Mac handbrake to pytivo to tivo problem

[efilippi]

Most of the threads on pytivo et al here are way over my head but perhaps I can ask a simple question.

I've used handbrake on a mac to rip some commercial movie DVD's to my laptop. I just use the default settings and it works fine, creating an mp4/m4v file on the computer.

I've also then used pytivox to get some of these ripped dvd's onto my tivo hd, mostly just to see if I can do it. It works easily.

Then today I tried doing the same sequence to get home movies that I have on dvd (iso's made with imovie/idvd years ago) so that they would be available for watching on our tivo. The rip with handbrakes seemed to work fine but then going to tivo now playing to move the m4v's to the tivo fails because it says the copyright owner prohibits the transfer.

Forgetting for a moment the fact that I really don't know what I'm doing, it is interesting that I seem to be able to move copyrighted material with no hassle (the purchased dvd's) but am unable to move my home made, certainly uncopyrighted movies. Is there some simple 'doh' step I am missing?

[Rdian06]

Then today I tried doing the same sequence to get home movies that I have on dvd (iso's made with imovie/idvd years ago) so that they would be available for watching on our tivo. The rip with handbrakes seemed to work fine but then going to tivo now playing to move the m4v's to the tivo fails because it says the copyright owner prohibits the transfer.


pyTivo applies the copyright metadata flag to any file that it finds ffmpeg cannot handle properly. And if ffmpeg cannot handle it, then pyTivo can't send it to your Tivo. pyTivo uses that flag simply because there isn't a better way for it to tell the Tivo "I don't know how to process this video".

If you can dig up your pyTivoX log file and post it, we might be able to tell you why ffmpeg is having problems with it.

[efilippi]

I found that my main problem was that my laptop was busy running handbrake to encode a dvd at the time that I tried to transfer, via ptivox, a previously encoded file. I learned that if I waited until the laptop was idle, the error message disappeard and the transfers worked like a charm. I did this successfully with a dozen or so dvd's.

I still have two that remain with the ghostbusters red hashed circle and won't move, no matter the state of the laptop. But I see that one of them came from an ISO that doesn't want to mount anymore so maybe there is a larger problem here.

Any hints as to where I might find the pytivo log, or what its name might be? Apple Spotlight doesn't find it using names I would guess.