TiVo Desktop Plus is useless

KMTTG (and pyTiVo to send them back)

 

Beaten to the punch but I was going to post relevant links.

pyTivo Wiki.

TCF pyTivo thread.

kmttg Wiki.

TCF kmttg thread.

 

You win!

 

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Not to say that you all aren't correct—you certainly are correct *and* TiVo Desktop (Plus) is useless—but the problem with KMTTG and pyTiVo for the average computer user is that they're much too complicated to install. Hard, no not really, but when you need to pre-install several things, and have multiple pages of instructions to get things going....Let's just say, most people aren't going to make it past your first link. ;-)

Even as a computer scientist/application programmer for over three decades now, I still haven't "gotten around to" installing them.

 

I haven't had any issues with TiVo Desktop (free version) and have it installed on 4 of the PCs here at home (1 Vista, 2 W7 and 1 W8.1) but I do use pyTivo on the HP WHS server which is where we keep most of the video content.'

What are you issues with transferring shows from your TiVo to your PC with TiVo Desktop and have you posted in the Home Media forum yet asking for help?

Scott

 

Unless you for some reason don't have Java installed, you shouldn't need to "pre-install" anything for kmttg.

Yes, for pyTiVo you have to install python and ffmpeg but it ain't that hard if you follow the Windows install instructions, which were totally rewritten a while back. And if you do run into a problem, there are plenty of people around here who can help you.

And finally, they are the best available alternative to TD.

 

.TiVo files are just .MPG with the Tivo encryption layer which can be removed with TivoDecode, its included with KMTTG under the decrypt function.

 

I think you misunderstood me, to some extent. No, it's not hard, but faced with multiple links, and what looks like pages of instructions, the average user is simply going to give up immediately. "Yes, for pyTiVo you have to install python and ffmpeg." I guarantee you, the average user quit reading then, and probably quit reading after, "Unless you for some reason don't have Java installed." (And there are plenty of good reasons not to have Java installed, but the average user isn't even going to know whether they do or not.)

I wasn't bemoaning pyTivo or kmttg, nor trying to discourage anyone from using them. Having once been a developer on a small team that also needed to push out and support the software we provided, I was more ironically commenting on the fact that it's nearly impossible to get your users to read anything, and definitely not anything more than a sentence or two. (I've actually sent out emails with a short paragraph or two of instructions to users, and had some email back asking a question that was answered in the second *sentence*.)

I am glad to see that the OP is trying it out.

 

The codecs that Desktop Plus enables are from MainConcept, and they're some of the best in existence. The problem is that Desktop limits the conversion profiles to bitrates and resolutions that were barely acceptable a decade ago. 640x480 doesn't cut it today.

I still use Desktop for some things. It's good at transferring files to or from your TiVo and very easy to install, but I use kmttg or VideoReDo for any conversions. The only issue with converting .TiVo files to other formats using kmttg is that tivodecode still doesn't handle TS files properly. I think the latest version lets you use the decoder built into even the free version of Desktop just like VideoReDo to solve that problem.

 

If all you want is better conversion, then you could continue to use TD for the transfer and decryption and use other s/w for the conversion.

 

I just use Tivo Desktop to transfer stuff, not to handle transcoding to another format (if I want to do that). Regarding it locking up-I bet it actually isn't.

It would be easy to demonstrate but hard to describe-sometimes (often?) when TiVo Desktop is running, you can't close it easily. You have to sort of click somewhere else on it, maybe the title bar? And then try clicking close again.

I just launch it, select shows to transfer, then close it again while they transfer. I don't think I've ever had it lock up, but it does often take clicking somewhere else to be able to "x" out of it, but it's not actually locked up.

At any rate, I transfer probably a dozen shows a week every week and have for years (to watch on my notebook) and I don't have issues with it.