TiVo
To Go Unleashed!
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6/21/06 TiVo Desktop 2.3 has been released for Windows with a few new tricks up it's sleeve. Click here to learn more.
FAQ
• What is TiVoToGo and what is this web page?
• How do I get shows off my TiVo?
• How long does it take to download a show?
• I downloaded shows to my PC, now what?
• How do I watch shows on my PC?
• How come my shows look crappy when I view them full-screen?
• How can I free the raw MPEG from this .tivo file?
• How do I make DVDs?
• How can I get shows onto my PDA or other portable device?
• How can I get shows onto my Sony PSP?
• How do I send shows to my TiVo?
• How do I get shows at work, school, or the Marriott?
• What if I have a Mac?
• This is a pain in the ass, what other options do I have?
- What
is TiVoToGo and what is this web page?
Chances are, if you made it to this site you know what TiVoToGo is. Just in case you need a refresher TTG is a service which allows you to extract television recordings from your networked stand-alone TiVodevice to your Windows PC for personal, noncommercial use. This web page isn't intended as a hard-core geek guide, just a place get the average TiVo subscriber pointed in the right direction by exposing some of options that have worked for me. None of the products or methods listed on this page involve breaking TiVo's encryption nor do they describe the illegal distribution of video. This guide is intended to facilitate the personal, noncommercial viewing and archiving of television files that TiVo has recorded at your request.
- How
do I get shows off my TiVo?
Your TiVo device needs to have downloaded 7.x to provide TiVoToGo functionality. Once you've met that requirement, you have a few options:
1. Use the provided TiVo Desktop software for Windows.
For most folks, the free TiVo Desktop software is sufficient to manage the download of shows from your TiVo. Galleon is an example of a custom app, using TiVo's published specifications which requires no modification of your TiVo device.
2. Directly connect to the web service your TiVo is running as described here.
3. Use a custom app to connect to the web server your TiVo is running.How long does it take to download a show?
Download times vary widely. Most people report shows transferring a little quicker or a little slower than real time, meaning if you have a one hour show it will take about an hour to transfer wirelessly. Many factors impact your throughput including file size based on recording quality and your network design. For example a show recorded in high quality will take longer to transfer than a show recorded in basic quality. Encryption on a wireless network will also impact transfer times. Wirelessly networked TiVo units will transfer slower than hard-wired units, unless using TiVo's new wireless adapter. Transfer times will not improve drastically anytime in the near future due to TiVo's technical design.- I downloaded shows to my PC, now what?
TiVoToGo files, having the .tivo extension, are essentially encrypted and fingerprinted mpeg files. MPEG is a common video format. Your unique Media Access Key (MAK) is appended to all shows as text, and perhaps embedded as a watermark in other ways. The TiVo Desktop software includes a .dll that is used to decrypt, or unlock, your show using your MAK. TiVo files can be viewed, converted, edited, transferred, and/or burned.- How do I watch shows on my PC?
In order to view the original .tivo files, you need at a bare minimum three pieces of software:1. TiVo Desktop
2. MPEG Codec
3. DirectShow-capable Media PlayerTiVo Desktop software installs software (a DirectShow DLL) which is needed to unlock your .tivo file.
A codec capable of handling the MPEG file format, associated with DVD media, needs to be installed on your system. A codec is basically an AV translator that understands how to present (decode) the audio and video. If your PC came with a DVD drive, chances are good you have the proper codecs already installed. TiVo has a list of codecs that they have successfully tested here, though many others will work including the very fine and free DScaler MPEG filter. I get fine results using the codec bundled with WinDVD.
A DirectShow media player, such as the suggested Windows Media Player (WMP) uses the codec to display your television show, with DVD-like software controls.
You can initiate playback directly through the TiVo Desktop software or by double-clicking the .tivo file located in My Documents\My TiVo Recordings. Additional software media players, such as the free ZoomPlayer and WinAmp, will also open and play your TiVo-recorded show in lieu of WMP.
- I downloaded shows to my PC, now what?
- How
come my shows look crappy when I view them full-screen?
The resolution on computer monitors is higher than that of TV. Additionally, Non-HD television shows are broadcast in low quality and therefore displayed in low quality. Combine that with TiVo's compression, which varies depending on your recording quality and the picture quality degrades further. Additionally, different codecs provide different results. Many software media players have filters which can appropriately deinterlace and scale, however by default these features are not available in Windows Media Player. For example, I use WinDVD which improves picture quality automatically and adds playback controls. - How
can I free the raw MPEG from this .tivo file?
By freeing the MPEG from the .tivo wrapper, you are able to do much more with your television recordings. Again, let me remind you that these recordings are for your personal, noncommercial use. Piracy is a crime and you are responsible for your actions. TiVo may or may not watermark video with your unique Media Access Key in ways we haven't discovered yet. Be aware that the unmodified DirectShow DLL included with TiVo Desktop 2.1+ prevents several programs from performing file conversions. I suggest reviewing your TiVo service agreement before continuing.Some folks want to free their MPEG files so they can edit and burn them using the software of their choice, rather than using the software of TiVo's partner Sonic. Another reason you may want to free your MPEG is to get your video onto a PDA or other portable device in a supported format with a smaller file size. Personally, I free the MPEGs so I can watch shows directly through WinDVD or transfer them to my Dell Axim PDA.
6/14/05 Update The author of EtiVo has released DirectShow Dump, a free utility to extract the content of .tivo files as unprotected MPEGs. Depending on the recording quality (file size) and your computer specs, conversion only takes a few minutes.
Another quick and inexpensive way to free your MPEG is by using GraphEdit. You'll need to download a few legitimate pieces of video software and follow a couple of steps, but if you can figure it out it's pretty quick. The original site has been taken down, but the process is fairly well explained and archived here.
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Other DirectShow-aware programs, both commercial and freeware, can also extract the MPEG files and/or convert .tivo files to a variety ofuseful formats such as AVI and DivX.
- How
do I make DVDs?
As with everything else I've mentioned, there are multiple ways to skin this cat. TiVo has established a business relationship with Sonic, so their software is the official method to create discs playable in DVD devices. Sonic and Roxio have merged - MyDVD appears to be superceded by Media Creator 8 SuiteYou are not limited to Sonic though... If you have set your MPEG free using one of the methods above, etc you have complete freedom to use any DVD editing/burning software suite you choose. Those resultant video files are supported by default by all major software vendors, such as Nero. These packages allow you to import your video, edit out commercials, put in cool menus, etc.
For many folks, that may be too much work to download, transcode, and then edit to burn. The good news is that .tivo files imported into any DirectShow "aware" software products, assuming you have the proper codecs installed, will be unlocked by the TiVo software for editing in a similar manner as the Sonic MyDVD solution. For example, Nero
(Vision Express) has demonstrated the ability to load, edit, and create DVDs from the original .tivo files under certain circumstances: the cache is cleared, TiVo Desktop remains open, etc. as described on the TiVo Community Forum.
8/10/05 Update Check out my demo here for step by step guidance using Nero and Sonic software.
- How
can I get shows onto my PDA or other portable device?
If you set your MPEG free, as described above, the resultant file can be played in many applications. However, the resolution and file size are not optimized for small devices and not all software supports mpeg files. Various programs transcode and resize the mpeg file through such as the free TMPGEnc or the commercial Pocket DVD.If you've upgraded to TiVo Desktop 2.1, Windows Media Player 10 enables the conversion of .tivo files to .wmv and then synchronization with Microsoft Portable Media Centers (PMC)
and other mobile devices that run WMP. To enable this feature first launch WMP10, then go into the "Library" and add your TiVo folder of recordings. Once WMP10 knows where to find those .tivo files, you can go to the Sync tab at anytime, choose "All Video Clips" from the left drop down menu and choose your destination from the right drop down menu, such as memory card, PDA, or PMC. Check the shows you want to convert and transfer, then click "Sync" at the top.
- How can I get shows onto my Sony PSP (PlayStation Portable)?
Basically, you need to unlock your .tivo file and convert it from MPEG2 to MPEG4. To do this, download two free programs: 3GP Converter and AviSynth 2.55. Install AviSynth and then launch 3GP. The first time you run it, configure 3GP for English and set output to PSP, Direct, Renamed. You'll also need to edit the 3GP .ini file so that it recognizes TiVo files by adding this line in the [Avisynth] section: Ext3=TIVO:\cores\AVS_Skelton.avs. Once you've done that, launch 3GP, choose an output directory, drag your .tivo file in, and conversion should begin. You can play around with output settings, though 368x208/29.97fps/QB7 Stereo/96kbps seems to have a decent balance of quality, file size, and time to convert. Your output file (i.e.: M4V00007.MP4) needs to be located in \MP_ROOT\100MNV01\ on your memory stick for the PSP to find it.4/13/05 Update The authors of PSP Video 9 have incorporated the above .tivo file recognition and AviSynth into their application. This means you can skip the above steps and manipulate TiVo files directly through the free PSP Video 9, which also includes PSP synchronization features.
If you experience bad audio/video sync or crashes with your configuration, unwrap .tivo files using GraphEdit or DirectShow Dump as described above, and then run your .mpeg through PSP Video 9.
- How do I get shows at work, school, or the Marriott?
So you're not at home, but want to access your TiVo shows... no problem! Assuming you're comfortable with networking, this is pretty straight forward using the undocumented web server living in your TiVo. You will need to configure your router to forward requests to port 80 (HTTP) and 443 (HTTPS) to the IP address assigned to your TiVo. Once you've set that up, at your remote location point your web browser to https://[WAN IP of your router]. To log in use tivo as your username and your unique media access key (MAK) is the password. Your TiVo box will serve up a pretty little web page listing your shows! Download, watch, repeat. Like your home PC you'll need TiVo Desktop software, a codec, and a media player to watch your shows.For security reasons or if your ISP blocks port 80, you may choose to obscure the location of your TiVo by using virtual WAN ports such as xx.xx.xx.xx:2000 -> yy.yy.yy.yy:443. If you want to access your TiVo web server within the home, you can browse directly to the TiVo IP (remember, using https) without any router config.
- What if I have a Mac?
Trust me, I feel your pain. TiVo does not support TTG functionality on the Mac at this time. The good news is a pre-alpha version has been demo-ed and the software is expected to be release mid-2006.The current difficulty is that the .tivo decrypting function has only been written for the Windows platform using DirectShow specifications. The best solution at the moment is to use a PC (Virtual or otherwise) to free your .tivo files using DirectShow Dump as described above. The resultant .mpeg can be burned to disc or copied across your network and played on OSX using the free VLC Media Player. QuickTime doesn't currently support these flavors of files, so they can't be edited or played in the Apple iLife suite. The Mac platform does offer a nice DVR option with ElGato's EyeTV 200.
5/3/06 Update Using the TiVo Desktop for Mac 1.9.3 client and a little hacking, you can now transfer video files to your TiVo for playback.
- This is a pain in the ass, what other options do I have?
The quickest, easiest, and highest quality way to get TiVo recordings on the DVD is to buy a TiVo w/ DVD Burner - the only drawback is you won't be able to edit out commercials. You have quite a few options to get TV and movie content onto a computer... The most amazing recent innovation is the Slingbox- this device will "sling" whatever is on your TV, TiVo, DVD player, etc to any computer anywhere in the world and provide full remote control. I highly recommend the Slingbox
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ReplayTV, the TiVo competitor, has a nice software companion called DVArchive which blows TiVo Desktop out of the water. Additionally, TiVo units can be hacked to extract video as described at DealDatabase.
- What does TiVo Desktop 2.3 offer?
TiVo Desktop 2.3 has been released with a few new tricks up it's sleeve. Enhancements include scheduled series downloads and MPEG-4 to MPEG-2 video transcoding (at a cost of $24.95) for a variety of portable devices such as the video-capable iPod and PSP.Overview and screen shots of Desktop 2.3 enhancements.
My interview of TiVo VP Jim Denney regarding Desktop 2.3.
Use Desktop 2.3 to transcode prior downloads.
Transcoding to higher resolutions with Desktop 2.3. - How can I get shows onto my Sony PSP (PlayStation Portable)?