Being the geek that I am, I’m constantly looking for new video podcasts that I can watch on my TiVo & iPod touch. Here’s a list of the video podcasts that I currently subscribe to. Let me know if I’m missing something that I should add to my list…
I just finished installing TiVo Desktop version 2.6. I’ll try and put together a review sometime in the near future. Until then, here’s some screenshots for you to checkout.
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If you’re like me, you’ve probably been having some performance issues with TiVo desktop. On my PC, TiVo desktop use to take an excessive amount of time to startup and whenever I would start it, my computer’s hard drive would go crazy with activity. After doing some research, I stumbled upon the following thread on TiVoCommunity.com where a couple of users got together and came up with a solution to this problem.
According to the thread on TC, the culprit of the slowdown can be caused by an excessive amount of cache files within TiVo desktop’s cache folder (c:\Document and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\TiVo Desktop\). In the case of my PC, TiVo desktop had written out 11,266 cache files into the cache folder!
In order to improve TiVo desktop’s performance, all you have to do is periodically delete the contents of the cache folder. Along with deleting these files, you might want to look into reducing the amount of space that TiVo desktop can use for its cache (take a look at the following screenshot).
Thanks to the following script, I’ve gone ahead and scheduled it so that my computer clears the cache on a nightly basis. Now, TiVo desktop runs like a champ on my computer!
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As a side note, I would like to thank Scott and Jarrod 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 Scott and Jarrod. It really is appreciated!
Lifehacker has published 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 has instead decided to use a free program called Videora. Check out the review if you are interested in transcoding video files for playback on your TiVo.
GearLive has published a video demo of TiVo Desktiop 2.6. Unfortunately, the embedded version of the video is currently not working however, if you’d like to see the video you can download it directly from here. Check it out and let me know what you think of TiVo Desktop 2.6 which is expected to be released in March ‘08.
Detailed instructions can be found here.
TiVoCast is one of my most favorite capabilities that TiVo has to offer. That being said, one of the biggest limitations of TiVoCast is that you can only download and watch the shows that TiVo currently has to offer. As of today, there are forty-one shows that are available via the TiVoCast service. Forty-one shows may seem like a large number of video podcasts however, if you’re a geek like me, you probably subscribe to a number of shows which TiVoCast doesn’t provide access to. To get around this limitation of TiVoCast, I’ve come up with a simple solution which utilizes TiVo Desktop Plus and iTunes.
Here’s what you are going to need to mirror my setup:
If you haven’t already, the first thing need to do is subscribe to at least one video podcast within iTunes.
Once your subscription(s) are established, the next thing you need to do is identify where on your machine iTunes stores your video podcasts. By default, iTunes will download video podcasts into the Podcasts folder under your iTunes music folder. For my setup, iTunes is configured to download video podcasts into the following directory: C:\Shared\MP3s\Podcasts\.
Next, you need to create a shortcut for each of the folders which contain the video podcasts that you want to watch on your TiVo. Once you’ve created these shortcuts, you need to copy or move them to the directory where TiVo Desktop is configured to store your TiVo Recordings. If you’re not sure of this location, you can find out by accessing TiVo Desktop’s preferences (File –> Preferences –> File Locations). In my case, I have TiVo Desktop configured to store my TiVo recordings on one of my external USB drives: F:\My TiVo Recordings\.
Here’s a screenshot of the shortcuts that I’ve placed inside my TiVo Recordings folder.
Now that I’ve placed these shortcuts in my TiVo Recordings folder, TiVo Desktop Plus will allow me to watch my video podcasts on my TiVo DVR. Essentially, TiVo Desktop plus will transcode my video podcasts into a format that my TiVo can then playback. According to TiVo’s website, TiVo desktop plus has the ability to transcode the following video formats:
Supported video formats include:
Note: Files with digital rights management (DRM) or other copy protection are not supported.
- Windows Media Video (.wmv)
- QuickTime Movie (.mov)
- MPEG-4/H.264 (.mp4,.m4v,.mp4v)
- MPEG-2 (.mpg,.mpeg,.mpe,.mp2,.mp2v,.mpv2)
- DivX and Xvid (.avi, .divx)
Now that the shortcuts are in place, your DVR should be able to transfer and display your video podcasts. As you can see from this screenshot, my TiVo now has access to LabRats (Episode 103: Whatware?).
Here’s a couple of screenshots of what a video podcast looks like using the solution I’ve outlined in this post. Kind of cool hunh?
bkdtv has posted a great FAQ about TiVoToGo (TTG), Multi-Room Viewing (MRV) and TiVoToComeBack (TTCB) on the Series 3 and TiVo HD. The FAQ answered several questions I had about TiVoToGo including why TTG on the Series 3 is faster than TTG on my Series 2 DT.
Check it out if you have some questions about TTG, MRV or TTCB on the Series 3 and TiVo HD.
