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Problems with Divx to TiVo transfers, anyone successful?

Discussion in 'TiVo Home Media Features & TiVoToGo' started by aus1ander, Aug 9, 2007.

  1. Aug 9, 2007 #1 of 16
    aus1ander

    aus1ander New Member

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    Okay, so instead of embedding my problem in the other thread, I figure I would start a thread for people trying to do Divx to Tivo for the first time.

    Here is my problem. I have tried two different Divx encoded videos and each are running into the same problem. I am able to see the file on my S2, initiate the transfer, and I can even watch the show while it transfers. However, everytime I try to do a complete transfer, my laptops display freezes and "garbles", and the transfer/transcoding stops. I can still play the file on the Tivo up to when the transcoding/transfer halts.

    This happens every time I try to do a transfer, and ranges from 5-45 minutes into the transfer. I checked all my drivers and they're all up-to-date. The only thing I noticed is that when it transcodes, my CPU goes to 100% usage for the entire time, and gets hot. However, I've run statistical programs that does the same thing for HOURS and I never get a crash like this.

    Attached is what my screen looks like when it crashes.
     

    Attached Files:

  2. Aug 9, 2007 #2 of 16
    aus1ander

    aus1ander New Member

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    BTW, I'm using a TiVo Desktop Plus and no other third party software. My computer, while its a laptop, has plenty of HD space and 1 gig of RAM. So this shouldn't be a hardware problem, especially since this is the first time its ever really crashed consistently.
     
  3. Aug 9, 2007 #3 of 16
    aus1ander

    aus1ander New Member

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    Tried again after updating Directx. After about 25 minutes transferred, I got a BSOD with "IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL". Whatever that means.
     
  4. Aug 9, 2007 #4 of 16
    CheezWiz

    CheezWiz ReplayTV->S3 Tivo

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    PyTivo is a better choice for this. I was unaware that TD even supported DivX.
    I have only gotten the IRQ error from Video Card power/heat/driver issues.

    EDIT: Wow... when did 2.5 come out? I would play with video drivers, not sure why transcoding would matter...
     
  5. Aug 9, 2007 #5 of 16
    rgura

    rgura RobGTX

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    My problem is even stranger...I copied divx files into the proper folder and I don't see anything listed at all...

    C:\Documents and Settings\XXXXXXXXXX\My Documents\My TiVo Recordings
     
  6. Aug 10, 2007 #6 of 16
    Dan203

    Dan203 Super Moderator Staff Member TCF Club

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    You must have TiVo Desktop Plus ($25) for the DivX transfer feature to work.

    OP - It is very possible that the Main Concept codecs being used for transcoding take advantage of GPU acceleration. You should definitely try upgrading your video drivers just to be sure. And for the record I've tried it on a half dozen DivX/Xvid movies and it works just fine for me.

    Dan
     
  7. Aug 10, 2007 #7 of 16
    Dajad

    Dajad Active Member

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    I've had mixed results. Most divx/xvids transfer fine, but some do not. I have no idea why. It's possible they were encoded with earlier versions of divx/xvid that TiVo doesn't support. Who knows. I'm happy with whatever TiVo gives me. It is only the really old stuff that I'm having problems with. All the newer stuff works fine.

    ...Dale
     
  8. Aug 10, 2007 #8 of 16
    Dan203

    Dan203 Super Moderator Staff Member TCF Club

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    Could also be the AVI container. There are actually two versions of the AVI container, the original developed by Microsoft and the newer Open-DML format. Some programs handle one or the other better even though they are suppose to functionally compatible.

    Dan
     
  9. Aug 10, 2007 #9 of 16
    CuriousMark

    CuriousMark Forum Denizen

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    I was successful. I tried it last night and the show transferred without a hitch. I viewed and skipped through it on the TiVo and noted that the picture was a little soft. It was almost VHS-like to my eyes, but other than that it worked great. I have read a post by Dan203 in the wrapper thread that the soft picture is probably due to the relatively low resolution and bit rate the converter in TiVo Desktop is set to use. So it looks like there is room to lobby TiVo to improve that in future releases of TiVo Desktop.
     
  10. Aug 10, 2007 #10 of 16
    Dan203

    Dan203 Super Moderator Staff Member TCF Club

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    If you've got MS Visual Studio, or any other program capable of editing the resources of a DLL file, then you can simply open the tivotrans.dll file and edit the XML data yourself. Upping the video resolution to 640x480* and the bitrate to 5000 made a big difference for me.

    Dan

    * I tried 720x480 as well, but it created a weird pixelation effect. 640x480 resulted in the best quality without the pixelation.
     
  11. Aug 10, 2007 #11 of 16
    CuriousMark

    CuriousMark Forum Denizen

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    Is that a violation of the EULA?

    It seems to me the whole reason they internalized it was to prevent people from doing this. If it turns out it is still easy, it won't help with their efforts to appease content providers. Heck, I figured the whole reason 2.3 was yanked when 2.4 came out was because it was so easy to up the resolution in 2.3. Of course that is wild speculation on my part.

    CuriousMark
     
  12. Aug 10, 2007 #12 of 16
    Dan203

    Dan203 Super Moderator Staff Member TCF Club

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    It's not that "easy". In Visual Studio editing the XML is almost like using a hex editor. So it's not something the masses will attempt. However if you're technically inclined then it's not that hard to figure out.

    Dan
     
  13. Aug 11, 2007 #13 of 16
    megazone

    megazone Hardcore TiVo Geek

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  14. Aug 12, 2007 #14 of 16
    Dajad

    Dajad Active Member

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    Anyone care to write a FAQ. We need:

    - Exact .dll name and location
    - exactly where within the DLL the change is to be made
    - the changes people have tried with success

    I'd like to give it a go if others can give me a bit of a road map.

    ...Dale
     
  15. Aug 12, 2007 #15 of 16
    derspiess

    derspiess New Member

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    Wish I had read this before trying 25 different divx/xvid files & failing each time.

    All the threads I read, up until this one, didn't really mention anything about Plus being required on 2.5 to get these files to transfer from PC to Tivo-- is it assumed that most people have Plus around here :confused:

    Anywho, it doesn't look like 2.5 has any added benefits for me-- glad I didn't uninstall tivo-dot-net :)
     
  16. Aug 14, 2007 #16 of 16
    Dajad

    Dajad Active Member

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    Yupp, most people that have made it into this sub-forum are aware of the whole TiVo Plus requirement.

    I wasn't when I first stumbled in last February but after much floundering about I figured it out too.

    The way TiVo markets and talks about the whole plus package is different than other software products and quite confusing on their website.

    It seems like the functionality to move content from the PC to the TiVo is more of an afterthought. They have the "TiVotoGo" name but the corresponding name for bringing content back is not called "TiVo2ComeBack" as many here call it.

    They once referred to it as Web videos or something like that. Now they just describe it as the abiltity to watch video downloaded from the web - which is odd because its much more than that.

    It took about 5 mouse clicks on their site to get to this page:

    http://www.tivo.com/mytivo/domore/tivotogo/windows.html

    where it is mentioned on the top right under the "TiVo Destkop 2.5 Plus upgrade for Windows". But even that page is ultra confusing as to what is included in the TiVo Desktop software and what isn't.

    For one thing, you don't need TiVo Desktop 2.5 plus to make this work. You need TiVo Desktop 2.5, that's true but ANY OF THE EARLIER "plus" purchases work with Desktop 2.5. There isn't a separate 2.5 plus product for purchase. All the "plus" is, is an access code you type into whatever version of TiVo Desktop you are using. For the longest time I thought it was another software module. It ain't.


    This whole part of their website needs to be rewritten in my opinion.

    ...Dale
     

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