TiVo Fall 2007 Update Apparently Breaks TivoToGo/Toast on the Mac [Text View]

Sluggo042

10-07-2007, 09:50 AM

I'm reposting something here that I've already posted to the Tivo and Roxio support forums. But since this community seems to have a much bigger audience than either of those places, I thought I'd restate it here in the hopes of raising the visibility of this problem.

I received the Tivo Fall 2007 Update several days ago. Since that time, I have not been able to create DVDs from shows transferred to my Mac via the TiVo Transfer component of Roxio Toast. Program files still transfer to the Mac, although when viewed in the TiVo Transfer Library Window, the Title is garbled (the Title column shows what I believe is the unparsed file name rather than the actual show title), and no information appears in the Episode, Duration, and Channel columns.

When the "Toast It" command is invoked, Toast launches, and shows the Encoding window, but the process stalls at that point, and the progress bar shows no further progress. It sticks at 0% or 1% progress.

Nothing has changed in my Roxio installation. This problem began the day I received notice that my TiVo has been updated. I strongly suspect that TiVo has modified the file format in some fashion that Toast no longer can decode. Other posts I've read indicate that TiVo is preparing some sort of new TivoToGo service for Series 3 boxes which required a change to the format of the file metadata associated with program files. I sounds to me like this metadata change is not being handled gracefully by TivoToGo or Toast.

I do not believe this to be an isolated incident - there are others on the Roxio boards reporting this problem.

Tivo Series 2 via wireless network
Macintosh running OS X 10.4.9, and Toast 8.0.1

Doug G.

djliquidice

10-07-2007, 11:42 AM

i've updated to the latest toast and this doe snot fix it. i ahve 8.0.1x and this is still a problem.

Peel

10-07-2007, 12:15 PM

I sounds to me like this metadata change is not being handled gracefully by TivoToGo or Toast.
Doug G.
Is this just happening to recordings made by TiVo after the update, or older (8.x) recordings also? If it's just new recordings it sounds like it would be a format change, but if it's also affecting older recordings, then it seems to me that the transfer process itself is the culpret.

Sluggo042

10-07-2007, 06:51 PM

Is this just happening to recordings made by TiVo after the update, or older (8.x) recordings also?

It is happening to *any* recording *transferred* after the update, with no regard to when the recording was made.

The transfer TiVo-to-Mac works, and the video data is still there - the file size is as big as one would expect it to be, and you can view the video with the Roxio Toast Video Player tool with no apparent problems. In fact, a fellow on one of the other boards I posted on this problem demonstrated that you could still use Toast to generate an MPEG-4 version of the file (though this coinversion loses a bit of quality) using custom settings. So, all the A/V information is still there.

However, as displayed in the TiVo Transfer (TT) library pane, TT is not reading the file metadata properly. The Title Column shows the filename, rather than the parsed show title it displayed prior to the Update. Several columns (Episode, Duration, and Channel) show no information at all.

This suggests to me that the video file is packaged in some sort of a wrapper containing the show metadata, and that the structure of this wrapper has changed, and that the data TT expects is no longer where it used to be. When you then try to actually burn the file to DVD via Roxio Toast, it tries to encode the file, but stalls out barely into the process. Again, presumably, the wrapper change is interfering with Toast's ability to access the video data payload of the file.

bobconlon

10-08-2007, 08:14 AM

This just happened to me too. I went on vacation and came back to a tivo update. Now I can't transfer and convert any of the shows from the past week through toast.

Has tivo responded to anyone's comments?

Sluggo042

10-08-2007, 08:23 AM

Has tivo responded to anyone's comments?

Not to my knowledge. Though I started this thread, and its companions on the Roxio and Tivo board, late Friday hoping to consolodate the complaints about the problem. So, there's been no business hours since I threw the complaint out there. I'm kinda hoping Monday business hours will bring some sort of a response. Yeah, I'm a dreamer. :)

I have had one scary thought though . . . what if Roxio was aware of this problem beforehand, but needs to wait until the Tiger OS release from Apple hits the street before they'll be able to come out with a fix to Toast? Then we'll be stuck with this for another month or so? Yeouch! I hasten to say this is purely me speaking, I have no evidence this is the case.

Doug G.

bobconlon

10-08-2007, 09:31 AM

So are most people able to still transfer the files to their computer?
Mine won't even do that. It simply says it is waiting to transfer the files and stalls out there.

djliquidice

10-08-2007, 11:58 AM

no issues xferring, just converting. Using both OS X 10.4.10 and XP (latest).

this is sooooooooooooo frustrating. I'm over a day behind in processing already.

patatrox

10-08-2007, 09:25 PM

It is happening to *any* recording *transferred* after the update, with no regard to when the recording was made.

The transfer TiVo-to-Mac works, and the video data is still there - the file size is as big as one would expect it to be, and you can view the video with the Roxio Toast Video Player tool with no apparent problems. In fact, a fellow on one of the other boards I posted on this problem demonstrated that you could still use Toast to generate an MPEG-4 version of the file (though this coinversion loses a bit of quality) using custom settings. So, all the A/V information is still there.

However, as displayed in the TiVo Transfer (TT) library pane, TT is not reading the file metadata properly. The Title Column shows the filename, rather than the parsed show title it displayed prior to the Update. Several columns (Episode, Duration, and Channel) show no information at all.

This suggests to me that the video file is packaged in some sort of a wrapper containing the show metadata, and that the structure of this wrapper has changed, and that the data TT expects is no longer where it used to be. When you then try to actually burn the file to DVD via Roxio Toast, it tries to encode the file, but stalls out barely into the process. Again, presumably, the wrapper change is interfering with Toast's ability to access the video data payload of the file.

We are aware of the metadata issue, that will be fixed in an updater with a tentative release schedule pointing towards the end of this month. As another poster mentions, this will be the same update that fixes Leopard related issues, but failing when burning to DVD was not expected or something we've seen here.

I'm going to check if my DVR has been updated yet and do some more testing tonight.

Can anyone else confirm this is happening with all shows TRANSFERRED since the service update, including those that were recorded previous to this update?

Thanks

Patrick @ Roxio

patatrox

10-08-2007, 09:26 PM

I have had one scary thought though . . . what if Roxio was aware of this problem beforehand, but needs to wait until the Tiger OS release from Apple hits the street before they'll be able to come out with a fix to Toast? Then we'll be stuck with this for another month or so? Yeouch! I hasten to say this is purely me speaking, I have no evidence this is the case.

I can assure you this is not the case, we were working very closely with TiVo and were aware of the meta-data issues (mentioned above), but we may need a few more details about the burning issue from those in this thread before we can resolve.

Does saving to a disc image fail in the same way that burning to DVD fails?

Sluggo042

10-08-2007, 10:20 PM

I can assure you this is not the case, we were working very closely with TiVo and were aware of the meta-data issues (mentioned above), but we may need a few more details about the burning issue from those in this thread before we can resolve.

Thank you for addressing my fears Re: Tiger. If you need more examples of people encountering this bug, you may want to check out the thread on this subject on the Roxio Support board, as there are several people there reporting this problem.

(Whoops, I tried to put a link for you to the Roxio thread, but this site won't let me post links because I'm a new member with insufficient posts. You'll have to get to the Roxio Support Forum on your own, and then look up showtopic=28792. Sorry about that!)

Does saving to a disc image fail in the same way that burning to DVD fails?

Yes, saving to disc image fails in the same fashion. In fact, that's where I encountered this bug, as I usually create images rather than burning so that I can later edit the resulting video files.

Once you hit the Burn button, Toast begins the encoding process, the burn setup window shrinks to the Encoding Progress window. The process then hangs indefinitely at 0% or 1% with no further progress. Though others have reported that the process is working sporadically for them, I've not had it work once since the TiVo Fall 2007 Update. Of course, once I discovered it was broken, I've not tried it many times since.

Doug G.

Sluggo042

10-09-2007, 01:56 AM

We are aware of the metadata issue, that will be fixed in an updater with a tentative release schedule pointing towards the end of this month. As another poster mentions, this will be the same update that fixes Leopard related issues, but failing when burning to DVD was not expected or something we've seen here.

Patrick,

Many, many thanks for responding. Half the frustration of hitting a bug like this is not knowing if it is going to be addressed, or when. Knowing that Roxio is on the case helps a great deal.

I would be very happy to test any beta versions Roxio comes up with to see if they fix the bug. I'm a hardware test engineer, so I've some familiarity with systematic testing.

Can anyone else confirm this is happening with all shows TRANSFERRED since the service update, including those that were recorded previous to this update?

To test your question, I selected a show on my TiVo recorded in July, transferred it to my Mac via TTG, and then tried to burn it in Toast. Same symptoms - the conversion hangs at 1%.

Doug G.

patatrox

10-09-2007, 02:03 AM

Patrick,

Many, many thanks for responding. Half the frustration of hitting a bug like this is not knowing if it is going to be addressed, or when. Knowing that Roxio is on the case helps a great deal.

I would be very happy to test any beta versions Roxio comes up with to see if they fix the bug. I'm a hardware test engineer, so I've some familiarity with systematic testing.

To test your question, I selected a show on my TiVo recorded in July, transferred it to my Mac via TTG, and then tried to burn it in Toast. Same symptoms - the conversion hangs at 1%.

Doug G.

I have my DVR updated and I'll post an update here tomorrow, I couldn't bear to restart the DVR halfway through Heroes and the rest of the new Monday night lineup. :)

Thanks for the patience, we'll get this sorted out as soon as possible.

Sluggo042

10-09-2007, 02:26 AM

I have my DVR updated and I'll post an update here tomorrow, I couldn't bear to restart the DVR halfway through Heroes and the rest of the new Monday night lineup. :)

Thanks for the patience, we'll get this sorted out as soon as possible.

Understood, I have shows like that myself. Though, sadly, it will be months before I'll have that concern with BSG. :)

I'm sure everyone will be happy to hear any updates on progress you might be able to let us in on. Thanks!

Doug G.

shulcslt

10-09-2007, 09:51 AM

We are aware of the metadata issue, that will be fixed in an updater with a tentative release schedule pointing towards the end of this month. As another poster mentions, this will be the same update that fixes Leopard related issues, but failing when burning to DVD was not expected or something we've seen here.

I'm going to check if my DVR has been updated yet and do some more testing tonight.

Can anyone else confirm this is happening with all shows TRANSFERRED since the service update, including those that were recorded previous to this update?

Thanks

Patrick @ Roxio
I've transferred several shows since the update - some I've been able to burn, some not. Not sure that all the successful burns were recorded before the update - I thought not, but wasn't too concerned when I did it.

shulcslt

10-09-2007, 02:06 PM

I can assure you this is not the case, we were working very closely with TiVo and were aware of the meta-data issues (mentioned above), but we may need a few more details about the burning issue from those in this thread before we can resolve.

Does saving to a disc image fail in the same way that burning to DVD fails?
Just transferred two shows from one of my TiVos. One from yesterday and one PRIOR to the update.
Both encoded properly.

Then tried transferring another show, from yesterday. That wouldn't encode.

So, looks like SOME shows, post-update, WILL encode - others not.

patatrox

10-09-2007, 02:34 PM

Understood, I have shows like that myself. Though, sadly, it will be months before I'll have that concern with BSG. :)

I'm sure everyone will be happy to hear any updates on progress you might be able to let us in on. Thanks!

Doug G.

I'm more of an Atlantis fan myself. :)

patatrox

10-09-2007, 02:35 PM

Just transferred two shows from one of my TiVos. One from yesterday and one PRIOR to the update.
Both encoded properly.

Then tried transferring another show, from yesterday. That wouldn't encode.

So, looks like SOME shows, post-update, WILL encode - others not.

I've been able to replicate the problem now, thanks to the cast of Scrubs.

I'll keep you updated as I find out more details .....

shulcslt

10-09-2007, 03:53 PM

Thanks for your help.

anniegreens

10-09-2007, 08:35 PM

djliquidice

10-09-2007, 09:01 PM

I always know when I'm having any software issues that there is a good chance someone else is as well, and that I'll find an answer on a forum.

Anyways, exporting to iPod/iPhone format also hangs at 0% infinitely for shows recorded both before and after the Fall 2007 update.

Cheers to the hardworking programmers,
Anne

the bug is for shows transfered after the update. boy each day puts me behind processing shows. My poor MBP will be crying when it sees the huge queue of work :)

shulcslt

10-09-2007, 09:27 PM

the bug is for shows transfered after the update. boy each day puts me behind processing shows. My poor MBP will be crying when it sees the huge queue of work :)
It's not ALL shows transferred OR recorded after the update. Some shows recorded after the update WILL finish - others not. Haven't been able to identify a pattern, but have verifed this several times.

Sluggo042

10-10-2007, 07:15 AM

I'll keep you updated as I find out more details .....

A question if I might, Patatrox.

I've got a lot of material backing up on the TiVo because I can't encode it to DVD. If I don't figure out some sort of temporary solution, I'm going to have to start chucking things overboard unwatched, which I'd rather not have to do.

I was thinking that since the files seem to be transferring ok via Tivo Transfer (TT), that perhaps a post-fix Toast will be able to read files regardless of if they were transferred pre- or post-Update. If that's going to be the case, I could start moving stuff off my Tivo to temporary parking on a spare drive, and hold them there until the Toast fix comes out.

On the other hand, if the fix is implemented in TT by a tweak to the transfer process itself, then perhaps the only way to recover the files will be for the files to pass through the transfer process to receive the fix tweak. In which case, I should keep anything I really want on the TiVo prior to the fix release, and I'll be forced to make some triage dumps.

Do you know enough about the solution yet to be able to say how the Toast fix is likely to work?

Many thanks for your efforts on this problem!

Doug G.

patatrox

10-10-2007, 05:35 PM

the bug is for shows transfered after the update. boy each day puts me behind processing shows. My poor MBP will be crying when it sees the huge queue of work :)

You and me both my friend.... :)

patatrox

10-10-2007, 05:39 PM

A question if I might, Patatrox.
On the other hand, if the fix is implemented in TT by a tweak to the transfer process itself, then perhaps the only way to recover the files will be for the files to pass through the transfer process to receive the fix tweak. In which case, I should keep anything I really want on the TiVo prior to the fix release, and I'll be forced to make some triage dumps.

Do you know enough about the solution yet to be able to say how the Toast fix is likely to work?

Many thanks for your efforts on this problem!

Doug G.

The most likely, and I stress likely as this has not been confirmed, scenario will be that an update to both Toast and Popcorn will allow you to export recordings that you are transferring off right now. I do not believe a change to the transfer process will impact this. (of course, I've been wrong before)

djliquidice

10-10-2007, 05:41 PM

It's not ALL shows transferred OR recorded after the update. Some shows recorded after the update WILL finish - others not. Haven't been able to identify a pattern, but have verifed this several times.

for me - it's all shows dude. i've tried to see if Tivo to go for windows was the culprit, but it doesn't matter how the file gets to toast.

My typical path: T2G on XP -> OS X for processing
Alternate:
T2G on OS X -> Processing

both paths fail for me

netguru7

10-10-2007, 06:04 PM

patatrox

10-10-2007, 06:19 PM

I wonder when tivo will support AAC -iTunes store bought music and video podcasts. Seems like they don't care about the Mac anymore. I returned my Series 3 because i had issues with music playing and photos showing up on my tivo even though everything was correct after a tivo update (worked fine prior). They kept sending me to Roxio for the solution but Roxio sent me back saying they don't know why i was sent to them in the first place. Seriously tech support at tivo is worse than Comcast and that is saying a lot. Its ironic because i wanted to join the Tivo bandwagon to avoid such issues and tus was willing to pay the $1000 entry price.

I deal with folks at TiVo on an almost daily basis, I promise you that they care about the Mac. I can't really comment on the photo/music issues with the TiVo Desktop for Mac application though as that is absolutely handled by TiVo themselves.

I haven't tried sharing photos since the service update, but I'll do that tonight and see how it goes on my side.

kmitchell

10-10-2007, 06:32 PM

djliquidice

10-10-2007, 08:11 PM

I haven't had the time to test this out but could the quality of the recording be causing the burn process to hang? Without knowing the contents of the metadata it's hard to see how but it seems to be the pattern of "some shows burn and and some don't" could be related to record quality.

Just a theory,
Ken
eh, unless the way the shows are recorded are different - which i doubt being that the compression is all hardware. directshowdump has no issues remuxing the .tivo to .mpg. this is a roxio/tivo thing

shulcslt

10-10-2007, 09:48 PM

I haven't had the time to test this out but could the quality of the recording be causing the burn process to hang? Without knowing the contents of the metadata it's hard to see how but it seems to be the pattern of "some shows burn and and some don't" could be related to record quality.

Just a theory,
Ken
Same quality recordings. Same machine(s). Can't find an apparent pattern.

kentsavage

10-11-2007, 09:26 PM

I also have the same problem with shows transferred this week. I am transferring a show recorded Saturday before the update and will see how that goes. I have no problem transferring, just encoding.

Kent

djliquidice

10-12-2007, 07:16 AM

i've tried finding a pattern as well, i have two series 2's and nothing.

bmel

10-12-2007, 09:17 PM

from roxio:

Thank you for contacting Roxio Technical Support

We have confirmed that recent TiVo Fall 2007 Software Update for the TiVo unit has caused the TiVo files not appearing correctly in the TiVo Transfer window and burning to DVD stuck at 0% or 1%.

We have provided the information to TiVo and are currently working on a fix for the issue and will provide an update on our website as soon as we can.

Thanks for contacting Roxio Customer Care. Let us know if you need further assistance on this issue by clicking the Update button.

Regards,

Roxio Technical Support
http://support.roxio.com

kentsavage

10-12-2007, 10:25 PM

For what it may add I have two Macs, an iMac G5 and a black macbook. The symptoms differ slightly. On the G5 both the name and episode field are messed up. The program name shows the filename with extension and the episode field is blank. On the Macbook the name field is OK but the episode field is blank. On both the TV station is blank

On the Bootcamp partition on the macbook I was able to transfer the file using tivo server 2.5 and burn a DVD using MyDVD6 no problem.

I also tried transferring a program recorded before the update to the macbook and burning it last night but it froze too.

All the machines will play the files fine.

It looks to me like Tivo Transfer has some problem parsing the file metadata and that or something else causes Toast 8 to hang.

Kent

djliquidice

10-13-2007, 07:52 AM

i wonder how long it would take. this is over a week now. :(

ZZip

10-15-2007, 10:26 PM

Sluggo042

10-15-2007, 11:06 PM

got my tivo update and now suddenly the opensource tools I use to process
the recordings are failing (complaing about invalid group of pictures (GOP)
headers)

I am not using a mac, but my problems sound similar to what is happening
here, so I wonder if it's a problem with the new tivo software in general,
and not Mac/Roxio?

Well, the fellow from Roxio acknowledged earlier in this thread that there was a change in Tivo's video file metadata structure. And as it appears he was surprised when his Tivo>Mac link broke (he only went looking for the problem once he read about it here) I can only assume that Roxio wasn't aware that this change was imminent, or at very least they thought it wouldn't break Roxio's software. This suggests to me that Tivo wasn't completely upfront about the change to their partners before they pushed it to the public. Considering the length of time it took Tivo to provide TivoToGo to us Mac folk, despite many broken promises, and long periods of no communication at all, Tivo failing to notify their partners of critical changes doesn't suprise me in the least.

But, putting my gripes aside :), I would expect that any piece of software, Mac, Windows, or otherwise, written prior to the recent update, has a significant chance of breaking when trying to access post-Update Tivo video files. We know the format changed. If the software makes assumptions about where to find the video, and the new format doesn't fit those assumptions, then the software may well be unable to read the video data, or correctly parse the metadata.

That said, you have one possible benefit over us Toast users - the coder community that wrote your open source tools may be able to get fixes out there more quickly than a commercial software outfit, which I imagine has a bunch of QA and testing to do before they can release their fix. OTOH, at least we know Roxio is on the case - if the developers of your software have moved on to other things, you might not get a fix at all.

Doug G.

saberman

10-15-2007, 11:27 PM

It also breaks it on Windows XP SP2 using TiVo desktop.

I have .tivo files that were transferred to the PC using TiVo to go and successfully transferred back using TiVo goback (Tivo desktop) before the fall update. Now it takes three to six tries to get a .tivo file to transfer back to the TiVo. The error message even says to try again.

What is even worse is that MPG files won't transfer at all. You can get the transfer to start but then it fails with an error message that says that "either the file length is wrong or the file is corrupted". I have hundreds of Gigabytes of video on my PC (all of it legal) that I can no longer watch on the TiVo.

I tried calling TiVo support and waited over ten minutes for the first level to get on. He said that TiVo changed the file format for the .tive transfer files and that files transfered with previous versions of the TiVo software could not be be transferred back using the latest version. I pointed out that they can -- it just takes two to six tries to get the file transfer to start and that this was obviously a software bug not a file format change. (If TiVo was going to change the file format transferred to the PC it would have supplied a conversion program to convert the millions of files folks already transferred to avoid being .) In addition, TiVo still says you can view MPG files so the inability to transfer them is also an obvious bug. I suggested he transfer me to the next level up since all he had was bad information.

He gave me a case number and then transferred me. I spent another then minutes on hold until I heard the line ring once and then go dead.

So I called again and waited for twenty minutes listening to the promotion for Amzaon unbox. (If TiVo can't even transfer back video files they created and transferred to the PC how are they going to reliably download videos from Amazon?)

Ah -- someone picked up. I explained that I had called before and that when the first level person transferred me to the next level I was hold for ten minutes and then the phone rang once and went dead. I asked if he needed the case number and he said he had it and saw that I was transferred. He said they were having a problem with their phones but he would make sure I was transferred probperly. Then the music came on. A few minutes later the line went dead.

I have dialed again and am back in the first queue. It it now one hour since the first attempt to reach TiVo support.

Ah -- another answer after only twenty minutes. This time I asked for a direct number. Not only doesn't level one have one but they cannot even setup a conference call to make sure the transfer goes through.

The third one was the charm. Level two says I have to upgrade my TiVo desktop. I asked them what about products that use the TiVo SDK -- like galleon. The answer was TiVo does not support anything but it's desktop software. So I guess the SDK is not supported. I then suggested that they change the script the Level one folks have since they are told that the file format changed and that any .tivo file transferred with an older version of the TiVo OS could not be transferred back.

So after one hour and ten minutes I am off to try a new version of the TiVo desktop. Of course without galleon I have to have four or five hundred video files in one list. Now what are the odds that TiVo can handle that?

Talk to you later.

Sluggo042

10-16-2007, 12:03 AM

(If TiVo was going to change the file format transferred to the PC it would have supplied a conversion program to convert the millions of files folks already transferred to avoid being .)

OK, ya lost me there. Why would there be need for a conversion program? All those millions of files already on PCs are still there and viewable using existing viewer software. It would seem to me that any change to the file format would only affect transfers conducted post-Update.

Of course, I think that your own experience with Tivo Support kinda answers the question. Given how difficult they make customer support (long wait times, lack of any online method of reporting problems), is it in any way surprising that they're perfectly happy to make changes that inconvenience a few of their users? I suspect those of us using the file transfer capabilties make up a minor fraction of their user base. I'm not saying it is right to treat us this way, but rather, that nothing TiVo does surprises me much any more. I'm quite happy that the solution to my problem lies with Roxio, even though I think it is TiVo's fault in the first place.

Doug G.

ZZip

10-16-2007, 01:48 PM

Well, the fellow from Roxio acknowledged earlier in this thread that there was a change in Tivo's video file metadata structure. And as it appears he was surprised when his Tivo>Mac link broke (he only went looking for the problem once he read about it here) I can only assume that Roxio wasn't aware that this change was imminent, or at very least they thought it wouldn't break Roxio's software. This suggests to me that Tivo wasn't completely upfront about the change to their partners before they pushed it to the public. Considering the length of time it took Tivo to provide TivoToGo to us Mac folk, despite many broken promises, and long periods of no communication at all, Tivo failing to notify their partners of critical changes doesn't suprise me in the least.

To me, it seems that the changes are more than just metadata. The video files now seem to break the MPEG format. Before, most tools that could handle mpegs would handle the tivo files just fine. Now some tools won't open them at all, and some will open with alot of errors (and freeze if you try to convert the files).

So I don't know if they accidentally or deliberatly broke the MPEG format.

That said, you have one possible benefit over us Toast users - the coder community that wrote your open source tools may be able to get fixes out there more quickly than a commercial software outfit, which I imagine has a bunch of QA and testing to do before they can release their fix. OTOH, at least we know Roxio is on the case - if the developers of your software have moved on to other things, you might not get a fix at all.

Well, there isn't much support for Tivo in the coder community, and information is hard to come by. Before I had to do alot of trial and error to build a process that converts TV shows to DVD or portables.

What's annoying is this is the second time they broke TTG in a year for me. I really think my next DVR is going to be a mythTV box so I don't have to worry about vendor changes.

TiVo Kid 2003

10-16-2007, 02:33 PM

I'll just throw my hat in the ring & say that since the update, I've been having problems with about 20% of the files transfered from my Humax S2 TiVo. My older "Tivo brand" S2 Tivo does not show the symptoms.

What I see is that the file transfers OK (full size transfer, not truncated), but the video file doesn't open properly in VideoRedo, Windows Media player, etc....

The file is always less time than reality. Sometimes it shows as 20 minutes long, sometimes 40 minutes....

If I transfer the file via https instead of the desktop software, I get the same result. I don't think the problem is with the desktop software.

I believe there is a bug/problem with how the Humax Tivo is packaging / streaming the file. As I understand it, the Humax box is kinda cheap (weaker processor, etc...) so that might explain the problem, maybe the processor can't keep up with the demands of the encoding & transfer. Who knows...

I'm using Win2K & Tivo Desktop 2.3a, but I really don't think that's the problem. I had NO ISSUES until this 9.1 fall update.

In the remote chance that someone from TiVo reads this -- this seems to happen when multiple programs on the same channel are recorded back to back. I want to say the first program in the chain after a channel change seems OK, but subsequent programs seem to be garbled... but don't quote me on that.

djliquidice

10-16-2007, 05:32 PM

no updates yet from roxio/tivo.... this is frustrating.

Sluggo042

10-16-2007, 06:04 PM

To me, it seems that the changes are more than just metadata. The video files now seem to break the MPEG format. Before, most tools that could handle mpegs would handle the tivo files just fine. Now some tools won't open them at all, and some will open with alot of errors (and freeze if you try to convert the files).

So I don't know if they accidentally or deliberatly broke the MPEG format.

I have a limited perspective as I'm dealing with this on a Mac, and am only using the specific TivoToGo/Roxio Toast route to move files, but I'm not seeing a lot of the problems other people are reporting. I can transfer successfully until the cows come home, it's just the post-move conversions that fail for me. And even there, Toast Video Player plays the files fine, which is why I've been saying the MPEG info seems intact. None of which completely rules out a scenario in which the file format has been broken in a deeper sense, or in a fashion that breaks differently on different TiVo boxes. However, MPEG is a complicated beast, and it wouldn't be difficult for a simple format change to the envelope Tivo packs it in to exhibit a lot of bizarre behavior from programs attempting to unwrap it.

I really think my next DVR is going to be a mythTV box so I don't have to worry about vendor changes.

Roger that!

TiVo Kid 2003

10-16-2007, 07:59 PM

What's annoying is this is the second time they broke TTG in a year for me. I really think my next DVR is going to be a mythTV box so I don't have to worry about vendor changes.

Second that. A working TTG is the main reason I keep using the TiVo(s). I travel a lot & like to download / convert my Damages / Shield / Criminal Intent / etc. and watch them on the road. As soon as that becomes painful (and it is), any of the PC-based alternatives win, with MythTV being the winner in my mind.

(I put "any of the PC-based alternatives" ahead of TiVo, because even a commercial offering doesn't force updates down your throat. You update the PC software when you feel it's warranted.)

ZZip

10-16-2007, 08:50 PM

I have a limited perspective as I'm dealing with this on a Mac, and am only using the specific TivoToGo/Roxio Toast route to move files, but I'm not seeing a lot of the problems other people are reporting. I can transfer successfully until the cows come home, it's just the post-move conversions that fail for me. And even there, Toast Video Player plays the files fine, which is why I've been saying the MPEG info seems intact. None of which completely rules out a scenario in which the file format has been broken in a deeper sense, or in a fashion that breaks differently on different TiVo boxes. However, MPEG is a complicated beast, and it wouldn't be difficult for a simple format change to the envelope Tivo packs it in to exhibit a lot of bizarre behavior from programs attempting to unwrap it.

I can play the videos too in some players I have installed, but every editor I've tried complains about the format, and they hang exportting the file. So it does sound similar to your problem

saberman

10-17-2007, 02:13 AM

OK, ya lost me there. Why would there be need for a conversion program? All those millions of files already on PCs are still there and viewable using existing viewer software. It would seem to me that any change to the file format would only affect transfers conducted post-Update.

Of course, I think that your own experience with Tivo Support kinda answers the question. Given how difficult they make customer support (long wait times, lack of any online method of reporting problems), is it in any way surprising that they're perfectly happy to make changes that inconvenience a few of their users? I suspect those of us using the file transfer capabilties make up a minor fraction of their user base. I'm not saying it is right to treat us this way, but rather, that nothing TiVo does surprises me much any more. I'm quite happy that the solution to my problem lies with Roxio, even though I think it is TiVo's fault in the first place.

Doug G.

Ah -- but if they changed the file format (which they didn't) then you couldn't transfer old .tivo files back to the TiVo. It turns out that TiVo gave their level one support people wrong information. What changed was the communications protocal between the TiVo and the PC. Going to the latest version of TiVo desktop fixed the PC to TiVo problem. Unfortunately, the TiVo to PC transfers now take 10 times as long.

I think a large percentage of TiVo users transfer files. However, TiVo has been concentrating on the S3 which does not yet transfer files. I suspect they do very little testing of S2 boxes (other than they boot OK) even though TiVo is still selling them. The file transfer problems would have been picked up in a minimal set of regression tests -- indicating that TiVo didn't do any.

Sluggo042

10-17-2007, 09:22 AM

Ah -- but if they changed the file format (which they didn't) then you couldn't transfer old .tivo files back to the TiVo.

How does that follow? Transport mechanisms typically don't care what is in the payload. They just shuffle packets of bits back and forth, and reassemble an intact file at the destination. They generally don't look at the contents of the file. The transfer process shouldn't care if it was an old format .tivo file or a new one. And since a post-update Tivo still plays shows recorded before the update (even if the show in question never left the Tivo via transfer), then certainly the programers made provision to play either type of file.

It may well be more complicated than a simple format change. The fact that everyone is reporting different symptoms argues for that. For instance, I'm not seeing any increased transfer time at all. In fact, I suspect that there may have been improvements to the process, as I used to get a lot of partial transfers, and I've not seen that once since the update (knock on wood). However, the symptoms I'm seeing do seem compatible with the idea of a file format change. Expecially given that the one comment we've had from someone in the know said as much.

(BTW, Patatrox, this might be a nifty point to jump in and put all this speculation out of its misery and just tell us what's really going on, if you have a moment :) )

ZZip

10-17-2007, 12:43 PM

I am not seeing increased transfer times either, and I'm still using the same version of Galleon to transfer files that I was using before.

I think I may have found a potential workaround for the problems I was experiencing on Linux. (I can view, but not edit the files since the 9.1 update).

I used mencoder to transfer the whole file into avi format, I can then edit the file and reencode it into DVD-compatible format. It's not ideal since the file is reencoded twice, and loses quality each time, but it might be good enough to process the last 5 shows I want to keep from my TiVo. I'll just use my PC TV card to record new shows I want to archive unless and until Tivo fixes this.

I'm not sure if there's a way to do something similar on the Mac.

It looks like the problem has to do with the way the videos are indexed now, if you watch them all the way through, great. If you try to skip around or save off parts of the file, the software gets confused. In mplayer, it shows how many seconds into the video you are, if you skip around, that counter gets confused and might show 75 seconds when you might really be 500 seconds into it.

animalism2

10-17-2007, 09:59 PM

The TivoDecoder Applescript still works. I dusted off the old hack, which I haven't needed since I got Toast, and I was surprised that my old procedure still works!

Anyway, I hope that's a clue that can help Roxio move this along.

saberman

10-17-2007, 11:23 PM

How does that follow? Transport mechanisms typically don't care what is in the payload. They just shuffle packets of bits back and forth, and reassemble an intact file at the destination. They generally don't look at the contents of the file. The transfer process shouldn't care if it was an old format .tivo file or a new one. And since a post-update Tivo still plays shows recorded before the update (even if the show in question never left the Tivo via transfer), then certainly the programers made provision to play either type of file.

I think I was not very clear. When I finally reached level 1 TiVo support with my problem in transferring .tivo files from the PC to the TiVo the tech support person said that the file format was changed and therefore stuff transfered before the latest upgrade could not be transferred back. This was obviously not the case as I could, after trying three to six times, get a .tivo file to transfer back from the PC to the TiVo.

If TiVo did change the file format of a .tivo file the transfer back from the PC to the TiVo would probably fail as the TiVo would not be able to interprete the encrypted information in the .tivo file. It would not be a failure in the transport protocal which, as you correctly point out, is only concerned with moving bits from one place to another. It would be a failure in the next layer where the bits need to be interpreted.

In any event the latest release of the TiVo software is extremely buggy. My Living Room TiVo cannot see the PC at all. It can see the Bedroom TiVo but cannot list the files recorded on it. The Bedroom TiVo can see the PC and all of the video files on it.

The PC can see the Living Room TiVo and transfer -- very slowly -- shows recorded on it to the PC.

I will try rebooting the Living Room TiVo as soon as the transfer to the PC completes -- which will be in a day or two. This is for four hours of medium recording or a total of 4GB.

TiVo Kid 2003

10-17-2007, 11:36 PM

Ah -- but if they changed the file format (which they didn't) then you couldn't transfer old .tivo files back to the TiVo. It turns out that TiVo gave their level one support people wrong information. What changed was the communications protocal between the TiVo and the PC. Going to the latest version of TiVo desktop fixed the PC to TiVo problem. Unfortunately, the TiVo to PC transfers now take 10 times as long.

Have you tried transferring directly via https & the Tivo's IP address? When I do (bypassing the desktop software, which for me is 2.3a) I get the exact same file (i.e. same size & contents). For that reason I don't think it's the desktop software. (My transfers don't take any longer than they used to, either.)

I'm pretty sure it's the whole "on the fly" conversion/encoding of the recorded program into the stream that's sent to the PC. Something changed. JMHO.

Sluggo042

10-17-2007, 11:57 PM

In any event the latest release of the TiVo software is extremely buggy. My Living Room TiVo cannot see the PC at all. It can see the Bedroom TiVo but cannot list the files recorded on it. The Bedroom TiVo can see the PC and all of the video files on it.

It's possible that there's been some sort of change to networking code that is causing your symptoms, in addition to the metadata change. My setup is much simpler than yours - one Tivo, one Mac, connected wirelessly, so there's not a lot of chatter going back and forth between boxes. A metadata change could still explain the problem though - if all of these networked boxes transmit header data back and forth so that it can be displayed on selection menus, it wouldn't take much to honk up the data getting swapped. And as you said previously, this all points to some deficient testing prior to release.

I think the comment TivoKid made is very germane. On the Mac, the transport and encoding functions are performed independently. First the file is moved, and only after it is completely on the Mac does the actual processing begin. If the process on the PC is somehow combined (move some bits, encode them, move some more, etc.), then a problem with encoding would definitely impact the transfer speed. I'd definitely try the direct IP transfer TivoKid suggests.

saberman

10-19-2007, 12:15 AM

The GoBack seems to be working - at least it now lists the files.

However, I cannot play anything with a .tvio extension using either Windows Media Player 11 or Nero's Show Time. (3.x) on the PC. These used to work.

djliquidice

10-20-2007, 09:25 AM

I got tired of dicking around with the Tivo software. it seems that the stuff that is FREE out there works perfectly.

Demux by the use of direct show dump and then compress with 3GP Converter. it's such a shame that the tools that we BUY from tivo and rixio have these issues. What is it that the GNU Folks know that the tivo team does not?

Sparkylulu

10-21-2007, 10:33 PM

I am soooooo glad to see that I am not the only one with this problem. I wrote to Roxio, I posted here....
I noticed something, though. When a show is transferred to tivo transfer the channel is listed as n/a. It is only those shows that will not encode. I can't export. I can't burn. It hangs on 0%. Like everyone else.
Glad to know I am not the only one and someone is on it for the fix.
these n/a channel shows are not tivocast. They are shows that indicate correct channels on the tivo transfer like Comedy central, espn, etc. But when they are offloaded to the macbook, the channels themselves are listed as n/a. I can watch on my mac but I can't transfer to my ipod. Which is the reason I use it.

vfrben

10-22-2007, 11:10 AM

every show i've tried to burn lately hangs up at 0%. in addition, these newer shows will not even play in the toast viewer.

fgrimes

10-22-2007, 12:21 PM

I can confirm that transferring from TiVo to Mac works fine. When I export from toast it creates a file but does make any progress to complete the export.

javabird

10-22-2007, 02:10 PM

Same problem here-- I can transfer the file to my Mac using Tivo Transfer, but when trying to burn to a DVD, it stays at 0%.
As an experiment, I tried downloading the same movie using TivoDecode Manager, and tried to use Toast to burn the mpeg file to a DVD. It still stayed at 0%.

philvh

10-22-2007, 04:23 PM

Seems to be a variety of symptoms -- none good -- stemming from the Fall 2007 "update." I've seen no reference thus far to the one I'm experiencing with Mac OS 10.4.10 and Toast Titanium 8.01. In Tivo Transfer, the previously recorded library displays just fine, though I haven't yet tried to burn. But I get nothing more than a spinning gear when trying to see the DVR's directory.

roadkill_97006

10-23-2007, 02:44 PM

I have 2 Series 2s and can transfer just fine, view the downloaded shows just fine, but I have the n/a channel ID problem and the 0%-1% encoder hang. I have no clue why sometimes it's 0% and others 1% - all with the same downloaded file.

I have a bit of a new wrinkle, though. The show I can't burn is one of a pair of SG Atlantis shows I downloaded AT THE SAME TIME. Highlight 2 shows and then transfer them with one click. The clue, I think, is that one of the 2 shows was recorded prior to the FU and the other after. "I think" is the operative point here. I'm not prepared to swear to that, but it's the only explanation I can come up with. I have another fairly old show I'm going to try to see if pre-FU files still work.

roadkill_97006

10-23-2007, 03:38 PM

I have another fairly old show I'm going to try to see if pre-FU files still work.OK, I'm stumped. I downloaded a show recorded way prior to the FU and yet it hangs with zero cpu use in the activity monitor. What's confusing me so much is that I downloaded 4 SG Atlantis shows (the seasons' first 4) and was able to burn 3 of them with no problem (other than it takes FOREVER to download and encode the things). I downloaded all 4 of them the same day, way after the FU. Why the heck did 3 work???? :confused:

shulcslt

10-23-2007, 05:21 PM

OK, I'm stumped. I downloaded a show recorded way prior to the FU and yet it hangs with zero cpu use in the activity monitor. What's confusing me so much is that I downloaded 4 SG Atlantis shows (the seasons' first 4) and was able to burn 3 of them with no problem (other than it takes FOREVER to download and encode the things). I downloaded all 4 of them the same day, way after the FU. Why the heck did 3 work???? :confused:
As far as I can see, there's no READILY APPARENT pattern as to why some shows will encode and others not. I transferred three shows, all recorded last night, on the same box - two encoded, one didn't. This is a repeatable for me.

Sluggo042

10-23-2007, 07:00 PM

As far as I can see, there's no READILY APPARENT pattern as to why some shows will encode and others not. I transferred three shows, all recorded last night, on the same box - two encoded, one didn't. This is a repeatable for me.

When you say that it is repeatable, do you mean that of those two shows that did encode, they will always encode, and that the show(s) that don't encode will never encode no matter how many times you try?

Is there any difference in the recording quality you're using on your Tivo with these shows? By which I mean, perhaps the Tivo recording quality has something to do with it. Purely a guess.

Doug G.

TiVo Kid 2003

10-23-2007, 07:47 PM

griz

10-23-2007, 08:02 PM

Well, 9.1 has broken Tivo To Go through both Popcorn3's Tivo transfer and through Tivo Decode Manager. Both just say "Waiting for Tivo".
I thought the Roxio Option was fully sanctioned by Tivo. You would think they would test this before releasing the update.
We need to make some noise about this. I'm sending a message to Roxio and Tivo right now.

griz

10-23-2007, 08:26 PM

Sluggo042

10-23-2007, 08:27 PM

Just wondering - has anyone contacted TiVo about this & offered to upload a damaged file? (Full disclosure: I haven't because I have convinced myself it would be like p***ing in the wind. In that sense I'm part of the problem.) Is that something the TiVo engineers will even entertain?

I'm just wondering because (as a firmware engineer) I always tell my customers, "if you can reproduce the problem, tell me how [ in this case - send TiVo the file ] and I can find & fix it."

I'm also wondering if the small amount of attention this is getting is reflective of how many people actually download content from the TiVo. I do it all the time, my 2 friends w/ TiVos do.... but maybe we are part of a very small minority?

TiVo Kid,

As a guy who used to do testing on set top boxes for a living, I agree with your sentiment. That's part of why I've been paying so much attention to this thread, and similar ones on the Roxio and Tivo sites, and trying to ask questions that might narrow and define the problem.

However, given that the only acknowledgement anyone seems to have received on this issue has come from an off-duty Roxio guy (and even he seems to have zipped his lip on the subject), and given the repeated recitations of extremely unhelpful customer "service" on the part of Tivo itself seen in any situation, I'd guess that any such suggestions of assistance would not be heard. Had they any interest in such data, it would be a trivial matter for one of their technical types to post at any one of these discussion sites and request it. I'm not holding my breath.

I'd settle for an update from anyone at TiVo or Roxio as to the ETA of a fix. Are they working on a fix, or are they still figuring out what the problem is? If there is a fix, is it in QA, or are there still weeks of coding ahead? I don't see why it is so impossible to at least tell us what is going on. All secrecy buys them is ill will from the customers.

Doug G.

Sluggo042

10-23-2007, 08:30 PM

Well, I seem to have solved my problem while on hold with Tivo. I just rebooted the tivo and all is good. Before that I went into my account and I disabled transfers and download and then re-enabled them. Not sure it that or the reboot helped.
Anyway. I am off and downloading once again using 9.1.

When you say "9.1" are you referring to TiVo software? If so, does this mean the software distributed as the Tivo Fall 2007 Update? Or is this an update of the Update?

Doug G.

shulcslt

10-23-2007, 09:23 PM

When you say that it is repeatable, do you mean that of those two shows that did encode, they will always encode, and that the show(s) that don't encode will never encode no matter how many times you try?

Is there any difference in the recording quality you're using on your Tivo with these shows? By which I mean, perhaps the Tivo recording quality has something to do with it. Purely a guess.

Doug G.
By repeatable, I mean that it happens consistently with files transferred after the 9.1 update. I transferred two files the morning after I received the update, quickly tried one to see if it would work, as before, and was reassured when it did. Later in the day, I tried the second, it hung at 0%.

Since then, I've been able to encode/burn half a dozen files and not been able to with 5. Doesn't matter which of my two Humax DRT800s created the file, there's no difference in the recording settings box to box, or show to show. At one point, I thought that the variable was show length, but that proved not to be the case. Repeated attempts to burn the same files didn't change the results.

Haven't been able to see a pattern.

FWIW, I'm not seeing any of the reported problems transferring the files from the TiVos to my Mac.

Sluggo042

10-23-2007, 10:02 PM

By repeatable, I mean that it happens consistently with files transferred after the 9.1 update. I transferred two files the morning after I received the update, quickly tried one to see if it would work, as before, and was reassured when it did. Later in the day, I trioed the second, it hung at 0%.

Since then, I've been able to encode/burn half a dozen files and not been able to with 5. Doesn't matter which of my two Humax DRT800s created the file, there's no difference in the recording settings box to box, or show to show. At one point, I thought that the variable was show length, but that proved not to be the case. Repeated attempts to burn the same files didn't change the results.

Haven't been able to see a pattern.

It is interesting that you have more than one Tivo. There's a thread with the same topic I started over on the Roxio board where we've been talking a bit about installations having more than one Tivo. As near as I've been able to tell, the metadata change is especially troublesome to multi-Tivo setups. Not surprising, as the various Tivos have to pass that metadata back and forth to keep everyone's list up to date. But, having only the single unit myself, it's not something I can test.

If you feel like being scientific, you might try turning off one of your Tivos, and see if and how the symptoms change.

I presume the split between encodeable files is not the difference between files recorded by the Tivo before and after the Update.

What's got me about all of this is how variable the symptoms are. In my setup, I can transfer, but I cannot encode, and I've seen no exceptions to this. You and others are reporting some successful encodes. Maybe we should get a little more specific about the term 'encode'. When I'm encoding, I'm doing it exclusively for burning to DVD. Is that how you mean it as well, or are you encoding to some other format, like something viewable on your computer? Perhaps the endoding settins are the difference between our situations.

Doug G.

Sluggo042

10-23-2007, 10:05 PM

FWIW, I'm not seeing any of the reported problems transferring the files from the TiVos to my Mac.

Oh, one other quick question. After you've transferred the files from Tivo to Mac, and can see the program in your Tivo Transfer window, do you at least see that the titles are screwed up, and that some of the columns (episode, duration, channel) are missing data altogether? That would match my symptoms.

Doug G.

shulcslt

10-23-2007, 10:19 PM

Oh, one other quick question. After you've transferred the files from Tivo to Mac, and can see the program in your Tivo Transfer window, do you at least see that the titles are screwed up, and that some of the columns (episode, duration, channel) are missing data altogether? That would match my symptoms.

Doug G.
Doug,

I've read the thread(s) on the Roxio and TiVo boards.

I'm encoding to burning to disk. The episode info is displaying properly in TiVo Transfer's "TiVo DVR" screens, but not on the "Library" screen.

Can't imagine how having more than one TiVo can be the variable for the encoding problem.

Jon

griz

10-23-2007, 10:22 PM

OK, so I solved the transfer problem, but now the files won't decode. Is this process really that difficult for these companies to get right? Off I go to Roxio support once again. Should hear back in a few weeks. Their support is slower than molasses.

griz

10-23-2007, 10:24 PM

When you say "9.1" are you referring to TiVo software? If so, does this mean the software distributed as the Tivo Fall 2007 Update? Or is this an update of the Update?

Doug G.

9.1 is the fall update. It's actually 9.1.something, but in any case. It's the most recent fall update.

TiVo Kid 2003

10-23-2007, 10:58 PM

A few posts above there was mention of multiple TiVos. I have 2 Tivos but I've only had problems with the Humax-made TiVo.

What I should do is record the same damn program with the same damn settings with both TiVos, transfer both programs, and *maybe* the Humax one will be messed up. Then I could point and say, "Tivo, explain why the files aren't the same."

The problem is that only about 10-20% of the files are messed up, so that exercise could be a painful one.

Maybe it's time to switch to MythTv. Problem is that I can't say that without feeling like I'm lithping.

Peter000

10-24-2007, 01:29 AM

My TiVos were just activated with TTG, but one of them hangs when transferring, between 10-17kb. I'm not quite sure what to to about it.

Peter000

10-24-2007, 12:22 PM

Okay, so after the 9.1 update, the TTG feature actually worked, and I transferred a show to my laptop. This was an HD show.

Problems:
It didn't transfer to the directory I specified... it tranferred to the "default" TiVoShows directory, even though I changed it.

After the transfer, what do I play the file with?? First I tried playing it from TiVo to go and it said "You need a registerd copy of Toast to do this." I DO have a registered copy of Toast, thank you. Well, I finally found the drop-down inside of Toast for the "Toast Video Player" but it plays it at some sort of weird double speed. No other player on my system seems to work.

I'm currently encoding it to play to my AppleTV... Hopefully that will work. :)

Are there any editing applications I can use to cut out the commercials before I transcode it? Or at least trim the beginning and end?

oo7plyr

10-24-2007, 12:54 PM

I too have experienced this double speed playback. It's annoying.

griz

10-24-2007, 07:41 PM

I just opened a trouble ticket with Roxio. My problem is still with transfers hanging, but not consistently. When they do complete, they will not transcode. This is unacceptable since that was the whole point behind me buying Popcorn for the Mac in the first place.
Interestingly enough, I can no longer decode files with the Tivo Decode Manager. Has Tivo changed the encryption with this roll out to break things like Tivo Decode Manager? Well, if so, Roxio apparently is slow in getting their act together and making it work with their software. Or Tivo is slow in getting them the info they need to make it work. This is the kind of crap that made people hack it in the first place. Tivo either needs to deliver a solution that works or just come out and say they are no longer allowing you to transfer content to other devices like ipods and AppleTV. Then we can all know and move on. I for one will drop Tivo in a heartbeat and move to an Elgato EyeTV.
I may just do it anyhow. I'll also be demanding my money back for Popcorn since it is no longer useful in its present form.
There is no excuse for them to be lagging behind this rollout of the Fall Update.
GET IT TOGETHER ROXIO AND TIVO, YOU HAVE 2 WEEKS BEFORE YOU LOSE A CUSTOMER!

Sparkylulu

10-25-2007, 04:28 PM

Has there been any movement on fixing this problem or are we sol?

Timber

10-25-2007, 05:42 PM

I too have experienced this double speed playback. It's annoying.

+1

But if I use Toast and export to MOV its fine.

I'm a little disappointed that Roxio aren't ready for us, as they were part of TiVo's beta process (hopefully) I'd expect answers and dates. :(

(Oh and when I go to the Roxio site to register Toast 8 I can't, the last version in the drop down is Toast 5.)

-=Tim=-

Sparkylulu

10-25-2007, 09:27 PM

Yeah! only 5! What is up with that?

mattman

10-25-2007, 10:02 PM

Skinny Kid

10-25-2007, 10:16 PM

As a note, I cannot see my Series3 in the TiVo Transfer app, but I can transfer just fine from the Series 2 I own. I cannot, it seems, convert to iPod, or from what I can tell, burn a DVD. I will try some more options and see what happens.

My Series3 disappeared too. TiVo transfer has no idea where it is. Series2 still shows up fine but hangs while burning just like everyone else's. I am running out of HD space. I only have 22.59 gigs left of a 1 tb drive. I'm dying over here. :down:

Supermurph

10-25-2007, 11:04 PM

gglockner

10-26-2007, 12:42 AM

I'm using Popcorn and sometimes it hangs at 0% when I try to convert the Tivo file, but more often I get "Mac OS Error: Result code 1718449215". I searched Google for this code and it appears to be audio related. My thinking for now based on the other posts to this string are that it's the metadata issue confusing the Mac. I also posted a ticket to Roxio.

Bingo! I came to the exact same conclusion. I'm using Popcorn 3 to get files off a Series 3 with 9.2. I can download the .tivo files to the Mac, and I can play them fine with the Toast Video Player. If I open Popcorn and try to convert the .tivo files for the Video iPod, I also get error 1718449215. Since this is an audio problem, I then tried a custom setting where I set the Audio Format to none, and voila -- Popcorn converts the file with no problems at all!

So my educated guess is that Toast/Popcorn use some Apple libraries (Quicktime? Core Audio?) to convert the audio track, yet TiVo 9.x software changed the format for the audio track, which is causing the error.

I also tried TiVoDecode Manager and I have similar problems -- it can download the files from TiVo but not convert them to another format.

TiVo Kid 2003

10-26-2007, 01:46 AM

So my educated guess is that Toast/Popcorn use some Apple libraries (Quicktime? Core Audio?) to convert the audio track, yet TiVo 9.x software changed the format for the audio track, which is causing the error.

Now that you mention it, my video editing software (VideoReDo, Windows) also complains about tons of audio sync errors on the files that don't work.

patatrox

10-26-2007, 03:48 AM

raianoat

10-26-2007, 10:28 AM

I appreciate everyones patience and I believe we now have a viable solution to the issue introduced with the Fall '07 DVR update. We're not quite ready to release this as an official update, as we finish up testing on the release version of Leopard over the next few days.

What I would like to do however is ask if anyone is interested in testing a beta version of Toast 8 or Popcorn 3 with these fixes and provide feedback to me.

If you're a Toast 8 or Popcorn 3 user, please send an e-mail to toastfeedback@roxio.com with your name and which product that you own. (Toast 8 or Popcorn 3)

Thanks!

Thanks for keeping us up to date. Do you expect this update to fix the bug where transferred recordings playback at twice the normal speed?

patatrox

10-26-2007, 04:14 PM

Thanks for keeping us up to date. Do you expect this update to fix the bug where transferred recordings playback at twice the normal speed?

I'm fairly certain it will be included in the updater next week, however I need some feedback and validation of the hanging bug before that can happen.

gilbreen

10-26-2007, 05:04 PM

Just sent in my request for the beta - will be happy to report back my feedback.

patatrox

10-26-2007, 05:33 PM

Just sent in my request for the beta - will be happy to report back my feedback.

You know it's comments like that which make me realize how awesome this community is :)

jjarmoc

10-26-2007, 07:02 PM

I appreciate everyones patience and I believe we now have a viable solution to the issue introduced with the Fall '07 DVR update. We're not quite ready to release this as an official update, as we finish up testing on the release version of Leopard over the next few days.

What I would like to do however is ask if anyone is interested in testing a beta version of Toast 8 or Popcorn 3 with these fixes and provide feedback to me.

If you're a Toast 8 or Popcorn 3 user, please send an e-mail to toastfeedback@roxio.com with your name and which product that you own. (Toast 8 or Popcorn 3)

Thanks!

Any chance for those of us waiting for this issue to be fixed before purchasing?

I'd by Popcorn today if I had confirmation it was working with TTG on the S3. Not much interested in Toast because, well, all I want is the TTG feature anyhow!

griz

10-26-2007, 09:46 PM

I sent in my request as well. I'll be happy to take part in a beta test. Anything that will help in the process and know that Roxio is doing something about this. So far I have only been met with vague answers. If I can be part of the solution. Sign me up.

-Scott

gilbreen

10-26-2007, 10:39 PM

Transferred a 30 min show from a Tivo HD running 9.1 to my Al Mac with the Tivo Transfer program. Was able to create a DVD and burn it without issues using the beta.

Not sure if Toast always re-encodes the video but it did this time.

phyd

10-27-2007, 05:13 PM

I wanted to post another somewhat related issue to the recent update. I popped out and bought a brand new Series 3 HD when I heard the wonderful news that TTG was now supported. Unfortunately I'm finding a 1 Hour (7GB) show is being truncated to only 5/6 minutes (~360MB) when transferred to the Mac using TiVO Transfer. Basically most of the show is missing. No hacks involved, just a normal legitimate setup of new Series 3 HD, a Mac, Roxio, and broken downloads. Everything on my series 2 works just fine. Anybody got any ideas?

Fofer

10-27-2007, 09:34 PM

I've got a Series 3 TiVo with 9.2 software on it.
I've installed TiVo Desktop 1.9.3.

I purchased VisualHub, which gave me software to enable the "Videos" tab in TiVo Desktop.

I convert video with VisualHub (to MPEG-2) and then put it in the correct folder so I can see it from the TiVo... then transfer it over. All of this works fine! The transferred video looks great.

What I'm noticing now, and wondering what's up, is that the timeline of the resulting video isn't in minutes, but rather, in seconds. (I'll see "1600s" instead of "23:00")

Fast forwarding and Rewinding works okay but the "jump back" is often very off (instead of 2-3 seconds, it jumps back 30 or so.)

So, what's at fault here? The TiVo Desktop software? VisualHub's add-on that makes Video transfer ("TiVo To Go Back") happen? Or TiVo software 9.2?

Most importantly, how do I fix it?

jayssss

10-28-2007, 08:53 AM

We are aware of the metadata issue, that will be fixed in an updater with a tentative release schedule pointing towards the end of this month. As another poster mentions, this will be the same update that fixes Leopard related issues, but failing when burning to DVD was not expected or something we've seen here.

I'm going to check if my DVR has been updated yet and do some more testing tonight.

Can anyone else confirm this is happening with all shows TRANSFERRED since the service update, including those that were recorded previous to this update?

Thanks

Patrick @ Roxio

I can definitely confirm that this is happening. It's been a while since I used the T2G functionality of Toast 8, but was looking to make DVDs of some new shows we just recently recorded to clear space on the Tivo. This was yesterday (10/27/07). Transfer went fine. All files are now on my MBP. However, when attempting to burn a DVD, it brings up the encoding window, and it never moves off of 0%. Going from Tivo Series 2 to MacBook Pro running Toast 8.0.1 and MacOS 10.4.10.

patatrox

10-29-2007, 01:37 PM

Just to give everyone an update, we're following up several issues reported by beta testers and we're not accepting any additional users at this time.

To give everyone an idea of the results, most of the hanging at 0% has been resolved although a small number of people are encountering a different error message now.

The metadata not being displayed in TiVo Transfer (Toast 8) and the HD playback issues in Toast Video Player (Toast 8 / Popcorn 3) will be resolved in the update due later this week - it was not part of the beta test.

patatrox

10-30-2007, 03:05 PM

While it is typically in bad form to reply to yourself, I'll make an exception here. :)

The response I received has been overwhelming and I thank everyone for their patience.

I need several people who are experiencing the following issue to e-mail me and potentially test a solution. You must meet both of the below conditions

1) When playing back HD content transferred from a TiVo HD / Series3 DVR, the Toast Video Player shows the video as really choppy or with incorrect speed.

2) You must be a registered Toast 8 or Popcorn 3 user

Please send an e-mail to toastfeedback@roxio.com with your contact information and describe the problem you're having quickly. Due to the sheer number of responses you may not receive a reply unless you are selected to test.

Thanks

pauldf78

10-30-2007, 11:56 PM

Hey Patrick, I sent you guys an email. I would be happy to report my feedback! I'm having issues with playback speed on HD content only.

Televisionary

10-31-2007, 11:02 AM

Ditto.

riddick21

10-31-2007, 11:57 AM

griz

10-31-2007, 12:42 PM

Will this update fix the fact that Tivo transfers set to auto encode through popcorn 3 get dropped on to the desktop with no metadata instead of itunes? It would be awesome if I could just tell Tivo Transfer which shows I want to auto transfer and have them automatically put into iTunes ready to be synced to my iPod.

My problem precisely.

Although I have an update to report. Last night I had success encoding a file that was transferred post update. I was not however systematic enough to determine why it worked. Earlier in the week I had tried reinstalling popcorn and also had tried removing a plugin. Unfortunately I can not remember what the plugin was. I seem to recall it having something to do with toast (I have popcorn) video player.
When I removed it, it would not delete because it keps saying it was in use. I restarted and deleted it. After which I was able to encode one file which encoded to my movies folder and was moved into iTunes afterwards. This is the first time that worked for me.
I then tried a couple other files with no success. After that, the same file I had just encoded would not encode and nothing else would transfer from my Tivo.
Tonight I plan to transfer a known new file from the tivo and try again. I'll likely do a clean install of popcorn after stripping out all its parts.

When I saw the file encode to the movies folder I knew something was working right. I'm not sure if the way I got that to work was by telling popcorn to encode a file to my desktop (which I was doing to test) and then once I saw it working, I decided to select iTunes. Perhaps by setting it to desktop first and then making the switch, something clicked to make it work.
Unfortunately it got late and I couldn't finish figuring out what was going on.
I have been trying to get Roxio to address the issue with Auto iTunes transfers for over a month. They just say they are "looking into it". I hope that will be resolved in any update that arrive. Although, I do now know it can be made to work. I just need to figure out how.

-Scott

Fofer

10-31-2007, 01:05 PM

So is no one else seeing the wonky timeline on videos transferred via TiVoToGoBack? It displays the duration in seconds instead of hours:minutes. Is that normal?

griz

10-31-2007, 01:35 PM

Fofer

10-31-2007, 05:35 PM

I noticed that videos were indicating they were 2x the length they actually are when I look at the transcode settings.

I find it interesting that there is more discussion on this problem on the Tivo forums than on the Roxio forum.

Well considering it's using an unsupported "hack" to even get the TivoToComeBack ("videos" tab) enabled, and I used VisualHub to convert the video, to then send to a brand new TiVo OS (9.2) on a Series 3... I didn't really know who or what to question. Too many variables. One thing I do know, is that there's a bug somewhere. The show's duration (timeline) should be reported in hours and minutes, not thousands of seconds. It also throws off the FF and REW command... as well as the jumpback. It's not reliable at all.

I just wish I knew what software was responsible so I could report it to the appropriate avenue. Does this happen on videos sent from a PC as well? I have to believe not, or else we would have heard about it by now... which leads me to believe it's not TiVo 9.2 causing it. It's something on the Mac. Maybe TiVo Desktop needs to be updated, but officially so that TiVoToComeBack is supported for real, and not by way of the VisualHub "hack?"

griz

10-31-2007, 08:35 PM

OK, I am at a loss here. Below is a response I just received from Roxio support regarding this issue. I am seeing clearer responses from the users on this forum...

------------------------
Thank you for contacting Roxio Technical Support

An update to allow the tivo files to work in your Toast application will be released by TIVO.

They are aware of the issue and currently creating a patch for it.

Regards,

Roxio Technical Support
-------------------------

So what am I to believe here? That a fix is coming from Tivo or from Roxio?
Personally I don't care who it comes from, as long as a fix comes. Because right now I have a useless piece of software that is not doing what it promises.

derekcbart

10-31-2007, 08:48 PM

Hi there.

I'm experiencing something that seems to be a little different than what I have been reading so far.

I recorded an episode of Real Time With Bill Maher that I want to archive to DVD from the HBO HD channel and when 9.1 installed on my S3 it transferred to my computer just fine using TiVo Transfer and it plays back just fine. However, when I hit "Toast It" the application crashes as soon as it goes into "preparing" mode.

I read about the issues and waited for 9.2 to come out and then tested the transfer and burn using a smaller sized show from Cartoon Network and everything worked just fine. I then retransferred the Real Time episode and hit "Toast It" and it crashed as soon as it went into "preparing" mode. It doesn't stall at 1% or 2% like I've read about. It just crashes the Toast application.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

Sluggo042

11-01-2007, 01:11 AM

An update to allow the tivo files to work in your Toast application will be released by TIVO.

And more to the point, how quickly does TiVo's release cycle work? Roxio can release more or less whenever they're ready, but I can't recall TiVo releases coming any more frequently than about 3 - 6 months.

I've been defending Roxio in other forums about the fact that their advertising claims Tivo compatibility that they're not currently providing. When an update comes along that breaks something, I'm perfectly willing to be patient and understanding for a reasonable length of time while the various parties figure things out. But if we're now going to be stuck with some lengthy TiVo-controlled release cycle, I might begin to think the complainers may have a point.

This would be a really good time for someone from Roxio to keep us in the loop.

(Of course, it would be more appropriate for someone from TiVo to update us, but given the responsiveness I've seen from TiVo on *any* issue, I rate the ressurection of Elvis as slightly more likely.)

Doug G.

Supermurph

11-01-2007, 01:23 AM

This would be a really good time for someone from Roxio to keep us in the loop.

Doug G.

If you look up a few posts higher within this thread, you will see that Patatrox from Roxio is keeping everyone in the loop and is working on testing the fix with hopes to release it this week.

On the Real Time With Bill Maher issue, that may not be a bug at all. I've recorded Real Time with my Tivo HD and I have the red cross out simple meaning that it can't be copied next to anything from HBO HD. I don't know if HBO or my cable company (Cox) applies this setting, but I can't copy those anyway. So, that may play in to your issue.

derekcbart

11-01-2007, 01:36 AM

On the Real Time With Bill Maher issue, that may not be a bug at all. I've recorded Real Time with my Tivo HD and I have the red cross out simple meaning that it can't be copied next to anything from HBO HD. I don't know if HBO or my cable company (Cox) applies this setting, but I can't copy those anyway. So, that may play in to your issue.

The Real Time episode doesn't have the red cross out symbol. It simply has a green dot showing that it is set to "save until I delete". Only the TiVoCast episodes have a red cross out symbol on my list of shows in TiVo Transfer.

pauldf78

11-01-2007, 01:50 AM

Patrick what is the update on this?

Sluggo042

11-01-2007, 08:31 AM

If you look up a few posts higher within this thread, you will see that Patatrox from Roxio is keeping everyone in the loop and is working on testing the fix with hopes to release it this week.

I most certainly had noted Patatrox's comment. But the information Griz was given seems to contradict what Patatrox said - from what Griz was told, there may be a part of the fix that must come from Tivo. Two incompatible statements. Now, Griz may have been given that info from an un-informed tech support person at Roxio, and I'd certainly take anything Patatrox said as gospel. But I'd sure like him or someone else at Roxio refute or confirm the need for a Tivo update as part of the fix, given what their support people are apparently saying.

Doug G.

Dr_Zoidberg

11-01-2007, 09:28 AM

My Series3 disappeared too. TiVo transfer has no idea where it is. Series2 still shows up fine but hangs while burning just like everyone else's. I am running out of HD space. I only have 22.59 gigs left of a 1 tb drive. I'm dying over here. :down:

I also could not see my TiVoHD in TiVo Transfer last night, even though there was a message on it saying it was ready for TTG. I ended up rebooting the TiVoHD and restarting TiVo Transfer. I could see it after then. Both TiVo's

Make sure your new TiVo is registered with your account and has the same Media Access Key, AND that your new TiVo has a name.

HTH.

griz

11-01-2007, 12:23 PM

I most certainly had noted Patatrox's comment. But the information Griz was given seems to contradict what Patatrox said - from what Griz was told, there may be a part of the fix that must come from Tivo. Two incompatible statements. Now, Griz may have been given that info from an un-informed tech support person at Roxio, and I'd certainly take anything Patatrox said as gospel. But I'd sure like him or someone else at Roxio refute or confirm the need for a Tivo update as part of the fix, given what their support people are apparently saying.

Doug G.

At this point I have closed my support request with Roxio because they have been less than useful. There is far more being done here as a community than the "text book" answers I seem to be getting from Roxio support. Needless to say, I am not very happy with them right now. Companies like this need to learn that they are dealing with tech savvy users and an answer like that with no informed knowledge behind it seems rather hollow. I am only familiar with Paratrox from this thread, but from what I see, he seems to know more about what is going on than anyone. I'm thankful someone seems to be on top of it. But I am also surprised that I am getting better support from a forum that is neither associated with Tivo or Roxio.
I'll be patient and see what happens.

pauldf78

11-01-2007, 10:57 PM

Patrick give us an update here!? Are we waiting for an update from Roxi or tivo? This is getting ridiculous!

riddick21

11-02-2007, 01:09 AM

I just got a turbo.264 and really need popcorn to work.

riddick21

11-02-2007, 06:37 AM

turbo.264 is slower than I expected from the reviews. Its actually really fast with the bundled program but its not nearly as fast for popcorn. Will this be addressed anytime soon?

griz

11-03-2007, 06:52 PM

So where are we on a solution on this? I have been having some luck getting files to transcode. I can't figure out any pattern. Some work and some don't. I just don't have the time to try and figure out why.
I'm now wishing I bought Popcorn at a retail store. I would have returned it by now for a refund. How would it ever be possible to get a refund on a digital download?
Caveat Emptor!

Supermurph

11-03-2007, 08:33 PM

I just noticed that a public beta for the Popcorn update was put on the Roxio site by Patatrox (who has been posting in this thread and soliciting feedback). From the description, it fixes the hanging at 0% issue and the HD playback speed issue as well as others.

I'm in the middle of my first conversion into an iPhone copy right now and it's farther than I ever got before. I used to get a "Mac OS X Error" and I'm currently at 50% complete and still running. So far, so good.

You can read the information and download the Popcorn 3 beta with this link:

http://forums.support.roxio.com/index.php?showtopic=30179

I didn't see anything there for Toast yet.

riddick21

11-03-2007, 08:45 PM

griz

11-03-2007, 09:14 PM

the beta seems to be working but the auto import to itunes bug is still there. Paratox can you look in to this? What happens is that if you have auto encode set in tivotransfer then after popcorn finishes encoding, it dumps the file on to the desktop instead of itunes. Then if you try to open the file it will start copying to itunes but none of the show info is there. I would assume this shouldn't be too hard to fix because it works right if we initiate the encoding in popcorn rather than tivotransfer.

I have been having the same problem. I think I may have found a way to get it to work.
If you manually choose desktop as your destination for automatic transfers and transfer a file. It will go to the desktop as selected. After that, change your setting to itunes and re-transfer the same file. It will go directly into itunes. I have only tried this with one file, but it worked. I have not tried more files afterwards so I don't know how permanent it is.
My way is just a hack. It should work all the time. It looks like some sort of flag is not being set to tell the autotransfer to go to the chosen place. Yes, this should be very easy to fix if someone would have a look at it.

riddick21

11-04-2007, 01:48 AM

I have been having the same problem. I think I may have found a way to get it to work.
If you manually choose desktop as your destination for automatic transfers and transfer a file. It will go to the desktop as selected. After that, change your setting to itunes and re-transfer the same file. It will go directly into itunes. I have only tried this with one file, but it worked. I have not tried more files afterwards so I don't know how permanent it is.
My way is just a hack. It should work all the time. It looks like some sort of flag is not being set to tell the autotransfer to go to the chosen place. Yes, this should be very easy to fix if someone would have a look at it.

doesn't work

griz

11-04-2007, 07:24 AM

griz

11-04-2007, 07:42 AM

doesn't work

Sorry to hear that. I was able to get it to transfer directly into iTunes, but it only worked for me one time. I'm hoping that we see a fix for this as well.

drm814

11-04-2007, 08:27 AM

:D

I have Popcorn 3 to transfer my tivo to go file from my Mac to my Video Nano Ipod and had that same hang at 0% problem that I have read about on this thread.

Last night, I downloaded the Popcorn 3 Beta (3.0.2b7) and now my transfers work!!!

Try it!

patdaddy

11-04-2007, 10:31 AM

That's nice for Popcorn. What about Toast users? I've been dead in the water for over a week!

joebrod

11-04-2007, 11:50 AM

Diddo. . . what about a toast update? I'm only using it for trancoding to ipod/appletv.

My HD files that I have xferred to my mac using TTG playback @ an accelerated speed - roughly 2x - is this related to the same issue? I am using the toast tivo player for playback.

Intially, I ended up switching to Elgato Products (because of no TTG on my S3) which works FABULOUS for watching TV on your mac and effortlessly exporting non scrambled cable/OTA TV to my ipod/itunes/appletv. My premium content is on the S3

griz

11-04-2007, 12:02 PM

The popcorn update includes toast video player. That fixes the 2x playback. Not sure if you can grab the toast player from the popcorn update.

Dennis Wilkinson

11-04-2007, 01:35 PM

The popcorn update includes toast video player. That fixes the 2x playback. Not sure if you can grab the toast player from the popcorn update.

You can. Download the beta, unzip it, and right-click on the icon in the Finder and do a "Show Package Contents". Look in Contents > Resources, the video player is in there, as well as an .tar.gz archive containing a working version of TiVo Transfer.

riddick21

11-04-2007, 01:55 PM

Sorry to hear that. I was able to get it to transfer directly into iTunes, but it only worked for me one time. I'm hoping that we see a fix for this as well.

Paratox said the final release will fix this issue :D

griz

11-05-2007, 07:14 PM

I have been playing around with the Beta and have had great success getting files to encode. However, I have run into a couple of shows that have audio sync issues. They are all encoded with the same settings, but some have sync problems and others don't.
I seem to recall mention that this can occur if the file had black frames at the beginning. This is not the case though with one of my files.
Is there an easy way to fix audio sync that isn't a complicated hack.
Better question is, why is it happening in the first place.
The show I am mainly having trouble with is Mythbusters.
Anyone else having sync issues?

griz

11-05-2007, 07:20 PM

Paratox said the final release will fix this issue :D

Great to hear. I am looking forward to Popcorn working as I expected it to from the beginning. It will be great if I can just set up auto transfers and have shows automatically appear on my AppleTV. Ideally, I will be able to set the Tivo to auto delete after a couple of days, then access all my shows from the AppleTV and forget about the Tivo.
This way I can archive an entire season of a show that I might want to watch at a later time. I fell behind on a lot of shows during MLB post season and my Tivo got filled up. I had to scurry to get stuff off it and that was where popcorn was supposed to help. Looking forward to the final fix. I appreciate anyone who has had a hand in making this happen.

Timber

11-06-2007, 06:15 AM

You can. Download the beta, unzip it, and right-click on the icon in the Finder and do a "Show Package Contents". Look in Contents > Resources, the video player is in there, as well as an .tar.gz archive containing a working version of TiVo Transfer.

I'm a Toast user. I found the Toast Video Player and TiVo Transfer for Popcorn but the TiVo Transfer doesn't appear to play the videos in the list. Old TiVo Transfer however does appear to have stopped the 2x behavior on a file I transfered with "old" TiVo Transfer (is that the new Video Player behaving itself?) and the titles do list correctly.

-=Tim=-

griz

11-07-2007, 07:07 PM

I am continuing to have audio sync issues and now I am having another issue entirely that I hadn't seen before. Shows that are showing up fine in tivo transfer and playing in the video player are encoding only a minute or two in and then freezing at 100%. Popcorn actually shows the progress bar moving fast toward 100% in about 1 or 2 minutes and the final file is not the complete video.
I have tried retransferring from the tivo and still no luck. Anyone else experiencing this? This is with the Beta download.
-Scott G.

EDIT: My mistake above. I incorrectly noted they show up correctly in toast player and they do not. The file size seems proper for the transfer, but a 30 minute show comes in at 1:17. I have no idea what is going on here.

Sparkylulu

11-08-2007, 12:20 PM

So, what is happening with this?
I still get the n/a data. I still can't encode. I need a patch or an update or something or I have a brick sitting in my bedroom and an unusable program wasting space on my mac.
help?

patdaddy

11-08-2007, 07:55 PM

griz

11-08-2007, 08:07 PM

And...still no fix for something that was working perfectly fine before HBO decided to air all 3 Star Wars episodes. 3 episodes that now sit on my TIVO unable to transfer to my IPOD. Geeshh....If I had more time, I'd find a better solution. So I guess this is a problem with Toast and Tivo's update. Or is it both?

Have you tried the popcorn beta? Check Roxio's site. As for toast, I am not sure. But the Tivo transfer program is included with the Popcorn app so you might be able to extract it.

wilbecker

11-11-2007, 08:50 PM

Does anyone know the ETA for the update to the Tivo system? I'd really love to have my auto-transfers working again.

Not to mention that the funky file name is annoying!

cwoody222

11-12-2007, 10:57 AM

Just FYI: I'm still getting audio sync issues with both the latest and greatest (beta) updates for Popcorn and Toast in Leopard.

griz

11-12-2007, 07:03 PM

Just FYI: I'm still getting audio sync issues with both the latest and greatest (beta) updates for Popcorn and Toast in Leopard.

Same here only I am running it under Tiger. The audio sync issue is still a problem, however, it only occurs on some shows. Doesn't seems to be specific to any one channel.

Sluggo042

11-13-2007, 01:59 AM

Too bad no one could tell us here directly, but the following was posted on MacFixIt.com over the last couple of days:

"Official word from Roxio: Toast updater is coming

We've received the following note from Roxio that we wanted to pass along:

I am the PR manager at Roxio and wanted to follow-up on Monday’s posting titled “Leopard: Incompatible third-party software and hardware (part 2).” Just wanted to let you know that over the last few months, Roxio’s Mac team has been testing our products with beta versions of Apple’s Leopard version of Mac OS X. We have identified some compatibility issues between Leopard and Toast 7 which we plan to release updaters to address. We hope to complete the final test and release the updaters to registered users early next week. Thank you for your patience as we work to ensure our products run well on Apple’s exciting new Mac OS X release."

http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20071107180517848

End of quote

Of course, it doesn't mention our TiVo problems, but one can hope that the fixes we need will be included in this release.

Doug G.

berkon

11-13-2007, 10:33 AM

Like some in this thread, I had transferred Shows from Tivo to my PC and couldn't transfer them back. I used Video redo to reencode the files as mpg's and then,was able to transfer a show, though it took several attempts, and quite a while. Also, it seemed if I deleted another program while the show was transferring to Tivo, the transfer would cancel.

Shows recorded directly to my PC also seem longer to tranfer to the Tivo

riddick21

11-14-2007, 04:29 PM

Popcorn is still broken. Its officially out of beta and it still doesn't import encoded files to itunes like its supposed to. It finally imports the file into itunes but it doesn't have the show info. I will never buy Roxio software. I as well as others have explained this problem clearly both before and during the beta. Now that this is out of beta I doubt this will be fixed any time soon. I got this program specifically to automate the process of getting shows from my TiVo to my iPod because that was the one feature that was lacking in toast. Now I have two pieces of software that can do a bunch of things i don't need them to do and not the one ADVERTISED thing that I got them for TiVoToGo. If you have any desire to appease your users please fix this with the Toast update because we all know another popcorn update is not likely for months, if even that.

galfridus73

11-14-2007, 09:41 PM

Of course, it doesn't mention our TiVo problems, but one can hope that the fixes we need will be included in this release.

To be fair, most Toast users probably are not TiVo users (out of the five or so Toast users I know, I'm the only TiVo user), so they're more concerned about communicating with the bulk of the Toast users who want to upgrade to Leopard.

However, you would think the PR manager would put something on the Roxio forums to say things are being worked on for us, too. I'm sure Roxio saw a bit of an increase in sales when they got the TTG deal for Toast and Popcorn.

wickerbill

11-15-2007, 10:17 AM

Yeah, tivo support is a big reason why I purchased Toast. TIvo needs to do a much better job keeping Roxio on top of stuff like this if they're going to make them our only way to do stuff that people on PC's can do for free or at a much reduced rate than what mac users have to pay.

wdave

11-16-2007, 09:53 AM

Just found this thread. I bought Toast to transfer and export programs from my S3 for my iPhone. I haven't been able to get it to work. Toast either crashes about 5 seconds into the conversion process, or it hangs without making any progress.

I opened a tech support ticket with Roxio and received this response just now:
Thank you for contacting Roxio Technical Support

This issue appears to have been caused by conflicts introduced in the TiVo Fall update. We are currently working with TiVo technicians to find and resolve this issue. We will post an update to our website as soon as it is available.

Dr_Zoidberg

11-16-2007, 11:18 AM

Am I the only one who isn't having a problem? I don't transfer files that often, but the ones I have work fine.

I've been transferring from an S2 and an S3.

Televisionary

11-16-2007, 11:16 PM

The Toast 8.0.3 update is now available:

http://www.roxio.com/enu/support/toast/software_updates.html

-T

Televisionary

11-16-2007, 11:26 PM

Popcorn 3.0.2, too:

http://www.roxio.com/enu/support/popcorn/software_updatesv3.html

-T

Sluggo042

11-17-2007, 01:54 AM

galfridus73

11-17-2007, 09:55 AM

Of course, there's always the chance that this is something personal to my setup. I'd be curious to hear the results other folk are getting.

I'm downloading the patch as I type this, so I'll be playing with the results throughout the day when I get a chance. I'll let you know what I see here.

spaceacedl2

11-17-2007, 12:26 PM

Even with the 8.0.3 update for Toast, I am still unable to see the programs from my TiVo that I transferred to my mac using TiVo Transfer.

I get a message on my TiVo that there are no programs.

Using the new TiVo Transfer... I copied a program from my TiVo, Stopped and Started TiVo Desktop, then looked in my shared video folder on my TiVo in the now playing list, but I did not see the new program I just transferred.

I still don't think the video sharing is officially supported yet, but it WAS working before the latest TiVo update.

However, even in the new TiVo Transfer, I still get an "N/A" for the channel it was recorded from in the TiVo Recordings list. Even though it shows the channel correctly when I view my TiVo through TiVo Transfer.

minckster

11-17-2007, 12:55 PM

Even with the 8.0.3 update for Toast, I am still unable to see the programs from my TiVo that I transferred to my mac using TiVo Transfer. TiVo, not Roxio, needs to update TiVo Desktop for Mac to transfer .tivo files back to the TiVo. With Toast or Popcorn, you should now be able to download programs to your Mac and transfer them to DVDs or iPods, etc. You should also be able to transfer MPEG-2 files (.mpeg) to your TiVo.

To test whether you've got everything working, you can download the following TiVo-compliant MPEG-2 and see if you can get it to transfer to your TiVo (d/l the "Sample Video Clip [MPEG2]"):
http://www.dvrupgrade.com/dvr/stores/1/dvrchive.cfm

shulcslt

11-17-2007, 05:16 PM

I have installed the 8.0.3 Toast Update.

Good Part: It does indeed correct the parsing problems that started this whole thing off. Transfers work.

Bad Part: I encoded a program that i'd transferred earlier before the release of the 8.0.3 Update. Encoded fine, burned it to disc. Result - the program plays with badly synced audio, about a half-second delay after the video. Makes the progam look like a badly dubbed Japanese monster movie. This is the exact problem I had with the Beta test, which I duly reported to Roxio. No response on their part. I'd hoped that meant they knew about the problem, but I guess that was a foolish thought on my part.

Well, this sucks, I thought the drought was over. Damn!

Of course, there's always the chance that this is something personal to my setup. I'd be curious to hear the results other folk are getting. I also need to test if this happens with shows transferred using the new TivoTransfer program.

Doug G.
Eagerly downloaded the Toast 8.03 release and installed it only to find that the sync problem still exists and there are a couple of new problems. Hopefully, I can explain coherently.

Disc Burn 1:

2 TiVo files of 1’0” and 1’4”, being burned to one DVD, which had encoded successfully with both the previous release version and the beta you sent me, but had A/V sync problems with the second show only now did the same – that is encoded, but had the same sync problem. What’s new is the thermometer, in the progress window is now funky. With the previous versions, it accurately displayed the status of the process (except, of course the time estimates). It now proceeded to around 8%, during the encoding process and stayed there for a significant period of time. It then showed 23% and stayed there for around 10 minutes, at which point it returned to 8% and stayed there until it started to burn the disc during which it remained at 8% through “writing the lead out” and then displayed the “disk ready” dialog box. Strangely, the progress indicator, in dock icon, seemed to be reasonably correct, it did not remain at 8%. Quit Toast.

Disk Burn 2:

Launched Toast 8.03 again. Single TiVo file, 2’15” which previously hung at 1% during encoding. Encoding process proceeded normally but appeared to hang at 37%, at which point I stopped it and restarted the Mac. Launched Toast and started burn again which seemed to complete normally, but the disk had A/V sync problems, as well.

This is pretty disappointing.

galfridus73

11-18-2007, 05:10 PM

I still don't think the video sharing is officially supported yet, but it WAS working before the latest TiVo update.

I have the same issue, but that's probably related to the change in metadata that Toast ran into trouble with. The problem for us is, since it isn't supported on the Mac yet, we have to hope that TiVo is going to deliver an updated TiVo Desktop for the Mac, with the video tab enabled and the metadata issue fixed.

Come on, TiVo - the feature's there, just officially enable it and support it for us, please (I'm fine with it being either TiVo Desktop 1.9.4 or 2.0 or whatever - I just want feature parity with Windows)!

galfridus73

11-18-2007, 05:13 PM

I'm going to try burning a movie from before the Fall update and see what happens.

I'm starting to wonder: I burned an episode of Dog Whisperer from my Series3 and had no AV sync issues. I exported (to iTunes) four episodes of Torchwood from my Series2 and had horrible AV sync.

Maybe it's something about the S2 that's causing the sync problem?

I should say that playing any video through the Toast Video Player does not cause any issues at all - the sync is just fine on video from either the S2 or the S3.

I'm going to play around some more and see.

galfridus73

11-18-2007, 10:10 PM

Well, after burning both a pre-update recording and a post-update recording, I can agree 100% with Doug:

The DVD audio sync for recordings previous to the update is bad. Really bad. We're not talking fractions of a second, we're talking at least 1.5 or 2 seconds off.

Furthermore, that same issue exists for the iPod export, and that's a huge showstopper for me. I travel on a regular basis and I do take TTG videos with me to watch while traveling. If this sort of bug can't be addressed then I will seriously have to look at a solution other than those from Roxio.

I have to assume that something has to be tweaked on Toast's end. Even if it's something we have to do manually in the time being, I'm fine with that. But I can't have Gwen speaking with Owen's voice when I'm trying to catch up on Torchwood. That's just disturbing.

javabird

11-18-2007, 11:26 PM

I've burned 2 disks so far with the update and no sync issues. I have an S2 DT.

Sluggo042

11-19-2007, 12:28 AM

Sluggo042

11-19-2007, 12:42 AM

galfridus,

What are you using as a video source for your Tivo? Cable, Satellite?

The reason I'm asking: I've not talked about it in this thread, not wanting to complicate the issue, but I'm pretty sure Tivo has made at least one change to how they handle an encoded video file when they put out the Update. Prior to the update, I had a problem whenever there was a video glitch in the source signal. I use a Dish Network satellite feed, and occasionally get brief losses in the signal in my setup. Watching the program in real time on the Tivo, I see the video hiccup/freeze briefly, pixelate/macroblock heavily, then recover. Annoying, but no biggie.

However, if I take the program with the same hiccup, and tried to transfer it to my Mac, Tivo-to-Go would only transfer up to the point of that hiccup. The problem was definitely on the Tivo side, because I got the same result with the web-server method of file transfer built into the Tivo for any problematic files. Apparently, the Tivo just gave up when it stumbled over the point in the file where the hiccup was.

Since the Update, I have not had a single file truncated as I've just described. On some of these, I know there were video glitches. I'm wondering now if that, in trying to fix the truncated transfers, that the new Tivo software is incorrectly synchronizing the audio only on files containing some sort of glitches. Perhaps they lose a little more video than audio, or lose some sort of key frame information vital to maintaining correct sync. This might explain why Roxio didn't catch this bug in their in-lab testing - lab testing usually uses a known-good source material, and the loss of sync would only be seen in situations where the source is less than pristine.

So, those of you seeing audio sync problems, did you also use to see the truncated file transfers prior to the Tivo Fall Update? Does your source signal occasional break up or otherwise impaired?

Doug G.

galfridus73

11-19-2007, 11:38 AM

What are you using as a video source for your Tivo? Cable, Satellite?

Doug: It's cable (Comcast). With the Series3 I currently have no choice but cable as the satellite providers don't do CableCards (at least currently).

galfridus73

11-19-2007, 11:44 AM

TiVo, not Roxio, needs to update TiVo Desktop for Mac to transfer .tivo files back to the TiVo. With Toast or Popcorn, you should now be able to download programs to your Mac and transfer them to DVDs or iPods, etc. You should also be able to transfer MPEG-2 files (.mpeg) to your TiVo.

Well, I can also that TiVo Desktop for Mac is not publishing .tivo files back to the TiVo boxes on the network.

However, I fired up Windows XP in Parallels and set up TiVo Desktop for Windows in it and everything is published across the network, so it's not something wrong with the files themselves.

This is simply a question of TiVo updating a feature they don't support and have never publicized in a software package they pay very little attention to.

Hmmmm.

Maybe I'll just set up a headless XP box on the network and make it a TiVo video server. Bah.

Sluggo042

11-19-2007, 06:21 PM

Doug: It's cable (Comcast). With the Series3 I currently have no choice but cable as the satellite providers don't do CableCards (at least currently).

And prior to the Tivo Update, had you ever encountered the truncated transfer problem, i.e. had some files only partially transfer from Tivo to Mac?

galfridus73

11-20-2007, 02:14 AM

And prior to the Tivo Update, had you ever encountered the truncated transfer problem, i.e. had some files only partially transfer from Tivo to Mac?

No, never. I actually have excellent reception on my cable and very rarely have dropouts (or, if I do, they aren't on shows I watch).

Sluggo042

11-20-2007, 03:11 AM

No, never. I actually have excellent reception on my cable and very rarely have dropouts (or, if I do, they aren't on shows I watch).

Curious. I was a little concerned that only people who had less than pristine signals would encounter this problem, and that those of us with such signals would form only a small fraction of the already small fraction of Tivo-to-Go users of Toast and Popcorn. Frankly, the more people who have this difficulty the better at this point, as this will presumably force Roxio and Tivo to address it more quickly. I only hope it is something they can easily figure out. I've dealt a little with mpeg streams in the past, and there's lots of ways they can get screwed up. The original metadata problem may have been straightforward to solve in comparison.

Thanks for the info.

Doug G.

wdave

11-20-2007, 12:59 PM

I have installed the 8.0.3 Toast Update.

Bad Part: ... the program plays with badly synced audio, about a half-second delay after the video.
Same here.

How could they have released it with such a blatant, easy to notice, problem?

Sluggo042

11-20-2007, 06:43 PM

I would strongly urge everyone experiencing this audio/video sync problem to contact Roxio Support, and file a trouble ticket. Since we're seeing no response from Roxio on this issue on this board, who knows to what extent they're aware of the bug. With support tickets filed, Roxio's management will be officially notified that a problem exists. This seemed to be a factor prompting them to address the original Tivo Transfer bug in 8.0.1.

Go to http://selfserve.roxio.com. You'll have to log in with an account as a registered user, but there's a link there that will let you set one up if you don't already have one. Try to give all the relevant facts you can think of - Mac setup, Tivo type, etc. Remember that they'll probably be wading through a lot of these, so save (for now) the diatribes. Just get them some data that might help them nail down the source of this bug. Maybe this will help them come up with a fix.

Doug G.

wildcardd

11-20-2007, 07:51 PM

Interesting...after the update, I had one show already transfered to my mac. When I encoded that one, it had audio sync issues. When I downloaded a new show, those didn't have the sync problem.

I didn't see anyone describe that they tried re-downloading the shows after the update.

Have you guys tried re downloading the show with the audio sync issues?

I am doing that as we speak..will post later with the results.

Sluggo042

11-20-2007, 09:17 PM

I've definitely seen audio sync problems on programs recorded and transferred using only Toast 8.0.3 tools. But I will note that some programs are worse than others - I've not detected any rhyme or reason as to why though. Maybe you just lucked out with that first new show? I'd be interested to hear if you're seeing that consistently.

Doug G.

skankerp

11-21-2007, 01:25 AM

I retransferred programs from as far back as 1/14/07 from my S2 Tivo to Mac and tried burning... Encoding works great now, but resulting disk also has terrible sync issues. Issue is also happening with shows recorded after Fall 2007 update. I submitted a trouble ticket with roxio, we'll see if I get any response. I'm about ready to just start using XP on Parallels for all my Tivo needs and dump Roxio, ugh

Sluggo042

11-21-2007, 01:59 AM

I'm about ready to just start using XP on Parallels for all my Tivo needs and dump Roxio, ugh

I was just about to reflexively point out that this could be a Tivo-side problem just as easily as it being Roxio's fault, but then I realized that I've not seen any long threads of angry PC users complaining about sync issues lately, suggesting that their software is working. So I guess that kind of suggests that it is something to do with Roxio's implementation of the Tivo encoding process.

Thanks for the data points!

Doug G.

wildcardd

11-21-2007, 03:08 PM

Crap...same show same audio issues. Weird stuff happening.

skankerp

11-23-2007, 10:11 PM

Just got a response from Roxio saying to uninstall Quicktime version 7.3 and go back to version 7.1.. going to try this, I have my doubts though

javabird

11-24-2007, 08:17 AM

Please keep us updated on your results.

Mike-W

11-24-2007, 01:08 PM

I am running 10.5 w/ Quicktime 7.2.1 on a new MBP. With Toast 8.0.3 any program recorded before the Fall 2007 Update has audio sync issues. Any program recorded with the Fall 2007 Update burns fine with 8.0.3.

I will try the same tests with Toast 8.0.3 on a Mac Pro running 10.4.10 with Quicktime 7.2.

javabird

11-24-2007, 01:49 PM

Javabird,

I'm seeing variable results on the burns that I've done - some of mine seem to be ok, others have very significant sync delays. Also, I've got at least one that started out ok, but gradually lost sync, so you may want to go through the entire program before you decide they're ok.

Doug G.

Yes, after further tests I've noticed that some videos are out of sync, some are not. As others have mentioned, shows from some tv channels are worse.

wildcardd

11-24-2007, 04:02 PM

Just got a response from Roxio saying to uninstall Quicktime version 7.3 and go back to version 7.1.. going to try this, I have my doubts though

Well if you are running Tiger, you can test this, but some of us Leopard users are screwed as we won't be able to install 7.2 let alone 7.1.

I have a sneaking suspicion that this is just a delay tactic on the part of the Roxio Tech. :(

Sluggo042

11-24-2007, 08:34 PM

Well if you are running Tiger, you can test this, but some of us Leopard users are screwed as we won't be able to install 7.2 let alone 7.1.

I have a sneaking suspicion that this is just a delay tactic on the part of the Roxio Tech. :(

There are still some experiments I need to run using data points mentioned by Roxio and in this thread in others. However, one of the first things Roxio Support asked me after filing my support ticket was what version of Quicktime I was using. I'm using QT 7.1.6 on OS X 10.4.9, and I'm definitely having audio sync problems. Therefore, I conclude that backgrading from QT 7.3 may not be the answer.

My next line of inquiry will be to start cleaning out older versions of Toast to see if that helps. I'll post results if I come up with anything interesting.

Doug G.

shulcslt

11-24-2007, 09:56 PM

There are still some experiments I need to run using data points mentioned by Roxio and in this thread in others. However, one of the first things Roxio Support asked me after filing my support ticket was what version of Quicktime I was using. I'm using QT 7.1.6 on OS X 10.4.9, and I'm definitely having audio sync problems. Therefore, I conclude that backgrading from QT 7.3 may not be the answer.

My next line of inquiry will be to start cleaning out older versions of Toast to see if that helps. I'll post results if I come up with anything interesting.

Doug G.
I was having A/V sync issues using 10.4.9 and am having them using 10.5.

wildcardd

11-26-2007, 12:10 PM

Sluggo042

11-26-2007, 06:23 PM

Here is another point of data. For me at least, I have 1 show that has the audio sync issue. Recorded on 10/10 which is right around the time my Tivo updated its firmware. I haven't run into an audio sync issue for a recording after 10/10. I have encoded 10 or so shows after this date.

I am going to try encoding a show before 10/10. Stay tuned.

Are you guys seeing the issue with audio sync before AND after your Tivo firmware updates?

I'm definitely seeing the audio sync problem on stuff recorded after the Tivo Fall 2007 Update.

These programs that you've successfully encoded - were you encoding them for burn to DVD, or for some other application?

Doug G.

Sluggo042

11-26-2007, 06:29 PM

I was having A/V sync issues using 10.4.9 and am having them using 10.5.

Did you go straight from 10.4.9 to 10.5? I received a message from Roxio support today that suggested that 10.4.9 needs to be updated. But it really sounds to me like they're shotgunning for a solution - trying a bunch of random things in the vague hope that something will solve the issue without actually going to the trouble of diagnosing what's wrong. I'll update 10.4 if I have to, but its a hassle with the chance that something else will be broken by modifying my system software.

I suppose i should ask this: Is anyone seeing the audio sync issue who is also using whatever the latest version of 10.4 (10.4.11, I think)?

Doug G.

shulcslt

11-26-2007, 08:54 PM

Did you go straight from 10.4.9 to 10.5? I received a message from Roxio support today that suggested that 10.4.9 needs to be updated. But it really sounds to me like they're shotgunning for a solution - trying a bunch of random things in the vague hope that something will solve the issue without actually going to the trouble of diagnosing what's wrong. I'll update 10.4 if I have to, but its a hassle with the chance that something else will be broken by modifying my system software.

I suppose i should ask this: Is anyone seeing the audio sync issue who is also using whatever the latest version of 10.4 (10.4.11, I think)?

Doug G.
I was using the latest version of 10.4, and getting the sync issues, before updating to 10.5 and getting the sync issues. At least they're still bothering to send YOU messages.

Sluggo042

11-26-2007, 09:02 PM

I was using the latest version of 10.4, and getting the sync issues, before updating to 10.5 and getting the sync issues. At least they're still bothering to send YOU messages.

The communication is taking place through the support ticket I filed. They make a suggestion, and then I try it if it makes any sort of sense. I think their policy is that they have to respond to support tickets.

Doug G.

Sparkylulu

11-26-2007, 10:09 PM

point of interest. I am not seeing audio problems in the Roxio player. BUT when I transfer from Roxio to ipod I do have the same problem. I guess I really should contact roxio but the toast people are quicker to communicate here than there. I never got an answer to a ticket I opened at the start of this wole thing.

shulcslt

11-27-2007, 09:51 AM

The communication is taking place through the support ticket I filed. They make a suggestion, and then I try it if it makes any sort of sense. I think their policy is that they have to respond to support tickets.

Doug G.
Doug,

I did file a support ticket, but they merely replied that, since I had been communicating with Patrick, they weren't going to bother.

Jon

skankerp

11-28-2007, 04:06 PM

Sluggo042

11-28-2007, 09:19 PM

I am running 10.5 and tried the complete uninstall and reinstall with same issue. That is for shows before AND after the Fall 2007 update. I don't know if it's just not possible to downgrade to previous quicktime versions on 10.5 but I haven't been able to do it

I don't think downgrading would help you even if you knew how to do it. As I've said, I'm running earlier versions of both OSX and QT, and I'm having the sync problem.

My last com with Roxio Support told me to update OSX to 10.4.11. I asked them if they knew for certain if that was a fix, or if they were still shotgunning solutions without having actually diagnosed the actual cause. That was two days ago, and they've apparently stopped talking to me. I thought it was a fair question.

Doug G.

Sluggo042

11-28-2007, 09:21 PM

I did file a support ticket, but they merely replied that, since I had been communicating with Patrick, they weren't going to bother.

So did Patrick say anything about what's going on in your communication with him? Did he acknowledge that there really is a problem here? I sure wish he or someone in the know would pass a tidbit or two of knowledge our way.

Doug G.

shulcslt

11-29-2007, 09:58 AM

Sluggo042

11-29-2007, 10:07 AM

No. He's been incommunicado for 10 days or more.

Ouch - so Roxio is being punative in not answering you because you have in the past talked to someone who will also no longer speak with you. Harsh! I wonder if Patrick has had his hand slapped for <gasp> actually communicating with users.

They're not answering my last question to them either, no explanation offered. Maybe they're just taking the month between Thanksgiving and Xmas off.

Doug G.

javabird

11-29-2007, 01:26 PM

So did Patrick say anything about what's going on in your communication with him? Did he acknowledge that there really is a problem here? I sure wish he or someone in the know would pass a tidbit or two of knowledge our way.

Doug G.

They are working on it. See his Nov 16 note here: http://forums.support.roxio.com/index.php?showtopic=30848

"We have also received feedback through beta testing that a limited number of TiVo users are still experiencing audio and video synchronization issues. We are continuing to work on a resolution for this problem and will provide more information as it becomes available."

Sluggo042

11-29-2007, 06:35 PM

They are working on it. See his Nov 16 note here: http://forums.support.roxio.com/index.php?showtopic=30848

"We have also received feedback through beta testing that a limited number of TiVo users are still experiencing audio and video synchronization issues. We are continuing to work on a resolution for this problem and will provide more information as it becomes available."

JavaBird,

Thank you for pointing that out, as I wouldn't have run across that on my own. It's good to have, at the very least, something public said on the subject.

Having said that, I would point out that thread has less than 900 views. This thread currently has over 11,500. Its sister thread on the Roxio Board also has over 10,000 views. Both threads are serving as magnet and clearing house for users suffering from the Audio Sync bug. Wouldn't it have made a tad more sense for information regarding this problem to be posted in one of these spots?

Doug G.

riddick21

11-29-2007, 08:16 PM

shulcslt

11-29-2007, 09:41 PM

Ouch - so Roxio is being punative in not answering you because you have in the past talked to someone who will also no longer speak with you. Harsh! I wonder if Patrick has had his hand slapped for <gasp> actually communicating with users.

They're not answering my last question to them either, no explanation offered. Maybe they're just taking the month between Thanksgiving and Xmas off.

Doug G.
That's definitely it. They're taking the month off...

shulcslt

11-29-2007, 09:43 PM

wildcardd

11-30-2007, 12:14 AM

I'm definitely seeing the audio sync problem on stuff recorded after the Tivo Fall 2007 Update.

These programs that you've successfully encoded - were you encoding them for burn to DVD, or for some other application?

Doug G.

Sorry been out of commission for a few days (wisdom teeth...uggh)

I was encoding for my iPod on the "fastest" option.

It seems to me that there is something wrong with their encoder tools since the player appears to play the audio just fine.

TiVo Kid 2003

12-01-2007, 02:49 PM

I was just about to reflexively point out that this could be a Tivo-side problem just as easily as it being Roxio's fault, but then I realized that I've not seen any long threads of angry PC users complaining about sync issues lately, suggesting that their software is working. So I guess that kind of suggests that it is something to do with Roxio's implementation of the Tivo encoding process.

Thanks for the data points!

Doug G.

(Raises hand) There's at least one PC user having audio sync problems since the Fall Update. It's only on my Humax TiVo, not my "TiVo TiVo" (for lack of a better name for it). I get the same problems when transferring via the web browser. No Roxio, no Mac in this setup. It is an issue with the TiVo's encoding for transfer, and I am 99 percent sure it has to do with dropouts / glitches in the video.

I've sent lots of information to TiVo and VideoRedo (which I use to post-process the files) and I haven't gotten very far. VideoRedo has nothing to do with the problem, I was just hoping their engineers could take a look at the corrupted file & identify where the TiVo is messing up, but I guess they're too busy with their new release to help right now.

wdave

12-01-2007, 09:25 PM

I've discovered that iSquint (http://www.isquint.org/) can decode without any audio sync problems. So until Toast can fix their bug, I'm using that (using Tivo Decoder to first translate the .Tivo file).

javabird

12-03-2007, 10:10 AM

I've done a couple of tests using TivoDecodeManager (bypassing Toast's transfer tool), and both mpeg and mp4 files were also severely out-of-sync (when viewed in QT, MPEG Streamclip or iMovie).

wdave

12-03-2007, 10:23 AM

I can't get TivoDecodeManager to work at all. It stalls when trying to begin transfer anything from my S3 (I've only tried HD material, if that matters).

But I'll reiterate: "Tivo Transfer -> Tivo Decoder -> iSquint" works great with no problems so far for me. This is my solution until TivoDecodeManager and/or Toast fix their bugs.

TiVo Kid 2003

12-03-2007, 02:13 PM

But I'll reiterate: "Tivo Transfer -> Tivo Decoder -> iSquint" works great with no problems so far for me. This is my solution until TivoDecodeManager and/or Toast fix their bugs.

Time for me to either kick the TiVo to the curb for a homebrew PC DVR, or kick the WinPC to the curb for a Mac. Or maybe both.

I'm actually really angry that TiVo introduced this defect and has been so slow to correct it.

A buddy of mine who was a TiVo developer a ways back told me that they've outsourced a lot of development to India. Not sure how much knowledge is left here in the states, or if the remote team is the cause of the delay, but ultimately I don't care, the market will vote with its collective checkbook.

wdave

12-03-2007, 02:24 PM

I'm actually really angry that TiVo introduced this defect and has been so slow to correct it.
Well, now I'm not so sure it's a Tivo problem. Both Tivo Decoder and iSquint haven't changed or been updated with new releases in many months, long before the Tivo Fall Update. Since those apps continue to work fine, that tells me the problem with Toast and TivoDecodeManager doesn't lie with (or at least not completely with) Tivo.

TiVo Kid 2003

12-03-2007, 04:28 PM

Well, now I'm not so sure it's a Tivo problem. Both Tivo Decoder and iSquint haven't changed or been updated with new releases in many months, long before the Tivo Fall Update. Since those apps continue to work fine, that tells me the problem with Toast and TivoDecodeManager doesn't lie with (or at least not completely with) Tivo.

I hear you on that, totally. And I feel like I'm thread-crapping by talking about my PC woes on a Toast / Mac thread.

But still... my situation is that everything worked fine for me (download & then edit w/ VideoRedo on PC) until the TiVo fall update... since the updated, with about 10% of the .TiVo files I load w/ VideoRedo, it complains that there are too many audio sync errors in the file to continue. Many files are fine, only some have problems.

VideoReDo does its best to correct / work around the sync problems, and my understanding is that if they accepted a larger number of errors (instead of just saying "this file is crap"), the file could be loaded.

So my guess is that TiVo Decoder & iSquint are very forgiving & good at correcting / ignoring these errors, and they've been that way for a while.

Anyway just my 2 (5?) cents...

javabird

12-03-2007, 05:23 PM

wdave

12-03-2007, 07:23 PM

Are you using version 1.3 of Tivo Decoder?
Yes.

Phantom Gremlin

12-03-2007, 09:24 PM

A buddy of mine who was a TiVo developer a ways back told me that they've outsourced a lot of development to India. Not sure how much knowledge is left here in the states, or if the remote team is the cause of the delay, but ultimately I don't care, the market will vote with its collective checkbook.

There has been occasional mention of India here on TiVocommunty. I think it explains a lot.

I'm not familiar with Tom Rogers' background. But I get the impression that he's a gladhanding dealmaker who doesn't know s*** technically.

My experience is that managers who don't understand technical details inevitably think they're unimportant, trivial, easily solved. That explains the outsourcing to Apu & Co.

saberman

12-04-2007, 02:10 AM

>Why does a company with 451 full time employees need 19 vice presidents?

Someone has to make the coffee since the function has been reclassified as non-administrative.

TiVo Kid 2003

12-04-2007, 11:46 AM

Why does a company with 451 full time employees need 19 vice presidents?

At the risk of re-spinning a classic punchline.... 1 to do the work, and 18 to watch him (or her). :(

minckster

12-04-2007, 11:49 AM

So TiVo is going to keep on hiring vice presidents until they find that one who actually does work? ;)

HaroldBuck

12-07-2007, 11:20 AM

So are most people able to still transfer the files to their computer?
Mine won't even do that. It simply says it is waiting to transfer the files and stalls out there.

Hi, just joined. I'm working through this thread, so I don't know if this has been answered already, but this happens to me. I have to restart TiVo, then I can transfer a few more shows. Eventually it chokes again and I need to restart again. Very frustrating, but at least I can transfer stuff.

I'm experience the synch issues that other people are having, plus many of the other issues. Since the Toast 8.0.3 update, I've been able to burn DVDs again, but I've been having issues with the DVDs being garbled partway through (in addition to the synch issues). They told me not to do anything on the computer while burning (I usually burn overnight), to update my DVD burner firmware (there is no update AFAICT), and to install the QuickTime update. I burned a DVD for my kids after that update that seems to be working, although I still have the synch issue.

-Harold
Mac OS 10.5.1
2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo iMac
2 GB Ram
Toast 8.0.3
TiVo Series 2 DVR

Sparkylulu

12-07-2007, 12:19 PM

I'm going to reply here because I am just frustrated.
I STILL have the sync problems. I guess I should be grateful for the encoder problem to have been fixed but still...
What I loved about Toast and Tivo was the ability to record and then transfer to my ipod or burn the disc. This comes in especially handy when recording programs for my one year old to watch on long plane trips. But now it's just a useless piece of software.
When is someone going to address this problem and fix it?

HaroldBuck

12-07-2007, 02:28 PM

From Roxio Tech Support on 12-5:

We have also received feedback through beta testing that a limited number of TiVo users are still experiencing audio and video synchronization issues. We are continuing to work on a resolution for this problem and will provide more information as it becomes available.

SnakeEyes

12-07-2007, 04:59 PM

Can files ran through TiVoDecode be played back properly in Quicktime with the right codecs? I have an HD recording of Leno, the video is fine but there is no audio. I wanted to edit the video in QT.

shulcslt

12-07-2007, 09:38 PM

From Roxio Tech Support on 12-5:
That's the same thing they've been saying almost since day one of this whole issue - word for word.

benvon

12-18-2007, 09:49 PM

Adding another voice to the choir...

... A/V sync problems when exporting for iPod
... already contacted Roxio
... very frustrated
... significant backlog of shows waiting to be transcoded to the iPod
... bleh
... never buying Roxio again

Sluggo042

12-18-2007, 10:13 PM

Adding another voice to the choir...

... never buying Roxio again

That presumes that the whole snafu is Roxio's fault. It looks to me like this is more likely caused by something Tivo did with the Fall 2007 Update. I'm not entirely absolving Roxio - they could be far more open about what's going on than they have been to date, a serious shortcoming. However, if Tivo made some change to their encoding without informing Roxio beforehand, then Roxio might well get blamed for something they had no hand in causing. And if they made no change, then Roxio's software shouldn't have stopped working. So I tend to believe that Tivo is the originator of this problem, even if we are forced by the situation to wait for Roxio to fix it.

Doug G.

TiVo Kid 2003

12-18-2007, 10:32 PM

That presumes that the whole snafu is Roxio's fault. It looks to me like this is more likely caused by something Tivo did with the Fall 2007 Update. I'm not entirely absolving Roxio - they could be far more open about what's going on than they have been to date, a serious shortcoming. However, if Tivo made some change to their encoding without informing Roxio beforehand, then Roxio might well get blamed for something they had no hand in causing. And if they made no change, then Roxio's software shouldn't have stopped working. So I tend to believe that Tivo is the originator of this problem, even if we are forced by the situation to wait for Roxio to fix it.

Doug G.

I completely agree, since I'm having similar problems without Roxio (in spite of this thread's title.)

For the love of all that is holy, can someone from Roxio (or TiVo) please point the finger? Like no one from those companies participates on this forum... :rolleyes:

WE DON'T CARE who is to blame, just fix the damn thing!!!

Sluggo042

12-18-2007, 10:49 PM

I completely agree, since I'm having similar problems without Roxio (in spite of this thread's title.)

For the love of all that is holy, can someone from Roxio (or TiVo) please point the finger? Like no one from those companies participates on this forum... :rolleyes:

WE DON'T CARE who is to blame, just fix the damn thing!!!

Amen, brother!

(The thread's title is my fault. It was appropriate when this whole problem started with the encoding-freeze problem caused by the mishandled metadata. It was only after Roxio fixed that problem that the current sync problem became apparent. I've thought about starting a thread with 'Audio Sync' in the title, but everyone suffering from the problem seems to end up here, so it seems to be working for the moment.)

Doug G.

benvon

12-19-2007, 06:02 AM

Amen, brother!

(The thread's title is my fault. It was appropriate when this whole problem started with the encoding-freeze problem caused by the mishandled metadata. It was only after Roxio fixed that problem that the current sync problem became apparent. I've thought about starting a thread with 'Audio Sync' in the title, but everyone suffering from the problem seems to end up here, so it seems to be working for the moment.)

Doug G.

You are right about it not necessarily being Roxio's fault. But taking a month to fix one problem only to introduce (or completely miss) another problem does not strike me as something that a quality software engineering house would do. What were they doing with that first month? It's now been more than two months and we've heard precious little from this "professional" software company.

I don't care whos fault it is. Roxio took my money in return for providing a particular functionality. So far, in the 4 months since I've given Roxio my money, I've had less than 2 months of real functionality!

That's what I'm upset about. That's Roxio's fault.

Sluggo042

12-19-2007, 03:35 PM

You are right about it not necessarily being Roxio's fault. But taking a month to fix one problem only to introduce (or completely miss) another problem does not strike me as something that a quality software engineering house would do. What were they doing with that first month? It's now been more than two months and we've heard precious little from this "professional" software company.

I don't care whos fault it is. Roxio took my money in return for providing a particular functionality. So far, in the 4 months since I've given Roxio my money, I've had less than 2 months of real functionality!

That's what I'm upset about. That's Roxio's fault.

I don't want to let Roxio entirely off the hook. But I also think they're in a tough position. They've got a partner (Tivo) who does stuff that breaks their software without warning. They're limited in how obnoxious they can be to that partner while still maintaining the relationship. Worse, the thing that Tivo broke, whatever it is that's causing the audio sync problem, appears NOT to be universal - there are people here reporting that they're not having the problem. This may explain why Roxio missed the bug when they released the first fix - it's not showing up on all machines. And if that's true, it suggests that testing the second fix is not trivial, as there will be a lot of cases to be tested to make sure they don't break something else, or again leave some subset of users unfixed. Given all of that, I don't think that a couple of months is entirely unjustified.

On the other hand, and where I do fault Roxio, is their policy of being so close-mouthed about what the hell is going on. Yeah, we have one official statement about "a few users" seeing a problem back when the first fix was released, but nothing since that I'm aware of. There's no official statement about a timeframe for a fix, or even that any such fix is forthcoming. This to a userbase that put up with Tivo stringing Mac users along for a couple of years, promising TivoToGo functionality long before they actually got around to providing it. It's no wonder most of us find this silence policy so frustrating - we've been trained by Tivo to be distrustful that we're going to get any support for these features at all!

I do think that Roxio's policy of not keeping paying users updated on the progress of the fix is extremely stupid, earning them black eyes they could have just as easily avoided with an update or two. In the absence of information, all we users can do is to keep bringing up the problem in open forums until such time as we actually learn publically what's going on.

Still, it could be worse - at least we expect Roxio to do something about the problem. Based on their history, no one seems to have any such expectation of Tivo. Roxio's getting thrashed over this issue in part because we have higher expectations from them.

Doug G.

Sparkylulu

12-19-2007, 04:33 PM

Well, there has been precedent set, right? Wasn't there a guy named Paratox or Patatox who was a rep from Roxio and was updating us with the progress?
I don't blame Roxio per se. Nor can I blame Tivo. All I can say is the former offer an answer for Mac users to be able to use Tivo Desktop. In addition, since the PC version is free, they made it so you had to buy a third party app to be able to run the program. That would suck if they didn't give us so much extra power with the ability to burn and offload to ipod easily.
But, with Direct Show Dump and various other conversion programs I would be able to do the same thing with my PC. Except that my ipod is Mac and I am a total macuser now.
So, what is my option?
Money has exchanged hands. So, Roxio needs to keep up their end of the bargain or offer something in return. At the very least, they need to respond when a user opens a "ticket". (who still uses that anyway?)
I have opened tickets and received no response. That's just kooky.
I suggest we keep responding to this post to keep it up front and hope that the powers that be at Tivo and Roxio decide to do something about the mess and inconvenience they have caused.

Sluggo042

12-19-2007, 08:37 PM

Well, there has been precedent set, right? Wasn't there a guy named Paratox or Patatox who was a rep from Roxio and was updating us with the progress?

Patatrox, yes. Though he, and Roxio as a whole have gone eerily quiet over the last few weeks.

At the very least, they need to respond when a user opens a "ticket". (who still uses that anyway?)

I have opened tickets and received no response. That's just kooky.

The 'ticket' system seems like a rational way to track and bring some accountability to customer complants. Tivo doesn't even offer that much, giving no written way I've been able to find of communicating bugs to them. So, I'm rather glad that Roxio offers that method of contact. Even though they seem to have decided at some point in the last few weeks to collectively ignore anyone asking about the audio sync bug. Kooky would be my kindest characterization of the silence.

I suggest we keep responding to this post to keep it up front and hope that the powers that be at Tivo and Roxio decide to do something about the mess and inconvenience they have caused.

Exactly my strategy.

Doug G.

TiVo Kid 2003

12-19-2007, 10:53 PM

It's about time someone posts this story over at Consumerist.com (http://www.consumerist.com) -- "TiVo's TiVoToGo feature works beautifully - except when it doesn't"

(To TiVo): Oh, have I got your attention now? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TROhlThs9qY) (Anyone remember that scene w/ Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross?)

wdave

12-21-2007, 02:58 PM

I don't want to let Roxio entirely off the hook. But I also think they're in a tough position. They've got a partner (Tivo) who does stuff that breaks their software without warning.

Wait, I gotta stop you there. I feel like a broken record in this thread. As I previously pointed out (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=5752833#post5752833):

There are tools that haven't changed in months (Tivo Decoder, VisualHub/iSquint) that can translate the Tivo files just fine. These apps worked before the Fall Update, and they continue to work after the Fall Update. If Tivo broke something substantial, then why do those apps still work fine? Maybe Roxio isn't following the spec in some way, and therefore got hit with some change in the Fall Update that was perfectly "legal" for Tivo to make.

Since there are other tools that can convert just fine (and they're even free!), then Roxio has no excuse.

javabird

12-21-2007, 03:26 PM

I had trouble with audio sync using Tivo Decoder after the fall update, which I've posted in several forums, and others have posted similar problems. So I wouldn't say they "still work fine." I haven't used Visual Hub, though, as I won't pay for a program that won't let me try it first (it only allows a short clip, which isn't a sufficient test since the sync problems show up after 1 hr.).

wdave

12-21-2007, 03:37 PM

I haven't used Visual Hub, though, as I won't pay for a program that won't let me try it first (it only allows a short clip, which isn't a sufficient test since the sync problems show up after 1 hr.).

Use iSquint, the little sister to VisualHub. It's free and will do iPod/iPhone/AppleTV conversions. That's what I'm using in the interim.

Sluggo042

12-21-2007, 05:40 PM

Wait, I gotta stop you there. I feel like a broken record in this thread. As I previously pointed out (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=5752833#post5752833):

. . .

Since there are other tools that can convert just fine (and they're even free!), then Roxio has no excuse.

I'm probably sounding like a broken record too, but part of that is by design - I'm trying to keep the thread up front in the hope that it adds some push to Roxio completing a fix. I'm also grasping at straws in case someone can come up with some temporary work around, so I try to restate things a lot to keep the thought ball rolling.

Question: Some people report they're not seeing the audio sync problem using Toast/Popcorn. Postulate for a moment that the problem is variable, and depends upon one's installation and configuration. Due to some magic mojo setting that has yet go be discovered, some people's setups will suffer from the bug, and some will not. If this were the case, then one would see, or not see, the audio sync problem independent of the tools used to perform conversions. In other words, perhaps you're not seeing the audio sync problem because you have a "blessed" configuration, not because you're using different tools. So, the question is, did you see the audio sync problem using the Toast tool, or have you only ever used the Tivo Decode/iSquirt toolset? Because there's a chance that its working for you because you lucked out having a setup that doesn't suffer from this problem.

From your post, it seems that you're doing Tivo conversions for use on an iPod, whereas my primary goal is to burn to DVD. From things others have said, I suspect one may get different results when encoding for these different end uses. Perhaps when going for the DVD encoding, which I presume has higher video quality than for an iPod, the problem gets worse. Also, the problem is reported to be worse on longer programs - are you only encoding half-hour sitcoms, or are you getting good results on two hour movies as well?

Finally, I've tried loading the tivodecode program, and haven't been able to make heads or tails of how to get that up and running on a Mac. The version with a GUI wrapper, TivoDecode Manager, doesn't work for me, it won't start encoding. I will admit that I've not spent a lot of time trying to get them to work yet, but I've not found them to be workable solutions yet. I'd gladly listen to any tips on how to get them to work, but so far, they're not a trival alternative for me.

Doug G.

TiVo Kid 2003

12-21-2007, 06:25 PM

Chiming in here.... I see the problem only on 1 of my 2 TiVos (of course it's the bargain-basement Humax model).... and even then, it's only on about 10% of the videos. So I totally believe that it is only a subset of the users who ever see this problem. And even then, only a subset of the time.

wdave -- I'll actually turn around what you said a couple posts back. I'd never seen the problem until the fall update, I saw the problem immediately after the update, and my video programs (VideoReDo, Windows Media Player, etc. ) -- none of which changed -- all suddenly couldn't play some of the downloaded files.

One other thing -- VideoRedo has an error threshold that can be configured. It is very forgiving of audio sync errors & tries to repair them as best as possible. But when the number is excessive it just marks the file as "bad". So it could depend on how many errors are in the file, and how forgiving the program is.

Anyway, I suspect that Roxio would love to finger the guilty but they (for some reason) must tread lightly in this case.

We'll probably never be able to finger the culprit -- TiVo is not in the habit of creating release notes for their updates. It'll probably just be fixed -- hopefully -- at some point in a future update and that will be that.

Sluggo042

12-21-2007, 06:36 PM

Chiming in here.... I see the problem only on 1 of my 2 TiVos (of course it's the bargain-basement Humax model)....

At the risk of asking something we may have covered before, is there a difference between how these two Tivos are connected to your computer? Is one hard-wired, and one connected wirelessly?

My single Tivo is connected wirelessly, and I see the audio sync problem on just about everything I encode, though the degree of the delay varies.

TiVo Kid 2003

12-22-2007, 02:23 PM

At the risk of asking something we may have covered before, is there a difference between how these two Tivos are connected to your computer? Is one hard-wired, and one connected wirelessly?

My single Tivo is connected wirelessly, and I see the audio sync problem on just about everything I encode, though the degree of the delay varies.

They're actually both wired connections. My router is set up for WPA2 encryption and 2 years ago (when I got the 2nd TiVo, the Humax) only WEP was supported on TiVos... not good enough for me.... so they're both wired. I think now other encryption modes are supported w/ certain adapters but that ship has sailed for me.

My (very crude) theory is that is has to do with the processing power on the box. The Humax has a weaker CPU (hence the lower price), so I tried something: tuning the Humax to an empty channel (reducing the load since there is nothing to record in the 30-minute buffer), and making sure nothing was being played back during transfer (also reducing load on the CPU). So far no problems with files transfered under these conditions (about 20 files -- so I'd expect 1 or 2 of the files to be corrupted).

I'm the first to say that lack of observing the problem is not the same as knowing that this helps/fixes it, it's all empirical evidence. Correlation vs. causation.... And anyway, I'm not sure if it makes sense about reducing the CPU load & file errors. If I was writing the transcoder (or the transfer protocol), I would design it so that it wouldn't fail based on CPU load, it would just take longer (this is actually the kind of thing I do for a living.)

walterwatts

12-24-2007, 09:29 PM

Sluggo042

12-25-2007, 04:01 AM

Using Roxio's included Tivo Transfer.app with Toast 8 (8.0.3), the transferred .tivo file plays fine (ie. no audio sync problem) when I play it with the Roxio Tivo file player.

It's encoding (to either DVD OR iPod) that gives me the audio sync headache (audio at least 3 to 4 seconds behind the video).

Walter

Hi Walter, welcome over to this side of the conversation - I'm kinda curious if they're going to boot my butt after they get back from Xmas for what I said over on the Roxio side of things in that last post. :)

Yes, that seems to be what those who are suffering from the problem are observing. The files work fine as far as the Roxio Video Player is concerned, but gain some variable audio offset in the encoding process. 3-4 seconds is about the worst I've heard of so far - my files tend to run about a second or so out of whack. But it doesn't take a whole lot of drift to make the thing look like a damn Japanese monster movie.

Doug G.

Sluggo042

12-26-2007, 06:37 PM

They're actually both wired connections. My (very crude) theory is that is has to do with the processing power on the box. . . So far no problems with files transfered under these conditions (about 20 files -- so I'd expect 1 or 2 of the files to be corrupted).

Hey TiVo Kid,

I've been running some experiments to see what I could come up with given your theory. I took a two hour program, made sure the TiVo was tuned to a satellite music channel (no video, so presumed low processing burden), then transferred it to my computer, and encoded it. Then I repeated the transfer while the TiVo was recording a program at Best quality (presumed high processing burden), encoded it, then compared it to the first trial. I basically got the same result on both of them, though I must admit that for once, I got pretty good copies of the program with minimal audio offset.

This doesn't mean your theory is necessarily invalid, as my hardware is a regulation Tivo box, and may have more computing power than your Humax. But i thought I'd throw the data point out there.

One other thing I've noticed - I've still got the original TivoTransfer program (v.1.0.1) around, and I think I accidentally used it for the transferring in the experiment I described. When I fed the transferred file into the newer 8.0.3 versio of Toast, I got little or no audio delay. I'm not entirely sure what's happening here, but there might be a possible temporary work around here that works better than the most recent TivoTransfer program - presuming one doesn't mind the garbled metadata in the older TivoTransfer window.

Doug G.

walterwatts

12-27-2007, 06:40 PM

Hey Doug.

I got another response from Roxio support, but I haven't tried it yet. I thought I'd run it by you and see what you thought.
-----------------------------------------
A Roxio Agent has responded to your ticket!

Thank you for contacting Roxio Technical Support

You will need to enable Tivo Export mode to use the additional formats.

Make sure Toast and it's other apps are closed. In the terminal window, copy and paste

this:

defaults write com.roxio.Toast 'tivo export mode' -integer 1

Restart Toast, export a video using h.264 format with all of the same settings as the iPod

format except change the fps to 24.

Thanks for contacting Roxio Customer Care. Let us know if you need further assistance on

this issue by clicking the Update button.

Regards,

Roxio Technical Support
http://support.roxio.com
-------------------------------------
While that might help the iPod encoding, how would it affect DVD burning? Am I missing something. I'll try it and see.

Also, I've only tried encoding with an Intel Mac mini 1.83GHz, 1GB RAM, Intel Core Duo.

I also have a 24 inch iMac (early 2007) Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.16GHz, 2GB RAM, nVidia GEForce 7600 GT/256MB. I'll probably install Toast on that too and try it, but was hoping to flog the mini with all the mundane things like I normally do ie. Tivo Desktop, etc.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Walter

Sluggo042

12-27-2007, 09:46 PM

I got another response from Roxio support, but I haven't tried it yet. I thought I'd run it by you and see what you thought.

<snip> -----------------------------------------

defaults write com.roxio.Toast 'tivo export mode' -integer 1

<snip> -----------------------------------------

I'll let you know how it goes.

Walter

1) Well, I think I've seen that setting before somewhere, and I think I remember trying it, but I can't remember the context. As I recall, it didn't achieve anything.

2) Roxio Support is real good at tossing out random suggested fixes. In my experience so far, none of them have actually related to the problem at hand. When I called them on this (politely), they stopped talking to me. In communication to someone higher up, they admitted that the Support folk work from a script that has no special information about our specific problem. So, (a) I'm not suprised they've got all kinds of suggestions for you, and (b) I'm not expecting said suggestions to do anything for you. Still, your mileage may vary, and I doubt it will hurt anything. I'll be curious as to your results.

3) As you note, it looks like that suggestion is shaped towards iPod transfer, and not DVD burning.

Doug G.

fredric100

01-04-2008, 02:40 AM

Hey - I've been checking this thread for months hoping Roxio or TiVo would address these issues by now. Their inaction is inexcusable. I'm super peeved.

I've probably trashed over 30 blank DVDs trying to burn a TTG transfer with good audio since the Fall update, testing various workarounds and fixes.

I feel like MAILING all my useless DVDs, one by one, to the CEOs of Roxio and TiVo, as an expression of disgust. Would anyone else be up for a mail-in campaign like this to try to draw some well-deserved attention to this problem?

javabird

01-04-2008, 09:30 AM

I've probably trashed over 30 blank DVDs trying to burn a TTG transfer with good audio since the Fall update, testing various workarounds and fixes.

You can test your movie before you burn a DVD. After you set up your DVD in Toast, then choose "Save as a disc image." When it's done creating the image, then use Toast to mount the .dmg and play it in your Mac's DVD Player.
This is a good way to prevent burning a lot of coasters.

fredric100

01-04-2008, 12:00 PM

You can test your movie before you burn a DVD. After you set up your DVD in Toast, then choose "Save as a disc image." When it's done creating the image, then use Toast to mount the .dmg and play it in your Mac's DVD Player.
This is a good way to prevent burning a lot of coasters.

Good tip, thanks. Sad that it's necessary. :mad::mad::mad:

Once the image is built and tested good (like that's ever gonna happen), is there easy way to burn the image to disk? Does Toast have a feature for importing disk images or something?

derekcbart

01-05-2008, 04:37 AM

Good tip, thanks. Sad that it's necessary. :mad::mad::mad:

Once the image is built and tested good (like that's ever gonna happen), is there easy way to burn the image to disk? Does Toast have a feature for importing disk images or something?

Double click the Toast Image and then it will open up Toast. You can then tell Toast to burn it to DVD. I do this all the time with non-TiVo burns that I do and know that I will have to make additional copies in the future of.

Sparkylulu

01-05-2008, 12:36 PM

Yawwwnnnn....stretch.....oh, hello, 2008. Let's see if this Tivo/Roxio thang has been cleared up....nope?
Okay. Well, here's to another waste of my money!
Cheers!

fredric100

01-05-2008, 06:48 PM

TiVo Kid 2003

01-06-2008, 01:47 AM

It's time to get this fixed. This is ridiculous.

I've posted a letter to Tom Rogers, CEO of TiVo, which you can download here (http://www.rockmyhdtv.com/ttg_audio_problem/letter-to-tivo-ceo.html).

Mail it to him at the address on the letter.

I've worked in the high-tech industry for 20 years. Believe me, if he gets a bunch of these letters, this will get fixed. I'll post the number of letters downloaded in this forum.

- Fred

Hi Fred,

Your letter says that audio problems have made TTG for the Mac unusable.... well it's definitely true for Windows too.

I'm not a Windows fanboy but I suspect the majority of TTG customers are Windows users... maybe if you leave out the Mac reference (or also mention Windows) it'll get more attention within the company.

Just my 2 cents.