Directshow filter to watch .tivo HD files

[starmanj]

First question--I've searched but can't find a direct(show) answer. Exactly which codec does Tivo Desktop install to allow viewing .tivo files? I want to watch shows on my other computers without installing TTG on all of them.

2nd question-- are there any viewers that will play Tivo HD files without this codec? I can play a file on the TTG machine using WMP, but NO other player will natively do it-- not VLC, PowerDVD, WinDVD, WMPclassic, etc...

Thanks!

[jmemmott]

1. The non-plus version of the Desktop does not install any codecs. It does install a decrypting source filter, \Program Files\Common Files\TiVo Shared\DirectShow\TiVoDirectShowFilter.dll, however. While it is possible to copy this filter from one machine to another, Register it with DirectShow and your registery by hand if you know what you are doing, by far the easiest way to is to install the Desktop, set up the MAK and then remove the Desktop. The uninstall process will remove the Desktop but leaves behind this filter and the entries needed to use it for playback.

2. No players, including WMP, know how to access the .tivo files. Instead, they all include this source filter in the DirectShow playback graph when the file is played to provide decrypted media streams. To my knowledge there is no alternative to the Tivo filter, most likely because of the required proprietary decryption step and the fact that Tivo makes the filter readily available to anyone that want to download it.

[moyekj]

A better alternative IMO is to use tivodecode to decrypt the .TiVo files to regular mpeg2 program files that can then work anywhere. If you like you can also save metadata file so if you feed it back to Tivo with pyTivo it will have the full show information.

[starmanj]

Wonderful responses, I thank you. Explains everything. I have used tivodecoder et.al., and they work fine (though VLC seems to choke on audio a bit for HD material). Big issue is fetching 11gb files for HD sources and then having to run them through the decoders again. But that may be less hassle than having to install tivo desktop on all my PCs...

Thanks again!