# Series 3, TiVoToGo, TiVoToComeBack, and My iMac



## tetzel1517 (Dec 29, 2003)

Like many others, TiVoToGo and Multi-Room Viewing were activated on my Series 3 (I already own a Series 2, as well). That occasion renewed my interest in the ways my Series 3 and my G5 iMac can talk to eachother. I have a couple questions that I've been unable to find answers to on here, though I suspect they're buried in some 15-page thread somewhere.

1. I activated the "hidden" video tab in the Mac version of TiVo Desktop, which allows for TiVoToComeBack. This seems pretty straightforward. My only question is: What file formats will my Series 3 accept? And the Series 2 will only be able to play MPEG-2 files, right? I was just thinking the S3 might be able to play more formats, or there might be a way to _make_ it play more formats. Anything out there? And is ffmpegx still the best conversion tool available for creating MPEG-2 files?

2. What program can I use on my Mac to use TTG with my Series 3? When I fired up TiVo Transfer in Toast, it only listed the programs on my Series 2 (and it didn't list anything under the "TiVo DVR's" list on the left). TiVoDecode Manager did the same thing -- though I'm thinking I might have had a setting wrong on there. I upgraged Toast from 8.0 to 8.1, and it _deleted_ the TiVo Transfer program entirely, even though I said it should install it during the, um, install. So now I'm not sure what to use at all. Any tips?


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## walkerism (Aug 16, 2001)

Bump! Interested an the answer as well.


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## montz (Sep 23, 2007)

Use TiVoDecode Manager for TTG on a Mac. It works great with my TiVo HD, except the MPEG4 conversion doesn't work. But downloading videos as MPEG2 works great, and the quality is exceptional. I use VisualHub to transcode from MPEG2 to other formats.


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## tetzel1517 (Dec 29, 2003)

Thanks for the bump, *walkerism*! I actually solved No. 2 -- TiVoDecode Manager works if you manually input the IP address. I've never gotten it to detect either my S2 or my S3 just using Bonjour. That said, when I used it to convert an episode of Bionic Woman to MPEG-2, the video was perfect but the audio would quickly cut out here and there, a problem that was worse the more "busy" the picture was. Not sure if that's just my G5 iMac choking on a big file, or something wrong with the file itself.

And it turns out that Toast didn't delete the TiVo Transfer program... I guess it was still "installing" it when I first tried to use it, because when I checked the next day, it was suddenly there, even though I hadn't done anything. After I rebooted my S3, both TiVo boxes showed up in Toast without a problem. That said, I really don't care for the lack of flexibility it gives me in transferring the file, though maybe I'll see how it looks on my iPod.

Still not sure about question No. 1, though I'm starting to think that MPEG-2 is the only format that will work. Is ffmepgx the best for this? What about Visual Hub?


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## tetzel1517 (Dec 29, 2003)

montz said:


> Use TiVoDecode Manager for TTG on a Mac. It works great with my TiVo HD, except the MPEG4 conversion doesn't work. But downloading videos as MPEG2 works great, and the quality is exceptional. I use VisualHub to transcode from MPEG2 to other formats.


Can VisualHub do it the other way around, too? Like, can it take an AVI file I download and turn it into an MPEG2 I can use with TiVoToComeBack?


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## jjarmoc (Sep 15, 2006)

Hmm.. I'm having trouble with TDM on my mini. It finds the tivo fine and displays all the shows, but attempts to transfer stop after only 1-2% at most. It retries 3-4 times, then finally fails. This is with either MPEG2 or 4 selected.

Anyone seen that behavior?


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## chrisirmo (Feb 11, 2004)

tetzel1517 said:


> Can VisualHub do it the other way around, too? Like, can it take an AVI file I download and turn it into an MPEG2 I can use with TiVoToComeBack?


Yes, it has a TiVo profile that works great for converting AVIs, etc. to use with TTCB.


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## montz (Sep 23, 2007)

jjarmoc said:


> Hmm.. I'm having trouble with TDM on my mini. It finds the tivo fine and displays all the shows, but attempts to transfer stop after only 1-2% at most. It retries 3-4 times, then finally fails. This is with either MPEG2 or 4 selected.
> 
> Anyone seen that behavior?


When I first tried using TDM, I tried the MPEG4 and it didn't work. Then I tried MPEG2 immediately after, but other people said it was working so I was confused. Then after I quit and restarted TDM, the MPEG2 worked fine. It's worth a try.


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## tetzel1517 (Dec 29, 2003)

chrisirmo said:


> Yes, it has a TiVo profile that works great for converting AVIs, etc. to use with TTCB.


That is fantastic news... I hate watching the shows I download via Torrent on my computer. Though the files aren't true HD, so I wonder how they'll look on my 42" LCD. But only one way to find out, I suppose.


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## l8bar (Nov 18, 2007)

Hi. I have tried everyone's suggestions regarding TivoDecode Manager and my new series 3 HD TiVo, but I am still having problems!

I changed the preferences to download as Mpeg-2, then I quit and restarted TDM. It finds my new series 3 HD TiVo 3 just fine. But when it tries to download, it shows it is trying to download but it is at 0% and next to the show name it is trying to download it says "(waiting for TiVo)" and the progress stays at 0% with the time remaining just increasing.

Does anyone have any suggestions to help me?

One more question -- has anyone used Toast 8 TiVoToGo with the Series 3 HD yet? Does it work okay and do you recommend that project over TDM (if I can get that working!)

Thanks and I anxiously await help!

- new Mac / TiVo Series 3 HD user!


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## Graymalkin (Mar 20, 2001)

My TiVo HD does not see any of the programs saved on my iMac.

I'm running OS 10.5.1 and Toast 8.0.3. Both TiVo Desktop and Toast 8 refer to the same directory where the files are stored. The TiVo sees the computer in "Now Playing," but it says there are no recordings there.

Any suggestions as to what I might be missing?


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## Dennis Wilkinson (Sep 24, 2001)

Graymalkin said:


> Any suggestions as to what I might be missing?


Updated software from TiVo. 

Seriously, though, the unsupported TiVoToComeBack support in the latest TiVo Desktop (1.9.3_008) is broken with programs created on the TiVo since 9.1, including any version of the software made publicly available for the S3/TiVoHD units (I don't know if this problem affected those who had their transfers mistakenly enabled "early" on S3s/TiVoHDs). Metadata is a part of the problem -- what's stored in the file changed, and there's a bug in how the Mac TTCB implementation handles it.

Straight MPEG2 files do work (and with HD-capable TiVos, a lot more formats of it), so if you do the tivodecode dance with your files, they should "go back", albeit with less metadata describing them.


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## Graymalkin (Mar 20, 2001)

So it's not something I'm doing wrong, it's the software that's not working. That's all I wanted to know. Thanks.


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## norbertsf (Jun 9, 2007)

Graymalkin,

If you are NOT seeing the mpeg2 files from your Mac on your Tivo S3 "Now playing list", you need to "STOP" Tivo Desktop in your Preferences, and then "Start" Tivo Desktop. Somehow this refreshes the video list that is being recognized by the S3 for TTCB. (Restarting your Mac will accomplish the same thing, but takes longer--obviously).
This has worked for me.
I am also using Toast 8.0.3 and OS 10.5.1
Every time you "drop" a new Mpeg2 to view on the Tivo, you have to either restart the Mac, or Start & Stop "Tivo Deskotp" so the video List is updated.

Norbert


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## minckster (Aug 31, 2006)

norbertsf said:


> Every time you "drop" a new Mpeg2 to view on the Tivo, you have to either restart the Mac, or Start & Stop "Tivo Deskotp" so the video List is updated.


 Only if you're impatient. The list will update on its own eventually, with a maximum of about 15 minutes. You know that your TiVo's recognized the new MPEG file when its .properties file appears on your Mac in the same folder as the .mpeg.


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## norbertsf (Jun 9, 2007)

The properties file appears "immediately" when I drop them in the Tivo Folder on my mac. My Tivo does NOT recognize it even then.

Norbert


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## flightrisk (Jul 25, 2001)

Dennis Wilkinson said:


> Updated software from TiVo.
> 
> Seriously, though, the unsupported TiVoToComeBack support in the latest TiVo Desktop (1.9.3_008) is broken with programs created on the TiVo since 9.1, including any version of the software made publicly available for the S3/TiVoHD units (I don't know if this problem affected those who had their transfers mistakenly enabled "early" on S3s/TiVoHDs). Metadata is a part of the problem -- what's stored in the file changed, and there's a bug in how the Mac TTCB implementation handles it.
> 
> Straight MPEG2 files do work (and with HD-capable TiVos, a lot more formats of it), so if you do the tivodecode dance with your files, they should "go back", albeit with less metadata describing them.


I guess Tivo hasn't updated the unsupported TTCB yet, have they? There's no way to tell on the Tivo website. I fired up the Windows version of TTCB on Parallels, and pointed it to my Mac directory, and can transfer the files back to Tivo now (though it just caused the black screen of death).


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## Dennis Wilkinson (Sep 24, 2001)

flightrisk said:


> I guess Tivo hasn't updated the unsupported TTCB yet, have they? There's no way to tell on the Tivo website. I fired up the Windows version of TTCB on Parallels, and pointed it to my Mac directory, and can transfer the files back to Tivo now (though it just caused the black screen of death).


Nope. Still the same version available, 1.9.3_008.


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## Graymalkin (Mar 20, 2001)

I got to say, TiVo Decode Manager and VisualHub do a nice job of converting HD content for the iPod. :up: Now if they could just make it as easy to view the TiVos as Toast 8 does, and they'd be all I'd want.


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## jjprusk (Oct 5, 2002)

I spoke with Tivo's customer support and complained pretty strongly about their lack of support for Mac's. I eventually spoke with a "corporate" support person who said he would me in touch with their senior people today (we'll see...). My biggest complaint is that I've been using their product since the Series 1 first came out and now use several Tivo's. I also have several friends and family who use Tivo - none of us have legacy (ie, Windows) systems and have all converted to Mac's some time ago. As Apple is gaining market share in the home market, I'm getting more and more annoyed that they don't take support of the Mac platform seriously.

The person I spoke with indicated that they had "handed it off to Roxio" and my response was that I didn't care and they still needed to take responsibility.

My recommendation is that everyone who is in the same boat call their corporate support line (408)519-9100. Be persistent with them and don't let them off the hook and insist that they take Mac support seriously.


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## mpastreich (Mar 3, 2004)

Sad news.

I've been moving more and more toward the Apple camp. After using Windows (and Linux) PCs for the past 20 years, instead of building my next computer, I'm going to buy a Mac.

I love my Series 3, and am tempted to get another (for MRV and watching videos via Amazon Unbox), but the limited support that TiVo has given to Mac users is the main things holding me back.


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## MacGuruTX (Sep 20, 2006)

OK, So I've previously downloaded shows from my S3 using Roxio Tivo Transfer, and I want to move them back.

Since I didn't move them over with TivoDecode Mgr, is there something I can use to translate from .tivo to .mpg, so I can use Tivo to comeback to get them back to the S3?


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## sobenski (Sep 19, 2006)

Dennis Wilkinson said:


> Updated software from TiVo.
> Straight MPEG2 files do work (and with HD-capable TiVos, a lot more formats of it), so if you do the tivodecode dance with your files, they should "go back", albeit with less metadata describing them.


Almost -- it's not just the metadata that goes missing -- it's also the 5.1 Dolby track, and a whole lot of HD quality. Not to mention several hours of processing time to convert the files....

It's hardly worth the trouble. I can't believe I'm yet again waiting ... months... (years...?) for a Mac software update from Tivo.


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## Dennis Wilkinson (Sep 24, 2001)

sobenski said:


> Almost -- it's not just the metadata that goes missing -- it's also the 5.1 Dolby track, and a whole lot of HD quality. Not to mention several hours of processing time to convert the files....


tivodecode doesn't strip any of those things, nor does it take several hours of processing (takes about 5-10 minutes per hour of HD content on my MacBook Pro, and can be done in-line with downloading new shows from the TiVo with a few tools without any real overhead, since the network is the bottleneck.) It's just converts the data to an unencrypted MPEG-2 file that still contains whatever audio it began life with.


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