Moving Home Movies from my Mac to my Series 3?

[bareyb]

Does the "TiVo To Go" Software for the Mac work for transferring iMovie videos to to my Series 3? I already have Toast Platinum for getting movies FROM my Tivo, now I'm looking for a way to get my own Home Movies TO my Tivo. Can this be done yet? I seem to be reading conflicting reports... The Tivo site makes no mention... but I seem to recall there is a secret method via the command key in the prefs pane or some such. Can anyone let me in on the secret handshake? :D

I believe the new version of iMovie has a way to save files to a .mpg format although not sure if it's the correct format for Tivo. If not, what program do you guys use to convert the iMovie files to mpg? Any help greatly appreciated. :)

[moyekj]

pyTivo (intro):
http://pytivo.armooo.net/

Forum (with latest versions):
http://pytivo.krkeegan.com/new-users-about-pytivo-versions-t86.html

Latest wgw snapshot:
http://repo.or.cz/w/pyTivo/wgw.git?a=snapshot;h=6356064fc65754ce4b10ca625e0525a1c7fe243 c;sf=tgz

[bareyb]

Thanks for the suggestion of Pytivo. It sounds like that would probably work, but it takes me in a whole new direction I didn't think I'd have to go to... Does that mean Tivo to Go for the Mac doesn't work? One thread says it does and one says it doesn't. Man it would be nice to have a FAQ in here! For the love of god people. Does it work or not? :D

If not, does the PC version of TTG work for transferring video files to the Series 3?

[bedelman]

Since they're "home movies" and not .tivo files at all, the hidden video tab feature always worked with MPEG-2 files. You'll need to convert your movies into MPEG-2 files and then use the video tab feature to make them appear -- and it does work.

There are some specific settings that you'll need to use for the MPEG-2 files (there's a TiVo support article with that information) -- or use something like pyTiVo instead (but I haven't used pyTiVo myself)

Oh -- and then there's the One True Media thing, which I haven't really used much at all

[bareyb]

Since they're "home movies" and not .tivo files at all, the hidden video tab feature always worked with MPEG-2 files. You'll need to convert your movies into MPEG-2 files and then use the video tab feature to make them appear -- and it does work.

There are some specific settings that you'll need to use for the MPEG-2 files (there's a TiVo support article with that information) -- or use something like pyTiVo instead (but I haven't used pyTiVo myself)

Oh -- and then there's the One True Media thing, which I haven't really used much at all

So the hidden tab still works? What was all that talk about 9.x breaking it? Seriously. We need a FAQ in here. That's great news! :up: :D

Now I just need a way to convert the files to .mpgs. Anyone know if the new iMovie can do that? It can export to AppleTV is that .mpg or is that a .Mov? I would like to stay with mainstream applications if possible. Visual Hub?

As for "One True Media"? Not interested. They give you TEN minutes of video for free. Beyond that it's gonna cost you $39.00 a year. I don't need any more ongoing payments thank you.

[westside_guy]

Now I just need a way to convert the files to .mpgs. Anyone know if the new iMovie can do that? It can export to AppleTV is that .mpg or is that a .Mov? I would like to stay with mainstream applications if possible. Visual Hub?

Actually, pyTivo will probably take care of that automatically. That's one of the great things about that piece of software - it'll convert a LOT of formats on the fly, as needed, without any additional work on your part.

That way your source movies/videos can remain on your computer in whatever format works best for you - you don't need to maintain multiple versions.

[bareyb]

Actually, pyTivo will probably take care of that automatically. That's one of the great things about that piece of software - it'll convert a LOT of formats on the fly, as needed, without any additional work on your part.

That way your source movies/videos can remain on your computer in whatever format works best for you - you don't need to maintain multiple versions.

I'll be honest. I'm a little leary of using this type of software. I've had so many problems with Beta stuff in the past screwing up my computer. I looked into PyTiVo a little bit, and it looks like you have to download and install something called Python that only one version works and the others will make your computer crash etc. Really makes me nervous. Am I over reacting to some of the reports? It sure looks like a lot of folks are having trouble with it on the Mac. :o

Is there a reasonably priced commercial product available that is reliable and stable? I see some folks are using Visual Hub. Any thoughts on that? :)

[westside_guy]

I'll be honest. I'm a little leary of using this type of software. I've had so many problems with Beta stuff in the past screwing up my computer. I looked into PyTiVo a little bit, and it looks like you have to download and install something called Python that only one version works and the others will make your computer crash etc. Really makes me nervous. Am I over reacting to some of the reports? It sure looks like a lot of folks are having trouble with it on the Mac. :o

Is there a reasonably priced commercial product available that is reliable and stable? I see some folks are using Visual Hub. Any thoughts on that? :)

Visual Hub is no longer being produced - the company shut down. It is apparently now in semi-development as an open-source project though, under a different name (that I can't recall right now). So basically it's just like pyTivo now. :D

You're on a Mac - I am as well (MacBook Pro running 10.5.5). Python is already built in to the Mac, given the Unix underpinnings of our operating system. I know some Mac people are leery about the command line / Unix stuff (I come from a Linux background, so I'm more used to it). Python is what's called a scripting language - python and perl are probably the two most common Unix/Linux scripting languages. Apps based on python should be very non-intrusive. pyTivo is not going to put anything in your System folder or other places. The only discomfort is if you're uncomfortable editing the text configuration file, which you can easily do using an app like TextWrangler or BBedit (don't use Word, Pages, or anything else that's not just a simple text editor). The worst you can do is screw up your pyTivo configuration file, which means pyTivo wouldn't work - but that wouldn't impact anything else on your computer in the least.

[westside_guy]

One thing about pyTivo - it uses a program called ffmpeg to convert the files. ffmpeg is most easily installed using Fink (http://www.finkproject.org/) or MacPorts (http://www.macports.org). They're not too difficult to install, but they do require some command-line (e.g. using Terminal.app) interaction to set up.

[bareyb]

Visual Hub is no longer being produced - the company shut down. It is apparently now in semi-development as an open-source project though, under a different name (that I can't recall right now). So basically it's just like pyTivo now. :D

You're on a Mac - I am as well (MacBook Pro running 10.5.5). Python is already built in to the Mac, given the Unix underpinnings of our operating system. I know some Mac people are leery about the command line / Unix stuff (I come from a Linux background, so I'm more used to it). Python is what's called a scripting language - python and perl are probably the two most common Unix/Linux scripting languages. Apps based on python should be very non-intrusive. pyTivo is not going to put anything in your System folder or other places. The only discomfort is if you're uncomfortable editing the text configuration file, which you can easily do using an app like TextWrangler or BBedit (don't use Word, Pages, or anything else that's not just a simple text editor). The worst you can do is screw up your pyTivo configuration file, which means pyTivo wouldn't work - but that wouldn't impact anything else on your computer in the least.

Okay. Thank you for your help. I am dying to know more about this! I'll try to open my mind a little.

As far as the command line thing. Do you only have to do it once when setting it up or every time you want to use the program? I'm not crazy about the idea but I can live with it if it only has to be done once.

[bareyb]

This is just nuts. Can somebody explain how to install all this stuff to me like I'm a five year old? I've been to the wiki but it's not much help. I can't tell how much stuff I actually need since I do have the latest version of Leopard. I really just need step by step simple instructions. :o

1. I downloaded "wgw" folder and the preconfigured ffmpeg that Bob did. I INSTALLED Macports as per the instructions.

My question is, Now that Macports is installed what do I do next? Does the preconfigured ffmeg file have to be put somewhere? Do I install pytivo now? How? I clicked on the package and got an error message.

Side Note: If somebody walks me through this for Leopard I will volunteer to created a step by step guide that can be part of a FAQ for this forum. :)

[westside_guy]

Okay, I'm probably missing something really obvious here - but what is the "preconfigured ffmpeg" you speak of?

If there's some preconfigured ffmpeg package, then you don't really need MacPorts or Fink (although having them isn't a problem either). The reason I suggested getting one or the other was in order to install ffmpeg.

Anyway, knowing what this preconfigured ffmpeg is would help me/another person to answer your question(s).

[bareyb]

Okay, I'm probably missing something really obvious here - but what is the "preconfigured ffmpeg" you speak of?

If there's some preconfigured ffmpeg package, then you don't really need MacPorts or Fink (although having them isn't a problem either). The reason I suggested getting one or the other was in order to install ffmpeg.

Anyway, knowing what this preconfigured ffmpeg is would help me/another person to answer your question(s).

It's right here form the OSX help page: It looks like it was created by Bob, but he says he has never had anything to do with pytivo...

Requirements

Python, Ver 2.5 or higher - http://www.python.org/download/
It appears Ver 2.4 on a Mac does not handle subprocess correctly
2.5.1 is installed by default on leopard 10.5)
FFmpeg - Recent Version
A precompiled compatible version is available - http://homepage.mac.com/bedelman/ffmpeg_Mac_8222.zip
If you are unable to get pyTivo to work properly with the ffmpeg version from above, please look at the Mac OS X installation procedure for additional options.

I mean for the love of god look at this set of instructions... Are we really supposed to be able to make sense of any of this? :D
It says if you have Leopard you don't need some of this stuff.
Requirements

Python, Ver 2.5 or higher - http://www.python.org/download/
It appears Ver 2.4 on a Mac does not handle subprocess correctly
2.5.1 is installed by default on leopard 10.5)
FFmpeg - Recent Version
A precompiled compatible version is available - http://homepage.mac.com/bedelman/ffmpeg_Mac_8222.zip
If you are unable to get pyTivo to work properly with the ffmpeg version from above, please look at the Mac OS X installation procedure for additional options.
The ffmpeg version from above also needs lame, the above link did not work for me. I further compiled my own version of ffmpeg and it was a breeze with macports. Macports can be found in http://www.macports.org/. Install the macports package using the available dmg installer. You will also need XCode Tools installed. Version 2.4.0 installed with OS 10.4 will not compile ffmpeg properly. Download Xcode 2.5 or 3.0 from http://developer.apple.com/tools/xcode.

Leopard 10.5 includes XCode 3.0, which compiles the files with no problem. If you use the default install options, they should work fine, though macports recommends that you install X11, you do not actually need it to compile ffmpeg.

Further invoke Terminal(Found in /Applications/Utilities). In the unix prompt issue the following commands, I have given brief explanations in the command line. Please note, Macports may prompt you to install further dependencies in addition to the steps outlined below to get things started for it, please follow the output given. When you issue the sudo command, you will be prompted for a password, please enter the Administrator password of your Mac.

Make sure that your path includes the XCode tools.

bash$ sudo port selfupdate ## This updates the port to the latest version

bash$ sudo port install lame ## This command installs the latest version of lame.

bash$ sudo port install ffmpeg +lame +libogg +vorbis +theora +faac +faad +xvid +x264 +a52 +dts ## This is a slightly lengthy install, as it installs many other dependencies.

You should now have a functional copy of ffmpeg installed in /opt/local/bin directory.

Next, download and extract pyTivo from the CurrentRelease page. I placed this in the ~/ but it can be pretty much anywhere, like /Applications/

Edit the pyTivo.conf.dist file within the extracted folder to point to the ffmpeg which you installed in /usr/local/bin (downloaded) or /opt/local/bin (compiled). Be sure to setup the other options for your folders. See http://pytivo.armooo.net/wiki/ConfigurepyTivo for details.

Make sure that you copy or rename the pyTivo.conf.dist to pyTivo.conf when you have finished setting up your options. pyTivo looks for the .conf file without the .dist extension.

cd to the pyTivo directory.

Run in terminal using:

bash$ python pyTivo.py

Launch on Startup

To setup pyTivo to launch on startup, you can use launchd to launch the pyTivo file (on 10.4 or 10.5).

First, you must make the pyTivo.py file executable with the following command

bash$ chmod 777 pyTivo.py

More detailed instructions about creating launchd.plist files are available at http://developer.apple.com/macosx/launchd.html and http://www.macgeekery.com/tips/all_about_launchd_items_and_how_to_make_one_yourself

But the quick version is to

make a text file named "com.pyTivo.plist" (any text editor will do, like TextEdit? or SubEthaEdit?, vi or emacs)
Place the in the ~/Library/LaunchAgents folder and
Include the following code in the file (The code below assumes that pyTivo.py lives in /Applications/pyTivo. If you have installed it somewhere else, be sure to modify the path in the file below.)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>com.pyTivo</string>
<key>Program</key>
<string>/Applications/pyTivo/pyTivo.py</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/Applications/pyTivo/pyTivo.py</string>
</array>
<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>
<key>ServiceDescription</key>
<string>Script to launch pyTivo server</string>
<key>StandardErrorPath</key>
<string>/Applications/pyTivo/AppError.log</string>
<key>StandardOutPath</key>
<string>/Applications/pyTivo/AppOut.log</string>
</dict>
</plist>
This should cause pyTivo to use launchd to launch automatically when you log into your account.

YMMV...

[westside_guy]

Yeah, I agree that's a lot of information to attempt to ingest - and most of it is not essential to the basic process. So let me try to simplify this. Note that there's still going to be a lot of words here, mostly because I'm trying to explain things. There's really not much you have to actually do.

1) You're on a Mac, and you're running 10.5 already. Ignore everything that FAQ says about python because it's irrelevant to you.

2) You say you've already downloaded Bob's preconfigured ffmpeg package. If you've double-clicked on it, that unzipped the file and left a file named "ffmpeg" right there on your desktop, right? Drag that file (not the .zip version) to your computer's "Applications" folder.

Once you've done that, you're done installing ffmpeg; and the path to it is "/Applications/ffmpeg". I'm telling you that because you're going to need to type it into one particular place in pyTivo's configuration file (pyTivo.conf).

3) Now it's time to edit that configuration file. When you unzipped the pyTivo package, maybe you noticed there's a file named pyTivo.conf.something in there but no file named pyTivo.conf - they're basically trying to make sure you don't run pyTivo without editing that file (seems silly to me, but whatever). Anyway, just rename that file so it's now called pyTivo.conf (simply delete the .something part of the filename).

4) Now open the pyTivo.conf file with a text editing program. That can be BBedit, TextWrangler, Textpad, or whatever. Most of this file can be left alone. You do need to tell pyTivo where ffmpeg is located, though. Find the line that looks something like this:

ffmpeg=/path/to/ffmpeg

and change it to look exactly like this:

ffmpeg=/Applications/ffmpeg

If there are any pound signs before "ffmpeg" at the beginning of the line, remove them (so change "##ffmpeg" to just "ffmpeg" if necessary). Those pound signs just mark a line as a comment, so the pyTivo program knows to ignore them when it's reading the options.

5) The other thing to edit in pyTivo.conf is telling it where your home movies are. That's at the bottom of the file. If your movies are in your home directory's "Movies" folder, for instance, you would add these three lines to the very bottom of pyTivo.conf:

[My Movies Folder]
type=video
path=/Users/barey/Movies

You can change "My Movies Folder" to say whatever you'd like it to be named - that's the name that's going to show up in your Tivo's "Now Playing" list (pyTivo is going to make your computer look just like another Tivo as far as your real Tivo is concerned). Also I'm pretending "/Users/barey" is your home directory, but I don't know what your computer username actually is of course. If you don't know what your home directory path on your Mac is, just open "System Preferences", click on "Accounts", then right-click (or control+click) on your account to see "Advanced Options". In advanced options, look down until you see a line that says "Home Directory:" - that's the Unix path to your home directory.

6) Save your changes to pyTivo.conf, then close down your text editor.

7) Now we just need to start pyTivo. You need to tell me where you saved the folder after you downloaded it though. :-)

[bareyb]

Well this is bizarre... Just for kicks I went ahead and installed the free TTG program on my Mac. It went without a hitch and the "Video" icon appeared at the bottom of my Now Playing List.

I just transferred some shows from my Tivo using Toast 9 and guess what? They show up on my Now Playing List without converting them to Mpeg... WTH? I downloaded the droplet and I haven't used it, and yet... They show up and yes they do have the .tivo extension. Not .mpeg.

In other words, It appears that now you can simply put a .tivo files directly in your TiVo Recordings folder and they show up on your Mac without any conversion to .mpeg... Unless I'm missing something, this is not supposed to happen right?

[bareyb]

Right on. I'm not ready to give up on this yet... Thanks for taking the time... I will do as you say...

Yeah, I agree that's a lot of information to attempt to ingest - and most of it is not essential to the basic process. So let me try to simplify this. Note that there's still going to be a lot of words here, mostly because I'm trying to explain things. There's really not much you have to actually do.

1) You're on a Mac, and you're running 10.5 already. Ignore everything that FAQ says about python because it's irrelevant to you.

2) You say you've already downloaded Bob's preconfigured ffmpeg package. If you've double-clicked on it, that unzipped the file and left a file named "ffmpeg" right there on your desktop, right? Drag that file (not the .zip version) to your computer's "Applications" folder.

Once you've done that, you're done installing ffmpeg; and the path to it is "/Applications/ffmpeg". I'm telling you that because you're going to need to type it into one particular place in pyTivo's configuration file (pyTivo.conf).

3) Now it's time to edit that configuration file. When you unzipped the pyTivo package, maybe you noticed there's a file named pyTivo.conf.something in there but no file named pyTivo.conf - they're basically trying to make sure you don't run pyTivo without editing that file (seems silly to me, but whatever). Anyway, just rename that file so it's now called pyTivo.conf (simply delete the .something part of the filename).

4) Now open the pyTivo.conf file with a text editing program. That can be BBedit, TextWrangler, Textpad, or whatever. Most of this file can be left alone. You do need to tell pyTivo where ffmpeg is located, though. Find the line that looks something like this:

ffmpeg=/path/to/ffmpeg

and change it to look exactly like this:

ffmpeg=/Applications/ffmpeg

If there are any pound signs before "ffmpeg" at the beginning of the line, remove them (so change "##ffmpeg" to just "ffmpeg" if necessary). Those pound signs just mark a line as a comment, so the pyTivo program knows to ignore them when it's reading the options.

5) The other thing to edit in pyTivo.conf is telling it where your home movies are. That's at the bottom of the file. If your movies are in your home directory's "Movies" folder, for instance, you would add these three lines to the very bottom of pyTivo.conf:

[My Movies Folder]
type=video
path=/Users/barey/Movies

You can change "My Movies Folder" to say whatever you'd like it to be named - that's the name that's going to show up in your Tivo's "Now Playing" list (pyTivo is going to make your computer look just like another Tivo as far as your real Tivo is concerned). Also I'm pretending "/Users/barey" is your home directory, but I don't know what your computer username actually is of course. If you don't know what your home directory path on your Mac is, just open "System Preferences", click on "Accounts", then right-click (or control+click) on your account to see "Advanced Options". In advanced options, look down until you see a line that says "Home Directory:" - that's the Unix path to your home directory.

6) Save your changes to pyTivo.conf, then close down your text editor.

7) Now we just need to start pyTivo. You need to tell me where you saved the folder after you downloaded it though. :-)

[westside_guy]

You know what? There may be issues with that prepackaged ffmpeg program. I'd suggest deleting that, and just using MacPorts to install ffmpeg (since you've already installed MacPorts).

In Terminal.app, just like it says in Bob's FAQ - type "sudo port install ffmpeg +lame +libogg +vorbis +theora +faac +faad +xvid +x264 +a52 +dts". You can just copy everything in between those quote marks, and paste it into Terminal, then hit "return". You'll probably be asked to enter your password (in Terminal.app) as well.

That install may take a long time to install - so be warned.

So if you do this, the line in pyTivo.conf should be changed from

ffmpeg=/Applications/ffmpeg

so instead it says

/ffmpeg=/opt/local/bin/ffmpeg

[bareyb]

Okay. That's done.

I put the wgw folder (see link above) with all the pytivo stuff in my Applications folder...

[bareyb]

sudo: port: command not found

Okay all that's done now... Although I don't think the terminal command did anything. It gave me a message saying "Command Not Found". :(
This is exactly what I typed in: sudo port install ffmpeg +lame +libogg +vorbis +theora +faac +faad +xvid +x264 +a52 +dts


Was I supposed to install "lame"? The FAQ said to use Macports...

[bedelman]

It's right here form the OSX help page: It looks like it was created by Bob, but he says he has never had anything to do with pytivo...

That's my iDisk all right -- my son (who uses A@ron) was using it to handle some files for a while. I didn't know that file was in there, but I guess I better not remove it

[bedelman]

In other words, It appears that now you can simply put a .tivo files directly in your TiVo Recordings folder and they show up on your Mac without any conversion to .mpeg... Unless I'm missing something, this is not supposed to happen right?

That's correct -- .tivo and MPEG-2 files will appear (.tivo files contain an MPEG-2 file inside the TiVo "wrapper"). Of course, you have to have the hidden video tab in TiVo Desktop for Mac OSX enabled.

[bareyb]

That's correct -- .tivo and MPEG-2 files will appear (.tivo files contain an MPEG-2 file inside the TiVo "wrapper"). Of course, you have to have the hidden video tab in TiVo Desktop for Mac OSX enabled.

Then what is the "Tivo Decoder" Apple Script for? :confused:

[bedelman]

Then what is the "Tivo Decoder" Apple Script for? :confused:

In case you want to do something with the video inside the .tivo "wrapper". Plus the only thing you have on your Macintosh that can play a .tivo file is the Toast Video Player.

TiVo Decoder and TiVo Desktop Manager (which uses TiVo Decode) is for people who don't want to have to purchase the Roxio solutions (either Toast 9 or Popcorn 3)

[bareyb]

In case you want to do something with the video inside the .tivo "wrapper". Plus the only thing you have on your Macintosh that can play a .tivo file is the Toast Video Player.

TiVo Decoder and TiVo Desktop Manager (which uses TiVo Decode) is for people who don't want to have to purchase the Roxio solutions (either Toast 9 or Popcorn 3)

Ah I see... I think I got that confused with having to convert other video formats (such as MPEG 4) to MPEG2.

Speaking of which... Is there a program to do that? I have Toast 9 but it doesn't appear to convert to Mpeg. Everything else under the sun. Just not the one I need. :p

[westside_guy]

Okay all that's done now... Although I don't think the terminal command did anything. It gave me a message saying "Command Not Found". :(
This is exactly what I typed in: sudo port install ffmpeg +lame +libogg +vorbis +theora +faac +faad +xvid +x264 +a52 +dts


Was I supposed to install "lame"? The FAQ said to use Macports...

Okay, the error you get seems to be saying MacPorts didn't actually get installed.

As to your other question - I use Fink rather than MacPorts; but they more or less work the same. So if ffmpeg needs lame (and it does, at least with the configuration you've chosen), lame should be installed automatically. However if you want to be sure, run "sudo port install lame" first - assuming of course that you get "port" (MacPort's main command) installed first.

I wonder if it's just a path problem? try running the same "port" command, but use the full path like this:

sudo /opt/local/bin/port install lame

or

sudo /opt/local/sbin/port install lame

Since I don't use MacPorts, I'm not sure whether the "port" command is in the bin directory or the sbin directory.

(On a tangent: this is the sort of thing that led me to using Fink rather than DarwinPorts/MacPorts. The Fink base system seems to be a bit more robust and user friendly. But either way, there's no getting away from the command line :p )

[bareyb]

To tell you the truth, I think I'm gonna give up on this. It's just not worth the trouble. I appreciate the efforts of the developers who put this together, but I just can't hang with all installation hassles. Not to nitpick, but this thing needs a better installation program. All the great functionality in the world is worthless if people can't install it on their computers. I've been all over the net ten times today reading FAQS from ten different people and downloading 5 different software programs and utilities.I just can't devote any more time to this. It's a damn shame too because it looks like it might be really cool. I love a challenge and all, but I have small children and a wife who need me! I installed the free version of "Tivo To Go" from Tivo's website and I got it working in about ten minutes.

It's okay, but I'm not crazy about the quality of my photos on my HD flatscreen. My buddy has an Apple TV and his photos look a lot better but of course on the Apple TV the photos are in HD so it's not a fair comparison. I tell you though, for $300.00 and 200 hours of video storage I'm half tempted to buy one of those myself. God that would make my life easier! My Movies in iMovie would already be done! Just plug in the thing and there they are. Tempting... Maybe Santa will get me one. :D

[westside_guy]

To tell you the truth, I think I'm gonna give up on this. It's just not worth the trouble. Why can't there just be an integrated "installer" like every other blasted software package? I installed the free version of "Tivo To Go" from Tivo's website and I got it working in about ten minutes. I have a "Video" folder at the bottom of my Now Playing List and it is showing some .mpeg video files I have on my Computer. In other words, it just "works". Thanks for trying to help but this is just way too much humping the dog for me to handle. :D

I understand your decision - not everyone wants to fiddle around with their computers, or is comfortable doing so.

As far as developing an integrated installer goes - you have to understand these sorts of projects are developed by people, in their own free time, simply to fill their own personal need (or sometimes just because they're curious to see if they can figure out how to do it). They decide to share them with the rest of us basically out of the goodness of their hearts. Developing an all-encompassing installation package would be a lot of work for them with no personal advantage - so there's little incentive to do it.

[bareyb]

Dang. You quoted me before I could edit my post. Sorry about the mini rant. I was feeling pretty frustrated. As you can see I softened things quite a bit. I appreciate what you mean about people doing this out of the kindness of their hearts. It's just a damn shame it's in a form that is all but unusable for most people who would need it. But as you say, the people who put their time into this don't really care if regular folks can use their software or not. The Tivo software works well enough for my purposes and I won't have to worry about keeping all those freeware products up to date and working.

Thank you for taking the time. I do love a challenge and it started out being fun. Once I saw how many different people were working on this and all the problems people are having, it began to lose it's fun factor. I'm pretty happy with the Tivo software for now and I have a feeling Santa is going to bring us an Apple TV for Christmas. ;)

[moyekj]

Dang. You quoted me before I could edit my post. Sorry about the mini rant. I was feeling pretty frustrated. As you can see I softened things quite a bit. I appreciate what you mean about people doing this out of the kindness of their hearts. It's just a damn shame it's in a form that is all but unusable for most people who would need it. But as you say, the people who put their time into this don't really care if regular folks can use their software or not. The Tivo software works well enough for my purposes and I won't have to worry about keeping all those freeware products up to date and working.

Thank you for taking the time. I do love a challenge and it started out being fun. Once I saw how many different people were working on this and all the problems people are having, it began to lose it's fun factor. I'm pretty happy with the Tivo software for now and I have a feeling Santa is going to bring us an Apple TV for Christmas. ;) To be fair pyTivo has a huge user base who have no problems/issues with it and got it installed very easily, and in fact it works better than Tivo's own Tivo Desktop software most of the time. It does take some effort to get installed, especially on non-Windows platforms, but if you choose the Macintosh route over Windows then you have to be prepared and willing to go above and beyond to get a lot of software not specifically designed for Macs up and running.

[bareyb]

To be fair pyTivo has a huge user base who have no problems/issues with it and got it installed very easily, and in fact it works better than Tivo's own Tivo Desktop software most of the time. It does take some effort to get installed, especially on non-Windows platforms, but if you choose the Macintosh route over Windows then you have to be prepared and willing to go above and beyond to get a lot of software not specifically designed for Macs up and running.

I think you are probably right about that. Most of the more involved stuff I've done with the TiVo's have been on my wife's PC. I've upgraded my hard drives on both Tivos and the software was only available for Windows. Of course, it has an installer so it was a piece of cake to install. The new Mac that's coming will (finally) be one of the Intel based units and I plan to run Windows on it as well as Mac OS. Maybe I can play around with it some more then. At least then if something goes too awry I can just reinstall the software. I can't risk that on my Mac. I do think it's amazing some of the stuff you guys come up with. It just sucks that it has to be so difficult to use. It sounds like the Windows stuff works a little better. Maybe by then you will write a Windows installer program so regular people like me can install it. :D

[rn701]

Can't you just output your movies in .mov or .mp4, publish them in Tivo Desktop, and then see them in your "Now Playing" list on the Tivo?

Works on Windows with Tivo Desktop version 2.6.

(ETA: Oh, I see the Mac version maybe doesn't have this feature? Bummer.)

[bareyb]

Can't you just output your movies in .mov or .mp4, publish them in Tivo Desktop, and then see them in your "Now Playing" list on the Tivo?

Works on Windows with Tivo Desktop version 2.6.

(ETA: Oh, I see the Mac version maybe doesn't have this feature? Bummer.)

If only that were true. But I think you are mistaken. Current TiVo boxes can only read Mpegs. Unless you are saying that the Windows version of Desktop can do conversions?

[bareyb]

Can't you just output your movies in .mov or .mp4, publish them in Tivo Desktop, and then see them in your "Now Playing" list on the Tivo?

Works on Windows with Tivo Desktop version 2.6.

(ETA: Oh, I see the Mac version maybe doesn't have this feature? Bummer.)

LOL! Why didn't anyone tell me? :D


If you have downloaded videos from the Internet in any of the following formats, you can use TiVo Desktop Plus software for the PC to transfer them to your network-connected TiVo DVR to view them on your TV:

Windows Media Video (.wmv)
QuickTime Movie (.mov)
MPEG-4/H.264 (.mp4, .m4v, .mp4v)
MPEG-2 (.mpg, .mpeg, .mpe, .mp2, .mp2v, .mpv2)
DivX and Xvid (.avi, .divx)



Oh my god. I guess I should have looked into the PC side of things a little better! What the blue blazes! The PC version DOES do conversions! Holy Crap! Thank you rn701! As I said before I have an Intel Mac coming Tuesday which I plan to load Vista on. I've been using Windows utilities to upgrade my TiVos. Maybe this might be a good work around. The only downside I can see is that I'd have to have a way to access all my videos from Windows and Mac. I guess If I keep them on a separate drive I'll be okay. Hmmmm... This just might be the way to go... :)

[westside_guy]

The only downside I can see is that I'd have to have a way to access all my videos from Windows and Mac. I guess If I keep them on a separate drive I'll be okay. Hmmmm... This just might be the way to go... :)

If you use VMware or Parallels to run Windows in a virtual machine, rather than rebooting to run Windows (rather than using Bootcamp, in other words) - You can use shared folders. Both VMware and Parallels will let you share any/all of your Mac folders with your Windows virtual machine.

Parallels and VMware work quite well, and are very painless to install.

The only good reason (in my opinion) to actually use Bootcamp to run Windows is if you are a gamer. Virtualization of advanced graphics (specifically 3D shaders in Direct X) is not to the same level of sophistication that virtualization of the CPU is - they are doing a pretty good job of it, but it's simply not "perfect" yet. Intel's CPU's are designed with virtualization in mind - so running Windows inside of a virtual machine will basically be just as speedy as if you reboot and run it natively (on a computer made in the last couple of years, anyway - and on a non-Core2Duo Intel Mac it'll still be speedy).

[bareyb]

If you use VMware or Parallels to run Windows in a virtual machine, rather than rebooting to run Windows (Bootcamp in other words) - You can use shared folders. Both VMware and Parallels will let you share any/all of your Mac folders with your Windows virtual machine.

Parallels and VMware work quite well, and are very painless to install.

The only good reason (in my opinion) to actually use Bootcamp to run Windows is if you are a gamer. Virtualization of advanced graphics (specifically 3D shaders in Direct X) is not to the same level of sophistication that virtualization of the CPU is - they are doing a pretty good job of it, but it's simply not "perfect" yet. Intel's CPU's are designed with virtualization in mind - so running Windows inside of a virtual machine will basically be just as speedy as if you reboot and run it natively (on a newish computer anyway).

That sounds great. Man things have improved lately. I used to use Windows emulators and they barely worked at all. Would you happen to know, if I'm not on the "Windows Side" (let's say I'm working on the Macintosh part of VMware) will the "TiVo To Go" functionality still work or does it only work if you are actively using Windows?

[westside_guy]

That sounds great. Man things have improved lately. I used to use Windows emulators and they barely worked at all. Would you happen to know, if I'm not on the "Windows Side" (let's say I'm working on the Macintosh part of VMware) will the "TiVo To Go" functionality still work or does it only work if you are actively using Windows?

The problem in the past was that Macs used a different processor - so EVERY Intel processor command had to be interpreted into the equivalent code for the G3/G4/G5 processor. This was SLOW, as you might imagine. It's a much faster process now that Windows and OS X can both run natively on Intel processors. And for the past couple of years, Intel has built in some pretty sophisticated support for virtualization right into their processors, so VMware or Parallels (to save typing I'm just going to say "VMware" from now on) can simply pass a lot of the commands straight to the processor without having to worry about the extremely low-level systems stuff.

But back to your question. :D As long as VMware is actually running, and Tivo To Go is running inside of Windows - it should continue to work, even if you're browsing the web using Safari or using iMovie. If you close down VMware, then Windows will not be running which means Tivo To Go won't be running.

The main thing to remember is this - like any program, VMware needs memory. Because an actual operating system is running inside of it, VMware needs a hefty chunk of memory. This means that the more memory you give VMware, the less that's available for other programs - but this is true of any software package, not just VMware. VMware lets you adjust how much memory is dedicated to it, so you can tweak it to see what works best. I don't know what Windows Tivo To Go wants/needs, so what I'm about to say might not be enough for your case - but I find VMware (w/ Windows XP) is reasonably happy with 512MB of RAM. My Mac has 2GB overall. When I've given VMware a bigger chunk of my total RAM than that, it occasionally can make certain other Mac programs a bit sluggish. If you're one of these Mac people that never actually quits any program (your dock is full of those little white triangles), then you may see this a bit. Me, when I'm done with a program I generally like to "quit" it anyway. :p

[westside_guy]

Thank you for taking the time. I do love a challenge and it started out being fun. Once I saw how many different people were working on this and all the problems people are having, it began to lose it's fun factor. I'm pretty happy with the Tivo software for now and I have a feeling Santa is going to bring us an Apple TV for Christmas. ;)

To be fair, I just want to point out that most of the "problems people are having" aren't due to the programs themselves. The underlying issue is that these programs assume a level of computer knowledge that many people simply do not have. For a person that is comfortable with the command line, as I am, getting pyTivo running was a matter of 5-10 minutes.

That's one of the great things about Mac, now that (as of OS X) it's based on Unix. Long-term Mac users can happily continue to use them like they always did, as if the Unix-y stuff doesn't even exist. New Mac users and Windows converts can do the same. But there's this whole other world of Unix under there as well, which makes the Mac a great platform for the Unix geek too.

As an aside: I was a DOS/Windows user (and programmer) for a lot of years before I switched (out of frustration!) to Linux - and from there to OS X.

[bedelman]

For TiVo Desktop for Windows to do the on-the-fly conversions I think you do need to purchase the "plus" key from TiVo for $25. BTW -- I switched from Parallels over to VMware's Fusion. It can also work with your BootCamp partition so that you can either dual boot if you need performance -- or just use Fusion without rebooting.

I also have 4GB of RAM in the MacBook Pro. My wife's MacBook Pro can only go to 2GB -- and I wouldn't want to have any less than that.

- Bob

[bareyb]

You guys are great to help me like this. Thank yo so much. I'm very excited about getting my new Mac now. I mean I was already, but VMware sounds absolutely bitchen. Do people still say that? :D

I ordered a "Standard" configured Dual Quad 2.8 Ghz Mac Pro with 2 Gigs of RAM (2 X 1 Gig) and I just ordered up 6 more 1 Gig Sticks from OWC. So I will have a Total of 8 Gigs. It's been a few years since I got my head into the insides of computers. I used to be huge OS 9 geek. OSX is so much better, but I will admit, once the kids came (8 years ago for the first one) I haven't had much time to play with it. The more I learn, the more impressed I am. Boy, I'm sure glad I decided to load it up with RAM. A PAIR of 1 Gig sticks is only $78.00 now. Unbelievable. I used to do music editing, and my first "gigantor" 4 Gig Hard Drive from APS cost me $2000.00. :p

[bedelman]

...my first "gigantor" 4 Gig Hard Drive from APS cost me $2000.00. :p
My very first hard drive was a whopping 5MB in size and cost about $1,200. It was from a company named "Davong" and that price included the external enclosure and the interface card. I had the raw drive itself (with a 1982 manufacture date) in my office in New York where it was used as a door stop.

[Rdian06]

bareyb, I guess you missed my reply to your post on the pyTivo forum where I pointed to my static compile of ffmpeg (read no Macports voodoo necessary) for PowerPC and outlined how to use it with pyTivo?

http://pytivo.krkeegan.com/need-step-by-step-inst-for-installing-on-mac-w-leopard-t564.html

Again, I repeat that if you use my ffmpeg you don't have to deal with MacPorts and the toughest thing for a newbie would be making sure python is in your Terminal path + setup the config file.

[bareyb]

bareyb, I guess you missed my reply to your post on the pyTivo forum where I pointed to my static compile of ffmpeg (read no Macports voodoo necessary) for PowerPC and outlined how to use it with pyTivo?

http://pytivo.krkeegan.com/need-step-by-step-inst-for-installing-on-mac-w-leopard-t564.html

Again, I repeat that if you use my ffmpeg you don't have to deal with MacPorts and the toughest thing for a newbie would be making sure python is in your Terminal path + setup the config file.

No I sure didn't! And my email didn't alert me there was a response. I thought my question had gone completely ignored. Thank you for that I had no idea anyone had responded and I DID check the preference to email me about responses. Huh. I'm gonna go over there right now and check it out. I still haven't given up completely on PyTiVo. The Mac version of TTG won't allow me to shut down my computer while it's turned on. So it's not exactly working out real well so far. I'll probably deal with this on the Windows side (god I love that!) when my new rig comes on Tuesday. :up: