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Video Format For Playing on Tivo?

Discussion in 'TiVo Home Media Features & TiVoToGo' started by Big-Pat, Jul 28, 2006.

  1. Jul 28, 2006 #1 of 11
    Big-Pat

    Big-Pat New Member

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    What format does the video need to be to play back on the tivo, when I transfer it to my Tivo with Tivo to Go? Also where on {tivo website}/togo does it say, because I can't find it. If any of you are fimaliar with the MEncoder command line interface, could you tell me what command I need to use I'm still learning it.
     
  2. Jul 28, 2006 #2 of 11
    Dan203

    Dan203 Super Moderator Staff Member TCF Club

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    It must be an MPEG-2 Program stream with MP2 audio. Also the vertical resolution of the video must be 480 (i.e. 320x480, 480x480, 720x480 all work) and the aspect ratio should be 4:3. (TiVos support 16:9 video, but some of the newer ones can have issues with it)

    Dan
     
  3. Jul 28, 2006 #3 of 11
    Big-Pat

    Big-Pat New Member

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    Thank You very much!
     
  4. Jul 28, 2006 #4 of 11
    rkester

    rkester a rkester says what?

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    I believe there is a full list of supported resolutions on the tivo site somewhere if you are one of those folks who wants more details...

    Ok, found it...
    http://customersupport.tivo.com/knowbase/root/public/tv251080.htm

    As far as 16:9 goes, seems like I remember reading somewhere that the DVD units handled anamophic content OK because of the DVD stuff but the others didnt?
     
  5. Jul 28, 2006 #5 of 11
    Dan203

    Dan203 Super Moderator Staff Member TCF Club

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    Actually that's not true. My Toshiba DVD unit does not like 16:9 downloads even though it plays 16:9 DVDs just fine. Actually for some reason the entire 540 series, including the nightlight TiVos and Toshiba and Humax DVD units, seem to have this problem. The older 140 and 240 units do not, and I have yet to hear how the new DT units handle 16:9

    Dan
     
  6. Jul 28, 2006 #6 of 11
    rjmitche

    rjmitche Member

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    My experience has been that the new DT units (649) handle 16:9 fine.
     
  7. Jul 28, 2006 #7 of 11
    Dan203

    Dan203 Super Moderator Staff Member TCF Club

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    Is that on a 4:3 TV? With the TiVo set to using a 4:3 TV? And it puts a letterbox around the picture just like a DVD would have?

    The reason I ask is because the 540 units wont play 16:9 when set to 4:3 mode, but if you lie and tell it you have a 16:9 TV then it will play them in a full screen stretched mode. (i.e. everything looks tall) On the 140 and 240 units 16:9 content is properly letterboxed when the TiVo is set to use a 4:3 TV.

    Also it's been a while since I've tested this. It's possible it might have been fixed in one of the recent software updates.

    Dan
     
  8. Jul 28, 2006 #8 of 11
    rjmitche

    rjmitche Member

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    Oh, sorry, it's on 16:9 TV in "full" mode (if I recall correctly, it doesn't really matter whether I set the TiVo's video output to 4:3 or 16:9). I do have a 540 unit hooked up to a 4:3 TV and know exactly what you are talking about... I need to specifically convert 16:9 content to letterboxed 4:3 to play things there.
     
  9. Jul 29, 2006 #9 of 11
    stevereis

    stevereis New Member

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    My 240 unit plays 16:9 content converted from DVD just fine. It will letterbox and even display 2.35:1 content properly. On the other hand, my 595 Humax unit will not even display the video from a 16:9 MPEG2 file properly. I can get the video to display by editing the header to set aspect ratio to 4:3 (used VideoRedo for this), but the resulting output is tall/skinny.

    I recently swapped my Humax unit to my 4:3 tube HDTV monitor and can now change the TV aspect ratio to 'wide' and get the aspect ratio about right but this 4:3 file displays incorrectly on the 240 unit so that had dashed my plans to make a library of some of my DVDs as it means I need to keep 2 copies on my PC 'server' if I want to have a choice as to where to watch them.

    BTW, I checked this just last week after my units got the 7.3.1 update and the behavior is still the same.

    Here are example of the behavior I get with a 2:35:1 video
    - 16:9 aspect ratio as displayed by my 240
    - 16:9 aspect ratio as displayed by my 595 (unwatchable)
    - Same MPEG2 file on my 595 but with aspect ratio changed to 4:3 in header
     

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  10. Jul 29, 2006 #10 of 11
    gonzotek

    gonzotek tivo_xml developer

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  11. Jul 29, 2006 #11 of 11
    stevereis

    stevereis New Member

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    Yes, I had been following Dave Zatz' how to guide and that pointed to this TCF thread but the Humax behavior was not cataloged. From my experience, the Humax always "displays the strange double image" with 16:9 content regardless of TiVo or TV aspect setting and the ONLY way around this is to patch the header to 4:3. Then, if you have a widescreen TV mode, you can stretch to get the right image aspect ratio. Otherwise you have to go through the involved process described a to "convert rescaled with letterbox bars inserted, 4x3 aspect ratio" 2 posts down from the one you referenced.
     

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