Mac/XP user - moving movies to TIVO HD/My DVR

[Phrehdd]

My goal is to get all my archived DVDs onto the TiVo HD or the W.D. external 500 gig drive. Questions -

I use a Mac and looking for the least expensive route to transfer the movies and not sure which is my best..any thoughts?

Is it true that if the movie is stored as one large VOB file it can simply be renamed with an "mpg" extension instead of .vob and give good results for playback?

is there any possible way to connect the external W.D. drive to the computer and load the movies on and then reconnect to the TiVo HD?

Any help would be appreciated and if there are already solid posts on this a link would really help!

Thanks!

- Phrehdd

[ciper]

http://pytivo.armooo.net/
Works on OS X and XP

Renaming the files is a hack that often does not work.

You cannot preload the drive because the TiVo format is proprietary.

[bedelman]

I use handbrake (http://handbrake.fr) to handle the conversion of the main DVD title over to something like MPEG-4 and then pyTiVoX (http://code.google.com/p/pytivox) to then allow them to be published on a Macintosh to be picked up in the Now Playing list of the TiVo.

[Phrehdd]

http://pytivo.armooo.net/
Works on OS X and XP

Renaming the files is a hack that often does not work.

You cannot preload the drive because the TiVo format is proprietary.

My goal is to move my "VOB's" in same resolution and have option for both 5.1 and stereo audio. I'll take a look at the link carefully and thanks.

BTW, does it work for m2ts files with AC3 5.1?

-Phrehdd

[Phrehdd]

I use handbrake (http://handbrake.fr) to handle the conversion of the main DVD title over to something like MPEG-4 and then pyTiVoX (http://code.google.com/p/pytivox) to then allow them to be published on a Macintosh to be picked up in the Now Playing list of the TiVo.

I am somewhat already familiar with Handbrake. I am hoping to avoid compression if possible and as well retain the 5.1 audio.

Admittedly, I am unsure how to get the TiVo HD to see the computer. I have tried hastily to set the "My Tivo" up with using the command key so that videos can be published. On the TiVo, I entered in the IP address of the computer on the same network (I am able to upload from TiVo via Toast) and TiVo doesn't recognize the IP address. As well, it seems that the MY TiVo setting for video wont stay on. Am I missing anything?

Ultimately, I would like to have my VOB files on the external drive of the TiVo HD (I have yet to purchase it but very soon when I figure this all out) and also M2TS based 1080p movies. The latter, I can see down converting as needed. Any tips to offer on the 1080p m2ts files?

Thanks for the help here.

- Phrehdd

[bedelman]

Hi

I'm a bit uncertain of what is "My TiVo" -- could you be instead be referring to pyTiVo? Both pyTiVo and Mac2TiVo (comes with Toast 10) put the computer at the bottom of the Now Playing List.

There is no way of which I am aware to keep certain recordings on the external drive. When an external drive is attached to a Series 3 or TiVoHD, the drives (both internal and external) appear as a single larger storage volume.

- Bob