Burning to DVD from downloaded file

[Berone]

I backup my Series 3 shows to a Mac Mini using Galleon. Occasionally I want to burn something to a DVD. Most of the programs I'm finding (and I've been combing these forums for two days now, reading all related threads)will download and decode from the Tivo in one step, but I can't find a way to get them to just decode. I know that the software is built in there to do it, but I don't really want to go through the issues to do it manually. (Meaning via command line). I successfully burned a couple of things using Toast, but I'm not completely satisfied with the playback on the dvd. I'm not sure if it's the compression or the way Toast handles it. These are hd files so they do have to be compressed to get them onto a standard dvd. I tried putting two 1 hour shows on one disc and then putting just one 1 hour show on 1 disc. Both of them showed a degree of pixelezation, the less compressed show exhibiting about the same amount as the more compressed ones. So I'd like to try burning with a different program and see how that goes. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Anthony

[bedelman]

There's a "droplet" named TiVo Decoder (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/31409) that will strip out the MPEG-2 stream from a TiVo file

One reason why the quality might be worse from Toast is because TiVo restricts the resolution of files being downloaded. This restriction is implemented in the conversion capabilities in either Toast/Popcorn or TiVo Desktop for Windows. With Toast 8, you used to be able to change a value in the properties file to get around this -- but with Toast 9, I haven't seen it.

[Yoav]

... but I can't find a way to get them to just decode.

iTiVo (http://itivo.googlecode.com/) will do so if you select that from the preferences (select format: decrypt).

alternatively, you can just use 'tivodecode' (it's a simple program) to decode stuff you download from the web interface If you really don't want to use a gui...

Keep in mind, a decrypted stream *is* mpeg-2, but it's a an mpeg-2 transport stream... a lot of programs (notably quicktime) can't play that or burn that to a DVD...

[Berone]

Unless I'm missing something, I would have to download the program again to use iTivo. Since I'm working from files on an external hd I don't see a way to make that work. Let me know if I'm missing something.

Thanks,
Anthony

[bedelman]

Unless I'm missing something, I would have to download the program again to use iTivo. Since I'm working from files on an external hd I don't see a way to make that work. Let me know if I'm missing something.

Thanks,
Anthony

I haven't had a chance to use iTiVo yet -- but the droplet to which I provided a hyperlink earlier will do what you want (strip the MPEG-2 out of the .tivo file)

[Yoav]

I haven't had a chance to use iTiVo yet -- but the droplet to which I provided a hyperlink earlier will do what you want (strip the MPEG-2 out of the .tivo file)

Ahh right, my bad :). I assumed you were downloading from the tivo.
Yeah the droplet bedelman mentioned is what you want.

[Berone]

I tried Tivo Decoder twice last night. Both times it created a file the same size as the original, but also produced an error message. The resultant mpg file is not recognized by Quicktime or idvd. It will play in VLC, but almost anything will. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Anthony

[Yoav]

I tried Tivo Decoder twice last night. Both times it created a file the same size as the original, but also produced an error message. The resultant mpg file is not recognized by Quicktime or idvd. It will play in VLC, but almost anything will. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Anthony

Erm, I believe I mentioned that earlier.
A decrypted file is an mpeg-2 transport stream. Quicktime (and any program that relies on quicktime for its codecs) has no idea what to do with transport streams (it requires program streams).

Either use VLC or MplayerOSX.

Or convert the file to a more commonly used format (like h.264, or an mpeg-2 program stream), before trying to view it. The only reason to keep the encrypted files or the transport stream around is if your only use for the data is to copy it right back to the tivo. If you're desperately trying to avoid the quality loss you'd get from re-encoding, you can use the tivodecode program I mentioned to also demux the transport stream into an audio and video file, and then there might be an encoder that keeps the two intact while it remuxes them (I'm not familiar with any, but I'm sure it's doable.. check google).

[moyekj]

NOTE: A decrypted file is actually mpeg2 program stream. .TiVo file extracted via TTG is also essentially an mpeg2 program stream with encryption and some header information. The files stored on the Tivo itself are mpeg2 transport stream but during TTG process get converted (which is a lot of the overhead of TTG).

[Berone]

Erm, I believe I mentioned that earlier.
A decrypted file is an mpeg-2 transport stream. Quicktime (and any program that relies on quicktime for its codecs) has no idea what to do with transport streams (it requires program streams).


Right, you did. Sorry - I misread it. I read it as being the .tivo file was... blah, blah, blah.
Back to my original purpose: I'm trying to burn files to DVD that I had already downloaded. What would work would be an option in iTivo that would work from a hard drive, rather than the Tivo, allowing me to make the conversion to a dvd file. (Was that too subtle a hint?) I had tried something similar with Kevin's KMTTG but I never got it fully functional on a Mac, and now that I'm on a new machine I just don't have the time to start the whole process again.

Is there a front end for the re-encoding progams that would allow me to create a clean, high quality, burnable file?

Thanks,
Anthony

[Yoav]

Is there a front end for the re-encoding progams that would allow me to create a clean, high quality, burnable file?


iTiVo is for downloading files from your tivo. It's not trying to be an 'everything' solution.
The tivodecoder droplet should let you convert the file to an mpeg-2, which you can use Handbrake (http://handbrake.fr/) (http://handbrake.fr/) to re-encode.

[jtkohl]

Is there a front end for the re-encoding progams that would allow me to create a clean, high quality, burnable file?


Not running directly on the mac, but I use VideoReDo TV Suite running in a Windows machine under Parallels, and let it convert to DVD. Most programs can convert with reencoding, as long as your DVD player is new enough to accept non-standard resolutions and GOP frame strides.

I'd rather use something directly in MacOSX, but Toast 9 was rotten until 9.0.4 update, and I don't care to go back since the video editor in VideoReDo is just right for the job.

Once in a while I get an MPEG video out of a .TiVo -> .mpg (tivodecode) that will play with the QuickTime MPEG-2 player, but that only seems to happen on some OTA content, never on cable-only content.

Long ago I played around with Sizzle, but found it a bit too klunky to deal with its DVD menu editing/etc.

[Berone]

yoav-
Okay, I transferred the file back to the tivo so I could try this out with itivo. The file didn't have any audio, but the download didn't complete, either. That might have been user error, so I'm going to try it again. The particular movie I'm trying to get to dvd is hd and the file is about 14 gb. I'm trying to minimize the compression so I want to burn it to a dl disc. The DVD ntsc widescreen option seemed like a good idea, but it compresses to fit a standard dvd. Is it possible to tweak the settings to compress to the larger disc size? I just set it running to download to Quicktime format. I also looked at the mpeg formats. My tivo is hardwired to the network. Is 18 hours a typical projected download time for a 2.5 hour movie?

Thanks,
Anthony