[miller890]

Since Tivo Desktop Plus allows the transfer back of various file types; for the sake of this question, assume that the objective is not to play the video on a portable, but to play it back on Tivo or the PC. When downloading video using the TiVo Desktop Plus, is there any benefit to converting to video windows media file or iPod/Apple formats over the native .tivo video format?

 

[CuriousMark]

assume that the objective is not to play the video on a portable, but to play it back on Tivo or the PC. When downloading video using the TiVo Desktop Plus, is there any benefit to converting to video windows media file or iPod/Apple formats over the native .tivo video format?

With this assumption it is best not to convert the file at all. Converted files are down rezzed to 320x240 for the portable device and won't look as good on the TiVo or PC as the original TiVo file.

CuriousMark

 

[windracer]

Additionally, when transferring the file back, it would need to be transcoded back into MPEG-2 format, presumably slowing down the transfer.

 

[miller890]

Both are good points, I decided to stick with the default .tivo formats for using 2.4a and the Auto-Transfer option. Now it's time to try out VideoReDo to see if it is worth the hassle of removing the ads for a series that you would watch using 30-second skip, then delete one by one as you watch them.