Ben Drawbaugh has posted a wonderful review of TiVoToGo and MRV (multi-room viewing) on the Series 3. Overall, the review is rather positive however, Ben did say that his transfer speeds are rather slow.

Granted, the transfers were pretty slow — in fact, they were about twice real time — and our understanding is that the hardware is the bottleneck, so upgrading to a gigabit network probably won’t help.

My transfer speeds aren’t as slow as what Ben is experiencing. For example, a 30 minute HD shows takes around 43-45 minutes to transfer. I don’t know why there is a difference between what I’m experiencing and what Ben is. At first I thought it was because both of my TiVos are wired but than I noticed that Ben’s TiVos are wired as well. Whatever the case may be, I’m happy that my transfers are faster :).

How fast are your transfer speeds? Are they more in line with what I’m reporting or are your recordings transferring at a speed similar to what Ben is reporting?

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.

When Apple announced the iPod touch last week I was extremely excited. The touch is exactly what I’ve been looking for ever since Apple came out with the iPhone. For those of you who don’t know, the iPod touch is essentially an iPhone without the phone and camera features. Yesterday, I finally got around to ordering a 16 GB iPod Touch. The device is supposed to ship the end of this month.

How is this related to TiVo you ask? Well, I currently use TiVoToGo for most of the video content on my 80GB iPod video. The iPod touch is even better at playing video than the 80GB iPod so, I am excited to see how TiVoToGo content will look on the device. I expect that I’ll watch even more TiVoToGo content once I start using the touch. Stay tuned for more information. I’ll probably post a little review once my iPod touch arrives.

Sometimes it’s the little things that make a difference. Such is the case with TiVo Desktop 2.5. Version 2.5 introduced a new feature that allows you to automatically import transferred and transcoded files directly into iTunes. For me, this feature is more important than being able to playback DivX files or Vista compatibility (I don’t currently own a Vista box).

Auto importing TiVoToGo files has me excited mainly because it has greatly improved my experience with TiVoToGo. Prior to Tivo Desktop 2.5, I use to have to periodically tell iTunes to scan the directory where TiVoDesktop saves my TiVoToGo files (Files –>Add Folder to Library…). This was a hassle and often times I would end up not having a show on my iPod simply because I forgot to tell iTunes to re-import the directory. Now with 2.5, I don’t have to worry about re-importing my TiVoToGo directory on a periodic basis. TiVo Desktop 2.5 transfers, transcodes and imports into iTunes all of my favorite shows. All I have to do is simply plug my iPod in so that I get the latest videos.

Nice job TiVo Inc! Maybe you do read this blog (I mentioned that TiVoToGo files should be automatically imported into iTunes in a review of TiVo Desktop Plus version 2.4).

Roxio has announced that they are going to release Popcorn 3 with TiVoToGo support. For those of you who don’t know, Popcorn is a Mac application which allows you to transcode video content into several different portable formats. Version 3 will include TiVoToGo support so that you will be able to transfer and re encode shows from your TiVo (similar to TiVoDesktop Plus on Windows). Roxio plans to release Popcorn 3 in August or Sept for ~$50.

Ever since January of this year, Roxio has offered Toast 8.  Toast 8 is currently the only officially supported implementation of TiVoToGo on the Mac. One of the complaints that people have had with Toast is that it costs too much ($79.99 after $20 rebate). Popcorn 3 appears to be Roxio’s attempt at releasing a TiVoToGo solution that doesn’t cost as much as Toast.

I plan on purchasing Popcorn 3 once it is available. I’m currently very happy with TiVoDesktop Plus on Windows however, I would definitely like to get my hands on an officially supported TiVoToGo solution on the Mac. I almost bough Toast 8 when it was first released. The only thing that has held me back has been the cost. I’ve also used TiVoDecode Manager but, that software hasn’t been updated since January ‘07.

Are you going to buy Popcorn 3 once it is available?  If not, how are you doing TiVoToGo on the Mac?

Spotted on MacNN via TiVoLovers.

CNET has published a review of TiVo Desktop 2.5. Overall, the review was positive however, CNET did have a couple of negative things to say including the fact that TiVoToGo is slow. Check it out if you’re interested in reading what others have to say about TiVo Desktop 2.5.

Personally I’m really happy with TiVoDesktop and TiVoToGo in general. It does take a long time to transfer and transcode a show however, I have TiVoDesktop setup to automatically transfer my favorite shows so I really don’t notice how slow it is. In my opinion, it definitely is a lot better than having to pay $1.99 for TV shows off of iTunes.

As expected, TiVo has released TiVoDesktop version 2.5. Version 2.5 includes a number of new features some of which I am extremely excited about. The software’s release notes indicated that the following features have been added/fixed:

This version of TiVo Desktop has the following new features.

Compatible with Microsoft Windows Vista.

This version has the following features in TiVo Desktop Plus.

Adds ‘Apple iPod’ to the list of portable devices. Converted files are added directly to your iTunes library.

Supports transfer and playback of .AVI or .Divx files encoded with the DivX codec (version 4 or higher) or with the Xvid codec. No other video formats are supported within .AVI files.

Allows conversion of previously transferred TiVo recordings by selecting the recording and then selecting ‘Convert for …’ from the Action menu.

Converts recordings for portable devices sequentially..

While I was trying out the new features, I did notice that my Series 3 is now listed in the list of TiVos that I can transfer shows from. Unfortunately, when I select my Series 3, the software throws up an error saying “Access denied”. This makes me think that TiVo is gearing up for TiVoToGo on the Series 3. To the best of my knowledge, my Series 3 wasn’t listed as an available DVR in previous versions (correct me if I am wrong).

Update 8/8 @ 4:20PM 2.5 can now be downloaded via this link. TiVo has also updated their website. I plan on reviewing the product later today so stay tuned..

Update: 8/7 @ 11:08PM 2.5 still isn’t available on TiVo’s website. I’m not sure what TiVoPony was talking about. Hopefully 2.5 ends up being available tomorrow…

TiVoPony (a TiVo employee) has announced that TiVo is going to release TiVoDesktop 2.5 tomorrow. 2.5 appears to be a major upgrade. According to TiVoPony, 2.5 will include the following new features:

* Support for Windows Vista

* Support for DixV and Xvid formats for Web Video Conversions (wrapped in .avi or .divx containers).

* Convert individual shows from Desktop’s Now Playing list at any time, to any profile, by right-clicking.

As of right now, 2.5 has not been posted to TiVo’s website. I can hardly wait to try this version since it includes a lot of new features. Hopefully the support for Vista will be a welcome addition for a lot of people. Stay tuned for more information once the software is available on TiVo’s website.

Now if only we could get an update to the Mac version of TiVoDesktop…..

Recently I noticed that TiVoDesktop was having a difficult time rendering thumbnails for certain images (screenshots to the left). After spending some time investigating the problem, I came to the conclusion that all of the images that are “broken” where at one point rotated using OS X’s Preview on my MacBook. For some reason TiVoDesktop does not like how I rotate and then save the image using Preview.

Has anybody else experienced this problem?

Now that I’m a proud owner of a 80GB iPod video, I decided that it was in my best interest to purchase the $25 upgrade for TiVoDesktop (TiVoDesktop Plus). TiVo Desktop Plus adds several new features to TiVoDesktop however, the feature that I’m most excited about is the ability to convert my transferred shows into a format which is playable by my iPod. What follows is a mini review of TiVoDesktop with an emphasis on transferring and transcoding TiVo recordings into an iPod friendly format. In future posts I will talk about many of the other features that TiVoDesktop Plus has to offer (including the ability to transcode your home movies on the fly so that they can be played back using TiVoGoBack).

Upgrading to TiVo Desktop Plus

Upgrading to TiVo desktop plus was extremely easy. All I had to do was go to TiVo’s website and purchase a TiVoDesktop Plus upgrade key ($24.95). Once I purhcased the key, I copied and pasted it into TiVo desktop via the Help —> Upgrade to TiVo Desktop Plus… menu item. The cool thing about this upgrade was that I didn’t have to download and reinstall a new version of TiVoDesktop just to get these added features. The only thing that could be better about this upgrade process would be if I didn’t have to upgrade at all. After all, wouldn’t it be nice if the TiVoDesktop plus features were included for free in TiVoDeskop “basic”?

My Rating: A

Configuring TiVo Desktop Plus for iPod Conversion

Once I upgraded to TiVoDesktop plus, the next thing I did was configure TiVoDesktop so that it could convert my TiVoToGo recording into a format that my iPod is capable of handling. TiVoDesktop Plus makes the configuration extremely easy. There really are only two configuration tabs that you need to be concerned with. The first tab, which is accessible via the File —> Preferences menu item, allows you to configure where you want TiVo Desktop to store your portable recordings. As you can see from the screenshot below, I configured TiVoDesktop so that it stores my portable files in: c:\Shared\Alex’s Documents\My TiVo Recordings for Portables\.

Next, I went ahead and configured TiVo desktop so that it knows which format I want my TiVoToGo recordings to be converted into. As you can see from the screenshot below, I configured TiVoDesktop so that it converts all new TiVoToGo recordings into an iPod compatible codec. TiVoDesktop supports a number of different formats. In my case, I went with H.264 since I’d like to be able to playback my shows on my iPod.

My Rating: A- (the only thing I would like is more configuration options. Where’s the check box to autmatically import converted shows into iTunes or the abiltiy to schedule the transcode option? These are more “geek” requests that I’m not sure a “general” user would need.)

Transferring, Transcoding & Importing

Once I had everything configured, the next thing I did was transfer a couple of shows so that I could see how the transfer and conversion process worked. As you can see from this screenshot, I setup eight recordings to be transferred.

Once each show was transferred (which admittedly takes a long time), TiVoDesktop Plus went ahead and transcoded the transferred show into an iPod friendly format. The only way I could tell that show was being converted was by looking in the system tray. When TiVoDesktop is converting a file, it adds the following system tray icon. If you hover of the icon, it tells you how far it is in the conversion process.

After each show was transcoded, TiVoDesktop Plus “popped” up a bubble in the system tray which indicated that the transformation was complete. I would have liked to have seen more feedback during the entire process however, the amount of feedback that TiVoDesktop Plus provides is probably enough for the average user.

Once all of the transfers and conversions where complete, I ended up with eight mp4 files in my portable recordings folder (c:\Shared\Alex’s Documents\My TiVo Recordings for Portables\). Lastly, I had to import these files into iTunes and sync my iPod so that the newly transcoded recordings got transferred. From there, I was able to successfully playback the recordings on my iPod.

My Rating: A- (TiVoToGo is slow. I’d love to see the entire process take a lot less time. Please automatically import my transferred shows into iTunes. It’s kind of annoying that I have to go into iTunes and “manually” import the show after each show has been transferred and transcoded)

Transcoding Quality

I was extremely happy with the quality of the transcoded videos on my iPod. The files that I transferred looked as good if not better then any of the other videos I already have on my iPod.

My Rating: A

Conclusion

Overall, I am extremely happy with TiVoDesktop Plus’ ability to transfer and transcode shows off of my TiVo. I would highly recommend the upgrade to anybody who wants to be able to play their TiVo recordings on a portable device such as an iPod. There are other options out there (some of which are free) however, from what I’ve seen, many of these applications are incomplete or not as easy to use as TiVoDesktop Plus. TiVoDesktop Plus provides a couple of other features that I haven’t talked about in this review. In the future I plan on talking about these features.