Here’s a list of Windows software which is capable of improving your “TiVo experience”. Some of the applications on this list may no longer work but, I thought I should include them just in case they ever get updated. I hope to put together a similar list for both OS X and Linux sometime in the near future. A star () next to the application name means that I’ve actually used the application before.

Please let me know if I’ve left anything off the list….

• TiVo Desktop : Automatically transfer shows from your TiVo DVR to a Windows PC or laptop. Browse and listen to your computer’s MP3 library from your TiVo box. Watch full-screen slide shows of your computer’s digital photo collection on your TV. Now with higher resolution for Series3 HD. Use Windows Media Player to watch TiVoToGo transfers on a Windows Mobile or Portable Media Center device.
• TiVoPlayList: Retrieve TiVo Now Playing lists over an ethernet connection and calculate total recording time and disk space used.  Batch downloading of recordings to PC (even from multiple machines).
• pyTiVo: pyTivo lets you stream most videos from your PC to your unhacked TiVo. It uses the HMO server protocol, so no hacking of the TiVo is required. It will guess if your video is 4:3 or 16:9 and pad your video if it thinks it is needed (looked good on my tests). It will not transcode an mpeg that is supported by your TiVo. It will stream TiVo recordings (.tivo).
• Galleon : Galleon is a free open source media server for the TiVo DVR which allows you to enjoy many kinds of content and interactive applications right on your TV. The server runs on your home computer and organizes your media collection so that they can be viewed on your home network. Galleon also brings Internet content and applications to your TV.
• Roxio Creator: Transfer your favorite recorded TV shows or movies to your desktop or laptop using TiVo Desktop software. After they are transferred, the TiVo Desktop software will encode them for your portable device. Roxio’s Creator 9 software allows you to burn them to disc for viewing on your laptop, or the long ride to Yellowstone in the mini that came with a built in DVD player or for archiving and creating your own library.
• AutoPilot : TVHarmony AutoPilot makes the process of downloading and converting video a snap. Through a simple user interface, you can tell AutoPilot what shows or internet videos you are interested in, and AutoPilot will do the heavy lifting during the night of downloading and converting it into the right format for your video viewing device (e.g. Apple iPod®, PSP). AutoPilot is the perfect companion to TiVo and TiVoToGo.
• Videora TiVo Converter: Videora TiVo Converter is a free video conversion application developed by the creators of Videora. It allows you to convert your regular PC video files (avi, mpeg, etc) into the proper video format that your TiVo understands.
• TiVo HME Applications: There are too many TiVo HME applications to list hear. Check out this post if you are interested in TiVo HME applications.
• Picasa: Picasa is a free software download from Google that helps you: Locate and organize all the photos on your computer. Edit and add effects to your photos with a few simple clicks. Share your photos with others through email, prints, and on the web. Export your photos so that they can be viewed on your TiVo.
• VideoReDo: VideoReDo™ the MPEG editor that lets you edit TV Shows, Movies, and Home Videos in minutes… rather than hours with traditional video editing software. If you use a PVR or DVR, no matter what your expertise, beginner or video expert, you can easily create custom videos, TV shows and movies.
• J. River Media Center: Music, photos and video YOUR way — all from a single software program! Connect your PC to your home entertainment hardware and control it all with a remote! Load your music on your iPod while you watch TV! All with one easy-to-use program. TiVo support identified here.
• WinMFS: WinMFS is the next generation Tivo upgrading software designed for ease of use. If you are familiar with Mfstools, you are well aware of the complexity when it comes to command options. With WinMFS, many options required to upgrade your Tivo drives are hidden under the hood so you don’t have to think about them. It runs on MS Windows so chances are, you have access to one of these machines. Most operation can be done using USB ports and click of few mouse buttons.
• TiVo Publisher for WHS: The TiVo Publisher Add-In for Windows Home Server (TiVo/WHS) is an implementation of the TiVo HMO “Calypso” protocol for Windows Home Server. The add-in installs as a service, which makes your WHS music, photos, and videos shares browsable from any TiVo that supports home networking.
• TiVo Desktop Universal Audio Plug-in: Out of the box this plug-in supports iTunes AAC files (unencrypted), WMA files (unencrypted) and OGG Vorbis files. However it also contains an interface for adding support for your own audio formats.* (I’ve personally tried it with APE, FLAC and WAV and all work perfectly) It also supports tags for all the built in formats, as well as a a few others via a universal tag library. For everything else it will simply use the file name as the song title.
• YAC (Yet Another Caller ID Program) : YAC is a Caller ID system that uses the modem in your Windows-based computer to monitor incoming phone calls. When a phone call is received, YAC displays the Caller ID info on your TiVo.
• VEMoDE :VEMoDe is a free program that gives you a quick and easy way to turn your videos and movies into portable videos. It will convert from many formats and includes settings for several mobile devices.

TiVo just released version 2.3 of TiVoDesktop.  This version is a long awaited upgrade which includes the ability to schedule transfers as well as the capability to convert TiVo recordings into a format that mobile devices such as an iPod, Treo & PSP can play.  In order to perform this conversion, you will have to pay a one time fee of $24.95.  According to TiVoPony, this fee is due to the fact that TiVo had to license some technology to do the conversion.

This is a great upgrade for anybody who wants to watch their TiVo recordings on a mobile device.  TiVo has said that they would release this functionality however, it has been quite some time since we heard anything about it.  I know that I am going to go home today and upgrade my system to this latest version.   I’m most excited about the schedule transfer feature since I don’t own an iPod video or any other device which can playback video.

If you don’t want to pay $24.95 to get the upgrade, you could always use one of the free video conversion utilities such as AutoPilot, Videora or VEMode.

I just received an email from Pablo Fuentes letting me know that he has released a beta version of his software, VEMoDe. VEMoDe appears to be a neat little program that allows you to convert TiVo recordings into several different formats which are then playable on an iPod Video, PSP or several other mobile devices. According to VEMoDe’s website, the software has the following features:

• Easy to use interface. Just pick your file and go!
• Very fast encoder (uses FFmpeg)
• Existing settings for several popular devices (PSP, iPod, Palm, Pocket PC), plus you can create settings for other devices.
• “Encode by Size” to get the most quality for your memory cards.
• “Split by Size” to maximize quality and portability
• Easy to configure encoding options.
• Cropping options to get the best screen usage.
• Select the start and end positions to remove those long credits.
• Auto-shutdown for overnight encoding.
• It’s free!

Unfortunately, when I tried to convert one of my TiVo recordings with VEMoDE, I received the following error: Invalid Video Format. I’ve since sent the developer an email describing my problem. I’ll let you know when I hear something. Also, if anybody else runs into this problem drop a comment on this post so that the developer can know what’s going on. This is after all beta software so bugs are to be expected.

Update 01/15/06: Pablo got back to me with a solution to my problem. Apparently the fact that I was using Sonic as my codec was causing the problem. Here is the solution to the problem, taken directly from an email that Pablo sent me:

I have found a way to leave the Sonic codec and have VEMoDe still work.

I found this from a web site:
“For the Sonic filters you need to add a DWORD registry entry named ALLOWALLRENDERERS with a value of 1 to the \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sonic\CineMaster DS DVD\2.5\VideoDecoder registry directory”

If you’re comfortable with the registry, you can do this. On my end, I will add code in my next release to look for this in order to prevent the issue altogether.

Thanks Pablo! It was a pleasure working with you. Now that this problem has been “fixed”, I would highly recommend VEMoDE to anybody who would like to convert their TiVo recordings to another “mobile” format.

VEMoDE is just one of several software packages currently available which allows you to convert TiVo recordings to a “mobile” format. AutoPilot by TVHarmony and Videora are two other solutions currently available. I’ve used AutoPilot before however; I haven’t had a chance to play around with Videora as of yet. From what I’ve read, Videora looks pretty promising. If you are interested in using AutoPilot, you can head on over to TVHarmony’s website or check out the interview that I put together with the developer of AutoPilot(Will Wagner) back in November ‘04.

If for some reason you determine that none of these software packages fit your needs, you could always wait for TiVo desktop 2.3 which suppose to be able to convert TiVo recordings to mobile device formats.

Every time I try out one of these TiVo to mobile device converters, I think to myself how nice it would be to have an iPod video or PSP. I don’t actually own a mobile device that can play video :(. If anybody has a chance to play with one of these converters, let me know. I’d be interested to hear what other people have to say. Also, once I hear back from the developer of VEMoDe I will let everybody know what’s going on. Have a nice day and happy converting…….