Right MPEG format for transferring to TivoHD via TivoDesktop?

[Mobocracy]

What's the "correct" format to convert video TO when you want to use TivoDesktop to transfer videos onto an HDTivo or a Series 2? I'm assuming MPEG-2, but what about bitrates, file sizes, audio encoding, etc?

I've tried various formats (using licensed TMPGEnc 4.x) and I seem to get varied results. Some stuff seems transferrable, and some doesn't. The source material is varied -- downloaded videos, DVD rips, etc, and I really haven't noticed a pattern as to what's worked and what hasn't.

I've done both VBR and fixed, but always targeted a fairly standard MPEG-2 without getting too esoteric.

[jlb]

When I want to transfer rips of my own DVDs to the TiVo, I use DVDshrink to reauthor with just the main movie, then run the resulting VOB file through VideoRedo's quickstream fix (to make sure I don't have any issues), and then transfer the resulting mpeg file. Not sure what type it is off hand, but works like a charm.

[windracer]

This page has the specs for MPEG-2 (near the bottom):

http://www.tivo.com/setupandsupport/technicalsupport/helpwithtivofeatures/Transferring_Video_from_a_PC_to_a_TiVo_DVR.html

[Mobocracy]

Thanks for the tips.

I'm not sure what's broken or changed; I did convert a DVD video and view it on my HDTivo about a month or so ago without any problems.

I just did a test video and converted it a couple of times with TMPGEnc (using the canned DVD format with MPEG-II audio, as well as MPEG2-specific format) as well as with Adobe Premiere Elements, always with a format that fit within the linked format constraints.

My Tivos show all these attempts as "incompatible with my DVR", both for my HDTivo and for my older Series 2 SA.

The next thing that's occuring to me -- do I need to buy Plus? I don't remember needing an upgraded TivoDesktop package to do this in the past, but perhaps this is some new change that has obsoleted my current setup.

[windracer]

You don't need Plus for plain MPEG-2 and .TiVo files. Plus just gives you the ability to transcode some other formats like WMV, DivX/Xvid, etc.

I recommend pyTiVo if you want to send a wide variety of formats back to your TiVo. It's cross-platform and it's free.