[meglet]

I have had this problem with TiVo Desktop 2.4 and 2.5. The software installs correctly, but when I choose to "Upgrade to TiVo Desktop Plus" from the menu, it just tells me it's checking my system then says the upgrade is complete and I can now set up recordings for portables. Version 2.3 used to give me a box to enter the key in, but I re-installed Windows XP recently, and didn't have the 2.3 download saved so 2.4 was the first version installed.

I have the key, and I'd like to enter it because I want to be able to watch videos that live on my PC from my TiVo, but I can't. Does anyone have any suggestions, or know where the key lives in the registry so I can enter it the back way?

 

[Dan203]

If it says the upgrade is complete then it's finding the key you previously installed in an older version and doing the upgrade automatically. the easiest way to check if the upgrade actually worked is to open TiVo Desktop and right click on a TiVo file in the list. If you have the "convert for..." option then it's setup and working. You just need to put the files you want to transfer from your PC to your TiVo into your My TiVo Recordings folder and, provided they're in a supported format, they should show up on the list of files available for transfer when you access your PC from your TiVo.

Dan

 

[meglet]

That's just it, there IS no older version for it to find the upgrade key. I have the files I want to transfer in the "My TiVo Recordings" folder, but the TiVo will only see published music and photos, not videos. And I know the files are in the correct format because they transfer to the TiVo from my server, but that connection is being flaky, hence the need for TiVo Desktop.

I will try right-clicking a file and seeing if it can convert for a portable device just to double check, though.

 

[meglet]

Well, that's odd. There is no older version, and therefore no key to find, but now the video sharing works fine. It did not in version 2.4, but they must have fixed something in 2.5.

 

[mchips]

That's just it, there IS no older version for it to find the upgrade key.

When you installed 2.4, it took the key from 2.3... when you installed 2.5, it took the key from 2.4... that's what Dan's is referring to... 2.3 was the "older" version for 2.4, and 2.4 was the "older" version for 2.5...

Even though the install uninstalls the previous/older version during the install, it still keeps track of the MAK and Plus keys from the previous/older version.

 

[meglet]

Right, but I never installed 2.3 on this computer. Clean install on a new hard drive, 2.4 was the first version installed and it never let me enter the key. So unless the software is connecting to the internet and the key is stored on TiVo's servers somewhere, or the MAK is tied to the Plus upgrade I bought, I don't know where it's pulling from. Whatever it's doing, it's working now. It just seems a little strange, or at least poorly explained by TiVo.

 

[mchips]

<edit, original post removed>

I see you're saying you installed Windows XP on a brand new drive, so I guess it wasn't just a reinstall like it sounded in your first post.

It doesn't make sense then that it got your MAK and Plus keys, if this was a brand new drive, with nothing on it, and you didn't copy anything over from the old drive, including any registry settings, making this a brand new install of Windows XP on a new drive rather than a reinstall...

Was the old drive still in the PC at all, or was it removed?

There has to be a logical explanation somewhere, we just have to figure out what it is... it couldn't have pulled these keys out of thin air, and it couldn't have gotten them through the Internet...

 

[meglet]

Well, now this just annoys me, because either I'm missing something, or TiVo Desktop is doing something it shouldn't. So, here's the sequence of events for those who are curious:

4/22/2007-replaced IDE hard drive with SATA hard drive, clean install of WinXP
4/28-tossed the old IDE hard drive in an external casing and copied files (but not reg keys or program data, just mail and music, downloaded files, etc) to a "Transfer" folder on the new hard drive
5/4-downloaded and installed TiVo Desktop 2.4, uninstalled it later as I wasn't copying TiVo files to this computer

Doh. When I installed version 2.4 back in May, I would have entered the MAK and Plus key. Then uninstalled it, re-installed it recently, and totally missed that it would "upgrade" the key from the same version (which I think I forgot about installing back in May) to the same version. Then video transfers just weren't working until version 2.5.

Mystery solved.

 

[mchips]

Doh. When I installed version 2.4 back in May, I would have entered the MAK and Plus key. Then uninstalled it, re-installed it recently, and totally missed that it would "upgrade" the key from the same version (which I think I forgot about installing back in May) to the same version. Then video transfers just weren't working until version 2.5.

Mystery solved.

Yay!

I knew if we talked about it long enough a light bulb would go off somewhere... there had to be a logical explanation somewhere...