One limitation of the new TiVo Desktop software is that it only allows you to transcode newly downloaded recordings for portable devices… Or so we thought! If you’re not scared of the Windows command line and perusing a small XML file, you can transcode any .tivo show on your system — new OR old.
Step 1. Open up C:Program FilesTiVoDesktopSupportencodeprofiles.xml in Notepad and study the various tivotrans:Profile name entries (in quotes) to determine which method you need for your device. Confirm your selection in the My TiVo Recordings for Portables subfolder.
Step 2. Open a command window to C:Program FilesTiVoDesktop, type this, and hit enter: TiVoConverter.exe /profile=”xxxxxx” “C:yyyyyyzzzzzz.tivo” Substitute xxxxxx with what you researched above, yyyyyy with the TiVo Recordings directory path, and yyyyyy.tivo with the show you want to transcode.
Step 3. There is no Step 3.
Someone should be able to whip up an executable in about ten minutes to make this a bit more efficient (drop-down for profile, text box to paste .tivo file name). If we don’t see one in the next few days, I’ll borrow VisualBasic and crank it out.