Mac2TiVo

[tgibbs]

From the announcement of Roxio's new version of Toast:

Mac2TiVo
Send standard and HD video from your Mac to your TiVo® DVR for viewing on television. Publish folders full of video on your Mac and stream them on-the-fly to your DVR without lengthy video conversions.

I couldn't find any specifics as to what file formats are being supported.

[wmcbrine]

Interesting.

[kas25]

very interested in this. Has anyone purchsaed Toast 10?

[westside_guy]

It might be a little more user-friendly than pyTivo, and so might have some market there. But really there are some great FREE options for the Mac already available - like pyTivo, tivostreamer, etc. etc.

[wmcbrine]

Actually what makes it interesting to me is "Publish folders full of video on your Mac and stream them on-the-fly to your DVR without lengthy video conversions." This could mean that they have some additional info on HME video streaming that we could glean to improve HME/VLC and tivostreamer. Then again, maybe they just copied it off us. :)

[jay_man2]

very interested in this. Has anyone purchsaed Toast 10?It'll be released Jan. 12, so says Amazon.com.

[kas25]

It'll be released Jan. 12, so says Amazon.com.
It looks like you can download now from their site?

[PacoII]

Seems to work well. Tried it with an avi and it played no problems. Whatever on-the-fly encoding it is doing, it seems to be doing it well. I don't see an option to have the sharing server start on system load, so not sure what will happen when rebooting the system. I haven't tried that yet. but I am guessing I will have to manually restart the sharing server.

fyi, either running mac2TiVo or my install of toast 10 reset the prefs for TiVo Desktop (com.tivo.desktop). In Now Playing on the TiVo, my TiVo Desktop shared video folder was still showing up, but the prefpane was no longer showing it as an option. a quick tweak of the plist resolved it.

[PacoII]

Guess I posted too soon. Scrolling through the list of shows being shared made my TiVo reboot. Doh.

And there is a start sharing on login option. A new menu item gets installed.

[PacoII]

Ok, one last post. Seems like there is some kind of conflict between mac2TiVo and TiVo Desktop, as I just opened my TiVo Desktop prefpane, and once again the video sharing pane is hidden.

[richsadams]

According to this thread (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=415411)...it's not what the OP expected.

[PacoII]

OP missed the point of the software, and the purpose of it. It does on the fly encoding to allow you to play any file on your TiVo immediately. I added a folder of AVIs to the sharing folder, and was immediately able to play them on my TiVo, without having to re-encode them into TiVo format. Yes, they have to transfer, that is the TiVo way, but I could start playing them within a few minutes of starting the transfer. Not having to encode them is awesome!

[westside_guy]

OP missed the point of the software, and the purpose of it. It does on the fly encoding to allow you to play any file on your TiVo immediately. I added a folder of AVIs to the sharing folder, and was immediately able to play them on my TiVo, without having to re-encode them into TiVo format. Yes, they have to transfer, that is the TiVo way, but I could start playing them within a few minutes of starting the transfer. Not having to encode them is awesome!

Right, but pyTivo/pyTivoX does this already - so why pay?

[PacoII]

No reason at all :)

Right, but pyTivo/pyTivoX does this already - so why pay?

[tgibbs]

So does the software automatically find videos on your disk, or do you have to select them for sharing either individually or by folder? How does the interface work? The ad implied that you see a menu on your TiVo, like sharing a video from another TiVo. Is this correct?

Have you tried any formats other than avi? How about wmv?

[igrok]

Seems to work fine with quicktime movies. I transferred an SD .mov and HD .mov and both worked well. You have to tell it what folders to share, then go to your tivo and it shows up as a shared folder on the bottom of the Now Playing list. Transfer and start watching.

There's a setting in the menulet to load on login, for the poster who queried about same.

I've had some trouble where if you change what's in the shared folder, either by adding stuff or taking stuff out, the shared folder on the tivo unit shows doubled listings, or even no listings at all. Quitting mac2tivo is not enough to get it back -- had to quit from the menulet too. Then restart mac2tivo, add shared folder, start server.

Never had the problem with pytivo though.

[dig_duggler]

Hmm, doesn't seem to maintain 5.1 surround sound after transfer. Otherwise works decently.

[mohanman]

OP missed the point of the software, and the purpose of it. It does on the fly encoding to allow you to play any file on your TiVo immediately. I added a folder of AVIs to the sharing folder, and was immediately able to play them on my TiVo, without having to re-encode them into TiVo format. Yes, they have to transfer, that is the TiVo way, but I could start playing them within a few minutes of starting the transfer. Not having to encode them is awesome!

I am the original poster, and I didn't miss anything at all.. thanks for your comments though professor

Mo

[wmcbrine]

So it doesn't actually stream then?

[dig_duggler]

So it doesn't actually stream then?

Nope. It just dupes the TivoComeBack Tivo Desktop Video functionality but does on the fly conversions. Really the only difference.

[Mindflux]

Hrm, I have a bunch of DivX encoded movies, and in spite of Mac2Tivo seeing them as viable media my HD's NPL says there's no recordings on my Mac. (Even though the folder has 40 items in it)

[mattack]

No reason at all :)

I will give a reason -- officially supported technology with someone to complain to if it stops working/doesn't work the way you expect.

I'm not saying it's worth that much money, but I'd pay for software to download shows from my Tivos to my computer if they (1) would allow downloading with no reencoding (or OPTIONAL reencoding), and (2) allowed editing of the resulting downloads.

I can already do #1 via the web interface + tivodecode. I have found nothing that would do #2 on a Mac (I think I have to try MPEG streamclip again -- someone claimed it would, but I'm sure I tried it in the past).

[westside_guy]

I will give a reason -- officially supported technology with someone to complain to if it stops working/doesn't work the way you expect.

I think you have a perfectly valid point. Heck, it's how a company like Red Hat Linux stays in business.

It all comes down to your comfort level and expectations.

[wmcbrine]

Well, no one pays us for pyTivo, but it's never stopped them from complaining, AFAICT. :)

[bareyb]

It might be a little more user-friendly than pyTivo, and so might have some market there. But really there are some great FREE options for the Mac already available - like pyTivo, tivostreamer, etc. etc.

Baloney. I haven't been able to get a single one of the free solutions to work properly (and I'm fairly tech savvy). I appreciate the efforts of the engineer types who put these programs together, but they are not a good solution for most people in my opinion. The lack of a good set of instructions and a Mac compatible installer have made them not worth the trouble.

I knew I could probably have gotten it going had I wanted to spend a whole lot more time browsing forums and asking for help, but in the end, it just wasn't worth it. I sure didn't feel like having to deal with keeping all this third party stuff working either. I had begun to think that Apple TV was going to be my only option for home movies on my TV. If this works, I'm going to be all over it. Great news. :up:

[Mindflux]

Baloney. I haven't been able to get a single one of the free solutions to work properly (and I'm fairly tech savvy). I appreciate the efforts of the engineer types who put these programs together, but they are not a good solution for most people in my opinion. The lack of a good set of instructions and a Mac compatible installer have made them not worth the trouble. I knew I could probably get it going had I wanted to spend a whole lot more time browsing forums and asking for help, but in the end, it just wasn't worth it. I sure didn't feel like having to deal with keeping all this third party stuff working either. I had begun to think that Apple TV was going to be my only option for home movies on my TV. If this works, I'm going to be all over it. Great news. :up:

AppleTV is going to require hacking if you want to play anything other than an iTunes compatible format, such as DivX. Just an FYI there.

[bareyb]

AppleTV is going to require hacking if you want to play anything other than an iTunes compatible format, such as DivX. Just an FYI there.

Yeah. I wasn't thrilled about having to add yet another box to my TV. I've always wanted to use my TiVo. I've been waiting for something like this new Toast to come along. I was even considering loading Windows on my Mac to use the TiVoPlus for PC software. I definitely think this gives you more options. It also doesn't hurt that it has an actual honest to goodness integrated installer. That makes it worth the money right there.

[Mindflux]

Yeah. I wasn't thrilled about having to add yet another box to my TV. I've been waiting for something like this new Toast to come along. I was even considering loading Windows on my Mac to use the TiVoPlus for PC software. I definitely think this gives you more options. It also doesn't hurt that it has an actual honest to goodness integrated installer. That makes it worth the money right there.

I've been testing Mac2Tivo and several times last night my Mac disappeared from the TiVo's NPL. The first time I tried it, the TiVo didn't see any of my DivX encoded shows. The second time it finally did. I didn't try to transfer anything as I was already trying to encode something to a DVD format for my wife.

[wmcbrine]

Baloney. I haven't been able to get a single one of the free solutions to work properlyHave you tried pyTivoX? (Note the "X".)

(and I'm fairly tech savvy).If you say so...

[JPA2825]

New to the discussion. Can folks point me to whether pyTivoX will allow transfer from TiVo to Mac AND conversion of transferred show to Touch supported format for playing on Touch?

If not, will the new Toast do this?

[bareyb]

Have you tried pyTivoX? (Note the "X".)

If you say so...

Not sure, but don't insult me. I gave up on all the "free" solutions a couple of months ago. As I said, I know I could probably have gotten them working, but it wasn't worth the time or the risk. I saw way too many people having way too many problems with all of them.

If this latest one has a one-step integrated installer then that would be a huge step in the right direction for you guys. I'm gonna guess it doesn't though. I will admit that I am not a fan of 3rd party software that require a lot of software from various places to keep going. It's a headache. So this is good news for me.

[Mindflux]

Not sure, but don't insult me. I gave up on all the "free" solutions a couple of months ago. As I said, I know I could have gotten them working, but it wasn't worth the time or the risk. I saw way too many people having way too many problems with all of them.

If this latest one has an integrated installer then that would be a huge step in the right direction for you guys. I will admit that I am not a fan of 3rd party software however, and if anything "over the counter" had been available I'd have never even considered PyTiVo or any of the various other 3rd party solutions. So this is good news for me. It's long overdue.

FWIW, I 'installed pyTivoX (which doesn't need an installer).. pointed it to my media folder and it worked (thus far) better than Mac2Tivo. I didn't have to fiddle with squat.

:D

[bareyb]

FWIW, I 'installed pyTivoX (which doesn't need an installer).. pointed it to my media folder and it worked (thus far) better than Mac2Tivo. I didn't have to fiddle with squat.

:D

Well that IS encouraging. Nothing like that existed a short time ago. They all required several softwares and command line entries, and python and all kinds of crap to install. I'd have killed to find a simple solution like that at one time. But now, I think I'll wait for Toast to work out the bugs and buy that. I already use Toast 9 so the interface is very familiar to me. It's also going to be easier to support for me and all the information and updates will be in one place.

There was a time in my life I'd have loved the challenge, but now I have kids and I don't have the time to mess around with stuff like this. I'm glad it's working for you, and I'm also glad there is now a simple, over the counter option for people like me. One thing about Roxio though, is they always release buggy software. So it probably won't be useable until it's been updated a couple of times.

[ZeoTiVo]

Well, no one pays us for pyTivo, but it's never stopped them from complaining, AFAICT. :) :p

I pulled down PyTiVo for windows - run installer, configured the dir I would use and then forgot about PyTiVo. My complaint is that I had nothing fun to do to make it work.

Issues I had were with the video file formats and Hulu blocking me grabbing their videos and then using Video Redo for mpeg2 to ensure they were clean even ended that ability to look like a tech guru to my family.

so saying the 3rd party is not for you is one thing, but saying all 3rd party is baloney is another and a bit hard to make defensible

[westside_guy]

Baloney. I haven't been able to get a single one of the free solutions to work properly (and I'm fairly tech savvy). I appreciate the efforts of the engineer types who put these programs together, but they are not a good solution for most people in my opinion. The lack of a good set of instructions and a Mac compatible installer have made them not worth the trouble.

I knew I could probably have gotten it going had I wanted to spend a whole lot more time browsing forums and asking for help, but in the end, it just wasn't worth it. I sure didn't feel like having to deal with keeping all this third party stuff working either. I had begun to think that Apple TV was going to be my only option for home movies on my TV. If this works, I'm going to be all over it. Great news. :up:

On that first note, as one of the people that tried to help you back then... I'm trying to refrain from commenting. Let's just say that, for me, setting up pyTivo took maybe 5-10 minutes of actual active involvement. Of course installing ffmpeg on my Mac was just a matter of typing "fink install ffmpeg" and then walking away... :D

On your second note, if it were me (uh-oh) :D - I'd wait a bit to see if the supposed new Mac Mini comes out. If it does, I'd buy that instead. With Front Row it'll do most everything Apple TV will do (admittedly for a higher cost), BUT it could take the place of your DVD player, AND you could download the free Perian plugin (http://www.perian.org) and then have a much wider range of video files available for playback (if you already have a Mac, you could try Perian out right now actually). All without attempting AppleTV hacks.

Oh, you'd probably have to buy the Apple Remote separately, I forgot they don't ship with them anymore (I don't believe they do, anyway).

[bareyb]

On that first note, as one of the people that tried to help you back then... I'm trying to refrain from commenting. Let's just say that, for me, setting up pyTivo took maybe 5-10 minutes of actual active involvement. Of course installing ffmpeg on my Mac was just a matter of typing "fink install ffmpeg" and then walking away... :D

On your second note, if it were me (uh-oh) :D - I'd wait a bit to see if the supposed new Mac Mini comes out. If it does, I'd buy that instead. With Front Row it'll do most everything Apple TV will do (admittedly for a higher cost), BUT it could take the place of your DVD player, AND you could download the free Perian plugin (http://www.perian.org) and then have a much wider range of video files available for playback (if you already have a Mac, you could try Perian out right now actually). All without attempting AppleTV hacks.

Oh, you'd probably have to buy the Apple Remote separately, I forgot they don't ship with them anymore (I don't believe they do, anyway).

I remember. Thanks for trying to help. I guess the timing just wasn't right. Sounds like a more user friendly version might be available now for people who want to go that route. Sure can't beat the price. If Toast works, then I probably won't be getting an Apple TV since I've always preferred to use TiVo for viewing Home Movies. I just installed new 1 TB drives in both my series 3's so I have plenty of room. Finding a bug free Mac solution was the problem. Hopefully Toast will get there one day soon.

[dbg]

I bought and downloaded Toast 10 Pro yesterday, mainly because I wanted Mac2Tivo.
TiVoToGo works fine (as before), but Mac2Tivo seems to do nothing.
It's hard to be sure, because there is not one hint in the manual or in the help or online that Mac2Tivo even exists, except in the "on-box" promotion. A help ticket in online support resulted in advice to use Windows Internet Explorer to make their website work better, and a pointer to TiVotoGo online documentation, which was completely off the mark.
I believe the support people haven't been given any info at all about Mac2Tivo yet, not one clue, just like us customers. There are no examples, nothing.
I learned more from this site's discussion by FAR than I got from Roxio's download or its website support! I'm really amazed that some of you have gotten it kind of working with no information!
So it certainly isn't obvious that one should buy Toast 10 for the professional support.
I started installing pyTivo once but didn't have enough time in a block and ran into some problem, so didn't finish and forgot about it.
But now that I have Toast 10 Pro I think I'll try pyTivo once more. Extremely frustrating. (2.8GB download, by the way)

[mohanman]

I returned my Roxio 10 for a full refund (download version). At least that was a painless effort.

[dbg]

I've been working for many hours searching online and via Roxio support and in the Toast 10 download documentation, with no success whatsoever, to get Mac2Tivo to do something. Anything at all but just sit there "serving" quietly with no resulting outputs or feedback.

After finding this forum and thread, I downloaded pyTivoX and then iTiVo, and installed them (dragged them to Applications folder, that is) and ran them.

Presto, they work great!

The information on this forum is so far superior to what Roxio provides, that I don't understand why anyone would buy Toast 10 (like I did) for interfacing their Mac with their TiVo. This free software is far more professionally written, and far far more professionally supported, than the commercial stuff.

This isn't the first time I've seen this phenomenon, either. But it keeps seeming like it should be wise to buy commercial products when they claim to do exactly what one wants. Turns out it's often not wise at all.

Thanks, guys, for the helpful pointers and the technical discussion that assures me that this software is working at a high level of quality. Thanks, code writers!

[bareyb]

I checked out the new version of PyTiVoX and I have to admit, it looks pretty polished compared to what I was seeing before. Roxio is notorious for releasing buggy software. I wouldn't even consider buying anything from them until it's been updated a couple of times. :down:

[richsadams]

Couldn't agree more. PyTiVoX works quite well (as does iTiVo) :) And Roxio is indeed notorius for issuing not ready for prime time software. :mad: Nothing more to add...just thought I'd echo some wise observations. :D

[dig_duggler]

Just tried pyTivoX and it blows Mac2Tivo out of the water. More lightweight and much more responsive. Encodes look better and maintains 5.1 track if it is there (DTS and Dolby). I am duly impressed.

[heySkippy]

I put pyTiVoX on my wife's iMac yesterday and am pleased at how easy it was and how well it works.

[kas25]

Well that IS encouraging. Nothing like that existed a short time ago. They all required several softwares and command line entries, and python and all kinds of crap to install. I'd have killed to find a simple solution like that at one time. But now, I think I'll wait for Toast to work out the bugs and buy that. I already use Toast 9 so the interface is very familiar to me. It's also going to be easier to support for me and all the information and updates will be in one place.

There was a time in my life I'd have loved the challenge, but now I have kids and I don't have the time to mess around with stuff like this. I'm glad it's working for you, and I'm also glad there is now a simple, over the counter option for people like me. One thing about Roxio though, is they always release buggy software. So it probably won't be useable until it's been updated a couple of times.

I too gave up on that as I know enough to be dangerous but it sounds like the isntallation is foolproof now? If so, I am psyched to pass on a Roxio upgrade.

[bareyb]

I too gave up on that as I know enough to be dangerous but it sounds like the isntallation is foolproof now? If so, I am psyched to pass on a Roxio upgrade.

I'm actually opening my mind a little on it too. The new version has a one-step installer and the GUI looks very Mac like. I like it. Congrats to the guy that put it together. I still have to convert my home videos and that project is on hold for now so that gives me a little more time to see how it all shakes out with the two versions. I know Roxio won't be ready for months. I've gotten five emails from them in the last week begging me to buy Toast 10, but now I think I'll wait... ;)

[StevesWeb]

My thanks to those in this thread who just saved me the cost of upgrading my Toast 9 (with advertised features that don't work, like burning HD content to Blu-Ray files on standard DVDs with the extra cost broken plugin) to Toast 10 Pro.

I had the Toast 10 Pro in my shopping cart at Roxio.com and thought I should check here first.

Like others in this thread I thought the carefully misleading use of "stream" in the Roxio advertising meant stream, as in streaming, as in right away a la video on demand. Now that I realize it will act in the same fashion as the existing freeware solutions I see no need to spend the money for a less reliable solution.

I do have pyTivoX and iTivo installed on my Mac Pro, and unlike Roxio products they both work exactly as claimed, quite well too. Just yesterday I tried removing commercials from a Tivo-recorded movie and while the results were not completely perfect they did exceed my expectations.

BTW, this is my first post here. I'm new to Tivo, having just bought a TivoHD and the WD MyDVR Expander in the last 2 months. I'm a major Mac fan boi, and I'm delighted with the way in which pyTivoX and iTivo allow me to interact between my Macs and my Tivo. Hats off to the generous and highly competent folks who so kindly share this software with the rest of us.

[richsadams]

My thanks to those in this thread who just saved me the cost of upgrading my Toast 9 (with advertised features that don't work, like burning HD content to Blu-Ray files on standard DVDs with the extra cost broken plugin) to Toast 10 Pro. <snip> Welcome to the forum! I've usually had to wait a few months for Roxio's software to actually do what it claims to do before buying...so like you I'll continue to use PyTiVoX, iTiVo and Toast 9 until they get the bugs out of 10.

There are a lot of great people here more than willing to answer questions and give their two-cents. I only switched from the dark side to a Mac a few months ago (now have two and soon three) and have some queries now and then which you can probably help with so don't be a stranger!

[tombonneau]

Looking into a streaming Mac-to-TiVo solution and tons of good info in this thread. Was considering the Toast 10, but given horrible Amazon reviews and initial responses here, I think I'll try the freeware combo of pyTivoX (wasn't named by a marketer, was it? ;)) and iTivo.

As this thread has been dormant for awhile, I'm wondering if Roxio has released any updates to Toast that have fixed Mac2Tivo? I'm guessing not ...

[richsadams]

Looking into a streaming Mac-to-TiVo solution and tons of good info in this thread. Was considering the Toast 10, but given horrible Amazon reviews and initial responses here, I think I'll try the freeware combo of pyTivoX (wasn't named by a marketer, was it? ;)) and iTivo.

As this thread has been dormant for awhile, I'm wondering if Roxio has released any updates to Toast that have fixed Mac2Tivo? I'm guessing not ...pyTiVox and iTiVo work very well for me. :up:

Regarding Toast, I have it and it's still such a kludge product it's amazing. I've no idea why Roxio just doesn't get the concept of simplicity (or testing or getting feedback from actual human beings for that matter). :mad: If you have a lot of patience it will work, but what a pain and it obviously doesn't have to be.

I dislike having to use Windows for anything anymore, but one program that I still use is VideoReDo TVSuite to edit TiVo files. It's so far ahead of anything else on the market it's not funny. Still waiting for the Mac version though...Dan? Mac! Dan? :)

[tombonneau]

pyTiVox and iTiVo work very well for me. :up:

Regarding Toast, I have it and it's still such a kludge product it's amazing. I've no idea why Roxio just doesn't get the concept of simplicity (or testing or getting feedback from actual human beings for that matter). :mad: If you have a lot of patience it will work, but what a pain and it obviously doesn't have to be.

I dislike having to use Windows for anything anymore, but one program that I still use is VideoReDo TVSuite to edit TiVo files. It's so far ahead of anything else on the market it's not funny. Still waiting for the Mac version though...Dan? Mac! Dan? :)

Too bad about Toast. I was also interested because it also has some music mixing capabilities, as I've been wanting to put together a few DJ mixes for my own listening pleasure.

Do you have any feedback on Toast 9? Online reviews seem to indicate that worked better than 10 ...

[Dan203]

I dislike having to use Windows for anything anymore, but one program that I still use is VideoReDo TVSuite to edit TiVo files. It's so far ahead of anything else on the market it's not funny. Still waiting for the Mac version though...Dan? Mac! Dan? :)

Believe me we would love to put out a Mac version of VideoReDo. Unfortunately we're just a small company with limited resources and our efforts are currently focused on adding H.264 support to the Windows version. Hopefully after that's done and all the bugs are ironed out we'll start working on a Mac version.

Dan

[richsadams]

Believe me we would love to put out a Mac version of VideoReDo. Unfortunately we're just a small company with limited resources and our efforts are currently focused on adding H.264 support to the Windows version. Hopefully after that's done and all the bugs are ironed out we'll start working on a Mac version.

DanUnderstood. H.264 is important. If the current programs are any indication I would imagine your folks will have very few issues with bugs. :up: Sooooo...that means you'll be on to a Mac version in no time right? Woo hoo! ;)

[Fofer]

Previously I'd use TiVo Desktop (with the Video tab enabled,) which required me to run VisualHub ahead of time to convert to TiVo-compatible MPEG-2 files. It worked fine but was time consuming, and took up quite a bit of disk space on my Mac. The resulting MPEG-2 files also wouldn't play in QT Player (even though I have Apple's MPEG-2 plug-in.) I'd get a "this is not a movie file" error. They would, however, play in VLC. And the only reason I had to keep them around, really, was for transferring to the TiVo. It was a clunky workflow to say the least.

Well, as a Toast 10 owner, today I just tested sending an .AVI file to the TiVo using Mac2TiVo (so no pre-conversion required) but the resulting video didn't fill my TV's 42" screen. It was in a smaller rectangle, in the center. Sort of a bummer.

I then did the same test with the same file, using PyTiVoX, and it worked fine. Transferred over, no pre-conversion required, and it filled the TV screen. Also seemed to transfer faster, too. Wonderful!

Oh, and StreamBaby (beta) streams fine to my Series 3 as well... starts playing quickly, no need to even transfer the file.

So even though I have Toast 10 and Mac2TiVo installed, I'm going to be using PyTiVoX for all my Mac -> TiVo needs.

[RockinRichman]

Same result as Fofer. Mac2TiVo does not do as good a job as PyTiVoX does. All files I've tried now have kept their original aspect ratios where Mac2TiVo changes some files and reduces their size. I'll keep using PyTiVoX for my Mac to Tivo needs.

[Ereth]

Interesting. I haven't had that happen. Everything I've sent from Mac2Tivo has been full screen.