Chapter 4: Media playback of TIVO files

[theranman]

I was reading my SageTV version6 manual and came across this piece of info.

Chapter 4 Media playback. - On the very first bullet point it says under videos, "The following video formats can be imported" one of them is TIVO file type.

I have looked into moving my tivo recordings to sage but have not found a quick and convenient way. I found a number of ways to do this but am looking for a better solution.

- taking out the hard drive - that requires more loops than I want to jump through. - tivotogo - don't want that, drm issues. - I used a dazzle product and recorded to pc and used windows movie maker for the capture. The quality is not that great and you have to watch it real time.

I guess I can handle the last option - does anyone know of a good free or trial capture software product?

Also - what is the best format MPEG, AVI, WMV, DIVIX? what is the best quality and file size? Thanks

[theranman]

Ok - anybody know why Sage would publish in the manual that it can read .TIVO files if there is no easy way to get the files off the TIVO box onto my PC?

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by theranman

Ok - anybody know why Sage would publish in the manual that it can read .TIVO files if there is no easy way to get the files off the TIVO box onto my PC?

um, maybe because Sage can read .tivo files if it has access to them. Just because it can be a pain to get access to .tivo files without modding your tivo doesn't mean that the Sage manual is incorrect.


edit: I remember reading on tivocommunity.org about ways to network your tivo when I think you could get access to the .tivo files. It looks like DCMA issues may have made that info unwelcome on the site. But if Sage can read .tivo files, then it deserves to be mentioned as a valid filetype. It is similar to being able to play non-encrypted DVDs over the network to an MVP. Now, how you may unencrypt a DVD is not allowed on this site due to DCMA issues, the fact remains that if you had a DVD that was not encrypted, either a home-made or cracked retail DVD, it would work on the MVP.

[theranman]

Originally Posted by ke6guj

um, because Sage can read .tivo files if it has access to them. Just because it can be a pain to get access to .tivo files without modding your tivo doesn't mean that the Sage manual is incorrect.

Jack - Thanks for the reply - I have a DirecTV R10 TIVO Box and want to get my current recording off the box so I can begin to use Sage on my PC. Other than removing the HD from the R10 and trying to get the files onto the PC - I dont know any other way - do you? Thanks

[ke6guj]

if you go to www.tivocommunity.com, there is info on modding your tivo so that you can get network/USB access to the filesystem. It does take removing the tivo's HD and temporarily installing it to a PC so you can do some linux work on it. The network/USB access used to be only available for non-DirecTivo Tivo units. DirecTivo users were aced out. I had modded my friend's DirecTivo with larger HD's for more recordiing room.

Now, in the last year or so, it looks like you can network mod a DirecTivo, http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb...d.php?t=265929 , it may not be easy, but it looks like it may be doable.

I haven't done the network mod to a Tivo or DirecTivo, but www.tivocommunity.com is the place to figure it out.

Once you have the recordings off the box, are you still planning on using the DirecTivo? What are you going to use to record the content on a normal basis, a analog tuner card? If so, it may be easier to just do some manual recordings in Sage of the tivo content that you just play in real-time.


edit: oops, doesn't look like the R10 is moddable in that way.