How can I transfer video from my TiVo box to my computer?

dwarven1

dwarven1

Lonely Mountain Arms
Joined
Mar 13, 2005
Messages
27,889
Likes
2,470
Location
Starksboro, VT
Feedback: 33 / 0 / 0
I just recorded a Redneck videos program - it has a section with women shooting with Bill Engvalls doing commentary. I want to transfer that to my computer (so I can post it here!) but I don't have any idea where to start.

any suggestions?
 
Tivo deliberarely encrypts the data stream to make it very difficult to make interaction with non-Tivo software problematic. If you want a more hack friendly system get a Replay TV (they are moving to a software only company) or buy a bunch of parts and visit www.mythtv.com.

Rob
 
Sorry buddy...I don't know any other way. Does the Tivo box have a USB port? I know some of the more recent machines out there have USB ports. Just brainstorming.
 
I got a myth box up and running, but I couldn't seem to get it to output to my TV. It was a little frustrating but I could record programs without any DRM. It is pretty slick.

Have to figure out if newer versions are a little more friendly with the install.

B
 
dreppucci007 said:
Sorry buddy...I don't know any other way. Does the Tivo box have a USB port? I know some of the more recent machines out there have USB ports. Just brainstorming.
Click to expand...
It does, but the manual claims that they don't work and are for "future use only". [rolleyes]
 
dwarven1 said:
Straight through cable? Or one of the reversed "networking" ones?
Click to expand...
He was talking about USB, not an RJ45 ethernet connection.

Tivo is Linux based, so Windows wouldn't have a prayer of recognizing the file systems unless they were shares and Windows was running a client designed for compatibility with the NFS protocol, or the Tivo was running Samba or something similar (unlikely). Also, since Tivo's strategy has been to encrypt the data stream and threaten people who post Tivo OS images, I doubt connecting to the USB port will be fruitful.

If it can be done, you'll find the info at http://www.avsforum.com.

I don't trust Tivo, and am coming to the conclusion that an open source personal system will be the only way to go in the long run. A while ago, Tivo users started seeing messages referring to a broadcaster authorized limit on how long shows can be retained - something that would be easy to implement. Tivo denied working on such a feature, but never explained how such a message got into their code.

Replay TV was sued for an automated commecial skip feature, as well as the ability to copy programs between units. The knuckled under and removed both features, however, you can set up the freeware program DVARCHIVE which will turn a PC into a virtual Replay TV (without the ability to actually received TV signals - it can transfer programs form other Replay TV's). It's an aftermarket program, but Replay TV has done nothing to stop them and even informally refers its customers to the avsforum site to get info on this program.

A year or so ago, the FCC issued a rule that it would become illegal to sell ANY HD TV or HD TV receiver card for a PC unless it contained a tamperproof "broadcast bit" feature - this bit is defined in the HD TV signal and if this feature were required, no HD recording device could output an HD quality digital stream if said bit was set. Fortunately, a federal court ruled that the FCC had no such authority top issue such a ruling (we're not talking Tom Riley and the MA courts here).

We have pre-ban guns, pre-ban toilets (before the flush volume limit), and almost had pre-ban TV receivers and cards. Somehow, this does not feel like progress.

Once I move to open source (like Myth TV), I won't have to pay a per-unit fee for the data stream, not will Tivo or Replay TV be able to gather data on my viewing habits (yes, they can do this - not sure if Replay TV actually does,. but I'm pretty sure Tivo does).
 
Last edited:
Rob Boudrie said:
He was talking about USB, not an RJ45 ethernet connection.
Click to expand...
I know, Rob. I'm not a complete PC idiot; I was referring to one of these cables.

Rob Boudrie said:
If it can be done, you'll find the info at http://www.avsforum.com.
Click to expand...
I'll have to look there and see what I can find. I seem to remember seeing something a year or two back about loading Samba on the TiVo box but I never pursued it more.
 
I hadn't seen the MythTV site previously, but will be looking at it closely. There's another open source approach to digital video recording at Freevo that's been up a running for some time.

Ken
 
dwarven1 said:
I just had time to scan the post, but I'm assuming that this process requires that I get a firewire port for my PC, right?
Click to expand...

yep. Load the driver from that Location. I am unsure if it works for a Tivo, its for a Motorola DVR (comcast)

Once you spend some time on it, its very easy. I use a Laptop, so its easy to record and wifi the files to my PC. I also have the laptop hooked to the TV so i can watch stuff I get from the web.
 
Last edited:
I don't have a DVD recorder but I do have a TIVO and my son regularly
will record a VHS tape from the TIVO for me (Mostly Pats Game that I
miss or want to save and he needs the space on the TIVO for other stuff).

TBP
 
would something like this allow me to record off of my DirecTV box? Or would this get the satellite dish plugged directly into it?

(I'm giving up on the recordings on the set already; I'll copy them to video tape and have a friend copy them from tape back to digital. the quality will be crap, but it'll be worth it; the videos are hysterical.)
 
Good point... I know that my 40gb drive is at about 90%. What kind of storage does video from a DVR take? for example, a 30 minute show would take how much?
 
When I transferred a 45 minute half of soccer from my comcast DVR via firewire to my iMac, it took between 700 and 800 megs of space. One 45 minute half was 740MB and the other was 780MB.

I also tried recording HD, but the bastards at Comcast (and most cable cos) encrypt HD broadcast. The only channels that they are not allowed to encrypt are publicly broadcast channels like GBH-DH or is it PBS-HD (basically all channels that are available over the air). The only workaround that I know of is getting a tv set with a built-in firewire connection, and recording the decrypted trasmition that is sent to the TV from the cable box.

This all relates to how I get content off of Comcasts DVR to my Mac via firewire.
 
I have been using my IBook G4 on HD with no problems (Other then it taking up a huge amount of space). But I never tried HBO. I will check it out tonight.
 
Back
Top Bottom