Before I spend money on Toast...

[Kiz]

Hi, I'm new to Tivo and I had some questions I'm hoping someone can answer for me. I'm a little overwhelmed with all the software and methods I am seeing out there for getting content to and from your Tivo.

I have a Tivo HD that I just bought Saturday and so far I am absolutely LOVING it. The Amazon Unbox service is the greatest thing since sliced bread, and not to mention all the other cool apps that it comes with!!!! Not a bad deal for less than $300!

Anyhow, I have a Windows Vista PC and a Macbook running OSX 10.5.1 I have Tivo desktop running on both machines, and it seems to work fine, however I am finding the Tivo desktop for the Mac to be a little lacking in features compared to the Windows version. I like to keep all of my media on my Macbook, that is what I take with me everyday. As I understand it, Toast will give me TivotoGo ability on my Macbook so I can watch transferred shows, but seeing the "TiVo Fall 2007 Update Apparently Breaks TivoToGo/Toast on the Mac" suggests there may be some problems :/

So with that being said, what is the best way to get video to and from my Tivo using a Mac? I would like to be able to transfer videos I've downloaded off of the internet (such as video podcasts for example), and transfer recorded shows from my Tivo to the Mac for viewing later.

Is Toast the best solution for this or are there any better alternatives?

[bhaas]

same question here.

Advantage of Popcorn vs Toast??

I've determined that there is no one-stop shop on the opensource side for
- download from S3/S3/THD
- unwrap from the .tivo extension
- convert for iPod/portable device
- burn DVD and/or disc image

TivoDownload Manager comes close to what I need, but no S3 support yet. The dashboard widget also comes close, but doesn't convert for ipod, and I have trouble getting S3 downloads via the widget to play on QT, even with the mpeg plugin.

[rufusryker]

Originally Posted by bhaas

same question here.

Advantage of Popcorn vs Toast??

I've determined that there is no one-stop shop on the opensource side for
- download from S3/S3/THD
- unwrap from the .tivo extension
- convert for iPod/portable device
- burn DVD and/or disc image

TivoDownload Manager comes close to what I need, but no S3 support yet. The dashboard widget also comes close, but doesn't convert for ipod, and I have trouble getting S3 downloads via the widget to play on QT, even with the mpeg plugin.

With the mpeg-2 plug-in, the downloads should play without sound. Quicktime does not play AC3 audio. The free program MPEGStreamclip will convert just the audio track to MP2, which will then play fine with quicktime. This program will also convert for iPod and even let you edit out commericials.

[bhaas]

yep. got that working. streamclip is a nice piece of work.

I ended up getting popcorn. It has done everything pretty quickly and easily-
- S2 and THD downloads (as .tivo)
- burn DVD image and real disc from the .tivo (SD and HD shows. 30min and 2hr movies)
- convert to ipod

All MUCH faster than realtime (iMac with the 2.0Ghz duocore, Leopard) and very good image quality, no audio sync problem or dropouts.

Since I can get the DVD image, I don't need explicit mpeg files- that's just an extension change.
Popcorn, IMO, is definitely worth the $50. It's all there, a single interface for you.
I have no idea what toast gets you beyond that- but I don't need it.

The only trick I had to figger out was to burn the DVD image from the .tivo file: you have to drag it to the "DVD-video" screen. Then "Save image to disc" under "file". And then re-open the .toast file it outputs using popcorn, and presto- the DVD image mounts. Of course, you just click "burn" to actually burn a coaster.

Bottom line: Popcorn seems to do it all for $30 less than Toast.

Sorry if this is old territory for many of you. I'm just getting used to the Mac way of life.