DirectShow Dump question

[slimjim867]

I have converted a .TiVo file to .Avi and then burned it to DVD with ConvertXtoDVD. Nero plays it fine but WMP as well as my home DVD player produce whacked out audio. Sounds like the robot voice on a sci fi flick. Any ideas?

[greg_burns]

Try using Tivo Decoder GUI instead of DSD
http://www.gmonweb.com/portal/CodingFun/Downloads/tabid/54/Default.aspx

Once you have an .mpg burn that to DVD. MPEG-2 is DVD compliant in some cases so trancodes are extremely quick with Nero. Depends what quality it was recorded at. Mediums (352x480) are half D1, which is a DVD standard.

If you are willing to spend the cash, VideoRedo TVSuite is your best choice for making DVDs from .tivo files.

[jdsnov73]

Try using TivoDecode instead of DSD
http://www.gmonweb.com/portal/CodingFun/Downloads/tabid/54/Default.aspx

Once you have an .mpg burn that to DVD. MPEG-2 is DVD compliant in some cases so trancodes are extremely quick with Nero. Depends what quality it was recorded at. Mediums (352x480) are half D1, which is a DVD standard.

If you are willing to spend the cash, VideoRedo TVSuite is your best choice for making DVDs from .tivo files.

I am going to piggyback on this thread if that's alright.

I spent most of last night trying to find DirectShow Dump, which doesn't seem to be available anymore. I came across TivoDecoder GUI, downloaded it, and tried to decode a 30 minute HD show that I transferred to my computer, roughly 3.2GB file.

I let it run for over an hour. It didn't seem like anything was happening, and the CPU level was not effected at all. What should I expect to see when running this program? Will it load up the CPU? How long should a 30 minute HD show take?

Also, am I correct in the fact that TivoDecode is ONLY for Macs, and TivoDecoder is what I want to be using?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[greg_burns]

Also, am I correct in the fact that TivoDecode is ONLY for Macs, and TivoDecoder is what I want to be using?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

I know there is some program out there for Macs (Tivo Decode Manager?), but that is not the one linked to above. This is a .NET app (requires Windows and .NET 2.0 or greater) that is just a GUI wrapper around the Tivo File Decoder (http://tivodecode.sourceforge.net/) cmd line tool. It does not transfer shows to your desktop (like the mac thing). This purely strips the DRM from the .tivo file.

You should see a progress bar as it is working.

Not that I recommend DSD (Tivo Decoder GUI above is slicker), but here is a link (this version is already extracted from the installer so that it doesn't have the .NET 1.1 dependency)...

http://greg_burns.home.comcast.net/~greg_burns/DirectShowDump.zip

[jdsnov73]

The status bar at the bottom said something like "decoding 1 of 1 file", but I let it run for over an hour and nothing appeared to be happening. Nothing was being written to my destination folder and the CPU was not effected.

How long should a 30 minute HD show take, vs a 30 minute SD show?

Thanks for the link to the DirectShow. Probably won't need it, but I was going around in circles last night trying to find it.

[greg_burns]

Here is link to DSD on Prish's site...

http://www.prish.com/etivo/tbr.htm

It should not take long at all. It is not computational intensive at all. It normally takes no longer than it does to just make a copy of the file.

Did you enter your MAK into the program? (I think it autodetects it if you have TivoDesktop installed, but don't quote me on that.)

[jdsnov73]

I found that link many times last night, but the site wasn't working. I figured it had been taken down.

Yes, I entered my MAK.

I will try again tonight. I didn't think it should take too long to just remove the "wrapper".

[greg_burns]

You could try the cmd line version. Maybe it will give you a better sense of what is wrong.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=6272339#post6272339

[jdsnov73]

I guess I just assumed it worked on Vista. Works fine on XP but just acts like it's running on Vista.

[greg_burns]

Hmmm. Works on my Vista. Decoding an HD video as I type. One way to see if it is doing anything is watch the file it decodes the .mpg to. It should be growing in size.

I like to open the folder up in explorer with the size column showing. Hold down F5 to watch the file size increase in real time.

[jdsnov73]

Alright, I feel like an idiot! On my Vista machine, I clicked the "locate" button to link to the location of the tivodecode.exe, but clicked on the .exe for the GUI. On my XP machine, it was already filled in for me as ".\tivodecode.exe".

Got it working now! Now onto learning how to convert to dvr-ms for my MediaCenter and .wmv for the zune.

Thanks.