Unbox questions... the Mac, size of shows, DVD burning?

[TiVoEvan74]

We've signed up for unbox-- and presumably have $15 in credit. Have a few questions before the FUN begins.

1) After a show downloads to the Tivo, is there a way of transferring it to the Macintosh for archiving-- even if we can't watch it there?

Would Galleon or TivoDecode Manager work?

2) How much space does a 1 hour show at Best Quality take up vs. Basic quality? 4.5 hours! 4.5x as much space.

The unbox downloads appear to be in best quality. We're used to recording in Basic-- so what's the conversion? How many 1 hour basic shows of space are filled up by 1 hour of best quality? (I guess I should just pull up that recording quality screen and do the math! Just did it.
4.5 hours to 1 hour!!

3) Is there any way of burning an old TV show that's been unboxed to the Tivo to a DVD?

We have those DVD burning Tivos, so it would be cool to archive the shows for future watching--and to free up space on the Tivos. (This would be for shows we buy.)

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4) Are you able to transfer the unboxed show from one Tivo to another wirelessly?

Looks like not. I stumbled across amazon's explanation of unbox and it says NO MRV. Oh well, that option is out, although one can apparently download bought shows to a 2nd Tivo.

[TiVoEvan74]

Sorry for two threads-- something funny happened on the way to the forum!

Had a question about even fetching an unbox show from amazon. The only choices I see are "1-click" with a download pull down menu and "Send it to any PC..."

Suppose I don't want to invoke 1-click, but just do a regular, add to cart, buy business?

[MikeMar]

Not sure about the Mac question, but w/ UnBox if you buy something, you can redownload it to your pc or tivo as many times as you want, so no need to archive anything

[bpurcell]

Had a question about even fetching an unbox show from amazon. The only choices I see are "1-click" with a download pull down menu and "Send it to any PC..."

If the pull down menu doesn't have your TiVo listed, either it's a show that hasn't been converted yet to be TiVo ready, or you haven't linked your box correctly. Don't buy it until you see your TiVo listed. Also there is no option to "add to cart" in Unbox. You only have 1-click ability.

As for downloading to your Mac, Unbox videos cannot be transferred, MRV'd, or burned onto a DVD from your TiVo, just like TivoCast shows. I believe Unbox videos can only be downloaded to PC's using Windows (using their Unbox Player), and is not available for Mac right now. As MikeMar said, all videos can be redownloaded to your TiVo as many times as you need, so they are archiving for you.

[classicsat]

Also, they would be probably be compressed "offline", in their own time with the best compression on high end computers, so will have "best" quality with a lower bitrate.

IMO, if you want your own personal copy, buy the DVD.

[TiVoStephen]

1) No -- you can't do this for the PC either. Downloads to a DVR stay on that DVR. But, for purchases, you can download to up to two DVRs, and you can delete and re-download.

2) Not all Amazon downloads take up the full space of Best quality recordings, since they can use high quality offline encoding. It really varies a bit, but your rule of thumb is probably a good working estimate for most programs and movies.

3) No. You can't do this for PC users of Unbox on TiVo either. Just delete and re-download later instead. :)

4) As you already saw, no. See item #1. :)

classicsat, DVDs have their own disadvantages.

[TiVoEvan74]

Much thanks for the replies!