TiVo failing to completely transfer shows

[benraymond]

Hello All,

I am having trouble with TiVo to Computer transfers from my Series 3. I have often coded my transfers for PSP as well.

The TiVo is also often failing to completely transfer shows - it transfers 12 minutes of some shows, a half hour of some two hour shows, etc. I end up with small files with 12 minutes of a show. Any solution to this


Any replies greatly appreciated,

Ben

[jbcheshire]

Yeah, I am starting to see that on my Series 2 now as well. I wonder if the downloads are being interrupted by the automatic podcast downloads to the TiVo from my network???...

[Larry in TN]

Have you actually watched the shows to verify that only 12 minutes was transferred?

I have been having a problem with SOME shows transferred from my Series 3 being much smaller than normal (~1,000MB for a 1hr show instead of ~3,500MB) and they show up as 12 to 17 minutes long when playing in Windows Media Player but if I let the show run it will play the entire show. After the first 12-17 minutes the "scrubber" on WMP is all the way at the end but the show keeps playing. If I pause, however, it will resume only at the "end" of the scrubber which is at the 12-17 minute point.

When I look at the detailed info screen on the TiVo Now Playing list the reported file size on the TiVo is the smaller value (i.e. ~1,000MB for a 1hr show) so the problem seems to occur when the program is recorded, not when it transfers. The show plays normally on TiVo and plays, as described above, on the computer.

Very odd...

[benraymond]

Yes, I checked - the programs are all very small and truncated.

Sometimes it works like a charm, other times....

[garrett222]

I'm having a similar problem, except it seems that my wireless adapter is failing somehow, which is odd because usb adapters rarely have issues in my limited knowledge. It's also causing tivo to be unable to connect..solved briefly by restarting tivo..any thoughts?

[HPD]

Hello All,

I am having trouble with TiVo to Computer transfers from my Series 3. I have often coded my transfers for PSP as well.

The TiVo is also often failing to completely transfer shows - it transfers 12 minutes of some shows, a half hour of some two hour shows, etc. I end up with small files with 12 minutes of a show. Any solution to this

Any replies greatly appreciated,

Ben

This has been a problem since the software was updated to 9.2 around November - December. TivoJerry is a Tivo employee who posts here. He said they are having great success with fixing the problem and that it will be rolled out with 9.3. Currently, S2 machines are scheduled to get 9.3 over the next two to three weeks. After that comes the S3 update. Currently there is no date specified but TivoPony usually posts when updates are on their way.

More on the issue here:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=374790

But do not expect to find any solutions there. I to am waiting for 9.3 to fix my short transfers.

[bicker]

Some S3 folks already have 9.3.Y3-01-2-648

[leiff]

I have been having a problem with SOME shows transferred from my Series 3 being much smaller than normal (~1,000MB for a 1hr show instead of ~3,500MB) and they show up as 12 to 17 minutes long when playing in Windows Media Player but if I let the show run it will play the entire show. After the first 12-17 minutes the "scrubber" on WMP is all the way at the end but the show keeps playing. If I pause, however, it will resume only at the "end" of the scrubber which is at the 12-17 minute point.

...

Well now I know I'm not the only one with this "scrubber" problem. This is happening to a third of all my recordings I transfer to my PC. Have you decrypted the tivo file and tried playing it with another player? I guess were crossing are fingers and hoping S3 update will fix the problem.

[JOBENET]

I am having trouble sending recordings to my PC's. Start transfers and it always stops at 3.23 mb and acrts like it is done, and no error messages. Transfers worked ok and all of a sudden it stopped working. I was using version 2.5 and figured a new update was available and upgraded desktop to 2.6.1 and still have same problem, rebooted all Tivos and computers, reset routers and firewall box. I can see my Tivo units on my router, one is setup to receive a static IP and other is not, I can also access my Tivos with https, My wireless signal strength is greater than 60%, I can see the now playing list on tivo desktop, music and photos. Units will not transfer my shows to PC fully only 3mb of 2 gb files, Stumped here........

[scurby2]

I have 2 tivos, a series 2 that uses the wireless tivo usb and a series 3 hd that uses a wired ethernet to my router. Both have transfer issues from the pc to the tivos. Shorter videos under 1 hour typically go thorugh, but 2 hour movies usually fail and i have to resubmit the transfer a few times before it completly goes through. After several attempts it usually goes through but its frustrating and time consuming........any suggestions?

[CuriousMark]

I have been having a problem with SOME shows transferred from my Series 3 being much smaller than normal (~1,000MB for a 1hr show instead of ~3,500MB) and they show up as 12 to 17 minutes long when playing in Windows Media Player but if I let the show run it will play the entire show. After the first 12-17 minutes the "scrubber" on WMP is all the way at the end but the show keeps playing. If I pause, however, it will resume only at the "end" of the scrubber which is at the 12-17 minute point.

This is discussed here (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=371938) in great detail. Check it out.

[CuriousMark]

I have 2 tivos, a series 2 that uses the wireless tivo usb and a series 3 hd that uses a wired ethernet to my router. Both have transfer issues from the pc to the tivos. Shorter videos under 1 hour typically go thorugh, but 2 hour movies usually fail and i have to resubmit the transfer a few times before it completly goes through. After several attempts it usually goes through but its frustrating and time consuming........any suggestions?
That sounds like wireless trouble. Have tried different channels on your wireless router? Perhaps a quieter one will give you a higher success rate.

[scurby2]

That sounds like wireless trouble. Have tried different channels on your wireless router? Perhaps a quieter one will give you a higher success rate.

I have the same issue going wireless and wired....i will double check the channels

[JOBENET]

I have found that pytivo works with my system, so apparently it is a problem with Tivos desktop.

[bicker]

For me, pyTiVo didn't make a difference.

[CuriousMark]

I have found that pytivo works with my system, so apparently it is a problem with Tivos desktop.

TiVo to Computer? I thought PyTiVo was only for serving from computer to the TiVo, the opposite of what is being discussed here.

[lrhorer]

You are correct. At this time, pyTiVo can only transfer from the PC to the TiVo. Galleon and TiVo Desktop can transfer either way. That said, I am having quite a fe problems with HD content only partially trasnferring back to the TiVo after being downloaded to the PC. Cutting out one or two frames out of the section where the transfer halts will usually correct the problem, or at least for that section of the video. Sometimes Quickfix will alleviate the issue, but I usually have to edit out a couple of bad frames or so. It's rather bizarre, because the videos all originally were downloaded from the TiVo in the first place.

[nirisahn]

I'm having a problem with show length, too. I have HD Tivo. It's only transferring about 1/2 an hour of the movie. I haven't actually watched the transferred show all the way to the end to see if it's all there, but I have jumped to the end to see if it transferred the whole movie. These are from TCM, so no commercials.

Edit: I'm testing one of the files right now, and it's playing past the point where media player thinks it's played the whole thing. I guess the files transferred ok. It's still annoying that the only way to know if the whole file transferred is to play it.

[JOBENET]

You are correct. At this time, pyTiVo can only transfer from the PC to the TiVo.
Actually I was looking for a way to transfer from Tivo to PC and found pytivo to work just fine for that, And I havent had another problem transferring to PC, sorry for posting the opposite in this forum, I was just hoping to get some help with Tivo desktop to no avail from Tivo Customer service. They have no clue, But pytivo will take its place.

[lrhorer]

For me, pyTiVo didn't make a difference.
Indeed, I am seeing the problem no matter what software is used to transfer the program in either direction. About 1/2 the 1080i HD programs transferred to the PC using either Galleon or TiVo Desktop display the issue, and pyTiVo only makes a difference if I allow it to transcode the file when sending it back to the TiVo. I've tried sending a program multiple times, and always it fails at precisely the same frame. Eliminating the offending frame allows the program to transfer further, usually all the way to the end.

[bicker]

And since I'm not inclined toward video surgery, it is just like the feature simply doesn't work for me.

Is there some simple setting in pyTiVo that "turns on" transcoding, that will "make it work"? :confused:

[lrhorer]

Well, passing almost any parameters to pyTiVo are likely to cause it to transcode unless the video in question just happens to match the parameters you pass it without transcoding. Transcoding the audio bit-rate might be a good one to try. Limiting or changing the video bit rate might also have decent results, although beware of the fact you may suffer a significant loss of PQ. There's still no guarantee the show will play, however, but the odds go up quite a bit.

[bicker]

Is there any way to know if it is transcoding or not.

This just seems too haphazard. I would much prefer TiVo just fix the problem. :)