# Any way to transfer movies to TiVo Premiere Elite?



## Xab (May 21, 2004)

I've been away from TiVo for some time, and just got a Premiere Elite. I was wondering if there is any way to transfer a few movies that I have on my PC to the TiVo?


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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

Tivo desktop and pytivo are the two most popular products

TiVo desktop is the easiest to setup and works pretty well. The product is provided by TiVo.
https://www3.tivo.com/store/accessories-software.do

pytivo is more feature rich and some say just works better. The product is a community developed platform.
http://pytivo.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Windows_Install

Either will do what you are looking for!


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## Xab (May 21, 2004)

Thanks for those suggestions. Do they just stream the video, or can I straight up copy it to my TiVo? I don't mind if file conversion is required.


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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

They both facilitate MRV or copy from the PC to the Premier. You can watch the movie during transfer, so it does "feel" like streaming...

Some work was being done to see if MRS - streaming from the PC to the Premier could be accomplished leveraging the new Premier streaming architecture - but I think the community development team pretty much abandoned the effort.


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## gweempose (Mar 23, 2003)

Xab said:


> Do they just stream the video, or can I straight up copy it to my TiVo?


pyTivo will transfer the video to your TiVo. It will show up in your NPL as if it were another TiVo. I've never used TiVo desktop, but I imagine it works the same way.


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## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

bradleys said:


> Some work was being done to see if MRS - streaming from the PC to the Premier could be accomplished leveraging the new Premier streaming architecture - but I think the community development team pretty much abandoned the effort.


In the meantime, there is another community development project called "StreamBaby" that does, in fact, stream from PC to TiVo and doesn't leave a copy/cache behind.


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## Xab (May 21, 2004)

Figured it out. What tool do you guys recommend to convert a video into a format for the TiVo? And which format is the best, mkv?


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

The Tivo only accepts Mpeg II video (.mpg) with the normal transfer method.

You can "push" MP4 to the Tivo with PyTivo. 

PyTivo will convert the format of the video on the fly (if needed) during transfer.

If you want to do the converting, Handbrake is mentioned often.

If you want to include video editing, VideoReDo is a favorite.


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

steve614 said:


> The Tivo only accepts Mpeg II video (.mpg) with the normal transfer method.
> 
> You can "push" MP4 to the Tivo with PyTivo.
> 
> ...


will streambaby stream MP4 to the premiers?


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## plazman30 (Jan 23, 2005)

I would just go with pyTivo. It does all the conversion for you, and you have the option to push or pull. I've been using pyTivo since the day I got my Premiere. It'll take you about 15 minutes to set up, but then your PC looks like another TiVo on the network.

On my Premiere, the transcode and copy is faster than realtime, so I am able to start watching most shows as soon as I start the copy without any interruption.


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## Xab (May 21, 2004)

One other question, is there any way to rename or organize the movie files once they are transferred to the TiVo? I have a couple movies that have strange names that correspond to how they were named when they were downloaded. Any way to change them, or put multi-part things into a folder manually?


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

Xab said:


> One other question, is there any way to rename or organize the movie files once they are transferred to the TiVo? I have a couple movies that have strange names that correspond to how they were named when they were downloaded. Any way to change them, or put multi-part things into a folder manually?


No, not on the Tivo.

If you download a .tivo file to the computer, you can use software to strip the Tivo wrapper from the mpeg video.
Once you have the file as an .mpg, you can rename it anything you want on the computer before transferring back to the Tivo.

With PyTivo, you can make your own customized meta data files to accompany the video file (check the PyTivo threads) when you transfer them to the Tivo.
This method allows you to control how videos get grouped on the Tivo.
For instance, you could set up all your movies with associated meta data so that when you transfer them to the Tivo, they could all be grouped into a folder named 'Movies'.


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## djrobbo67 (Aug 6, 2010)

Its free and will automatically transcode any format and put it on your Tivo or even Xbox 360 or Ps3! Just google it!


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## jgaermom (Oct 22, 2005)

i have tivo desktop and a premiere elite. When I go to my shows my tivo does not see my laptop. How do I do the transfer? my laptop does transfer from my tivo to my laptop I just can't go the other way around.


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

jgaermom said:


> i have tivo desktop and a premiere elite. When I go to my shows my tivo does not see my laptop. How do I do the transfer? my laptop does transfer from my tivo to my laptop I just can't go the other way around.


Are you connecting through a router, or straight from Tivo to laptop? Wired or wireless?
Check to make sure the Tivo Desktop Server is running on the laptop.
Also, you have to have Tivo compatible video files in your My Tivo Recordings folder. If any videos in that folder are not .tivo or .mpg files, the Tivo will not see them.


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

Xab said:


> One other question, is there any way to rename or organize the movie files once they are transferred to the TiVo? I have a couple movies that have strange names that correspond to how they were named when they were downloaded. Any way to change them, or put multi-part things into a folder manually?


the programs cannot be renamed or grouped into folders once on the tivo. You can define the name and folder as part of the metadata before the file is pushed to the tive and have the titles and folders you want.

I suggest you do some reading over in the Home Media section on pytivo and several other utilities for working with media files and the tivo.


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## Revolutionary (Dec 1, 2004)

steve614 said:


> Are you connecting through a router, or straight from Tivo to laptop? Wired or wireless?
> Check to make sure the Tivo Desktop Server is running on the laptop.
> Also, you have to have Tivo compatible video files in your My Tivo Recordings folder. If any videos in that folder are not .tivo or .mpg files, the Tivo will not see them.


If the files are .mp4, .m4v, .mov, .wmv, or .avi, you need Tivo Desktop Plus ($25), or pytivo. I use Tivo Desktop Plus and it is utterly simple.


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## Ed_Hunt (Jan 2, 2004)

Revolutionary said:


> If the files are .mp4, .m4v, .mov, .wmv, or .avi, you need Tivo Desktop Plus ($25), or pytivo. I use Tivo Desktop Plus and it is utterly simple.


You don't need desktop plus just to transfer those file types, the free version does that.


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

Ed_Hunt said:


> You don't need desktop plus just to transfer those file types, the free version does that.


With the free version of Tivo Desktop, you can only transfer .tivo or .mpg files from PC to Tivo.

Unless you know something I don't?


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## lujan (May 24, 2010)

I'm getting a second Premiere and since we're talking about transferring movies, does anyone know how to copy Season Passes from one TiVo to another or do I need to re-create all the season passes and other settings again?


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

lujan said:


> I'm getting a second Premiere and since we're talking about transferring movies, does anyone know how to copy Season Passes from one TiVo to another or do I need to re-create all the season passes and other settings again?


You can use the season pass manager on TiVo.com or use KMTTG if you turn on Network Controls.


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## lujan (May 24, 2010)

innocentfreak said:


> You can use the season pass manager on TiVo.com or use KMTTG if you turn on Network Controls.


Great thanks, I'll check out the Season Pass manager.


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## JACKASTOR (May 26, 2011)

Xab said:


> I've been away from TiVo for some time, and just got a Premiere Elite. I was wondering if there is any way to transfer a few movies that I have on my PC to the TiVo?


I transfer all my movies to My premiere via Just file sharing... using TiVo Desktop software. IT works.
I have no issues... It works rather well.

Jack


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