Computer won't view old Tivo files since new Tivo came...

[msgtgumby]

I have a Humax T800 and recently added to my account a new DT unit (this is the only change made since I last tried to view them so I assume it matters). When I brought up my Tivo Desktop I had to change my MAK to access my Tivo, I assumed it was due to the new DT Tivo on the account so I went through my menus and got my MAK off my Tivo and inputed it into the computer and was able to access my Tivo through desktop again. Now, however, when I try to view .tivo files on my computer that I downloaded during "pre-DT account time" I cannot view them. Media Player says "The Specified Network Password is Not Correct" and VideoReDo says "File is not an MPEG program stream" "unable to open file: 'xxx' " Anyone know what's going on? I tried to google it, but didn't get much.

[Dan203]

Your MAK should NOT have changed by simply adding the DT unit. Did you do anything else weird with your account, like sign up the DT under a new account then have the old Humax moved over to that new account?

In any case it sounds like your MAK has changed, and unfortunately all .tivo files are individually encoded to the active MAK at the time they were transfered. If you still have access to your old MAK you can reinput it into TiVo Desktop and then use the Quick Stream Fix feature of VideoReDo to decrypt them all to standard MPEG files. However if you don't have access to the old MAK then you in trouble, because without it there is no way to decrypt the MPEG data for playback or anything else.

Dan

[msgtgumby]

Well, the new DT was originally on it's own account as we had to buy a 3 year contract with it, then we called and requested the DT Tivo be moved to our current account. I assumed they would move the new DT to the old account with my other two Tivos...I guess they moved my two other Tivos to the new account? That was nice of them : \

Question, is it possible to retrieve a MAK from another computer with Tivo Desktop? My second and third computers still have the old MAK in the Tivo desktop programs as I haven't tried to download since the new DT on either.

[Dan203]

There is no way to retrieve the MAK, but you could use those computers to decrypt the TiVo files to standard MPEG files, which don't require a key at all, using either VideoReDo or DirectShow Dump.

Dan

[msgtgumby]

Nice, that'll work, I didn't even think of that. Thanks again, you just saved me big time :) I had dumped a lot of shows on the computer when Tivo filled up a bit ago and I really didn't want to miss them.