Desperately Seeking Help w/ iPod Conversion

shelleye · 05-03-2008, 06:50 AM

Hello to All, and a special thanks to the Tivo Gurus who keep this forum running. I have made much progress thanks to these posts. Here's my problem, which I have been trying to fix for a week now. I give up.

Want to get .tivo programs into .mp4/m4v for my iPod. Occasional use only. Recently started using pyTivo-- and, BTW, it ROCKS!!!-- and would like to take Tivo Desktop off my computer entirely. Therein lies the problem:

The only encoder that I have been able to use successfully without audio sync problems is Tivo Desktop. I have tried Handbrake, Videora, multiple codecs, and all of the suggested workarounds with no luck. And I have a day job, so it seemed like I should just stick with the desktop converter (I did pay my 29.00 after all). So I disabled all running Tivo services since the only thing I need is the converter. Uhoh. Desktop won't start without the running services.

Is there a way to work around this? (Short of manually disabling all the services every time I reboot, and rebooting with the services when I want to encode for iPod...)?

Thanks!!

BOARshevik · 05-03-2008, 08:31 AM

The only service TiVo Desktop will need is Tivo Beacon. Enable that one. In terms of startup programs, you will need Tivo Notify, TiVo Transfer and Tivo Server (the latter is optional).

shelleye · 05-03-2008, 09:24 AM

Thank you. I am afraid I didn't make myself clear-- I know that Desktop needs these services/processes running in order to open, but I don't WANT them running and I don't need them running since I use pyTivo. So what I'm looking for is a workaround-- how to disable those three services/processses and still open tivo Desktop, or how to run the tivo converter.exe without using desktop. At the moment I have all three of those services disabled in msconfig, and when I want to recode, I enable them and reboot. I'm looking to get rid of all those steps, if possible.

shelleye · 05-03-2008, 09:42 AM

P.S. I discovered in my searches that there used to be a program called TivoConverterWrapper that ran the tivo converter without desktop, but this was only for Desktop 2.3 and it appears not to have been updated since.

hddude55 · 05-03-2008, 03:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shelleye

Hello to All, and a special thanks to the Tivo Gurus who keep this forum running. I have made much progress thanks to these posts. Here's my problem, which I have been trying to fix for a week now. I give up.

Want to get .tivo programs into .mp4/m4v for my iPod. Occasional use only. Recently started using pyTivo-- and, BTW, it ROCKS!!!-- and would like to take Tivo Desktop off my computer entirely. ...

Is there a way to work around this? (Short of manually disabling all the services every time I reboot, and rebooting with the services when I want to encode for iPod...)?

Thanks!!

I'm confused now. I'm no iPod or TiVo expert, but love the fact TiVo Desktop can be set to automatically create "small format" TV shows for my iPod after the shows are moved from my TV to my PC in "large format" and -- if I choose -- automatically remove the resulting large format TV shows from my PC to save space. I guess I couldn't have done that if I hadn't forked over the $25 bucks or so for the upgraded Desktop but this is such a slick, inexpensive process why in the world do you want to make it complicated?

shelleye · 05-03-2008, 07:34 PM

If I hadn't spent the last week thrashing this issue, I would agree with you completely. But: Tivo Desktop as a media server is really too buggy, for me anyway-- doesn't always see my PC files, doesn't transfer big files successfully, doesn't transfer 16:9 movies, doesn't see any movies at all if it sees a format it doesn't like, the list seems to go on and on.

Then I found and configured pyTivo which does everything seamlessly, with very little overhead, and much much faster. I would ditch Tivo Desktop totally if I could, but it turns out it does do one thing perfectly: transcode my .tivo file to .mp4. It also seems to, as a matter of course, require three services/processes running ALL the time, even if I'm not using Tivo Desktop as my server.

My requirements are not actually that complicated, but the solution has turned out to be-- I need a reliable server (not Desktop), and a reliable converter (can't find one except desktop).

So my question stands: is there any way to get Tivo Desktop to open withOUT those three services/processes running, and/or to use Tivo Converter without Tivo Desktop?

CuriousMark · 05-03-2008, 08:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shelleye

P.S. I discovered in my searches that there used to be a program called TivoConverterWrapper that ran the tivo converter without desktop, but this was only for Desktop 2.3 and it appears not to have been updated since.

You could still give it a try.

shelleye · 05-04-2008, 05:28 AM

I should have said that I tried it and it doesn't work-- needs new install paths and registry settings I think. But inspired by your post I have emailed the software author directly, and perhaps will have some luck.

Alfredvo · 05-06-2008, 02:39 PM

I've been using DVD Catalyst to convert the .tivo's directly to .mp4 for my iPod Touch. I use Desktop just to schedule the auto-transfer. DVD Catalyst is a nifty little program, converts fast, quality looks terrific, supports dozens of different players and formats.

dlfl · 05-07-2008, 10:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alfredvo

I've been using DVD Catalyst to convert the .tivo's directly to .mp4 for my iPod Touch. I use Desktop just to schedule the auto-transfer. DVD Catalyst is a nifty little program, converts fast, quality looks terrific, supports dozens of different players and formats.

Welcome to the forum!

So DVD Catalyst inputs tivo's directly? I just viewed their website and couldn't find any mention of that. Usually any program that does that makes a point of saying so.

Edit: I found the tivo stuff in their online user guide. It says it will watch a folder and automatically convert every tivo that shows up too. Looks like quite a program for the price.