# Problem transferring mp4 to Tivo via Tivo Desktop plus



## EUner (Jul 5, 2008)

I have a Tivo s3 and a Vista machine running Tivo desktop 2.7.
I have been able to transfer .m4v files successfully to the Tivo using Tivo Desktop plus, but have not been able to transfer .mp4 files. According to the documentation both are supported.
I recently added a directory for auto transfer, all the .m4v files were transferred, but the .mp4 file was not.
I tried to auto-transfer the mp4 file several more times to no avail. I re-booted both the Tivo and the computer several times during these attempts (over 3 days).
I then added the .mp4 file to Desktop, but not for autotransfer. The file shows up on the Tivo and I can select it and choose transfer. The blue light comes on for about 20-30 seconds and then I get the message that it has been added to the to-do list and will transfer when the other transfers are completed. However there are no other transfers pending and it is not in the to-do list. I also rebooted both the Tivo and the computer several times during various transfer attempts.
The file I'm trying to transfer is 6.8 GB and it plays just fine in iTunes. Both the computer and the Tivo are hard wired to the network (1 Gbps hub). I have tried with the Windows firewall off, but got the same results. Since I am able to transfer .m4v files, it does not appear to be a connection or configuration problem.

Any suggestions or advice is greatly appreciated.


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## johnny99 (Nov 10, 2008)

Tivo Desktop is buggy. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. It does seem to work better when there is no other load on your network, your PC, and your Tivo.


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## EUner (Jul 5, 2008)

Yeah, it's been buggy on many things. Although, call me crazy, but I expect software I have to pay for to work reliably.
I'll keep trying.

If anyone else has suggestions, please keep them coming.


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## Yoav (Jan 13, 2007)

EUner said:


> Any suggestions or advice is greatly appreciated.


best advice: Look up pyTivo or streambaby.

secondary advice: rename your file to .m4v? There is no difference between the two filenames (m4v is just another way to say 'this is an mp4 video').. it's the contents that matter.. Did you source your mp4 files differently from the m4v files? Tivos do not support ALL mp4 files, so your m4v files might just be invalid mp4 encodings for the tivo. (nice thing is that pyTivo or streambaby will correctly convert those files to mpeg-2 on the fly without you having to do anything).



> Yeah, it's been buggy on many things. Although, call me crazy, but I expect software I have to pay for to work reliably.


After how many years of running Microsoft Windows did you reach that expectation?


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## larry99 (Jan 31, 2009)

Auto mode is much faster than Manual mode for transferring mp4 fom the PC to TIVO but there are bugs in both modes as covered in many other threads. One thing that sometimes works (in auto mode) is moving the video to a different subdirectory of MyTIVO.


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## EUner (Jul 5, 2008)

Thanks for the advice, I give pyTivo a try, although it looks like it is only mpeg2 and I'd prefer to keep it in mpeg4.

Nice shot on Windows. I do run a couple of Macs too. I've found similar stability on both platforms - I'm well aware that this is not typical - I do keep clean systems and it does take a little more maintenance on Windows. Although, If I build a windows machine myself, I can have two for the price of a mac.

I tried encoding one of my bluray discs using Ripbot264 (Windows only) to generate a .mp4 file for viewing via Tivo. This is the file I'm trying to get to the Tivo.
I'll try some of these suggestions.


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## Yoav (Jan 13, 2007)

EUner said:


> Thanks for the advice, I give pyTivo a try, although it looks like it is only mpeg2 and I'd prefer to keep it in mpeg4.


pyTivo will work with most formats (definitely mpeg2 or mpeg4, and also wmv, avi, mkv, etc). It will transcode most of them. pytivo can push mpeg-4's without transcoding them to mpeg-2 IF they are valid for your tivo. Similarly, streambaby will play mpeg-4's without transcoding. Either way, you can keep it in mpeg-4 on your computer forever. Just if you happen to have an mpeg-4 that's too complex for the tivo, they will quietly stream an mpeg-2 that works. Odds are you won't even notice the difference.



> Nice shot on Windows. I do run a couple of Macs too. I've found similar stability on both platforms - I'm well aware that this is not typical - I do keep clean systems and it does take a little more maintenance on Windows. Although, If I build a windows machine myself, I can have two for the price of a mac.


 lol actually I was taking a shot at 'paid software'. Just picked windows since it's the one most people have experience with. Apple has shipped plenty of bugs too. The days of bug-free software are gone.



> I tried encoding one of my bluray discs using Ripbot264 (Windows only) to generate a .mp4 file for viewing via Tivo. This is the file I'm trying to get to the Tivo.


I haven't played with ripbot, but I would guess that it may be generating mp4 files that tivo doesn't like. For example, we *know* that the tivo doesn't like aac audio, and it doesn't like h.264 level 5.1, etc. There are probably tons of other h.264 settings it doesn't like. Welcome to the world of 'mp4 isn't just one format'.


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