have downloaded and installed Python 3.4.3.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

You already had the correct Python on your Mac. You did not need to download anything, nor will 3.x work.


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## zerdian1 (Apr 19, 2015)

I trashed the Python I downloaded and expanded.

How can I find the version of pyTiVo that will run on my Mac OS X 10.10.3?

will pytiVo allow me to run videos on my Mac?

will pyTiVo allow to copy TiVo videos on to my Mac so I can replace the hard drive in a WeaKnees storage upgrade?



wmcbrine said:


> You already had the correct Python on your Mac. You did not need to download anything, nor will 3.x work.


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## zerdian1 (Apr 19, 2015)

I am trying to find a version of pyTiVo that twill back up my hard drive before i get it expanded.
and allow me to play TiVo videos on my iMac OS X 10.10.3 desktop or MBP OS X 10.10.3 laptop.
then to restore the videos to my newly upgraded desktop.

I assume the 100 or so one passes can just be copies to my other TiVo roamio basic. it can hold some of the videos but to all.

there are too many optional pity's:
which one will work best on a MAC OS X 10.10

Cheetah	Remove portions of Cheetah that pyTivo doesn't use.	3 years ago
content	Better alignment.	2 years ago
mutagen	Update to the latest (last?) version of mutagen.	3 years ago
plugins	Fix for workaround -- pushing was broken in auto mode. D'oh! Reported by	a month ago
templates	Avoid duplicate share names with old-style announcements (though only if	2 years ago
xmpp	We need the xmpp module to make the webvideo plugin work.	7 years ago
README	Require Python 2.5; revert some 2.4 compatibility patches.	2 years ago
beacon.py	Version 0.14 of zeroconf.py -- see the pyzeroconf project for details.	11 months ago
config.py	More _tivo_ sections without addresses.	11 months ago
httpserver.py	Allow filling in the names and addresses of TiVos found via Zeroconf	11 months ago
lrucache.py	A BSD-licensed version of lrucache.py. (The copyright notice is the only	6 years ago
metadata.py	Ratings from .nfo files should no longer be converted to strings.	9 months ago
mind.py	Use cp1252 instead of iso8859-1 for Windows 8-bit characters.	11 months ago
plugin.py	Workaround for the TiVo losing track of the grouped/ungrouped flag for	2 months ago
pyTivo.conf.dist	Same for pyTivo.conf.dist.	2 years ago
pyTivo.py	Restore pre-Python-2.7.9 behavior. Neither individual TiVos' nor	4 months ago
pyTivoConfigurator.pyw	auto_subshares is no longer needed, either.	6 years ago
pyTivoService.py	Allow restart/quit to work from the Windows service. Not yet tested.	3 years ago
turing.py	More Turing tweaks.	2 years ago
zeroconf.py	Version 0.14 of zeroconf.py -- see the pyzeroconf project for details.	11 months ago

I looked at few and they just looked like line of code and comments.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

I'm pretty sure every version of pyTivo that has ever existed (minus, I suppose, the infamous Windows Installer packages) will run on OS X 10.10. The best is, of course, the latest. You're not going to get a simple .app (unless you go for pyTivoX, but it's outdated now). But you can get a simple .zip or .tgz.

I don't know why you're listing what looks like the contents of the GitHub front page, or what "optional pity's" is supposed to mean. But there's a big honking "Download ZIP" button to the right of all that. Press THAT.


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## zroger73 (Oct 1, 2012)

I run cTiVo on my iMac and MBP to download from my Premiers and Roamio OTA. It works just fine, although any downloads in progress will stop and reset if the computer is allowed to sleep. I then use HandBrake to further process the file.


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## mackworth (Jul 31, 2006)

FYI, There's an option in cTiVo's preferences to prevent sleep during downloads. And question: what's the further processing you need to do?


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## zerdian1 (Apr 19, 2015)

I have not yet found a good site to download cTiVo and get it to work on my Mac OS X 10.10.3


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## zroger73 (Oct 1, 2012)

mackworth said:


> FYI, There's an option in cTiVo's preferences to prevent sleep during downloads. And question: what's the further processing you need to do?


I download the decrypted TiVo file then decomb and reduce the file size or change audio or whatever I need to do based on what I intend to do with the file.


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## zroger73 (Oct 1, 2012)

zerdian1 said:


> I have not yet found a good site to download cTiVo and get it to work on my Mac OS X 10.10.3


https://github.com/dscottbuch/cTiVo/releases


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## zerdian1 (Apr 19, 2015)

zroger73 said:


> https://github.com/dscottbuch/cTiVo/releases


today was the first time (in 3 attempts) I got an executable of CTIVO that will work.
it was able to show 1451 shows mostly from one TiVo Roamio Pro.
i am downloading two in MPEG2 HD format.

WHAT IS THE BEST FORMAT TO PLAY ON MY MAC BOOK PRO OS X 10.10.3?
WHAT OTHE RSW DO I NEED TO WATCH SHOWS ON MY MBP OS X?
IS IT QUICKTIME?
OR SOMETHING ELSE?

I TREID DOWNLOADING TWO SHOWS FROM MY ROAMIO BASIC WITH STREAM.
BOTH FAILED MULTIPLE TIMES.

Next I will try downloading shows from my Roamio Pro


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## zerdian1 (Apr 19, 2015)

I downloaded a show from my Roamio Pro and it also failed.

Now I an testing downloading a show actually recorded on my Roamio Pro and downloading with Youtube format.


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## gonzotek (Sep 24, 2004)

zerdian1 said:


> today was the first time (in 3 attempts) I got an executable of CTIVO that will work.
> it was able to show 1451 shows mostly from one TiVo Roamio Pro.
> i am downloading two in MPEG2 HD format.
> 
> ...


Define 'failed'. Did you receive an error message, and if so what did the error state? You can use VLC (among other free and non-free software packages) to playback MPEG2 files on a Mac. If you use cTivo to convert a .tivo file to another format, you must choose a format for which you have a compatible player. If quality and filesize are your first concerns, h.264 is a very good format(although it is time consuming to encode into). If you plan on transferring the files back to the Tivo at a later date, MPEG2 will retain full quality and transfers will be relatively quick and easy, at the cost of storage (MPEG2 is an older and less-efficient format, but it is what most cable companies and OTA broadcasters still use today).


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## zerdian1 (Apr 19, 2015)

i have switched the format to YouTube and I have finally got one of the videos to complete.
I am going back to the previous MPEG2 failures and trying them in Youtube Video format.
If that allows me to watch them on my MBP, I WILL BE HAPPY.

THE PROBLEM I AM TRYING TO SOLVE IS TO BE ABLE TO WATCH MY VIDEOS ON MY MBP WHEN TRAVELING. ON MY MBP I CAN USE AN HDMI CABLE AND WATCH THE VIDEO ON THE BIGGER HDTV.


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## zerdian1 (Apr 19, 2015)

the video starts downloading, then goes into encoding then goes to FAILED.
That is the status in the download que on cTiVo.
at this moment I have tow complete in the YouTube format and the third in process is ENCODING.
I have not gotten a successful MPEG2 HD to download successfully.



gonzotek said:


> Define 'failed'. Did you receive an error message, and if so what did the error state? You can use VLC (among other free and non-free software packages) to playback MPEG2 files on a Mac. If you use cTivo to convert a .tivo file to another format, you must choose a format for which you have a compatible player. If quality and filesize are your first concerns, h.264 is a very good format(although it is time consuming to encode into). If you plan on transferring the files back to the Tivo at a later date, MPEG2 will retain full quality and transfers will be relatively quick and easy, at the cost of storage (MPEG2 is an older and less-efficient format, but it is what most cable companies and OTA broadcasters still use today).


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## zerdian1 (Apr 19, 2015)

I have VLC but I may also need codec's in some of the formats.
But MPEG2 should have worked and it doesn't.
only the minimal YouTube format completes in the first 2 tests.


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## tomhayes (May 14, 2009)

I still use iTivo. 

I'll have to try cTivo.


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## zerdian1 (Apr 19, 2015)

I just completed a few successful downloads using Youtube Format.

And I have been able to play the Youtube video on my Mac Book Pro OS X 10.10.3 and 
WATCH THE VIDEO FROM BEGINNING TO END.

This is what I wanted to be able to do. 
I did this with a 1950's video that may have no restrictions.

THANKS

I will experiment into more modern videos tis ee if the restrictions will restrict viewing on my MBP.


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## zerdian1 (Apr 19, 2015)

zroger73
THANKS a lot.

finally able to view TiVo videos on my MBP.

I have tried MPEG2 and they all failed.
I tried YouTube and it worked.
I am able to watch the videos full screen.
I watched one from beginning to end.
I may lose some of the quality in YouTube format but the main objective is to watch the videos on my LaPTOP.

THE NEXT STEP IS TO DETERMINE IF I CAN COPY VIDEOS FROM TIVO AND COPY THEM TO ANOTHER TIVO.
This is important if I select to upgrade my TiVo Roamio Pro from 4TB to 12TB using WeaKnees for $900.
I want to be able to save all the Videos.



zroger73 said:


> https://github.com/dscottbuch/cTiVo/releases


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## tomhayes (May 14, 2009)

I use iTivo with the Decrypt-only option to download the full file with the audio intact.

I can not see a way to do this with cTivo, event the MPEG-2 and Decrypted Tivo options compress the audio.

Anyone know a way to grab the full file and do no post processing on it with cTivo?


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## zerdian1 (Apr 19, 2015)

I have downloaded a few videos from my TiVo and they successfully completed.
my computer shut down and now all the downloaded videos seem to have disappeared.
I checked in downloads.


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## zerdian1 (Apr 19, 2015)

The cTiVo completed Downloaded videos are stored in Movies/TiVoShows


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## zerdian1 (Apr 19, 2015)

The YouTube video format of cTiVo is the MPEG4 format which is for lower bitrate than MPEG2 and MPEG2 HD.


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## zerdian1 (Apr 19, 2015)

tomhayes said:


> I use iTivo with the Decrypt-only option to download the full file with the audio intact.
> 
> I can not see a way to do this with cTivo, event the MPEG-2 and Decrypted Tivo options compress the audio.
> 
> Anyone know a way to grab the full file and do no post processing on it with cTivo?


I assume by decrypt you mean to convert from TiVo format to some other format.

I use cTiVo to convert from TiVo Roamio Pro DVR to my MaC BOOK OS X 10.10.3 YouTube (MPEG4).

I have not yet been successful to convert TiVo video to MPEG2 format.


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## pghkirwan (Jan 4, 2003)

I have a S3 and an HD and Macs running OS 10.10.3. My question is: Of cTivo, kmttg and pity, which software will let me find out how much storage I have left on those boxes?

I upgraded the S3 a few years ago but forgot how big a drive I put in... (age & stage thing). The HD has the original drive plus a 500MB external drive. Both have lifetime passes.

Thanks,

Don


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## zerdian1 (Apr 19, 2015)

I am looking for DUMP RESTORE SW FOR TiVo to Mac OSX 10.10.3 so I can dump my TiVo Roamio Pro 4TB to my MAC OSX.

I will then be able to get my 4TB Roamio Pro upgraded by WeaKnees to 12TB.

I can then RESTORE my upgraded TiVo Roamio Pro with my 4TB of Videos.


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## telemark (Nov 12, 2013)

pghkirwan said:


> I have a S3 and an HD and Macs running OS 10.10.3. My question is: Of cTivo, kmttg and pity, which software will let me find out how much storage I have left on those boxes?


kmttg is very good with storage management.


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## telemark (Nov 12, 2013)

zerdian1 said:


> I am looking for DUMP RESTORE SW FOR TiVo to Mac OSX 10.10.3 so I can dump my TiVo Roamio Pro 4TB to my MAC OSX.
> 
> I will then be able to get my 4TB Roamio Pro upgraded by WeaKnees to 12TB.
> 
> I can then RESTORE my upgraded TiVo Roamio Pro with my 4TB of Videos.


You need to either:
add an external hard drive
fix your cTivo for mpeg2
install another network downloader like kmttg
ask WK to do the migration as part of the upgrade


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

pghkirwan said:


> I have a S3 and an HD and Macs running OS 10.10.3. My question is: Of cTivo, kmttg and *pity*


Again with this? Is this an autocorrect artifact, or what?


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## pghkirwan (Jan 4, 2003)

Autocorrect


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## mackworth (Jul 31, 2006)

> I use iTivo with the Decrypt-only option to download the full file with the audio intact.
> 
> I can not see a way to do this with cTivo, event the MPEG-2 and Decrypted Tivo options compress the audio.
> 
> Anyone know a way to grab the full file and do no post processing on it with cTivo?


Just FYI to folks here; we worked this out on the cTiVo forum. Tom ran into a bug in a beta version. cTiVo can pass through the MPEG without any processing (other than decryption) just fine. Also FYI, my personal favorite Format for all-around use is the AppleTV one. Good tradeoff on performance vs size for many purposes, although we provide a wide range for different uses and obviously you can edit them further to optimize for a particular purpose. Let me know on the cTiVo forums if one or another isn't working for you.


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## zerdian1 (Apr 19, 2015)

I have used cTiVo to download TiVo recordings on my Roamio Pro and my basic Roamio to my OSX 10.10.3 Mac Book Pro and my iMac. The only format that seemed to work for me was MPEG2 of YouTube.
since most of the videos I record are classic SD videos, that is OK for me.
probably will not be for the purists.

When I get back to my home in FL I where I have my TiVo's I will test download and restore SW.

Here in NJ I have a Dish setup. I am using their new Dish Anywhere SW as my old Dish Transfer SW was unsupported. so my 50GB of Dish Videos on my MBP is lost and now deleted. Dish Anywhere now has nearly 100GB of Dish Videos on my MBP.



mackworth said:


> Just FYI to folks here; we worked this out on the cTiVo forum. Tom ran into a bug in a beta version. cTiVo can pass through the MPEG without any processing (other than decryption) just fine. Also FYI, my personal favorite Format for all-around use is the AppleTV one. Good tradeoff on performance vs size for many purposes, although we provide a wide range for different uses and obviously you can edit them further to optimize for a particular purpose. Let me know on the cTiVo forums if one or another isn't working for you.


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## Chas_M (Jul 26, 2005)

zerdian1 said:


> The cTiVo completed Downloaded videos are stored in Movies/TiVoShows


I have installed cTivo, Version 2.1 (439), on my iMac running Yosemite (10.10.3) and also Parallels Windows 7. I also have Tivo's Tivo Desktop which I have been using until cTivo came along. My Tivo is a Roamio Pro.
I do not see the cTivo recordings anywhere on the Roamio GUi's. Is there something I might be doing wrong, or is this not a feature of cTivo? Is it necessary for Tivo Desktop to be totally removed before cTivo recordings will show up on the Roamio's GUI's?


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## zerdian1 (Apr 19, 2015)

I have all the videos (Movies and TV Shows) installed on a sub-folders of Movies folder.
the folder is specified in cTiVo and cTiVo shows the videos to be transferred, the folder where they will go after downloaded from TiVo and the format they will be converted to.
in my case it is Users/George/Movies/TiVoShows.
And I currently have 250 TiVoShows
I also specified the format YouTube, 
which is the only format that I have gotten to work. 
And it turns out this format plays back very easily.



Chas_M said:


> I have installed cTivo, Version 2.1 (439), on my iMac running Yosemite (10.10.3) and also Parallels Windows 7. I also have Tivo's Tivo Desktop which I have been using until cTivo came along. My Tivo is a Roamio Pro.
> I do not see the cTivo recordings anywhere on the Roamio GUi's. Is there something I might be doing wrong, or is this not a feature of cTivo? Is it necessary for Tivo Desktop to be totally removed before cTivo recordings will show up on the Roamio's GUI's?


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## Chas_M (Jul 26, 2005)

The concern I had was that in Tivo Desktop (TDT) you could playback the recordings made by TDT using the Tivo on screen GUI's. This is not possible in cTivo since cTivo does not attempt to mimic a Tivo (as in pyTivo) that allows video streams to be pulled from the computer hard drive. Just the other day I had this confirmed by the Hugh Mackworth of cTivo on GitHub.
"Ah, sending a show back to TiVo. Yes, you can do that using pyTiVo. It's a
little tricky to install, but after you do, if you enable the pytivo option
for a recording in cTiVo, we record all the metadata in a parallel text file
for it, and then you simply point pyTiVo at the directories where you store
your video. Then pyTiVo pretends to be a TiVo so other tiVos can pull the
shows over."

Thank you all the same for your suggestions. Right now I will be using cTivo to retrieve the shows from my Tivo, and then add them to the iTunes library. I will then watch them using Apple TV in the H.264 medium quality video format.

Charles


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## zerdian1 (Apr 19, 2015)

cTiVo Problem:
I transferred 250 TiVo videos a few months ago to my Mac and now the status has changed to ?.
I can no longer play them.
Anaone have any suggestions.


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## mackworth (Jul 31, 2006)

@zerdian. Sorry for delay. Where is the status showing as "?"? 

And how are you trying to play them? Are they visible in the Finder?


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## zerdian1 (Apr 19, 2015)

mackworth,
The first column in cTiVo Download Queue is the sequence number. I have about 250 videos.
the second column is the Status. all the videos now have a ? in the status column.
I downloaded the videos a few months ago so I could watch them while I was traveling this summer when not connected to the internet. 
At this point I am not sure if they expired or if they do not work when not on my home internet.
I will see in a few weeks when I get home.

I was trying to play them unsuccessfully from cTiVo app. 
They are in my movies file folder. 
And they play fine.
george


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## mackworth (Jul 31, 2006)

The ? simply means that we didn't find them when connecting to the TiVo; so if you run cTiVo when you're away from home (and don't go through the somewhat tricky exercise of remote access), then they will all show as ? as we can't currently see the tivo. They should all be playable through anyways, and any incomplete downloads will "reconnect" with the TiVo information when you return.


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## backspaces (Sep 14, 2005)

Just a quick note: I recently upgraded to the most recent iMac and installed the pyTivoX-1.3b with no difficulty. I believe it needed me to allow its use due to the usual security restrictions via the System Preferences.


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## Chas_M (Jul 26, 2005)

How easy was it to install pyTivo under OS X 10.10? I am currently using cTivo and viewing the recorded .MP4 videos with on the Mac screen or better still on my Apple TV supported by iTunes. It does make it slightly awkward to switch video sources on the TV away from my Tivo Roamio, but the quality is excellent.

I understand that pyTivo mimics another Tivo so the show recordings can be viewed as another Tivo device.

Charles


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## mackworth (Jul 31, 2006)

That's exactly right, so all your videos can then be played back on the Tivo. It re-encodes them in real time as necessary depending on which tivo you have. It's a great program, and works really well.

Installing it is just downloading the files, configuring where your video files are (in a configuration text file), and then running pytivo. If you point ctivo and pytivo to the same directory, then any shows downloaded will automatically be seen back again (turn on the metadata in ctivo to make sure all the show information makes the round trip).


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## Chas_M (Jul 26, 2005)

Where is the best site to download the files for pyTivo?


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## mackworth (Jul 31, 2006)

First install ffmpeg: FFMPeg Mac Binary

Secondly, download pyTiVo:
Pytivo download

Third, edit the pytivo.conf file in 3 places:

1. ffmpeg= << full path to ffmpeg including filename>>
2. [<<name of share, e.g. My Movies>>]
3. path= <<full path to where your videos are stored, e.g. /Users/YOURNAME/Movies/TivoShows>>

Then drag pytTivo.py onto /Applications/Utilities/Terminal to start PyTiVo. 
Look for any error messages and fix. 
Your TiVo should immediately show your Mac in the Now Playing list as well as all your videos in that folder.
Tech support is handled in the pytivo thread on TivoCommunity Forum.


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## Chas_M (Jul 26, 2005)

Thank you very much.


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## Chas_M (Jul 26, 2005)

I have downloaded the pytivo-master feel but cannot see the file your reference, for editing, pytivo.conf.

Has it been renamed?


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## gonzotek (Sep 24, 2004)

Chas_M said:


> I have downloaded the pytivo-master feel but cannot see the file your reference, for editing, pytivo.conf.
> 
> Has it been renamed?


pyTivo.conf.dist (make a copy and rename that to just pyTivo.conf).


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## mackworth (Jul 31, 2006)

Sorry, I thought it downloaded a sample one. You can edit pytivo.conf.dist, but that's vey complex and it's probably easier to create your own.

If you create one in a text editor that just consists of "[Server]", then pyTivo should start, and you can use the webAdmin interface at http://localhost:9032/ to create the rest of it.

See more detailed instructions here


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## Chas_M (Jul 26, 2005)

Again many thanks for your help.

Charles


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## gonzotek (Sep 24, 2004)

mackworth said:


> Sorry, I thought it downloaded a sample one. You can edit pytivo.conf.dist, but that's vey complex and it's probably easier to create your own.
> 
> If you create one in a text editor that just consists of "[Server]", then pyTivo should start, and you can use the webAdmin interface at http://localhost:9032/ to create the rest of it.
> 
> See more detailed instructions here


Good points. Perhaps it'd be better to provide a simpler example conf file with pyTivo.


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## Chas_M (Jul 26, 2005)

mackworth said:


> Sorry, I thought it downloaded a sample one. You can edit pytivo.conf.dist, but that's vey complex and it's probably easier to create your own.
> 
> If you create one in a text editor that just consists of "[Server]", then pyTivo should start, and you can use the webAdmin interface at http://localhost:9032/ to create the rest of it.
> 
> See more detailed instructions here


I finally got pyTivo working: recording shows and allowing the Roamio to see all my recorded shows. After looking at the .dist config file i decide to use it. It was not difficult to understand. The most difficult part was outing the true pathname for my Tivo Show folder on my NAS. Yosemite has not made it easy. After many false starts, I finally resorted to advice on the Internet to make a Automator Service to copy the path name to the clip board. Only then was the true path name accepted by pyTivo for both the Tivo show folder and the address of the "ffmpeg" file.

Q1: Is there a way to make the pyTivo respond to a start up request by click on an icon on the desktop?

Q2: Is there an option to allow previously recored Shows in an .MP4 format to be downloaded in real time to the Tivo as .Tivo files?

Q3: Is there a way to play the shows on the web interface on the computer? Currently a double click on the recored show on the NAS results in the message "there is no application."

Again, thank you all for your help.

Charles


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## mackworth (Jul 31, 2006)

Glad it's working well for you.

Q1: Yes; right-click on pytivo.py and go to Open With>Other> then click "Always open with" and then navigate to Applications>Utilities>Terminal. That file will then open with Terminal and you should be good. Note that you can create an alias to that file and then move the alias to your desktop or Applications folder, wherever you like.

Q2. Not quite sure what you mean. PyTiVo should be showing you the MP4 files on disk on your TiVo? They don't have to be converted to .TiVo files to do that.

Q3 Not sure about "on the web interface", but otherwise Yes. If the Finder isn't associating your MP4 files on the NAS with Quicktime Player, then you'll want to do a similar process as Q1, but click on one of the files, use the GetInfo command. then in the "Open with" area, select QuickTime Player (or whatever player you like, e.g. VLC), and hit Change All. Try running another video to see if it worked.


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## Chas_M (Jul 26, 2005)

mackworth said:


> Glad it's working well for you.
> 
> Q2. Not quite sure what you mean. PyTiVo should be showing you the MP4 files on disk on your TiVo? They don't have to be converted to .TiVo files to do that.
> 
> Q3 Not sure about "on the web interface", but otherwise Yes. If the Finder isn't associating your MP4 files on the NAS with Quicktime Player, then you'll want to do a similar process as Q1, but click on one of the files, use the GetInfo command. then in the "Open with" area, select QuickTime Player (or whatever player you like, e.g. VLC), and hit Change All. Try running another video to see if it worked.


Re Q2 - What I meant was this. I have large collection of .mp4 files on my NAS from the use of cTivo and pyTivo. Is there a way for me to play these files using my Roamio? Currently I use the integration of iTunes and apple TV to play these files. Can the Tivo provide a similar capability using pyTivo without the need to convert the files to .tivo format?

Re Q3 - I was referring to the list of files shown by the webAdmin interface. Can I play the files listed on the computer? Also, is there a way to play a previously recorded/saved show with a .tivo extension on the computer, like I was able to do with Tivo Desktop?


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## mackworth (Jul 31, 2006)

Q2: Yes, that's exactly what pyTiVo is for; no conversion necessary. (If required for a given MP4/TiVo combination), it will "transcode" (convert on the fly) as it sends it to the TiVo. TiVo's UI for this isn't as nice as AppleTV, but it works well.

Q3: You can't play the shows listed in the web UI, without first transferring them to your Mac (which is what cTiVo does). It will transfer them, decrypt them and convert them to whatever format you like. 

Q3b: On the .tivo files, you can decrypt a previously recorded show using tivodecode, but it requires use of Terminal and a script (which I can provide if you like).


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## Chas_M (Jul 26, 2005)

pyTivo is now working but the show/video file format stored on the Mac computer have the .tivo file extension. Is there some setting I am overlooking that would allow me to save the video file on the Mac in .mp4/H264 format? It would be nice to avoid transcoding the file from .tivo to .mp4.

Charles


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## mackworth (Jul 31, 2006)

are you using cTiVo or the Web UI?


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## mackworth (Jul 31, 2006)

Ah, or pytivo itself? cTiVo's role is to manage that whole process for you, from subscriptions to decrypting to conversion to many formats to metadata to iTunes/pytivo integration.


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## Chas_M (Jul 26, 2005)

mackworth said:


> Ah, or pytivo itself? cTiVo's role is to manage that whole process for you, from subscriptions to decrypting to conversion to many formats to metadata to iTunes/pytivo integration.


My concern was with pyTivo. I agree with your comments about cTivo. It's excellent.
I was only using pyTivo because I had a DL Fail using cTivo. pyTivo transferred the same file from the Roamio to the Mac without error but with a .tivo extension. It would be very nice if there was a setting that would allow the transfer/encoding process to save to file in .mp4 format on the Mac.


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## mackworth (Jul 31, 2006)

Ah; see other thread on this and how to diagnose. probably the failure is in the conversion process itself.


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## Chas_M (Jul 26, 2005)

Can pyTivo transfer a show from the Roamio with the saved file on the Mac having an .MP4 format?


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## Chas_M (Jul 26, 2005)

WARNINGyTivo.config:tivodecode not found

This is the message posted in an otherwise error free run.

INFOyTivo:127.0.0.1 [17/Oct/2015 06:01:08] "GET /TiVoConnect?Command=NPL&Container=ToGo&Folder=https%3A//192.168.1.119%3A443/TiVoConnect%3FCommand%3DQueryContainer%26Container%3D%252FNowPlaying%252F17%252F14521&TiVo=192.168.1.119 HTTP/1.1" 200 -

Is it necessary to correct this situation and how is it done?


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