Transfering 22 GB

[Lanier]

Hi, I'm new here.
Using Tivo desktop Plus, I recorded a 3 hour basketball game (ESPN started late, so 2 hr became 3 hours), but it's 21 GB big. It's taking about 5 hours to transfer, but I'm satisfied with about 2 GB of compressed avi, mp4, or mkv files.

Do I have to transfer 21 GB and then convert to avi, etc or is there a better way to do this?

And reading pyTivo is confusing and complicated. Is pyTivo worth it?

Thanks for any feedback.

[wmcbrine]

Do I have to transfer 21 GB and then convert to avi, etcThe TiVo doesn't do the conversion, so yes, you have to transfer it all first. You could perhaps convert while you transfer; I'm not sure if any of the existing tools do that.

And reading pyTivo is confusing and complicated. Is pyTivo worth it?Worth what?

pyTivo is extremely simple to use -- much easier than TiVo Desktop, IMHO.

[reneg]

And reading pyTivo is confusing and complicated. Is pyTivo worth it?

If you're reading the 2500+ post about pyTivo in this forum, I'd agree that it could seem confusing and complicated. If you haven't looked already, you might find pyTivo less confusing and complicated on the pyTivo forums, http://pytivo.sourceforge.net/forum/

It all depends on what you want to do. My vote is yes, it's worth it to archive shows on a PC and have them accessible to my Tivo from the Tivo interface. You'll have to decide for yourself if it's worth it or not.

[orangeboy]

If you're reading the 2500+ post about pyTivo in this forum, I'd agree that it could seem confusing and complicated. If you haven't looked already, you might find pyTivo less confusing and complicated on the pyTivo forums, http://pytivo.sourceforge.net/forum/

It all depends on what you want to do. My vote is yes, it's worth it to archive shows on a PC and have them accessible to my Tivo from the Tivo interface. You'll have to decide for yourself if it's worth it or not.

I'm not into the archiving aspect of it so much as I am having the ability to push files back to the Tivo DVR! I built a little batch script that task scheduler runs once an hour to push any (downloaded) video files that have associated metadata files. I use kmttg to pull and commercial cut programs from the DVR, and use the newly integrated pyTivo option to push those back.

I like it because it all happens with no intervention on my part!

[bkdtv]

Hi, I'm new here.
Using Tivo desktop Plus, I recorded a 3 hour basketball game (ESPN started late, so 2 hr became 3 hours), but it's 21 GB big. It's taking about 5 hours to transfer, but I'm satisfied with about 2 GB of compressed avi, mp4, or mkv files.If you want to recompress videos after they are downloaded into MP4 or MKV format, you should check out kmttg (http://code.google.com/p/kmttg/).

With kmttg, you can download, remove commercials, and re-encode into 720p with one click.

The TiVo doesn't do the conversion, so yes, you have to transfer it all first. You could perhaps convert while you transfer; I'm not sure if any of the existing tools do that.

Worth what?

pyTivo is extremely simple to use -- much easier than TiVo Desktop, IMHO.Have you tried the latest version of TiVo Desktop? TiVo took a few lessons from pyTiVo with the latest version of TiVo Desktop.

With TiVo Desktop Plus 2.8...

All PC subfolders are displayed on the TiVo.
Maps user-defined directories, with contents and subfolders listed on the TiVo.
All recordings are downloaded with the appropriate metadata so that they are grouped when viewed in the PC folder and when transferred back to the TiVo. For example, if you downloaded four different House episodes to your PC, those automatically grouped and displayed with episode name and ordered by recorded date.
TiVo, MPG, VOB, and MP4 (with both AAC and DD5.1) are transferred as is.
No longer limited to specific video formats; if Windows can decode it, TiVo Desktop Plus can send it to your PC.
No longer makes itself the default decoder for different video files; built-in filters are only used for .TiVo files.
Autotransfer (push) folders will now send all videos in a folder. Does not re-transfer older videos after they are deleted from TiVo.
User selectable discovery protocol: Bonjour or TiVo Beacon.
Lower memory footprint.

Aside from more advanced configuration options, and the fact that it's free, I see little reason for those with Windows to use pyTiVo now.

[moyekj]

With TiVo Desktop Plus 2.8...

All PC subfolders are displayed on the TiVo.
Maps user-defined directories, with contents and subfolders listed on the TiVo.
Al recordings are downloaded with the appropriate metadata so that they are grouped when viewed in the PC folder and when transferred back to the TiVo. For example, if you downloaded four different House episodes to your PC, those automatically grouped and displayed with episode name and ordered by recorded date.
TiVo, MPG, VOB, and MP4 (with both AAC and DD5.1) are transferred as is.
No longer limited to specific video formats; if Windows can decode it, TiVo Desktop Plus can send it to your PC.
No longer makes itself the default decoder for different video files; built-in filters are only used for .TiVo files.
Autotransfer (push) folders will now send all videos in a folder. Does not re-transfer older videos after they are deleted from TiVo.
User selectable discovery protocol: Bonjour or TiVo Beacon.
Lower memory footprint.

Aside from more advanced configuration options, and the fact that it's free, I see little reason for those with Windows to use pyTiVo now.
bkdtv, a couple of questions for you:
1. Have you been able to get auto transfers back to TiVos working with 2.8? So far I have not been able to get that to work - and I triple checked that TiVo Desktop is properly linked to my TiVo account with login & password.

2. Since I can't get auto transfers working I haven't been able to verify that mp4 with H.264 & AC3 audio pushes actually works now. However I did try a pull of such a video and it ended up with no audio on the TiVo, so at least for pulls it can't handle transcoding it properly to mpeg2.

[Phantom Gremlin]

Aside from more advanced configuration options, and the fact that it's free, I see little reason for those with Windows to use pyTiVo now.

I haven't tried TiVo Desktop Plus 2.8, so my response is "general", not "specific".

TiVo software for the PC, plus similar software for the Mac that TiVo has outsourced to Roxio, has been, in general, a steaming pile of bug infested excrement (at least if you go by what you read this forum).

In addition, support from TiVo has been almost non-existent. Similarly, support from Roxio has been, more or less, to tell people to buy a newer version (which unsurprisingly also was a steaming pile of bug filled excrement).

Conversely, a lot of the "free" software discussed in this forum has been 1) open source (easier to fix bugs) and 2) supported in a very responsive fashion by the developers. That is two very good reasons to stick with what has been working for many people for the last few years.

[moyekj]

bkdtv, a couple of questions for you:
1. Have you been able to get auto transfers back to TiVos working with 2.8? So far I have not been able to get that to work - and I triple checked that TiVo Desktop is properly linked to my TiVo account with login & password.

2. Since I can't get auto transfers working I haven't been able to verify that mp4 with H.264 & AC3 audio pushes actually works now. However I did try a pull of such a video and it ended up with no audio on the TiVo, so at least for pulls it can't handle transcoding it properly to mpeg2. Also related, since I haven't been able to get auto transfers back to TiVo working in 2.8: I somehow doubt that TD+ will automatically move the moov atom to the front of the file for mp4 files if needed, and hence those files won't play back/push to TiVos - one would need to run them through qt-faststart to "fix" them before using them with TD. pyTivo and streambaby have that functionality built in to take care of the moov atom if needed. Could be wrong and perhaps TD+ does take care of it, but since I can't get pushes to work through TD I can't test it out.

[bkdtv]

bkdtv, a couple of questions for you:
1. Have you been able to get auto transfers back to TiVos working with 2.8? Yes, I have. I'm running Windows 7 with DIVX's MKV for Windows 7 add-on (http://labs.divx.com/mkvwin7preview).

2. Since I can't get auto transfers working I haven't been able to verify that mp4 with H.264 & AC3 audio pushes actually works now.I've only done testing with push transfers so far. I did have one MP4 with 448Kbps AC3 that transferred with no audio, but three other MP4s with 448Kbps AC3 transferred fine.