TiVo Transfer - Sort by Date issues

[Crane]

I have noticed two problems with the TiVo-To-Go and Roxio Toast "TiVo Transfer" software. Both problems relate to being able to sort and view the transferred programs by date. I was wondering if anyone else has come across this and maybe solved it.

Issue 1:

I use the "TiVo Transfer" utility that comes with Roxio Toast 8 to transfer *.tivo files to my iMac-G5. And that works just fine.

When you look at those transferred files, now residing on the computer, in the Roxio "TiVo Transfer" window (on the computer) you can sort those files by name (alpha) or by date or any of the other column headings as desired. Good so far.

You can then go to the TV and view the files on the computer through the TiVo "Now Showing" list: An entry - "my computer" - shows up on the "Now Showing" list and the files residing on the computer are all there. But you can NOT sort these files by date on the TiVo. You can only view these files by name (even if they are currently sorted by date on the computer).

Is this a problem with the TiVo software or the Roxio software ? And are there any work arounds ?


Issue 2:

When you transfer a file from the computer back to the TiVo, that file shows up successfully on the "Now Playing" list with all the other programs that were there. You can sort it, along with all the other programs, by date or name. No Problem.

(I think that you are Not using the Roxio software to transfer files back to the TiVo, but you are using the "TiVo-to-go" desktop feature? Is this correct?)

However, when you go back to the computer and view (on the computer) the files that are on the TiVo "Now Showing" list, any files that were transferred back to the TiVo do not have the original recorded date, but now have the date on which they were transferred back.

So, for a file transferred back to the TiVo, the original recorded date is still associated with the file because it correctly shows up when viewed on the TV through the TiVo. But when you look at that same file through the Roxio window on the computer, the original date is replaced with the transferred date.

What gives?

Thanks for any insight,
Larry

[Dan203]

#1 is a TiVo problem. The TiVo software always sorts programs from TTCB alphabetically regardless of how the infromation is sent by the server software. (i.e. Toast)

#2 could be either one. The data is passed back and fother between the TiVo and server as XML. If either end is mishandling the data then it could cause this issue.

Dan

[steve614]

Issue 2:

However, when you go back to the computer and view (on the computer) the files that are on the TiVo "Now Showing" list, any files that were transferred back to the TiVo do not have the original recorded date, but now have the date on which they were transferred back.

So, for a file transferred back to the TiVo, the original recorded date is still associated with the file because it correctly shows up when viewed on the TV through the TiVo. But when you look at that same file through the Roxio window on the computer, the original date is replaced with the transferred date.

What gives?

Thanks for any insight,
Larry
I just tried this to see what would happen.
I have a show that was originally transfered from the Tivo recorded on 4/15, I edited out the commercials with VideoReDo and saved to an external HD as a .Tivo file.

I moved the show back into the "My Tivo Recordings" folder and initiated a transfer back to the Tivo. The show is listed in Now Playing as having a record date of 4/15. At this point, the XML data must still be intact as I still get program details when using the 'info' button and because of the before mentioned original record date still shows in the NPL.

Next, I went into TivoDesktop and chose Pick Recordings to Transfer. In the list of recordings, this show now has todays date (4/26) and when highlighted, still shows the original program description.
So now, Tivo NPL shows this program with original air date and Tivo Desktop shows this same program with the "new" record date.

Seems to me that the Tivo "thinks" that this is a new recording, but shows the original air date because of the XML data. Therefore, since the Tivo "thinks" this is a new recording, TivoDesktop shows it as such. (Just an observation.)

[Dan203]

OK I looked into this a little deeper and found something interesting. TiVo Desktop uses an XML value called <CaptureDate> to sort program listings reported by the TiVo. (Actually it tells the TiVo software to sort the listings by CaptureDate and then adds them to the list in the order the TiVo sends them over) The interesting part is that I used tivodecode to dump the XML data from the .tivo file itself and it does NOT contain a <CaptureDate>. Because of this it appears that when transferring a file back to the TiVo, TiVo Desktop just uses the current date, or possibly the last modified date of the file, to fill in the <CaptureDate> field. However as the OP pointed out the TiVo correctly reports the date internally. I'm not 100% sure, but I believe it uses another parameter in the XML for this labeled <OriginalAirDate>. This value does appear in both the server returned XML and inside the TiVo file itself, so that's why I've come to this conclusion.

So basically it appears that TiVo could fix this problem by simply using the <OriginalAirDate> parameter to generate the <CaptureDate>, instead of the file date or current date (whichever they use), when copying a file back to the TiVo.

Dan