I give up... Tivo Desktop Plus is pathetic

[Razorbak]

I'm very happy with my Tivo Series3, but I am absolutely fed up with Tivo Desktop Plus. When it works, it works well. But when it doesn't, it's terrible!!! I was hoping that the recent software updates on the Tivo Series3 (9.3a) and Tivo Desktop Plus (2.6.1) would resolve these oh-so-common transfer problems, but nothing has changed. I can't get ANY high definition programs to successfully transfer, and I can't get standard definition programs larger than 2,048 MB to transfer. WTF?!? $#%@ :mad:

[Prestond]

Try Kevin's program kmttg (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=387725).

I have found it to be real slick and easy to use. Kevin has done a great job with this program. Only thing you need to install a free version of Perl. Only problems I had was getting the directory paths for the various command line programs and the tivo ip address. once I got myself straightened out it is seamless to me.

[BankZ]

sounds like user error...

[YazooWho]

sounds like user error...


If you are referring to the OP, then you are wrong.

[joggy]

And here I thought it was just me. I patiently waited for the 9.3 update for my TivoHD only to find out transfers still don't work consistently. Running TD 2.61 too.

Oh well, nice idea, no go for me.

[Razorbak]

sounds like user error...

BankZ, that is a prototypical response from a software developer. :rolleyes:

Prestond, thanks for the recommendation on kmttg. I'll look into it. :up:

And thank you, YazooWho and joggy, for speaking up. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one who can't seem to get this stupid program to work reliably. :(

[MickeS]

Yeah, I complained elsewhere too. It does not do what I paid for it to do. All file transfers I've tried have failed.
I'm using pyTiVo instead, and it works great.

[Razorbak]

Yeah, I complained elsewhere too. It does not do what I paid for it to do. All file transfers I've tried have failed.
I'm using pyTiVo instead, and it works great.

If this was just Tivo Desktop, the free version, I probably wouldn't have said anything, but since I paid for Tivo Desktop Plus specifically to allow me to convert the .tivo files for my Sony PSP, I expected it to work more reliably.

I have some pretty high-spec equipment, and would probably be classified as a power user / early adopter. My PC is a ThinkPad T60p notebook, with a Core 2 Duo T7400 CPU (2.167 GHz), 4 GB RAM, ATI Mobility FireGL v5250 discrete graphics card, dual 200 GB SATA hard drives, running WinXP SP2 as my operating system. I have 4 other PCs running in the house as well (2 desktops and 2 laptops, which are used by my wife and kids), all hooked up on a wireless home network that I installed.

On the entertainment front, I have 3 high-def plasma TVs, two Tivos (Series 2 and 3), Slingbox Pro, Slingplayer Mobile on my cellphone, X-Box 360, Playstation 3, Wii, and a Playstation Portable, all of which I installed / maintain myself.

So it's not like I don't know anything about computers or technology.

Bottom line: Despite all of the above, I still can't get Tivo Desktop Plus to transfer to my PC anything in high-definition format, or anything in standard definition format over 2.0 GB in size, even after the most recent software upgrades.

I'm stumped.

[nhaigh]

Bottom line: Despite all of the above, I still can't get Tivo Desktop Plus to transfer to my PC anything in high-definition format, or anything in standard definition format over 2.0 GB in size.


I have little issue with transfering TiVo recordings around but anything that was not recorded on a TiVo is unlikely to transfer. I use pyTiVo as an alternative to transfer from PC to TiVo's

Having said that the 2Gb size comment makes me wonder what filesystem you have on your PC. If it is FAT32 then there is a 2Gb filesize limit on it and that could be your problem. Change to NTFS and you may fix your problem.

[Razorbak]

I have little issue with transfering TiVo recordings around but anything that was not recorded on a TiVo is unlikely to transfer. I use pyTiVo as an alternative to transfer from PC to TiVo's

Having said that the 2Gb size comment makes me wonder what filesystem you have on your PC. If it is FAT32 then there is a 2Gb filesize limit on it and that could be your problem. Change to NTFS and you may fix your problem.

Both hard drives (the primary C: drive in the laptop, and the backup D: drive in the UtraBay slot) are NTFS. There is a 7.52 GB service partition on the C: drive which is FAT32, but that partition is only used for recovery in the event of a system crash.

FWIW, all of my transfer problems have to do with transfers from Tivo to PC, not from PC to Tivo. And the problems don't just occur on my laptop. They occur on the two desktops as well. The transfer problems were present before the recent software updates, and they unfortunately have not been resolved with the updates.

[Razorbak]

The only thing I can think of that might be causing a problem is a potential conflict with another program running in the background (e.g., Kaspersky Internet Security, or Diskeeper). I'll try to temporarily disable them this weekend when I get home to see if the transfer problems go away. I already have a bunch of Tivo executables in the excluded "Trusted Zone" list of the Kaspersky settings (e.g., TiVoNotify.exe, TiVoBeacon.exe, TiVoServer.exe, TiVoDesktop.exe, TiVoTransfer.exe).

[MickeS]

I gave up troubleshooting, there was just no way to get it to work. It was much better to just forget about it and go with pyTiVo.

[Razorbak]

I gave up troubleshooting, there was just no way to get it to work. It was much better to just forget about it and go with pyTiVo.

MickeS, what specific kinds of transfer problems were you having with Tivo Desktop Plus?

What feature(s) do you like the most about pyTivo?

The one feature that I want from Tivo Desktop Plus, assuming I could ever get the transfers to work reliably, is the ability to convert the files to the size and format used by my PlayStation Portable (PSP).

Would pyTivo enable me to easily convert the transferred files to my PSP?

[b_scott]

pyTivo FTW.

[YazooWho]

I gave up troubleshooting, there was just no way to get it to work. It was much better to just forget about it and go with pyTiVo.

I went back to 2.5.x and my transfer worked just fine. 2.6 and 2.6.1 did not work at all. Not one transfer.

When I went back, I have transfered without issues. Yes its a pain to pay for something and not have it work, but I'm assured by Tivo that this issue will be fixed.

[TexasGrillChef]

If this was just Tivo Desktop, the free version, I probably wouldn't have said anything, but since I paid for Tivo Desktop Plus specifically to allow me to convert the .tivo files for my Sony PSP, I expected it to work more reliably.

I have some pretty high-spec equipment, and would probably be classified as a power user / early adopter. My PC is a ThinkPad T60p notebook, with a Core 2 Duo T7400 CPU (2.167 GHz), 4 GB RAM, ATI Mobility FireGL v5250 discrete graphics card, dual 200 GB SATA hard drives, running WinXP SP2 as my operating system. I have 4 other PCs running in the house as well (2 desktops and 2 laptops, which are used by my wife and kids), all hooked up on a wireless home network that I installed.

On the entertainment front, I have 3 high-def plasma TVs, two Tivos (Series 2 and 3), Slingbox Pro, Slingplayer Mobile on my cellphone, X-Box 360, Playstation 3, Wii, and a Playstation Portable, all of which I installed / maintain myself.

So it's not like I don't know anything about computers or technology.

Bottom line: Despite all of the above, I still can't get Tivo Desktop Plus to transfer to my PC anything in high-definition format, or anything in standard definition format over 2.0 GB in size, even after the most recent software upgrades.

I'm stumped.


Since you mentioned that you were having issues transfering files larger than 2048mb (2gb) if your hard drives for Windows XP SP2 were formated with NTFS, or Fat32?

Fat32 drives have a file size limited to 2gb. To use file sizes larger your drives need to be formated NTFS.

It was just a thought.

TGC

[mchief]

I have had no problems transferring HD programs from the THD to my Dell Vista Home Pre desktop and transferring them back (5GB+). I have been experimenting for the past week with DT 2.6.1 plus and 9.3a. The only issue is getting the automatic transferrs to work from a directory on the PC HDD. Yesterday I ripped a DVD movie with VRD and created an .mpg file which I transferred to the THD without a problem (3GB+).

I should add Vista SP1 32bit

[Razorbak]

Since you mentioned that you were having issues transfering files larger than 2048mb (2gb) if your hard drives for Windows XP SP2 were formated with NTFS, or Fat32?

Fat32 drives have a file size limited to 2gb. To use file sizes larger your drives need to be formated NTFS.

I answered that a couple of posts further down (post #10). My hard drives are NTFS, with only a small FAT32 service partition used for disaster recovery. The main partition on the primary C: drive -- which holds the operating system, Tivo Desktop Plus, and the Tivo File Folder -- is NTFS.

[steve614]

If it is FAT32 then there is a 2Gb filesize limit on it and that could be your problem.



Fat32 drives have a file size limited to 2gb.

TGC

FAT 32 file size is limited to 4 GB, not 2.

We now return to our regularly scheduled thread...

[Razorbak]

The only thing I can think of that might be causing a problem is a potential conflict with another program running in the background (e.g., Kaspersky Internet Security, or Diskeeper). I'll try to temporarily disable them this weekend when I get home to see if the transfer problems go away.

Well, I temporarily disabled Kaspersky Internet Security and attempted to transfer two new programs tonight... first an HD program, and second an SD program larger than 2.0 GB. Both transfers once again failed. :(

[BankZ]

What do the logs say?

[Gra55H0pper]

I have pretty much the identical problem: programs bigger than 2048MB (2GB) will not transfer more than exactly 2048MB into the file on the PC.

My Setup:
- OS is XP SP2 with NTFS
- TiVo Desktop V2.6.1 (not the plus version)
- TiVo Series3 HD

Anybody any idea? It seems on of the components in the system limits the file-size to exactly 2GB. I transferred 3 HD shows last night and for all 3 TiVo Desktop reported "transfer failed". The part which was transferred plays OK, so it's really just the filesize where things get messed up.

[pomerlp]

No doubt that Tivo Desktop 6.1 is a major disappointment but my problem is the memory leak. I have it set to auto record one show and it is doing that just fine. Last night I transfered several SD shows. But I have not as yet transfered an HD show.

I did get successful in downloading version 5.1 but all of a sudden TiVo couldn't see my files. I tried pyTiVo but had problems with that. Probably my error but I just didn't feel like fooling around with it anymore.

Hopefully TiVo will fix these issues. It's a big disappointment I expect more from them.

[pdragonfly]

Hi, I just got tivo desktop plus and now my tivo keeps rebooting, over and over and over.

I have d2 series. How do I make this go back to the warm and fuzzy tivo.

[Gra55H0pper]

My problem is resolved! Based on comments in an earlier post I thought I'd try to disable Kaspersky virus-scan during transfer. It worked! All 12GB of HD content were transfered without any issue!

I'm a happy man! :)

[evanborkow]

Gra55H0pper, thank you so much. I had the same frustrating problem of transfers failing at 2,048MB. I originally thought it was a Vista problem but it turned out that it was the Kaspersky AV protection.