For some reason, TiVoGoBack isn’t enabled by default within the Mac version of TiVo Desktop . That being said, it’s not that hard to enable it so that your TiVo can playback videos that are stored on your Mac. The following set of screenshots will show you how to enable TiVoGoBack using the TiVoGoBack enabler that is included with every download of VisualHub (readme, PDF).
If you don’t already own a copy of VisualHub, I recommend that you get it. VisualHub is a great application which allows you to transcode video files into a number of different formats. If you don’t need VisualHub for it’s transcoding capability, you should at least download it so that you can enable TiVoGoBack.
The first thing you need to do is download TiVo Desktop from TiVo.com. The install is really easy. Simply open the disc image and double click on the installer….
Once TiVo Desktop is installed, you will see a new Preference Pane within System Preferences.
Clicking on the TiVo Desktop preference pane will bring up the following window. As you can see, TiVoGoBack isn’t enabled out of the box (there isn’t a “Videos” tab).
Once you start TiVo Desktop, you can listen to your music or view your photos on your TiVo.
To enable TiVoGoBack, all you have to do is open the VisualHub installer and double click on the TiVoGoBack enabler.
This small application will reconfigure TiVo Desktop so that TiVoGoBack is enabled.
Once it is enabled, the TiVo Desktop preference pane will include a Videos tab where you can configure TiVoGoBack on your Mac.
Next, you will need to transcode a video into a MPEG so that it is playable by your TiVo. VisualHub is great at transcoding videos into a TiVoGoBack friendly format. Notice the “TiVo” profile listed in the dropdown. It really doesn’t get any easier than this…
Conversion complete….
Now when I go to my TiVo’s Now Playing List, I see my Mac listed as a TiVoGoBack source.
Here’s the MPG that I just transcoded….
Thanks to VisualHub I am now able to playback my home movies using TiVoGoBack!
—————————————————————————————————
As a side note, I would like to thank both James & Christian for putting me down as their TiVo rewards referrer. If you’d like to put me down as your referrer, all you need to do is enter my email address (raianoat AT gmail DOT com) when you activate your TiVo. Thanks James & Christian. It really is appreciated!
To enable this you can also just hold down the Option key when you open the Preference Pane. I can’t remember if the change ’sticks’ though…
@Ross O,
I didn’t know that. I’ll try it when I get home…
Yah, this has been a hidden feature since Apple released 1.9.3 – the first Universal Binary well over a year ago.
The option key also allows you to enable logging. Kind of neat…
Okay, this works great and thanks for the tip! There’s one small problem though…
When I go to my Mac in my Now Playing list, it’s not refreshing to show what’s in my folder on the mini. Is there an easier way to do this besides restarting the TiVo?
I’m using a mini (PPC) & S2DT all plugged into a Linksys BEFSR41 router.
Any help is appreciated.
@Matt,
did you try restarting TiVo Desktop?
Yeah, I did try that.
But then, I need to patient because the stuff does show up on my Mac in the NP list… eventually.
Strange indeed…Mine show up as soon as I restart TiVoDesktop. Have you tried to turn on logging?
HELP! I have been struggling with Tivo desktop. I have a brand new mac – just got it for Christmas. I CAN’T GET THE SOFTWARE TO LOAD on the mac environment. I do have parallels running so I tried to install the PC version. It did install but can’t find my TIVO network (even though I know that is reading my wireless hub and router). Called Tivo, they said a port isn’t open call your router company – ugh!. So I went back to my mac environment and tried 10 times to unpack the dmg file, install tivo desktop. NOTHING. Yes, I do get the preferences file in the system preferences pane. I click on . nothing. I option click on it, nothing. I even do a find file on my hard drive for tivo desktop, nothing except a bunch of files for preferences and system stuff. No actual software ever gets installed, even though it said complete!!! I have looked everywhere, apps folder etc.
Mac OS10.4.11 is running. I have tons of space and a huge processor. I believe TIvo has not accounted for new macs?????
[...] then tell you all the steps you need to do that here; I’m just going to refer you to another post from right here at TiVoBlog.com that tells you how to do just [...]
[...] a rather lengthy howto which covers converting video files for playback on your TiVo. Unlike my TiVoGoBack howto, this one is written specifically for Windows and instead of using TiVo Desktop plus, lifehacker [...]
[...] TiVo Desktop : TiVo Desktop is the official Mac application from TiVo.com. The app allows you to browse and listen to your music on your TiVo. Along with this feature, TiVo Desktop also allows you to view photos and publish videos using TiVo Go Back. [...]
Holding the Option key turns on logging. To turn on TiVoGoBack (or the video tab, same thing) hold down the *Apple* key while opening the TiVo Desktop preference pane. And yes, it’s sticky—even though you don’t see the video tab unless you hold down the Apple key, it’s still working.
What I need to know is, how do I modify the .properties files (created by TiVo Transfer) so they have the correct time in them? And how to I transfer .TiVo files back to a TiVo? They don’t show up in the Mac’s video list on my TiVo, even after stopping and restarting TiVo Desktop.
Doesn’t work for me. I enable everything and point to my MPEG-2 files created with SageTV under Windows. The server does not show up on my new Tivo Series 3 HD list. Have stopped and restarted the service the the Tivo. Doesn’t seem to help. Anyone done this recently?
I’ve been using TiVo Desktop with Tivogoback.app on a Powerbook running 10.4.11 successfully for a while, but I have an repeating problem that this time I’m unable to jiggle to a solution.
I had to reset my home network yesterday, and while I’ve got my computers back on line with the Airport Extreme router, my TiVo no longer sees the Powerbook that serves it with downloaded video content. I have made sure TiVo Desktop is on, I have started TiVoGoBack over and over (between restarts of the computer), and yet: nothing. In the sharing part of Systems Prefs I have TiVo Desktop enabled in the firewall tab, with TCP ports 2190, 5353, 8101 opened, and 8101 opened on UDP. (This was the setting I had before, when it worked.)
I don’t know what else to twiddle. Any suggestions please?